Chapter 17 #4
His head lifts, hair falling into his face as he looks down at me like a man possessed. His lips are red, and his chin is still smeared with the mess he made of me earlier. That mouth curls into a wicked grin.
He pulls out slowly, watching the way I whimper and arch without shame. Then he slides back in with one brutal thrust.
The sharp, overstimulated edge makes me cry out again—but I don’t beg him to stop.
I can’t.
“I just filled you,” he growls, fucking me slow and deep now, each stroke filthy and reverent. “You feel that? That ache? That’s mine. That’s your body remembering who the fuck it belongs to.”
“Damien,” I gasp again, delirious from it. My nails claw down his back. “I want all of it. I want everything.”
“Oh, kitten,” he laughs, panting into my neck. “You’ll get everything. Every drop. Every inch. I’ll fuck you so full of me that your body forgets it ever belonged to anyone else. I’ll fuck you until you forget your own damn name.”
His pace picks up, wet slaps and ragged breathing filling the room. The sheets twist beneath us. The headboard slams into the wall again.
But all I can feel is him.
His cock pounding into me with savage intensity. My body building toward a third orgasm, stretched thin and aching for it.
“When I take you under the full moon, I will make you take every drop until you're swollen with it. Until every wolf in the territory knows you're mine.”
And gods help me...I want that.
Pleasure crashes through me, blinding and all-consuming. I feel his body tense, every muscle drawn tight as he spills inside me again—hot, endless, claiming me down to my soul.
His mouth is still at my neck, teeth sinking deep as he bites hard—too hard—and something shifts.
What the fuck?
I hear the words clearly, though Damien's mouth is still latched onto my neck, his teeth breaking skin as he marks me permanently.
“What?” I gasp, the dual sensation of his climax and the voice in my head making me dizzy.
Damien pulls back, eyes wide with shock as he stares down at me. His lips haven't moved, but I can still hear him—feel him—inside my mind.
Can you hear me?
I nod my answer.
Can you hear me?
He shakes his head, still buried deep inside me, our bodies joined in every possible way. “The mating bond,” he breathes. “It’s complete.”
I reach up to touch the place where his teeth broke my skin. The wound burns hot, pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. When my fingers come away, they are streaked with blood and a silvery substance that shimmers in the light. “But you said we couldn’t complete it until the full moon.”
“Moon’s blessing…” Damien’s voice comes out rough, almost reverent. The faint glow along my fingers reflects in his eyes, silver and sharp. “It shouldn’t be possible. This kind of seal, without the full moon, without the ritual, it’s something out of the old stories.”
I blink up at him, my pulse still wild. “What stories?”
“When I was young,” he says slowly, “my grandmother used to tell me about bonds so rare the Moon Goddess herself intervened. She called them true mates. Two souls cut from the same breath of the moon. It’s said their wolves recognize each other instantly, no matter rank, bloodline, or pack.
But that kind of connection…” He shakes his head, half-laughing under his breath.
“I thought it was a fairytale. Every wolf does.”
The bond hums between us, alive, pulling tighter with each heartbeat. I can feel everything inside him. His pulse syncs with mine until I can’t tell whose heart is beating faster.
“So we’re…” I try to speak, but the words catch in my throat.
“Bound. Completely. This isn’t just instinct or proximity. It’s the Goddess’s mark. No one can undo it. Not my father. Not Lockhart. Not anyone.”
His thumb lingers, the glow fading slowly between us but the bond thrumming stronger, steady as breath.
“I used to think true mates were just something elders said to make the bond sound holy,” he admits quietly.
“Now I know why they feared it. You can’t control something the Goddess claims for herself. ”
Relief floods me so completely that it blurs my vision. In a world where everything else has been taken from me—my identity, my past, my sense of self—this connection is the one thing that cannot be stolen.
“I can feel you,” I say softly, reaching up to touch his face. “Not just physically. I can feel you inside me. Your thoughts, your emotions...”
He turns his face to press a kiss against my palm.
I close my eyes, focusing on the sensation.
It's like having another heartbeat alongside my own—steady, powerful, undeniable.
Where before I felt his emotions as vague impressions, now they flow through me with crystal clarity.
His fierce, protective love that burns so bright it almost hurts to feel it.
“I thought it would happen tomorrow,” I murmur, tracing my fingers the mark on my neck. It feels different now—settled, permanent.
“So did I.” Damien shifts his weight, carefully pulling out of me before gathering me against his chest. The physical separation doesn't diminish our mental connection at all.
If anything, it grows stronger as he cradles me against him.
“This type of bond doesn't follow normal rules.
They're governed by something older than pack law.”
I curl into him, my body still trembling with aftershocks. For the first time in what feels like forever, I feel more like myself than I ever have. The future is still uncertain, the danger far from over—but in his arms, I find something solid to hold onto. Something real.
We lie in silence, the kind that doesn’t demand to be filled. Outside, the wind rustles through the trees, and somewhere in the distance, a wolf howls.
The sound doesn’t frighten me anymore.
Because I’m not alone.
And I never will be again.