Page 65 of Ruled By The Alpha

His strained laugh echoed back, and Riden slapped her pussy in a light, playful reprimand. “I’m begging you, sweetheart. Don’t make me talk while I’m trying to come.”

“Just thinking out loud. Doesn’t require a response fromyou.” She teased, twisting to glance back over her shoulder at him. Riden’s forehead creased with tension, but the way his eyebrows lifted at the inner corners belied his amusement. They’d gotten to know more about each other in the past few hours than they had in weeks around the fire, and Syra felt parts of her old personality trickling back in the safety of Riden’s arms.

One thing she’d learned, he properly appreciated her dry sense of humor. But it seemed cruel to distract him from his own pleasure when he’d been tending her so diligently. She held her tongue, saving her praise for the aftermath, when they had nothing but time while his knot bound them together.

The feeling of his knot expanding in her channel brought with it a strange sense of anticipation. Each time before when they’d rested together while his knot pulsed inside her, Riden purred and petted, muttering sentiments in her ear Syra was ashamed to admit brought hopeful tears to her eyes. It made her feel cherished. It made her feel wanted. Most of all, it made her believe what he’d said on the mountainside when he coaxed her from the crevice.

Riden had feelings for her.

Maybe, just maybe, there could be a future for them beyond her heat. A future where this amazing man crooned and purred at her as if she were a precious treasure in private, but treated her as an equal in the light of day. A future where they battled the solitude together and watched each other’s backs, supporting one another through the long, hard journey of life beyond the walls.

Riden froze, his muscles tensing as his pleasure finally crested. Fingers flexing against her hip, he spilled his seed in her for the sixth time that day, his entire body quivering under the intensity of orgasm. Syra smiled again, feeling a warm sense of satisfaction at being the cause.

“Ahh hells, girl.” Riden growled, bending low over her to press a breathless kiss against the back of her head before rolling them both to their side. “You’ll be the death of me if we keep this up.”

Syra snickered as she settled into her small spoon position, reveling in the feeling of his much larger body wrapped around and filling her own. “It’s not my fault. If you weren’t so charming, you wouldn’t be in this position.”

“Charming. Right.” He slid one arm under her head to serve as a pillow and wrapped the other around her waist, twining his fingers with her own against her chest. “We’ll see if you still think so by the end of the week.”

“Same to you.”

“Can’t see myself ever getting tired of you, Syra.”

“I hope you don’t.”

Riden jostled her gently, his knot tugging at her sensitive tissues just enough to send a little trill of sensation skittering up her spine. “That mean you want to hang around?”

“Don’t have much of a choice right now, do I?”

“Oh now, don’t be a brat or I’ll have a mind to spank you next round.” He admonished. “You know what I mean, girl.”

“I know.” Syra lifted the hand woven with her own and kissed his knuckles. “I think I’d stay forever if it were up to me. I haven’t been this happy in years.”

“Mmm.” Riden’s purr rumbled to life, spreading comfort through her aching and tired body as he held her close. “Itisup to you, sweetheart. And if I’m being truthful, the idea of you wearing my mark someday, choosing me as your mate. Well, I’d be a proud man. There aren’t many women as strong and fierce as you in this world, and I haven’t met a one I’d care to spend the rest of my days with except for you.”

Syra bit her lip, swallowing against a sudden tightness in her throat. It could be the high of his rut and her heat making them talk like this, but somehow, Syra didn’t think so. Her cycles had only ever stripped everything down to the bare bones, never given her rose-colored glasses.

“You’re awful romantic in your rut for a mountain man.” She finally choked out, clearing her throat softly as she tried to banish the tears that threatened to rise at his sentiments.

“Yeah, well, the right woman has been known to do that to a man.”

“Just don’t gettoosoft.” She countered, twisting to look back at him again. “My mate needs to at leastlooktough.”

Riden flashed his teeth in a wicked grin and waggled his eyebrows at her. “That mean you’ll have me?”

Syra yawned and closed her eyes, trying not to smile as she relaxed into him, already knowing the answer.

“I’ll think about it.”

She absolutelywouldhave him, and by the end of this cycle, if she had her way.

She never wanted to be without her knight in shining armor again.

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