He followed me into bliss with a long, slow moan that sounded like he was wounded. Falling apart. Maybe this hurt his soul as much as it was breaking mine.
When it was over, he lifted me so we were eye to eye, face to face. “Mine.”
“Yes. And you’re mine.” No way was I ever giving this up. Giving him up. Ever.
The beast was no actor. The naked devotion I saw in his eyes shocked me, tears threatening to fall once more.
The beast leaned in close. Kissed me. Softly. Reverently. And then… he left me. One moment he held me, the next Egon had returned. It was his arms around me. His lips pressed to mine.
We didn’t speak. Me, because I had no idea what to say.
Egon rinsed me. Dried me. Carried me to bed and wrapped his arms around me as I fell into an exhausted sleep.
10
Egon, Three Days Later
* * *
Mating fever was consuming me.
I sat on the edge of my bed, elbows braced on my knees, hands clasped together so tightly my knuckles ached. It was the only way to stop them from shaking. My skin felt too tight over my bones, heat coiling beneath it like a living thing desperate to break free.
The beast paced inside my mind.
Restless. Furious. Hungry. Now that he’d fucked our mate, he was impossible to deal with. Fucking impossible.
Mine. Fuck her. Pussy taste sweet. Mine. Let. Me. Out! The command slammed through my thoughts with brutal clarity.
“We made deal,” I muttered under my breath. We’d struck a bargain, me and the crazed beast inside me. I let him out in the shower. I gave him a taste of what was ours, and he vowed to behave until we could put mating cuffs on her and claim her properly. It was only a few days more.
I wasn’t going to make it.
Mine! My mate! Want. Now!
“No. Not yet.” The words barely left my mouth before another wave of heat rolled through me. My muscles tightened, my spine arching slightly as the beast pushed harder against the fragile walls of my control.
Three days.
Three days since I had touched her. For three days they had forced me to spend time with the other contestants. Go on “dates” with the “finalists.”
There were no fucking finalists. There was only Tori. Who had disappeared off property. She told me she was going. Told me she needed to meet with her attorneys. Promised me she wanted a peaceful solution to the Derek problem. Looked me in the eye and didn’t have a fucking clue how hard it was for me to let her out of my sight.
Krag and Rohn went with her. Knowing she was protected was the only thing keeping me sane. If having my mind and my soul shredded by a beast raging within me could be called sane.
Three days since I had felt Tori wrapped around me, her breath warm against my throat, her body trembling as pleasure took her. Three days since I had carried her to this very bed and buried myself inside her again and again while the ocean roared outside and the world faded away.
Three days since I had held my mate.
And now the distance between us was driving my beast toward madness. I had no mating cuffs on our wrists to assure him she was truly ours. He had no way to know for certain she accepted our claim. Deemed us worthy. No sting of pain to distract him. Remind him he needed to remain in control.
We had fucked our female. Thank the gods. But it wasn’t enough. He hadn’t claimed her. The beast had not put our protection, our claim, our mating cuffs around her wrists. She was unclaimed. Vulnerable. Not here.
“Fuck.” I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. The other Warlords needed a chance to find their mates. I was their only hope of coming to Earth. If I fucked this up for them, I doomed them. I had held out for years. Fucking years.
My beast didn’t fucking care. He was beyond being reasonable. Our mate was near. Ours. All the logic in the world could not break through the haze and pain of the fire in his blood, the agony in his mind, the burning need to be with our mate.
I dragged a hand through my hair, breathing slowly through my nose, drawing in the familiar scents of the beach resort outside my window.
