“Like hell they weren’t.” He brushed his thumb lightly over my bottom lip. “I don’t know what your wolf is waiting for, but I trust her to make sure I’m the best possible mate for both of you before she bites me. I don’t give a damn how long it takes. My feelings for you have nothing to do with where we’re at in the mating process.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
My wolf brushed up against whatever separated us as if she was thinking about coming out. I wasn’t even sure if that divider was mental, physical, or something else entirely.
“Okay.” He dragged his thumb over my bottom lip again. “There was a horny bastard in the front row of your last class. I still want to kill him. He couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“I’m sure he was just paying attention to the lecture like he was supposed to.”
“I’m sure he would be more respectful about it with my claws to his throat.”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you jealous?”
“Jealous? No. Possessive? Extremely.” Nico leaned in and kissed me. The brush of his lips against mine was light but lingering. “All I could think about was getting you here and making sure you smelled like me.”
Nico’s scent wouldn’t scare off any human man, but he didn’t need me to tell him that.
I knew exactly what he wanted when his possessiveness struck.
“Just rip my pants off already, Cucumber.”
His eyes flashed with challenge. “Is that an order, Abbs?”
“Yeah. I’ll be the alpha today.”
“Good. You want me on my knees for you?” He kneeled at the foot of the couch and hooked his fingers in the waistband of my pants.
“Hell yeah,” I breathed, watching him tug the fabric slowly down my thighs.
My wolf brushed up against the border between us one more time—and I shuddered as she suddenly forced her way through.
Rather than fight her the way I wanted to, I fought my own instinct to try to keep her out.
My body arched with the shift.
The pain was lighter, this time. Shallower, and more distant.
The shift ended almost immediately, and Nico tugged the rest of my clothes free from her fur as he flashed her a playful look.
“Couldn’t let your human have all the fun, huh?”
She licked his face—then chomped down on his shoulder.
I winced at the violence of it. I’d fought like hell not to pay attention when she hunted a small critter on two different occasions. Biting him was almost as bad.
Nico scratched her behind her ears and thanked her for accepting him while she pulled away and licked his wound clean.
There was only one word I could think of to describe the look in his eyes:
Devotion.
My wolf receded quickly, and the shift back was completely painless as a wave of heat rolled through my body.
I shuddered with it, and watched Nico’s eyes dilate as I sat down on the couch.
“Guess this is the climax,” I breathed, my legs falling open.
“Thank fuck.”
