Chapter 24 - Mason
I woke up to the feel of a body next to mine. For a second, I couldn’t place why—until I heard a soft sigh coming from the person next to me.
Cracking open my eyes, I turned to look at the spill of dark hair splayed over the pillow next to me, the closed eyelids that still held a touch of exhausted purple beneath, and, without thinking, I reached out to brush my knuckles over her cheek.
“Bryce,” I murmured, my heart beating strongly, as if my body knew it was next to its mate before my own head did.
Maybe it had always known. It’s as if the fight against the ifrit with the rest of the pack, and Theo’s apology, as well as the rest of the pack swearing fealty both to her and Cassie, had solidified something in her.
As that had always been the missing piece to her life. That need to belong.
I nosed along her cheek, inhaling her warm, sleepy scent, groaning at how it woke other parts of my body.
As I slowly roused, filling my nose with her scent while she still slept, it all fell into place: I wasn’t that same coward who had turned my back on Bryce all those years ago.
No, I was the alpha who knew what he wanted.
And, in the moment where the ifrit had blazed that fire wall between Cassie and me, I knew Bryce was my mate.
Bryce slowly woke with a soft murmur and a groan.
Her back arched as she stretched beautifully, and I smirked at her when her eyes blinked awake, already trailing my way down her exposed stomach.
The t-shirt I’d given her to sleep in, wanting her drenched in my scent, in my bed, had ridden up, exposing the black panties she wore.
My exact destination.
But as much as I wanted to devour her as my mate, I wanted to tell her that first.
“Morning,” I said, my voice rough with sleep.
Bryce hummed, a soft smile spreading on her face as her fingers slid through my hair. “Morning.” She turned her head, already looking for our daughter.
“Theo and Jackson took her,” I told Bryce. “Her scent’s still pretty strong, so they didn’t take her too long ago. It means we have plenty of time for ourselves.”
Bryce blinked, still waking up slowly. She always did until she had her black tea in her hands.
I moved closer to her face, pressing a kiss to the point of her nose. “Are you awake yet?” I teased.
Laughing softly, she shook her head. “No, I’m pretty sure I’m still dreaming. Especially when there’s a half-naked alpha on top of me.”
“Half naked?” I repeated, smirking. “If you give me your hand, you’ll find there’s a fully naked alpha on top of you. And a turned-on one at that.”
Bryce only laughed harder, pulling me down to kiss. Her nails scratched against my scalp, and I hummed, smiling against her mouth.
“Are you going to do something about that, then?” she asked, her voice all teasing and rough as well.
“Only if my mate gets on top of me today,” I told her. “Admittedly, I haven’t recovered enough to fully fuck you as you deserve while being on top.”
A bolt of nerves struck her face, but I kissed them away.
“Baby,” I purred, my hands already trailing over her thighs. “If you’re not comfortable, we don’t have to do it that way, but—”
“Mason,” she whispered, cutting me off. “Do you really like my body? You know… this way? Plenty of girls are toned, or thinner, or—”
“You’re perfect,” I growled against her mouth, licking my way past her lips.
“Absolutely fuckin’ perfect, do you hear me?
I’ve always loved your full curves.” I gripped her hip, rolling my erection against her.
“You know, when I was fighting alongside you in the woods, I realized something I should have already known a hell of a long time ago. I don’t want you to just be my partner in fighting.
I want you to be my partner in the pack, in my life.
” My thumb traced circles into her inner thigh.
“I want you to be my mate, Bryce. I love you, and having you back here… it only makes me know just how much I’m not willing to let you go again. ”
“Mason,” she murmured again, her beautiful eyes fixed on me, searching my face, as if she searched for something to betray my words. “You don’t mean that.”
I growled, linking one of my hands through hers to pin her arm above her head, bracing myself over her.
My side ached in protest, but I didn’t care.
“I mean every damn word I say. I want you as my mate, Bryce. I want Cassie to grow up from here on out with both of her parents. I want you waking up in my arms every day. I want to wake up buried in you, smothered in everything that my mate is. I want you. I always have done.”
Tears shone in her eyes, a hesitant smile playing on her lips.
I leaned down to kiss her, snarling into it.
She kissed me back with urgency, her tongue swiping my lower lip, but I was the one who claimed dominance over her.
I rolled my hips over hers, letting her feel every inch of what she did to me.
“You’re my mate,” I told her, my voice hard. “I’m not letting you go.”
“Never,” she gasped, shifting her hips up so my cock brushed between her legs.
Her hand was already reaching down to grasp my length.
“I’d never dream of it.” The desire rose to a dizzying heat in my body, needing to claim her.
Her own words were fevered with the claiming.
“I’ve always loved you, Mason, even when I tried not to.
Even when I ran, even when I kept my secrets.
I’ve dreamed of the day you became my alpha. ”
“Yours?” I teased, brushing the tip of my cock over her pussy.
“Mine.” And the possessiveness of her voice broke my final shred of restraint. I tugged her panties aside, finding her already wet. I met her eyes. Sheepishly, she admitted, “I like calling you mine.”
“I can tell.” I grinned, leaning down to press my face between her thighs, inhaling her scent. Groaning, I pressed my tongue flat to her pussy. My eyes flicked up to meet hers. Already, her pupils were blown wide, her hair mussed, and her lips bitten. “Say it, Bryce. Say that you’re my mate.”
I needed to hear it—I ached to hear it. The wolf inside me roared for her, howled for my mate.
“I’m—oh, fuck, Mason—I’m your mate!” Her mewling declaration came as I swept my tongue over her heat, suckling on her folds.
“Again,” I growled, returning to eating her out.
Her hips bucked, rolling against my mouth.
“I’m—I’m your mate. And you—God, Mason, please don’t stop—you’re mine.
My mate—my alpha.” Her chest heaved as her words punched out of her in beautiful little gasps.
All the while, I teased her clit with my tongue, languidly enjoying her.
Everything in me roared to claim her already, to sink myself deep within Bryce and claim what had been mine from the very start.
“My mate,” I moaned into her heat, licking her deeply to keep that need sated before I pulled away, falling onto my back and bringing Bryce with me.
She had always worried over her weight, but I held her effortlessly.
Her thighs parted around my lap, her stomach soft between us.
I palmed over it, imagining how she may have looked swelled with my daughter.
How she might look pregnant once again in the future.
I growled, pulling her down to me, the thought of her being heavy with more cubs only urging me on.
My cock nestled between her folds, and I slid against her, easily yanking her panties away. They tore, and Bryce giggled, muttering about my strength. Her nails bit into my biceps, marveling at the muscle there. I pushed against her with my hips.
“Take me,” she moaned, right as the head of my cock brushed against her heat. “Claim me as yours, alpha. Claim me as I’ve needed to be claimed all along.”
With a bruising grip on her hips, I did.
Slowly, I pushed myself into her, indulging in the small, hitched moans she let out as she slowly became filled with me.
I wanted her bent in half; I wanted her pinned to my sheets, bound to me in every damn way.
Once I had fully recovered, I would claim all of that.
I’d claim her—every inch, as she deserved.
“Bryce,” I groaned, finally bottoming out. I ran a hand over her stomach again, imagining I could feel myself through her. She whined, her hips kicking forward in little thrusting circles.
“Move,” she all but begged, but I tapped her hip, smiling.
“Not so fast, sweetheart,” I purred, watching as her lashes fluttered with the affectionate name. I dragged a hand up her body, thumbing at her lower lip. “I’m still injured. My mate just might have to do all the work.”
“I’ll—I’ll do it all,” she moaned out, already moving, already setting a fast, brutal pace for our intimacy that I was enthralled by.
Her thighs lifted and dropped her up and down my cock perfectly, her long hair falling down her back.
I leaned forward, gathering her hair in my hand, gentle, as I tugged.
“Good girl,” I growled, my teeth flat against her neck.
I nosed along the junction of her neck and shoulder, my tongue lapping at where her mark would go.
Her scent was strongest there, and I moaned, burying my face in it.
My mate, my mate, my mate. I gripped her hips, snapping my own into her at a faster pace, feeling how boneless Bryce went in my arms.
“Mason.” Her voice was a broken cry, a breathless moan. “Mason, I’m close.”
“Then come,” I told her. “Come when you please.”
“Mason—” Her body began to tremble violently in my arms, and I relished that I could do this: I could deliver this storm of pleasure to her as she shook, her voice cracking as she shouted her release. “Alpha!”
“Come,” I growled, my encouragement only guiding her on as my thrusts didn’t relent.
“Come.” I drove my teeth into her mating mark, biting down, and the high cry Bryce let out, and her accepting me as her mate, only had me spilling my own violent release into her.
My own groans were deep, fractured noises as I let her roll her hips over and over me, her gasping breaths guiding me back down.
I turned Bryce to her side, guiding her to lie down next to me. Face-to-face with her, I smiled at her, thumbing over her mating mark.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmured, tucking her hair behind her ear, but I let my touch linger there, just holding her face as I hadn’t been able to do for too long.
“You. Our daughter. Whatever our future family looks like—it’s all beautiful, Bryce.
” I pulled her in for another kiss. “My mate. My perfect, beautiful mate.”