Page 65 of Fated to the Feral Wolf

Dirge pushed us toward the falls, and I let him. Toward the rim of the pool, the water grew shallow, and before long, I felt the smooth black rock bump against the back of my legs.

We kept scooting back until we were horizontal, legs still in the water, but head and shoulders dry against the smooth river stone beneath us. The waterfall was close enough that we occasionally got splashed with a few droplets, a steady mist sparkling in the air like tiny diamonds.

Dirge hovered over me on his forearms so he was holding his own weight.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” His words were low, his touch reverent as he ran his fingertips along my clavicle, along the collar of the soaking shirt plastered to my skin. “How did I get so lucky? Goddess knows I don’t deserve you.”

“Goddess knows we’re meant to be and that you’re perfect for me,” I said, correcting him gently. He was never going to stop kicking himself for going to the Fetya if I didn’t make him. One mistake, one that he saw as a weakness, and it was enough to condemn him as flawed to himself forever. But I didn’t see itthat way. “Three hundred years is a long, long time to be alone. I don’t fault you for wondering, and I don’t fault you for what happened with that assassin.”

He opened his mouth to object, but I put my hand tenderly over it. I had to work to focus when he sucked my fingertip into his mouth, working the digit with his tongue.

“I’m serious, Dirge. You haven’t known me very long yet, but I can guarantee that even if you hadn’t been there, I’d have jumped in front of that knife. Whether we’d met or not been mates, I was destined to take that knife for Bri. I protect my family.”

“So fierce, muzica mea.” His fingertips wandered down my side, leaving goose bumps in their wake. He teased the bare strip of skin under the hem of my shirt, making me suck in a breath through my teeth. I was still aroused from before, the heat thrumming just beneath the surface. And now I was riding an adrenaline spike too. “That’s part of what makes me love you so much.”

His finger continued to play as I tried to make my tongue work again. “Only part?”

“Mm, yes. A large part, but there’s so much more to you.”

I kept my eyes on his, deep down still uncertain that he could see me that way. I was so broken. Surely he saw that? I was as flawed as they came.

“You’re fierce, yes, but also sweet. Soft and caring with those you love. You see everything, even though you say so little. Intelligence that matches your beauty inside and out.”

His hand swept up under the shirt, fingertips trailing along the underside of my breast. The interplay of hot and cold was driving me wild. I arched into his grip, and a smile spread slowly across his face.

“That’s it, Shay. Tell me what you want.”

“You. I just want you.” I breathed the words, and I meant every one. I wanted him, all of him, with no holding back.

FORTY-ONE

Dirge

“You. I just want you.”Her words hung between us like unlit tinder for one heartbeat, then another.

She kissed me then, soft and slow and deep. It felt like she wanted to drink me in, meld the two of us together until there was no telling where one of us ended and the other began. In that moment, I wanted it too.

It was a slippery slope, and while something inside still screamed that I should be holding myself back, how could I? I wanted her in a way that was unholy. I’d never done drugs before, never had much taste for alcohol or the oh-so-fleeting buzz it brought to a wolf. But was this what addiction felt like?

The hot burn ofneedin my veins? I didn’t know, only that she was my oxygen and I was hers. In any way she would have me, I was hers.

I kissed her back with every ounce of passion I had in me, and when her hands moved to the hem of my shirt, I leaned up, letting her pull it off over my head. It landed with a wet plop behind us, and within seconds, hers followed. Her nipples were beaded up tightly, begging for my kiss.

I circled one areola with my tongue—not quite where shewanted me if the arch of her back was any indication—then moved to the other. I teased her, back and forth, back and forth, until she wove her hands into my hair and pulled, driving me where she wanted me.

Her moans of pleasure as she anchored me to her breast had me harder than steel, itching to drive home into her warm grip.

I hadn’t planned this, this slow frenzy of lovemaking. All I’d wanted was to show her the grotto, give her a good memory to hold in this uncertain time. Share something of my past with her.

But when she shoved me back and hooked her thumbs into the waistband of my sweats, I was lost to her thrall. Reason and worry were gone, and there was no one and nothing but Shay, muzica mea.

She gripped me tightly with her small hand, my head bowing under the strain of staying up and not crushing her. And that was before she started to stroke.

“You’re going to embarrass me if you keep that up,” I murmured, frozen to the spot as she worked my dick.

She hummed happily, not easing her pace as she grinned up at me.

Saucy little she-wolf.

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