Page 43 of Marked
My pulse skips, breath catching in my throat. “Are you sure?”
Chey reaches up to bracket my face in her hands, amber eyes staring into mine with palpable intensity. “I trust you, Iver,” she rasps. “I love you. I want you to mark me. Claim me as yours and never let me go.”
“Never,” I agree. “Not in a million fuckin’ years, Chey. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. You’re my dream girl. Fuck, I love you, and I…”
I trail off as she reaches up to swipe her damp hair away from her right shoulder, craning her neck to give me better access.
My heart slams against my ribs as I lean down, the tip of my nose brushing her skin as I inhale her scent. “I love you so much, Chey,” I murmur into the crook of her neck, the tingling in my gums intensifying.
She threads her fingers into my hair, guiding my mouth to the junction of her neck and shoulder. I bite down, and she cries out when my teeth break the skin, the coppery tang of her blood rolling over my tongue. Stars explode behind my eyelids as my canines deposit the mating serum, my hips stuttering as I come deep inside her. Waves of bliss wash over me as I release herfrom my bite, licking the wound to soothe the sting before lifting my head to look into her eyes.
“Are you okay?” I ask, needing to know that she is.
Chey’s amber eyes are glossy with tears as she strokes her fingers through my hair, nodding. “I’m better than okay,” she chokes out. “I love you, Iver. I’m yours.”
Copper flecks ignite in her irises as she blinks her tears away, her inner wolf pushing forward. “And you’remine,” she declares, her own canines elongating, poking from the seam of her lips.
I tilt my head to the side, offering myself up for her mark. Chey lifts her own, trailing her tongue over my collarbone and up to the junction of my neck and shoulder. Her warm breath fans my skin as she scrapes her teeth against it, as if she’s searching for the perfect spot. Then I feel the sharp sting of her canines as she bites down, her inner walls clamping down around me as she detonates.
It's the most potent, overwhelming sensation I’ve ever experienced. The bond between us burns bright, fusing and solidifying as euphoria surges through my body. Somehow, I’m suddenly coming again, both of us panting and moaning as we ride out our mutual climax, bodies and souls joining as one.
Slowly, we start to come back down to earth, untangling and finding our way underneath the covers once we catch our breath. I pull Chey in to rest against my chest, stroking her hair and sighing contentedly.
“You know this means you’ve gotta move in, right?” I murmur.
She snorts a laugh, lifting her chin to gaze up into my eyes. “Is that right?”
“Yep,” I reply, my lips splitting into a grin. “From here on out, I’m not spending another night without you,mate.”
.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
the future
CHEYENNE
“Office… living room…oh, this one would look killer above the bed,” Iver murmurs as I shuffle through the photos I snapped on our hike this morning in Westfield’s territory. Coincidentally, our last three hikes have been on his pack’s land. He’s been badgering me about moving in with him for the past week, showing off and talking up his hometown every chance he gets in an effort to convince me.
As if I needed convincing.
From the moment he suggested it, I knew I wanted to move in with him. I almost said yes right then, but rationality prevailed, and I decided I should take some time to think it over rather than making a snap decision. Everything between us has moved fast. When it’s right it’s right, but it hasn’t been easy to silence that little voice in the back of my head– the one still wondering whether this is all too good to be true.
Girls like me aren’t supposed to get happy endings, but here I am, living mine.
“You aren’t really gonna get all these framed, are you?” I question, pausing my scroll and arching a dubious brow.
“Of course I am,” Iver scoffs, taking the camera from my hands. His thumb moves to the button, and he picks up whereI left off, clicking through the photos. “Every room in the packhouse needs a little piece of you. Feel free to redecorate however you want, so long as every space has a Cheyenne original.”
I snort a laugh, rolling my eyes like he’s being ridiculous, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make my heart skip a beat every time he compliments my photography. Or every time he looks at me with those baby blues, or flashes me that sexy grin…yeah, I’m a goner for this guy. So much perfection shouldn’t exist in one human being, but here he is, lying next to me andexisting.
My gaze flickers over the muscular planes of his chest, drinking in every delicious inch of tan skin visible above the edge of my bedsheets. After our hike, I told him I was ready to move in.
He brought me home to pack.
While he attended to his Alpha duties, I boxed up my life, and then he showed up at my door and wasted no time in showing me just how happy he is that I’m moving in.
Not a bad sendoff for the ol’ cabin.
