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I couldn’t look into his eyes anymore, my head lolling back, putting even more tension on my tortured shoulders.

I wouldn’t be able to hold this position for long, but I didn’t need to.

He beckoned it closer with his come-hither fingers, a familiar prickling at the base of my spine heralding what was to come.

Stars burst behind my eyes as the most exhilarating of pleasures spread through me, my cunt feeling helpless as it spasmed around Aidan’s fingers, only underscored by Peter’s hold. Aidan tested out his words, pushing me further and further, until I wiggled free of both of them.

I sat on the back seat of a car that stank of sex, watching Aidan unzip his jeans and wrap his still damp fingers around his hard cock, using me as his lubricant. His brow knotted as he made his first stroke, long and slow.

But not Peter. His rhythmic little pants registered now, his strokes almost a blur. I crawled forward as he rasped my name, pushing his hand away and replacing it with my mouth.

“Not long,” he ground out. “So close.” So I didn’t finesse it, going for speed and suction rather than sensuality.

Which he seemed to appreciate, if his groans were anything to go by.

I wrapped a hand around the base, squeezing tight, which pulled a roar from him.

His hands landed on my skull, so, so gentle, even when he wanted to force me down harder.

His cock swelled impossibly harder, my teeth just grazing the granite shaft, and then he came.

My mouth filled with his salty cum, his helpless little grunts music to my ears. I swallowed while his cock was in my mouth, something that had him jerking away, then dragging me up. He shoved me against the back of the seat, his mouth crashing down on mine before hauling me against his chest.

“Mine…” he said, the word reverberating throughout my whole body until I could feel it in my toes. He tipped my chin back, looking into my eyes for a moment, the surface of his suspiciously shiny, before dropping a much more gentle kiss on my lips. “My mate.”

I nodded, my forehead pressed against his before I threw my arm around his neck and hugged him close.

I could lose myself in Peter. He was like this bottomless pool of strength.

I’d never be able to plumb its depths, yet I knew it would never be directed against me.

Having it at my back, always, helped me when I wobbled or fell.

He wasn’t going to do everything for me, as I wouldn’t for him, but we could each step up without being asked.

Aidan looked wrecked when I turned around, his face pale as milk, his eyes wide and staring.

“Fuck…” he mumbled, shaking his head and holding it down, as if I wouldn’t see him dashing away tears.

“Aidan…” I said, crawling through the gap between the front seats, an ungainly struggle, but then I was kneeling on the passenger seat.

“I’m OK,” he said, blinking and then smiling, a sweet, sad thing. “I’ve just…” He frowned. “We talk a lot about mates here, but I’ve…I’ve never seen that before.”

“Me giving Peter a blow job? Pretty sure you have.”

“No…no,” he said, shaking a hand at me. “Don’t joke, not yet. It…it hurts somehow, but not like you think. Not like that. I’m not jealous or anything, it’s just…” He sighed. “It’s beautiful.”

We all keep a mask or two over our eyes, to keep all that raw burbling mass of emotions from polite society, to keep our reactions to ourselves until it's safe to share them.

Well, Aidan had none of that. I looked into those hazel eyes, standing out starkly against his skin, the early afternoon light bleaching him pale.

I heard a hum in my skull as I leaned forward, a terrible sense of rightness in my bones. Everything before this was just leading me here, everything but Kade. I pushed his hair to one side as he shook his head.

“No, no, it’s not what I meant…” he protested, but his words were weakly delivered. I caught his hands in mine, the buzz letting me stare into his eyes as the venom burned in my mouth.

“I know, Aidan.”

I couldn’t get the rest out, that I knew he’d never ask for this. Because he was raised that way, because he didn’t ask for anything for himself, or because that’s the way his heart worked, I didn’t know. I probably should have, because I was about to do something permanent.

“I love you,” I mumbled against his lips, stopping his.

Yet when I pulled back, he fell into what I now realised was a customary posture.

He tilted his head to one side, baring his neck to me, not out of expectation or anticipation, but in surrender.

I’d bite him or I wouldn’t, he wouldn’t know until it was done or I’d pulled away. So he waited.

Tears pricked at my eyes, blurring the view of one of my most beloved of faces, so I moved forward by scent only, breathing him in and then pressing my lips to his skin.

He trembled beneath me, hissing when he felt the burn of my saliva. Yes, yes, yes… went the hum inside my head. I grabbed a fold of his skin between my teeth, listening to his inarticulate growls and bit down.

I’d been barely alive the time this had happened with Peter, so the bolt of white light that filled us shocked me.

It was glorious—it, us, the great big white wolf standing before us, watching us with her gleaming green eyes.

I felt filled to the brim with a love so complete and all-encompassing, it was hard to imagine ever wanting anything again.

She nodded to the two of us, and then it all faded away.

“Flick?”

For a minute, all I could do is stare. My brain was completely offline, but then he smiled.

How a big strong bloke like Aidan could look fragile, I had no idea, but he did. Tears streamed down his face, completely unchecked. His brows were mobile things as he searched my face.

“Did you mean to…? I mean…”

“Of course I did,” I said. “I don’t go around accidentally biting people. I dunno what’s gonna happen with the full moon, the shift, or the heat. But I do know I want you two with me, for as long as you want to be.”