Page 15 of The Pack

CHAPTER 15

M agnus

The pack moved in quiet unison, each of us settling into our usual rhythm, but my thoughts were anything but orderly.

I couldn’t stop thinking about last night.

Watching Thorne haul Zara over his knee, hearing her breathless protests turn into soft, broken moans—it had been impossible to look away. The firelight had danced over her flushed skin, illuminating every tremble, every gasp as his hand came down on her bare ass and then when his tongue was working her sensitive little clit. It had stirred something primal in me, something I’d kept tightly controlled for years.

My cock was hard just thinking about it.

The way she’d surrendered, even with her defiant streak still so obvious, had made my blood heat. And her moans… Christ, those moans had been seared into my brain, replaying on an endless loop.

I clenched my fists at my sides, forcing myself to focus on the path ahead. This wasn’t like me. I was supposed to be the steady one, the calm in the storm, but Zara had thrown me off balance in ways I hadn’t anticipated.

I wanted her.

Badly.

Not just for a night, not just to sate the heat that radiated from her every glance, every touch.

I wanted her as mine.

As ours.

Forever.

The instinct to claim her, to mark her, had been growing stronger with each passing day. I felt it in my bones, in every fiber of my being and it was getting harder and harder to fight every day.

I glanced back, my eyes locking onto hers for just a moment. She walked a few paces behind me, her steps light but sure, the cloak Tobias had given her wrapped tightly around her small frame. Her dark hair fell loose over her shoulders, and even in the soft morning light, her cheeks still carried the faintest hint of a blush from the teasing earlier.

She was beautiful. Strong. Resilient in ways I couldn’t quite understand yet.

I wanted to ruin her.

I wanted to hear her moan my name the way she’d moaned for Thorne. I wanted to feel her squirm beneath me, her body trembling as I pushed her to her limits. I wanted to knot her, to fill her with my seed, to mark her in a way that left no doubt in anyone’s mind—especially hers—that she belonged to me.

To us .

The thought of sharing her with my pack didn’t bother me. It was how we worked, how we’d always worked. But the idea of claiming her together, of her taking each of us in turn, her body soft and pliant as we bred her…

I let out a slow breath, forcing myself to calm the storm building in my chest. Yet, I couldn’t stop myself from imagining it. Her body arched beneath mine, her scent intoxicating as I marked her neck with my teeth. The sound of her gasps and cries as she begged for more.

I wanted her to know, to feel that she was ours, not because of the heat, not because instinct had driven us together, but because she chose us.

The heat had taken away choice. It had consumed her, consumed us, until there was nothing but pure need that had forced her to submit and us to take. None of us had been able to resist it—it was bigger than will, bigger than reason.

But now… now, she could decide.

And that was what I wanted more than anything. Not just her body surrendering to instinct, but her. Choosing us. Wanting us. Not because she had no other option, but because she saw us— truly saw us—and still wanted to belong.

That would mean more than any heat-driven claim. That would make her ours in every way that mattered.

I hummed a low, familiar tune under my breath, a melody my mother used to sing when I was a child. It was a habit I’d picked up when my thoughts grew too loud, when I needed to ground myself, but this time, it didn’t help. Zara had become a fire in my veins, a flame that wouldn’t be extinguished until she was marked, until she bore the undeniable proof of what she was to us.

Our mate.