Page 54 of Wolf's Claimed Mate
She leaned in to plant a light kiss against my neck. “I suppose,” she said. “It’s just sex.”
I tried not to show the way that comment affected me. Yes, I’d slept with women as a hookup, but never more than once. I never went back to seek more pleasure. Once I’d slept with them, I left them alone. Sasha wasn’t a conquest; I wouldn’t ditch her after today. What we’d done had meant a little more to me thanjust sex.
Still, I agreed, nodding. Her eyes twitched.Stop hoping I’ll contradict your inconsiderate comments, I wanted to say but held my tongue.
She was independent and stubborn, I understood that. I was starting to understand why she was like that and what it meant to her to hold it so closely to her chest. It was a preventative to me opening up. I wasn’t the sort of man to hide his feelings—I gained more from talking about them but with Sasha it was different.
I was afraid to poke too close to her truths and risk the closeness that we worked on.
Iknewwhat we had was more than sex.
Do you think we’d be good together?I wanted to ask.Do you think we could make something of this?But I kept the questions to myself. I didn’t think she was ready to be asked those questions, and I couldn’t risk her pulling away, especially not so soon after what we’d done.
“It’s just sex,” I agreed softly, kissing her. The kiss tasted like more than sex. The way she reached for mefeltlike more than sex. The way she kept coming back for more touches, more ofme, made me think it was more than sex. She wantedme. If it was just about sex, she’d pursue the men she flirted with but I knew she didn’t. Her apartment smelt of her and only her. No trace anywhere of another man. I’d noticed that.
I thumbed over the bruise on her neck where her mating mark would be if she was a wolf, if I were an alpha and she would be my Luna. She’d let me do that, let me have that stupid fantasy.
She hummed in soft pleasure at my touch.
“I can’t imagine what a mate feels like,” she says. “As a wolf. For the likes of Fenrys or Aidan.”
“Like heaven, apparently,” I mumbled. “It’s like, finding that one person you’re meant to be with, meant to have forever… It’s hard to comprehend how that feels beyond normal romantic feelings.”
Sasha sighed. “Was it hard when they mated?”
“It was when Thalia came,” I admitted. “It sounds dumb, but we were brothers, best friends, and the human part of me had the jealousy that Fenrys had a mate. The wolf part of me understood and yearned for the same, even if, as a beta, it wouldn’t ever be in a similar way for me. Then, to see someone like Aidan mating… and withDakota, of all people, it makes me think, like…” I sighed. Sasha kissed the expanse of my left pectoral muscle. “He’s an asshole. But if someone like him even has a mate and I don’t… I don’t know, it’s a hard pill to swallow, I suppose, especially when it all comes down to DNA.”
Sasha nodded. “I can imagine. Aidan’s a dick. Thalia and I tried to talk Dakota out of being with him when she first returned to Silverlake Valley. I’d seen her at a gala in Oak Hill, following him around like a dumb puppy, not even yet mated. But she was just… spiraling, I guess, without him. She needed him. Her mate.”
Sasha’s eyes averted from mine.
“It made me feel a little apart from them,” I told her. “Especially when we all do things together. You know, we’re not like the three alphas. We’re the two alphas and the beta. And it would probably help if Jason, Aidan’s beta, did more with us, but he keeps to himself when he’s not with his own pack. My brother’s glued to his side. They remind me a little of Fenrys and me.”
“Will you ever talk about what happened with Declan?”
I laughed. “What’ll it cost me?”
She grinned, suckling my skin before kissing me. “A few kisses and definitely that thing you do with your tongue.”
I tackled her playfully into the bed, turning her onto her back. Her dark hair fanned around her head, a brunette halo. Her bright eyes gazed up at me.It’s not just sex, it’s not just sex.
“Fine,” I conceded easily. I kissed her deeply, cupping her face, basking in the responsive moan she always gave whenever our lips met. I slowly worked her mouth open beneath mine, kissing her deeply as I trailed my fingers down her body, touching everywhere I could reach again.
I went to brush my hand between her legs again when she batted my head away.
“No getting distracted,” she chided me.
I made an annoyed sound and collapsed back onto my back. Sasha straddled me, circling her finger over my chest. Her hair fell in a curtain around her.
“So much for no distractions,” I muttered. She reached back and picked up my shirt from the bottom of the bed. I took the chance to palm my way up her body, looking at the light hair between her legs, leading up to her sharp hips, her slim waist, her pert nipples set into her smaller breasts.
She tugged my shirt on.
“Take it off,” I suggested, pulling on the hem.
“No distractions,” she scolded. “You agreed to tell me the deal with Declan.”
“Why would I talk about my brother when I could have more sex with you?”
