Page 107 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

Nova laughed.

The sound caught me so off guard, I stopped fighting the beast.

He was sniffing her throat and her face demandingly. Licking her skin.

She waspettingthe vicious, insane fucker.

“You didn’t like the way I left without warning, huh?” she murmured, as he continued poking around her body like he was checking for wounds.

He snarled at her, shoving his face beneath her sweatshirt and nipping her skin.

“Sorry, bud.” She continued stroking his fur, absolutely unbothered by the fact that a monster was biting her.

He pulled his head out from beneath her top and finished sniffing the rest of her.

I was somewhere between wary and shocked as I watched, ready to start fighting like hell again at the first sign that he was going to hurt her.

Instead, he rested his gigantic head on her shoulder and inhaled. She wrapped her arms around him too,hugginghim.

The woman was insane. Fucking insane.

But—

Before I could react, he lowered his teeth to the place her shoulder met her neck, and bit down.

She inhaled sharply as he pierced skin.

I roared at him again, trying to retake control before he could hurt her more, but he was in the driver’s seat. And after so much time spent in his cage, he was stronger than I was.

Rather than tearing or ripping through her skin, he released her carefully.

And licked the wound.

She laughed.

Laughed.

Again.

Nova had officially lost her mind.

“You want to claim me, big guy?” she teased.

He licked her wound emphatically, then bumped it, like she might have forgotten it was there in the two seconds since he pulled his teeth out of her skin.

“It’s a good mark,” she agreed. “Too bad the full moon isn’t up so we can’t make it official, huh?”

He growled his agreement, still licking the wound. It was already healing, like an Alpha’s claim always did.

And a mate’s claim, I supposed.

I could never truly make her mine, though. Not with my wolf the way he was. He wasn’t hurting her for the moment, but there was no guarantee that he never would. And her wolf was small, and fragile. She wouldn’t fight back if he attacked her.

Mating wasn’t an option.

Which left me with a real mess, because how could I ever let myself relax around her? With the threat of my wolf hanging over me, Enzo was right. Just sharing a bed at night was dangerous. Whatwasn’tdangerous?

I was going to have to let her go.

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