Page 48 of Big Knot Energy (Shadowverse)

“I want you, Ax. You guys thought I had no libido…” I rolled my eyes and shook my head as she threw my words back into my face. “But I’ve wanted you for a long time. And Amir said he thinks you three are waiting for me to make the first move. I trust you. I’m not afraid of you. Of any of you. I know you would never do anything I didn’t want.”

“We would never hurt you,” I forced out through my tight throat.

“I want to be pack. Officially. I want you to mark me. I want you to cover this,” she said, gesturing toward the ruined flesh left behind by that piece of shit Antonio.

As slowly as I could, I approached the bed when all I wanted to do was rush to her, cover her with my body, and thrust into her core hard and fast while chomping down on her shoulder.

Fuck yes, I would cover that fucking mark. I’d never said a wordabout it, but every time I’d caught a glimpse of that scar, red hot rage burned through my veins. It was obvious he hadn’t tended to her to help with the healing. The skin was ragged and raised instead of the beautiful silvery crescents that should have been left after she was bonded.

“What about a bonding ceremony?” I asked. My voice sounded guttural and forced as I struggled against the trembling of my body.

“I’ve had one. I hated it. Hated all those people staring at me. Hated everything my mother picked out. Hated…well…it might not have been so bad had it not been with Antonio and Carlos. But still.”

Carlos. The beta who’d been packed with her and her alpha before he’d disappeared shortly after their ceremony. From the little she’d told us about him, they were more roommates than anything, hardly talked, and only slept together once after they were officially bonded to Antonio.

He might not have been a threat to her, but I still wouldn’t let the cocksucker anywhere near her if he someday reappeared.

The longer I stood there staring at her, the more tense she appeared to grow until her knees began to close.

Nope.Hellno.

Moving close, I put one knee on the bed and began to crawl toward her. “If you only want my mark, I’m more than happy to give it to you.”You can have every part of me.

I kept that last part unspoken. No reason to freak her out when she was finally letting herself feel something for me, for us. When she was finally allowing herself to feel free, to accept she was an integral part of our pack.

No. We didn’t need an omega. We didn’t need Amir. Sure, all three of us alphas wanted him. How could we not? He was sexy as fuck.

But it was more than that. He made Issa happy. He’d helped her smash through whatever walls she’d built around her heart. Had helped her realize how beautiful, how sexy, how fucking perfect she was.

“I want you. I’m…” Whatever else she’d planned to say never left her mouth. I pretended she wanted to tell me she was in love with me, that she loved me.

Because fuck…I loved this woman so much it hurt. I would have continued to live exactly as we had the past few months if that was all she wanted from me. I would continue to flirt with her, to buy her pretty shit, to protect her. But I would never have pushed her for more than she was willing to give.

Though if she wanted more…I would literally give her my heart and soul on a diamond encrusted silver platter. I would crawl on hands and knees through hot coals to officially have her as mine, to have her feel even an iota of what I felt for her.

Yeah, I loved Enzo and Cyrus, but it was nothing compared to the way the mere thought of Issa made my dick instantly stand at attention and my heart race.

Instead of saying anything else, she pushed up onto her elbows and smiled at me. “Are you…we don’t have to do anything else if you just wanted to mark me–”

Her words were cut off by a squeal as I lunged for her, my mouth slamming against hers hard enough I’d worried I might have hurt her or bruised her plump as fuck lips.

When her arms snaked around my neck to hold me closer and her tongue teased the seam of my lips, any fear I’d had of hurting her disappeared.

Her legs wrapped around my thighs, pulling me closer to the heat between her legs. The only thing keeping me from plunging my cock into her tight, wet heat was the fucking cotton of my boxers.

Slow. I had to take this slowly. I wanted to savor my first time with her after fantasizing about this very moment for so fucking long.

Except she apparently didn’t want any foreplay. One of her hands left the back of my neck and trailed down my chest, tickling my abs, before sliding below my boxers. Her thin fingers wrapped around my cock and my hips bucked forward of their own volition.

Her mouth pulled from my mine and nipped and kissed along my jaw and throat before rubbing her cheek across my scent gland. A satisfied growl rumbled from my chest, mixing with a moan as herfingers tightened and she began to slowly stroke me from base to head.

“I need to tell you something else,” she whispered against my skin.

When I tried to pull back to look into her eyes, she held me in place with the hand still cupping the back of my neck.

“A couple things.” Her voice was barely above a breath as she pulled my cock free from my boxers and guided the flared head toward her opening.

She didn’t wait for me to push forward, instead raising her hips and taking me in slowly, one agonizing inch at a time.

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