Page 65 of In the Light of the Moon

My words cut off abruptly, and my eyes went wide in wonder. Orion was still holding my face, but his grip loosened. To give room for claws that prickled gently on my skin. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes on the inhale, and I felt my own lungs stop to watch in awe. Orion’s eyes already had a slight upward tilt at the ends, but my mouth dropped open while they shifted to a very definite slanted almond shape. The round curves of his ears lengthened until they came to pointed ends.

When Orion exhaled, his pink lips parted to reveal long fangs on the top and bottom rows of his teeth. His eyes opened, and the bright green reflected in the light, glowing.

They weren’t meeting mine, but that was okay. He gave a little, self-conscious smirk, and I rested my hands on his chest.His heart was hammering beneath his skin, and in reflex, I lightly scratched, giving him goosebumps.

“My mate,” I grinned.

Orion nodded, brows turning up and crumpling at the same time. I thought about the kiss he’d given me before storming out of the house to confront Graham and his pack. It felt almost like a goodbye, and it’d left a hollow drop in my chest. I’d known before that I loved him, but in that moment, when I realized he thought there was a chance he wouldn’t come back, I almost panicked. And then hearing Graham’s slimy words turned the panic into anger. Orion was mine, and I would protect what was mine.

I would do everything to keep him and his heart safe. He said those weeks ago that he’d never belonged to anyone before, but that wasn’t true. Looking at him now, baring this vulnerable part of himself, I knew that he’d always been mine. We just hadn’t found each other yet.

“Do you…” Orion spoke slowly, but his words were somehow unencumbered by his lengthened teeth. “Would you like to see me? Fully shifted.” He met my eyes now, and I nodded with an encouraging smile. Orion leaned in, then hesitated.

I closed the distance between us and crashed my lips into his. He needed to know that I wasn’t afraid, that I meant it when I said he was beautiful, so I followed what my body was already screaming for anyway.

My tongue licked along the seam of his lips, and his grip on my jaw tightened a fraction before he let me in. Orion’s tongue had changed with his half-shift as well. It felt flatter than before, and when he slid it tentatively against mine, it was noticeably rougher.

Carefully, I tickled the edge of his sharp canines, and I shuddered with something that was far from apprehension. I wondered what I smelled like to him, if he could tell that,if anything, seeing him like this made me feel even more connected.

I trailed my kiss to his cheek, down the length of his jaw, to his neck. “You’re amazing, Orion.” A growl reverberated against the muscles of his throat, and I latched myself onto a patch of skin, placing open-mouthed kisses that just made him growl more.

“Sylvie,” Orion’s voice was deeper, lower like how it’d been the night I bit him.

My thighs squeezed in reaction. “Tell me what you need, baby.”

He pulled me off of his neck, and I moaned in protest before I was caught in the spell of his stare. He searched my face for something, breaths coming heavy through his nose, and I felt at risk of becoming a puddle at his feet.

He brought a palm to my throat, claws pressing into my skin but nowhere near breaking it. I couldn’t tell whether I was relieved by that fact or not. “I want you,” and the groan I gave was nearly a whine. Before I could suck my bottom lip into my mouth to stifle the noise, Orion caught it between his teeth. He licked and nibbled, pulling on the flesh, and I continued to melt.

When he released me, I breathed, “You have me.” I scooted forward and began fiddling with Orion’s sweatpants. He leaned back on the table, the wood creaking beneath him, and I ran a hand over the trail of soft, white fur that had appeared on his muscled lower belly.

His growl when I lapped at the bead of precum was louder than the others. My hand worked over his pale pink shaft, and Orion’s delicious taste flooded my awareness. He gripped my hair and thrusted his hips, and I worked to get him all the way in my throat. I eventually rested my hands on his thighs and let him fuck into me while my eyes rolled back.

His rhythm grew erratic, and the wild noises he was making warned of him being a breath away from spilling down my throat. Though he groaned in frustration, Orion immediately released me when I pressed up off of him.

He was otherworldly, between man and wolf and something unique entirely. My mate, my Wolf.

Orion caressed a clawed thumb on my cheek, and I leaned into the sharp edge. I didn’t miss the wave of desire that crossed his eyes that were now shaped like a wolf’s, and he did it again. I wanted him to be uninhibited like this with me. Finally.

“Iwant you, baby. To take me and come in me.” Even after getting my implant, he’d still refused to stop pulling out without explanation.

“You know what happens when a Wolf takes his mate, Sylvie? If I come in you… we’ll be stuck together. Knotted.” I recalled something I’d read about when I looked up wolves before. Was that truly it? I’d been fixating on that detail, on what I saw as a lack of trust in me, but if it came with him being a shifter, I understood why he hadn’t been able to explain to me before.

But I already loved and accepted all parts of him. Just to rile him up further, I raised a brow,“And?”

He willingly took the bait, maybe even realizing that I was mimicking him from the night we first kissed. His claw scraped over my lip, and I opened my mouth, welcoming the danger of it against my tongue. Even with all his worrying, I knew that Orion would never hurt me. Anxiety made it hard to submit and give up control in all other areas of my life, my father’s sudden illness still making me feel the need to cling onto whatever little bits I could.

Giving it all up to my mate, though, was an entirely different story. It made me feel safe and cared for, and through our time together, I’d learned that he especially enjoyed it. Craved it, even. To care and support and lead when I was willing to be led.

“Are you going to behave for me? Be good?” His husky voice was downright gravelly, his teeth menacing and sharp. I nodded with the pad of his finger still pressing on my tongue, and it was no time at all before I found myself bent over the couch and my knees pressing into the supple leather. I arched and moaned at the first scrape of his claws on my hips, but when he thrust into me with one long, fast motion, I cried out before immediately begging for more.

While he fucked me, Orion nipped at my earlobe, “I love you, and I love you on my cock. You always smell so sweet when I fuck you.”

I couldn’t think of anything to respond with—it all just came out as more desperate moans until his relentless pulses made me muffle my scream into the couch. He growled behind me, and if anything, he started fucking me harder. His clawed hand found my throat again and arched my head off of the cushion. I sucked in air and pushed back against his hips. The intensity was almost too much, and I kept moving, chasing more. “Don’t youevertry to hide your precious little noises from me, Sylvie. I want to hear how well-fucked my mate is. Do you understand?”

My fists tightened, leather shuddering between my fingers, and I nodded while arching my back even more.

“Say it, Sylvie.” Orion snarled behind me, and the back of my head found the strong, hard slope of his shoulder just as my eyes rolled while I rushed toward another release.

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