Chapter 26 Caelan
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Caelan
For the next few days, we didn’t leave my chambers.
We ate, we slept, we had sex, and then we did it all over again.
I was over the clouds. Delirious with happiness.
My mate was here, in my bed, in my arms. Every time I woke and saw her face on my pillow, a warmth in my chest expanded with joy.
My wolf preened with satisfaction, finally settled after days of restless agitation.
He had what he wanted. What he needed. His mate, safe and warm and within reach.
The heat came and went in waves. Sometimes gentle, a low simmer that we could ignore for hours.
Sometimes urgent, demanding, driving us together with a desperation that left us both breathless and satisfied.
I learned the rhythm of it, learned to read the flush on her skin, the way her breathing changed, the exact moment the heat shifted from manageable to urgent.
But the guilt lingered.
It sat in my stomach, a constant reminder that she almost died because of me. Because I left. Because I didn’t consider what my claiming bite would do to her body. Every time she smiled at me, every time she laughed, every time she arched into my touch, I felt the weight of what I’d almost lost.
We were tangled in my sheets, the fire crackling low, when I finally told her everything.
“I didn’t just leave you unprotected,” I said, my hand resting possessively on her hip. My thumb traced circles on her skin, an unconscious claiming gesture my wolf demanded. “I asked Aedan to keep an eye on you from afar. Check on you from time to time without you knowing.”
“From afar?”
“I also asked the men from the tattoo shop. Dom and the others. They were already protective of you, so I just... encouraged it.”
“You set up a surveillance network around me.”
“I set up a support network.” My voice dropped into command, the alpha tone that I couldn’t suppress when it came to her safety. “You’re my mate. Protecting you is my priority. Even when I can’t be there myself.”
She raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. My wolf rumbled with satisfaction at her acceptance.
Wise woman. She was learning when to pick her battles.
“Riley.” I pulled back enough to look at her face, my expression intense. “When Aedan said you’d been alone for two months... is that true? Was I really gone that long for you?”
“Yes. Two months, give or take a few days.”
The confirmation hit me with physical force. I’d heard Aedan say it, but hearing it from her made it real.
“Two months,” I repeated, and a growl built in my chest. Not at her. At myself. At the situation. At the cruelty of time moving differently between realms.
“Why? How long was it for you?”
“A week and a half.”
Silence stretched between us.
Her eyes went wide. “What?”
“Time moves differently between the realms. I knew that. Everyone knows that. But I didn’t realize.
.. I didn’t think...” I was off the bed now, pacing, caged, my muscles coiled with restless energy.
My wolf paced with me, equally agitated.
“A week and a half, Riley. I thought I was hurrying. I thought I was doing everything as fast as possible to get back to you. And meanwhile you were alone, suffering, your body going into heat with no one to help you through it, the bond stretched so thin you couldn’t even feel me properly. ”
“Caelan...”
“You could have died.” I stopped pacing, turned to face her, and I knew my expression was anguished. My wolf howled with the injustice of it. “You almost died. And I had no idea because I was stuck in meetings about territory disputes while you were in agony.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known. I’m your mate. Your alpha.
I should have felt it. Should have sensed when you were in distress.
” I stalked back to the bed, kneeling beside it, taking her hands in mine with desperate intensity.
My wolf was on his belly, submitting to her judgment.
“Forgive me. Please. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, but please. Forgive me.”
She looked at me for a long moment. Her expression was unreadable.
“No.”
My heart stopped. My wolf whined.
“What?”
“I don’t forgive you.” But there was a glint in her eye now, a mischief I was learning to recognize. “You’re going to have to work much harder than that.”
I stared at her. Realized she was teasing me. The relief that flooded through me was so intense I almost laughed. Would have laughed, if my wolf weren’t still so desperate to prove himself worthy.
“Is that so?”
“Much harder.”
“And what would convince you?”
She pretended to think about it. “A bath would be a good start.”
The bath in my chambers was obscenely large.
More of a small pool, really. Carved from dark stone, fed by natural hot springs that ran beneath the castle. Excessive by any reasonable standard, but right now I was deeply grateful for my ancestors’ commitment to luxury.
Steam rose from the surface, curling through the cold air, and Riley made a sound of pure appreciation when she sank into the water.
“This is ridiculous,” she said, stretching out. The water came up to her shoulders. “I could fit my entire apartment in here.”
“It’s designed for multiple people.”
“Multiple?”
“Pack bathing is a tradition. After hunts, after battles.” I slid in beside her, pulling her back against my chest with a possessive grip. My wolf growled with approval at the skin-to-skin contact. “Though I’ve never shared this particular bath with anyone.”
“No one?”
“This is my private chamber. No one enters without my permission.” My lips found her neck, and my wolf preened at having her here, in my space, surrounded by my scent. “You’re the first.”
“I’m honored.”
“You should be.”
She laughed, and the sound echoed off the stone walls. I loved that laugh. Would kill to hear it every day for the rest of my life.
“So,” she said, tilting her head to give me better access to her throat, “how exactly do you plan to earn my forgiveness?”
“I have some ideas.”
“Do they involve more groveling?”
“They involve me worshipping every inch of you until you forget you were ever upset.”
“That’s a lot of inches.”
“I’m thorough.”
I turned her in my arms, lifted her easily in the water, settled her on the edge of the bath with her legs dangling. She was exposed to me now. Every curve, every line, every beautiful inch. My wolf growled with possessive hunger.
“Caelan...”
“Shh.” I moved between her thighs, my hands gripping her hips, pulling her closer. “Let me apologize properly.”
The bath became less about bathing and more about proving exactly how sorry I was.
I used my hands, sliding them up her thighs, thumbs pressing into her skin, feeling her tremble.
My cock hardened against her, ready, the head nudging her slick entrance.
I didn’t wait, didn’t tease with my mouth.
The wolf in me demanded I claim her now, fill her and make her mine again.
“Yes,” she gasped, her hands clutching my shoulders, nails digging in. “I love your cock, did I ever tell you that? Fuck me, Caelan.”
How could I refuse such a request?
I gripped her ass, lifted her just enough, and thrust into her in one hard push.
The heat of her pussy clenched around my cock, wet and tight from the water and her arousal, pulling me deep until my hips met hers.
She cried out, head falling back, and I groaned, the sound rumbling from my chest as I bottomed out.
“Fuck, Riley,” I growled against her neck, my teeth grazing her skin. “You feel so good. So tight around me.”
I rolled my hips, angling to hit that spot deep inside her, making her walls flutter around my cock.
“Caelan, just like that, yes,” she moaned.
“Forgiven yet?” I murmured against her ear, my voice rough with command, already pulling back to slam in again.
“Getting there... oh god...”
“Just getting there? I’ll have to try harder.”
Water sloshed around us with each thrust, splashing over the edge as I drove into her harder, faster. Her legs wrapped around my waist, heels pressing into my back to urge me on.
“You’re... fuck... insufferable...”
“And you love me.”
“I do.” She grabbed my face, kissed me hard, her tongue tangling with mine. “I do love you. Even when you leave me for two months.”
“A week and a half.”
“Two months, you asshole.”
Laughed into her mouth, kept pounding into her, the slap of our bodies mixing with the water’s ripple.
Every thrust was an apology, burying my cock deep in her pussy, feeling her squeeze me like she never wanted to let go.
Her moans grew louder, her body arching against the stone edge, breasts pressing into my chest. I gripped her hips tighter, bruising, holding her steady as I fucked her relentlessly, the wolf’s possessiveness fueling each drive.
She shattered first, her pussy clamping down on my cock in spasms, milking me as she came with a sharp cry, her nails raking my back.
I followed right after, thrusting deep one last time, my release pulsing out in hot spurts, filling her up until it mixed with the bathwater.
Her name tore from my lips in a groan, low and satisfied.
We stayed like that, panting, my cock still twitching inside her as the aftershocks faded.
When we finally finished, both of us together, I eased out slow, cum leaking from her pussy into the water.
We sank back in until it started to cool.
I washed her hair, gentle despite the alpha possessiveness still thrumming through me.
She traced the scars on my chest, asking about each one, learning my body’s history.
“This one?” she asked, touching a silver line across my ribs.
“Training accident. I was twelve.”
“This one?”
“Battle. Three years ago. A rogue wolf caught me off guard.”
“And this?” Her fingers found the newest mark, still pink, barely healed.
“The coup attempt. When I first arrived. One of the traitors got close.”