Chapter 7

The day sped by as he and Winterlyn packed up as much of her garage apartment as they could, loaded it into the back of her mom’s pickup, and then headed out to their first date. Because the truck was loaded up with her things, he’d called a car service to pick them up.

Their date was spectacular, but only because Winterlyn was amazing company.

He loved hearing about her life, even though it was difficult for him to hear how she’d been mistreated by the skulk, by people she’d known her whole life. They’d shared the whole meal—splitting appetizers, main dishes, and finally the tallest piece of chocolate cake he’d ever seen in his life.

It seemed all too soon that he was driving her mother’s truck to the agreed-upon location for the portal to open.

“I can’t believe we’re already back here,” Winterlyn said as she got out of the vehicle. “It seems like we just arrived.”

“The day flew by.”

He met her at the back of the truck and lowered the gate. The portal would open in a few minutes, and he’d requested some extra hands to help haul her things to his apartment in the barracks. When they’d been packing up, she said she wanted to get as much of her stuff packed and take it to Northernmost, because that’s where she felt like they should stay. He’d offered to take her to Ohio to live so she could be around shifters, and he’d also suggested she could take some more time to make her choice.

He didn’t care. He’d live anywhere with her.

Yeah, he loved being a Guardian, but he’d be just as happy back with his pack. So long as she was by his side, he couldn’t care less what the scenery looked like.

“I know you think I’m jumping into things too fast,” she said.

Her hands were on his shoulders and his were on her waist. They were nearly touching, their breaths puffing out into the cold air as they spoke.

“Too fast for what?” he asked. “Our relationship?”

“No,” she said. “Too fast for deciding where we’ll live.”

He mock wiped his brow. “Whew. I thought you were having second thoughts about me.”

Her mouth fell open as she let out an exasperated gasp. “Absolutely not!”

“Good.” He gripped her hips a little tighter and pulled her against him. Her eyes darkened and the sweet scent of her arousal spiked in the air between them. Holy hell, she smelled amazing.

Dark brown sugar and sweet cream.

“I just don’t want you to think that I’m dead set on being a Guardian. We can live wherever, I only care that you’re with me. Plus I’ll point out that you’ve spent only a little bit of time in Northernmost. You might really love Howling Creek.”

“I only care that we’re together too,” she said. “But I don’t know, I just feel like Northernmost is the right place for us. At least for now. Maybe we’ll change our minds in the future when we’ve got kids, and they need to be around their wolf peers.”

Her eyes got a faraway look and her lush mouth pulled down at the corners.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was just wondering if my brokenness is hereditary.”

“You’re not broken, you’re perfect. And whether our kids shift or not, they’ll be accepted by us and the family no matter what.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and kissed her. “I swear to be the best mate to you and make a home that you’ll be proud of, no matter how long we stay in Northernmost or when we go to Howling Creek. Okay? Trust in me to take good care of you for the rest of our lives.”

Her eyes glistened and she gave him the sweetest smile.

“You’re really a wonderful guy. I’m just wondering how I got so lucky to find you.”

“Believe me, Winterlyn, I’m the lucky one.”

When the last of the things they’d been able to collect from Winterlyn’s were in the spare bedroom of his apartment, he stared at the boxes, bags and suitcases, feeling supremely happy to see her things in a place that hadn’t ever felt like home to him.

But it did now. With her here.

“Declan?” she called to him from the master bedroom.

“Yeah, sweetheart?” He left the spare bedroom and walked into the master, where his beautiful mate was standing in front of the bed that he’d failed to make that morning.

The lights were low and Winterlyn looked like a goddess in the long, flowing dress she’d worn to dinner, her long, blonde hair like a halo around her.

He growled softly and joined her, inhaling the sweet, deep scent of her arousal.

“Sweet mate, what are you thinking of?”

“You, Declan. I want… you.”

Winterlyn had never been very bold or really put herself out on a limb. But she was already head over heels for Declan. He’d asked her to be his mate, gone with her to meet her parents, and then helped her pack her apartment and brought her home with him. He’d opened his heart and home to her so easily that it was hard not to find herself falling for him.

There was just one thing she needed, and that was to be his mate in truth.

He caught her around the waist and turned them together, falling to the bed so that she was straddling him, and he was spread out below her, his eyes glowing with heat and passion.

He slid his hands up the edge of the dress, pushing it up her thighs. She’d decided against tights or hose under the dress even though it had been cold out, and she’d also gone without…

“Naughty vixen,” he said with a purr in his throat as he found the apex of her thighs and the missing panties.

She leaned forward, bracing her hands on his chest. “You could have had fun at dinner, but you didn’t even try anything.”

“It was our first date,” he said, skimming his fingers up her belly, the dress riding up high on her waist. “I wanted to be a gentleman.”

“Gentlemen don’t finger their mates at dinner?”

He grinned, his eyes flashing amber. “I will from now on.”

She leaned back and grasped the dress in both hands, lifting it over her head and dropping it to the floor. She’d never gone out in public without anything on under her clothes. It had been a sexy secret, driving her arousal up throughout the evening.

And now here she was, fully naked, feeling more free and bold than she ever had before.

She found the buttons of his shirt and undid them swiftly, pushing the fabric aside to reveal the soft, smooth skin of his abdomen and chest. He was deliciously muscular, with the faintest bit of dark hair from his navel down into his pants.

She stroked her thumb up that hair and he shuddered.

Leaning forward, she let her breasts rub against his chest as they kissed, dancing their tongues together like they’d kissed for a thousand lifetimes already when it hadn’t even been a full day yet.

He cupped her face and traced her jaw with his thumbs while he kissed her senseless, and then he slipped his hands down her shoulders, along the sides of her body, until he spread his hands over her bottom and tugged gently.

She pulled from the kiss, gasping for breath and followed his lead as he pressed her forward. She walked on her knees up his body until her pussy was over his face, his eyes glowing amber with his beast and his hands locked against her thighs.

“You’re a fucking dream, Winterlyn.” His voice low and growly.

“Make me come, Declan, make me yours.”

He snarled and pulled her to his mouth. His tongue swept up her pussy, circling her clit and making a path of heat that drove her wild. He growled every time he pushed his tongue into her and the vibrations made her shiver and her stomach clench as need filled her. She laid her hand over his on her hip and closed her eyes as he flicked her clit and slid a finger into her heat.

Her thighs trembled as he fingered her, rubbing her walls and stroking her just right as his tongue flicked swiftly over her clit. When he growled again, his tongue hit just the right spot and she tumbled over the edge.

She cried out his name and fell forward, catching herself on the mattress as he licked and sucked her to the pinnacle of pleasure.

She felt him move, felt the loss of his heat from underneath her, but then he was behind her, and the only thing she could hear over the roar of blood in her head and her panting breaths was the lowering of his zipper.

He fit the head of his cock against her center and thrust in hard and deep, driving the breath from her lungs and making her vision blur as another wave of pleasure hit her. She gripped the bed, her knuckles turning white to hold her in place as he pulled from her and then thrust in again, pounding hard into her over and over. His hands were tight on her hips, her body helpless to do anything but take what he gave her, and he fucking gave it to her good .

Her brain was foggy, her body spiraling from one great height to the next, and her fox blissed out from knowing they were with their mate.

“Fuck, Winterlyn.”

His hands were brutally hard on her hips, his body slamming against hers over and over.

Then he howled and she felt him come inside her, their bodies wed tightly as he snarled through his release.

He grasped her shoulder and pulled her up, sinking his fangs into her neck. His fingers hit her clit and strummed it, a tidal wave building inside her so fast she thought she’d pass out when it hit her.

Pleasure, hot and heavy, and wonderfully freeing, filled her once more.

She let out a cry of completion, her voice cracking and tears leaking from her closed eyes.

He gently licked the mark he’d made, sealing them forever as mates.

Her body hummed with the knowledge that they were mated now. He was hers and she was his.

“You’ve slayed me, sweet Winterlyn,” he said. “I’m yours to the very center of my being, forever.”

He turned them to the bed and she curled against his side, resting her head on his chest to listen to the thrum of his heart and the contented hum from his wolf.

“You’re mine too.”

Declan woke and reached for Winterlyn, but the bed was cold beside him. He sat up and turned to get out of bed and look for her when he saw her standing at the window wrapped in a blanket, staring out at the Northern Lights.

He slipped from the bed and joined her at the window, resting his chin gently on her head and wrapping his arms around her.

“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered. “I had no idea. I’ve only ever seen pictures.”

He was so used to seeing the sights as he made his rounds for patrol that he didn’t even notice them anymore. But now, with the awe in her voice and the way she was mesmerized by the wavering lights in the sky, he found them beautiful too.

“I think I didn’t look away from the night sky for a week when I first came here,” he said. “The Well is pretty damn cool too, but not like the Lights. It’s like something is alive up there and playing with the colors.”

“It’s after midnight,” she said. “It’s not the solstice anymore.”

That meant Jack Frost was done spreading winter around the world and was back in his lair replenishing his magic by stealing good magic from some unfortunate magical person.

She turned in his arms and rested her head on his chest. “This was the best solstice I’ve ever had.”

“Oh?”

“Once I couldn’t shift, I was never included, always on the outside. A part of things but also not, like a ghost that can’t leave the place they died.” She tilted her head up to look at him. “But this solstice, I found you and now we’re marked mates.”

“It’s the best solstice for me too, sweetheart.”

She was warmth and love personified, sweet as the day was long, and as awe-inspiring as the lights that moved in the sky above.

It was the best solstice of his life, thanks to his mate.