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The stranger stopped a few feet away, his gaze unwavering. “I’m making it my business. You have ten seconds to leave, or you’ll regret it.” His voice was calm, but a current of steel ran beneath it, sending a shiver down my spine even in my drunken state.

The thug scoffed. A swagger suffused his step. “Three against one? I like our odds.”

Before anyone could blink, the newcomer moved. He closed the distance between him and the first thug with lightning speed, delivering a sharp, brutal punch to the man’s solar plexus. The thug doubled over, gasping for air.

The stranger didn’t give him a chance to recover, following up with a powerful right hook to the man’s temple, sending him stumbling backward to crash against his friends.

The second thug lunged at the newcomer but didn’t stand a chance.

The stranger dodged the clumsy attack and landed a swift uppercut that snapped the thug’s head back, dazing him as he staggered along the sidewalk.

The third man, seeing his buddies defeated in a matter of seconds, muttered, “Fuck this,” turned and bolted.

The other two thugs, still reeling from the newcomer’s blows, joined the panicked retreat, stumbling and pushing in their haste to escape.

The lingering residue of shock and fear wafted over me, and I felt my face flush with embarrassment.

I’d been a moron coming out here while my reactions had been so dulled with liquor.

But as I locked eyes with the stranger, I felt a spark of connection ignite within me.

If his lightning-fast reflexes hadn’t been enough, his scent—a raw, undeniable spice that filled the air—told me he was a shifter, too.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice firm but gentle.

I nodded, still trying to process what had just happened. The overriding feeling I was experiencing now was shame at my own recklessness. “Just feeling like an idiot,” I murmured.

“Don’t beat yourself up—you did well not to shift, given the circumstances,” my rescuer said. His words sent a comforting warmth through me as my cheeks heated more at his praise.

I went to move away from the wall, but as I put pressure on my ankle, hot pain issued up my leg, making me gasp.

In a moment, he was beside me. “They hurt you?” The low rumble of his tone had goosebumps breaking over my arms. His body bristled with tension that made my heart flutter.

“Just my ankle,” I murmured.

“Lean on me,” he offered.

A sense of calm washed over me as he wrapped an arm around my waist, taking my weight.

I leaned into him, instantly feeling safer than I had in a long time.

His scent intensified, a mix of spice and something wild, drawing me closer.

My wolf stirred with a low rumble of contentment, a sensation that eased the tension in my shoulders.

“Let’s grab a cab,” he said as his eyes tracked to the end of the road.

I was thrilled that he took it for granted we were going together, but I shook my head. “My motel room’s just there,” I nodded to the building we were coming to.

“Is that right?” Surprise infused his tone, a definite note of curiosity there. I knew he was likely wondering why I was staying in such a dodgy area, but the last thing I wanted to get into was what had brought me here.

I braced myself against him as I rummaged in my coat pocket for my key. It wasn’t until I’d unlocked the door, with the lamplight spilling from the room, that I finally got to sate my curiosity and take in my rescuer properly.

He had a jet-black mane of hair, a strong jaw, and a bronze complexion. But it was his eyes that ensnared me—deep green, like the lush patches of parkland amongst concrete. They pierced me, holding an intensity that made me feel seen in a way I had never known.

His gaze roamed my face, drinking me in just as much as I was him. “Want a hand inside?” he asked.

My heart hammered. I suddenly didn’t have the capacity for speech, so I nodded instead and put my weight on him as he helped me to the bed.

As I eased down, my heart was thrumming again as if I were back out on the sidewalk in danger.

But it wasn’t thumping in fear anymore. Something warm and exhilarating had encircled it.

My rescuer’s scent washed over me again, spicy and earthy, igniting a lick of heat in my belly.

“Thank you,” I said. He nodded, letting go of me and backing up, and I felt a ridiculous sense of loss at losing his touch .

I told myself that this was silly. I needed to get my ankle boots off and then get some sleep. But the boot on my sprained foot proved hard to remove.

As I winced, the man said, “May I?”

My breath hitched. “If you wouldn’t mind?”

He was soon kneeling in front of me, carefully easing off my boot.

He surprised me as he didn’t stop at the boot but eased off my sock, too, his hands touching my swollen ankle as he rotated it carefully one way and then the other, watching my reaction for any pain.

A thrill shot through me as the pad of his thumb caressed the sensitive skin just above my ankle bone. My skin hummed in response.

I had to school my features as eddies of heat whirled through me from the feel of his palm on my skin.

It’s only your foot he’s touching.

The stray thought set off a cascade of fantasies of my rescuer touching me in different ways.

“It’s not broken,” he announced, his gaze lifting to meet mine. A question lingered in his eyes, and I found the heat pooling in my belly was mirrored in his stare.

He held my gaze for a long moment, the world seeming too narrow for just us. He cupped my heel in his hand, and his thumb ran gently back and forth over my arch. He didn’t look away as the pad of his thumb slid over the top of my foot.

“How does that feel?” he murmured, his voice a low, husky rumble that resonated deep within me.

“Good,” I whispered, the word feeling like such an understatement for the desire building in me. His touch made my body feel alive, prickling with awareness. I couldn’t help the way my eyes darkened or the hitch in my breath from just his touching my foot.

A smile played on his lips. “Good,” he echoed. He continued to massage the sole of my foot with his thumbs in slow circles.

I took a deep breath and fought for composure. But it was a losing battle. I filled my lungs with his scent, and the longing inside me surged stronger with each gentle stroke of his hands.

In that moment, reality crystallized, and the realization of who he was dawned on me.

My body pulsed with recognition, and even deeper, my wolf stirred within me, a primal acknowledgment echoing the truth my mind had just grasped.

A thousand unspoken promises lingered between us, awakening the deep longing I had been about to give up on.

Heat flushed over my cheeks as the undeniable truth settled in: this man—my rescuer—was my fated mate. I had found him in downtown New York right when I needed him most. I sensed the ancient spark of something deep in my bones—the assurance that he’d take care of me because I was…his.

His stare remained unwavering, filled with fierce want that made my heart soar and my body tremble, just as his touch caused a moan to slip from me.

His gaze snared on my lips, and he surged forward, claiming my mouth with a heat and thoroughness I’d somehow already known he would. I melted into him, losing myself in the heat and hardness of him. Every nerve in my body suddenly ignited.

Better than whiskey. Better than smoke.

Yet, the spiciness of his scent and taste weren’t entirely dissimilar to those two vices. I’d found the perfect thing to lose myself in.

As his hands traveled up my spine, burrowing into my hair, I moaned into his mouth, suddenly feeling more than I had all night.

He pulled away, and I worried he was going to stop this, especially as I must taste of whiskey, but he surprised me as he said, “I don’t know your name.”

I didn’t want the reality of my life to ruin this moment. It was silly, but something compelled me to answer his question with another.

I arched a brow, a challenge in my voice. “Don’t you?” He looked confused until I added, “Mate?” I licked my lips as if tasting the word, a completely new flavor I’d despaired only moments ago I’d never get to say with such relish.

I worried he’d question me more, but the heat in his eyes blazed with the same recognition. In a moment, he was shucking off my coat, and his own hit the floor next. He dragged his claws down my inner clothing, the sound of tearing fabric sending shivers down my spine.

With the flick of his fingers, he unclasped my bra, and my breath hitched, the cool air pebbling my skin.

He leaned closer, teasing the curve of my breasts with a feather-light touch before his eyes smoldered.

His mouth descended to suck my nipple as his hand stroked the other.

I arched into his touch, my body already melting against his.

Grabbing my ass, he pulled me against his body as I whimpered in pleasure at the feel of him, wrapping my legs around him.

Whether it was the liquor or my own wolf’s possessiveness rising, telling me to take what was mine, I rocked against his delicious hardness.

I want you. I need you.

As I ground against him, a deep rumble reverberated in his chest, making the slick pooling between my legs gush even more—something he smelled. My back suddenly hit the bed. He threw me into the middle of it, his bright green stare positively feral as he stared down at me.

“I want to taste my mate on my tongue,” he rasped, his green stare almost glowing in the dim lamplight.

In a moment, he’d rid me of my jeans, spread my legs, kissing and nipping at my lace knickers, teasing the wet slit beneath until I whined with want.

I had never been this wet before, never so needy and out of my mind with desire.

The graze of his teeth on my soft belly and the slight scrape of his slightly shifted claws at my hips were just the right amount of rough. His hands made quick work of my knickers. When his tongue finally pushed through my folds, already so slick for him, I almost came.

“Ah!” I gasped.

My mate lapped between my legs as if he were parched. The pleasure building low in my belly engulfed me as a cresting wave took me into the haze of pleasure I’d been chasing all night.

“Uh! Ah!” I cried out.

He kissed his way up my body, his big palms, slightly calloused, sliding up my stomach as if he wanted to claim every inch of me. But I needed more of him. My greedy hands squeezed him through his jeans, eliciting a deep groan, one I already wanted more of.

“You in a hurry, Darlin’?” he asked, the slight smile on his lips and the scrape of his voice sending another shiver through me.

“I need you,” I begged, and whether it was my voice or my hands already helping him shuck his jeans, he stopped his perusal of my tits and hurried to help me with his jeans and boxer briefs.

Almost delirious with want, I drank in the sight of his rigid, thick cock, and I knew this was going to be the best sex I’d ever had.

My skin felt tight with want, and I realized I was already rocking up to him, out of my mind with need in a way I’d never been before. “Please,” I purred.

His thick cock nudged against my entrance, and I looked up through half-lidded eyes at the hard lines of him, that luscious green stare as mesmerizing as when he’d stepped out of the shadows earlier. “I need you,” I whined.

He cupped my ass, bringing me to him before sinking into me, inch by inch, filling me up so that I could only expel a breathless gasp.

Fuck.

My mate’s eyes shuttered as he gritted his jaw, and he let out a rumble. “You’re so soft, so perfect,” he murmured.

“Move,” I demanded, rocking my hips up, chasing that high he’d already given me.

He thrust, and I moaned, feeling the low build in my belly spark again.

He pounded me against the bed, and I climbed higher.

My fingers dug into his shoulders, feeling the tautness of his muscles as my nails raked down his back rough enough to leave a mark, something that made my wolf howl with satisfaction.

Mine, mine.

As he fucked me deeper and harder, my pussy clenched around him, my inner walls clenching and shuddering as another orgasm engulfed me.

“Oh! Oh!” I cried out, the shock of sensation shivering through my body.

With a primal roar, my mate found his release within me. My inner walls squeezed around him, milking every last drop he gave me. Yet, as I stared up at him, my body shuddering around him, I knew I hadn’t had my fill of him yet.

Along with the physical satisfaction flooding my body, a deep relief washed over me, so potent it was almost dizzying.

I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling of safety and belonging.

When I opened them and stared into my mate’s luscious green eyes, I knew that everything was finally going to be all right.

Magnus Blackthorn and our arranged mate bond evaporated in the heat of this very real connection with my mate.

He’s here. He’s real.

My heart sang that he was my salvation, and I knew, together, we would face whatever came next.