Page 61 of Hunted

Gunn stared back at her, stunned. All the days he’d lost faith flashed through his mind. All the days he’d felt like the task before him was impossible.

But of all people, Michelangela was the one who believed in him. Who understood what he—and Thanatos, in his own way—were trying to do.

He ached, with every part of him, to have her by his side when he did it. And now, for the first time, there was a spark of hope that somehow that could happen.

He pulled her to him, cupping his hand behind her neck and kissing her deeply.

“I want that,” he whispered.

“Then let’s make it happen.”

He kissed her again, trying to make her feel everything he was feeling. His amazement at who she was, inside. His gratitude for what she was willing to do for him.

The hope, that they could really pull it off.

She pulled back and smiled at him, and he realized she knew. She felt it all.

He laid her down on the bed, focusing on removing the clothes she’d just put on. Her hair was still damp from the shower, and he ran his hands through it, separating the strands, feeling their coolness against his skin.

“I love you,” he said. “I want you to be my mate. I want to claim you, when we go back to the Ridge. I want us to make the pack what it was meant to be.”

They made love slowly, almost carefully, like this new fragile feeling between them might shatter at the slightest wrong touch.

Gunn kissed every inch of Mikey’s skin, reveling in how beautiful she was, how strong, how full of surprises.

He tried to tell her all the things he couldn’t say, the hugeness of the feelings inside him. There was no way he could ever keep his deal with Thanatos. They were meant to be together.

Always.

He dipped his head and kissed her breast, cupping his hand underneath it. His wolf growled, and he closed his teeth around her nipple, oh so gently, feeling the shivers through her whole body. She made a soft, pleading noise.

Gunn pulled her closer, licking and sucking, his other hand curving around her butt. He moved his attention to her other breast, and then lifted his head and pulled her to him for another soul-searing kiss.

With his lips and his hands and his body, he loved her the way he’d never loved a woman before. And when he finally sank into her warm sweetness, burying himself in her, he felt like he’d found the missing part of himself he’d been looking for all these years.

She stroked his skin, kissed his neck and his chest, captured his lips with hers. He drove into her, her slick core welcoming him over and over, her soft moans coiling the ecstatic tension at the base of his spine.

He wanted this to go on forever, but he needed more, needed to fill her, to empty himself inside her in the heat of a desire that would make her understand he was all hers. Everything he had and everything he was, forever.

A long time later, Gunn lay in the darkness, Mikey sleeping with her head on his shoulder. He stroked her hair back gently, and she smiled in her sleep.

Her beauty pierced his heart. She looked soft and vulnerable, in a way she rarely looked when she was awake.

He kissed her softly. He loved how badass she was, but it also hurt his heart that she never felt like she was allowed to be soft. The fact that she let him see her vulnerable side made him feel like he was holding something precious in his hands, that could break if he wasn’t careful with it.

And he couldn’t lose her. Without her, he was half a man. Half a wolf.

For most of his life, he’d never believed in fated mates—never believed in some benevolent power that matched shifters together and then magically smoothed the way for them so they could be together.

But one thing he did know was how to fight a fucked-up world for the way things were supposed to be, and make them happen in his little corner of it.

Even if he had to break all the rules to do it.

If they were fated, then luck would be on their side. But if it wasn’t… if Thanatos fucked them over…

Moving carefully, he got out of bed and found his phone. Taking it into the bathroom, he placed a call.

“Switch?” he said. “Gunn here. I’m going to have to ask you for one more favor.”