Page 25 of Secret Heir's Return

I hadn’t seen her smile like that yet. Her entire face lit up, and her green eyes were shining like emeralds encrusted on a king’s crown. As she was smiling at me, I couldn’t stop myself at that moment. I bent down and pressed my lips to hers. The world around us faded as she kissed me back.

My hand cupped her cheek, causing sparks to rush through my veins at the touch of our skin. I knew my mark on her neck must have been throbbing. She would continue to feel it at every touch between us, until she marked me as I had her. Only after thatwould the feeling of my mark simmer to a light tingling buzz with the power of our bond.

“Come on, you two!” Bernard called out. How he managed to break through the fog that our kiss had placed around us, I couldn’t say. “I want to see which of you I’ll be competing with.” His eyes sparkled with amusement and challenge as he called it out for all to hear.

We both smiled at one another and stepped away from each other, returning to our tables. Liberty called out to Rory to stack four pitchers on both of the tables to start us off. He grinned at me over the challenge. The bar erupted with more calls for bets and, to my surprise, most were betting against me. They were putting their money on my beautiful mate.

“All right,” Rory yelled, taking to the center of the circle in front of us. “To your tables! All bets are in, and this round of the new table lifting championship will begin!”

I winked at Liberty. We both squatted under the tables and positioned ourselves, accordingly. She smirked at me as she placed her palms on the table’s underside and widened her stance to prepare for the lift. I followed suit, and with the call of Rory’s “Go!”, we both lifted our tables with ease, waiting a full minute, instead of five seconds, before we set our tables down gently.

Rory came over and inspected the tables for any spills before she called out for two more pitchers, and we repeated the process.

“Don’t be mad when I win,” Liberty teased me, as we held the tables up once again.

“Oh, don’t worry, babydoll,” I cooed. “I don’t have to prove my manliness by beating you in a contest. You’re the only one whose opinion of how manly I am matters. And I know very well that you find me plenty manly.”

Chapter Fourteen

Liberty

I beat both Xander and Bernard at the table lifting competition. I had even landed myself an invitation to defend my title the next Wednesday. It would become a new weekly theme for the bar alongside Taco Tuesday Salsa Night.

It was exhilarating being out and around the rogues; those I had for so long thought of as enemies. But they weren’t. I knew that now after spending time with them, after seeing Xander with them and how they had been so welcoming to someone like me, who was a total stranger.

I wasn’t certain if they caught on to who I was really. He had covered my scent after all, but I was most certainly an alpha female. I had drawn plenty of looks even before Xander and I took to the dance floor and stirred up the new competition.

It was past the last call as we left the bar, but I wasn’t ready to go home. We waved goodbye to a few of Xander’s friends as they left and made our way to the forest’s edge. Xander placed his hand on my lower back as we walked; even through my clothes, I could feel sparks of heat warming my skin and spreading across my body.

I looked up at him, a fresh wave of desire rushing through my veins. I had promised myself and him that we would start over and do this mate thing the right way. Most mated pairs don’t simply date the way we had.

They did as we had done the first night we laid eyes on each other. They rush to mark one another and hop straight into bed, but I had been fighting that urge since the first moment. I had been so filled with suspicion about my mate and why he had disappeared – so filled with mistrust for the man The Fates had deemed my equal match.

I didn’t want to hold back anymore. Not after the night we had just had. I had seen the world he grew up in and been around his people. Our people. I saw him in a new light. Maybe, just maybe, the only reason he had disappeared was to tell his people goodbye and collect his things. He had arrived with his bags packed when I found him again. He hadn’t stayed away for days,only a few hours. It was enough time to pack everything he owned and move from the bar, where the rogues all lived.

“I have an idea,” I offered. I pulled away from his touch and smirked over my shoulder as I disappeared behind a tree.

Out of his view, I pulled off my dress and tossed it out to him, before running behind another tree to remove my underwear. I could hear Xander fumble as he caught my dress, a question fumbling from his lips.

“Catch me if you can!” I called out before I leaped forward. Black fur erupted over my body as I shifted into my wolf. A howl echoed through the trees as I bounded forward like a laugh of joy into the night air.

I could hear Xander’s responding howl; he was now shifted to his dark brown wolf, hot on my trail through the forest. We ran just as we had done the other night of the full moon, completely giving into the wild needs of our animal sides.

Xander was fast…as fast as anyone would expect an alpha male to be. It didn’t take long for him to catch up to me. He leaped onto my back, and the both of us went tumbling across the forest floor with nips and playful barks.

In the tussle, I shifted back to my human form and smiled as I found his human eyes looking down at me and his hands pinning me to the ground beneath him. I lifted my head and took mychance to claim his lips. It was far more heated than the sweet, innocent kiss we had shared in the bar. This kiss held all the raw emotions of the bond I had been holding back. This kiss melted away the trepidations I had been feeling about our bond and his true intention.

Xander pressed his body to mine, his hands roaming my curves as he ground against me. I gasped at the feel of him, already hard, as he pressed against my hips and my legs opened with an invitation.

“Xander,” I moaned out as his hand slipped between my legs through the folds of my sex.

He let out a growl of approval as his finger circled my most sensitive spot. I moaned his name again, and his head fell to the crook of my neck, where his mark burned against my skin. He dragged his teeth along the tender spot; the feeling reminding me of the mark I had yet to give him.

“Xander,” I moaned again as my back arched, sending me up into him.

“I love the way my name sounds on your lips, babydoll,” he growled back. He ran his tongue up my neck before playfully biting just below my ear. “Tell me what you need.”

His finger slipped inside me then, and a rush of need pooled inside me. “More,” I moaned. “I want and need more.”

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