“Thank you, Sir.”
“Good girl,” he murmurs before kissing that spot on the juncture of my neck and shoulder that does something incredible to me. “We’ll talk about our dynamic outside of the club later and decide how we want it to look. I don’t need you to submit to me in every way all the time, but we’ll figure out what works for us.”
And then he drops to his knees and follows through on every delicious promise he made to me. By the time he’s done fuckingme, he has to carry me to the shower because I’m completely boneless.
I still don’t know his name, but if he keeps fucking me like that, maybe I don’t need to. Yet.
Chapter Twenty
Ryan
After spending the day with Maya in her home, I’m no less confused about the enigma that is my fated mate. She’s a shifter; shehasto be. But she doesn’t seem to understand what mates are. She panicked when her claws came out, as if she had no idea how easily I would heal. Or like she hadn’t seen them before. She asked for my details like she genuinely doesn’t have a clue who I am.
I’ve kept the mask on, but it shouldn’t matter. She should know me by scent and the way she is drawn to me. She should understand the mate pull. My scent should be undeniably hers, unless it’s somehow different for cats. I’ve had very limited interactions with other shifters over the years, wolves generally being pretty insular as a group.
But surely her cat is begging her to claim me, just like my wolf never stops pleading with me. He cycles through aggression, soft nudges, and begging, sending me images of Maya pregnant. Sending images of us both back in Lunar Eclipse.
It’s exhausting.
Beyond visiting other territories to see if my mate was there, I’ve never really existed outside of the pack. I’ve certainly neverspent as long away from them as I am currently doing. Sofia had an alligator shifter friend from school for a while, but their family moved away years ago. Then there’s the pack accountant, Theo; he’s a bear shifter. He works in the city too, but I don’t know if I trust telling another apex predator about my mate before she is fully claimed. Actually, no, I’m certain; there’s no way I want to draw attention to her.
Fates, my mind is boggled. Leaving Maya’s naked sleeping body feels like I’m fighting against a magnetic force pulling me back to her. Like I’m wading through concrete while simultaneously pushing against a gigantic rubber band that wants to bungee me back to my rightful place, wrapped around my goddess of a mate. But I need answers.
I slide into my car as the phone rings too many times before the call finally connects. “So now that I’m not alpha, I can barely get an answer?” I say in a tone that I hope comes across as teasing, but realistically probably does little to hide my frustration.
“You know I’ve always treated everyone the same,” Doc replies with a chuckle. And he’s not lying. Doc and my sister Sofia are pretty much the only shifters in the pack that don’t bow to me in some way. With Sofia, it’s because she’s an alpha wolf too. With Doc, it’s something else. Some kind of confidence that transcends pack hierarchy since he’s the only one who can put us back together again when our injuries are too severe for shifter healing.
“What can I do for you, Ryan?”
“I need to know everything you can tell me about mate bonds in other species. Actually, tell me everything you know about other species, period.”
“Any particular reason?”
“My mate is some kind of cat,” I tell him, resting my head back against my seat. “I haven’t seen her shifted form yet, so I’m not sure exactly. But she doesn’t seem to recognize the bond in the same way. She’s obviously drawn to me but doesn’t seem to know I’m a wolf or even a shifter at all. Her claws slipped out, and she panicked.”
Doc lets out a laugh again that raises my wolf’s hackles. “Sorry, Ryan. But there really is a kind of poetic justice in both you and Luca having to work so hard for your mates after not having Jackson’s back with Emily.”
I let out a huff of breath. He’s right, of course. But I don’t want to hear it. Not now.
“Doc, please, do you know anything about cat shifters?”
“There are differences among breeds, but generally cats are more solitary creatures than we are. Their mating habits can be, well,intense, for want of a better word. Similar to us, scent marking and detection are key to recognizing one's fated mate, but they don’t have the same need for closeness as we do. They will often connect only for mating, then go on their separate ways until mating season occurs again.”
My world seems to drop out from under me, and my wolf whimpers at the notion of Maya not wanting us around at all times. I’m happy to give her the kind of sex she seems to crave,more than happy to, but that can’t be all there is to us, can it? I need more. And I need it from her.
“What does that mean in terms of my moon madness?” I ask in a raspy tone, trying to stop myself from spiraling.
“If she’s your fated mate, then mating her will resolve the madness. Claiming her—and her return claim—will banish it completely, even if you’re not physically together as much as you want to be.”
I let out a heavy exhale, relieved but not exactly satisfied. “I guess that makes sense. My wolf has been subdued and happy just to be in her presence.” Now that I think about it, he’s only ever pushed for me tofindher and claim her, not necessarilykeepher. His needs will be satisfied once she wears my mark. It’s just my human side that won’t be.
But if fucking me is what her cat needs, maybe I need to sell her human part on me. The real me. Not the masked man who dominates her and fulfills her sexual fantasies. She’s spoken about wanting to feel a sense of belonging. That’s not about her cat; it’s a fundamental human need. One that I can meet.
After passing on my thanks to Doc, my next phone call is to Caleb Cooper. He’s the shifter who turned up at my pack a couple of months back and clued us into the missing omegas. We worked together to find and free them, and between him and his brothers, they’ve traveled around more than anyone. They had spent close to two years searching for any sign of their missing sister, Camille.
“Hey Ryan, how are you doing?”
“I’m good, man. How’s all in Iron Fang?”
