Chapter Twelve #3
Kimberly arched and let her arms drift above her head, exposing herself fully and willingly to his wishes.
The tip of him touched between her legs.
Instinctively, her knees widened, and her hips tilted up, beckoning him to take her.
When he slid deep inside, fluidly filling her hot, wet center, Kimberly let Shane know, loud and clear, just how perfect it was.
Like a piece of her had been returned, like the feeling of coming home but never having been to this place of total, consuming happiness.
Shane, in turn, groaned and buried his face in the place where her neck met her shoulder.
He pulsated inside her, pumping slowly at first and then faster as savage, wild need overcame them both.
Kimberly hung on, letting him mark her and, in turn, marking him.
Higher they climbed, caught up in a tornado of passion that had been all but beaten out of them over the last ten years, withstanding heartache after heartache, trial after trial.
In the crescendo of the moment, they realized they had weathered life long enough to finally claim one another for their own and come together to enjoy the first break of sunlight after the storm.
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, and she couldn’t decide what they meant.
They rode together to completion. Shane was gentleman enough not to drop in an exhausted heap but stayed suspended over her, his face hot against her skin.
Their sweaty, quivering, warm bodies still flush together, they heaved for air and panted in raspy tones that seemed on the verge of hysterical laughter as they both floated down from the high of sex, wallowing in the afterglow.
Through the haze, something new and unexpected struck Kimberly. Her eyes popped open, and her body went deathly still. Even with Shane still inside her, something else threatened to sneak in. A spirit, an airy force so familiar and yet foreign, reached out to touch her soul.
She knew what it was without ever having experienced it before.
“No! Don’t!”
The panic Kimberly expected earlier finally gripped her chest, and she writhed, pushing on Shane as if that would stop what his wolf tried to do.
He snapped to attention, fully aware as he slid out of her. “What? What’s … Oh, shit.”
Suddenly, it shut off. The force dissolved at Shane’s bidding.
No mating bond was formed.
They stared at one another, only the lamp light from one of the nightstands casting an amber glow on their shocked faces. Shane had almost tried to form a mating bond with her.
They had talked about it as kids, but it was always something reserved for later down the road, when they had things figured out.
Mating bonds were serious commitments between shifters and their partners.
Though they could be broken, the process was excruciating, which was why only those shifters who were fully and unabashedly committed to one another formed such a bond.
Anything less made things muddled and never ended well.
And they were definitely not at that level of commitment.
“Did you mean to do that?” Kimberly’s voice wasn’t more than a terrified whisper.
Shane briskly shook his head. “No. I … I didn’t know it was even happening until you said it. Kimberly, I’m so sorry.”
The pain and panic on his face made her want to cry. He looked like he thought he had violated her, that he hadn’t been in control of his own body, and just now awoke to the aftermath.
She reached out and hugged him around his neck, pulling him back down to ease his regret. “It’s okay. It’s fine. It’s…”
Shane’s big arms encased her. “You didn’t want it. I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do anything without your consent. I didn’t want to hurt you like that.”
Nothing in her wanted to compare what Shane just tried to do to with what Nathan almost did. It wasn’t the same. It couldn’t be. Shane wasn’t Nathan, and he wasn’t Isaac. He never could be.
Regardless, she couldn’t consent to a mating bond, knowing that Shane, an alpha, mating with someone like her was a huge mistake.
Luckily, it did take both partners to form it.
Without the other half reaching out to weave their soul with the other, it wouldn’t work.
The one end would dangle in the ether forever until it was retracted, as Shane did, or finally bonded.
Years ago, she had imagined what mating with Shane might have been like, despite the reality of her situation.
This was damn near close to her craziest daydreams. They would make love all night and with the sunrise, confess their deepest feelings and let their souls intertwine, let their wolves touch and meet in a tender moment of intimacy that only shifters could experience.
But, in all those daydreams, they were in a better place than a hotel room and never part of two separate packs that were destined to never cross paths again.
In her daydreams, there was nothing to hold them back, nothing to stop them from being together.
Kimberly let one tear escape, a silent mournful tear for the dream that couldn’t come true. “I forgive you.”