Page 28

Birdie

I woke up wrapped in heat.

Rocky was hot, temperature wise. His chest was under my cheek, steady and solid. His arm draped across my waist, anchoring me there. My body ached in places that hadn’t been touched in far too long, and others that had never been touched at all, not like that.

Every inch of me felt branded, and it wasn’t just from the slow burn of what we’d done last night.

It was the bond.

That’s what he’d called it. It was stronger than ever. The connection now pulsing like a live wire between us, the invisible thread tied tight around my ribcage that tugged anytime he moved, breathed, thought too loud.

I sat up slowly, letting the sheet slide off my chest. Rocky stirred beneath me, lashes dark against his cheek, that chiseled jaw slack in sleep. His blond hair was mussed from my fingers. The feel of his stubble scratching along my inner thigh last night still lingered in my memory.

Lord, help me.

His hand twitched, like even asleep, he was feeling me move. I placed my palm gently over his heart, felt the thrum beneath.

He’d almost died.

And that reality, even now, sat heavy in my chest like a stone.

If I hadn’t run to him, if I’d been just a few minutes later, Flint’s betrayal could’ve taken everything from me before I had the chance to even claim it.

Rocky let out a soft groan and blinked up at me, blue eyes cloudy from sleep but locking on to mine with laser focus.

“Mornin’, sunshine,” he rasped, his voice wrecking me.

I pulled the sheet tighter around me as I climbed out of bed, padding barefoot across the hardwood floor of his childhood home. Thinking of him living here as a kid. That made something flutter deep in my belly.

“You hungry?” I called over my shoulder.

He chuckled. “Always. But not for food.”

“Behave.”

“Make me.”

I rolled my eyes and opened the fridge. Predictably, since he didn’t live here, it held exactly one carton of eggs, a bottle of hot sauce, two beers, and an unopened jar of pickles. I grabbed the eggs.

“Scrambled okay?” I asked.

He groaned. “Woman, you makin’ me breakfast in my bed, naked? I might propose.”

I turned and gave him a playful glare. “You so much as mention jewelry and I swear to God I’ll burn these eggs.”

“Fine,” he muttered. “But I get to pick the music.”

He pulled his phone off the charger and soon enough the speakers kicked on with an old country song that fit the moment just right. Something about ridin’ or dyin’ or shootin’ a man over love.

Romantic.

I cracked eggs into the skillet, trying to focus on breakfast and not the fact that I still felt Rocky inside me.

Not just from last night.

But in that deeper, scarier way.

In the bond.

The mark.

I touched the faint indentation where his wolf had claimed me. It was already healing, but I could feel it humming with power, heat curling under my skin like embers under ash.

He came up behind me, shirtless, in nothing but jeans slung low on his hips, and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“You’re thinkin’ loud,” he said, mouth brushing my neck.

“You can hear me?”

“Not in words.”

“Even now?”

He pressed his hand over my chest, where my heart stuttered.

“Especially now.”

I turned in his arms, forgetting the eggs, and looked up at him.

“Is this what being claimed means?” I asked. “Feeling each other like this?”

He nodded. “It’ll get stronger. I’ll be able to find you anywhere. Know when you’re hurt. Feel it when you’re scared.”

“And me?”

“You’ll know when I need you. When I’m shiftin’. When I’m…” He hesitated, voice droppin’. “When I’m losin’ control.”

“I will shift too?” I asked, more than anything.

He cupped my cheek, eyes soft. “Eventually. The bite changes your body slow, gives you time. Sometimes a year. But your instincts? They’re already wakin’ up. You’re amazing, Birdie.”

That made sense. The other night, I’d smelled things that weren’t there. Heard whispers from across the compound. Tasted emotions like flavors.

I thought I was losing my damn mind.

But maybe it was just the wolf waking up in me.

I sighed, leaning into him. “So much for normal.”

Rocky kissed my forehead. “Sunshine, normal’s overrated.”

We ate together on the couch, knees bumping, him stealing bites from my plate. The bond between us settled like a warm blanket, soft and comfortable.

After we ate, I helped him change the dressing on his wound. He insisted I stay naked, but I only felt a bit out of place. His wounds had mostly healed already. Shifters had that gift, fast recovery, heightened senses, animal instincts.

Still, when I dabbed the gauze over the ugly red slash, he flinched.

“Sorry,” I said.

“S’nothin’. You can touch me wherever you want, even if it hurts. Take those skilled fingers lower, Sunshine.”

I looked up at him through my lashes. “You’re real bossy for someone who almost bled out in the dirt yesterday.”

“And you’re real sassy for someone who said she loved me last night.”

My cheeks burned. “I did say that didn’t I?”

“Damn right you did.”

He tugged me into his lap again, and I let him. My arms wrapped around his shoulders. His head dipped, breath warming my collarbone.

“Say it again,” he murmured .

I kissed the corner of his mouth. “I love you...Wolfman.” I’d added the last bit to lessen the weight of it, but it hadn’t helped.

He shuddered.

And something shifted between us again, something I didn’t have words for. Just heat and truth and the way his hands held me like I was precious and breakable, even though I’d proven I could stand beside him in a war.

“You’re my mate now,” he said quietly. “Whether you want that word or not.”

“I want it,” I whispered back.

Rocky was hard beneath me. I unzipped his jeans and touched his impressive erection like I was approaching a wild animal. Maybe I was. He bared his teeth. With all the times we didn’t act on our lust, it seemed suddenly, we had a lot to catch up on. The barriers were broken, and the options were endless.

Rocky attacked, sucked on my titties like he could draw something out of them. Damn, it felt so good when he used his teeth.

“You like that, don't you?” he growled. “How rough I get? You want more of the beast in me Sunshine.” I could feel his cock throbbing beneath me, straining against my pussy. The friction from rocking over him was driving us both insane even without getting him inside just yet. Each slow drag of the shaft along my sensitive clit was pure torture.

His eyes were wild with lust and hunger, but more than that they started to glow amber. He licked those glorious lips before speaking again .

“You look wild, Sunshine. Naked and straddling me like a beast in heat.” His voice was gravelly, his eyes never leaving mine. “I can still taste your blood on my tongue from where I claimed you last night. You're mine, every fucking part of you.”

He thrust up again, his cock pressing against my slick folds, the contact driving me wild. “You feel that?” he growled. “That's all for you, baby. But I can give you more. The wolf... it wants out to play with its mate.” He leaned up licking a stiff nipple. “Can you feel how it wants to fuck what belongs to us?”

“Rocky,” I gasped, as he ground up, thrusting hard against one perfect spot.

“You should see how much more I can give you, Sunshine. You think my dick is big? You ain’t seen nothing yet.” His voice was a low, feral growl, that no longer sounded like him. I could feel his cock throbbing harder, bigger beneath me, as if his words were physically manifesting his arousal.

“I can change, just a little,” he whispered darkly, his eyes now fully amber and gleaming. “The wolf… it wants out. It wants you. And it can make my dick so much bigger than what you are feeling right now, Sunshine” He bucked up slightly dangling the prospect of giving me a taste of something wildly huge. “You want to know what that feels like? What it means getting fucked by my Beast?”

“I don’t know about that, Rocky,” I answered honestly, the thought creeping me out a bit.

“Sunshine, it won’t be all wolf. Nothin’ taboo like that. It’s my human form, only enhanced by the beast. ”

“Rocky, you’re plenty large enough, already,” I admitted. As tempting as it was, I didn’t think I could take much more dick.

Rocky didn’t wait for me to come around. His body began to shift beneath me, his muscles rippling and growing more defined. His chest hair got thicker, spreading out like a wild forest on his pecs, and his nails grew a bit, digging into my hips with a good, strong grip.

But he didn’t look like the wolf.

But holy shit, I could feel his cock changing too, swelling larger and hotter in my pussy. It was no longer just Rocky throbbing inside me. It was something more animalistic.

No. I could feel through the bond that this was more Rocky than ever before.

My head fell back as he filled me like never before.

His cock, now monstrously thick and long, stretched me wide. I gasped at the sheer size of him. Rocky, eyes fully amber and wild, forced himself even deeper, causing a scream from deep within me.

“Fuck. You love this, Birdie. I can feel it,” Rocky responded aggressively.

All I could do was grunt out my primitive lust like an animal in heat. The room filled with the dirty sounds from where our bodies pounded together.

“What’s all the racket?” In stumbled Rocky's younger brother, a grin already splashed across his face as he took in the scene before him .

Rocky froze mid-thrust, his head snapping towards the door, a low growl forming in his chest. He snarled over his shoulder at what was a painfully embarrassing moment, yet somehow comical all at once. Deep within me, he wasn’t letting me go. I pressed my naked body against him to hide my breasts from his brother’s view.

“Villain,” he warned, his voice barely human.

Villain sniffed the air like the creature he was underneath. “The big bad wolf in action. Rocky, I always knew you were a fuckin’ beast in the sack but this? This is something else.”

He chuckled his gaze flicking between us to an area of where our bodies connected so intimately with my wetness on full display, glistening on Rocky’s lap.

“Damn, girl. I know that’s a large package. You’re takin’ it like a fuckin’ FedEx truck,” he said, like that was a complement.

“Get out,” Rocky barked.

Villain’s eyes lingered. “You sure, Rock. Looks like there’s space in the rear. Make a Birdie sandwich, you and me. Like old times.”

“Villain, get the hell out of here,” Rocky growled, throwing a couch pillow at him.

Villain slinked away like a snake.

“Now, where were we?” His words were as if his human speech was forced through an animal snout. But thankfully his face was familiar as his cock, still monstrously large and buried deep within me twitched with renewed hunger .

I was afraid to move. Sensing it, he took charge, lifting me as if I weighed nothing. He slammed me down onto his massive cock, rearranging my insides.

Fuck.

We didn’t leave the homestead for the rest of the day.

Not because we couldn’t.

But because we didn’t want to.