Page 28

WREN

I stared down at the man before me. His dark hair fell over his face, and his tan skin glowed in the fading light. Brix was an alpha. He had the power to lead a pack. Yet here he was, kneeling before me as a submissive.

This was a pledge of fealty. A sacred oath. To me. For me.

“Brix,” I croaked.

He raised his head slowly until those captivating blue-green eyes met mine. “I love you, Wren. My life is yours.”

A tear slid free, trailing down my cheek and falling to the earth. Brix pushed to his feet, his hands framing my face to wipe away the tears. “I love you. I didn’t think I was capable of it, but you showed me differently. You showed me I can still come alive, even if it hurts.”

“Brix.” I could only manage to say his name, but maybe that said it all.

He leaned into me, his mouth taking mine in a slow kiss. He’d given me the words, but his kiss said more. Everything that was beyond language poured into the connection, his lips on mine, his tongue stroking in. He coaxed and teased, toyed and tempted.

And when Brix pulled back, he left me breathless. He searched my face, seeming as if he were trying to find something. “Let me make you mine. Let me be wholly yours.”

Emotion caught in my throat, a tangle of countless things making it hard to speak or even breathe. Because I knew what he meant. The mating bond. The commitment that would seal us together in this life and the next.

“Yes.” My mouth spoke the word before my brain even registered it.

It was all Brix needed. He dropped his hands to the hem of my tee and lifted it up and over, letting it flutter to the forest floor. Then he deftly unfastened my bra, letting that fall, too.

He cupped my breasts, his head dropping for a moment to pull a bud into his mouth. My back arched, moving me into Brix, closer to his touch, closer to everything.

Brix sucked deeply, making heat and wetness gather between my thighs. I could smell his need and desire mixing with mine, stirring together in something that was only ours.

As he worked my nipple with his tongue, his fingers moved to the button of my jeans. Suddenly, his mouth was gone, and he was sliding my pants and underwear down my legs as he dropped to his knees again. He skimmed his knuckles over my thighs, and I shuddered, that want inside me flaring brighter.

“My little warrior, so beautiful in the twilight. Like it was made to caress your skin.”

I sucked in a breath, words escaping me as I stared down at the beautiful man before me. His beauty was not just in the golden skin pulled taut over toned muscle or even the hypnotic blue-green eyes. It was so much more. It was in all he was to me. All he had given me.

Brix pulled off one sneaker and then the other. In a flash, my jeans were gone, too. Suddenly, I was just as bare as he was. Brix stood, his big body pressed to mine, moving me backward until I hit a tree.

My breaths came in quick pants as Brix’s lips skimmed my neck, and his fingers slid between my thighs.

“Where should I bite you, Little Warrior?” Those fingers spread me open and delved into my heat.

“Somewhere for the world to see?” He nipped my neck.

“Or somewhere only for us?” His head dipped lower so he could lightly bite my breast.

My nipples hardened to painful points and I nearly cried out for release, for Brix. I arched into him, moving my core against his hand.

Brix’s head jerked back, his eyes bleeding silver. “In a hurry, mate?”

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Let’s see what we can do about that…”

Brix’s fingers were gone, and without warning, he thrust into me. My mouth fell open as my head tipped back, bracing itself against the tree. The stretch and the pressure were everything I needed, everything I wanted.

He pulled out only to slam into me again, the move somehow managing to be brutal and gentle all at once—brutal in its sheer power and gentle, with Brix knowing exactly what I needed.

My fingers dug into his back, claws lengthening and pressing into his flesh.

Brix let out a snarl of pleasure. “Mark me, mate. I want to carry your brands with me into forever.”

My hips bucked against him at those words, my wolf letting out a howl. She’d wanted this for so long, craved it. My teeth pressed against my gums as saliva pooled in my mouth. Everything rode me to bite, to claim, to belong to Brix for eternity.

He powered into me, my inner walls quaking from the force. Every part of me trembled, anticipation and pleasure coursing through me. But I wanted more of him. No, I wanted everything: his seed, his bite, his brand.

“Brix,” I rasped. “Take me.”

The growl that tore through the air had a power I’d never heard before.

He thrust, going impossibly deeper, his movements picking up speed to a fevered pace.

Brix lifted his head, his canines lengthening.

Mine did the same in response. His eyes were pure silver as they met mine. “Forever,” he snarled.

“Forever,” I echoed.

Brix slammed into me so deeply that it was its own brand. His teeth clamped down on my shoulder as I mirrored the gesture on him. The pleasure that swept through me was unlike anything I’d ever known. It rode the line between agony and ecstasy, each one driving the other higher.

My walls clamped down around Brix as he emptied into me, and I took it all. Every ounce of pleasure and pain. Because it was him, us. Everything we were together.

We rode every wave until our bodies quieted. Brix pulled his teeth from my shoulder and licked the brand. I shuddered with the sensation of it, trying to breathe deeply and bring myself back under control.

When I did, I took in the mark. It was to the side of his teeth marks.

A totem that would present itself on Brix, too—a matching set that would only be ours.

It looked like a tattoo but the dark, ink-like substance shimmered slightly in the dark.

It was a heart with a knife through it. Pleasure and pain.

Brix cupped my face. “Because you made me feel again. Made me know I was seen.”

“I love you,” I whispered against his lips as he slid from my body.

“More than life,” he rasped.

Then Brix took me to the creek. He cleaned me, dried me with a towel they had stored in one of the trees, and then dressed me as if I were the most precious thing in the world to him. Because I was. Just like he was to me.

He kissed me again. This time when he pulled back, something passed over those beautiful eyes.

A trickle of fear slid through me. “What?”

Brix pulled me to him and held me tightly. “Don’t make me keep this secret from my brothers.”

I knew what he meant. The bond told me. He didn’t want to shoulder the knowledge of my empath status alone. But the idea of telling all of them terrified me.

Calming, reassuring feelings trickled through our bond as Brix tried to reassure me. “I’ll be with you the whole time.”

I pulled back and met his gaze. Trust. I had to give him that. So, I said the only word I could.

“Okay.”