Hunter remained locked on my throat for just as long, sealing the bite as he thrusted inside me. If he kept that up, he’d have me coming again. Even as wrecked as I was, I never wanted this to end. He was everywhere all at once, filling me in more than just the physical sense.
My jaw ached as I longed to shift and bite him too, but I was at his mercy until he decided to release me. My previous orgasms made a wet, dirtily delicious squelch between us as he fucked me like both of our lives depended on it. When his jaw finally unlocked, and he licked across the wound, sealing hisbite, I felt the shimmer of his power and need, deep inside where my shifter essence resided.
Fuck me.Hunter’s desire was like a depthless pool of lava, burning and destroying everything in its path. I’d had no idea how he’d felt, not really, but now we were bonded, Hunter’s feelings filtered through our connection.
So strong that my eyes burned, and my jaw shifted to claim him just as thoroughly.
He tilted his head, and I clamped down on the space between his shoulder and neck, letting his deliciously sweet lifeforce flow into my mouth. Without thedyingpart to impact the moment, this sealing of the bond was cataclysmic in a different way to mine and Kellan’s.
With Hunter, I was washed away in a tsunami, or more accurately, a hurricane.
CHAPTER 43
EMME
Sheer overload and the sealing of the bond, stole my consciousness for a time, and when the world rightened itself, I was in Hunter’s arms as he walked silently through the forest toward the parking lot. Snow fell heavier now, but against the heat of the alpha, all I felt was a warm contentment.
“Hunter, I can walk,” I murmured, feeling his own contentment deep in my chest.
I pressed my hand to his bite and his chest rumbled lightly in response. “It’s my duty,” he said, the words carrying an odd weight. “More than that, I want to take care of you. Let our bond settle, little mate. You have given me the greatest gift, and I will never be able to repay you.”
A tear slipped down my cheek, and I forced myself not to sniffle and give away my overwhelming emotions. Stupid, really, since Hunter was connected to my feelings now. He leaned down and kissed away the tear, still powering through the forest. He didn’t need to watch the road when he drove, or the path when he walked apparently.
I sighed through our kiss, which was a truly gentle, loving caress. When I parted my mouth and fell all the way into the kiss, my tears soaked our faces. “Your tears destroy me,” Huntermurmured as we parted, a pull of sorrow highlighted on his face in the early morning light. “But this time I feel the happiness behind them. You don’t regret our bond.”
“Not even for a second.”
His arms tightened and his tone turned serious. “What you’ve gifted me is an honor I can never repay. I need you to know, Emme, that trusting me with your soul and your wolf… it’s more than I deserve, but I will work every day to be the alphayoudeserve.”
Oh, Hunter Reeves, you secret romantic.
Lifting my hand, I pressed it to his cheek. “You already are, Hurricane Hunter. From that first day in the council chambers, you blew through the room and tore me to pieces. Then you put me back together. Not many would have looked at all of me and mymessylife and thought, Yep, I want this mess. That’smymess. Despite my fears over bonding, I will never ever regret you.”
His grip pulled me higher to his chest. “Why do you still fear this? Now that you’ve felt how perfect it is.”
“You will understand when I explain everything that happened to my mom. Which I will do, as soon as all the pack is together.”
Hunter grumbled. “Maybe you should tell me now before another interruption prevents it. If I don’t know your truth, how can I protect you? It’s my duty, little mate. My duty to keep you safe.”
I felt a surge of hot, dominance rise inside his beast.
“I don’t think I can tell this story more than once,” I admitted, staring out into the snowy forest as we crossed through it. “It’s hard to force the words out when I’ve spent years guarding this secret. A secret that will also explain how I saved Kellan, not that any of you have actually asked me yet.”
That amused Hunter, and I liked it when his energy grew lighter. “None of us wanted to push you for an explanation. We don’t care what you did, all we care isthat you did. We can’t lose you, Emme. We just can’t.”
It bothered me that I’d forced them to be so careful of what they said to me. I hoped that some of that damage would be repaired when the truth was revealed. “I’m scared this is all going to come crashing down on me,” I admitted, my emotions raw and vulnerable after our bonding. “That the truth will destroy the good in my life. I’ve never—” My throat tightened, and I took a second to work through it. “I’ve never had good like this before. Losing this pack would?—”
End me.
A deeper, darker sound than he’d ever made rumbled from Hunter’s chest, strong enough to lift my body with its force. There were crashes as every creature in our vicinity took off, until we were most definitely alone. “You will never lose us,” he said, barely understandable. “We will ensure that this good in your life remains, no matter what it takes.”
Hunter had demonstrated possessive and obsessive tendencies from the first moment he’d scented me, but this was next-level. A promise sealed in fate, and with that, the bite on my shoulder tingled.
“The Rogers pack is still out there,” I reminded him. “And the witch who spelled that prison house. She’s powerful, they’re powerful, and we have no fucking idea what they have planned next.”
Hunter’s reply was instant: “The council has fucked around with this long enough. I’m going to demand they act. If they don’t, I will destroy every single one of them. I control this city and they all fucking know it.”
A part of me considered acting as the voice of reason here, reminding him it wasn’t the council’s fault, but I found… I didn’treally care to. We needed the Rogers pack destroyed. They were a threat to not only me, but my entire pack.
