Chapter 27 #2
As our pleasure builds, I feel a tightening at the base of my cock—but this time it’s different. Stronger. More insistent. My knot is forming, preparing to lock us together in the most primal claiming possible.
True mates.
“Lithia,” I warn, my voice strained. “My knot—it’s going to—”
“I know,” she pants, her legs wrapping around my waist to pull me deeper. “I can feel it starting. Claim me, Kier.”
The knot begins to swell, growing thicker with each thrust. I can feel her awareness of it through our bond—her anticipation, her slight nervousness, her overwhelming desire to be claimed completely.
“Tell me you want it,” I demand, my thrusts becoming shorter as the knot grows. “Tell me you want to be locked to me, filled with my seed until it takes.”
“Yes,” she gasps, her back arching. “I want it. Want you. Want to be yours completely.”
The knot catches at her entrance on my next thrust, and we both cry out at the sensation. It’s thick now, demanding entry, stretching her in ways that border on too much but somehow still feel perfect.
“Breathe,” I command, holding still to let her adjust. “Relax for me, baby. Let me in.”
She does, her body gradually accepting the invasion, and when the knot finally pops inside her, the sensation is indescribable. Through our bond, I feel her shock at the fullness, the way it stretches her inner walls, the incredible pressure as it continues to swell.
“Oh gods,” she keens, her head thrown back in ecstasy. “It’s so—so big. I can feel it growing.”
“That’s it,” I encourage, barely able to speak through the intensity. “Take my knot. Take all of me.”
I try to thrust, but the knot has already locked us together, trapping my cock deep inside her. Instead, I grind against her, the movement sending shockwaves through both of us as the knot presses against every sensitive spot inside her.
“Kier,” she sobs, overwhelmed by sensation. “I can’t—it’s too much—”
“You can,” I assure her, one hand sliding between us to find her clit. “Come for me, Lithia. Come on my knot while I fill you up.”
The moment my thumb circles her clit, she explodes.
Her orgasm tears through her with devastating force, her inner walls clamping down on my knot so hard I see stars.
Through our bond, I experience every second of her climax—the way it builds from her core and radiates outward, the way her whole body locks up in ecstasy, the way my name tears from her throat like a prayer.
Her pleasure triggers mine, and I roar as my release hits. My knot pulses inside her, expanding even further as I spill into her in hot, thick spurts. The sensation is overwhelming—not just the physical pleasure, but the emotional satisfaction of finally, completely claiming my mate.
Through our bond, I feel her awe at the sensation of being filled, the way my seed floods her womb, held in place by my knot. She can feel my satisfaction, my possessive pleasure at marking her from the inside out.
“Mine,” I growl against her throat, my knot still pulsing. “Completely mine now.”
“Yours,” she agrees breathlessly, her hands threading through my hair. “Always yours.”
We lie locked together, both of us trembling from the intensity of what just happened.
My knot shows no signs of subsiding—it could be anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour before we can separate.
The thought of being joined to her for that long, of feeling our connection strengthen with every passing moment, makes my cock twitch inside her.
“How long?” she asks softly, echoing my thoughts.
“Could be a while,” I admit, shifting slightly to relieve some of the pressure on her hips. “First knotting between mates usually lasts longest.”
She hums contentedly, her fingers tracing patterns on my back. “Good. I don’t want to let you go yet.”
My wolf preens with masculine satisfaction, finally having marked and claimed his mate properly.
“Tell me what you’re feeling,” I request, wanting to hear it in her own words.
“Full,” she says immediately. “So incredibly full. I can feel you pulsing inside me, feel your seed filling me up.” Her cheeks flush at the explicit words. “And the bond—gods, Kier, I can feel everything. Your satisfaction, your possessiveness, your love. It’s like you’re part of me now.”
“I am,” I confirm, pressing a kiss to her temple. “We’re mated now. Truly mated. There’s no undoing this.”
“I don’t want to undo it,” she whispers.
I feel her truth through our bond, the way our connection has settled something restless inside her. My knot gives another pulse, drawing a soft moan from her lips.
“Still sensitive?” I ask with a grin.
“Everything feels more intense,” she admits. “Like every nerve ending is connected to you now.”
To test her theory, I contract the muscles at the base of my cock, making my knot swell slightly. She gasps, her back arching.
“Kier,” she warns, but there’s no real protest in it.
“Sorry,” I say, not sorry at all. “I like watching you react.”
“You’re going to drive me mad,” she mutters, but I can feel her arousal building again through our bond.
“Good,” I reply, settling more comfortably over her. “We have time.”
And we do. All the time in the world to explore this new connection, to learn each other’s bodies and minds through the bond that now ties us together. My knot may trap us physically, but emotionally, we’re both exactly where we want to be.
When my knot finally begins to soften forty minutes later, neither of us is eager to separate. But when I finally slip free, the sight of my seed leaking from her body fills me with primitive satisfaction.
“Mine,” I murmur, gathering the evidence of our claiming on my fingers.
“Yours,” she agrees.
“Any regrets?” I ask, though I can feel the answer through our bond—contentment so deep it makes my throat tight.
“Only that we waited so long,” she admits, pressing a kiss to my collarbone. “I wasted so much time being afraid.”
“Not wasted,” I correct, tightening my arms around her. “You needed to heal. To learn to trust. I would have waited forever if that’s what it took.”
She lifts her head to look at me, something vulnerable in her expression despite everything we’ve just shared. “What happens now?”
“Now?” I brush my knuckles across her cheek. “Now I officially join Shadowmist. Permanently. No more guest quarters, no more being an outsider looking in.” I pause, letting her feel my certainty through our bond. “I belong here. With you. With this pack.”
Relief floods through our connection—relief that she doesn’t have to choose between duty and desire, that I’m not asking her to abandon everything she’s built here.
“The pack will accept you,” she says confidently. “Ryker already sees you as one of us. The others will follow his lead.”
“And Levi?”
She’s quiet for a moment, and I feel her working through complicated emotions. “Levi will be fine. He’s a good man—he deserves to find someone who can love him the way he deserves.”
Through our bond, I sense there’s more to the story, but I don’t push. Whatever complicated history exists between them, it’s in the past now. We’re mated, bonded, committed to each other in the most fundamental way possible.
“I should go,” she says eventually, though she makes no move to leave my arms. “Pack business, mission debriefings, all the tedious details of being Beta.”
“You should,” I agree, running my hand down her spine. “But you won’t. Not yet.”
“No,” she admits, snuggling closer. “Not yet.”
We stay like that as the sun climbs higher, learning the feel of our new bond, memorizing this moment of perfect peace before the world intrudes again. Because it will intrude—there are still prisoners to rescue, Zella to hunt down, the complex business of integrating our mated bond into pack life.
But for now, none of that matters. For now, there’s just us—mated, bonded, complete.
“I love you,” she whispers against my throat.
“I love you too,” I reply, and mean it with every fiber of my being. “My mate. My partner. Mine.”
“Yours,” she agrees, and in that single word is a promise that will last forever.
Outside, I can hear the den coming alive—voices in the corridors, the sound of pack life continuing. But in here, in this room, there’s just the two of us.
Finally, my wolf sighs, settling into contentment.
Finally, I agree.
And for the first time in twenty years, I truly know what it means to belong.