Chapter 17

Thyme was a bundle of emotion as she and Remy made their way back to the house after the joining ceremony. She’d seriously missed her dad tonight. He should have been presiding over the joining ceremony, not Liam and especially not Jacob, who’d chosen not to join Liam when the ceremony was continued at the house. She was angry and hurt that her half-brother had tried to have her killed, or at the very least gravely injured, all for a position of authority over the pride. It certainly didn’t seem like something worth killing for.

While she was excited to be interim alphas with Remy and thankful that things were moving forward with only a few weeks to go until the full moon, she couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t out of the woods yet.

The elders had agreed to punish Brentiss when he was healed, and she and Remy were going to talk to him in the morning and get him on record saying it was Leif or someone on his side of the family that had engineered the situation.

Remy opened the door to the house and paused, looking back at her. “Stay out here for a minute.”

He stepped inside and left the door ajar. She watched as he made his way through the family room and could hear him scenting the air. He would pause occasionally and tilt his head, indicating he was listening intently.

Once she lost sight of him as he moved deeper into the house, she smiled as she realized he was checking the house to make sure no one had been inside while they’d been gone.

He appeared a few minutes later and then walked the perimeter of the house. Once he was back at the front door, he said, “All clear.”

“I’m glad,” she said.

He pushed the door open and then surprised her by sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her across the threshold. She giggled and held on as he maneuvered through the doorway, then kicked the door shut. He tilted her toward the door so she could lock it.

“Tonight,” he said, “I almost lost you.” He stared down at her, the amber of his wolf shining in his intense gaze. “Whether he actually intended for you to be killed by Brentiss’s actions, or just harmed, doesn’t really matter because it was clear that he doesn’t care about your welfare.”

“I think he’s so blinded by wanting to be alpha that he doesn’t care that I’m his blood relation, he just sees me as an obstacle.”

She’d realized that tonight, when she saw how Leif had treated her potential death: with a smirk.

She shivered as she thought about how callous it all was.

“If my dad were alive, he could put a stop to Leif’s behavior, but without an alpha in official capacity, no one can make any declarations about anyone in the pride, and Brilla isn’t considered an alpha without her mate as she’s not the one with the potential to inherit the position…Leif is.”

The same would happen with Remy once they were officially alphas. If something happened to her, he couldn’t continue on as alpha. And only an alpha could stop Leif from trying to take her out.

“He’s a coward,” Remy said. “He’s working in the shadows and trying to get others to turn against you, to discredit you. He won’t challenge me directly because he knows he can’t win.”

“But he can sure challenge me.”

Remy snarled softly and kissed her. “I won’t let him challenge you. We’re going to stop his attacks and get to the full moon, then once we’re officially alphas, we’ll kick him and everyone else on his side out of the pride and start over in Copper Creek.”

She cupped his face and wiggled in his arms, getting as close to him as possible. He held her so easily, his strength astounding her.

“I’m crazy about you,” she whispered against his lips. “Fate brought us together on the full moon. Without you in my life, I don’t know what I’d be doing, but I’d be alone. I’m sorry my life is so fucked-up right now.”

His eyes darkened and his fingers tightened on her. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but right here with you, no matter what’s going on in your life. We’re in it together, because that’s what truemates do. We’ll get through this, side-by-side, hell or high water. Whatever Leif thinks he can throw at us, we’ll deflect and defend. The majority of the pride is on our side, and we can take comfort in knowing that. Leif showed his true colors tonight and he failed. You and I are okay and we’re joined together in the eyes of the pride, and we’re interim alphas. We may not hold all the power that we will on the full moon, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

“You know what’s another step?” she asked coyly, her body heating.

“What’s that, little cat?”

“The bedroom. Giddyup.”

He laughed and carried her to the bedroom while she nibbled on his neck and bit gently on the mating mark she’d given him. He growled as he lowered her to the bed.

Hooking his finger in the button of her jeans, he undid it and the zipper, then swiftly slipped them down her legs. His eyes flashed as he gazed at her.

“You weren’t wearing anything under your jeans?”

“Nope,” she said, rubbing her toes along his thigh. “You have too many clothes on, Remy.”

She tugged the tank top over her head, and laid bare before him.

He kept his gaze on hers as he stripped, tossing his clothes off. He grasped her hips and dragged her to the edge of the bed.

When his mouth parted, she could see the gleam of his fangs and see the flash of amber in his gaze. Her wildcat purred and the sound made her chest vibrate as need welled up in her.

He growled as he stroked his hands down the inside of her thighs. She wanted everything. She wanted it fast but slow, hard but tender.

How could she want so many different things at the same time?

“Are you wet, my mate?” Remy asked. His voice had gone even lower, his eyes darkening and a growl rumbling in his chest.

She tilted her hips in invitation and grasped the bedding above her head.

He held her gaze as he slid a finger achingly slow into her pussy and the feeling was so raw and intense that she couldn’t look away from him. He lowered his gaze to watch as he pulsed his finger in and out of her, drawing her wetness over her clit with soft touches before plunging back in again. She was hot and achy, needy in a way she’d never experienced before.

Her toes curled and she flexed her hips, wanting more.

He spread her open with his fingers and rubbed her clit, at the same time as he slowly pressed his thick length inside her. The feeling of being filled completely and teased at the same time was overwhelming. She slapped her hands on the bed, her nails digging into the blanket.

“Come around my dick, sweetheart,” he crooned when he was fully seated with her, his cock throbbing and his fingers strumming her clit swiftly.

Throwing back her head she let herself go into the heat that spiraled inside her, the warmth in her belly spreading as he drove her to the height of pleasure.

As her climax poured over her, she cried out his name and he howled in return, the sound of his wolf’s claiming.

As her climax threatened to burn her alive, he pulled from her and rolled her to her stomach, her legs hitting the side of the bed. He tilted her hips and slammed home inside her, holding her where he wanted as he fucked her hard and fast.

She gave herself to his claiming as her pleasure pulsed within her with each stroke of his cock, until she was coming a second time and taking him with her.

He snarled deeply, wildly as he came, a sharp but quick pain slicing into her hips as he held her close with his cock spasming inside her.

He caught himself on either side of her, pressing the side of his head to hers as they both struggled to catch their breath.

“My claws came out, did I hurt you?” he whispered hoarsely.

“So that’s what that was?”

He snarled and pulled from her body, then tenderly lifted her from the bed and set her on her back. He bent over her hips. She rose onto her elbows and saw smears of blood on her hips, where his claws had dug into her skin. It ached a little, but it was also healing fast too.

“Let me clean that up, hold on.” Remy climbed from the bed and returned a moment later with a wet cloth, which he wiped tenderly over the small marks. Then he kissed them and leaned up to kiss her lips. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“It’s okay, really. I hardly felt them, and I just want to point out that I was pretty damn lost to the pleasure too.” She touched the blanket that was shredded in several places where her claws had torn through the fabric.

“Well hell,” he said, dropping the cloth to the floor. “We were both in the heat of the moment.”

“It was amazing,” she said. She pressed her hand to his cheek and brought him to her lips. Then she said what was on her mind.

“I love you.”

His eyes softened, crinkling around the corners. “I love you too, Thyme. Finding you in the woods was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Me too.”

They kissed for a long moment, then curled up together, talking quietly in the way that lovers did, ignoring all the bad shit that had happened over the last week and focusing on the future. On love and babies and the new town.

They could worry about the people out to get them tomorrow.

For tonight, it was just her and her truemate, and that was the only thing that mattered.