Page 80 of Savage Fate

I scoffed. “I can’t live like that. I’m a fighter, and I’m not afraid to face my enemies.”

“You don’t need to do it alone!” His hands curled around my shoulders so tightly they’d leave bruises. “Do you know what I went through when you were gone? Do you know what it felt like when I reached out for you time and again and felt nothing?”

Fane’s nostrils flared as not only fury throbbed around him but anxiety and fear. When he couldn’t find me, the panic had gripped him like a noose around his throat.

Actually, he would have preferred a noose instead of the crippling terror.

“Hawk wasn’t exaggerating when he said I almost shifted in his car and caused us to wreck.” He held his thumb and forefinger together. “I was this close to losing it and never coming back.”

My gaze dropped as regret washed over me, invisible claws tearing through my heart for the agony he’d gone through. “I’m sorry.” I toed the frosty ground with my boot. “I’ll be more careful next time. I’ll think before I act.”

Fane gripped my chin to lift my face to his. “When I woke up and you were gone, that same panic swept in. I thought they’d taken you again.”

My palms pressed against his torso, so warm even in the frigid climate. “Again, I’m sorry. Sometimes, I forget how much my actions can affect you.” For the longest time after Kaspin’s spell, Fane loathed our connection and hated that it caused him any anxiety.

Now things were different. We were mated, and even though our union wasn’t born out of undeniable love for each other, he’d cared enough to save me. He gave up any freedom he might have had to bring me back from the brink of losing myself to the amulet.

His hand moved from my chin and gently settled on my cheek, his thumb stroking across it. “We’re together, Tate, whether we wanted this or not, and the thought of losing you scares the shit out of me. Ican’tlose you. I wouldn’t?—”

The breath fled from my lungs, and a crushing weight settled on my chest. He didn’t need to finish the sentence. I knew the rest. The raw, unfiltered confession swirled between us.

He wouldn’t survive losing me.

Our bond was just as unyielding and relentless as any fated mate connection. It was in our blood, infused in our bones, and speckled throughout our souls. I used to think the bond formed when he sank his teeth into me to turn me into a shifter, but it had begun the moment we locked eyes across Wrath & Ruin.

Something gripped me that night while Fane watched me from the balcony and followed me into that alley. Hate and revenge twisted around us as we fought, yet we’d both felt the spark that ignited a never-ending fire. It blazed within us as brightly as a newborn star.

Fate seriously fucked up when she decided to make Saint my fated because, from the first night we met, Fane and I had been bound together. We’d burned a path of destruction trying to fight it, but there was no other way in the end.

I wrapped my hand around Fane’s neck and pulled him down until our lips met. As his tongue plunged into my mouth, I groaned and melted into him. He tasted like my own personal happiness and my darkest desires all rolled into one.

Fane was pure temptation and sin. He was my addiction, one I could never kick.

“My beast still hasn’t settled since you vanished from Mohan Wilds,” Fane murmured against my mouth, his lip ring hot on my skin. “He’s pacing inside of me like a caged animal just waiting for a chance to escape.”

Fane’s demon wolf was a glorious and terrifying creature, but I’d never really been afraid in his presence. Something about him in that form comforted me. “I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.” My fingers skimmed down his abdomen, tracing the dips, curves, and scars. “What can I do to make him feel better?”

A wicked smile curved Fane’s mouth. “The only thing that will calm my inner beast is claiming you over and over again until you beg for mercy. And then beg me to do it again.”

Shivers raced down my spine, and fire poured through my bloodstream. I longed to have Fane unravel me a hundred times over. He didn’t seem worried about Kaspin’s spell right now. Maybe he needed me so much it hadn’t crossed his mind.

Fane wouldn’t hurt me. He had the power to stop himself.

“Well, I guess we better get started.” I licked his piercing and then sucked on his bottom lip. “I can’t let the poor beast suffer.”

Fane grabbed my ass and hoisted me up, my legs wrapping around his waist as he marched under the deck where another sitting area was set up. Icy wood met my bottom as he dropped me on a table, his mouth descending on mine for another fiery kiss that had me panting.

Moisture gathered between my legs, and I rubbed against the hard bulge in his sweatpants, moaning as the friction created sparks of electricity.

“I can never get enough of you.” Fane’s voice was a rough caress as he yanked my hoodie off, leaving me in a thin tank top. He gave a satisfied hum when he saw my hardened nipples pressing against the thin fabric. “I could just eat you up, fiera mika.”

I leaned back on my palms, arching into him. “By all means, eat away, beastie.”

Fane tugged my shirt down and took a hardened bud in his mouth, his hot tongue swirling and licking. A throaty gasp slipped out as sparks of pleasure shot all the way to my center.

How did I ever live without this man? I didn’t know what real pleasure was until he’d given it to me, wrenching an orgasm from me for the first time when his phantom form snuck into my room at the Anderses’.

As Fane’s real hand played with my other breast, his ghostly one detached from his body and roamed over my curves. Goose bumps erupted on my skin, and I cried out as a finger plunged into my entrance.

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