His thumb stroked the sensitive skin there, and he felt her shiver. Her pulse fluttered beneath his touch, a rapid, nervous rhythm that was entirely at odds with the calm curiosity in her expression.
“So it’s like… a wedding ring?” she asked. “Except more painful and visible to people who might actually try to hit on me in a bar?”
That laugh escaped again, a deep, warm rumble in his chest. “Exactly like a wedding ring. Only less likely to be left in a hotel bathroom.”
“Right.” She nodded thoughtfully. “And I’d be Luna. In charge of… pack things?”
“You’d be in charge of whatever you wanted to be in charge of,” he said. “The pack’s internal operations, social events, welfare… those are traditional roles for the Luna, but you do not have to adopt those roles if you do not want to. Since you’d also have my authority, you could oversee the modernization project yourself, without needing my approval.”
“Hmm. That’s almost reason enough right there.” A small, mischievous smile played on her lips. “But what about heirs? I expect the elders will have something to say about that.”
“Heirs are… important to the pack. Which is where the second part of being a mate comes in.” He took her hand and placed it on the thick ring of rougher skin that surrounded the base of his cock. “This is my knot. It expands when I climax, locking us together so my seed will take root.”
Her eyes widened and her scent grew richer and sweeter.
“You get… bigger? I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“Oh, it’s possible, kitten. And I promise you, you’re going to love having your sweet little cunt filled with my knot.”
She was panting now, her fingers flexing around his cock, but he forced himself to remove her hand. They needed to finish this discussion first.
“Ensuring a strong line of leadership is one of the Alpha’s primary responsibilities,” he said carefully. “But I never want you to feel pressured to have a child. Fortunately, we have Derek. His child continues the Moonstone bloodline. The pressure on me isn’t what it would be for an Alpha without a direct successor.”
She frowned at him, her brain clearly reengaging. “That’s assuming Derek and Julie want their child to assume that role.”
It was a valid point, but he only shrugged.
“I said it would remove the pressure on me. But although the position is traditionally hereditary, there is no law binding the role of Alpha to a specific family. Of course if Elder Howard gets his way, it won’t be my role to pass down anyway.”
“And he’s more likely to get his way if you’re mated to a human,” she said, watching his face. “It’s a risk for you.”
“Everything about you is a risk,” he said, his voice dropping to a low growl. “The risk of wanting someone I can’t have. The risk of distracting you from your work. The risk of you leaving in six weeks and taking half my soul with you. The risk of the elders calling for a challenge.” He cupped her face in his hands. “But the risk of not claiming you, of letting you walk away, that’s the biggest risk of all.”
Her expression softened, her analytical armor finally giving way to raw emotion. “You’re a very stubborn, complicated male, Adrian Moonstone.”
“It has been said.”
She leaned in and kissed him, a soft, searching kiss that was both a question and an answer. When she pulled back, her eyes were clear and certain.
“Then I guess you’ll just have to bite me.”
A surge of possessive triumph, so powerful it made his teeth ache, flooded through him. His wolf howled in victory. He pressed her back against the pillows, his body covering hers, the familiar heat building between them despite their recent exertions.
“Are you sure?” he asked, giving her one final chance to reconsider. “Once I do this, there’s no going back. We’ll be bound together. Forever.”
“I’m sure. I?—”
Her phone rang, the noise harsh in the quiet room.
Chapter Eighteen
“Harper.” Derek’s voice was tight with barely controlled urgency. “We have a situation.”
She clutched the phone tighter, still breathless, still wrapped in Adrian’s warmth. His arm tightened around her waist as he heard his brother’s voice, his body going rigid against her back.
“What kind of situation?”
“Massive cybersecurity breach. Someone’s launched a coordinated attack on our main servers. We’re talking distributed denial-of-service on a scale I’ve never seen, combined with attempts to penetrate our user database. Millions of accounts are at risk.”
