Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

C aleb's body shuddered as Rochelle climaxed beneath him. Her hips rocked against his face with desperate need. A powerful jolt surged through him, as if her pleasure were his own. Intense spasms of ecstasy wracked his body from head to toe—in his back, his balls, his groin, his very heart. It was like nothing he had ever experienced before.

He and Rochelle had been having sex since they were teenagers. Just heavy petting while they were still in high school, clothes on. After the junior prom, he'd snuck his fingers up her skirt and down her panties. It wasn't until the summer before college that he'd first entered her body.

They'd been fucking hard for years, but it had never been like that.

As the shockwaves slowly ebbed, Caleb became aware of a strange buzzing sound—Rochelle's vibrator, still nestled between their joined bodies. With a grunt, he reached down and switched it off. But the buzzing continued, more of a deep thrumming now, emanating from the space between them.

The bond. She had accepted the bond. He felt the mating bond snap into place with an audible click, connecting their souls on the deepest level.

It was as if the world had shifted beneath his feet, gravity releasing him, sending him soaring into the stars. His entire being felt weightless, untethered, like he had exploded from the earth and become a new moon. He wasn’t just Caleb anymore; he was part of something greater, something ancient and pure. He was orbiting around Rochelle, drawn to her with a force as natural and powerful as the tides reaching for the moon.

Caleb's amber eyes locked with Rochelle's green ones. The intensity of the moment stole the air from his lungs. Her pupils were wide, her cheeks flushed, and in that gaze, in the way she looked at him with such wonder and awe, he saw everything he had ever wanted. Everything he had been waiting for.

The bond thrummed between them, alive and glowing. It wrapped around them like a silken thread, pulling them closer together until there was no space between their hearts. The connection was so overwhelming, so immense, that he couldn’t speak. Words were small things, meaningless, compared to the enormity of what had just happened.

She had accepted him. All of him.

Caleb was certain his heart had a hole in it from bursting wide open. Love flooded his body with a raging intensity that made his limbs tremble. His wolf howled in pure, unfiltered joy. An unbearable sense of happiness coursed through him, sweeping him up, carrying him higher and higher until he felt as if he might disappear into the sky. He wanted to shout, to run, to let the whole world know that she was his, and he was hers.

In her eyes, he saw the same wonder, the same joy, the same love that was pulsing through him. He could feel it, humming along the bond, vibrant and undeniable, filling the space between them until it was all he could sense. It was her love, her acceptance, wrapping around him, pulling him in and holding him close.

Caleb exhaled the tension he had been carrying for so many years melting away in that single moment. The worry, the waiting, the distance—it was gone, replaced by the certainty that this was where he was meant to be. Where they were meant to be.

Slowly, he raised his hand, brushing his thumb across her cheek. His touch was featherlight, as if she were something delicate, something precious that he couldn’t quite believe was real. But she was. She was here. And she was his.

A smile pulled at his lips, soft and disbelieving, as he leaned in closer. Not for a kiss. He just needed the connection. His forehead rested gently against hers. His heart was still pounding, racing in time with hers, the bond between them alive with the pulse of their shared joy.

"Thank you," he whispered.

And then he needed more. Caleb leaned down and captured Rochelle's lips in a tender kiss. His hands moved of their own accord, tearing away the fabric of his shirt that separated their heaving chests. Buttons pinged across the room, but he barely noticed. All he could focus on was her—the warmth of her skin, the softness of her curves, the scent that was uniquely hers.

"Thank you," he said against her mouth before trailing kisses across her cheek to her closed eyelids. "Thank you." His lips brushed the tip of her nose. "Thank you." The words were a mantra, a prayer of gratitude to the universe for bringing this amazing woman into his life and bonding her to him so completely.

Rochelle's fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer as if trying to merge their very beings. Caleb groaned at the exquisite ache building inside him once more. He needed to be one with her, to bury himself in her welcoming heat and never let go.

Shifting his hips, he lined himself up with her slick entrance. The broad head of his shaft nudged against her folds. Rochelle lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist in silent invitation. With a flex of his powerful muscles, Caleb thrust forward, sheathing himself to the hilt in one smooth stroke.

How he had ever thought he could live without her he didn't know. She was everything—his love, his life, his very reason for being.

Slowly, reverently, he began to move, each deep thrust a declaration of his love and devotion. Rochelle met him stroke for stroke, her inner muscles gripping him like a velvet vise. Their bodies moved in perfect synchronicity, like they were made for each other. Because they were. They were destined by fate to find each other against all odds.

Caleb pushed deeper, harder, feeling like he was thrusting into the very heart of her. For the first time, Rochelle had let him all the way in, not just into her body, but into her soul. She wrapped herself around him even tighter, her arms and legs holding him close as if she never wanted to let go. Caleb groaned, the exquisite friction driving him wild with need. He pistoned his hips faster, the slap of flesh against flesh echoing through the room.

In the past, there had always been a part of them holding back, a sliver of fear and doubt that prevented true intimacy. But now, with the mating bond sealed between them, there were no more barriers, no more walls. They were one in body, mind, and soul.

The pressure of Caleb's orgasm coiled tighter and tighter at the base of his spine. He didn't want to come. Not yet. He wanted to make this last, to stay buried inside Rochelle's heat forever. But the pleasure was too intense, too all-consuming.

With a guttural roar, Caleb exploded inside her, his seed jetting deep into her womb. Stars burst behind his eyelids, and he howled his release to the moon, a primal sound of sheer ecstasy. His wolf surged to the forefront, wild and untamed, reveling in the claiming of his mate.

Caleb's jaw elongated, his canines sharpening into deadly points. He sank his teeth into the tender curve of Rochelle's neck, marking her as his for all the world to see. She cried out, her body convulsing around him as another climax ripped through her.

"Mine," Caleb growled, laving the wound with his tongue. The coppery taste of her blood filled his mouth, rich and intoxicating.

"No." Rochelle shuddered beneath him, her eyes glazed with pleasure and wonder. "Mine."