“Some part of me has loved you since the first second I saw you standing in the moonlight by that stream,” I murmur. “And every other part of me has fallen in love with you day by day as I discovered what an amazing woman you are. And the fact that I ever made you feel like less than that? It fucking kills me. No matter what happens or what comes, witch or wolf or something else, I’m on your side, and I will be until the bitter fucking end.”
Her wide, blue eyes are wet with unshed tears as she stares up at me, and I hope it’s a good emotion. I hope I haven’t scared the shit out of her, since that seems to be my MO most days.
I realize I’ve said the right thing when her gaze moves to my lips, and her soft, torturous fingernails trail down my abdomen.
That’s all I need. Hell, it’s more than the hungry wolf inside me needs.
I stop holding back, releasing my tight grip on my control.
Lunging forward, I close the last bit of space between us, capturing her lips with mine and pressing our bodies together. The kiss is hard, deep, and hungry, and the feel of her soft curves rubbing against me make me lose all sense of myself. All sense of anything else.
It’s just me and my mate. Her soft skin and her full lips, and the way she fits so perfectly against me as she kisses me like she might die if she stops.
The man in the meeting house is a long-forgotten memory by now. My rage is gone. Nothing else exists but the burning need to claim my mate.
6
Sable
The heat that rises inside me from Dare’s kiss is all-consuming. I’m burning from the inside out, and my rugged mate is the spark that lit the fire. The deep, searing truth in his words washes away the pain of that pack meeting until I can hardly even recall the face of the man he threatened.
He shoves me up against the tree, his kiss deepening, his hands wrapping around my back, pulling me against him until I raise my leg and hook it around his waist, opening my body to his hands.
This is stronger and more potent than the night my wolf finally came out and claimed him, claimed all of them as my true mates. We had sex that night, even though I was worried he wouldn’t accept the bond. The relief that he did has clung to me ever since.
But this?
This is one hundred times that night. This is Dare tearing down every barrier between us, giving me everything that he is and promising me with his lips, his hands, his body, that he trusts me.
And I’m scared. I’m scared that he trusts me so much, because I don’t even trust myself.
I’m not keeping the truth from my mates, no matter how much it hurt to let them know about the strange numbness this morning. No lying. No hiding.
But still, I’m terrified of the darkness inside me.
Dare’s fierce kiss shoves all of that away though. It feels like we’re both purging our demons as our tongues clash and our sharp breaths mingle. Out here, in the woods outside the North Pack village, there’s nothing but the two of us, the rough bark against my back, and the wind against our skin. There’s nothing but the feel of Dare’s warm body pressed against mine.
It took me a little while to catch up with him, so we’re far enough away from the village that no one can hear us, but I’m not sure I’d care even if I knew they could. I’m not sure anything on earth could make me stop kissing this man right now.
This man who loves me no matter what I am.
Who loves me despite the witch magic burning through my veins.
My mate.
Dare’s palms skate across my skin, gliding down over the curve of my waist and hips. When he reaches my thighs, he grips them in his large hands and lifts me up, wrapping my legs around his lean waist. My upper back rests against the thick tree trunk as he drags his lips away from mine and trails hot kisses over my cheek, my jaw, my neck, and my shoulder. His teeth scrape my collarbone, and I whimper, hooking my ankles just over his ass and arching my back as sparks of sensation spread over my skin like crackling fire.
His mouth moves to my neck again, where he latches onto the delicate flesh and sucks hard, pulling another desperate sound from me. I arch my back even more, grinding my pelvis against his as I turn my head to the side, offering him full access to my neck. I can feel his cock trapped between us, hard and hot as he sucks on my skin.
I bite my bottom lip, the feeling of pressure on my neck walking the line between pleasure and pain.
He’s bruising me lightly. Marking me. I know when we go back to the meeting house, there’ll be a clear indication of what Dare and I were doing in the woods.
But instead of embarrassment, that feeling fills me with a feral sort of pride.
I let out a soft moan as he finally releases the skin of my throat from the pressure of his lips and teeth, licking it gently as if to ease away the sting. When he draws back to look at me, his pupils are dilated, the gold-flecked brown of his irises almost erased by the darkness.
“Fuck. I can never get enough of you.” As if to prove his words, he drops his head and kisses me once more. He keeps kissing me even as he continues speaking, his words punctuated and interrupted by the movement of his lips on mine. “When I
