Page 49 of Fated to the Alpha Warrior (The Wolf’s Forbidden Mate #1)

Kieran

I stand outside the bathroom door, my hand raised to knock, frozen in indecision. Through the wood, I can smell her distress, hear her rapid heartbeat. My wolf whines, desperate to comfort our mate, but I force myself to wait. I know she won’t thank me if I rush in there half-cocked.

Finally, I knock softly. “Aurora? Please talk to me.”

Silence stretches between us. Just as I’m about to give up and give her more time to cool off, the door opens slowly.

She’s dressed now, and her hair is pulled back in a severe braid.

The vulnerable woman from earlier is gone, replaced by someone armored against pain.

I can almost feel the wall she’s built back up between us, and it hurts my heart.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she says, striding past me. She grabs her bag and starts to shove things into it, her movements sharp and precise. “You need to go back to Pack Jade. I need to stay here and keep investigating the fae.”

“The pack is under attack.” I step into her room, careful to keep my distance, mourning how close we just were—so close I can still taste her on my tongue—and how far she is from me now. “We have to go home so we can face the threat together. They need us, Aurora.”

“No.” She stuffs more clothes into her bag with sharp, angry movements. “They need you. I’m just the broken shifter they tolerate because their alpha brought me in and… their future alpha was unlucky enough to be matched with me.”

“That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” She whirls on me, and the pain in her mismatched eyes makes my chest ache. “Tell me honestly—how many times have you heard them whisper about me? About how I’m cursed, how I’ll bring the madness to Pack Jade like I did to Pack Onyx?”

I can’t answer. We both know the truth. Our pack has never been kind to her.

“Exactly.” She turns back to her packing. “I won’t go back just to be treated like an outsider again. Just to watch them celebrate that you were strong enough to reject your cursed mate.”

“I’ll protect you,” I insist. “I’ll stand up for you. Things will be different this time, I swear it.”

“Like you protected me before?” The words are sharp with old hurt resurfacing. “You can’t control how they treat me, Kieran. You couldn’t then, and you can’t now.”

“Then what’s your solution?” Frustration bleeds into my voice. “Where will you go?”

“To Pack Onyx lands.” She lifts her chin in that stubborn way that both infuriates and charms me. “That’s where the answers are. About the fae, about my family, about everything I need to know to… to move forward.”

“You’ll go there all alone?” The word comes out as a growl.

“If I have to.”

Something in me snaps. The thought of her alone, vulnerable to fae attack, drives my wolf into a frenzy. Before I can stop myself, I’m blocking her from leaving, caging her against the wall with my body.

“No.” The word is guttural, primal. “I won’t allow it.”

Her eyes flash. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Not anymore.”

“I can’t let you go alone.” The words tear from my throat, raw and honest. “The thought of you out there, facing the fae without me… it would drive me mad. I’d worry every second, wondering if you were safe, if you were hurt, if I’d ever see you again. Please, Aurora, don’t do it.”

“Kieran…”

“I care about you too much to let you face this alone.” My voice breaks as I press my forehead to hers, inhaling her scent, the lilac and honey sweet in my nose and on my tongue. “I love you too much.”

She inhales sharply, making a small wounded sound. “You can’t just say things like that.”

“Why not? It’s true.” My hands find her hips, pulling her closer, thrilled that she lets me, that she leans toward me instead of pulling away. The bond pulses between us, heavy with need and fear. “I love you, Aurora. The thought of losing you terrifies me so much I can’t stand it.”

“You already lost me,” she whispers, but her body melts into mine. “You threw me away. Twice.”

“I know. And I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for that mistake, I swear to you I will.

” I brush my lips against her temple, her cheek, the corner of her mouth, wanting nothing more than to worship her again, until she believes I mean it through and through.

“Just don’t ask me to let you go again. Please. ”

She makes a small sound of arousal as I kiss down her neck, her hips pressing toward me. “Kieran…”

“Stay with me.” I nip at her pulse point, rewarded by her gasp of pleasure. “Let me protect you. Let me love you the way I should have from the start. Let me be the man who deserves you, who earns you.”

Her hands fist in my shirt, but I can’t tell if she’s pushing me away or pulling me closer. “I don’t need you to hover over me, protective and possessive. I can protect myself. I’ve been doing it for five years.”

“I know you can.” I suck gently at her neck, marking her, even if temporarily. “But you don’t have to go it alone. Not anymore. Let me stand beside you, not in front of you. Let me be your partner, not your shield.”

“This doesn’t solve anything,” she protests, even as she tilts her head to give me better access. “It doesn’t change the past, or what our pack thinks of me.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I agree, sliding my hands under her shirt to touch bare skin, coaxing gasps and mewls of pleasure from her. “But it’s a start.”

With a growl, I lift her up, pressing her against the wall. Her legs wrap around my waist as I claim her mouth in a desperate kiss. I pour all my need and fear into it—fear of losing her, need to keep her safe, to make her mine completely.

“I need you,” I pant against her mouth. “I need to be inside you. I need to prove you’re mine.”

“I was always yours,” she gasps as I grind against her, my cock trapped between our bodies, layers of clothes separating us. “Even when you didn’t want me, I was yours. Even when you wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t look at me, I was still yours.”

Her words cut deep, but they’re true. “I was a complete and total fucking idiot. But I’m done running from what we are, and I hope you are too.”

We strip down frantically, both of us desperate for skin contact.

My hands shake as I pull her clothes off, need making me clumsy.

She’s just as urgent, nearly ripping my shirt in her haste.

When she’s finally naked before me, I have to pause just to look at her.

Her skin glows in the afternoon light, marked with the evidence of my earlier attention, flushed and glistening.

“Beautiful,” I breathe, running my hands down her sides, my wolf howling in satisfaction and my cock throbbing. “Perfect.”

She shivers under my touch. “Kieran, please.”

The need in her voice breaks my control.

Lifting her against the wall again, I grab my cock and position myself between her thighs.

She whimpers as I tease the cock head at her entrance, slicking it in her drenched folds.

She’s already wet for me, her thighs trembling with anticipation, her head thrown back to expose her delicate throat.

When I finally push into her, rocking back and forth to work her open, we both cry out.

She’s so tight, so perfect around me, like she was made for me.

Like fate knew exactly what we’d need in each other.

My wolf howls with satisfaction as I claim our mate.

He’s been waiting for this, waiting to mark her as ours again.

I take my time, feeling her tightness slowly relaxing, her gasps turn to moans of pleasure.

Finally I sheath myself inside her completely, my cock opening her wide.

Her inner walls clench around me as I bottom out, making me groan with pleasure.

“This pussy is mine,” I growl, setting a punishing pace. Every thrust is a claim, every touch a brand. “You’re mine, Aurora. My mate. My heart. No one else gets to have you like this, no other man will ever put his cock inside you.”

“Never,” she agrees, nails raking down my back hard enough to draw blood. The pain only spurs me on, makes me groan in pleasure as I work myself inside her slick wet heat. “But you’re mine too, Kieran. No more rejecting me, no more pushing me away. Promise me.”

The possessiveness in her voice makes my cock throb inside her. I thrust harder, deeper, wanting to mark her from the inside out.

“Never again,” I swear, punctuating each word with a thrust that presses her against the wall, her heels digging into my back. “I swear it. I’m yours, Spitfire, now and forever. Myself, my heart, my cock—all yours. Always.”

I hold her possessively as I take her, one hand gripping her hip while the other supports her weight. Her body yields to mine perfectly, accepting every thrust, every press of my lips and nip of my teeth. The bond pulses between us, stronger than ever.

“Don’t leave me,” I beg between kisses across her neck, her cheek, her lips. “Don’t go where I can’t follow. I can’t lose you again, Aurora. Can’t stand the thought of it.”

She responds by sucking a bruise at my shoulder, marking me as I’ve marked her. The pain makes me growl and thrust deeper, the raw sound of our fucking filling the room.

“Then come with me,” she pants. “Help me find answers about my family. About who I am.”

“Anything,” I promise. “Everything. Just let me stay by your side.”

“Okay.” She writhes and mewls, gasping as I increase my tempo. “Kieran, I…”

“I’ve got you,” I slam home once again and grind my hips against hers, hitting that sweet spot in her pussy as I claim her fully. “Come on my cock like a good girl. That’s it, Spitfire, let go. Show me how much you love this cock inside you.”

Aurora groans, bucking and writhing wildly.

When she comes, she takes me with her, her orgasm clenching around me and throwing me over the edge.

We cry out together, clutching each other like drowning people finding shore.

I spill inside her with a roar of pure ecstasy, my wolf howling in triumph as we fill our mate and claim her body.

After, we collapse onto her bed, still tangled together.

I can’t stop touching her, running my hands over her skin, pressing kisses to her shoulder.

The thought of withdrawing from her, of no longer being connected in this vulnerable and intimate way, is almost too much to bear. I would die inside her if I could.

“I meant what I said,” I murmur against her neck as I soften in her body. “I love you. The thought of you in danger… it kills me.”

She’s quiet for a long moment, tracing the scar on my cheek. “Did your father give you this? After you spoke up for me that day?”

I stiffen, but force myself to answer honestly. “Yes. His wolfsbane ring.”

Her fingers ghost over the scar. “That’s why you rejected me, isn’t it? To protect me from him?”

“Partly.” I catch her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm. “But mostly I was a coward. Too afraid to stand up to him, too weak to be worthy of you.”

“You’re not weak,” she says softly. “A weak man wouldn’t admit his mistakes like you have.”

Hope blooms in my chest. “Does that mean you’ll give me another chance?”

She studies me for a long moment. “I don’t want to leave you either,” she finally admits. “But I can’t go back to Pack Jade. Not yet. I need answers first.”

“Then we’ll go back to Pack Onyx lands.” I pull back to meet her eyes. “Together. We’ll find out what happened to your family, figure out how to stop the fae. Then we’ll return home and face whatever comes next. As mates.”

“Even if it means defying your father?”

“Especially then.” I brush hair from her face, loving the trusting way she looks up at me, how vulnerable and close she is to me now. “I’m done letting fear rule me. Done denying what we are to each other. Whatever comes next, we face it together.”

She searches my face, then nods. “Okay. Together.”

Relief floods through me. Pulling her closer, I kiss her softly. “Together. Always.”

We’ll face whatever comes next as one. The fae, my father, the pack—none of it matters as long as she’s by my side.

Where she belongs.