Page 20

20

REYES

T onight, I didn’t just break my vows of celibacy—I obliterated them.

I shattered them completely, right there on an altar to God. And yet, somehow, I feel no guilt. Instead, there’s a strange, unshakable certainty that I did the right thing, as though this was always part of some greater plan. Against all odds, Tilda is here. My mate is in my bed, and if that note left on the pulpit meant anything, the message couldn’t be clearer: I can’t send her back to Homestead.

Whatever happens next, she has to stay.

But staying won’t be simple. Tilda has a sister who needs medicine, and this world doesn’t make anything easy. I’ll need to acclimate her to the pack, help her prepare for the full moon, and ensure no one from Homestead—or anywhere else—comes after her, or any of us.

There’s so much we haven’t talked about yet. I don’t know if she wants children—or if I do. We’re still strangers in so many ways, fumbling through the dark together.

And yet, when we’re alone, it feels so natural. Like we’ve always belonged to each other.

After we have sex in the chapel, we head back into the den, dodging anyone who might catch us. We’re like kids sneaking to my room, ducking into shadowy alcoves so I can push her up against the wall and steal kisses. I feel drunk, but I haven’t been drinking; I’m just high on her scent, that heady combination of blackberries and leather.

Most everyone is still outside, though I’m certain the whole pack knows what we’ve just done. All the lycan have keen senses, and we weren’t exactly quiet. Frankie is probably raising her complaints with the others as we speak, plotting some kind of coup.

I don’t know how that would work, nor can I be bothered to care. The only thing on my mind right now is Tilda.

The relief is palpable as we finally find my door, scrambling to open it and tumble inside. We kiss until we’re out of breath, only stopping to peel off our clothes. She’s left my shirt in tatters, and I feel the sting of where she scratched my back as the shirt comes off.

A nice shirt is hard to find in the apocalypse.

I’m going to hang it from my bedpost like a flag.

She laughs as I toss her to the bed, then kiss my way up her thighs and toward her hips, pressing my mouth to the bite mark. I lay a hand on her thigh and press my fingers into her flesh, finding that long scar and hard muscle beneath. Tilda tugs violently at my hair until I’ve crawled up her body and I’m lined up with her once again, my cock dragging over her slick folds.

We make love again, sideways on my too-small bed, but I still don’t let my knot inside. Tilda begs for it though, not bothering to stay quiet, taking me deep until her back is against the stone wall. My hips snap into her at a punishing speed, feeling how she takes every inch like she was made for me. She claws at my back, clamping her mouth down over my pulse and running her tongue over the raw twin punctures of her bite.

I come inside her repeatedly, filling her until she’s dripping. She isn’t fertile right now—one of the perks of our transformation is that we can scent our mate’s fertility—and something primal in me loves the idea of claiming her in every way, of making sure that my scent is all over her.

She lies limp across my chest in the aftermath, her slender fingers tracing circles over my chest, her hair in chestnut waves over my shoulder. Tilda’s green eyes drag over my body as she moves to straddle me, my now soft cock twitching to life at the feeling of her molten hot core.

“You said you weren’t going to knot me tonight,” she says, her hands on my shoulders. “So I guess that means this is a more than one night thing.”

I smile up at her, taking her breasts in my hands and rolling her nipples. “I could knot you in the morning, when you’re relaxed and ready.”

“Don’t tease,” she rasps. “Or I’ll bite you again.”

Her tongue finds her mark and I hiss out a breath at the mingled pain and pleasure, thrusting my hips up against her. My knot is already swelling in response to my mate’s closeness, my wolf begging to fuck her hard and fast, to lock her in against me until she’s been bred.

“So now that I’ve bit you, can I tell you what to do?” she asks.

“I don’t think it works that way.”

“Doesn’t seem fair,” she says.

“It isn’t.” I take her face in my hands and kiss one cheek, then the other. “But there are other perks.”

“Like…?”

“You can always sense where I am,” I tell her. “And little snapshots of how I’m feeling. What I want…”

“I think I can tell exactly what you want,” she says, grinding her hips against my groin. “So why don’t you do it? Knot me, I mean?”

“Like I said, it might hurt.”

She gives me a wicked smile. “My mama always taught me to be a suck-it-up kind of girl.”

I thread my fingers in her hair and tilt her head back, looking her in the eye. “Tilda…stop.”

She stills, her lips parted, waiting for the command of her alpha.

Her lips press into a tight line, frustration flickering in her eyes. “I swear I’d be fine,” she mutters, but her voice softens as she glances away, her gaze settling on the lamp glowing on my bedside table.

I sit up on my elbows, releasing her hair to brush my thumb gently over her cheekbone. The movement draws her eyes back to mine, and I catch the flicker of uncertainty there. “What’s on your mind?” I ask softly.

She hesitates, her throat working as if she’s trying to find the right words. Finally, she exhales and meets my gaze. “Do you think…do you think there would be a place here for both of us? Enid and me?”

I let the question settle between us for a moment, my heart tightening at the vulnerability in her voice. “We don’t turn away those in need,” I tell her, my tone firm. “We never have. And if she would be safer here than in Homestead, you’re both welcome to join our pack.”

She bites her lip, the faintest glimmer of hope breaking through her doubt. “But she’s not lycan.”

“She doesn’t have to be,” I say. “She could live in the city, or here with us. Either way, we’ll figure it out. Because if I’m being honest with myself…” I pause, letting the weight of the moment settle. “And with you, of course…I’m not going to break my vows for a one-night stand.”

That earns a dry snort from Tilda, her lips twitching in the ghost of a smile. “Are we like, wolf married or something now?”

“Would that be all that bad?”

She gapes at me. “I’ve known you for all of what—two weeks…?”

“And I knew from the first time I saw you that you were my mate,” I tell her. “There’s something more between us than instinct, Tilda. Can’t you feel it?”

She leans down to stare into my eyes, her breath puffing against my neck. “Kiss me again and let’s find out.”

* * *

The night wears on, and I can’t keep my hands off her.

For hours, we fuck and fuck—never knotting, just breathing, gasping, moaning, coming. I don’t know how I went this long without her, Tilda’s touch essential. Our scents collide and mingle in the cloying air of the den, touch to touch, breath to breath. I catch only a few hours of sleep, rousing when the party moves from out on the lawn to the common room, hearing the sound of music until the early hours of the morning.

We don’t stop making love. I don’t think we can. Now that I’ve broken the vows I kept for over twenty years, I’m starving for her. And it isn’t just my celibacy that has my desire so heightened…it’s the chemistry of my lycan blood resonating with whatever it is that draws me to her, that tells me we were destined to be.

It isn’t until the alarm on my old clock chimes that I remember there’s another world outside. It’s the first day of the waxing moon, counting down until the moon is full…until I’ll finally indulge in my rut. I hold Tilda between my chest and the wall, and press a kiss to her forehead as she stirs, her brow furrowing.

“I should go and talk to the others,” I tell her. “At least try to explain…”

“Don’t go,” she says. Something in me almost forces me to obey her—a tether keeping me locked in place. I didn’t think the powers of the Alpha Prime would work in reverse from my mate, but maybe… “I want you to stay.”

Her arm curls possessively around my back and her lips ghost over her bite mark, her leg hooking around my waist. I inhale the scent of blackberries, growling deep in my chest at how our scents have combined like rich wine.

“At this point, everyone will know about us,” I say. “I have to speak with the pack; and then I’m going to come back and…”

“Stay,” she says. “Knot me.”

She’s so wet, her arousal coating my cock as she rubs herself against me. I didn’t expect her to be so voracious, so needy—but my bite has already changed her, bringing out the latent wolf. I don’t know how it’s been sleeping all this time, but perhaps she’s been hungry like this without telling me until now.

I pull back from her with considerable effort, taking her face in my hands. Her green eyes are feral, her pupils dilated. “Tilda,” I say, trying to anchor her back in herself. “Listen to me.”

She nods, staying perfectly still.

“I want you to stay here from now on, if you’ll have me,” I say. “Do you want that too?”

She frowns, licking her lips. I can see a level of lucidity there that I haven’t noticed since last night. The real world is creeping into our little nest, and I don’t like it one bit. “I think so,” she says.

“But you’re not sure?”

She shakes her head and finally props herself up on her elbow, her brow still furrowed. “Is it possible to…I don’t know, get drunk on someone’s pheromones?” she murmurs. Her hand reaches out and skates along the sweat-glazed muscles of my arm. “It’s like I’m addicted to feeling you inside me.”

That doesn’t make it any easier to leave. “I don’t want you making decisions when your mind isn’t clear.”

“I think…I think I need to go and take a bath,” she says. “Talk to Peaches maybe. With your scent on me…”

She leans down and kisses me hard, bracing herself on a splayed hand beside my head. I don’t even try to resist her, lying back and curling my arm around her until her breasts are pressed to my chest. I know how she feels; I don’t think I can escape her either. At this rate, we’ll need to be forcibly separated, and only strength of will would be able to keep us apart.

She pulls away with a heavy breath, panting against me. I’m ready to dive back into her embrace, to shove her into the mattress and fuck her again.

I want to knot her, just like she keeps asking.

But I won’t do that until she’s had a chance to think things through.

“You’re right,” she says, like she’s reading my mind. “We should take a break from each other today. And then…”

“Tonight, I’ll knot you,” I murmur. “If you still want me.”

She smiles. “Is it crazy that your restraint just makes me want to tease you more?”

I grin. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”