Page 115 of Craved By a Wolf

His golden gaze softened again and his brow furrowed as he lifted his hand and brushed his fingers across her cheek, his voice going low and tender.

“Hella… I’m mad with a need to make you mine.”

All her strength flooded from her and she leaned into his touch, craving more, needing the comfort of it and the reassurance that she hadn’t messed everything up. Her heart warmed, beating a little steadier as his words drifted in her mind, as she gazed into his eyes and saw the truth in them. He did want her as his mate.

“Hella… lass… love…” He cast a look at his boots and then met her gaze again, adorably awkward for an alpha wolf as he stumbled and tripped on words she could see meant a lot to him. “Does this mean… Do you want… Tell me no if you want, but mean it.”

“Yes,” she blurted.

And felt as if a weight had been lifted from her heart.

“I thought I would never want to be someone’s mate. I thought it was another way of changing me… making me different… and… it is… but not in the way I thought.” She placed both hands over the one he still clutched his shirt with and held it as she looked deep into his eyes. “I know now. Being your mate wouldn’t mean I was weaker or controlled by another. It wouldn’t mean I would lose my independence or my standing. It would mean I’m loved by you and that I love only you, and that I wanted everyone in this world to know it. It would make me stronger… It would makeusstronger… and it would be beautiful.”

He shifted his free hand to hers and covered them, holding them to his chest. “Took you long enough to realise it.”

She smiled softly. “It certainly did.”

He stepped up to her, so close she could feel his heat, and she tipped her head back to keep her eyes locked with his.

“Say I’m your wolf,” he husked.

“You’re mine, wolf.” She held back her smile when he growled at her choice of words and angled her head up, bringing her mouth closer to his as her gaze grew hooded. “Now, make me yours.”

He swooped on her lips on another possessive snarl, claiming more than a kiss from her as her heart soared in response. She wrapped her arms around his neck and shivered as he banded his around her waist and lifted her by her backside, raising her up his body, and began ascending the stairs.

Hella kissed him, losing herself in each brush of their tongues and lips, anticipation building inside her as he carried her to her bedroom. When he set her down on the edge of the bed and went to cover her, she pressed her hand to his chest.

“Wait.” She pushed him back and rolled from beneath him, ignoring his growl.

His gaze tracked her as she hurried to her wardrobe and opened it. She ran her fingers along the dresses, seeking one she had kept that was perfect for the occasion, and paused when she found it. She kept hold of it as she muttered the incantation and gasped as the spell completed and the long onyx gown replaced her black empire-line dress.

Another low growl pealed from Kin’s lips as she turned towards him and skimmed her hands down over the metal filigree corset that cinched her waist in and pushed her breasts up.

“You kept it.” He didn’t look happy about it.

But she would change his mind.

“I thought I should… It’s a beautiful gown after all.” Hella toyed with the flowing sheer strips of material that formed the skirt, teasing Kin with glimpses of her bare thighs. “I admit I did think about getting rid of it… but then I had this idea… and I found I couldn’t part with it.”

“Idea?” He stared at her.

She nodded and traced one of the swirls on the corset with her fingertip. “I had a thought, you see, when I was walking down that aisle. I realised the man at the end of it wasn’t the one I wanted to be standing there. He was several rows from the back and shouldn’t have been there.”

“I did save you… again,” he muttered and then the corners of his lips curled. “You want to marry me.”

She shrugged.

He growled.

“When we got home, I looked at the dress and thought… wouldn’t it be a fitting final fuck you to Ethyrian if you were the one who got to wed me in this dress?” She swished side to side, tempting him. “In a shifter fashion, of course.”

Kin’s gaze darkened, the heat in it scalding her, and she gasped as he was suddenly before her, pulling her into his arms and kissing her. She moaned as he worked kisses along her jaw and dropped his lips to her throat, his arms steel bands around her, pinning her to his chest. He lowered his hands to her backside and groaned as he palmed it.

“You’re bare,” he murmured against her overheating flesh.

“And burning for you,” she whispered and nipped at his earlobe. “Stop keeping me waiting.”

He scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bed, set her down and twisted her away from him. He growled as he fumbled with her skirts, his actions frantic, jacking her pulse up and making her feel just as desperate as an ache bloomed inside her, a need only he could satisfy. She joined him, tearing at the strips of material, gathering and cursing them, wishing she hadn’t picked this dress after all.

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