Page 26 of Savagely Mated (Shared Mates #1)

We stop in a village, and Kirin buys cheese, wine, and bread. I grab some grapes and a thick roll of salami. Between the two of us, we have a virtual feast. This is much better than sitting in my room at the academy, waiting to be yelled at again.

We park up on a hill overlooking the river as it winds its way into the city, on the way to the beach in the north, and we drink and eat and talk. It’s remote out here. Most of the people have left the villages and moved to the city where there is work.

I’ve spent no time in the countryside. I’m surprised to find that it’s actually nice. There’s not much to do. In fact, all there really is to do is just be.

It might be the first nice thing I’ve done in a long time. I’m kind of surprised it’s happening with Kirin, and I tell him that.

“This is nice,” I say, my tone incredulous. “You seemed so mean when we first met. I didn’t think you’d turn out to be the most romantic one.”

“I’m not the most romantic one. It’s just all you’ve done so far is piss off Einar,” he says.

“I don’t see him being very romantic.”

“Maybe not,” Kirin demurs. “Let’s not talk about him. I’m sure he’ll have plenty to say about this later.”

“Let’s not talk about that, either,” I say.

I don’t want to ruin the mood by talking about what Einar is going to say or do.

It feels like he’s the authority I never really wanted to have.

Sometimes I get a little flash of it feeling a little comforting to know someone cares, but for the most part it’s just more trouble of the same kind.

Kirin smiles at me, and my worries slide away. Who cares what happens later? This is happening now.

We are like two kids who have snuck out and are getting into trouble. Almost feels like Jory and I used to, back in the day.

“So how did you get mixed up in this? You don’t seem like the sort of person who gets pulled into regimented rebel groups.”

“Einar recruited me when I was still in the academy,” he says. “The Blood are everywhere. Academy propaganda says we’re nothing more than a handful of wild wolves doing terrible things, but most of our number are in the world, indistinguishable from anybody else.”

“But you wanted me to do something crazy. You wanted me to kill the actual king. Why doesn’t one of your allegedly great number do that?”

“You’re a beautiful young female. You are likely to be taken into his harem sooner or later.

I’m surprised you haven’t been sent there already.

You’re likely to have access in a way most people never will.

That’s why we decided to be so aggressive in taking you.

Plus, the director has been quite effective in removing the Blood’s influence from the academy. ”

“She was excited to see Einar.”

“I’m not saying she did it on purpose. She’s particular, and quite intuitive.”

“You sound like you like her.”

“I don’t need to like her to appreciate her effectiveness. She got rid of them by accident, mostly. Wanted to put her own people in. I’m guessing she’s realized there was some benefit to the old school people.”

“She treated Einar like he was a fucking celebrity.”

“Yeah. Well. He has that effect on women. It’s the gravitas and the authority.”

He sounds slightly admiring, and slightly annoyed.

I wonder how these guys really get on. Kirin and Rafe call Einar Daddy from time to time.

I think they’re teasing him, but there’s something to it.

Einar has a kind of paternal style of leadership that is quite, well, calming in some ways.

It’s also very unfamiliar for me, fatherless wretch that I am.

“Do you like being part of their pack? Rafe and Einar? Are there others, or is it just the three of you?”

“I didn’t have much choice. Just like you don’t have any choice now. And no, there aren’t any others I suffer to live in my place. Rafe is, well, Rafe. And Einar was the one who got me on his side in the first place. I don’t hang out with the rest of the terrorists,” he smirks.

“But do you like it?” I push the question a little more.

“I know I’m lucky to be in a position to help do something that matters.”

“Plotting to kill the king?”

He sighs, as if he’s about to tell me something he knows he shouldn’t tell me.

“He’s not the real king. Or he shouldn’t be. He’s a usurper. They don’t teach that in the academy because that would be a very inconvenient thing to teach people you’re trying to convince that they should dedicate their lives to serving that same king.”

“A usurper?”

“Happens all the time in royal families. Kings come, kings go, kings get usurped,” he shrugs. “The idea is to kill this one and replace him with the real one. Or, at least, the one who most recently had real genetic claim to the throne.”

“Why doesn’t the real one just take his throne back himself?”

“Because he’d be killed the moment they knew who he was. It’s not like there’s a form you can fill out to have the throne back please and thank you.”

“And you thought I could do it? After I freaked out about the cardinal’s guard?”

“You just need a bit more training, that’s all. Your form was perfect. The execution was textbook. The crying and running away, we can work on that.”

“Fuck you,” I snort, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

He smirks at me. “You were cute,” he says. “Still are.”

I smile at him. Maybe he does like me.

“Darcy,” he says.

“Hm?”

“I’d like to fuck you.”

I feel heat rush through me. “Oh,” I say. “Uhm. Okay.”

“I know Einar’s probably left you sore, but…”

“I don’t care what he’s done. I want to sleep with you, even if it hurts.”

Kirin grins. “I can try to make it hurt less. Unless you like that…”

I blush deeply.

“Oh,” he chuckles. “You do like that.”

“No, of course I don’t,” I deny hotly, but it is partially a lie.

There is something about the rougher handling I do like.

In some weird way, it makes me feel safe.

It’s like I’ve finally met someone who can really handle me, who isn’t going to spend all his time whining at me and trying to get me to be good.

I don’t think Kirin is going to whine at me to be good, either. But that’s because Kirin doesn’t care if I am good or not. Kirin is barely under control himself.

“It’s okay to like things a little rough,” he says. “Most wolves do.”

The sun is setting, and Kirin is gorgeous in the melting yellow orange light. He really has incredible genes and bone structure. I could stare at him all day long. There should really be portraits of him. I bet there are, somewhere in that big house.

“Do you miss your parents?”

“What?” He chuckles a little at what I guess is an unexpected question.

“You said they died. I never knew mine. Do you miss yours?”

“Of course,” he says. “Their passing was the reason I was sent to the academy. My family did not know what to do with a heartbroken teenage boy, so they sent me to live there, hoped that the place would straighten me out.”

“I don’t think the academy is for fixing anything,” I say.

“No. But I got into enough trouble that Einar picked me out, helped me be less of a little shit.”

“I kind of wish he’d been there when I was there.”

“I think he was, for a bit, when you first came. That’s how we knew how to find you. He knew that there was a female shifter at the academy, but he said he’d assumed you’d been moved to the palace.”

“Einar knew me?”

“I think so. Not for long. But. Yeah.”

I nod, feeling upset for a reason I can’t quite logically rationalize.

“Hey,” Kirin says, putting his fingers under my chin to tip my head up. “Don’t be sad. Your life’s just beginning now. And I don’t care what you do, or don’t do. I’m just happy we’re here together.”

That is the sweetest, most romantic thing anybody has ever said to me, and it tips me right over the edge into tears.

“Hey…” he says, drawing me into his lap and hugging me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I’m not upset,” I cry. “That was too nice, and you are too attractive, and I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

“You didn’t have to do anything. You just had to be yourself. I love you, Darcy. You’re hot, you’re a good fighter, you’re an even better rider. You’re everything a guy could want, and you’re mine.”

His words are laced with deep appreciation, and in that moment, pressed against his chest, my face buried in his neck, I fall deeply and completely in the most traditional kind of love possible.

We feel like the last two true of heart innocents in the world at this moment, and our hunger for one another has to be sated.

Clothing melts away in our hunger. Kirin’s body is hard and perfect, just as I knew it would be. I saw it last night, when Einar mated me, but this is even better. The setting sun shows his masculine form to perfection, and I marvel that he was made by nature with me in mind.

“You’re beautiful,” he breathes, cupping my breasts.

“So are you,” I respond, meaning the words entirely. Kirin could be a model in any time and any place. The way the breeze catches his blond hair, and the way the light hits his eyes… I am utterly enchanted by him.

Kirin settles me in his lap, facing him, his cock sliding up and into my pussy as he wraps his arms around me and makes passionate love to me. I am settled on his dick, my pussy grinding against the base of his cock.

“You are perfect,” he says as he fucks me, urging me up and down on his dick.

“You are,” I say. Our dialog may not be deep, but we mean every one of the very few words we have to say to one another.

He lays back and lets me ride him, working my hips so my pussy slides up and down his cock. I am doing most of the work, giving myself to him and taking him at the same time.

We make love for hours, letting the sun fade and the moon rise, and the city turn to a glittering oasis beneath us with the river threading its way to the sea.

Eventually we just lie in the grass together, looking up at the stars.

I am wrapped up in Kirin’s embrace, his strong arms holding me close against his chest.

I feel absolutely calm and entirely loved. I feel completed. I do not know if that is because I just had sex with Kirin, or if it is the fact that I have now been intimate with all my mates, but this has been special in a way I will never forget.

“Do we have to go back?”

I don’t want to go anywhere ever again. I want to stay here under the stars and in Kirin’s arms forever. I feel so peaceful. I feel so content. It’s like I’m right where I’m supposed to be, with exactly who I am supposed to be with.

“Eventually,” he says. “But not yet, if you don’t want to.”

He snugs me a little tighter and I close my eyes and let the night take us.