“You’re assuming I’ll say yes in a month,” I murmured.
He leaned down and kissed my neck. “I am, yes. I’m quite the catch.”
I let out a giggle.
He nibbled on my year. “And I make you laugh.”
“Maybe I’m laughing at you, not with you!” The last little bits of my defenses were falling away, and I was fighting to remember why I couldn’t stay here with him.
He nipped my neck, and I gasped as his teeth grazed the tender skin. “You’re not. I fill your heart with happiness.”
“You are so massively, annoyingly, self-confident!” I grumbled.
“It’s true. It’s one of my more attractive qualities.”
Here he was, putting a smile on my face despite everything. He always knew just what to say to me.
I spun around to face him, putting my arms around his waist and leaning into him. I loved the feel of him, the smell of him. The thought of running away, of leaving him behind, made me ache.
My vision shifted back to the moon. “So, if I agreed to be your mate, what would actually happen then? Maeve went on about human customs and weddings and other things.”
“We would have the human ceremony. We would have an officiant. We would commit to each other in front of the entire pack.”
“Then we would do the ritual proper for a pack alpha claiming his mate.” He stood up, having shed his shirt and shoes, only a pair of jeans remaining. “We would come into this room, and the rest of the pack would gather around us, waiting outside.”
“I don’t think I like where this is going.”
A deep chuckle from Killian. “I can see where it’s weird for someone raised as a human. But I think you can understand we’re a lot more open about these things.”
“I think it’ll be kind of hard to look Maeve in the eye when I know she’s heard me moaning at the heights of orgasm.”
It wasn’t even a question that he would actually bring me to orgasm. He’d never failed yet. My body just lit up at his touch.
“With how strong our shifter hearing is? These walls have no secrets.” He leaned down and brushed his lips on my forehead. “That’s a good thing. The pack needs to know that the alpha can satisfy his woman.”
My cheeks flamed with the heat of my embarrassment. “Noooo!”
He slid a finger under my chin and tipped my head back, and he claimed my mouth in a brief, probing kiss.
Then he released me and ran his finger along my cheek, leaving a trail of sizzling sensation behind. “It’s tradition. When we finish, we emerge from our room and announce our bond is complete.”
I frowned in thought. “I guess it’s not that much different than the implication that follows human weddings.”
“That you’re expected to consummate the marriage to make it a real one?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Just that humans don’t have the entire reception listening in on you doing it.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist. “It’s a lot more modest than the way we used to do it. There used to be no doors involved. Everyone would just gather in a circle in a clearing under the full moon and watch the alpha claim his mate.”
“Good Lord,” I said, appalled and intrigued.
“That’s how my grandfather did it.”
Urgh. “And you’re not mortified at the thought?”
He shrugged. “Tradition. And we’re not as modest as humans. Never forget we’re part animal.”
We stood together, our breaths falling into rhythm. My eyes moved back to the moon, my mind buzzing with questions about its power. I noticed that Killian was avoiding looking that way, his eyes closed, his nose nuzzled against my hair.
