Chapter 17 #2
“My saliva has healing properties,” he murmured against her and she jerked again.
He smiled and lowered his head, his tongue stroking a slow, deliberate path through her delicate folds.
She tasted of honey and salt and his seed, a combination that was more intoxicating than any wine.
He took his time, exploring every inch of her, lapping at her clit, stroking her entrance with the tip of his tongue, learning her tastes and textures.
Her breathy little cries of pleasure were a balm to the savage part of him that had worried he’d hurt her.
He could make her feel good. He could bring her pleasure.
And that knowledge was as powerful as any claiming.
He slid a finger into her, and she bucked against him, her body arching off the bed. He crooked his finger, stroking that sensitive spot inside her as he circled her clit with his tongue. She came with a sharp, shocked cry, her body shaking, her inner muscles clenching around his finger.
She lay panting against the sheets, her body flushed and limp, a dazed, satisfied smile on her lips. He stretched out beside her, pulling her into his arms and holding her close.
“Adrian,” she whispered, her head heavy against his shoulder. “That was… wow.”
He rumbled a laugh, a deep, satisfied sound that vibrated through both of them. “I’m glad you approve.”
“Approve? I think I just saw the face of God.” She propped herself up on an elbow, her grey eyes soft in the moonlight. “Are all werewolves that… thorough?”
“No,” he said, and was surprised by the absolute certainty in his own voice. “Only with their mates.”
The word hung in the air between them, fragile and dangerous. He hadn’t meant to say it, but the moon was still singing its wild song in his blood, and the walls he kept around his heart were in tatters.
“Mates,” she repeated softly, her expression unreadable. “We’re back to that.”
“We never left it.”
He watched her process this, saw the analytical mind he admired so much click into gear. She didn’t back away from the word. She didn’t dismiss it as madness or fantasy. She studied it, turned it over, examined it from every angle with the same focus she applied to a security breach.
“What does that mean, exactly?” she asked. “For you. For us. You said before that you don’t do casual. That if you took me, you’d be claiming me permanently. But what does ‘permanent’ look like for an Alpha werewolf and a human?”
He should have expected this. Harper was a woman of details, of definitions, of clear parameters. She wouldn’t accept a vague, romantic notion of fate. She’d want specifics.
“It means a bond that can’t be broken. Not by distance, not by disagreement, not by anything short of death.
” He hesitated, then added, “In my case, it also means you would be the Luna. The Alpha’s mate.
You’d have authority within the pack, though how much depends partially on you and how the pack accepts you. ”
“And you think they would accept me?” Her expression was carefully neutral. “Elder Howard seemed to think I was one step up from a stray dog.”
“Elder Howard is a traditionalist who fears change. But he’s not the pack.” He brushed a stray strand of pink hair from her cheek. “The pack will follow my lead. They will accept you.”
“Even though I’m human?” The question was soft, vulnerable.
“They will accept you because I have chosen you.” His thumb stroked her jawline. “And because I will not tolerate any disrespect towards you.”
“That’s… a lot of pressure.” She scooted away from him slightly, sitting up and wrapping her arms around her knees. “I came here to do a job, Adrian. I didn’t come looking to be the… Luna of a werewolf pack.”
“I know. Neither of us planned this.”
“Is that what this is?” She gestured between them. “Some kind of cosmic accident? The universe deciding it would be fun to mess with two emotionally unavailable people?”
He couldn’t help but laugh at her blunt description. “Something like that. Mate bonds are rare. They’re a gift from the goddess. The idea that every wolf has a perfect match somewhere in the world.”
“And you think I’m your perfect match?”
He looked at her—this brilliant, stubborn, ridiculously vulnerable woman with her pink hair and her sharp tongue and her complete inability to handle social situations she couldn’t analyze with charts.
He thought of the way she’d stood up to the elders, the way she’d challenged him, the way she’d looked at him when he told her he couldn’t trust easily.
“I’m absolutely positive.” The certainty in his voice didn’t surprise him. On some level, he’d known from the beginning.
She digested this in silence, her forehead wrinkling in concentration.
He watched her mind work, saw her running scenarios, calculating probabilities, weighing risks.
This was her comfort zone—analysis, data, logical conclusions.
He’d given her an entirely new kind of problem to solve, and he could almost hear the gears turning.
“So what do we do?” she asked finally, her eyes meeting his with that directness he found so compelling. “To make it official?”
“There are two aspects to it. First I give you a mating bite.”
Her eyes widened. “You want to bite me?”
Fuck, yes. His cock twitched at the mere thought. “It’s… more than a bite. It’s a mark. A claim that binds us together. Permanently.”
He half expected her to pull away. To tell him he was crazy. To demand her clothes and a one-way ticket off Monster Island.
Instead, she tilted her head, studying him with an unnerving focus. “Where?”
He blinked. “What?”
“Where do you bite me?” She gestured vaguely at her own body. “And is it like a hickey? Or are we talking a serious, needs-stitches kind of bite?”
A laugh burst out of him, startling them both. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed like this—genuinely, without restraint. She just kept doing that to him, surprising him out of the rigid control he’d maintained for years.
“No stitches,” he said, his smile lingering.
“And the wound heals quickly although the scar is permanent.” He reached out, gently touching the place where her neck met her shoulder.
“I would place it here, where everyone could see it. A sign to all wolves that you’re mine. Under my protection. Bound to me.”
His thumb stroked the sensitive skin there, and he felt her shiver. Her pulse fluttered beneath his touch, a rapid, nervous rhythm that was entirely at odds with the calm curiosity in her expression.
“So it’s like… a wedding ring?” she asked. “Except more painful and visible to people who might actually try to hit on me in a bar?”
That laugh escaped again, a deep, warm rumble in his chest. “Exactly like a wedding ring. Only less likely to be left in a hotel bathroom.”
“Right.” She nodded thoughtfully. “And I’d be Luna. In charge of… pack things?”
“You’d be in charge of whatever you wanted to be in charge of,” he said.
“The pack’s internal operations, social events, welfare…
those are traditional roles for the Luna, but you do not have to adopt those roles if you do not want to.
Since you’d also have my authority, you could oversee the modernization project yourself, without needing my approval. ”
“Hmm. That’s almost reason enough right there.” A small, mischievous smile played on her lips. “But what about heirs? I expect the elders will have something to say about that.”
“Heirs are… important to the pack. Which is where the second part of being a mate comes in.” He took her hand and placed it on the thick ring of rougher skin that surrounded the base of his cock. “This is my knot. It expands when I climax, locking us together so my seed will take root.”
Her eyes widened and her scent grew richer and sweeter.
“You get… bigger? I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“Oh, it’s possible, kitten. And I promise you, you’re going to love having your sweet little cunt filled with my knot.”
She was panting now, her fingers flexing around his cock, but he forced himself to remove her hand. They needed to finish this discussion first.
“Ensuring a strong line of leadership is one of the Alpha’s primary responsibilities,” he said carefully.
“But I never want you to feel pressured to have a child. Fortunately, we have Derek. His child continues the Moonstone bloodline. The pressure on me isn’t what it would be for an Alpha without a direct successor. ”
She frowned at him, her brain clearly reengaging. “That’s assuming Derek and Julie want their child to assume that role.”
It was a valid point, but he only shrugged.
“I said it would remove the pressure on me. But although the position is traditionally hereditary, there is no law binding the role of Alpha to a specific family. Of course if Elder Howard gets his way, it won’t be my role to pass down anyway.”
“And he’s more likely to get his way if you’re mated to a human,” she said, watching his face. “It’s a risk for you.”
“Everything about you is a risk,” he said, his voice dropping to a low growl.
“The risk of wanting someone I can’t have.
The risk of distracting you from your work.
The risk of you leaving in six weeks and taking half my soul with you.
The risk of the elders calling for a challenge.
” He cupped her face in his hands. “But the risk of not claiming you, of letting you walk away, that’s the biggest risk of all. ”
Her expression softened, her analytical armor finally giving way to raw emotion. “You’re a very stubborn, complicated male, Adrian Moonstone.”
“It has been said.”
She leaned in and kissed him, a soft, searching kiss that was both a question and an answer. When she pulled back, her eyes were clear and certain.
“Then I guess you’ll just have to bite me.”
A surge of possessive triumph, so powerful it made his teeth ache, flooded through him. His wolf howled in victory. He pressed her back against the pillows, his body covering hers, the familiar heat building between them despite their recent exertions.
“Are you sure?” he asked, giving her one final chance to reconsider. “Once I do this, there’s no going back. We’ll be bound together. Forever.”
“I’m sure. I—”
Her phone rang, the noise harsh in the quiet room.