Page 55 of Taken By the Lycanthrope

She meets my eyes once again. “Do you think there would be a place here for both of us? Enid and me?”

“We don’t turn away those in need,” I tell her, and it’s the truth—we haven’t turned away a single person who’s come seeking refuge. “We never have. And if she would be safer here than in Homestead, you’re both welcome to join our pack.”

“But she’s not lycan.”

“She could live in the city, or here with us,” I tell her. “We’ll figure it out. Because if I’m being honest with myself…and with you, of course…I’m not going to break my vows for a one-night stand.”

Tilda snorts. “Are we like, wolf married or something now?”

“Would that be all that bad?”

She gapes at me. “I’ve known you for all of what—two weeks…?”

“And I knew from the first time I saw you that you were my mate,” I tell her. “There’s something more between us than instinct, Tilda. Can’t you feel it?”

She leans down to stare into my eyes, her breath puffing against my neck. “Kiss me again and let’s find out.”

?

The night wears on, and I can’t keep my hands off her.

For hours, we fuck and fuck—never knotting, just breathing, gasping, moaning, coming. I don’t know how I went this long without her, Tilda’s touch essential. Our scents collide and mingle in the cloying air of the den, touch to touch, breath to breath. I catch only a few hours of sleep, rousing when the party moves from out on the lawn to the common room, hearing the sound of music until the early hours of the morning.

We don’t stop making love. I don’t think we can. Now that I’ve broken the vows I kept for over twenty years, I’m starving for her. And it isn’t just my celibacy that has my desire so heightened…it’s the chemistry of my lycan blood resonating with whatever it is that draws me to her, that tells me we were destined to be.

It isn’t until the alarm on my old clock chimes that I remember there’s another world outside. It’s a Wednesday—if days even mean anything anymore—the first day of the waxing moon. I hold Tilda between my chest and the wall, and press a kiss to her forehead as she stirs, her brow furrowing.

“I should go and talk to the others,” I tell her. “At least try to explain…”

“Don’t go,” she says. Something in me almost forces me to obey her—a tether keeping me locked in place. I didn’t think the powers of the Alpha Prime would work in reverse from my mate, but maybe… “I want you to stay.”

Her arm curls possessively around my back and her lips ghost over her bite mark, her leg hooking around my waist. I inhale the scent of blackberries, growling deep in my chest at how our scents have combined like rich wine.

“At this point, everyone will know about us,” I say. “I have to speak with the pack; and then I’m going to come back and…”

“Stay,” she says. “Knot me.”

She’s so wet, slick coating my cock as she rubs herself against me. I didn’t expect her to be so voracious, so needy—but my bite has already changed her, bringing out the latent wolf. I don’t know how it’s been sleeping all this time, but perhaps she’s been hungry like this without telling me until now.

I pull back from her with considerable effort, taking her face in my hands. Her green eyes are feral, her pupils dilated. “Tilda,” I say, trying to anchor her back in herself. “Listen to me.”

She nods, staying perfectly still.

“I want you to stay here from now on, if you’ll have me,” I say. “Do you want that too?”

She frowns, licking her lips. I can see a level of lucidity there that I haven’t noticed since last night. The real world is creeping into our little nest, and I don’t like it one bit. “I think so,” she says.

“But you’re not sure?”

She shakes her head and finally props herself up on her elbow, her brow still furrowed. “Is it possible to…I don’t know, get drunk on someone’s pheromones?” she murmurs. Her hand reaches out and skates along the sweat-glazed muscles of my arm. “It’s like I’m addicted to feeling you inside me.”

That doesn’t make it any easier to leave. “I don’t want you making decisions when your mind isn’t clear.”

“I think…I think I need to go and take a bath,” she says. “Talk to Peaches maybe. With your scent on me…”

She leans down and kisses me hard, bracing herself on a splayed hand beside my head. I don’t even try to resist her, lying back and curling my arm around her until her breasts are pressed to my chest. I know how she feels; I don’t think I can escape her either. At this rate, we’ll need to be forcibly separated, and only strength of will would be able to keep us apart.

She pulls away with a heavy breath, panting against me. I’m ready to dive back into her embrace, to shove her into the mattress and fuck her again.

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