“But then you rode all the way back here with me plastered to you and got off at the other end without so much as a twitch. Like it wasnothing. You handed me off to Corey and then left, when I was so fucking desperate for you to stay,” he snarls, eyes flashing, scent a mix of fury and hurt, and I half expect him to shift any second. Then his whole body deflates, taking his anger with it. “I hate that he bit me. I hate that it’s their scent I carry and not the same one as everyone here I’m growing to trust.” His voice softens to barely a whisper. “But most of all? I hate that it’shismark scarring my skin and not yours.”
I am floored.
Fucking speechless.
He huffs and tries to get down, but fuck no, there’s zero chance of me letting go of him. Tightening my grip, I spin us round and press him against the nearest wall.
His breath hitches, thighs clenching around my waist, and another growl escapes me as a familiar scent fills the air between us.
“You think I don’t care? That this is nothing?” I open my mouth and let him see the fangs I can’t hold back any longer. Dig my claws through the thin material of his sweats so he can feel how on edge I am right now. “You were hurt. Fox sliced you open with a silver-edged, aconite-laced blade so that your bodycouldn’t heal properly. Heelectrocutedyou.” I close my eyes, but it doesn’t fucking help. “I didn’t want to add to your trauma by acting like the possessive arsehole I am when it comes to you. So I let Corey take you so he couldhealyou. So you could have some fucking peace after what you’ve been through.”
When I open my eyes, he’s still staring at me, but some of the rage has dissipated. It lingers in his scent though, as does the hurt and desperation, and it cuts me deeper than I’m prepared for. “I hate that he bit you, that you don’t smell likemypack.” I fight for some semblance of control that’ll allow me to do what I want to do now. “But the thing that makes me want to tear him apart limb by limb?” I’m shaking as I dip my head and scrape wolf-sharpened teeth over the base of his throat. “That he left his fucking mark in the place where our mating bite should be.”
His inhale is as shaky as mine, and I almost miss what he says next. “Make me yours.”
It takes a second for his words to register. Another for me to want it with all my heart, and another to force out the words of my own. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.” He can’t. I never told him what it would mean as a human, let alone as a shifter.
Gentle hands cup my jaw and tilt my chin up until I’m looking into eyes that are clear of the anger and hurt from moments earlier. “I know that we’ll be connected at a base, primal level. In such a way that we’ll be able to feel each other’s emotions. And over time, I’ll know when you’re close and when you’re not.” His expression softens further, a small smile following. “And once we forge that bond, it’s forever. No take backs.”
Okay, maybe he does know what he’s asking. “How?”
He shrugs. “Me and Luke had a few hours to kill in that cage.”
The reminder draws a snarl out of me.
“Hey. It’s over,” he murmurs. “Done.” He lets go of me long enough to grab the hem of his T-shirt and pull it over his head.
My gaze snags on the fading scars on his chest left by Fox’s blade, but Morgan tsks softly, hands finding my face again. “You saved me, twice now,” he says, gently pushing my head down until my mouth’s dangerously close to those fucking bite marks. “Now I need you to save me one more time.”
Fuck, I want to.
I want to sink my teeth into him and claim what’s been calling to me formonths. But it’s only been a couple of weeks,daysfor Morgan. “I can’t.” I shake my head, somehow finding the strength to pull away from him and lift my head.
He sighs, like he’s disappointed but not surprised.
I don’t put him down, though, and he doesn’t ask me to.
“You’re right, I can’t say that I’d have wanted this if I’d stayed human.” He puts a finger over my mouth to stop me interrupting. “But none of that matters now, because I’m not one anymore. I’m a shifter, and that’s never going to change. So human Morgan doesn’t get a say in what happens between us now.” He strokes along my lower lip, reaching up to trace the edges of fangs that have yet to recede. “As ashifter, I want you with every fucking bone in my stronger, healthier, faster body. Iknowyou’re mine. I feel it here.” He presses both hands against his heart. “Did I ask for any of this? Fuck no.” He shakes his head and then smiles. “But this is my life now. A life I thought was going to be cut off at the fucking knees in that fight ring, until you came for me when I needed you most. I’m not going to waste another second thinking about how fast we’re moving, how much we still need to learn about each other, not when I almost lost everything.
“I won’t pretend to know how bonds work, or why they happen, but I know what I feel, what I want. I have this hollow, bruisedachebehind my ribcage, and it hurts, Lynx. It hurts tofeel so wrong with his mark on me, when I know deep in my fucking soul that I belong to you, and you—” He grabs the back of my neck, and now I feel the telltale scrape of claws. I grin as he bares his nowhere-near-human teeth at me. “You’re mine.”
I can’t fight it any longer.
Don’t even try.
He makes a fucking good argument and I’m not about to tell him he doesn’t know his own mind. Not when I feel every single thing he’s just described.
“Okay.” I pull him into a kiss that’s thankfully free of fangs.
He kisses me back, sliding his tongue to meet mine, and for the next few blissful seconds, I’m lost to the wet heat of his mouth. All that warm skin under my palms has me hard in seconds, and I grind my hips, moaning when I feel he’s just as turned on as me. But I can’t escape the scent that creeps between us, eclipsing everything else.
I tense, and Morgan feels it.
He drops his forehead against mine. “I can’t wait another fucking second.”
“Me neither.”
He laughs, and it’s the best sound I’ve ever heard. “How do we do this?”
