Page 121 of Grim

But he and I both knew we weren’t on a hunting trip this time. We wanted our mate to feel what we felt, the freedom that comes with your wolf.

While we trotted back up the embankment where my clothes laid in the snow, Journey laid her head down between Leif’s shoulder blades and hummed gratefully.

I couldn’t wait to see her, see her in her element once she transformed.

And she would shift. She would become an animal, a wolf.

What would her wolf be like?I wondered. Would she be timid with a bite of sass that Journey so often let out when she spoke passionately? Or would she be more animal-like, like Leif, possessive, a brute, and a loner despite his deep-rooted primal urges to be in a pack?

I wasn’t sure, nor did I care, because I trusted Journey, trusting her faith in the Goddess.

Journey was young, a bit naïve, but her passion for the Goddess was endearing, and I found myself believing her more and more.

The bond could do that; the strings that tied us together strengthened by the day.

Leif bristled at the thought of something happening to her, but his own drive to believe in the goddess overrode that. “She’s special” was his mantra. And indeed, there was something special. I couldn’t put my claw on it, but my mate would do great things, I just wasn’t sure what.

We hunted through the trees. Journey automatically picked a large tree that stood straight as an arrow. The needles were thick, and the smell of pine wafted into our noses. We sighed in delight when we loaded the truck. It would be a fine addition to the bar where our “family” was, Journey stated.

She saw our club as her home, her pack. But soon, she would feel the tiny hole of emptiness when her wolf arrived. The need to follow, the need to be a part of a pack where we were all tied with a mind-link. A pack.

For now, I let her enjoy it. Because I wanted her to live in a moment of bliss instead of worry about what might happen later. I was strong enough to hold us together for as long as I had to. I was Locke’s second, and he was my friend. However, I needed him to find his mate and complete a bond. That would be the dawn of a new pack.

I smiled, throwing the heavy tree in the back of the truck. The snow lazily fell as Journey ran back into the woods without me. Journey skipped around trees and hid among the trestles of overhanging limbs. I growled in laughter, still able to see her trying to hide from me.

She jumped from one tree to another, explosions of laughter giving her away each time.

Once I found her looking in the wrong direction, her wolf’s hearing fading as it so often did while her body continued to change. I grabbed her by the waist, pulling her into the snow as we wrestled on the ground.

“Mercy, Mercy!” she cried as she laughed when I tickled her.

I pinned Journey’s back in the snow. She smiled, her finger tracing my cheek, and Leif purred happily in response. I would never get over this feeling of being mated, being with someone I loved.

It wasn’t about the sex or saving my soul or life. Everything was about her and how much I loved her. She completed me in ways I never thought possible, filling the empty holes in my life I felt even before I became a rogue.

“We have to get our tree,” she whispered.

My tongue slipped out of my mouth, licking my lips until the cold air caressed them.

“Do we? I have a good trunk for you.” I kissed her neck.

We were deep enough in the forest that no one from the road would see, but I knew she’d expressed concern about doing anything out in the open. But Leif wanted her, hell I wanted her, but I wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want.

“Grim,” she moaned, her hips grinding against the bulge in my jeans. The gun I kept firmly placed at my side fell out of its holster, and the ax I carried had been long forgotten beneath the snow.

Journey gave a low rumble of a purr. It was the strongest I had heard yet from my mate. It beckoned me to take her beneath the trees and the moonlight.

Gods, she looked beautiful, and I didn’t tell her enough.

“You’re gorgeous,” I blurted. My beard covered cheeks flushed with heat, and I buried my nose in her neck—not to smell her but to hide my embarrassment.

I was a brute, a killer, and this woman had brought me to my knees.

She giggled, her fingers trailing into my hair. “I love you,” she whispered. “And I think you already know I find you exceedingly sexy, even when you get all embarrassed.”

Journey rolled her hips, the pressure of her mound pushing against my cock. It strained heavily into my jeans, the bulbous head pushing against the cold zipper.

I hadn’t bothered with undergarments since she fell into my lap. I always wanted to be ready.

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