Sage’s kiss was unrelenting and his hold on her was possessive and hungry. Her knees threatened to give way as the sensations flooded her, so she held on to Sage as tightly as she could while her body rebelled against her mind and gave over to the waves he was creating.
“You don’t understand what you do to me, do you?” He whispered against her mouth. “You’re all me and my wolf can think about lately. All I can concentrate on. You drive me fucking crazy.”
She did?
One hand slowly slid from her hair and moved down until it settled over one of her breasts and squeezed—just enough pressure to elicit a soft moan out of her.
“Christ,” he whispered. “So fucking responsive to me, aren’t you?”
He pressed into her harder and suddenly she was hyper aware of the bulge in his jeans putting exquisite pressure just where she needed it most. She could only moan again, this time louder.
She should be embarrassed by all this reaction, shouldn’t she?
“No one’s ever taken you before, have they?”
The question hung in the air and Emery’s heart seized. Where had that come from?
“Answer me,” he whispered, giving her lower lip a light nip with his teeth that he soothed over with another kiss. “Tell me the truth.”
She floundered. He wanted to know if she’d ever been with another man before? Would he judge her if she gave him the truth? Her inexperience wasn’t exactly something she was proud of.
Suddenly he stopped kissing her. Stopped touching her. He just stopped. She gave out a huff of frustration and tried to pull him back to her mouth, but he pushed away so there was a good six inches of space between their faces.
“Have you ever been fucked, Emery?”
The way he said the words had her chest tightening and heat building between the apex of her thighs, right where his evident arousal had been. She searched his eyes, wary of any judgement there, but she only found hunger. Hunger and a feral need that was blazing from behind his hazel eyes—as though his wolf was waiting for her answer, as well.
“No.” She finally said, giving in and exposing her truth.
Sage was back on her in half a second, but this time he hiked one of her legs around his waist and indicated he wanted her to do the same with the other. With her ankles locked behind his back, he leaned into her so their bodies were practically molded into one and plunged his tongue back into her mouth while his hands gripped her ass and he ground himself into her. It was dizzying and exhilarating and Emery was pretty sure she’d float away into the stratosphere if he didn’t have such a tight grip on her.
“That pussy’s mine,” he said against her mouth as one of his hands moved between them and he possessively cupped the sensitive juncture of her thighs. She hissed and arched toward him at the sensation. “No one else is going to take it. Just me. It’s mine.”
The determination in his voice was almost shocking. But hearing it also made Emery realize how much like home Sage felt to her and her wolf.
“Say it,” he growled, demanding her response. She struggled with the sensations he was creating in her and couldn’t form the words.
“Say it,” he repeated, kissing her harder, not dropping it.
“It’s yours.”
“You’re mine, Emery.”
He groaned again and this time lifted her off the wall and stalked toward her bedroom. The entire thing suddenly felt very real and Emery felt a wave of nervousness.
As if he could feel it, Sage squeezed her tighter to him.
“I’m not going to fuck you tonight. I’m going to wait until you’re completely sure and you’re begging me for it,” he said into the crook of her neck. “But soon. Soon I’m going to make you mine in every single way. Tonight, I’m going to taste you and I’m going to hear you screaming my name over and over again and we’ll start there.”
She was on fire by the time he finished the sentence and her claws had begun to grow, leaving marks on his back as she whimpered.
“That’s right, baby,” he whispered. “Mark me. Show everyone who I belong to.”
Shit.
By the time he dropped her onto her back on the bed, Emery was nearing mindless with need and pent-up frustration.
Sage didn’t hesitate a second, as if he knew that if they drew it out any longer, Emery’s inexperience and nervousness might get the better of her and cause her to doubt. Her clothes were off in less than a breath and Sage whipped his shirt off as well. He moved his well-muscled body up and over hers to take another long, slow kiss from her and the fireworks from the magic in his kiss and the feel of his muscled chest against her skin were unreal.
Emery didn’t have a chance to feel uncomfortable about being naked for the first time with a man. Sage pushed and plundered, making him and what he was doing to her the only thing she could think about.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Sage said, his mouth against her skin as he lowered kisses down her neck, across her collarbone, before taking a taut nipple in his mouth and sucking hard, rolling the bud between his teeth. The action had Emery’s back bowing, pushing her breasts further toward him in a frenzy he was creating. “You were made for me. Every inch of you was made just for me.”
She tried to follow what he was saying, but his actions were so much louder than his words.
He lowered again, trailing kisses down her stomach, around her belly button—going lower and lower. As he neared the very core of her, Sage forced her leg on his shoulder with one hand and speared into the very core of her with a single finger. It was intense and she jerked at the thrill of it. Before she could wrap her mind around everything, his mouth was on her and her mind broke apart.
His tongue ravaged her, plunging in and out, lapping at her and leaving her bare and wide open. But Emery didn’t care. All she could concentrate on was the rising wave that was building in her very center. When his lips came down on her clit and began his assault there, she nearly folded in half, gripping the sheets so hard that her claws sliced through them.
“You taste like heaven, sweet Emery,” Sage growled from between her legs. “I’ll never get enough of this. Never.”
He doubled down on her clit just as he plunged a second finger into her and curved them around, looking for just the right spot. And when he found it?
Emery exploded. Colors swirled behind her eyes and just as he’d promised, she cried out Sage’s name as she gripped his hair, pulling him harder into her as he assaulted her every sense.
She was powerless against the orgasm when it hit and Emery let herself burst into a million pieces around Sage’s talented tongue and fingers.
“Now that,” he said when he finally gave her a reprieve, “was a damn fine place to start, baby.”
Chapter Nine
Sage
His wolf had known the whole time, it seems, but it’d taken Sage a little longer to realize what Emery Wilkins was to him.
His mate.
Had there been any doubt in his mind when he came back later that night, it had been completely washed away the moment her orgasm had flooded his system as she gripped his hair and pulled his face deeper into her heat.
Sage had nearly lost it right then and there with his wolf riding his ass to crawl up Emery’s luscious body and bury himself deep inside her while putting his mark on the crook of her neck for the world to see.
She was asleep under his arm beside her. He hadn’t planned on sleeping in her bed when he arrived, but after that first little taste of her, he wasn’t ever going to sleep without her if he could help it. She belonged with him and he with her, that much was true. Whether she realized it now or not was another matter.
But given just how much she clung to him and trusted him last night, Sage didn’t think Emery would need too much convincing to take his bite and to let Sage make her his forever. Eventually.
As much as his body and his wolf ached to claim her, he knew that he was dealing with new territory because Emery had never bee
n with another. The memory of her admission made him hard all over again.
She must have sensed something and woken up. He knew right away from the change in her breathing.
“Explain to me how you’ve kept that body all to yourself all these years?”
He felt the slight shaking of her body on him. Laughing?
“Wasn’t exactly all that hard,” she said as she lifted her face toward him. With her mussed hair (that he helped create) and that sated, satisfied smile he couldn’t help himself and pushed forward with a soft kiss on her lips. Inside, his wolf was alert and aware of the need Emery’s wolf felt, too. “I’m not exactly the most social of people on my best days. I never really let people in enough. I mean, I’ve had boyfriends and fooled around…”
The low growl from low in his chest was from both Sage and his wolf. She laughed at his jealousy.
“But nothing like what happened with you,” she admitted, with a soft kiss on his pectoral. “That was one of a kind for sure.”
That was the thing about shifters, the human side could deny things like attraction and need all they wanted, but their animals never lied.
“You’re damn right it was,” Sage growled. “And it was only the beginning, baby.”
Color flushed her cheeks and he found it impossible not to pull her up to him and kiss her deeper.
“You know what this is, don’t you?” He wasn’t sure when he was going to have the “talk” with Emery, but he figured coming to an understanding now before things got heavier would be easiest.
“This?” She asked.
“You and me,” Sage pressed. “You know what’s happening, don’t you?”
Her eyes darted right as she obviously searched for something to say. She knew, Sage could tell, but she wasn’t ready to admit it. Well, fuck that. There was plenty he would wait for, but her admission of the truth of the gravity of what was between them wasn’t.
“Look at me,” he gently pushed her face toward his and met her eyes. “Tell me what we are?”
A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth.
“Soon-to-be friends with benefits?” She was teasing him and he loved it, but he needed something more from her.
“Say it.”
She pulled back against the hand that cupped the back of her head, but he wouldn’t let her budge.
“I’m not playing and neither is my wolf,” he said, knowing his wolf flashed in his eyes. Her little gasp of surprise confirmed it. “This is serious shit and if you deny me or my wolf, it’ll piss me off like nothing else and I’ll have to punish that pretty little ass of yours.”
He nipped at her lip with that one and licked across it before he repeated himself.
“What are we?”
He flexed his fingers in her hair slightly. He thought she might fight further, but then he saw the heat back in her gaze as she and her wolf surrendered to the truth they’d known all along.
“Mates.”
“That’s fucking right, baby,” he pulled her against him, his arm wrapping around her waist and his other hand pulling her lips to his. “You’re mine ‘til the end of time. You’ll wear my mark with pride, won’t you? You’ll let anyone who sees you know whose you are.”
She moaned into the kiss and nearly drove him out of his mind. But when she pulled back and made space for her to rain kisses down on his chest, his breathing hitched. What the hell was she doing?
“I’ve never done this,” she purred as she kissed lower, feathering light touches across his abs with her moist lips. “But I need to taste you, Sage. Teach me.”
He and his wolf bucked when a warm tongue traced lower and her nimble fingers undid the fly of his jeans. Was she seriously looking to do what he thought she was doing? Christ. It took all of his willpower not to come right there in his pants.
“Baby,” he breathed as he lifted his hips and let her slide his boxers and jeans off. “Be sure you want to do this. There’s no rush.”
She sniffed at him and nipped at the narrowing patch of hair that led right where she was heading.
“Be quiet, Sage,” she whispered. “And let me fuck you with my mouth.”
Fuuuuuck.
Her mouth was hot and wet and demanding as she slid it down the length of him, flicking her tongue on the underside of him. His hand tightened in her hair and he gently guided her, slowly at first.
“I love the way you taste,” she whispered between gulps.
“Baby, you’re going to make me come right now if you don’t stop torturing me,” he said coarsely, his control nearly gone.
“Come in my mouth,” she pushed, gripping the base of his shaft as she sucked harder and harder, letting Sage fuck her mouth while her free hand cupped his balls. “I want to taste all of you.”
“Jesus, Emery,” Sage groaned, pushed over the edge. “Here it comes, baby. Swallow it all. Let me mark you there, too.”
Her excitement was obvious as she greedily took everything he gave her, his balls twitching as he shot his hot load down the back of her throat. And she took it all, every last drop. She ended the exchange with a nip on his inner thigh and Sage was pretty sure that if he didn’t have pack business to get to eventually, he’d never willingly get out of Emery’s bed again.
***
“Earth to Beta,” Dane teased. Sage looked up and saw that his sentinels were all silently laughing at him and his lack of attention.
“Fuck off,” he said with a smile on his lips. Sienna must have shared the news. He’d told Brody and his sister about Emery as soon as he left her with a perma-smile on her lips.
He’d ravaged that body of hers again and shredded another set of sheets. He could still smell her on him and he and his wolf fucking loved it.
“When will you claim her?” Brody had asked. Fighting the mating urge was hard for shifters and the longer they ignored it, the more out of their minds with lust and need they became.
“When she’s ready.”
The answer was simple and direct—and the truth.
Later that afternoon, he swung by Emery’s cabin to help carry a few things over to his place. They’d decided that although they were going slow when it came to mating and claiming, neither of them wanted to sleep alone anymore. And since Sage had the bigger, more modern cabin, Emery had agreed to stay with him from now on. She didn’t have much, so he didn’t actually expect to find her in her cabin.
But what he found gave him pause.
Emery was sitting Indian-style on the floor, her cellphone in her hands, and her eyes distant. It took Sage saying her name twice and taking her face in his hands for her to focus.
“They called,” she whispered. “They found my cell and they called me.”
Her voice was shaking along with her hands.
“Who, baby?” Sage asked gently, trying not to spook her. “Who called?”
Her teary eyes turned to him.
“Cardoza’s men,” she said with a whimper. “They said my dad got out early and they were waiting for him. They said I needed to go pick him up myself or they’d kill him. They wanted to make a deal with me.”
Sage’s wolf flashed forward, furious that the gangster motherfuckers wanted to mess with his mate.
“It’s a trap,” Sage said softly. “Don’t believe the shit they tell you, okay? I’ll call Samuel and we’ll get the real story.”
Emery nodded but her eyes went distant again, forcing Sage to say her name again.
“Listen to me,” he said in a low voice. “Don’t believe a word they say. They’re out for revenge against you for turning in their boss.”
She nodded, but Sage wasn’t convinced.
“We’ll figure this all out,” he whispered against her mouth. “Don’t worry, baby.”
Jai couldn’t have picked a worse time to knock at the cabin’s door.
“What?” Sage growled, turning to face his enforcer. “What the fuck do you want?”
Jai’s hands went up defensively.
�
��Sorry, boss,” he said. “But Pax is here. They found the last Kodiak yesterday and he’s here. Taking him to the shed. I guess this one’s more willing to talk about their war against us and the plans their prime has.”
Fuck.
He looked down at Emery and searched her eyes.
“You’ll be okay for a little bit?” He asked, completely willing to stay behind if she needed him.
Emery drew in a deep breath and gave Sage a forced smile.
“I’ll be okay,” she said, her voice raw. “We can make a plan when you get back.”
Placated for the moment, Sage kissed the top of her head before jogging after Jai.
“Make yourself comfortable in my cabin,” he called over his shoulder. “My home is your home now.”
Emery nodded and gave him a watery smile. As he briefly caught her eyes, Sage could have sworn that he caught a brief flash of something that looked like regret, but lost it just as fast as it appeared. She was more than likely worried about the threat the humans had made against her father.
They’d figure it all out when he got back.
Chapter Ten
Emery
This was stupid. Really, really stupid.
Holy shit, but this was stupid.
Emery replayed the mantra over and over in her head as she drove north to Wyoming in a pickup truck she’d stolen from Sage. Well, she’d actually stolen the keys from his dresser, but still. If he ever forgave her for what she was about to do, he was going to be so super pissed with her.
As soon as Sage had left, clarity had returned to Emery and she called the jail that held her father. It was true, he’d been released yesterday a few weeks earlier due to overcrowding. The receptionist checked the logs and said a man signed as Felipe Ventura had received her father and his belongings. She didn’t know the name, and she was certain her father didn’t know the name, either.
As she packed a backpack for what she hoped and prayed would be a short trip to Wyoming, she called her Alpha, Samuel.
“No, Emery,” he said, his tone worried. “Nobody contacted us. Where’s Sage? You’re not planning anything stupid, are you?”
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