Page 113 of His Fated Luna

“Alpha,” Rose said on a deep throaty purr, panting against me as I laid her down against the stone floor of the temple.

I kissed my way down her neck to the spot right above the curve where her neck met her shoulder, lips branding her with my scent. I was salivating from the prospect of what was to come next. Teeth elongated, canines came out, and my tongue swirled around her skin to prepare it for my bite. Her scent made my nostrils flare and the blood in my veins sing.

Unable to hold back any longer, I pressed my canines gently, finding the softest spot and then bit down puncturing skin, tasting her blood when I marked her.

Rose's POV

I gasped, stiffening as his canines broke skin but the momentary pain was erased by the most pleasurable feeling coiling inside me.

“Ohhh,” I gasped.

There was a hum deep in my chest, satisfied at the outcome of tonight. He was mine and I was his. Oh, why did we ever try to stay apart? Aiden growled against my throat and I threw my head back, eyes closed, as shots of pleasure coursed through my veins, beating against my skin, begging to be released. Pure desire surged through me as he continued to suck and lave his tongue over the area where his lips were still attached. Finally, his canines retreated, and the shocks of pleasure dimmed, but Aiden continued kissing his way across my shoulder and collarbone.

I could feel his heartbeat against my naked chest, feel the heat rising within him doubling my own pleasure and when I opened my eyes to look at him, I saw myself staring back as he saw me. Green eyes, kissable lips, a light flush creeping across my cheeks and curls that begged to be grabbed by the handful. There was a heady rush of euphoria in me when I realized that Aiden found me beautiful even if I was bare-faced and wild. I was seeing myself through his eyes, because we could share our thoughts with each other now. I read it clearly in his mind. The knowledgemade my heart soar and a content sigh fall from my lips. My mate didn't find me ugly.

You can never be Jake’s. MINE! You’re mine!

I blinked in confusion at the unbidden thought, and everything righted itself. My eyes fluttered as I looked up to see Aiden peering down at me determinedly...no, possessively. Like he owned me. Then gasped as I saw memories in my brain roll like a movie in reverse. One word pounded again and again into my brain: Jake, Jake, Jake.

The movie would pause at each memory of mine with Jake.

Jake congratulating me at our mating ceremony.

Jake studying with me.

Jake and I eating lunch together between classes.

Jake holding me as I hyperventilated at the concert because I thought I saw Ray.

Jake admitting how he would have tried his luck with me if it wasn’t for Aiden.

Me telling Jake about the medicine Lexia had given me…

Jake taking my bejeweled ponytail holder from my hair playfully smelling it and then pocketing it…

Aiden growled angrily as the movie paused. Then the memory began to play again, pause, and then play again as Aiden listened closely to the conversation about the silver medicine Lexia gave me. Finally, he moved on to another memory.

I realized with a sinking feeling that this was Aiden. He was going through my memories. The marking had created a link between our minds. Each and every memory I had of my interactions with Jake was being carefully scrutinized by Aiden!

It was looking like Aiden was looking for…for something. Did he think Jake was the one working against their pack? Is that why he was doing this?

It was like he was walking through shelves upon shelves of boxes with reels of my memory inside of it cataloged under thename Jake. Carefully, taking the reel and playing the movie only to close it back into its box before selecting another reel from another box to play. I was helplessly watching him breach my right of privacy. And then he found it, the box labeledsecret.

My heartbeat almost stuttered to a stop when he played the memory of me with Jake whenever I’d watched Aiden with Lexia on campus. The sadness I’d felt, the way I’d scolded myself to stop hoping for something that wasn’t possible. The way I would watch him wedge his knee between her legs…wondering how it'd feel to be in Lexia’s place.

Then he dug deeper into my box of secrets, reaching for the memory of when I had seen Lexia with Aiden on graduation and how I had become possessive...

How my stomach had plummeted at the sight of Lexia pressed up against Aiden...

No…I pushed against Aiden’s intrusion.

“No, you can’t do this. It’s private…stop…”

I pushed against him in my brain, using our mind-link. But it only made Aiden more relentless. He didn't view that memory further but looked for more in my secret box catalogued under Jake, tearing free of the barricade I was trying to build against him.

“What are you hiding, Rose?”

He was a trespasser in my mind, going through my secrets as if he owned the place. As if he owned my MIND. But he didn’t. These were mine! My feelings, my secrets, and he was an interloper. He didn’t belong there. And I felt his anger rise when he got to the memory of Jake and me arguing just before my kidnapping, of Jake leaning in to kiss me, of me thinking the kiss was all wrong. Jake didn’t taste or smell like Aiden.