“Hadriel is pretty incredible at finding out local goings-on and gossip. He overheard it from someone in a tavern.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “I’ll remember to thank him. He—well, all of you—saved my life. I won’t make one more product for Granny’s organization. If you hadn’t come, I would’ve had a lot of beatings and eventually death in my future. Probably a loss of dignity as well. I doubt Alexander would keep his hands off me now that I no longer have Granny’s protection.”
I bent forward as a rush of rage stole my breath. Alexander would already answer to me for what he’d done to her in thepast, but hearing something like that made me want to rip his spleen out and beat him with it right now. The desire to find him and end his life was overwhelming.
“Please don’t ever say something like that again,” I said in a rough voice. “That will never happen.”
She looked over at me, her expression bemused yet grateful. “Okay,” she murmured.
“I wanted to talk to you about your animal.”
She held up her hand. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. I want to meet my animal, I want magic... but I don’t want even more reasons for people to notice me. I don’t want to be a lone wolf, as you said, and I definitely don’t want to end up kidnapped by this kingdom. I just...” She licked her lips. “Honestly, I just want to close my eyes and ignore the messy parts of my life until I can get out of here and process everything.” She turned to me, her eyes glassy. “I want to be the damsel in distress, Weston. I want my big strong alpha to protect me and keep me safe until I can leave these shores. Maybe that’s not very courageous, but I’m just so tired. I’m tired of all this. I’m broken.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I want to take a break from surviving, if only for a minute.”
A strange sort of lightness filled my chest. I wouldn’t be just protecting a damsel in distress, I would be protecting my true mate. Everything in me rejoiced at officially playing that role. It was what I was born to do—protect what was mine.
“It would be my honor.” Primal power surged through me.
She shivered and I watched a spark light within her eyes. Her body swayed toward me, feeling that primal rush.
“Do you want to fuck your Little Wolf, Alpha?” she murmured, her heated gaze on my lips. “Do you want to take what is yours?”
Adrenaline coursed through me. I grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her toward me.
“Are you healed enough for this?” I ran my lips down the side of her throat.
“Be gentle,” she sighed as she angled her head to give me access. “Protect what is yours.”
My balls tightened and it took all my willpower not to throw her down and fuck the screams out of her. I liked this better, though. I liked laying her down slowly, my lips moving against hers, pushing her legs wide and fitting myself between them. She’d given me complete control, total dominance. It made my desire pound hard in my gut.
“Take what is yours, Alpha,” she murmured again, mewing softly as I covered a breast with my palm. “Do with me what you like.”
Shaking with the effort it took to not rip her clothes off, I continued slowly. Delicately. I unbuttoned her shirt and kissed down her chest, sucking in one nipple and then the other, hard. She moaned, her hands in my hair, massaging and caressing, not directing me.
I slid her pants down her legs and tasted her, my hands light, the suction hard. Her groan was louder as she wriggled beneath me. I removed the rest of our clothes before kissing back up her body, still a little warm and not fully healed, but almost there. Taking care, I worked my way back between her thighs, my eyes closing in pleasure at the feel of her soft skin sliding against my sides.
She wrapped her legs around my middle. I groaned as I sank into her depths.
“I’ve missed you,” I said as I filled her again and again, pulling out just to slide back in. “It was only a short time, but I missed you.”
Her kiss intensified as she hugged me tightly, moaning against the building onslaught. “The moment I had a choice, Ididn’t want to walk away. I wanted to get to know you more, to explore this incredible feeling I have when I’m with you.”
A spark of guilt twisted my gut. She had a right to know that the feeling was primal, because of our true mate bond. I wasn’t sure how to tell her. I wasn’t sure what she’d do if she found out. There was a good chance she’d be furious to know I had kept it from her all this time, that a large part of her attraction was something neither of us could control.
I refrained from mentioning it even now because I wanted her animal to weigh in. I wanted our animals to help us determine what came next, whether I could claim her and keep her, or if the betrayal would send the delicate tightrope we walked up in flames. As it was, the tether between us would be incredibly strained when she realized the entire truth.
I pushed into her, but avoided burying myself inside her completely. This wasn’t the most comfortable place to be knotted together. That would have to wait until another time. I reached between us and massaged her clit as I pumped, chasing my climax, feeling her tighten.
“Weston,” she said, clutching me, gyrating against me. “Oh my—Weston!”
She was still using my name instead of calling for the gods.
A thrill ran through me and I worked faster, taking her higher, nearly there myself.
“Oh—“ She shuddered, her insides clenching around me.
I exploded into her, the orgasm rolling through my body. I groaned as I stroked inside her one more time and held myself there, letting her insides milk me dry. She shivered as my body quaked, the climax lasting longer than it ever had. I had just enough awareness to wonder why that was.
We held each other as the aftershocks came and went. Only then did I sit up, dragging her with me. I had to build something solid between us on our way to the dragon kingdom so that whatwe had wouldn’t break when she finally learned the extent of my betrayal.
