Chapter 28 Gideon
GIDEON
Residual magic prickles against my skin.
Cold fire computationally tracing the borders of Clara's completed circle.
The pack remains frozen in stunned silence, but all I see is her.
Chest rising fast, lips parted around quickened breaths, golden sigils still pulsing beneath her skin like a heartbeat made visible.
She's never looked more alive.
And that's what undoes me.
"We need to talk." My voice scrapes raw, barely recognizable. More wolf than man. I don't give her room to argue, just catch her wrist and haul her toward the treeline before anyone can react.
She twists free the second we're hidden by the pines, but she doesn't retreat.
"You saw what I just did," she snaps, shoving damp chestnut hair off her forehead with a rigid hand.
Moonlight catches the fading glow of her sigils.
"I didn't need your protection to finish that ritual.
Stop looking at me like I'm still the human scholar you have to shield from the big bad wolves. "
Like she carved into me with silver.
My control cracks.
One step forward. That's all it takes to crowd her against the nearest tree. She inhales sharply, eyes widening, but she doesn't flinch. Never flinches.
"I'm not looking at you like prey." I bite out each word, bracing an arm beside her head. The scent of her magic fills my lungs, drowns all reason. "That’s the problem."
Her pulse jumps in her throat. "Then what are you looking at?"
chapter Like I want to burn alive.
My fingers twitch toward her waist. Stopping just short of contact. Teeth clenched. "A threat."
Her exhale ghosts over my jaw. "Liar."
That steady, stubborn face tilts up to mine. Challenging. Inviting. Mine.
I exhale through clenched teeth, my wolf howling beneath my skin. Clara's scent overwhelms me. Lightning and iron, warm skin and determination. Every muscle in my body locks tight against the urge to push her harder into the tree, to pin her there and take like the beast in my blood demands.
She doesn’t flinch.
My mate.
Her amber eyes burn with challenge, unbroken even when my palm slams into the bark beside her head.
"I've been fighting it… fighting you, because claiming you means binding you to this life.
" My voice is raw, barely human. "To the wars, the blood, the endless council games.
Once my knot locks inside you and my mark sinks into your skin, there's no walking away.
" The confession tears out of me like claws through flesh.
"Not for you. Not without tearing something vital from both of us. "
I brace for her anger. Her defiance.
Instead, Clara steps closer. Heat sears through the scant space between us, her golden sigils flaring like embers against her skin. My damn pulse stutters.
Her hands fist in my shirt. "Bullshit."
I freeze.
"I didn't walk into pack territory to be coddled on the sidelines," she breathes, eyes searing into mine.
"I stayed because the fight is mine. My bloodline, my ancestors, my choice.
" Her grip tightens, fingers pressing hard enough I’ll feel the bruises later.
Good. "If you keep holding back, you’re not protecting me.
" Her voice cracks. Not from fear, but from the weight of everything she's been holding in. "You're denying me."
The world tilts.
Something snaps.
My hand grabs her hair, tilting her head back.
She gasps. Sharp, startled. And I take. My mouth crashes down on hers, lips parting hers with teeth and hunger.
Months of denial bleed into the kiss, brutal and claiming.
Clara doesn’t yield. She fights back, nails biting into my shoulders, her tongue sliding against mine with desperate, furious heat.
I pull back just enough to growl against her lips. "Mine."
Her answer comes as sharp as claws. "Prove it."
A snarl rips from my chest. I yank her forward.
No hesitation, no more half-measures. And her back hits the tree with a thud that shakes sap loose.
Pack scent. Territory. Claiming. The wild scent of evergreens tangles with her magic, and I bury my face in her throat, teeth scraping the spot where my mark sits.
Clara arches against me, gasping, her pulse hammering beneath my tongue.
"You want proof?" My voice is pure wolf. Guttural, rough. I pin her wrists above her head, pressing close enough she can feel every hard, wanting inch of me. "Tell me to stop."
She bares her teeth. "Never."
We don’t make it far.
The second her legs lock around my waist, I lift her easily.
Pine bark scraping my palms as I press her back against the trunk.
She gasps, but there’s no hesitation in her grip, only hunger.
Her sweater bunches under my hands, shoved up past her ribs as I duck my head and lick, bite, claim the taut peaks of her breasts.
Every taste sends golden fire licking beneath her skin.
Sigils igniting brighter, reacting to the rough scrape of my teeth.
Her fingers snatch at my shirt. Fabric shredding somewhere between her nails and my jerk of motion.
Then we’re bare chest to chest, her soft skin against the scars I’ve earned inheriting this pack, this war.
Her jeans tear at the seams when I rip them down, the sound swallowed by her sharp gasp.
Wet heat greets my hand when I slide a finger through her folds. She’s already slick, swollen, ready.
Christ, I’m not.
I grit my teeth as I free myself. Shirt long gone, belts and buckles just obstacles now. My cock juts thick and flushed, veins straining, pre-cum beading along the head.
Her legs hike higher around my hips, thighs tightening. No hesitation. No mercy.
I notch myself against her entrance and thrust deep. One motion. No teasing, no slow stretch, just in.
Her hot, velvet walls gripping me in waves. I growl. Low, possessive and drop my forehead against hers, keeping her pinned as I pull back and slam home again.
She gasps, fingers twisting in my hair, pulling me closer. “Again.”
I bare my teeth and obey, setting a brutal rhythm. Her sigils flare brighter, magic arcing outward, dancing along my cock like static. Every glide and thrust sending sparks shuddering up my spine. Her pussy clenches around me in tight pulses, shuddering through the first climax before I even slow.
I don’t stop.
My thumb finds her clit, rough circles matching the greedy snap of my hips. Denying her a second to recover.
She arches off the tree with a cry, sigils detonating in rivers of gold light, pussy clamping down on me in ripples. Her inner muscles milk me feverishly, tightening again with fresh heat, soaking my cock even as she shakes from oversensitivity.
“Gideon—fuck—!”
That’s all it takes.
My knot swells at the base, locking deep as the first hot pulse of release tears through me as I spill into her in thick, dragging bursts.
Her arms loop around my neck, forehead pressed damply against mine, bodies still shuddering in aftershocks. Blood roars in my ears, heartbeat wild.
Between us, golden sigils glow then slowly fade.
The forest breathes around us again.
Clara exhales. Unsteady and murmurs against my lips.
"Don’t you dare regret this tomorrow."
I drag my teeth over her pulse point once more before answering.
“Regret?” I rasp. “Never.”
I bite down.
Not enough to break skin; enough to brand.
The bond snaps into place with a force near-violent. Her pulse echoes in my veins, her breath rasps against my tongue, her magic burns through my ribs like lit gunpowder. Protection and defiance twist into something inseparable.
I don’t let go.
Not when her nails carve crescent moons into my shoulders. Not when her teeth sink into my collarbone in answer.
We stay tangled against the pine, my arms locked under her thighs, her heartbeat wild against my lips.
The forest air cools the sweat on our skin, but her body stays molten around mine, her sigh shuddering against my chest. Slowly, too soon, my knot softens, but I don’t pull away.
I lift her instead, her legs locking around my waist, her forehead pressed into my throat as I lower us both to the needle-strewn ground.
She shivers.
I drag my palm up her spine, pressing her tighter against me. Silent demand. Closer.
Her exhale ghosts across my chest. "Don’t act like you won’t still try to bench me when the fighting starts tomorrow."
I huff against her hair, fingers threading through the damp waves at her nape. "You really think fucking you into a tree changes that?"
Her knee nudges my thigh. But I catch the wince she tries to hide. Bruised. Sore. Mine. A low rumble builds in my chest.
Her fingertips trace the bite blooming on her shoulder, then slide down to press against the pulse hammering in my throat. "It changes this."
No denial left in me.
The bond thrums between us. An open circuit, rushing with the truth curling through my veins: I’d burn worlds before letting her go again. But dawn stalks closer with every breath, and war doesn’t wait for revelations.
I tilt her chin up. "You’re still reckless."
Her grin is all teeth. "And you’re still a controlling bastard."
The growl rips free. My palm cages the back of her neck, dragging her mouth to mine. No patience left, just hunger. She meets me halfway, fingers knotting in my hair, her taste flooding my senses. Iron. Wild honey.
When I finally pull back, her lips are parted, breath ragged.
"Tomorrow," I mutter against her temple, "you follow my lead."
Her laugh is smoke and sparks.
Hell.
I catch her wrist before she can argue. Flipping her beneath me in one motion, feeling her shiver as I loom over her, blocking out the moon. Her hips roll instinctively, seeking friction, but I pin her down with a warning snarl.
She arches a brow. "Regretting it already?"
I drag my teeth along her jaw. "Never."
And when war comes at sunrise, I won’t be the only wolf hunting blood.