58. Chapter Fifty-Eight
~Felix~
The need to claim my mate nearly overwhelmed me, blood pounding in my ears with the relentless drumbeat of instinct. I forced myself to ignore its roar and focused on answering her question.
“Werewolf mates claim each other by leaving their mark on their mate. I would leave mine on your neck, just here.”
My fingers traced over the spot reverently and Evalina shivered in response. The sparks that already danced beneath my touch would ignite into something even more powerful after the mark was placed.
“What kind of ‘mark’?” she asked, her voice still a little breathless from the pleasure we just shared.
“With my teeth.” I bared them for her, letting the canines elongate just enough that she could see their points as they took their wolf form. “It will sting, but only for a moment. After that, it’ll feel good. Amazing, even.”
“Like the first time you were inside me?” she asked so innocently that I had to bite back a groan of longing.
“Yeah. Kind of like that.”
Her eyes drifted down to my neck while she thought over my words. “My teeth aren’t sharp enough to mark you.”
“No,” I agreed. “And even if they were, you would only end up biting me. Marks are specific to the werewolf species, and the wolf side plays an important role. Since you don’t have a wolf, you can’t mark me.”
“Oh.” Her expression fell, a shadow of the earlier disappointment I saw when she realized Kai would never have his own mate.
“It’s not a problem,” I hurried to assure her. “We’ll still be mates. My scent will still change after I mark you. I might not have the physical sign, but everyone will know I’m taken.”
“Other werewolves will know,” she corrected me softly. “Not everyone.”
She had a point, but maybe she also had the solution. “What do fairies use to symbolize their pairing? Like the amica bond your parents shared?”
Her eyes brightened, chasing away some of the disappointment. “I’m impressed you remember the term.”
“I remember everything you say.”
Her cheeks reddened with pleasure at my simple statement before she answered my question. “Usually, they wear a braid made by their partner. Your hair is too short, though.”
She ran her fingers through my hair and I sighed in contentment at the pleasant tingle of the sparks across my scalp.
“I could get a hair extension,” I joked, but Evalina only frowned back at me.
“A what?”
“Never mind.” I cleared my throat to refocus my thoughts on the problem at hand. “Is there anything else they do?”
“If they can afford it, they exchange jewellery.”
Now, we were getting somewhere. “Like a wedding ring?”
When she gave me another blank look, I reached over to the bedside table where I’d left my phone the night before. There were messages waiting for me with pack business to attend to but I ignored them to pull up some photos of wedding rings.
“This is what humans do.”
I scrolled through the image feed slowly to let her take a look, and her eyes lit up when we reached one with a Celtic knot. “I’ve seen designs like this. They’re almost like a lock.”
A lock. Something she could control with her special magic. Maybe that was the answer.
“What if I got you some metal and you used your magic to make me a ring? It would be your mark on me, as special as mine on you.”
She beamed back at me, as delighted with the suggestion as I hoped she would be. “I would love to try.”
“Good.” I gave her a kiss before lowering my lips to her neck, nuzzling at the spot that every fibre of my being urged me to mark. “Does that mean you’re accepting me?”
Her soft intake of breath sent a shot of desire straight to my cock. “If I say yes, you’ll mark me?”
I inhaled deeply, devouring her apple and caramel scent. “Yes.”
“And we’ll be bound together forever?”
My tongue pressed against her neck. “Yes.”
“And you… want that?”
It killed me to hear even a sliver of doubt in her voice but I answered her patiently while continuing to rub against her neck with my nose.
“More than I’ve ever wanted anything. More than I could ever want anything. I know it’s happening quickly, especially since you don’t have a wolf that feels it the same way mine does, but I promise you, Evalina, I will never change my mind. I will never regret it, and I’ll do everything within my power to make sure you never do either. Your home will be here with me. Your mother will be welcome here. I’ll provide everything you need, and most of all, I will love you with everything I have. But if you need more time…”
“No,” she whispered, and my heart nearly stopped.
“No?” The word caught in my throat, my chest tightening with the unbearable thought. “You don’t accept me?”
Evalina pulled back from me, her eyes meeting mine in a wide panic. “No! No, that’s not what I mean. No, I don’t need more time because yes, I accept you. I want you to claim me. To mark me. To love me, and to do all that other stuff. Because I… I love you too.”
Thank the Goddess.
Relief swept through my body as I pulled her back down for another kiss, a deep, lingering one that translated all the words we’d just spoken into a language our bodies would understand. My hands roamed across her naked back, tracing the curves of her delicate body and savouring the connection between us. Her need soon mirrored mine, our emotions intertwined as deeply as our bodies, and my mouth lowered to her neck as I let Kai join me, our consciousnesses working together in perfect harmony for this most primal of werewolf acts.
With my canines extended, we clamped down on the marking spot, piercing Evalina’s skin as she let out a sharp cry of surprise. Regret stabbed at my chest over any pain she felt, but the sound quickly died off, replaced by a moan as my tongue smoothed over the spot, lapping away the blood that seeped from the temporary wound and sealing it closed while the mark took shape.
Mine , Kai murmured happily inside my head.
Mine , I agreed.
In this, we were completely united. Evalina was ours, and nothing in this world, or any other world, would ever take her from me again.