Page 62 of A Wolf in the Garden

I let her pull me down the hall and into the bedroom, my heart feeling like it might burst in my chest from the way she looks at me, the way she kneels to pull down the waistband of my sweatpants, the look of adoration in her eyes as she pushes me to sit on the bed, kissing my thighs, my balls, my cock. Her mouth feels like heaven, the press of her tongue onthat spotmaking me grunt, and when she drags her lips back and forth over the ridge of the head while squeezing my now-swollen knot with her hand, I tip my head back, moaning, feeling like I could already spill into her mouth. She knows it too, humming around me in amusement before releasing me with apop, grinning up at me with those pouty lips from her position on the floor. She swirls her tongue over me once more, making my cock jump as she licks at the precum that leaks forth, before rising to her feet. I let her push me until I’m falling backwards onto the bed, watch her strip naked for me, watch her climb over my body until she hovers, poised above me like a queen on her throne, my swollen dick at her dripping entrance and her fingers on her clit.

“What are you waiting for?” I ask, caught in her heavy-lidded, lust-filled gaze.

“A kiss from my wolf.”

I sit up, lips crashing against hers as she lowers herself on me, the sensation of her hot wet cunt tight around me making me growl into her mouth. “You are the best, baby,” I whisper against her lips, running my hands over her breasts, tweaking her nipples and making her gasp as she rides me. She takes my hand and places it between us, her demands of “touch me,” and “faster,” and “Yesss, rightthere,” spurring me on, making me feel as if I could blow at any second. At some point I’m pushed flat on my back once more, her hands on my chest digging into me as she turns absolutely feral, chasing her pleasure.

My hands squeeze at her generous ass; I love the curves of her hips and thighs, love the way I can dig my fingers into her flesh, leaving my prints behind. “Fuck me Evander!” she cries, and I know she’s close, her head thrown back, her chest heaving with every breath. She likes it hard, my Ellie, and I know she started this, but I’m going to help her finish.

I pull her flush against me and roll us both, until I’m on top, crowding her, pressing her wrists into the mattress above her head with one hand, fucking her like she begged me to. “Look at me, baby,” I demand, the alpha growl seeping into my voice. “Look at me giving you this cock. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Our flesh slaps together, my knot partially breaching her with every thrust, and she throws her head back once more as I feel the first telltale signs of her orgasm around my cock. My balls grow tight with the need to come in her perfect pussy. “I’m going to knot you, I’m going to fill you, and everyone will know you aremine,” I growl, my wolves chanting a chorus ofmate, mate, matein my head. I have the sudden urge to claim her here and now with the bite that will bind us forever — my teeth ache with it — and it’s only her orgasm, sudden and overwhelming, that has me maintaining enough sense to stop myself. Instead, I thrust my knot into her with a roar, filling her just as promised, coming hard, her wide-eyed gaze never leaving mine as we climax together. My knot swells within her, her tight pussy still spasming around it, andfuck, it’s the best feeling in the world.

“Love you,” she whispers, breathy in the aftermath of her release, her hands caressing my chest, my stomach, my ass, while I hold myself above her. Her eyes devour me, her hands worship me, and my heart is full.

* * *

Ican’t sleep. Ellie lays curled up against me, head on my shoulder, a leg thrown over mine, and her breath an even cadence that only comes with deep slumber. She looks so peaceful, so beautiful, so perfect.

What if I can’t keep her safe?

I can’t shake this feeling that something bad is going to happen. I know it’s most likely my own paranoia — there’s no doubt that losing my sister has made me far more wary than I ever was before — but then again, I can’t tell if it is just my overactive imagination, or if I really should be listening to my gut instincts.

I’m not used to this. Usually, if there’s a problem I can’t fix, there’s someone who can, someone whose skills can be bought for the right price. I would willingly give every dollar to my name if it meant absolute certainty that Ellie was safe for the rest of her life, that any children we have one day, any grandchildren, anyone at all, are safe fromthem.

I can’t lose anyone else.

I can’t put my pack at risk.

The memory of my father’s voice in the wake of tragedy, empty and broken as it was, still haunts me to this day.“You were supposed to put the pack first, and you prioritised that girl instead.”Ellie is my mate. I have chosen her, and I will choose her, every day, for the rest of my life. I just hope that there won’t be consequences to that decision that impact Lacey or her boys, and I fear that my decision to choose Ellie might put them in the path of danger.

I’m clearly not going to get any sleep tonight, so I slide out of Ellie’s grasp slowly, quietly making my way down the hall, phone in hand. I hover, naked, near the door, torn between stepping outside and shifting, and doing something tangible that might lead to more answers. I open my text messages, scrolling down, finding the thread from seven months ago.

Mom.

She’s the only other person I know that could help here. Nerilina may have the wisdom that comes with age on her side, but I trust my mother’s knowledge of magic more. When she met and mated my father, she left behind the life she knew in the First Realm, left behind House Maheras and the other powerful witches there, but that doesn’t mean she stopped practising magic altogether. She’s the one that allowed us all to live as wolves, to know our true selves from the start, using counter spells against the glamour regularly so that even as a small child, I understood what I really looked like, and who I really was. I was able to meet my parents’ wolves long before I ever had my first shift, was able to shift alongside my father’s entire pack when the time came all thanks to her magic, my wolf wanting to challenge for the position of alpha even back then as a thirteen year old.

Mom will know if there’s anything else we should be doing.

She will know, but I haven’t spoken to my mother in over half a year, not since I broke away from the shifter pack, and it’s just anotherthingthat eats away at me.

She’d been out of town for the weekend when it happened. She’d known it was coming at some point. So had I, obviously. What I hadn’t anticipated was the loneliness I’d feel at losing the relationships with other pack members — all three hundred of them — nor the betrayal I felt when I realised no one else was joining me except for Lacey, and by extension, her two boys.

My mother, being a werewolf, is not bound by shifter laws. At least, not in the same way; I’ve never witnessed my father order her to do anything, and I don’t think he could even if he tried. But she’s his mate, hisfatedmate, and there’s no denying that fact. They both bear the scars of their claiming, and I can’t think of a time when she hasn’t respected the decisions my father has made in his role as pack alpha. She was never going to be on my side. She was never going to do anything but stand beside her mate.

I read over the last texts I have from her again. Technically, I don’t need to; I’ve looked at them often enough that I now know them word for word, and each time I look, I’m torn about whether I should reach out.

MOM

Sunday 4 May

Van, I just heard from Seth. Are you okay? Are you injured?

Van. Answer the phone, honey.

Van, I’ve spoken with your father. I know we all knew this was coming, but I’m sorry it had to happen this way. He was baiting you, you have to know that. He’d never actually make Lacey stay with Tyler after what’s happened. He said it was time you split off. You’re almost thirty, after all.

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