I hiccup on a sob. “I believe you.”
“You do?”
I bite my lip, nodding.
“Then show me, love.”
Without hesitation, I reach for him in answer, and Rowan doesn’t need to say anything else. He’s a man of action, after all. He moves on instinct, all strength and desire, and captures my lips in a passionate kiss.
And, because I just can’t resist him anymore, I pull him closer. He responds in kind, lurching forward to rise and wrap his arms around me. There’s a tangle of bare limbs, a lighthearted moment of clumsy fumbling, and then we’re both falling backwards onto the bed. Rowan is on top of me, his now-naked hips pressed between my spread thighs, and when he groans, I know it’s because he can feel how damp I am even through the fabric of my underwear.
I claw at his shoulders, moaning into his mouth as he devours me with a fiery kiss. It’s all tongue and teeth, hot and messy, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
My heart beats so hard and fast that all I can do is cling to him as his erection presses against my inner thigh. Seconds later, Rowan rips off my underwear with one sharp tug.
“Please,” I breathe into his mouth. “I’m yours.”
I’ve always been yours…
My bra is gone next, and I barely even register its absence until Rowan breaks the kiss to lower his head and drag his teeth lightly against my nipple. I bow into his body, pulsing with raucous heat between my thighs. I spread my legs further, digging my heels into his hips in hopes of guiding him exactly where I want him to be.
“Alina,” he gasps as he nudges against my entrance. “Alina, if I-if we…the bond…”
I know what he’s trying to say. If we do this, there’s a good chance that the bond will repair itself. The rejection will heal, and we’ll be a Mated pair again. No more pain. No more dull, insistent ache that I’ve carried with me for the past decade.
No more suffering, except for the fact that a newly accepted bond means that I will then be granted the power to ruin him, just as the prophecy warns.
“I know,” I cry, another fresh slew of tears spilling out. “I know we can’t-“
“I want to,” he whispers in my ear. “I want you so badly. Please let me make love to you, Alina. Let me repair what I’ve broken. I don’t care about the prophecy. I’d let you ruin me a thousand times over.”
There’s a tiny voice inside me that knows I should be wise about this. Even with both of us naked and panting, and his cock a hairsbreadth from sinking into me, I know it would be smart to put an end to this right now.
Instead, I listen to the wolf-which is really just another facet of my own soul-and grasp him closer.
“I want it, too,” I murmur against his lips. “I want you.”
Rowan
I’m not entirely sure I’ve heard her.
She lies beneath me, coffee-brown eyes even darker than usual, cheeks flushed, and breaths coming fast.
I want you. That’s what she said to me.
“Alina,” I breathe. I think I’m shaking.
“Just don’t hate me,” she continues, eyes wide and voice trembling. “If I ruin you, please don’t…whatever the consequences are, I’m willing to face them, but only if you promise you won’t hate me for it.”
I press a kiss to her throat, choking back a moan at the hot rush of blood singing beneath her feverish skin. My Mate, my Mate, my Mate. The bond is howling at me, loose threads that have been singed short for so long yearning to be tied tightly together again.
“I could never hate you,” I promise with every fiber of my being. “I’d sooner die.”
With my mouth pressed to her neck, I part my lips and nip at her delicate skin. The breath rushes out of her in one shaky gasp, a silent encouragement. She wants me to mark her, to leave behind an imprint, proof that we have chosen each other, and I don’t hesitate to answer that craving.
I suckle on her skin, then bite down lightly. She presses me closer, and I have to clench my fists to keep myself from losing control right here and now.
“Rowan, please.”
I lift my head and kiss away her tears one by one.
Then, with a stuttering inhale, I press into her.
It feels so fucking good that I drop my head into the crook of her neck, biting her collarbone gently. She whimpers as I sink in just a couple of inches, then pull back out.
Alina is warm and wet and ready for me, our bodies made to fit together without question. Still, I am gentle with her as I thrust deeper, knowing that I’m larger than what usually might be comfortable for a woman who hasn’t been intimate with anyone in a long time.
When I bottom out, our bodies deliciously flush against each other, I pause to kiss her. Her grip on me is so tight that I wonder if she’ll ever let me go.
I start moving again, picking up the pace. The bed creaks softly, but I don’t hear anything except Alina gasping and crying my name.
It doesn’t take long for the rejected bond to respond. My wolf side growls with delight as the tattered tendrils of the bond snake out of their hiding places and tether themselves to Alina’s soul once again.
She tosses her head back and whines with pleasure when the bond snaps into place. It’s even more euphoric than the first time. Now, we are older and stronger and more capable of understanding our desires.
Now, there is no going back.
Because I will never reject her again. She is mine now, just as she has always been mine, and she will be mine for the rest of our lives.
Fuck the prophecy. Fuck Kseniya. Fuck anyone who dares suggest that Alina belongs anywhere other than right here in my arms.
“Rowan…oh, God…”
She climaxes with a sound that resembles a relieved sob, and I think I might be crying, too. The way her heat pulses around me, squeezing so beautifully tight, sends me over the edge. Two more thrusts and I’m spilling into her, and it’s only in hindsight, as I collapse beside her on the rumpled duvet, that I wonder if I should have pulled out.
But Alina seems to be thinking the same thing, laughing lightly as she glances down between her thighs where my seed is seeping out of her.
“Well,” she sighs. “Noah has been hinting he’d like a sibling…”
With my face pressed into the pillow, I let out a full-bellied laugh.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.