Page 98 of Wild Wolf

“So much for him being the dark in the dead of the night,” Cain said with a low laugh.

“He’ll come visit though, right?” I asked hopefully. I liked having him around. Crow-thing liked him too, although my bird liked everyone here. He was always busy flying around with the pups, even chasing Dante into the sky in his Dragon form like a fearless little Crow-thing.

“Anyway, I’ve got a date with a danger noodle. See ya in a bit.” I kissed Rosalie on the cheek, then lunged at Cain to kiss his cheek too, but he swerved me, knocking me stumbling toward the front door.

“Danger noodle?” Cain muttered, and my smile widened as I headed inside to meet with one of the Oscuras who was good at inking skin. I was officially going to become one of them and I’d decided to get my mark somewhere that wasn’t my ass cheek or the middle of my forehead. It was a surprise for Rosa, proof that I was part of her family and that I would never be leaving, because no way was I bitter that I was the only one without a mate mark. Not at all. I wasn’t doing this just to make my own mark. Absolutely not. Except maybe a bit. Just a little. A smidge.

“This is too cute, Sin,” Rosalie purred as she arrived in the garden where I’d laid out some blankets and pillows for us under the stars. Ethan had headed off to visit his family and Roary and Cain were having their Vampy alone time. They liked to sit in a quiet room together and just…chill. Seemed like bore-town to me but they got their kicks out of it. Me? I liked being around the hustle of the house, playing hide and seek or tag with the Wolf pups.

A few of them were peeking at us through the vines at the end of the lawn and I shooed them away with a grin.

“Do you want some of those?” I asked as I took Rosalie’s hand and led her onto the blankets, puffing up a pillow for her head as we lay down.

“What, grapes?”

“Pups,” I said as the kids went tearing off through the vineyard with howls of excitement.

She fell very quiet and I frowned, unsure if I’d said the wrong thing. Sometimes I did that. Saying things that sounded right in my head but came out all spikey and twisted. I was getting better every day at reading my honey pie’s frown lines.

“Maybe,” she said at last. “Not yet. And I’m not sure what way I want that all to look. But maybe.”

“I like maybes. They taste like change and change is always exciting.”

“Some would say terrifying,” she countered, and I barked a laugh.

“Not me.”

“No, not you, Wilder.” She leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth, the gesture sweet like candy.

“I did something.” I pulled up my shirt and showed her the Oscura Wolf mark curling up and around my hip bone.

“Sin,” she breathed, touching it and sending a bolt of electricity through me. “It’s perfect.”

“And I had a moon inked on this side too. Just for you. For my wild, wild Moon Wolf.” I pointed to my other hip bone where a gibbous moon was freshly tatted.

She leaned in to kiss it and I growled with desire as her warm lips left heat dripping through my skin. She gasped and as she lifted her head, my brows dragged together at the sight I found waiting for me. My inked moon was glowing silver, as bright as a shimmering coin. The moonlight was pouring over us from above and as I looked up at the celestial being who had so many secrets hidden in her hat, the truth of what she had just offered us became starkly clear. My tattoo was changing, and Rosalie tugged up her shirt, revealing the very same mark curling around her hip bone.

We came together in a hungry kiss, my hands in her hair and her fingers digging into my shoulders. It was pure and subtle and perfect. My Order was so tangled up with desire and sex that the moon had mated us as simply as this, between the sweetness of our lips.

I was hers and she was mine. We wanted nothing more than each other, just as we were. Brain full of bees and all.

CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR

A FEW MONTHS AFTER THAT…

“You don’t have to do this, you know? You don’t owe him anything,” Rosa murmured to me, her fingers winding around mine and squeezing.

“I know. But my mothers want this and after seeing them, I guess…I dunno, I can feel the rift in the family. I want to make it right if I can. At least to a point where we can be civil.”

“I’m not one for giving second chances, but it’s on you,” Cain said from my other side.

“You gave Rosa plenty of chances,” I said, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“That’s different. It’s the dick-whipped rule. Once your dick’s been whipped, all rules are meaningless. Murdering, pillaging, thieving, it’s free game now and the law can’t do anything about it so long as it’s in the name of love,” Sin chimed in, glancing back from the window by the front door, the curtain pulled aside where he’d been peeking out at our driveway. Our house was on the Oscura estate – technically. I mean, it was a few miles from there and we had acres of land and forest around the villa-style house that was full of brightness and sunshine, so we certainly had our privacy. But we could visit the Oscura stronghold whenever we liked, and Bianca was always excited to have us back.

“That’s highly inaccurate,” Cain drawled, but his mouth lifted slightly in amusement.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Ethan said from Rosa’s other side. “Family is everything. It’s not like you have to forgive everything he did, but maybe something can be reconciled between you.”

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