Chapter 35 #2
I heard the popping of joints and snapping of bones. Belatedly, I realized that I’d left her sheet outside so I wouldn’t be able to cover her when she changed back. I ran out quickly, grabbing the material and coming back, throwing it over her naked shivering form.
Rose grabbed my wrist as it brushed by her ear. Suddenly, with surprising strength, she pulled me down into her. I caught a whiff of her scent and growled. She was aroused and her scent was even more intoxicating now. After her turn.
Rose nuzzled the skin behind my ear, inhaling my scent and using her now heightened senses. She pushed her sheet clad form against me.
Of their own volition, my hands trailed up, slipping past the opening of her sheet and skimming up her bare arms. A deep rumble emitted from me as I became completely encased by the desire her scent and proximity sent surging through me.
I cupped her breasts, caged them in my hands.
They were soft and supple, perfect. Rose moaned, arching into me.
I flicked a nipple experimentally and saw pleasure erupt across Rose’s face. She was enjoying this.
My luna. MINE.
My wolf instinct screamed it, the thought pounding into my brain, and something else very ugly reared my head. Jealousy. Jealousy that she would never be anyone else’s.
She will never be Jake’s. She’s mine. She can't be his. SHE BELONGS TO ME!
I had to see, I had to know the extent of her feelings for me.
Did I have a chance or was she going to leave me for Jake?
And the green-eyed monster took full control, the desire to claim her too great to resist any longer.
Months of endless control snapped like a rubber band stretched too thin. I pulled her into my arms with a growl.
My teeth skimmed the base of her throat, and Rose let out a breathy groan, her small hands coming up to clutch the soft fabric of my shirt. My mouth clamped over her slender neck and the groan my nibbles tore from her lips spurred me on.
“Alpha,” Rose said on a deep throaty purr, panting against me as I laid her down against the stone floor of the temple.
I kissed my way down her neck to the spot right above the curve where her neck met her shoulder, lips branding her with my scent.
I was salivating from the prospect of what was to come next.
Teeth elongated, canines came out, and my tongue swirled around her skin to prepare it for my bite.
Her scent made my nostrils flare and the blood in my veins sing.
Unable to hold back any longer, I pressed my canines gently, finding the softest spot and then bit down puncturing skin, tasting her blood when I marked her.
Rose's POV
I gasped, stiffening as his canines broke skin but the momentary pain was erased by the most pleasurable feeling coiling inside me.
“Ohhh,” I gasped.
There was a hum deep in my chest, satisfied at the outcome of tonight.
He was mine and I was his. Oh, why did we ever try to stay apart?
Aiden growled against my throat and I threw my head back, eyes closed, as shots of pleasure coursed through my veins, beating against my skin, begging to be released.
Pure desire surged through me as he continued to suck and lave his tongue over the area where his lips were still attached.
Finally, his canines retreated, and the shocks of pleasure dimmed, but Aiden continued kissing his way across my shoulder and collarbone.
I could feel his heartbeat against my naked chest, feel the heat rising within him doubling my own pleasure and when I opened my eyes to look at him, I saw myself staring back as he saw me.
Green eyes, kissable lips, a light flush creeping across my cheeks and curls that begged to be grabbed by the handful.
There was a heady rush of euphoria in me when I realized that Aiden found me beautiful even if I was bare-faced and wild.
I was seeing myself through his eyes, because we could share our thoughts with each other now.
I read it clearly in his mind. The knowledge made my heart soar and a content sigh fall from my lips. My mate didn't find me ugly.
You can never be Jake’s. MINE! You’re mine!
I blinked in confusion at the unbidden thought, and everything righted itself.
My eyes fluttered as I looked up to see Aiden peering down at me determinedly.
..no, possessively. Like he owned me. Then gasped as I saw memories in my brain roll like a movie in reverse.
One word pounded again and again into my brain: Jake, Jake, Jake.
The movie would pause at each memory of mine with Jake.
Jake congratulating me at our mating ceremony.
Jake studying with me.
Jake and I eating lunch together between classes.
Jake holding me as I hyperventilated at the concert because I thought I saw Ray.
Jake admitting how he would have tried his luck with me if it wasn’t for Aiden.
Me telling Jake about the medicine Lexia had given me…
Jake taking my bejeweled ponytail holder from my hair playfully smelling it and then pocketing it…
Aiden growled angrily as the movie paused. Then the memory began to play again, pause, and then play again as Aiden listened closely to the conversation about the silver medicine Lexia gave me. Finally, he moved on to another memory.
I realized with a sinking feeling that this was Aiden. He was going through my memories. The marking had created a link between our minds. Each and every memory I had of my interactions with Jake was being carefully scrutinized by Aiden!
It was looking like Aiden was looking for…for something. Did he think Jake was the one working against their pack? Is that why he was doing this?
It was like he was walking through shelves upon shelves of boxes with reels of my memory inside of it cataloged under the name Jake.
Carefully, taking the reel and playing the movie only to close it back into its box before selecting another reel from another box to play.
I was helplessly watching him breach my right of privacy.
And then he found it, the box labeled secret.
My heartbeat almost stuttered to a stop when he played the memory of me with Jake whenever I’d watched Aiden with Lexia on campus.
The sadness I’d felt, the way I’d scolded myself to stop hoping for something that wasn’t possible.
The way I would watch him wedge his knee between her legs…
wondering how it'd feel to be in Lexia’s place.
Then he dug deeper into my box of secrets, reaching for the memory of when I had seen Lexia with Aiden on graduation and how I had become possessive...
How my stomach had plummeted at the sight of Lexia pressed up against Aiden...
No…I pushed against Aiden’s intrusion.
“No, you can’t do this. It’s private…stop…”
I pushed against him in my brain, using our mind-link. But it only made Aiden more relentless. He didn't view that memory further but looked for more in my secret box catalogued under Jake, tearing free of the barricade I was trying to build against him.
“What are you hiding, Rose?”
He was a trespasser in my mind, going through my secrets as if he owned the place.
As if he owned my MIND. But he didn’t. These were mine!
My feelings, my secrets, and he was an interloper.
He didn’t belong there. And I felt his anger rise when he got to the memory of Jake and me arguing just before my kidnapping, of Jake leaning in to kiss me, of me thinking the kiss was all wrong. Jake didn’t taste or smell like Aiden.
He didn't have blue eyes as deep as the ocean like Aiden's either...
NO!
I pushed him out of my mind and physically off of me. Breathing hard, my arms came up to cover my naked form, knees bending upwards to hide my nakedness.
Aiden’s POV
Her chest heaved and I leaned back against my hands looking at her dumbstruck.
“Get away!” Rose hissed angrily, tears falling down her eyes.
Now I knew. I knew she had feelings for me. Elation soared through me from the knowledge. And then searing regret because I could feel her building up a wall against me. I could feel her rage.
“Don’t,” I said hoarsely. “Don’t shut me out, Rose.”
I leaned forward, reaching out a hand to her. I was deeply sorry and sent the emotions towards Rose. I opened my mouth to speak, imploring her. “Don't put up a wall. Let me show you how I—”
Rose slapped my hand away.
“Get away!” she roared, a feral growl coming out, eyes glowing yellow. “Don’t look at me like you’re sorry! Do you feel sorry for not liking me back, or sorry for looking through my memories?” Her eyes shone with unshed tears. “Or both?” she rasped out.
But before I could say anything, her bones snapped, changing her into her wolf form.
I looked at Rose shifting into her wolf form and regret seared itself inside my mind and soul. I shouldn't have lost my control. I shouldn't have invaded her mind like I had every right to do so. But my wolf had been in charge, and I’d lost control. Because I’d been jealous.
I forgot everything in that moment and I’d shoved myself inside her mind when she’d been too caught up in the recent marking.
And I kept searching. I didn’t even ask!
I just started searching for something, uncovering Rose’s dearly kept secret that she had a crush on me.
Her wolf sniffed disdainfully, ignoring my offered hand.
“I don’t need your pity,” she snarled at me through the mind-link.
We could communicate since we were from the same pack.
But she was barricading her mind against me so I couldn’t get into her mind through the power granted by my mark, and she couldn’t get into mine.
My wolf growled in my head, wanting to push through her walls but I reined him in.
Her paws carried her away, out of the temple and into the dark night.
I’d only wanted to assess her feelings for Jake.
I’d just wanted to see how deep her feelings went for me because my crazy wolf had become so jealous over the thought that she might like someone else.
But I’d been so wrong. She’d never been Jake’s girlfriend.
She’d never even really liked Jake. No, her affections were definitely not fixated on Jake.
They were for me and me alone. Though now, I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to see me again.