36. Kane
Iswear on everything, my heart stopped.
When I realized she wasn’t in sight, I damn near lost it.
I didn’t give a fuck about Veronica or what she was admitting. It didn’t matter. Nothing without Kate matters. Even my wolf can go fuck himself.
I started running without direction.
When had she left?
I had no idea where she was and that was the worst feeling I’ve ever felt. It was ten times, no, a thousand times worse than when I realized how badly I fucked up and had kicked my own mate out of her pack.
I can’t lose her again.
In hindsight, I should have jumped inside one of the side-by-sides or ATVs parked around the lodge. A machine would have moved faster than my slow-ass human legs.
Panic consumed me and wreaked havoc through my head. All I could hear was her voice saying, we don’t belong here, playing on repeat, slamming against my ribcage.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Until recently, these out-of-control feelings, along with the pressure piling on top of my chest, were foreign. My mate had been missing for so long that I never allowed myself to believe I’d find her. Then I discovered she’s been within my reach only to turn out to be the man who hurt her.
I can’t lose her.
But I don’t deserve her either.
I barrel into the door so hard wood splinters as my weight slams against it before my hand presses down on the handle. It opens, and I stumble inside, my breathing ragged.
“Kate.” To my own ears, I sound frantic.
I don’t fucking care.
I race down the hall of our cabin and into our bedroom. My eyes don’t process the open bathroom door with steam billowing out before I’ve halted just inside the opening of the bathroom.
Kate’s head snaps up, her hands freezing with the towel half wrapped around her wet body.
I charge forward on autopilot, not thinking any of my actions through. My right hand goes around her neck, squeezing as I force her to scramble backward while my other hand finds her terrycloth-covered hip as her shoulder blades press against the back wall. My forehead meets hers. She’s hot to the touch from the shower.
“You do fucking belong here,” I whisper, my breath fanning her face, my eyes staring into her guilty blue ones.
“I shouldn’t have said?—”
“But if you leave, I will follow you.” I loosen my hold around her neck but tighten my grip over her hip bone.
“Don’t say dumb things,” she chides. “You couldn’t if you wanted to, and you know it. You’re the alpha.”
“I don’t give a fuck about any of it. The pack can live without me. My dad and Eli can have it. I cannot live without you. Or maybe I could, but I’d be a miserable fuck, and at that point, fuck life too. I just want you and… you and our son. Please, Kate. I need you, not because fate made you perfect for me, but because you’re you, and I want to give you everything in the whole goddamn world. Please don’t fucking leave me,” I beg unashamedly. “I’m sorry for it all; for all the angry words I said, telling you to leave. Even without knowing you were my mate, I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did. You didn’t do anything wrong. It was all my fault, and I’m so fucking sorry. I?—”
My vision of her clouds as the tears rush to the surface, my nostrils stinging.
I don’t fucking care.
I need her to see how the thought of her not being here, not being mine, makes me feel. I can’t go through that again. My soul feels like it’s being ripped from inside me.
I drop to my knees, my right hand mirroring my other on her hip, then bow my head, tipping it to the side to bare my neck in complete submission.
She’s the only being I’d ever do this for, and it’s not even shocking that it feels right to submit to her.
“Wh-what are you…” She gasps from above me. “Kane, what are you doing?”
“This pack is yours, Kate. I know it may not feel that way, but you are one of us,” I say, knowing I sound mad, but I’m far from it. “You were born here, the same as me. You fucking belong here the same as any one of us.”
“G-get up,” she demands, shock stumbling her words.
I tip my head back and lift my eyes. She’s staring down at me, her lips parted and both hands clasping the towel to the front of her chest with droplets of water dripping from the ends of her dark hair, her eyes unblinking, the mark on her neck barely visible with her hair in the way.
“I don’t know how else to say I’m sorry or show you that I know I fucked up.” My shoulders start to shake. She doesn’t have a reason to believe what I’m saying, but fuck if I don’t want her to, need her to. “I’m both sorry and not sorry for claiming you. I shouldn’t have done it without asking. My wolf had no fucking right, but goddammit, you’re mine, and I fucking need you to want me the way I want you. I want you, Kate. Not my wolf. Me!”
A whimper falls from her lips, and that’s when I feel the slightest tremble in her limbs, but Kate must realize it too because she goes stark still. Her gaze flicks over my head, then snaps up toward the ceiling. Her bottom lip wobbles, but it’s the scent that swarms around us that pulls a growl from deep inside my lungs.
Her arousal is a beacon straight to my dick, hardening the muscle tucked behind the zipper of my jeans and making me ache as it pulses against the stiff material, seeking out her delicious smelling pussy.
Kate shivers, then drops her head, her eyes hooded. Her blue gaze looks as raw as I feel as a tinge of orange glows in and out like a flickering light bulb, her need almost palpable.
“You’re a Luna wolf, Kate. Whether you believe it yet or not, you are, and if you want something, you demand it, right here, right now,” I growl deeply, edging her courage to step up.
She licks her lips, her tongue slow to retreat inside her mouth.
I don’t blink, not wanting to miss a second of watching her need me the way I need her, the way I crave only her. I can’t breathe a full breath without her nearby, and I’m not wholly sure I have until she reentered my life those five short years ago.
Her fingers flex enough that the ends of the towel slip from her grip. I drop my hands to let the cotton fall to the floor and sit back on the heels of my boots, waiting for her, giving her all the time she needs.
My gaze drops to her small, rounded belly, and it’s everything I can do not to drop a whimper from my lips. It’s the first time I’ve seen the proof of my baby growing inside her.
Our son.
And I can’t wait to meet him.
I’ve known now for a week that she’s going to have a boy. It’s one of the alpha abilities my father taught me how to tell in a lesson years ago. It’s not only wolf shifters it works on. I can smell when any species is pregnant early on and once they’re far enough along, I can scent what they’re going to have.
My hands react on their own, reaching out and palming her soft, warm skin. Leaning forward, my lips brush across her flesh. I breathe her in, then lay slow kisses below her navel to both sides of her stomach. Kate pulls in a sharp breath through her mouth. My eyes flick up, silently begging her for a command.
The ball is in her court.
“Fuck me,” she whispers, too uncertain for the strong woman I know she is, and it makes me think I did this to her, made her feel unsure of herself.
My palms slide to the tops of her thighs and hook around the back of her legs as my head sways to my right, her left. My lips trail across her belly to where her hip and thigh connect, kissing her skin and breathing her in at the same time. My mouth opens, sucking on the meaty part of her flesh. My canines tingle as I lightly bite down while my eyes watch every reaction she has to my touch, and the feeling of how each one slams into my chest is more than I deserve.
“Fuck you how?” I whisper, knowing every slow syllable off my tongue produces goose bumps along her skin. “Fuck you where, baby?” When she swallows but doesn’t answer, I keep probing. “Your pretty little pussy… your tight ass… or that heated wet mouth of yours.” I flop my tongue out and swipe at the spot I bit. “Where do you want to be fucked, Kate?”
A mewling whimper slips out of her mouth as her knees lose some of their stability. My fingers tighten to steady her. I should move her to the bed so she doesn’t have to stand, but fuck if I don’t love kneeling in front of her like this.
“All of them.” She breathes hard, her chest heaving.
“I only have one dick, baby, but it’s yours.” I smile against the apex of her thigh. “How do you want me to make you come? Tell me like an alpha,” I growl, the front of my teeth pressed against her skin.
Kate’s fingers dive between the loose strands of my hair on the top of my head, my ponytail holder missing in action. It was yanked out somewhere between racing through the brush and arriving at the cabin. At the time, I hadn’t cared that it got caught by a limb. Now the too-long strands are driving me fucking crazy and getting in my way of watching my mate.
Her nails, or fuck, maybe her claws scrape my scalp, and it feels so fucking amazing. She tangles her digits around my hair, pulling it taut, yanking my head back and away from her sweet body. Looking up, I wait.
I wait for her direction.
Her order.
“Eat my pussy, Kane.” She growls, and it goes in both ears and down my spine. My dick pulses, and it’s almost too much pressure. I’m on the verge of exploding. “Shove your pants down. I want to see your cock in your hand while you lick me.”
“Whatever you want.” My words are strained, and the second my hands leave her body and Kate loosens her fingers, I get pissed at the loss of her touch, but I work my belt buckle as fast as I can, needing my hands back on her and my tongue inside her.
I push my jeans down my thick thighs, the zipper barely down an inch. My dick springs out, and I grab it with one hand while snatching Kate’s foot up to my shoulder with the other to open her up to me.
The quick position change grants me an eye-level view of her slick pussy, already dripping wet. Her scent makes me lightheaded and my mouth water.
Fuck, it’s so pretty.
Before I can dive forward, Kate jerks my head back and my eyes up to hers.
“Stroke it,” she grits out, almost angrily.
“Fuck me,” I heave.
“No,” she growls, the rumble of her words rolling down my chest. “You’re going to fuck me, mate. And you’re not going to come until I do. So, fuck me, Kane. Fuck me so hard that I don’t know if it’s your tongue getting me off or your big dick doing the job.”
Fucking hell.
My eyes roll to the back of my head, her words sucking the breath out of my lungs.
I stroke myself.
Then I stroke my dick again, only this time, I force my eyes to open and look at Kate, but she’s biting her bottom lip and her stunningly blue gaze is between my legs.
A whimper leaves her parted lips, making her fingers loosen. I take that as my cue to lean in, burying my face in her needy, perfect little cunt. The soft curls tickle my nose as her scent works its way down to the tip of my dick. I can barely control it from painting the wall between her legs with my cum.
I lick her wet snatch as I stroke my cock, and either her leg is already shaking, or my whole body is. She tastes so goddamn divine that I want so badly for every ounce of Kate to coat the inside of my mouth, to drain down my throat. I’ll never have enough of her. I’ll always need more… want more… crave more.
“Yes.” Her hands wrap around my head, and her hips buck into my face. “Oh, God, yes. Just like that, Kane.”
Knowing all her weight is on one leg, I move the hand that isn’t pulling on my cock to between her legs, to brace her ass. Wanting to give her what she wholeheartedly demanded, I dip my middle finger inside her wet pussy, coating it first. Then, pulling out, I press the blunt digit to her asshole as my tongue dives inside her snug entrance.
Kate’s fingers flex, and I feel her wolf’s claws at the base of my skull. Tingles erupt across my neck as I push my finger inside. She moans loud enough that my ears ring. It spurs me on, so I press deeper into her hot ass and then slowly pull out.
As I push back in, I pull my fist down to the base of my cock and squeeze. Kate’s claws sink into my flesh. I suck in a breath, forcing Kate’s scent into my lungs like she’s the air I desperately need to live.
Fuck, she’s going to kill me.
If I die right here, it’ll be the happiest death imaginable.
Her muscles contract around my finger.
My tongue slips inside Kate’s pussy, my fingers fucking her simultaneously as I continue stroking my dick like she told me to do. My tongue swirls around her clit.
Kate’s torso bends over me, but I keep working her, my fingers going in and out, faster, harder. Her breaths quicken, and her hands move down my bare back, her claws scratching my flesh.
She begins to pant, her hot breaths fanning my back.
Her foot slips from my shoulder, and Kate’s pussy walls start rapidly contracting. The sound of her coming makes my dick swell even more. She keeps coming while I suck her clit harder, wanting this to last forever, needing her to feel all the pleasure she so fucking deserves.
When her body sags over me and her breaths slow, I reduce my speed and let her clit slip from my grasp.
I pull my fingers out, kissing above her mound. Then, where her belly begins to round, I continue kissing the flesh protecting our son. I keep trailing light kisses up Kate’s stomach and lifting myself to stand as I go. I keep stroking because she hasn’t told me to stop… or come. And fuck is it torture.
Kate’s back smacks the wall, her chest still heaving by the time I’m standing to my full height above her. My eyes attempt to roll to the back of my head while my knees try to give out, but I keep stroking.
Because that’s what she said to do.
As if realizing I didn’t come, Kate’s eyes round, and then those pretty blues flick down and back up to mine so quickly I think I may have been seeing things. I have no idea what she’s thinking right now, and my brain isn’t working enough to figure it out before her hand is flat against my chest and my feet are moving backward.
She’s pushing me, even though I don’t know how I’m still standing. The bathroom door slams, wood splinters, and then my back is against said door. The heat in Kate’s eyes is throwing me off. I can’t figure out what it means, and it’s scaring the fuck out of me.
My heart starts to pound hard. My dick aches so fucking much, it’s throbbing, but then her hand knocks mine away, and before I can blink, I’m encased in her soft palm.
I suck in a breath. My ears thunder, or maybe the earth moves. Was that a fucking earthquake?
Her hand moves up and down, the way I was imagining mine as hers, and the ache eases to pleasure like I’ve never felt. Her claws drag down my shaft, the palm of her hand pressing against the tip of my dick.
My hips buck.
Oh, fucking fuuuuck that feels so good.
My vision blurs, and then a beast’s teeth sink deep into my neck.
I come un-fucking-done, exploding as the tips of her claws grip me tighter.
I see stars.
Goddamn motherfucking stars.