Claim.
Mate.
Keep.
The wolf is in control, and even shifting back to speak with her is useless. I can’t keep this up. Can’t keep avoiding her when she continues placing herself in my path.
No longerwantto.
When she’s within reaching distance, I shift from wolf to man, while retaining animalistic qualities. My hands, claws still extended, cuff her upper arms to drag her against my body. Her feminine warmth has my cock stiffening between us.
“Why. The fuck.Are you here? Carina, fucking Christ, I carried you home myself. You need to leaveright now.”
There’s no fear. There’s nothing in her eyes…except concern. She traces my face to my shoulders and down the arms connecting me to her. “Ryder, you’re shaking.”
Because I’m fighting everything to not put you on your knees.
“Because I’m fuckin’ pissed. I’ve told you why you can’t be here. Fuck the covens, fuck the war. I’m telling you right now, you have about two minutes to leave, or I won’t be able to hold back.” I no longerwantto fight this.
Her brows dive between her eyes. “Hold back from what?”
She still smells like me. Her mouth, while no longer swollen from our kiss—something I vow to rectify—is tainted with the scent of my own, and I make a silent promise to lick every inch of her until I’m all she smells like.
“You’re breathing heavy.” She stretches for my pec, but I swat her hand away. Of course, I’m breathing heavy. I’m about to change both of our lives. She can’t touch me until I officially damn us both. Claiming her would damn my people. When Twilight Grove comes for her, I’ll fight for her, and thus drag them all into a lost cause, all to keep her safe.
I can keep her safe.The realization hits enough that when she reaches again, the energy spent fighting her wanes. By claiming her, I’ll know precisely where she is at all times. My senses will be attuned to her. I can bring her home, which is what I’ve been promising from the beginning.
Her hand lightly traces up my chest, my shoulder, my neck, and cups the side of my face. Without fear, her thumb slips between my lips and pokes at my incisors. “It’s always so strange, seeing you partially shifted.”
I nip her finger in both sexual playfulness and warning. “Tell me the truth. Why are you here?”
“Because as I was telling Mom everything, I realized when Twilight Grove arrives, you won’t be able to protect everyone, caves or otherwise. They’re all innocent in this fight, and with the pups, the elders, and Leah unable to shift…I couldn’t risk it. I tried to convince Mom to bring you all within the enchantment’s boundary, but she’s concerned about the politics of it. When she didn’t immediately agree, I decided the potential of so many lives being harmed wasn’t worth it.” She inhales sharply before launching on, as though everything she’s said so far hasn’t been breaking me. “Ryder, I had to come back. If you don’t let me stay inside the camp, then I’ll wait outside until Sloane comes, to ensure I’mallthey take.”
Red clouds my vision. My claws unlatch enough to loosen my grip on her arms. I can do nothing but stare as the ground vibrates beneath my feet, the cavern between us disappearing. All I can do is stare and admire the woman that the earth, nature, fate, perhaps even their Goddess, has given me.
The woman who didn’t come backforme. She returned to protect the others, to keep them safe from those who’d harm them. And she’s right; a group of witches yielding two kinds of magick isn’t a force we can handle, even if admitting that is a hit to my pride.
And that…is everything.
A pack comes only second to a mate. And Carina Hargrove has just made herself both to me.
“That,kamahki, was your greatest mistake.”
Sense and sanity no longer exist. Telling this woman what she’s about to endure isn’t on my mind. Instincts I’ve been fighting for days take over. Body and soul, I’m lost to her, where she’sallI see, smell, and hear.
To claim her.
To mate her.
To keep her.
And most important: to keep hersafefrom harm.
By my body, blood, and wolf, Carina will be safe. Her wants, her needs, her pleasure, and her safety—all mine. I’ll never give them back.
My hand dives into her hair, and I yank her against me, forcing her head backwards until her neck is bared in submission. My gums throb, claws skate up her backside, over the ass I dreamed of ever since the first time she slept against me.
“This is your last chance,” I mumble her into her throat. “You walk away now, or you don’t walk away at all. I’m fuckin’ you, Carina, and then there is no other choice for you but me.Iam your Alpha.”Your mate.“Which means I own your obedience, your submission, your body, and every ounce of your fuckin’ sparkling strength.”
