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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JAKE

Elena’s walls clench around me, milking every last drop of my cum. I don’t remember her climaxing, but judging by the rhythmic throb of her pussy, she came again at the exact same time.

As the heady postcoital fog begins to lift, panic edges in to greet me. I was supposed to take Elena’s virginity soft and slow, and instead I whipped her, plowed her from behind, and nearly brought down the walls with my fucking.

Shit .

Terrified of what I’ll find, I lift my head from her gorgeous tits. Elena’s still breathing hard and fast, but her eyes are closed.

“You all right?”

“Mmmhmm.” She sounds as content as a cat on a sunny windowsill.

“Did I —” I swallow down the dread rising in my throat. “Was I too rough?”

“No. ”

Relief like I’ve never known floods through me, and I reach up to touch the side of her face. I tilt her head toward me, and she opens her eyes. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.” My mate grins and rolls her eyes. “I’m a little sore down there, but that’s it. It was —” She lets out a cackle. “— not what I expected.”

“Sorry I didn’t bring any rose petals. Or Rum Chata.”

Elena’s cheeks heat at my reference to her sixteen-year-old self’s drink of choice, and she gives my arm a playful smack.

“It wasn’t what I expected either,” I admit.

Something like anxiety flashes through her eyes, and she rises up onto one elbow. “Was it . . .” She presses her lips together. “I mean, I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m sure I —” Elena breaks off and looks at the floor.

I realize how she must have interpreted my comment. She’s worried she didn’t “perform.”

“Lena,” I growl, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “Look at me.”

It’s a long moment before those brown eyes meet mine, and I wish she could feel just how intensely I burn for her. “You did amazing. You are . . . spectacular . I just meant that I never expected this to happen.”

A smidgen of relief crosses her face, but something else is bothering her.

“What is it?” I ask, running my finger down her breast and brushing over her nipple. The little bud pebbles up at my touch, and I can’t resist giving it a pinch.

“What you said before, about me being your mate . . . Doesn’t that entail . . . you know . . .”

My stomach clenches when I realize where she’s going with this. She sounds unbelievably worried .

“Typically, yes,” I tell her, still stroking her breast. “It’s customary for a wolf to mark his mate.”

“With a bite,” she adds, almost as if she’s checking her facts. But this is a girl who grew up surrounded by shifters. She knows all about mating — or she should .

“Yes.”

Elena worries her bottom lip between her teeth before meeting my eyes. “Will it hurt?”

“Only for a second.”

She nods, and her expression morphs into something like resolve. “All right.”

“All right what?” I ask, my voice trembling at the implication.

She can’t possibly mean what I think she means. I know I need to mark her — my wolf is demanding it — but I want to take things slow.

“I’m ready for you to mark me.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. “Because it doesn’t have to be tonight. We could wait a while. There’s no rush.”

Elena nods. “I’m sure.”

My throat goes very dry. “You have to be sure, Lena. Because once I mark you . . . there’s no going back.

” My voice is hoarse with vulnerability and need.

I don’t tell her that it’s already too late — that she’s already mine.

With my mark or without it, I’ll never let her go. “You’ll be mine. Forever.”

“I know,” she whispers. “And I . . .” She takes a deep breath. “I want to wear your mark.”

A wild excitement streaks through my chest. Elena wants me to claim her. She wants the whole world to know that she belongs to me and that I belong to her.

The thought makes me instantly rock hard again, but then that thrill morphs into panic. Elena is human — fragile as hell and slow to heal. What if I really hurt her?

“You won’t hurt me,” she says, as though she read my thoughts. Her hand comes up to caress my cheek, and a low growl rumbles through me at her feather-light touch. “I trust you.”

ELENA

A delicious shiver rolls through me as Jake slides between my thighs and plants a kiss on my swollen nub. Fire shoots through my veins at his touch, and my core clenches in anticipation.

Jake’s tongue flicks over my most sensitive spot, making torturous, unhurried circles. I moan and lie back, savoring the feeling of his rough hands on my thighs before his thumb parts my folds, and he licks me from ass to clit.

I shudder as he laps me up. I’m already dripping wet. Dripping wet and . . . confused.

I asked him to mark me, but he appears to be distracted. He lavishes attention on the flushed lips of my pussy, taking one between his teeth and giving it a gentle tug.

An embarrassing groan of pleasure slips out of me, and I rake my fingers through his hair. However I might have imagined sex with Jake, I never anticipated that he’d be able to make me feel like this.

Then his fingers are inside me again, stroking that magical spot. Pressure starts to build low in my abdomen, and I clench my thighs together as he coaxes and licks and bites.

When he sucks my clit into his hot, wet mouth, I squeal and thrash on the bed. Jake captures my wrists and pins them to the mattress, forcing me to submit.

My orgasm rocks through me with overwhelming force — stronger and harder than the last. Jake eases each wave with gentle licks before folding his body over mine.

I sigh. Jake is hard everywhere I’m soft. Huge. Warm. Masculine. He towers over me by nearly a foot, and yet our bodies somehow just fit.

Then Jake pulls back to look at me, and I’m startled by the naked terror in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “N-nothing,” he croaks. “Everything’s perfect.”

My heart squeezes at his words, and he threads his fingers through my hair. His kiss is scorching hot on my lips, burning with the fierceness of his need.

He reaches between us to pull off the used condom, but I stop him as he moves to get another.

“Can you . . .” My skin tingles uncomfortably at what I’m about to ask. “Can you tell if I’m fertile from my scent?”

Back in high school, Carmen told me shifters could detect subtle changes in a woman’s scent depending on where she was in her cycle. Asking the question out loud, though, I worry she might have been pulling my leg.

Jake’s nod is so small that I almost miss it. “You aren’t. You’ll start to bleed in three or four days.”

I blink. He’s right. My period is due in three days exactly. It’s both impressive and disconcerting .

“Then I want to feel you inside me,” I whisper, shocked by my own admission. “Just you.”

Jake’s eyes smolder at my request, and I catch the flash of a grin before he kisses me again.

Shifters are immune to human viruses and infections, so there’s no reason to use a condom if I can’t get pregnant.

Jake wastes no time after that. His head dips down to kiss my neck as his hand finds my breast. He tweaks my nipple between his skillful fingers, and I arch into his touch.

His mouth lingers in the soft valley where my neck meets my shoulder. Then I feel him nudging at my entrance.

There’s the briefest twinge of pain as he enters me, followed by a delicious fullness. I groan against his neck, squeezing him with my channel.

Jake’s massive body trembles over mine as he slides back out, almost to the tip. I whimper in protest and grip his shoulders, needing all of him inside me. Jake complies with one hard thrust, and I dig my nails into his skin.

Jake takes his time with me, but I can feel his restraint waning. The tension in his body ratchets up my own desire.

I want him to mark me. Claim me. Fill me with his cum. It’s as though I’ve been starving for him my entire life, and now that I’ve had a taste, my desire is insatiable.

Jake seems just as ravenous as I am, though, and that makes me feel better. I can feel his hot breath on my neck as he rams inside me. I shudder at the task of taking all of his length, but I want him to fill me again and again.

I bite down on the thick muscle of his shoulder, egging him on, and Jake’s moan gives me a wild surge of satisfaction. My bite may heal in a matter of seconds, but I’ve marked him, too.

That simple act seems to cause the careful wall he’s built around himself to crack, and I feel it when his wolf takes over. Jake’s movements become jerkier as he slams into me, his balls slapping between my ass cheeks.

I hold on for dear life, moaning his name as he fills some space inside me I didn’t know was empty.

When he slows his pace, I know it’s time. Jake’s whole body is shaking as he plants a soft kiss at the base of my neck.

“Lena?” His voice is hoarse, ragged and worried.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. “Mark me. I’m ready.”

His only reply is a pained groan of release as he sinks his fangs into me. My body jerks at the sharp pinch, but the pain is tempered by Jake’s quiver of pleasure. He’s still rock hard inside me, and I give his member a reassuring squeeze.

Jake grips the back of my neck as he moves in and out of me, and soon the pain ebbs away. I can feel the pressure building deep inside me, revved up by Jake’s own level of need. It’s the most intimate act I’ve ever experienced, and I never want it to end.

When Jake withdraws his fangs and captures my mouth, his kiss is bruising and tastes of my blood. He wants to claim me, body and soul. And I want to let him.

I scream his name as my orgasm rips through me, my hands clawing at his hair and scratching his neck as they try to find something to hold on to. I feel a warm gush as he fills me with his seed, and the release overtakes us both.

Jake’s tongue makes slow circles over my wound, cleaning it with his healing saliva. Then he collapses over top of me, and I feel his heart hammering against my abdomen.

For several minutes, we just lie there in silence — Jake’s body a comforting weight. When he finally lifts his head to look at me, his eyes are wary with concern. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” I say, my mouth stretching in a sleepy grin.

Jake exhales and rolls off of me, tugging me against his chest. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this. Lena, I . . . I love you.”

At those words, my heart nearly gives out, and I snuggle tighter against him. “I love you, too.”

A low satisfied growl reverberates up his chest. “My mate.”

I sigh. “My mate.”