And then she saw them, a pair of wolves frolicking and nuzzling each other as if reunited after a long separation. One silvery white. One inky black. In the light’s brightness, their images were hazy, their movements slowed as if Father Time held his thumb on the second hand and made it drag.
“They are fated mates as well.” Mathison’s voice echoed through her consciousness. No, not her consciousness, but theirs.
Then she realized her aching knot of uneasiness no longer existed. In its place was the steady, comforting beat of Mathison’s heart, a rhythmic thump that synced with hers as they lay there chest to chest.
His arms tightened around her. “We are bound, mo chridhe.”
Breathing him in, she kissed the salty sweetness of his throat and nuzzled closer, fitting perfectly in the crook of his neck and shoulder. “What does muh KREEuh mean?”
“My heart.”
She liked that. Very much. “Will we always feel this way?” she whispered, almost fearing that if she spoke too loudly, she would break the magical spell.
“Always.” He tipped her face up to his and took her mouth with an urgency that set fire to her all over again.
Using leverage borne from years of defense training, she rolled him to his back, climbed on top, and mounted him. “I’m afraid this time can’t be slow either. If we don’t do this now, I’m going to die.”
He grabbed hold of her waist and arched upward with a satisfied growl. “Aye, love. ’Tis the final sealing. There’ll be no meandering about this claiming.”
She rode harder, blinded by a furious lust that raged through her. Every nerve ending burned, only sated by Mathison’s touch, and even then, her body hungered for more of what only he could give. “We’re going to burst into flames.”
He rolled her over and pounded, hammering into her with even more fury than before. “Mine,” he said with a guttural growl before sinking his teeth into her shoulder.
No pain came from the bite, only ecstasy, and the need to taste him just as he’d tasted her. As soon as she bit into his shoulder, the room exploded again, but there was no silence this time. Just the deafening howl of wolves combined with the scream of delight that ripped from her throat alongside Mathison’s victorious roar. Together, they convulsed in the completion of their wild joining. She clutched him, digging her nails in and holding with a tightness that would never let go.
“Mine,” she said, her voice raspy and hoarse from screaming. “Mine.”
“Mine,” he growled against her mouth as he kissed her with more possessiveness than before.
Eyes closed, gasping for breath, she kept herself wrapped around him. No way could he ever escape her tangle of arms and legs. His skin against hers, the beat of his heart, the way he shifted in her arms whenever he breathed, every sensation filled her with so much joy and completeness that tears overflowed. Soon, she was sobbing, unable to stop.
“Calia?” Lifting his head, he framed her face between his hands. “Calia—are ye in pain? What is wrong?”
“I never knew such happiness was possible.” She sniffed and blinked, trying to stop, but more tears came.
“By the blessed Veil.” He kissed her eyes, then cradled her closer, rolling so she could rest her head on his chest once again. “So, ye’re happy, my heart? Well, and truly?”
“Yes.” And she knew why. It wasn’t the phenomenal sex, the oath, or the connection; it was because she finally belonged. “You are my home.”
He yanked the covers up over them, then tenderly kissed her eyes again while wiping away her tears. “And I always will be, my treasure. Now, rest.”
While physically tired, her mind hummed with renewed energy. “But Otto’s still roaming.”
“They will bring him back and let him in when he is ready to retire.”
Tickling her fingers along his dark trail of hair that ran down the center of his chest, down his abdomen, and even lower, more wonderings kept her from closing her eyes. “Is your curse broken now?”
He shifted beneath her cheek with a heavy sigh. “Nay, love. Not yet.”
“But we said the binding oath. We’re reunited.”
“Aye, but the curse says I must win the love of an otherworldly woman who refuses to love. I know ye feel a lot of things at present, but I fear ’tis entirely too soon to call any of it love. Do ye not agree?”
“I see what you’re saying.” As he’d said, she felt a lot of things for him, but wouldn’t quite call any of those things love. “How will we know when it happens?”
“Ye will know when ye love me just as I will know when I love ye.” He slid his hand down her back and gave her butt an affectionate squeeze.
“But how will we know when the curse is broken?”
