Chapter 27 Rowen
Rowen
I felt just like I did when I was a kid waiting for my birthday the next day. Excited about the gifts I’d get but nervous I wouldn’t get the right one.
Wolfe and I worked alongside our pack the whole day, tightening defenses, giving comfort to our fellow pack, sharing glances of anticipation when we could. The wait was becoming unbearable, and I hadn’t even drunk the blasted thing yet.
Brand’s words lingered in my head the whole day, and I couldn’t help but notice the pack that looked between Wolfe and me, and I actually saw the distrust. Not of us, not of our commitment to the pack, but our commitment to each other.
Had I not denied the heat all those weeks ago, this wouldn’t even be an issue now. I tried not to dwell, and there were more who looked at us with trust and faith than there were who didn’t, but still…it irked me that my own stubbornness had caused this.
Axel and Cody relieved Killian and Brand, and Wolfe was called away to deal with a fallout between Stonefang and Blueridge on the western ridge, and I took a moment to breathe.
The pack was busy. Each had their role. The betas were taking it in shifts to sleep.
The kitchen was running on continual service, so staple trays of food rather than set dinner times.
I looked around. There was nothing for me to do.
The vial I had placed in a drawer in our bedroom earlier called to me. Should I leave? Killian walked past me, on his way to his bed no doubt.
“C’mon,” he said gruffly. “He’ll know where you are. You could use some rest before…well, you know.”
I shared a look with him. “How far we’ve come,” I murmured as I fell into step beside him. “You’re offering me almost brotherly advice before I go and get laid.”
His bark of laughter echoed in the trees, causing many to look over at us, but I saw the smiles, not disapproval. Smiles that looked relieved that it was okay to laugh after all that had happened.
Killian looked amused at my familial reference. “I’m an only child, like you,” he told me as we walked. “I’d have been a good big brother.”
I nodded, playing along. “Bossy, domineering, loyal…” I shrugged. “I wouldn’t have complained.” We shared a look and both of us laughed. “Goddess, I would have fought with you so hard.”
“So much,” he agreed.
Killian’s house was near ours, and we both lingered as I got to the path, my attention on the house and what lay beyond the door. He clasped my shoulder, drawing my attention back to him.
“He won’t resent you if you don’t take it,” he said quietly. “He’ll understand. What he won’t understand is if you take it when you’re not ready.”
“I’m ready,” I told him. “I really am.”
Killian nodded. “Then have fun.” He waggled his eyebrows at me, and I was still laughing when I shut the door behind me.
I took a shower. I wanted to be completely clean and, I don’t know, desirable? Once I dried my hair, I pulled out the black lace nightdress I had worn on my first night here. I’d known exactly what I was doing that night, showing my new husband what he couldn’t have.
Now, here I was, wondering if I would be enough.
I held the vial in my hand like it might break—or maybe I would.
The contents shimmered faintly, and I really didn’t want to know what was in it. It smelled like herbs and something older, something I couldn’t name. Was this what magic smelled like? Or power? Or was it simply the wild chaos of instinct that lived in my bones?
“Well,” I said softly. “Whatever you are, here goes.” I drank it down in one gulp.
The liquid was warm, thicker than I expected.
It tasted like spice and summer air and something sharp that clawed at my throat as I swallowed.
I coughed once, blinking back tears as the heat hit my belly.
It had the same consistency as an oyster, and I fought the urge to gag.
I waited.
Nothing happened.
I lay on the bed. My impatience made me get up and go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Then I debated whether I should drink anything in case I diluted the potion.
I went back to bed.
Nothing.
I got up and went to the couch, wrapped in a blanket in case Brand or someone else came in, and I didn’t want them to see me in this revealing nightdress.
The door opened, and Wolfe walked in, pausing when he saw me, before slowly closing the door. He stood across from me, watching like he wanted to reach for me but didn’t dare. His fists were clenched at his sides, his jaw tight, like he was trying to hold himself back.
“I took it,” I said softly, giving him one last out. “But we can wait. We can try to—”
“You’re not doing this for the pack,” he said, voice rough. “You’re doing this for us.”
“I am,” I whispered. “But it is for the pack too. I want to be strong enough to stand at your side, Wolfe. Really stand there. Not halfway, not hesitating. I want them to know we stand together.”
His eyes burned silver in the dappled light. “You already do.”
I smiled, but it trembled. I stood up—unsure of what to do or say for a heartbeat. “Nothing’s happened so far,” I said with an embarrassed shrug. “It’s very anticlimactic—”
The heat hit like lightning—no warning, no mercy.
One second I was breathing, the next I was burning. I choked on whatever I had been about to say because my body felt like it lit up.
Not a spark of heat. Not even a flare.
A wildfire.
I gasped, staggering slightly, and Wolfe was there before I could fall. His arms wrapped around me, grounding me as the fire bloomed under my skin. I clutched at his shirt, burying my face in his chest as my body began to ache.
Hunger.
Need.
Pressure building like a wave I couldn’t outrun.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured, holding me tighter. “I’ve got you, Rowen. Let it come.”
The bond between us thrummed, no longer just a thread. It was alive, pulsing, snarling with every beat of my heart.
“Oh fuck,” I gasped. “I feel it.”
His lips touched my temple. “I’m here.”
And I knew—this wasn’t just a choice. It was a promise. A promise to each other. A commitment that we were both ready to make.
The blanket fell as I pushed away from him; my skin was too tight, my breath too shallow. Every nerve sparked. Every inch of me screamed for him. My body felt restless. Dear Goddess, this was a hundred times worse than any time before.
“I think the druid hates me,” I said between clenched teeth as I tried not to crawl out of my very skin. I looked at Wolfe, who was running his eyes over me, his bottom lip between his teeth. The sight catching my attention and holding it. He looked so damn sexy. “What?”
“That fucking nightdress should be destroyed,” he groaned as he looked at me. “You almost killed me the first night you wore it, and you’re fucking killing me now.”
I pushed my hair over my shoulder as I met his heated stare. “This time you don’t need to hold back.”
He had me in his arms in two strides. His scent was everywhere. Leather, pepper, oakmoss and power. I pressed my face into his neck and groaned, desperate and humiliated by the sound, but incapable of holding back.
“I need you,” I rasped, already trembling, already soaked with sweat and something far hotter. “Wolfe—”
He growled—deep, low, possessive—and I barely caught the blur of motion before he had me pressed against the wall, his hands already dragging my nightdress over my head, his mouth hot at my throat.
“You sure?” His voice was shredded.
“Don’t ask me that now.” I raked my nails down his back, arching into him. “You’ve felt the bond. You know what this is.”
His mouth crushed mine. It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t careful.
It was claiming.
Teeth. Tongue. Hands everywhere. My legs wrapped around his waist as his fingers skimmed over my legs, growling when I didn’t wrap them around him fast enough. I felt the scrape of the wall at my back, the cool air on my skin, and none of it mattered. Nothing mattered but him.
“You smell like mine,” he snarled against my neck. “You feel like mine.”
“I am,” I gasped. “I’ve always been.”
His hips ground into mine and I cried out, my head hitting the wall as he pinned me with his strength, his body, his power.
One hand fisted in my hair, angling me for a deeper kiss, the other gripping my thigh hard enough to bruise.
His tongue moved against mine, expertly teasing me, building the fire inside me.
I kissed him back, my body feeling reckless, wild.
I needed him to feel what I was feeling; I wanted this to never end.
Wolfe’s mouth was at my neck, his tongue tracing the line of my pulse, nipping at my skin.
The bond was roaring now. Alive. Pulsing between us like a third heart.
The need for him to fuck me was building between my thighs. I needed him inside me, needed to feel his skin against my skin.
“Say it,” he growled, voice like gravel, as if he could read my mind. “Say you want me.”
“I want you,” I panted. “I need you.”
He pushed inside me with a groan so guttural it shook me. His hips moved once, twice, and I shattered.
Wolfe didn’t stop. His body moved against mine, deep and fast and merciless. Every thrust pushed me higher, every stroke like lightning racing through my veins. The bond wasn’t just there now—it was alive between us, clawing for completion.
He buried his face in my throat, breath ragged, his teeth grazing the place he hadn’t marked yet. The place we both knew he would.
His growl vibrated against my skin, and my hips bucked in response, needing more, taking more. There was no rhythm now, just instinct. No restraint. Just need.
“You feel what this is?” he rasped against my skin, voice wrecked, teeth biting my lower lobe. “This is the Goddess in us. This is the fucking bond.”
All the while, the bond surged between us, greedy and insatiable, wanting every last drop we had to give it, claiming us as we claimed each other.