Lake had a lot of things to tell him. They’d have to wait. He needed her naked. Five miles had never felt so long.
****
Lake had to get them the room. He’d shifted back, but he was still too animal-like to deal with the woman in the front office. If she had done anything except handed him room keys and gotten out of his way, he might have shown her his canines.
His mate hadn’t needed to be told how close to the edge he roamed. She’d left him to stand in the parking lot without a word on the subject. Minutes felt like hours. What the hell was taking so long? The sign said vacancy. Utter and complete incompetency. Maybe he should head inside and….
Lake stepped out of the office and held up the key card in her hand. He crossed to her, and they walked in silence. He stayed a step behind her since she knew what room they’d been given, and he had no idea.
Breathing seemed to be all he could manage.
They made their way to the second floor. Why did it have to be so far away? There were no fucking rooms closer to the office? They had to actually walk up the stairs.
“Lake.” He could hear the complaint in his own voice.
She nodded. “I know. And I haven’t forgotten. You told me I would beg you to mate me. You wouldn’t take me until I did. I made us both so unhappy. Some of it I couldn’t remember; some of it falls entirely on my shoulders. Beaux, please, would you mate me? I’ll beg more if you want.”
Of course she remembered every stupid word he’d uttered. Except maybe she didn’t.
“You didn’t want to mate. You didn’t wish for this. Death changed it?”
She placed the key card into the slot of what had to be their hotel room. He noticed her hand shaking. At least he wasn’t the only one affected. His mate smelled of arousal, the sweet honey he thought he’d never experience again.
“I didn’t want to mate because I knew I was going to die. I remembered the True Believers told me I’d go rabid, and then I’d die. Their version isn’t exactly how it went. Of course, they didn’t know I was the Healer Prime. Or if they did….”
“Lake.”
His blood bubbled, and, given his current state of tension, it wasn’t a good feeling. How much more could he take before he actually exploded?
“Are you telling me you stopped our mating because you knew you were going to die?”
“I…ah…thought…it would be easier for you if we hadn’t mated when I died.”
Headstrong, stubborn woman. By the Moon, he loved her so much, even when she made really horrendous mistakes.
The door opened, which was a good thing considering, he wanted to kick it down. He tugged Lake up against him as he rushed them into the room.
He slammed the door so hard the mirror on the adjoining wall shook enough he thought it might shatter to the floor.
“Beaux.”
“Lake over the next, say, fifty years I am going to show you how completely wrong all the assumptions you made about how I would feel were wrong. Maybe seventy-five years.”
If it took all the days of the rest of his life, he would make it clear. Somehow he would make them understood.
She leaned her head against the wall.
“Cyrus said mating—for the males—is different than for the females. For us, it doesn’t really happen until you catch us, until we actually mate. We have feelings for you, and the bond forms with the bite.”
He tried to breathe through his nose. Hearing her say “bite” made his teeth ache, and his eyes turned wolf. He couldn’t turn it off and didn’t try.
“You talked to your brother.”
“Another thing which apparently will make you mad.” She closed her eyes. “I didn’t mean to discuss it with Cyrus, if it means anything. It wasn’t planned or anything.”
“Open your eyes, beautiful.”
She did as he asked, wariness evident in her blue depths. He smoothed his finger down the side of her face.
“I wanted to spare you pain. I didn’t understand you’d be left with the failure to mate in addition to my death to grieve. I didn’t get it. There’s a lot of things I clearly lack a significant amount of knowledge on. I have no idea why the Moon thought I should be Healer Prime.”
“Didn’t they explain it to you?”
“Who’s they?” She shook her head.
“What exactly happened to you when you were dead?”
Lake shrugged. “I have no idea. If something occurred, I have no memory of it.”
“Huh.”
He supposed it was too much to ask if she had met Lily and the Alpha as well. Wouldn’t the Healer Prime have spent some time with them, too? He shook his head. Beaux really didn’t give two shits what had happened on the other side. She was here. He wanted her, needed her, craved her. Now.
“What….”
He cut her off. Whatever she wanted to say, they’d get to later. There was only one last thing he needed to make clear. He yanked their lips apart. “I’m going to bite you, Lake. If you have some other reason why you don’t want this, you need to tell me now.”
“Beaux. Please, bite me. Bite me hard.”
Beaux was on her fast. Their mouths fused together, and, for the first time since he’d heard her yelling in the woods, he didn’t think he’d lost his mind. She was here and thank the Moon he could finally call her his.
Her body pressed against hers, and he could feel all of her perfect curves. He let his hands roam her body, feeling each inch of her beautifully alive self beneath his fingertips. Through her clothes, he could feel her heat beat. So good. It was right, it was alive.
He tugged her shirt over her head, exposing her bra and the smooth, peachy skin of her abdomen.
“Does the wall bother you? Is it digging into your back?”
She pulled his head back down until their mouths almost touched. “No. The only thing hurting me is I don’t have your hands on me yet.”
He kissed her, hard, and she moaned. Beaux could feel the sound move through his whole body. His balls tightened to the point of pain, and he lost control.
Beaux had to kiss her all over. With one arm, he lifted her away from the wall and pushed her down on the bed.
“I told you I was fine.” She laughed.
“I wasn’t. I need better access, sweetheart.”
She tasted like cinnamon as he’d known she would. He kissed her all the way down from her chin until he reached her belly button. Her strong abdominal muscles trembled beneath him, and her hands came into his hair. She wasn’t hard to read, and he wanted to give her what she wanted, more than anything in the world.
Lake liked to be kissed. He unsnapped her bra in the front and threw it to the side. She wouldn’t be putting it back on for the rest of the night.
He took her left nipple in his mouth and sucked, loving the pull the small bud made when he had it in his mouth.
“Damn it, Beaux.” She squirmed beneath him. “You still have on too many clothes.”
“You’re a werewolf. You want them off, get rid of them.”
Lake giggled. “I’m the Healer Prime. You want me to be…aggressive?”
“You’re my werewolf goddess. You can do anything you want.”
She grinned and stretched her hands forward. In seconds, her fingernails were claws.
“I guess I can.”
Lake tore his shirt to shreds, her gaze never leaving his. “Kind of like that.” Her claws retracted.
“Look at you with control of your abilities. Seeing you shift, to be so powerful, it’s fucking hot.” He growled against her mouth. He didn’t know another wolf in the universe who had a mate as spectacular as her.
“And now I get to put my hands on your skin.”
She touched him with gentle fingers and he shivered beneath her touch. Her death had destroyed him. He knew what it would mean to lose her, just what that darkness would feel like. He’d never known gratitude like he was experiencing right then.
What had he ever done in his life to des
erve to have her now?
“Beaux.” She tweaked his chin. “Where did you go? Your thoughts weren’t here with me.”
“I know you’re here. I believe it. I think it’s going to take some time to really feel it.”
She reached down between them and stroked his cock. It jumped beneath her hands. He’d always react the same way when she touched him, his body so attuned to hers.
“Can you feel what I’m doing?”
She clucked her tongue when she asked the question, and it had to be the cutest thing ever.
“I think it’s pretty obvious I can.”
“What about this?” She leaned up and licked his chest, a long stroke until she reached his nipple. “Feel it?”
He nodded. His mouth had gone dry, and he wasn’t certain he could manage to form words.
“What about this?’ She sucked on his nipple as he had done to hers moments earlier.
He tried to answer.
“Ahh....”
“I think you can feel it.” Her teasing smile fell. “I know this has been hell. I know it because, if you died, I’d want to cease existing altogether. I’m here now. No more time apart. No more separations. No more not mating. Take me now. I want the connection; I need you so badly.”
Beaux nodded. “I love you, darling. I need you to know.”
“I love you, too. Mate me, Beaux. I’m begging you to mate me.”
His hands shook, yet they still worked, and he somehow managed to get the rest of her clothes off. She must have taken his off, too. All he absorbed was the heat, the sheer magnitude of the lava-esque attraction between them.
Beneath him, she spread her legs. He’d seen her before, but now it was like he looked at her with new eyes. There were no more barriers between them.
“You’re so beautiful, Lake. Like the kind of beautiful men write poetry about.”
“Thank you.” She stroked his stomach, her hand moving down toward his cock.
He grabbed it to stop her before she actually touched him. “If you do more stroking, I am going to explode. I need to be inside of you the first time.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
He could smell her juices and his mouth watered.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to play first.”
The woman had made him wait for this. He wasn’t going to let this be over until he was good and ready.
He moved down until he could position himself right in front of the entrance of her pussy. She groaned.
“Didn’t you say something about wanting to be inside of me?”
“For me. I said nothing about you not coming over and over again.”
“Beaux.”
He found her clit immediately. His fingers knew right where to go, and he let himself indulge for a few moments in the magnitude of the gift granted to him because he got to touch her as much as he wanted.
She closed her eyes. “Beaux.”
“Like that, do you?” His fingers stopped rubbing, and his tongue took over where his fingers had been.
“Oh, yes.”
She squirmed, and he held onto her knee to keep her from closing her legs.
“I want to taste your juices on my tongue.”
And he was going to do anything he could to make it happen. Beaux increased his efforts. He swirled over the spot over and over, losing himself in the movements, loving that they had this time together.
Her abdomen tightened seconds before she came. Lake called out his name, and he couldn’t help except smile as he lapped the manna from heaven that was his beloved’s pleasure on his lips.
“Mine.”
He looked up at her and she opened her eyes to meet his gaze. Lake would understand what he was saying. His need to possess her had moved to the forefront of his mind. He needed it to happen now. As much as he would have preferred they have more time, it had to be now.
Later he would bathe her in so much foreplay she couldn’t see or ever walk straight again.
“I need you.” She took his hand and pulled him toward her until they were in position. “Only you. Forever.”
Beaux pushed into her, slowly. She was a werewolf; she could handle what he gave her, which didn’t mean he wouldn’t be gentle. He’d treat her with as much care as he could, always.
“Beaux.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, drawing him deeper inside of her. Her eyebrows raised in challenge. “Take the kid gloves off, and fuck me like you’re a damned Alpha.”
“Ha. As the Healer Prime wants.
He surged forward, and she cried out before she dug her fingers into his back. He loved the pain that mingled with the pleasure surging up and down his spine.
Beaux grabbed hold of her wrists and held onto them.
“Over your head, baby.”
He thought she might argue, but she didn’t. Instead, she did as he instructed immediately.
“Good girl. Your hands stay on the headboard until I tell you to move them. That’s what I want. You’re mine.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I want to be yours. I want to belong to you.”
He pushed forward again and then pulled out. She bit down on her lip and moaned. It was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
“Tonight, it’s the headboard. Tomorrow, you don’t come until I tell you to.”
She’d be his Mate, his completely, and it would be his pleasure in life to see to her needs and give her what she wanted. Lake took care of everyone else. He would see to her, and, in the bedroom, she wouldn’t have to worry about anything at all.
“I like the kink, Beaux.” She breathed heavily. “I didn’t think I would. No one has tried it with me before.”
His teeth ached. It was almost time to bite her.
“I know you do, Lake. I can see you, all of you. All the parts of you, particularly the parts you don’t let others see. I know what you need.”
“Yes.”
“And right now, you need to come. Hard.”
He sharpened his thrusts to rub against her clit until she cried out beneath him. He held off his own pleasure. Not until he bit down. In his soul he knew how to mate her, exactly how it had to happen.
His fangs elongated, and his balls hardened to near explosive pain. She opened her pleasure-filled eyes to look at him. Heat met his gaze. She was his mate, and, by the Moon, he would have her.
Beaux bit down on her shoulder. He drew blood and tasted it on his lips. Lake came around him again, hard. He hadn’t known the act would make her come, and he loved how it did. Elation pulsed through his veins. Relief. Acceptance. Happiness. Protectiveness. A million emotions he realized he’d never really felt before, not with the intensity he felt them now.
Deep utter peace filled his soul, and, after a few seconds—which might have been hours since it felt like time no longer had any meaning—he felt capable of letting go of her skin. The animal in him pressed back inside. He had his mate. She belonged to him.
Thank the Moon.
Lake grabbed the side of his face.
“Beaux.”
He could feel her inside of him, her soul pressed against his own.
“I know.”
Beaux kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her some more.
****
The room was dark when he opened his eyes. His mate—and now he could finally mean the word—pressed against him, laying in the crook of his arm.
“How long have you been awake?” He kissed the top of her head.
“A bit.”
Beaux liked that he heard a smile in her voice.
“All okay?” He pulled back to look at her. In the darkness, everything felt heightened. The shadows on her face, the way the moonlight danced through the windows, they weren’t fleeting, but integral parts of the landscape of the moment. He’d never forget them.
“Before I left New York, I gave Alexei and Cyrus information about where the missing children in their areas were located. Well, I gave them the same kind of information I used to
find you. General descriptions. They had to go from there.”
“Right.”
This was Healer Prime stuff. He’d never be able to understand what she did or how she knew the things she saw. It was his job to protect her, even if it never made sense.
“And now, I started to have those senses again, about children here. It woke me up.”
He sat up. “The kids are near here?”
“I think so. I need a computer. I need to call Cyrus and Alexei, too. I can see their locations a little more clearly.” She sat up and stretched her arms over her head. “I want to get those kids.”
“Let’s get the pack involved. We’ll all do it together. Plan a rescue. We’ll do this the right way.”
“Okay.” She smiled at him, and, in the darkness, he could see it didn’t reach her eyes. “This is going to be how it is now, isn’t it? I go to bed feeling no pain, and I wake up knowing nothing will ever really be fine. Seeing the pain of our people.”
“You were doing it anyway. Now, you seem to have some control over it.”
He took her hand and squeezed it. His role, the one set out for him by the moon, cleared for him. Lake would have the weight of the world on her shoulders, and he would be what held her up.
“I died for this. I keep wondering if they made some kind of epic mistake. Then I see the children’s faces in my mind’s eye, and I know they didn’t. I need to do this. I’ll see it through. They had to know my flaws and my stubborn nature when they picked me.”
“I could name about a thousand more reasons why they chose you, sweetheart. Yeah, okay, we’ll go with your version if it’s is the one you like.” He kissed her forehead. “Let’s get out of here.”
Lake would have no rest until the children were found, and there was no time to waste. With Aaron gone, there had to be a power struggle happening in the True Believers. Upheaval heightened the danger. He’d planned to leave it all behind, and now, with Lake as Healer Prime; he’d never been more involved.
There was one question he had to have answered first.
“Lake, why did Alexei know what had happened to you?”
He was pretty sure he knew the answer, and the ramifications of it would resonate forever. Still, the words had to be said.
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