Page 42 of Crescent Warrior

Hippolyta dragged herself from the bed, leaving a sleeping Cole splayed across her sheets. She felt almost dizzy with hunger and thirst. Her lips were dry and parched. Three days of heat was too long.

She knew they could have fulfilled it easier if he came inside her, but she wasn’t ready for him to fuck her and she was definitely not ready for a pup.

The shiver that ran over her at the thought of bringing a child into such a tumultuous mating warned her that she was nowhere ready to accept Cole.

My body has.

She peered into the full-length mirror in her bathroom before stepping into her shower. Red smudges and marks marred her skin, but they were nowhere as bad as the deep purple bruise on her neck where he marked her multiple times through the haze of orgasms.

Pressing her finger to it, she felt the healing ache zing through her. Mates liked to keep the mark fresh and visible, but no one went out of their way to make it so huge that even a passing alien would know that she belonged to someone. Rolling her eyes at his possessiveness, she considered her options for hiding it.

Stepping into the shower, she started scrubbing at her skin, trying to get his scent off but it seemed impossible. He came on her so many times she figured their scents were now permanently fused.

She should feel annoyed, but all she felt was a twinge of satisfaction. He was as hungry for her as she was for him, going crazy with lust. She bit her lip, remembering their last orgasm together.

He had clasped her pussy, fingers of one hand buried deep inside her and the other rubbing her clit, making her keen with pleasure while he rubbed his cock on her ass. Before their orgasms, he notched his tip against the entrance of her pussy, murmuring filthy words against her neck about how much he wanted to fuck her.

It was everything she could do not to push back, just to feel him inside her. They came together, her entire body convulsing over the strength of her orgasm while she felt him gushing against her, his eyes rolling back in his head.

They fell asleep in a sticky mess, exhausted and sated, and now as she relaxed under the warm spray, she wondered how soon she could feel it again. Lost in her thoughts, she felt arms slide around her.

“What are you thinking about, my Lyta?” he swiped his tongue up the mark on her neck and she turned in his embrace, peering up at him.

His neck was just as bad. She held herself back from marking him, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t bitten him. Marks marred his perfect skin. They would be gone soon, but her own mating mark would stay—a symbol of their bond.

“I don’t want everyone to know,” she told him, swallowing hard.

His eyes went cold and he looked away from her, his arms loosening. Hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do, but she was nowhere near ready to claim a mate when everything was still up in the air.

“Are you ashamed of me?” he whispered.

She knew he was trying to hide the pain in his voice, but it was impossible. She hugged him close, basking in his scent and the feeling of protection in his arms.

“Never,” she murmured, not willing to lie to him.

His arms tightened around her then, cradling her close.

“I just don’t want any pressure from the rest of the pack to fulfill the mating.”

He nodded, stroking her tangled hair over her shoulder. “Not when you already put too much pressure on yourself.” It was said with a smile, but she knew he wasn’t happy about having to hide now that he felt things were settled between them.

“I’m not ready to fully trust you with my heart, Cole,” she whispered, swallowing against the lump in her throat. “You’ve broken it before and I’ve barely been able to glue it back together. I can’t afford for it to happen again.”

He sighed, hugging her tighter. “Give me some time, my Lyta. I’ll prove to you that I’ll never hurt you again.”

She cuddled closer, wishing with everything inside of her that she could believe him. “We probably missed the flight.”

“We’ll get there on our own.” He was purring against her skin and she wondered if he intended to do anything but distract her with his body.

“We need to focus,” she groaned as his fingers dipped between her soap-slicked legs.

“We can focus on each other for now.”

She had never been distracted from her duties before, but with Cole, it was almost impossible to think of anything but him. She wanted to make up for the time they lost.

“Lyta,” Xander called from her bedroom and she was startled away from Cole, pulling herself free from his hold. Her eyes met his, wide and shocked.

“Xan?” she called, rinsing herself off quickly and pulling a fluffy robe from the rack.

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