“I don’t have much to offer.” He ghosted his hands over her hair. “I drive a beat-up pickup truck and come with a dog who drools when you scratch his belly. I belong to a pack of wolves who’ll become the best and worst family you’ve ever had. If you give me a chance, I think you might come to realize how great we could be together.”
She opened her eyes and gazed at him, through him. “When I said I wanted this, that’s exactly what I meant. It’s clear how much your packmates care for one another. I’d kill to feel that type of protective dynamic surrounding me. More than anything, I long to feel safe and loved and treasured. You make me feel like you crave me, like you’d protect me with your last breath, and I’ve never felt that with anyone before. But I didn’t think you saw me living in your world. I wasn’t sure you wanted something serious.”
“Let me prove to you how serious I am,” he said, pulling her into a tight embrace against his chest. Her body was warm, and a perfect fit in his arms. “I can’t promise you a big white wedding, two-point-five children and a house with a white picket fence, but I swear that I’ll give you all of me, for as long as you’ll have me.” He paused, waiting for her to respond. “Do you think that’ll be enough for you?”
“You”—she kissed him, slowly, softly, melting his worries away—“are more than enough.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Veronica was supposed to be focused on Leah and Jake and their special day.
She couldn’t take her eyes off Logan.
From her seat at the head table, she had the perfect vantage point. Jake and Leah were making their way around the room, thanking everyone for attending the wedding of the century—not that she was taking all the credit. Heather was standing near the bar talking to a hunky-looking thirtysomething in dress pants and cowboy boots. The DJ was phenomenal, playing music from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s like it’d never gone out of style. Everyone loved it; the dance floor was packed.
As the song switched from “The Humpty Dance” to “Think Twice” by Celine Dion, Logan took Veronica by the hand and led her into the center of the room.
“Come on,” he said. “We can’t sit this one out.”
He whirled her around and roped her into his arms. Giggling, she pressed against him and buried her face in his chest. Things had never felt more right.
Did this night really have to end?
“Take a look at that,” Logan said, twirling her around.
Leah and Jake were behind the cake table, holding chunks of dessert in their hands. Leah shoved a fistful of cake into Jake’s face. He laughed, gave a little bow, then kissed Leah on the lips, smooshing the dessert around.
Leah was happy. Veronica’s heart tingled with pure delight.
“Would you want something like that?” Logan asked, coiling his arm tighter around her waist.
Veronica arched back to look him in the eye. “I’m not even thinking about it.”
“What
“If I wanted to be with you, would I have to, um…” Her stomach fluttered with anxiety merely thinking about the words. “…be bitten to turn into a wolf?”
If she stayed a human, and he stayed a wolf, that wouldn’t work. It couldn’t. She’d constantly feel as if she was on the outside of their pack, separate from him, living a completely different life by a separate set of rules.
“Whether you want to make that leap is completely up to you, and I’d never pressure you one way or another. If you don’t think the path is right for you, that’s okay.” Logan twirled her around the dance floor, to a section that was less crowded. “I can answer some questions for you, though. I can practically see your mind racing. What spooks you the most? The bite or the transition?”
The marks on Leah’s body after she was attacked had haunted Veronica for years.
She swallowed hard. “The bite.”
“In that case, come with me for a second. I want to show you something.” He escorted her by the hand out the reception doors and into the room where the ceremony had been a few hours before. It was empty now. Dark and private. He pushed her against the wall and buried his face in her neck. His hips thrust against hers as he shoved his leg between hers, urging them apart.
“Oh,” she said, skating her hands up and down his back. “Wasn’t expecting this.”
“As carefully as I could, I’d bite you on two different pulse points. One bite here”—he grazed his thumb over the vein on her neck—“and another here”—his hand brushed across her inner thigh—“would start the transition process. The wounds would heal quickly—hours, maybe. After that, there’d be no evidence that you’d been bitten at all.”
Her skin pebbled beneath his hand, and her insides fluttered with nervous energy. “Would it hurt? It’d have to hurt, wouldn’t it?”
He lifted her head from his chest and kissed her neck, warming her skin with the heat of his mouth. She arched back, welcoming the flood of desire surging through her. He kissed her neck openmouthed, his tongue circling round and round over her flesh. She was tingly all over. Dizzy. Her head fell back against the wall and Logan followed, his mouth attached to her neck in a passionate lock. The instant he sucked, Veronica’s eyes rolled back. She felt heat. Chills. He was giving her a hickey. It may’ve been tacky in grade school, but if a mark on her neck meant that Logan had claimed her as his own, she’d wear it with pride.
“It’s like softening you up for sex,” he said. His hand floated down her body and gently spread her legs farther apart. “You can’t jump right in. If I loosened you up and made you forget about what was happening, I think you might find the bite enjoyable.”
She nodded quickly, the air freezing in her chest.
His teeth grazed her neck, but she was too lost in him to flinch. She was dizzy with pleasure, her thighs quivering beneath his touch. How did he manage to do this to her every time? She was putty in his hands. He could claim her, possess her, make love to her on a rooftop in downtown Seattle. As long as she was in his arms, she was happy.
He pulled back, his hands pressed possessively against her hips. The pupils of his eyes were wide and black. “I could’ve kept going and broken the skin,” he said, wiping the moisture from her neck, “and I don’t think you would’ve been in any pain.”
“I think you’re right.” She shook. Had he been about to bite her? If he’d asked while his teeth had nipped at her skin, she would’ve said yes. “But you’d still be with me? If I decided that’s not the way I wanted to live?”
He brushed his lips against hers in a mind-numbing caress. “Of course I would.”
“I’m not ready to decide now,” Veronica said, her voice echoing into the room. “But if I’m going to be with you and build a life with you, it’ll be all or nothing.”
“You’re amazing,” he said, as the song for the garter toss began to play. “My love, my Luminary.”
He kissed her, and his words almost disappeared. Almost. “What’d you just call me?”
“My Luminary.”
“That’s what Jake called Leah. He said she was his—”
“Fated mate, yes.” Tunneling his hands into her hair, Logan dragged her into another kiss. “I should’ve told you before now, but I didn’t want to reveal the truth if you hated me and my kind.”
Veronica’s heart banged against her chest. “How do you know that I’m yours?”
“Since the moment I met you, I’ve been pulled to you. It wasn’t because I was hired to be your shadow, or because I wanted a one-night stand.” Logan brushed the back of his hand down her cheek. “You belong to me. You were always meant to be mine.”
Veronica sagged against the wall, knowing immediately that the bond was what she’d been sensing all along. “I feel the pull to you, too.”
“Now comes the scary part.” He took her hand, flipped it over, and kissed her palm. “Wolves live a couple hundred years solo, but when they complete the Luminary bond, it extends their life and the life of their fated mate
