Page 23 of Alpha's Hated Mate

“Harder,” I whisper, grinding my hips into him.

One good thrust, then another. I reach back and grab hold of his head as he buries his face into my neck. His fangs press against my skin.

And he slows again and whispers in my ear. “Tricky girl . . . you want me to claim you, don’t you?”

He leans back and slaps me on the ass. The quick sting and burn washes over me, and suddenly, I’m hurtling toward my climax. My skin starts to heat up, and a glowing red light illuminates the books around us. I start to think, What if last time was a fluke? What if this time . . . this time . . .

I pull away from him, pushing him off me and stepping to the side. He doesn’t let me get far. He grabs my waist and pulls me to him, kissing me gently. “Aydan,” I whisper. “I don’t want to hurt you. We should stop.”

He cradles my head in his hands as he kisses me, his lips like cool water against my warm mouth. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

This is so crazy. I feel out of control and half-mad when I’m with him. He leads me to one of the chairs and sits down, pulling me on top of him. I slide down on him, and he holds me, steadying me while I take control. I rock my hips as he undoes my shirt, water-cool kisses against my heated skin. He moves my bra out of the way.

“You are so beautiful,” he says before taking my nipples in his mouth.

My fingers tangle in his hair, and I’m falling into a sort of bliss I’ve only ever felt with him. My climax rises up within me as his hips move with mine.

I lower my mouth to his and we kiss . . . and then I implode. The heat inside me mixes with the cool of his touch, and I’m bathed in warm honey again. He moans my name, and as he comes right behind me, the world falls away from us. There’s no one in this room, in thisworld, but me and Aydan.

“I’ve never seen anyone with eyes like yours.”

We’re lying on the floor by the library table, naked and spent and living dangerously. But I don’t care. I’m in Aydan’s arms, and somehow, nothing else matters. I’m looking up into his multicolored eyes when I say that, and he blushes a little.

“My mother had heterochromia, too,” he says. “Pretty sure that’s the thing that got my dad’s attention. He had a thing for . . . anomalies, I guess. He liked it when a wolf had something out of the ordinary about them.” I raise an eyebrow, and he adds, “He had a love for science, my dad. Used to do little experiments in our basement.”

“Experiments? Like what?”

Aydan shrugs. “Nothing earth-shattering or anything. Mostly stuff that helped the pack. Figuring out the best type of soil for crops, that sort of thing. Used to read a lot about wolf anatomy.” He smiles. “He would havelovedyou, in fact.”

“I doubt that.”

Aydan looks me over and brushes a little of my hair out of my face. “We never had a Scarlet in our pack,” he says. “Not that I ever knew about, anyway. He was fascinated with them, though. Used to read all about them and talk about how criminal it was that we knew so little about a member of our own species.”

“That’s . . . surprising?” I say. “Especially given how your sister feels about my kind.”

“Yeah.” His voice darkens like a cloud has suddenly swept over him. “We used to argue about it all the time. I felt like a lot of wolves do about Scarlets, and he was always trying to get us to change our minds, I guess.”

I don’t really say anything to that, but I can picture it. A teenaged Aydan and Nadia making stupid jokes about Scarlets because they didn’t know any better. Most other wolves don’t know any better . . .

“I wonder sometimes,” he muses, “what he might’ve accomplished if . . .”

He stops himself and looks away, something unreadable in his eyes. “If what?” I prod.

He doesn’t say anything for a moment, then continues, “If he’d lived a little longer, I guess. He talked a lot about advocacy for Scarlets. I just wonder if he’d ever been given time to do anything about it, you know? Maybe if he could have gotten through to me before now . . .”

Aydan is looking down at his fingers, rubbing his forefinger and thumb in little circles. “I’m not like him, you know. I’ll never be as good as he was. Or as kind. Wolves like him don’t come around every day.”

I can relate . . . more than he knows. “Good wolves,” I say to him, “reallygood ones are in short supply.” I take his hand and lace it up with mine. “All you can do is to be the best you can be. No one expects any more than that.”

He scoffs a little. “This is a very ironic conversation, don’t you think? We’re not exactly the perfect people.”

“No . . . but then, who says we have to be?”

He takes that in for a moment, then kisses me, sweet and slow. And for this moment, my heart is filled with him and only him.

Chapter Eleven—Saffron

Aydan offered to walk me back to the dorm, but I declined. I guess it’s the Alpha in him that wants to protect me. He doesn’t realize that the hate people have for Scarlets is rooted in fear, and that means I can usually walk home alone at night without being bothered.

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