Her nails rake down my back as she writhes, the slight pain only heightening my pleasure. The bond carries every sensation between us, multiplying it until I can barely think through the sheer ecstasy—mine, and hers.
But she’s not all the way there. Not yet.
“Kieran.” She moans, her voice breaking on my name, her heels digging into my lower back as I thrust her against the tree trunk. “I’m close, please…”
“I know what you need.” I slip my hand back between us, finding her clit. She jerks at the contact, inner muscles fluttering around me. As I circle the nub of nerves, I twist my hips inside her, angling to hit every pleasure spot at once. “That’s it, Spitfire. Feel how good my cock is inside you? How perfect my finger is on your clit?”
She whimpers. “Yes.”
“Then come for me,” I urge her, staring at her flushed face, loving her little gasps. “Come on my cock, Aurora. I want to feel you.”
She shudders, bucking and writhing. “Please, I can’t—I just came, it’s too much?—”
“Yes, you can.” I let my wolf’s dominance thread my voice, loving how she moans at the feeling of my cock inside her. “Let go for me like a good girl. Show me how good my cock feels inside you.”
Her orgasm hits her hard. She clamps down around me as she cries out wordlessly, fingers digging into my back. The bond carries every ounce of her pleasure to me, so strong I can’t imagine what it would feel like if we were bonded. An urge is there—the urge to bite—but I suppress it, focusing on my release instead.
Coming inside her is the best feeling I’ve experienced in my entire life. I roar as I bottom out in her still-clenching heat and release myself inside her. My climax deepens hers, and she twitches as I spill for several long moments, whimpering at the heat inside her.
For a long moment we just stay like that, perfectly fused, whole and complete. We’re both trembling and sweating, sated, though only for a moment. I can feel her heart racing againstmy chest, her breath coming in short gasps. The bond hums contentedly between us, whole and healthy—only to split apart again as I slip out of her.
She whimpers, and I grunt softly. Holding her against me, I shudder as my lips find her neck. For a moment, and only a moment, I consider what it would feel like to bite her. What it would mean to finally be complete.
Then she shivers, and I remember the cold. So I hold her with one arm, legs still around my waist, and grab our sleeping bags and blankets, strewing them on the ground. Our journey can wait for the morning—for now, I just want to hold her, to pretend this is something I can have, something I could ever hope to deserve.
She should be mine. Wholly and completely, forever.
Chapter 24
Kieran
Aurora snores in her sleep. Just a little, not a lot, but it’s something I never noticed until now. Then again, maybe she’s never slept this deeply.
She’s certainly never been fucked so well.
That thought should bring me comfort. I’m the only man who’s ever been inside her. Even now, as she sleeps in my arms, beneath a pile of blankets, my warm, wet release trickles between her thighs. I’ve claimed her in a primal way, a way that gives me satisfaction.
But I still haven’t made her my mate, haven’t completed the mate bond. As soon as we were done, our cries fading, the bond was broken again. And now I’m coming to the cold, stark realization that I can’t do anything about that, because nothing has truly changed between us.
Only now I’ve given her one more reason to hate me for the rest of our lives.
She’s curled against my chest, her ash blonde hair spread across my skin like silk, her breath coming in soft, even puffs between the snores. The bond between us is strong and urgent, pushing for me to bite her, claim her, wake her with my teeth—and my cock, which is half-hard just from the brush of her softskin in sleep. Yet I can never have her again, not if I’m being honest with myself.
I can’t stop staring at her. The delicate curve of her cheek, the fan of her pale lashes, how she parts her lips in sleep. Even her snores are perfect. She looks peaceful like this, all the tension gone from her face, which is how I realize I’m used to her wearing an expression of wariness and distrust. For once there’s no pain lining her mouth or tensing her brows.
My fingers itch to trace the lines of her face, feel the dips in her skin, touch her nipples again, but I don’t want to wake her. Not yet. Not when I know this perfect moment can’t last, because soon, she’ll hate me again.
The things we shared tonight… I never thought I’d have this. Never thought she’d trust me enough to let me touch her, let alone give me her first time. The memory of her pleasure, the way she cried out my name, the feeling of finally being inside her, as I was always meant to be—it’s burned into my soul.
And the bond. For a few, precious moments it was whole again. It let me feel everything she felt, and only now do I realize how dim and faded those feelings were before. As we came together, it all poured in: her pleasure, her trust, her devotion, her…
Love.
The realization is what’s kept me up even after she fell asleep. It sends a spike of panic through me as the world wakes and dawn breaks on the horizon, soft light creeping through the distant trees. With it comes the cold reality that what we’ve done… what I’ve done, can never be again, and never should’ve happened to begin with.
My father’s voice berates me: Weakness is poison to a pack. An alpha must be strong above all else.
Looking down at Aurora’s sleeping face, my chest aches once more. She deserves so much better than me. Better than a man who hurt her so deeply.
