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CHAPTER TWENTY

ZURI

I stared up at the bland ceiling through wide eyes. Darkness blanketed the room as Stone snored lightly beside me. I glanced over at his bare, scarred back and pressed my thighs together, heat gushing through me.

My body and my wolf were slowly betraying my every last wish. From the moment I’d laid my eyes on the madman, I hadn’t wanted to mate with him. Never mind have his pups! But the thought of him loving me so much that he wanted me pregnant …

“Fuck,” I whispered, squeezing my legs and eyes closed.

How could I even let this thought cross my mind? I hated him so much, but … he was actually so sweet. He acted all tough and hard in front of his pack, in front of other wolves. He was feared by almost every other pack that I knew.

Yet still, tonight, he had cried in front of me while thinking about his packmate that he had killed.

He hadn’t forced himself upon me, like his brother had tried.

He had pampered me the other day, bought me clothes that I actually looked decent in and, for the first time ever, that I felt …

sexy in. And don’t get me started on that dirty mouth of his.

But what I liked the most was … I didn’t feel insecure around him as much anymore.

Though that fear, those insecurities, still lingered sometimes, and I sat up late at night, wondering why the hell he was with me and why the hell I was enjoying it. I shouldn’t feel like this, especially after the bad news that he had brought home to me last night.

“Curse you, Moon Goddess,” I whispered.

She hummed to me, like she usually did late at night when nobody else was around. “He’s good for you, my daughter,” she said, her voice like harmonies during the new moon when she wasn’t even in the sky, glowing bright. “I promise.”

“He brought me my family’s ashes.”

“They’d deserved it.”

My eyes widened, and I sat up in the bed as she came into existence near the window. She sat on the windowsill, a small smile on her brown face and her eyes glowing white, and kicked her legs back and forth.

“What do you mean, they’d deserved it?” I asked. “Aren’t you supposed to love?—”

“Everyone equally?” She laughed. “Not when they’re assholes.”

“Stone is an asshole.”

“You think that man, who was sobbing in your arms tonight, is an asshole?” She arched her brow, giving me that infamous who are you kidding look that Mom used to give me before she died when I was only a child.

“But he?—”

“He’s your fated mate for a reason,” she said. “You need him as much as he needs you.”

“He’s an asshole!”

“Is it that you really think he’s an asshole or that you don’t think you deserve him?”

I chewed on my inner cheek. “I just don’t get it sometimes. How is he attracted to?—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” she said, leaning back on her arms. “Do you see my body? I’m not skinny or muscular or traditionally beautiful, like most wolves are. Yet still, they worship me. Not because of my appearance, but because of my heart.”

“But you are beautiful,” I said. “Truly.”

She shook her head. “You should let Stone fuck you in front of the mirror more often. Maybe you’ll start to see what I see and what Stone sees. True beauty lies on the inside, but you, my dear, are beautiful, both on the inside and out.”

“Did you watch us?!” I asked in horror.

“No.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You did.”

“I did not.” She giggled. “I promise. But if you don’t start believing in yourself, you won’t be able to protect this pack.”

My mouth dried. “Protect it from what?”

“From what’s coming.”

“Which is … Derrit?”

She paused and looked away. “I’ve tried to stop him with my own power, but I can’t.”

“You can’t …”

“But you can.”

“Me?” I whispered.

“Or, you know, I can make you.”

“And how will you do that?” I asked. “I’m not strong. We’re not mated.”

She smirked. “I can put you through heat. Force you to mate.”

“You would not put me through heat right now.”

“Your choice.”

“Heat doesn’t happen until the full moon.”

“Heat happens when I say it happens.”

“B-but?—”

She hopped off the windowsill and stalked toward the bed. “You know you want him.” She laid a hand on my mate’s shoulder, and while she was the Moon Goddess, the gesture still made me possessive. “Look at him.”

I pressed my lips together and refused to respond because jealousy would drip from my voice like venom.

She stroked his hair. “Do you think he’d want to?—”

“Get your hands off my mate,” I growled.

Almost as quickly as she’d laid her hand on his head, she pulled it away and smirked at me. “There’s my girl.” She walked back to the windowsill and slipped onto it. “Now, all you have to do is let him mark you.”

“Let him mark me?” I repeated the words quietly to myself, glancing down at my mate.

The Moon Goddess lifted her fingers, and a gust of warmth blew through the room, searing my neck. I sucked in a sharp breath as the warmth grew hotter and hotter, almost to the point where it became unbearable.

From the focal point, heat radiated through my body. I pressed my thighs together.

“What have you done to me?” I asked.

“Helped you along.”

Heat gushed between my legs, and I lay back in the bed and closed my eyes, vowing that I wouldn’t wake Stone up—because if I did, then I feared I’d say something terrible to him. And by terrible, I didn’t mean something that I didn’t actually want.

Because I wanted him to mark me. To claim me. To give me his pups.

The thought rolled through my mind again, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

“The thought of having his pups excites you, doesn’t it?” she muttered.

“No. No. No. No. No. No. No,” I whispered.

“Who are you talking to?” Stone murmured, turning toward me.

I stared at him through wide eyes, then at the disappearing outline of the Moon Goddess, who was fading behind him. She threw me one last smirk, and with a whisk, she vanished into the form of a flickering candle on our nightstand.

Stone snapped his head in the direction of the sudden flame. “Did you?—”

Before I could stop myself, I gently took his chin in my hand, turned his head toward me, and pressed my lips against his. The intense heat suddenly flared. He stiffened for a mere moment, then melted into the kiss, his arms slowly snaking around my wide hips.

“Zuri,” he said between kisses, “what’s going on? Your eyes … they’re glowing. I’ve?—”

“Put a pup inside me.”