“Come for me again, sweetheart,” I urged, nipping her lower lip. “Let me feel you shatter on my cock before I give you my mating mark.”
Her pussy clenched around me, her cry muffled against my shoulder as another orgasm ripped through her. The tight grip of her walls pulled me over the edge, too. I roared her name, thrusting deep as I came. Hot pulses of my come flooded her, marking her from the inside.
But that wasn’t enough. I wanted more.
As the waves subsided, my canines extended against her shoulder. “If I mark you now, while you're full of me, it completes everything. You'll be mine forever.”
“Yes, please,” she whispered, tilting her head to give me better access. “Make me yours.”
A primal growl tore from my chest as my cougar surged forward, fur brushing beneath my skin. United as one, I sank my teeth into her flesh. Ecstasy exploded—her body convulsing in a final, earth-shattering orgasm as the bond snapped into place. Pleasure roared through me, my soul fracturing and reforming. I came out the other side stronger. Complete.
My mate. My future. Everything I’d waited for.
EPILOGUE
ELODIE
Garner was already pacing by the time I swung my legs over the side of the bed.
“Tell me again why Thora insisted on roasting meat over an open fire,” he muttered, stalking toward the window and glaring out. “There’s a grill on the back porch of every cabin.”
His grumbling was extra funny because Thora was an incredibly talented roast chef who had worked in a Michelin starred restaurant before following her friend and boss to Timber Ridge.
I pressed a hand to my stomach and tried not to laugh because the motion made the nausea roll higher. “Because she’s Thora.”
He shot me a look over his shoulder, his pale blond hair mussed from sleep. “Because she’s a menace.”
A small giggle slipped out, making him smile. He crossed back to the bed and crouched in front of me, his big hands bracketing my knees and his gaze scanning my face with the intense focus I’d gotten used to over the past four months.
“How bad?”
“Not terrible.” I shrugged. “It comes and goes in waves.”
His jaw tightened, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “We’re not going out there until you’re sure you can handle it.”
Butterflies swirled in my belly, followed by another small round of queasiness. I loved how much he fussed over me, but I wasn’t going to admit it because he would take that as permission to get ridiculously over-protective. Something the women of the Wilderness Pack had warned me about.
“I’m very happy to have a little nausea now, if it means I get to eat whatever Thora’s making later.”
That earned me the hint of a smile, the corner of his mouth turning up like he couldn’t help it. Then he leaned in and kissed me. The nausea didn’t like it, but my body did. A little too much if we were ever going to head outside.
When he pulled back, his forehead rested against mine. “If you so much as look green, we’re coming back inside.”
“Yes, sir,” I teased.
His eyes flashed with heat, and the sound he made was half growl, half laugh. “Don’t start something unless you plan to finish it.”
I grinned because I couldn’t help it. “We’re going to a family cookout.”
“With people who can smell everything.”
My cheeks warmed. “Then we should probably behave.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “Mm-hmm.”
He helped me into a sweater anyway, tugging it down carefully like I was made of glass. It was ridiculous. I wasn’t fragile. I’d survived things he still didn’t know the full details of.
But I let him do it because being cared for by him was becoming its own kind of healing.
