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He tugged open the front of her jeans and worked his hand inside.

It was a tight fit, but he managed to press his fingers to her clit, rubbing it with enough pressure to have her squirming on the wall and tugging on handfuls of his sleeves.

As desire pooled between her legs and heat flared across her skin, she grew annoyed at the layers between them and tried to tear off his hoodie, but he refused to extract his hand from her jeans, so it was left to dangle from his forearm.

With his free hand, he peeled off her top layers in rushed, jerky movements, dropping the clothing to the stone beneath them, baring her breasts to the cold air.

Despite the violence of his urgency, the fingers teasing her sensitive flesh kept up a firm, consistent pressure, his touch almost gentle in its rhythm.

He kissed across her bared neck and sank his teeth into the soft flesh of her breast before laving the bite with soothing strokes of his tongue. And then he did it again, and again, until they were both panting and she was holding onto his wrist as she careened toward a release.

“Don’t stop,” she begged, because she didn’t know if Niko was a sadist like Mikel or generous like Cian. Their one time together had been … fraught.

“Wasn’t going to,” he rumbled, finding her lips again. “My mate gets exactly what she wants. Do you want to come?”

“Yes,” she gasped.

“Better fucking do it, then.”

Her body responded before her mind could catch up.

A flush of heat rolled through her, fast and dizzying, white-hot and searing, and her breath hitched on a cry that was devoured by his mouth.

Her release was slow and hard, like it had been waiting for months, for years, just for him.

She tried to turn her head away and muffle her sounds in his shoulder, but Niko held her jaw in place, forcing her to look at him, to feel every second of it with him.

Her hips twitched beneath the strength of his grip, and her nails carved half-moons into his skin.

“That's it,” he breathed, eyes dark and wild. “Mine.”

She was still shivering, every nerve stripped raw when he pulled his hand from her jeans and licked his fingers without breaking eye contact.

“Jesus, Niko,” she whispered, her voice frayed.

He dropped to his knees before her, dragging her jeans fully off, her underwear with them. He tossed his dangling hoodie to the side as cool air kissed her thighs.

“Off,” she begged, plucking at the fabric stretching over his shoulders.

He obliged, tugging it off carelessly before nipping the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.

His palms pinned her legs to the stone, his breath warming her soaked skin as he buried his head between her legs.

The first lick against her core was slow and savouring, but it didn’t last. His next lick flicked hard over her clit.

Her fingers slid into his hair, anchoring him there as he consumed her, worshipped her, and punished her for every second they had waited.

He made a rough sound of satisfaction when her orgasm rolled over them both, her heels digging into his back, her hands pressing his face against her.

She reached for his pants as he stood, dragging the zipper down with shaky fingers.

They had been out there for far too long, but she didn’t care.

Even if Callum Rowe himself set down in a helicopter in the field below them, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

Niko’s cock sprang free, thick and flushed and already leaking.

He lifted her down from the ledge but pinned her back to the cold stone wall before her feet could touch the ground.

Her legs wrapped around him instinctively, and he paused only long enough to brush his mouth over hers, reverent and soft.

“You definitely want this?”

Her nod was frantic.

“I don’t believe it,” he whispered, fucking with her just because he could.

“Fuck me or lie down and let me do it myself,” she growled.

He laughed, and then drove in with a broken sound, working himself into her body inch by inch until she had taken all of him. Her mouth fell open on a gasp. He was too deep. She was too full. It felt too perfect.

He started to thrust. The wall scraped her spine, her hands clawing at his back as he slid into her with strong, grinding strokes, like he was trying to etch himself into her bones.

There was nothing restrained or careful about it, but unlike their coupling in the closet, there was a thread of vulnerability humming through their bond, something fragile attempting to reform.

His mouth dragged over her throat. “Don’t leave me behind again.”

“I’ve always been with you,” she gasped as his hands gripped her ass, fingers flexing like he was fighting back his instincts to bounce her harshly against his lap.

He gritted his teeth and shoved harder, until her whole body vibrated with it. “Say it anyway.”

“I’m always with you,” she said, voice raw. “I never left you and I never will. I—Niko, I love you.”

Everything stilled, and she felt the pulse of him inside her, the euphoric feeling that spread through him, the slight tremble in his hands.

“You love me,” he said, lifting her higher until his lips could brush over hers. “More than the others?”

She pulled her head back to see his expression. He was smirking. The bastard .

“You s-scared me,” she whispered, moving to slap his shoulder, but he suddenly thrust so deep that it jolted her entire body against the stone, wrenching a groan from her throat.

“What I feel for you should scare you,” he rasped as the thick slide of him against the walls of her soaked channel slowly took over her every thought. “I would kill for you.”

“No more killing.”

“Come for me again and I’ll consider it.”

“Niko—”

His hand wrapped around her neck, and he started fucking her so deeply that she worried the stones might begin to dislodge from the wall behind her, but she couldn’t focus on the worry for very long.

He tightened his grip on her neck, seating his full length inside her, the sharp strain it demanded of her body pulling all her focus.

He kneaded her ass as he ground himself there, exploding sensation from her clit to the rest of her body.

“Now,” he whispered silkily, swallowing her moans as she began to contract around him. His grip on her tightened even more, his chest swelling, crushing hers, and she could feel his unravelling through the bond before he groaned her name like a vow, pulsing his release into her.

The forest around them slowly returned. Wind cooling against her sweaty skin, faint birdsong ringing through the dawn, the sky warming to pale gold.

“I love you too,” he said finally, voice strained. “I didn’t want to say it like that. I wanted to be romantic and say it nicely while we watched the sunrise like civilised people for once.”

Isobel gave him a wincing grin. “Well, thanks to Mikki, my idea of romance is being allowed to orgasm.”

He scoffed, and then tugged her head up, kissing her like he needed to drive out that thought until she forgot entirely about all the other Alphas and only remembered him.

He kissed like he didn’t believe he would get to do it again, memorising the shape of her mouth, the taste of her tongue, his lips firm and coaxing, slowly igniting her again until she was shifting her hips, attempting to feel that delicious drag of him moving within her again.

When he jerked back with a breathless curse on his lips, she realised she could feel some of her mates nearby, and she froze, her wide eyes darting to the side.

Kilian and Theodore were leaning against trees just out of earshot, their expressions unreadable.

Niko’s head turned slowly to the side, a snarl escaping his lips.

Theodore rolled his eyes. Kilian smirked.

“Um,” Isobel said.

Niko flexed inside her, like he was battling the urge to very physically prove his possession of her.

“ Um ,” she repeated, on the edge of panic. “Niko … if you start again, they’re going to take it as an invitation.”

“Start again?” he snarled, his eyes digging back into hers. “I haven’t fucking finished.”

He drew out a few inches before pressing back into her, rattling a shaky breath from her lungs, her moan bitten back hastily.

“You left without telling anyone.” Theodore’s voice was too close. “And neither of you were answering your phones.”

Niko hissed low in his throat. “She needed air.”

“So you filled her lungs with your cock?” Kilian asked dryly.

“You want me to send a group text next time I’m coming inside her?” Niko spat.

Kilian smirked. “Yes.”

Isobel groaned and dropped her forehead to Niko’s shoulder. “Please don’t argue while I’m impaled.”

Niko snarled, burying his face against her neck, but the motion only served to move him within her again, pulling a moan from her chest that she tried to hold back.

“This isn’t arguing.” Theodore stepped forward, his boots crunching against the stone, telling her he had moved even closer. “If we were arguing, I would already have him off you.”

“Try,” Niko growled, flexing inside her again. She could feel his almost feral need to rut and claim exploding through the bond.

“I’m tempted,” Theodore replied. “But if I pull you out, I’m just going to take your place.”

Isobel loosened a long, sharp breath. “The sun is out. We need to move back undercover. We’re too exposed here.”

“Yeah.” The smirk in Kilian’s voice was still evident. “That’s why we interrupted, baby.”

Isobel gently pressed a hand to Niko’s chest, and when he met her eyes, the aggression drained from his expression.

With care, he eased out of her, Isobel wincing at the sensitivity.

It wasn’t awkward with Theodore and Kilian right there, though it might have been with any of the other Alphas, except for Cian.

Kilian swept up her shirt and carefully pulled it over her head, causing her to sway a little before Theodore caught her elbow.

“Thanks,” she said, breathless.

“For saving you from being squeezed to death like a tennis ball?” Kilian asked.

“For not making this awkward.” She glared at him.

Kilian gave her a small, crooked smile, brushing her hair back from her damp face. “Next time, answer your phone.”

Niko had already tugged his shirt back on and was running his hands through his tangled hair. “We should move.”

Isobel nodded, pulling on her jeans with trembling hands. She felt raw. Settled. Wrecked in all the right ways. But there was also a shiver of foreboding rising inside her, subtle and electric.

“It’s been two days,” she noted. It had only just occurred to her, but Niko had waited until the last possible day, despite telling her he was done waiting.

He must have been so nervous, working up the courage and carefully planning how he would whisk her out to the forest and tell her gently how much he loved her while they watched a romantic sunrise.

Oops.

Theodore nodded. “Whatever your dad has been cooking up, we need to make a decision today. We can’t wait any longer.”

She looked to the sky as they shifted back into a dense thatch of woodland. “I don’t want to leave here.”

“Two more days of canned chicken and you might change your mind,” Niko grumbled.

She smothered a laugh. He wasn’t wrong. She never wanted to see another can of chicken again in her life.

They started back toward the bunker, single-file through moss and gold-tinged mist, their bodies moving quietly.

The closer they got, the more their mood changed.

By the time they reached the steel door, Isobel was sucking in deep breaths in preparation, her fingers shivering nervously as she pushed it open.