Page 23 of Lion's Crossing

Walking back to my apartment, my heart raced as anxiousness replaced the queasy feeling in my stomach. I still didn’t understand what exactly Linc wanted with me. Though the fact he’d come to Shifter Crossing to see me gave me a twinge of hope. When I’d left Saramto, I hadn’t expected anything from him, envisioned him moving on with one of his many fans or someone else attracted to his fame. But he said something about us being fated mates. At least, I think he did. The dinner at my parents had felt like some kind of dream or maybe a fantasy. Yet, Linc still walked beside me, holding my hand.

He was going to be inside my apartment. My apartment. A shock of worry filled my veins. He liked things clean. Yet, I had no idea how I’d left things at my place. Sure, I cleaned the high school for a living, but I didn’t put as much effort into keeping my own place tidy. I tried to recall if there were dishes in the sink or clothes strewn across furniture. I wasn’t extremely messy. You could see my floor, that much I knew. But with no one ever coming over, I didn’t always put things in what would be a proper place, but in a convenient location instead.

“I’m sorry,” I said when we reached my front door. “My place isn’t as nice as yours.” I hoped that covered any possible mess as well as the run-down look of the only place in town I could afford.

He rested his hand on my back as I opened the bolt lock. “I’m with you, and that’s all that matters to me right now.”

I tried not to shiver with the deep and low tone of his whispered words. I wasn’t used to such attention from an alpha. Getting asked to make out or suck someone’s dick didn’t give the same rush of desire. Yes, Linc and I had been very intimatebefore, but I’d been in heat, and didn’t remember much from those few days with him.

After removing my shoes, I hung our coats up in my tiny, but mostly empty, closet then took a step into the living space, which tripled as my kitchen, dining room, and living room. Linc caught my hips from behind and twirled me around to face him. He held my waist and stared down at me, smiling as though he wanted to eat me. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or terrified.

I quickly glanced away and caught sight of the pregnancy test box on my kitchen table. “I…” Moving my arm in between us, I pointed over at it. “I should take the test. Just to be sure. So you know.”

He shook his head. “I don’t care what the result says. I want you to be mine, regardless. I mean it, Knox. I want you to be my mate. Can you feel what I feel? That connection?”

I sucked on my lips to keep them from quivering. I didn’t want to cry, but my chest was so heavy with all my hopes and fears bubbling to the surface. If I admitted how I felt about him to myself, I left my heart open to getting broken, and I dreaded that more than trying to raise a child on my own.

Cupping my face, he used his thumbs to wipe tears from my cheeks. “Talk to me, Knox. Tell me what you’re feeling.”

“Scared,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. I sniffled then shook my head, worried I would push him away when that was the last thing I wanted to do.

Instead, he pulled me into his chest and held me tight against him. “I get it,” he whispered into my hair. “I am, too. I understand it’s so much different for you.”

I sobbed against his chest. “I feel it, too. That connection. But what if you…”

Letting go of me, he wiped my tears again then held my shoulders while looking in my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere. Not without you, anyway. I want you by my side. I want you tobe my mate, my inspiration for my romantic songs, my forever love. I want you, Knox. And only you. Will you let me claim you? Tonight? I don’t want to wait.”

I nodded, my deer urging me to leap into his arms and let him fuck me until I couldn’t see. “But, are you sure?”

He smiled softly. “I’ve never been surer about anything than I am about you.”

“My bedroom is this way.” Leaving the test on the table, I sauntered into my room, a sudden burst of confidence filling me. I didn’t know how long it would last, so I let it control all my actions.

Inside my bedroom, I stripped off all my clothes and waited for Linc to do the same. We’d seen each other naked many times already. That much I remembered. Especially when I woke up cuddled into his firm body near the end of my heat. Within his arms, he’d made me feel like more than just someone he fucked through their heat, and I longed to recapture that intimate feeling.

As he removed his clothing piece by piece, I scrambled onto the bed, only a single compared to the queen-sized one in his guest room, but that didn’t deter him from crawling over me and capturing my lips with his. His scorching kiss made my toes curl and my pelvis flutter with anticipation.

I bucked up toward him and tried to pull him closer to me.

He chuckled into my mouth. “Suddenly anxious, are we?”

“Mm-hmm,” I moaned as my mind whirled with need. I wasn’t in heat and hadn’t expected to be so uninhibited with him, but I couldn’t deny the desire I felt when alone with Linc. I wanted him. I wanted to be claimed by him and be his mate for the rest of my life.

He reached between my legs, running his finger around my slick hole. With a confident smile, he shook his head. “Faster than I expected, my omega.”

My heart fluttered at his words, and I sucked in a deep breath. “Take me, my alpha.”

He licked his lips then held his hard cock against my entrance. After pushing slowly inside me, he gave a satisfied grunt. I held his arms, staring into his hungry eyes as he rocked in and out. My body simmered as he drew moans of pleasure from deep within me.

He was gentle with his long, slow strokes, building a connection of trust and yearning. But it wasn’t long before my fire of passion became desperate. I writhed in flames, craving completion.

“Will you let me claim you?” he asked in a deep, gravelly voice, his fangs already elongated.

“Yes.” I nodded, my body consumed by the intense yearning for his mark.

He pulled out then sat on the bed and pulled me onto his lap. I sank onto his engorged cock, splaying my palms on his chest. With his hands on my hips, he guided me up and down over him, the sensation of bliss more powerful in the new position. I rocked over him with a primal energy, desperate for release.

As the coil of fury in my groin became unbearable, Linc sank his teeth into me. The shock wave left me reeling, feeling like I was falling and flying at the same time. I screamed at the torturous pleasure of the new connection, of our hearts and bodies joining as one. It was nothing like I expected, but so much more. I reveled in the euphoria and the comfort of our union, one that could never be broken.

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