Her hips bucked, rolling against my mouth. “I’m—I’m your mate. And you—God, Mason, please don’t stop—you’remine. My mate—my alpha.” Her chest heaved as her words punched out of her in beautiful little gasps. All the while, I teased her clit with my tongue, languidly enjoying her. Everything in me roared to claim her already, to sink myself deep within Bryce and claim what had been mine from the very start.
“My mate,” I moaned into her heat, licking her deeply to keep that need sated before I pulled away, falling onto my back and bringing Bryce with me. She had always worried over her weight, but I held her effortlessly. Her thighs parted around my lap, her stomach soft between us. I palmed over it, imagining how she may have looked swelled with my daughter. How she might look pregnant once again in the future.
I growled, pulling her down to me, the thought of her being heavy with more cubs only urging me on.
My cock nestled between her folds, and I slid against her, easily yanking her panties away. They tore, and Bryce giggled, muttering about my strength. Her nails bit into my biceps, marveling at the muscle there. I pushed against her with my hips.
“Take me,” she moaned, right as the head of my cock brushed against her heat. “Claim me as yours, alpha. Claim me as I’ve needed to be claimed all along.”
With a bruising grip on her hips, I did. Slowly, I pushed myself into her, indulging in the small, hitched moans she let out as she slowly became filled with me. I wanted her bent in half; I wanted her pinned to my sheets, bound to me in every damn way. Once I had fully recovered, I would claim all of that. I’d claim her—every inch, as she deserved.
“Bryce,” I groaned, finally bottoming out. I ran a hand over her stomach again, imagining I could feel myself throughher. She whined, her hips kicking forward in little thrusting circles.
“Move,” she all but begged, but I tapped her hip, smiling.
“Not so fast, sweetheart,” I purred, watching as her lashes fluttered with the affectionate name. I dragged a hand up her body, thumbing at her lower lip. “I’m still injured. My mate just might have to do all the work.”
“I’ll—I’ll do it all,” she moaned out, already moving, already setting a fast, brutal pace for our intimacy that I was enthralled by. Her thighs lifted and dropped her up and down my cock perfectly, her long hair falling down her back. I leaned forward, gathering her hair in my hand, gentle, as I tugged.
“Good girl,” I growled, my teeth flat against her neck. I nosed along the junction of her neck and shoulder, my tongue lapping at where her mark would go. Her scent was strongest there, and I moaned, burying my face in it.My mate, my mate, my mate. I gripped her hips, snapping my own into her at a faster pace, feeling how boneless Bryce went in my arms.
“Mason.” Her voice was a broken cry, a breathless moan. “Mason, I’m close.”
“Then come,” I told her. “Come when you please.”
“Mason—” Her body began to tremble violently in my arms, and I relished that I could do this: I could deliver this storm of pleasure to her as she shook, her voice cracking as she shouted her release. “Alpha!”
“Come,” I growled, my encouragement only guiding her on as my thrusts didn’t relent. “Come.” I drove my teeth into her mating mark, biting down, and the high cry Bryce let out, and her accepting me as her mate, only had me spilling my own violent release into her. My own groans were deep, fracturednoises as I let her roll her hips over and over me, her gasping breaths guiding me back down.
I turned Bryce to her side, guiding her to lie down next to me. Face-to-face with her, I smiled at her, thumbing over her mating mark.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmured, tucking her hair behind her ear, but I let my touch linger there, just holding her face as I hadn’t been able to do for too long. “You. Our daughter. Whatever our future family looks like—it’s all beautiful, Bryce.” I pulled her in for another kiss. “My mate. My perfect, beautiful mate.”
Epilogue - Bryce
“You know, I’m happy for you,” June said as we walked through town. “But a part of me is sort of jealous. I know that’s probably poor taste to say, but when have I ever not been honest?”
I laughed as we turned a corner, heading on a route I’d only taken once before. “Exactly. Speak your mind.”
“I don’t know… I just… seeing you and Mason coming back together, him and Cassie bonding…” She sighed. “It makes me think of my own love life. I’ve kind of not told you the whole story.”
“What?” I asked sharply, glancing at her.
Her face flushed pink, June shrugged. “You had your secrets! I haven’t only buried myself in work these past few years. The truth is, I, um, I actually started having feelings for Jackson over the last few years. I don’t know—just the way he, like—” June shook her head, laughing. “It's like something clicked for me overnight, and suddenly he was all I could think about. I told him, or, rather, tried to show him one time. The pack was at the museum, and he’d come down to grab their pizza order, but I pulled him into the main office to look at some paperwork. I thought we were close enough that he felt the same, that I could just… kiss him.”
Her words were stilted, but even so, they landed, sinking into me with surprise. “You have a crush on my brother?”
June groaned, tossing her hair back. “God, it sounds lame when you word it like that. But, yeah, I have feelings for him. I tried to make a move, and he awkwardly laughed and moved away. He was nice about it, at least, but ever since, I just haven’t been able to speak to him the same. When he stayed away fromthe pack, and I couldn’t see him, it was tearing me up. I couldfeelhis distress, you know? Is that normal?”
I wanted to tell her it wasn’t, that Cassie could feel Mason’s, and vice versa, and I’d been able to feel Mason’s ever since we’d accepted our mating bond a few days ago. But for June to be so in tune with Jackson was odd.
Maybe good, maybe bad, but definitely odd.
“We’ll figure it out,” I told her. “I can speak to him or—”
“No!” June said quickly, surprising me, right as the door to where we’d been headed opened. “No, I can handle it. Please. We don’t need more complications here.”
“So you’re going to quietly pine for my brother?” I asked her.
