Page 391 of Hell Hath No Fury
“Skye, we have the rest of our unnaturally long lives to have kids,” he reasoned with a lopsided smile that made my heart do funny things. “I’ve never put you on a schedule, and I don’t plan to now. If you aren’t ready, thenwearen’t ready. That’s it.”
I wound my arms around his neck, tangling my fingers in his dark hair. “But what about what you want?”
“I want you.” He grinned and slid his hands down to cup my ass, a possessive and totally Alpha look in his dark eyes. “And Ihaveyou.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ha ha. I know you want kids, Rem.”
“Of course I do,” he agreed. He’d grown up in a big family, something that wasn’t normal in our world. But his parents were bonded mates and had been able to have him, Katy, and their twin brothers, Dax and Sam.
I’d been the product of a one night bonding that never should’ve resulted in a pregnancy. Luckily for me, my parents were also true mates and thanks to some crazy good (or bad) luck, my mom walked away from the night they bonded with a souvenir.
Not that they’d fallen right into their happily ever after.
My mom and I came from one of the shittiest packs known to shifters and they’d forced her to break the bond she had with my father, leaving her alone and at the pack’s mercy for the next seventeen years. We had paid the price of that night foryears, and I’d always sort of rebelled at the idea of having a child for fear they’d endure the trauma I had.
But with Remy and our pack, I knew any child I had would be loved and adored and so treasured. It was enough to make my heart ache from the fullness of knowing how happy our baby would be here.
It also definitely helped that my mom and dad had found their way back to each other and managed to re-bond.
“The pack will expect it,” I added. As far as we’d come as a species, there were still some deeply ingrained beliefs that would take awhile to sand away. One of those was that the Alpha of the pack was just that; the ultimate Alpha male and had the family to show for it.
Our pack would be expecting a pregnancy announcement in the near future.
He snorted and shook his head. “You think I give a fuck what they think of us? Babe, anyone who doesn’t realize the stress we’re under with the roles we’re juggling is an idiot. And you know if anyone says a damn thing, Rhodes will beat the shit out of them.”
I chuckled and nodded. Remy’s beta, who was one of my closest friends, too, wasn’t one who liked to see his friends and family getting hurt, emotionally or physically. And he was definitely more of a punch-first-ask-questions-never sort of guy.
It was why we loved him, and why he and Larkin made such a balanced pair. I could see the outline of their house out the side window of our bedroom. One day we’d all live here together and raise our families.
But I knew in my heart, this wasn’t the time for it.
“I want to wait,” I told my mate, my tone firm and finite.
“Then we’ll wait,” Remy replied with a shrug.
Still, I had to know. “You’re sure you don’t mind?”
His eyes narrowed. “The only thing I mind is you thinking I’m not a thousand percent with you.” His hands tightened on my hips. “It’s your decision, Skye, and I’ll back you in every way.”
“I love you,” I murmured, never ceasing to feel amazed at how much I truly loved him. He wasn’t perfect by any means, but he was perfect forme, and that was all that mattered.
“I love you, too,” he responded with a soft growl. “Now, go take your medicine so I can strip you naked and devour you.”
A tiny whimper slipped past my lips as a fresh surge of arousal tugged at me hard enough to cause another cramp. Remy was still teasing, but I could also see the seriousness as he sniffed the air and smelled my pooling desire.
Yeah, there was no hiding that from him.
Feeling at peace with my decision, I went back into the bathroom and downed the vial of birth control.
CHAPTER THREE
In the two and a half years that I’d known Remy Holt, I’d seen him in pretty much every imaginable way, and yet, as I stepped out of the bathroom, there was a stark hunger in his eyes that stunned me.
He stood up slowly from the bed, looking more predator than man. He was an Alpha, and I felt the pull to submit in my core. Every movement he made was coiled and calculated, and I could feel a shift in energy in the room as his gaze swept the length of me.
There was this ache inside of me that made me want to strip naked and let him look until he rumbled some sort of approval.
Huh. Apparently heat turned me into a praise kink fanatic.
