Page 46 of Taken By the Alpha Priest

My eyes flick to his lips, and I cant my hips toward him. His eyes flutter when I make contact…feel how hard he is under his jeans. I hook my fingers in his belt loops, insistent.

“Just this once,” I say. “Figure out if we’re really destined or something, and then we never have to do it again and you can go back to saving yourself for God.”

He rolls his eyes, the bastard.

“That’s not what I’m trying to tell you.” Reyes grips my shoulders so tight I think they might bruise. “What I’m saying is that, once I have you…I don’t know if I’ll be able to convince myself to let you go. And this isn’t a just once kind of deal.”

“I’d be down for a few rounds,” I say, cocking an eyebrow.

“You don’t understand what a few rounds with a lycan are like,” he says through gritted teeth. This is getting to him; I can feel his resolve slipping. His voice is lower, growlier when he continues. “A few nights of hard, unrelenting rutting…and we have anatomy that human men don’t have. Something that will keep me locked inside you until I’ve bred you.”

I know I should be disturbed, grossed out, something. But fuck if this doesn’t just make me want him more. I squeeze my thighs together to try and ease at least some of the tension, but all it does is stimulate the already sensitive flesh between my legs.

“Reyes,” I murmur.

“Tilda…”

“If you don’t want to do this, I don’t know if we can be alone together,” I whisper. “And I still…fuck, I still need you to help me with the insulin, and you need me to help with the farm.”

“Right,” he says. “There’s too much riding on us…”

“...for me to be riding you?” I finish for him.

He stares at me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. The silence stretches, taut as a wire, until I’m sure I’ve ruined everything.

Then he huffs out a sharp breath, his lips twitching—and before I can stop myself, I snort. It’s ridiculous, the tension, the weight of it all, and the sheer absurdity of whatever this is between us. The laughter bubbles out, unbidden, and to my surprise, Reyes joins me.

It’s not loud or booming, more a low, rumbling chuckle that shakes his chest beneath my hands. The sound vibrates through me, warm and deep, and for a moment, everything else fades away—the world, the past, the impossible situation we’re in. It’s just us, sharing this fleeting, fragile moment of relief.

Reyes finally pushes me back, gently but firmly, his hands lingering on my shoulders for a moment before they fall away.

I already miss him. That shouldn’t be possible after just one kiss. My arms feel weirdly empty, like I should still be holding on to him, or maybe like he owes me another kiss for good measure.

He clears his throat, the movement awkward enough to pull me out of my own head. His expression has shifted—more serious now, though there’s still that flicker of humor in his eyes, like he’s trying to find his balance too. “Well,” he says, his voice rough but steady, “now you know. And we can figure out what to do about it. As long as you leave by the full moon…”

“Right,” I say, my brain catching up to what Peaches told me earlier. “Because of the rut, right?”

Reyes freezes, his ears practically turning red. “Uh, yes. That.”

“Oh, good,” I say, unable to resist poking at him a little. “For a second there, I thought it was going to be something awkward.”

His jaw tightens, but his blush only deepens. “And because my bite is on you,” he continues, powering through like I didn’t just embarrass him, “by lycan rules, we’re…already mated.”

“Hmm,” I say, biting back a smile. “Mated, huh? Well, I guess this is the fastest marriage proposal I’ve ever gotten.”

“Tilda,” he says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I hold up my hands, grinning now. “Okay, okay. I get it. No jokes. This is serious business.”

“It is,” he mutters, his voice dropping an octave. “We won’t be able to stop ourselves.”

His words hang in the air, and for a second, I can feel the weight of what he’s saying. It’s…a lot. My thoughts tangle up, sharp edges and loose threads. He’s my enemy, he bit me without my consent, and oh yeah—he’s a priest. It’s like the universe handed me the world’s most complicated puzzle and said, “Here, have fun.”

“I think,” I say slowly, “that I need to go talk to Peaches or…do something productive before my head explodes.”

“I understand,” he says with a small nod. “I’ll walk you back to the visitor center.”

“No thanks,” I say, taking a step back. “I’d like to be alone for a bit. You know, clear my head.”

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