Page 17 of Ruthless Moon

“If they do, I’m ready for them this time,” Meredith says, and looks anxiously behind her up the mountain toward the house. “Sebastian, will you walk me back? I need to find the guards they incapacitated so I can make sure they don’t remember any of this. The last thing I need is Oliver getting any deeper into my business. And these two need a moment to talk.”

“Yes, ma’am, of course.”

Meredith flashes him a pleased, motherly smile and they walk off, leaving me and Liam staring at each other in silence.

Achingly painful torturous silence.

She did that on purpose. Left us together. She knew. Somehow she knew, but how? Only mates can see the magick shimmer. Are witches different?

I keep asking myself questions to distract myself from the beautiful man standing only a few feet away. The man I want to touch with every fiber of my soul. The man I should belong to for the rest of my life. The man I have to walk away from. Again.

I take a step to turn away from him. I should go. I should shift and run, but I don’t want to leave him.

He rushes forward, grabbing both my arms. “No.”

Tears burn at the backs of my eyes, threatening to overflow and break the very flimsy grip I have on my emotions. “I can’t, Liam. We can’t—”

“Say my name again.” He puts a finger beneath my chin and lifts my face until our gazes meet again.

“Liam.” I can’t deny him. I should. I should be running up the mountain away from him at full speed. Instead I stand there, inches from his body, completely at his mercy, willing to give him what he’s asking for because I want to say his name. Speaking his name is like answering a siren’s song. Like stepping into an ocean that will drown me.

He closes his eyes, like he’s bathing in the sound of my voice. “When you came out of the restaurant with Aiden, I think a part of my soul died.”

A tear burns its way down my cheek. Then another. And another.

He releases my arms and wipes them away with his thumbs, cradling my face in his calloused hands.

“You’re from Aiden’s pack, aren’t you?” I force the words from my lips. “Does he know that we—are—” I can’t say it. If I say it, it’s more real. It can’t be more real. Just standing here, with barely an inch between our bodies, is hard enough.

“Yes. We’re cousins. And no, he doesn’t know. I can’t tell him. The man is good to a fault, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he knew we were mates.” His voice grates, roughened by emotion, every word carrying a painful weight I recognize. A muscle in his jaw twitches, clenching and unclenching.

The same war rages inside me.

How am I supposed to live in the same town, the same pack with my fated mate so close? He’ll be everywhere. Every family gathering. Every pack meeting. “He’ll know. Meredith knows. She saw it. And the man with you—”

“Sebastian is my brother. He won’t say a word.”

“But Aiden will see it. How can we exist so close to each other?”

“We won’t.”

I should’ve been ready for him to say that. My brain knows that’s the only answer to the problem, but my heart screams at the solution and a piece of my soul dies too. Right then and there, like a summer leaf on a tree turning brown, shriveling up, and falling to the ground.

He leans down and kisses me. A chaste kiss where our mouths barely touch. A kiss that feels like he thinks I’ll shatter.

And I might.

But I need more. If this is the only kiss I’m ever going to get from him, I want it to be more.

The warmth of his lips sets my skin on fire. My heart races, every beat echoing loudly in my ears, drowning out everything else. A heady mix of desire and desperation surges within me, urging me to etch every sensation, every flutter of his breath, every nuance of this moment into my memory.

I need to remember this kiss the rest of my life.

I throw my arms around his neck and lean into his body, pressing closer until we’re touching everywhere. Until there’s no space between us. Chest. Stomach. Legs. I melt into him.

He growls. Full-on snarls into my mouth and the kiss turns from sweet to hungry. From wistful to claiming.

He feels it too, the longing. The way the magick pulls at our souls, urging us to seal the waiting bond.

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