Page 37

The first thing that comes back to me is the pain. Throbbing in my left leg, just at the Achilles heel. Of course, one of the most difficult injuries to heal from. At least, as the alpha leader, I have the privilege of healing faster.

The second thing that comes to me is the sweet, swirling scent of cinnamon, warm and cozy like a bakery in the middle of a snowstorm.

“Dorian.” It’s a whisper, Kira’s voice, and I recognize her straight away. The soft tenure, the gentle brush of a hand across my cheek.

I realize her voice has been playing in my dreams, replaying what she said to me out in the dirt, when the transformation was starting to ease over my body, and there was no Amanzite to soften the blow.

“I’m sorry. I love you, Dorian. I want you to be in my life. This was—I should have trusted you.”

Forcing myself into a seated position, I open my eyes to see her sitting at my bedside. She has her own wounds, her palms bandaged, a scrape on her forehead covered with a band-aid, but she looks more gorgeous than I’ve ever seen her.

Wearing a pink plaid dress that’s tight around her chest, her mountain of curls pulled back into a bow, the hair loose around her bare shoulders, glinting in the light from the fire.

Those eyes—her amber, liquid gold eyes—fixed right on me.

“Dorian,” she says, frowning and reaching out, “Be careful—you don’t need to sit up—”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” I grunt, ignoring the pain and focusing on her.

She blinks, shaking her head slightly in confusion. “What are you—”

“Out there, before I shifted, you said you were sorry, but I’m the one who should be apologizing. I never wanted to make you feel like I was keeping you a secret, or that I was ashamed of you, Kira. We’d heard that Jerrod wanted you back, that he was coming for you, specifically. And … I was afraid. I let that fear control me, and more specifically, I let it control you.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” she asks, eyes softening as she lets out a sigh. “That would have made it a lot easier to understand.”

“I didn’t want you to feel unsafe,” I admit, closing my eyes. “I didn’t want you to think I couldn’t protect you. And more than that, I was worried you might try to take off, sneak out in the middle of the night.”

When I open my eyes, the look on her face tells me that it’s something she thought about, and I let out a little laugh.

“Dorian,” she takes my hands, leaning forward and resting her forehead against mine with a little wince. “I feel like … everything in our relationship has been complicated. But if you want it—”

“I want it, Kira,” I practically growl. “That’s why I marked you.”

She laughs. “Okay. You want it, but I need you to communicate with me. I need … I know that being the alpha leader is important, and that the pack needs you, but—”

“ You are my top priority,” I say, taking her hand in mine, careful to avoid the bandage on her palm. “From now on.”

Quiet stretches around us as we stay like that, foreheads together, until I reach an arm around her waist and pull her into the bed with me. My body aches, but that pain starts to ease the moment I have her beside me, the warmth of her seeping into me, her head resting on my chest.

“You’re my mate, Kira,” I mutter. “And you’ve always been. I’ll spend the rest of my life making this— everything —up to you. I know I don’t deserve you, but I’ll get as damn close as I can come to that.”

She sighs, tipping her head up and kissing just beneath my jaw.

“I have something to tell you,” she whispers, voice uncertain. “But I don’t want to overwhelm you. The healers said it’s important for you to be low-stress while you heal—”

I squeeze her, nuzzling into her, wishing for a moment that I could just climb inside her body and live there.

“Tell me,” I say, voice muffled against her. “Whatever it is you have to say, I want to hear it.”

“Are you sitting down?”

“Even better,” I laugh, raising my head to meet her eyes. “If I pass out, the healers will come take care of it.”

“Okay.” She shifts, pushes the hair from her eyes, then says, “I … it’s not certain yet, but I had a premonition and…” she closes her eyes, squinting her face, “I might be—I mean, I think I’m pregnant, Dorian.”

The entire world stops spinning. Kira and I are the only objects that remain in motion.

Endorphins flood through me like a detox, washing away the pain and leaving elation in their wake. It’s like my limbs wake up, all stiffness and aching completely gone as I push up, wrap my arms around her, and flip her so her back is against the mattress.

She giggled, admonishes me, “ Dorian —you’re not supposed to—”

I silence her with a kiss, capturing her lips with mine, swallowing her words and being careful of her as I press our chests together.

Kira is pregnant. We are having a baby ,

My baby. I will have a baby—a son. A daughter. A child of my own. Tears spring to my eyes, and I surprise myself by letting out a happy sob against her lips.

I only wish Gramps were here to see it.

“Dorian?” she asks when I pull back, kissing down her jaw and to her neck, body suddenly thrumming with the need to get this woman’s skin on my tongue, to taste her in more ways than one.

“Shh,” I murmur, trailing my lips over her collarbone, hands finding the skirt of her dress and bunching it around her hips. “Remember what I told you?”

She giggles when I push the dress up more, pushing my lips against the soft swell of her belly.

“ What ?”

“I told you,” I rasp, cock already hard, body electric with the feel of her. “That, when I had more time, I was going to linger with you. Taste every inch of your skin. That time is now.”

A shiver runs the full length of her body at my words, and I love seeing the power I have. How a single sentence can make her shake like this, trembling under my touch.

I slide lower, hooking my thumbs around the band of her panties, drawing them down until I’m drowning in the scent of her. She gasps, looking down at me, her eyes wide.

“Dorian, are you—”

“Think of this as behavioral conditioning,” I murmur, touching my lips to each of her thighs. Gods, I could spend the rest of my life down here, worshiping the smooth, soft skin on her inner thighs, kissing and biting, nuzzling my face into the gentle curve of them.

“What?” she laughs, the sound cutting off into a breathy rasp when I move my mouth so I’m hovering right over her, lips pressed gently to her skin, barely a whisper of pressure, but enough that her legs jerk, tightening around me.

“You gave me the best news of my life,” I say, watching her shiver as the vibration of my voice reaches her, getting her even more wet for me. “So I’m going to give you the best orgasm of your life. Teach you to keep doing that.”

“So, you want—” she gasps when I use my hands to pull her apart, sliding my tongue up the length of her and groaning deeply at the taste. “So you want,” she tries again, panting. “Dorian, if you do this every time, we’ll end up with a million kids.”

“Okay,” I murmur against her clit, grinning when I see her hands searching for purchase, grabbing the sheets and balling them in her fists.

“That’s what you want?” she asks, raising her head. When her eyes meet mine, and she sees me like this, between her legs, tasting her, I watch her pupils blow wide. My cock is trapped between me and the bed, and each time I move against her, the friction there just winds me tighter, tighter.

“With you?” I ask, pressing into her with the flat of my tongue. “Yes.”

Kira lets out a whimper, either at the admission or the sensation, and I don’t waste any more time in making this woman come on my tongue.