Page 93 of Sigma
Several Weeks Later
“Again,” my mate demands.
“No more, baby. Please.”
I’m absolutely exhausted. He’s made me come three times. And that’s not even for all of today so far… justthisround.
Heat flickers in his gaze along with mischief. His head descends and he licks my clit. When my exhaustion shows and I’m not immediately arching my back, he slides up my body and gently slides in, cradling my face in one hand while his other elbow holds him up.
He rotates his hips and kisses me. “You done in?” he asks gently, running the tip of his nose up my jaw. “Did I fuck my beautiful mate into complete submission finally?”
He pulls back.
“Probably,” I admit.
He laughs and slams forward again, swiveling his hips and pulling a whimper from me before he sucks the mate mark, which makes me dig my nails into his back and finally arch my back.
His knot appears and he manages to pull one more orgasm from me before we both pass out.
***
I wake up sometime later with his mouth around my nipple, his fingers between my legs.
“Ugh. Not tonight, honey. I have a headache,” I tell him.
He looks up at my face and asks, “Seriously?”
“Naw,” I whisper.
But good to know it seems like he’d stop if I did.
I don’t know how he’s still got so much energy. I’m exhausted. Growing a baby evidently takes a lot out of you.
Jared suddenly finding out I’m pregnant yesterday because he can smell our child has had a profound effect.
Because our son has a scent. My mate is elated. And this is the fourth round of sex since he found out less than twenty-four hours ago. Did we conceive the night his wolf claimed me? I feel like we did, that it was a monumental night for us in so many ways.
We’re in Northern California with the camper and it’s been an awesome few days exploring forests beneath giant redwoods and sequoias. He had an investigation gig and got that done quickly, so since then we’ve gone for hikes, had campfires, found out we’re going to be parents, got a big revelation, and I’ve seen my mate happy, smiling, and ready to make the most of life. With me.
The mask is in the underbed storage area, and I don’t need to carry a taser and a stun gun. Because Jared’s wolf listens to me.
After it was determined that though Jared doesn’t have much of a connection with his wolf, but that I do, we sat with Mitchell Blakely again and Jared decided he doesn’t want to take that experimental drug. At least not right now. Mitch said he’s leaving some of the drug with Cat in case Jared changes his mind.
I don’t blame him for sayingno. Volunteering to experience all the rage and anger his wolf felt for all that time doesn’t sound fun or healthy. But while Jared doesn’t have all those shifted memory gaps filled, he has been having dreams of being wolf, dreams he’s never had before, and I believe those dreams are based on memories while wolf. Some of them are just walks, runs, hunts. But some aren’t good dreams. I think his wolf is still protecting him from harmful memories, trickling in slowly to connect with him, starting through dreams. Time will tell if my hunch is right or not. Time will tell if they eventually fuse and become one.
But I know one thing for sure from my time spent with Jared’s wolf. Though we can’t communicate with words, I have a sense of who the wolf is. Protective. Smart. It just took that lunar event for him to realize that I’m not a threat, that we belong together. Because of this, I couldn’t wrap my mind around him being a mindless killer and asked Jared if we could talk to his cousin Olivia.
He wasn’t ready, afraid of the truth being what he’s always feared. To his credit, he showed how strong he is by giving me permission to call her.
I got her number from Bailey and spoke to her on the phone a few days ago. She was glad to hear he’s alive. I haven’t told her much, definitely not about the fracturing of the relationship between Jared and his animal, but I asked her about their childhood, about their alpha, because I told her I believe Jared has repressed a lot of traumatic memories and that I want to help him through them.
She told me terrible stories about how their uncle treated Jared, how he had some of his betas do the same, tormenting him whenever Jared’s father wasn’t around. Everyone in the pack hated the bullying of a child and knew it was because Jaredwould likely grow to become alpha, that Michael Stone didn’t want his position threatened, especially by someone he couldn’t smell coming.
Olivia told me she vividly remembers Jared nearly drowning one winter when he was four or five years old after his uncle tripped him on the riverbank and watched him flail in the water after breaking through thin ice. The alpha forbade everyone from helping. But Jared’s sister rushed in anyway and pulled him to safety. She got a bad case of hypothermia and nearly died.
And I think that’s why Jared’s wolf doesn’t like the water. I tried, while my wolf ran with his, to coax him into a calm stream. He refused, barked at me and got as ferocious and angry as he did before the night of the amber moon. I got out of the stream and he barked at my wolf for a long time before he mounted my wolf and I took what felt like a punishment fuck. When Jared shifted to wolf the day after that, I took another run with him and he was over his anger, but barked at me when I got close to the water again, so I didn’t push my luck with the issue.
Jared has no memory of nearly drowning, nor of Ellery almost dying from hypothermia. I know one thing for certain – we are definitely naming our first daughter after his sister.
