Page 68 of The Alpha and the Baker

The growl that issued from Cas was pure sin, and I felt more goosebumps layering on top of the ones that came before.

I loved hearing and seeing and feeling Cas become unhinged.

It felt like an honor to be shown a side of him not many got to see.

After all, he was their unflappable alpha.

Their leader. Their charming and level-headed revelation after all the chaos that the former gambling alpha had put them through.

But with me? He could be just Cas, the wolf and the man.

“ Fuck ,” was all he said before he bunched my dress around my waist. I heard his zipper release, then he was flush against me again, cock sliding against my wetness, back and forth in the most tantalizing promise.

Neither of us were really in a teasing mood, and he only did it long enough to coat himself in enough of my arousal.

The first few times, I’d needed more than a couple orgasms to take all of himself inside me, my body had grown more accustomed to him. Besides, I was so wet I was surprised my toes weren’t slipping in a puddle of my own making.

“Smells so good,” he rumbled, sounding more and more feral by the second. “Gonna make you scream, gonna breed you.”

Breed me? If I wasn’t on birth control, that might have been something I would object to. But considering that I had the implant and it still had a whole two years before it expired, the declaration only made my brain light up pleasantly. Breed me? Hell yeah. Why the fuck not?

“Give me your pups,” I pleaded, hoping I was using the nomenclature correctly. I was pretty sure that I’d heard it before but it was hard to say. My brain was too fogged over with unabashed lust, desire, and love. “Breed me, baby.”

“ Fuck! ”

Not exactly eloquent, but I got it, I did. And then the head of his cock was lined up with my entrance, and he pushed forward faster than he ever had before.

“Cas!” I gasped. The burning stretch of it, the relief of beginning to be filled, the heat rapidly building… it overwhelmed my senses. But then Cas was leaning over me, his teeth grazing my neck as he kissed his way down my neck to my shoulder.

“Just breathe, sweetheart. You can take this. You were made for it, weren’t you?”

All I could do was let out a whine. I could feel myself sinking down into submission. It was as if it were a tangible blanket—warm, comforting, and weighted.

“That’s it,” he continued as he pushed deeper.

Deeper.

Deeper.

“You take me so perfectly. Like you… you…”

I couldn’t tell if he was struggling with his words because he was losing himself to his wolf, or because he wasn’t sure he should say whatever was on his mind. I hoped it was the latter part, because a majority was hoping for him to say something in particular.

“Like I was meant to?” I hedged cautiously before deciding to throw everything to the wind. “Like we were fated to meet?”

At that, the slow, agonizing, and delicious push halted, and Cas stilled, his lips leaving my shoulder.

Shit, had I just ruined the entire mood?

Worry flooding me, I glanced over my shoulder at my love. Thankfully, he didn’t look upset, only shocked.

“You know about fated mates?”

“I do,” I said, marveling at how I so often managed to throw him for a loop. It wasn’t personal, but I did seem to have a knack for it.

“And you think we’re that?”

Self-consciousness began to seep in, which was most certainly a lady-boner killer. At least, it was for me. I tried to hold onto my unchecked horniness and desire and have faith that somehow, Cas and I were on the same page, as we so often were.

“I know I’m not a shifter, so technically I don’t have a mating gland to bite, but yeah, I do. In my heart, I feel like we’re fated mates.

“I don’t mean to like… use the term improperly, but I can’t help but feel like you walking into my bakery out of all of them in the city was destiny. I’ve had such trouble with SEO and online presence, but I’m guessing I was at the top of your search results, right?”

“Yeah, you were,” he murmured. “The very top spot and the first place I went to.”

“That shouldn’t have been possible, and yet it happened. So, yes. I believe we’re fated mates.”

Once more he was leaning over me, but this time his arms wrapped around my middle, sliding between me and the counter in an embrace. “You’d let me bite you? You’d swear yourself to me forever, and accept me swearing to you?”

His voice. God, his voice. It was thick and sweet as honey, with just a hint of vulnerability to it, like he was wary of my answer.

“But I don’t have a mating gland.” I had been a bit skeptical when I’d heard a couple people talk about such things online, but after talking to some pack members, I’d learned that it was very real.

Thankfully, it wasn’t as all-encompassing as some of the people online said it was, and a non-consensual mating bite wouldn’t work, but I had certainly been surprised to find out just how much of their posts were based in fact.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is would you let me?” His voice lowered, which I didn’t even think was possible. “Would you want me to?”

“Yes,” I answered, completely breathless. “I would. I want to be your mate. Your girlfriend. All of it. I want your mark on my neck.”

He didn’t answer for several long seconds, and I swore I was going to combust when he pressed a featherlight kiss where my shoulder met my neck.

“Right here? You’d let me sink my teeth in and claim you? Tie my soul to yours?”

“Do it,” I gasped. I meant it with every cell in my body. “Please, Cas, I want it. Do it. We’re meant to be. You, and me, and the new future for the packs without the fairies. This is our story, so please, Cas . Bite me.”

“As you wish,” Cas murmured, and then his teeth were sinking into my skin.

“Shit, Cas!” I cried out as he bit me and buried his cock inside me at the same time, truly filling me in every sense of the word.

While I didn’t have that tiny little gland that was supposed to flood my entire system with happy bonding and sex chemicals, it didn’t matter.

I loved the bite of pain with pleasure, and even if I didn’t, the discomfort didn’t even touch the way my heart and my mind were soaring.

Cas loved me. Enough to bond with me in one of the most important ways his people could.

He was sharing his culture, his life, his future with me in such an intimate way, and most importantly, he agreed with me.

That we were meant to be. That we’d walked some winding and often lonely paths to get to each other, but it was a road well-traveled.

“I love you,” I gasped as his teeth bit in deeper, the heat of his mouth its own soothing balm. And when he released, I felt the happiest rumble from him behind me.

“I love you, too, Felicia. With all my soul.”

He turned my head toward him and crashed his lips against mine. I could taste my blood as well as my own climax, yet it didn’t repulse me. No, it was just evidence of everything we’d done. Proof that I wasn’t having the world’s most vivid dream.

While we were kissing, emotions thick between us, he pulled his hips back and started to fuck me. Slow at first, with him swallowing up my mewls and whines, but picking up in speed as we finally broke our kiss.

Harder, faster, it all built up in a wild crescendo of passion—flesh hitting flesh, his grunts and praises, my whimpers and begging. Two halves of the same coin, him covering for my weaknesses and me covering his.

Somehow, in the wild haze of my mind, I recalled a legend that I’d heard of ages ago.

Ancient Grecians believed humans used to have two heads, four legs, and four arms, but they had been split by the cruelty of the gods who were jealous of their union, and so humanity was ripped apart, with each half desperately looking for the one they’d always been meant for.

That was Cas and me, and finally, after so many years forced apart, we had were together. In mind, body, and soul.

Us. As we were always meant to be.

“Cas, I’m coming!” I cried as I felt that white-hot wave beginning to rush through me, starting at my middle and quickly spreading everywhere else. It was dazzling, truly, a sun that felt like it was about to swallow me whole.

“Then come for me, sweetheart. My darling. My mate. ”

Fuck, if that didn’t do it for me. That sun swallowed me whole and my entire body was racked with pleasure. Vaguely, I felt Cas going absolutely wild behind me, his nails digging into my skin as he chased his own orgasm, but it was a pale echo behind my own ecstasy.

My orgasm seemed to last forever, especially with Cas spilling into me, that white-hot seed of his upping the intensity of everything. It was heaven, pure heaven, and I couldn’t believe the two of us got to feel it.

When we finally eased from our climaxes, I swore I nearly collapsed, but Cas caught me and managed to get us over to his couch, where we both sank like sacks of potatoes, limbs all tangled together on his massive sectional.

“I love you,” Cas murmured, kissing the top of my head. It was simple, and yet it was the perfect thing I needed.

“I love you too,” I answered. “Forever.”

“Forever,” he affirmed.

That sleepy haze was fierce now, and my eyelids drooped. I had no desire to fight the dreams, because I was more content than I had ever thought was possible, finally having the solid ground under my feet that I had been looking for, for so long.

In my heart, I knew that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

The McCallister pack was where I was supposed to spend the rest of my life.

I wasn’t alone anymore, and I never would be.

I had found my happily ever after, and it truly was better than I ever thought possible.