Chapter 18 - Cyrus

“ Watch out, Cyrus!” Jarrod yells out in my mind. My ears perk up like a sixth sense, but my response time is too slow.

I’m hit, my wolf form crashing against the ruptured tree trunk. Whimpering when I hit the ground in a heap of broken bones, pain slices through me and shackles me to the floor.

My eyes widen when I see the pool of blood beside my head. Even when I lift my eyes, my vision is hazed with deep red spots while the ensuing fight continues in the empty parking lot.

Groaning, I can feel my weakened wolf slipping away, recoiling from the pain that grips me and keeps me entangled in its vile clutches. I can’t hold onto my consciousness any longer, my Beta’s voice fading as I shrink into human form.

The unbearable pain in my aching and cracked bones seizes my vision, and I don’t have it in me to fight anymore. As I surrender to the clutches of darkness that wrap their tendrils around my mind, I murmur Cassandra’s name before everything fades to black.

***

“Cassandra…”

I call out the name of the she-wolf who’d cast a spell on my heart, eyes faintly parting and burning from the brightness all around me. The pain I’d been feeling just now is gone, except for the dull ache in places in my body I haven’t fully stepped into consciousness yet.

Did I die and go to the Moon Goddess’s abode?

The striking awareness has me pulling my eyelids apart, only to see Cassandra’s face before my eyes.

“A-am I d-dead?” I croak, my throat dry and itchy. I’m about to lift my hand to my throat when I feel the warmth of Cassandra’s fingers laced with mine.

“You’re awake!” she squeals, jumping to her feet and instantly wrapping her arms around me. That’s when a flurry of sensation sets in, igniting my nerve endings and making me aware of every injury and nick I’d endured during the fight.

“Oh!” I groan with a nervous chuckle. “I’m definitely still alive.”

“Thank Goddess for that!” Cassandra exclaims, pulling back and apologizing when she notices me flinching and wincing as I acquaint myself with the residual aches and pains. “Sorry…” she apologizes, but I throw her a small smile.

“What happened?” I ask, my mind hazy. All I remember was being struck by the rogue leader.

A werewolf and human hybrid with enhanced speed and lethal claws. Deadly enough to rip through my tough werewolf flesh and break my bones with the impact of its strength.

Cassandra tells me what she knows, and I stare down at my body, arm set in a cast and wounded thigh. If I quiet my mind long enough, I can feel the threads of my torn skin weaving together as the Alpha blood in me works its magical healing powers.

“I have to meet with the others,” I say, struggling only slightly as I sit upright.

Cassandra quickly grips my shoulders and uses all her might to push me back down.

“You’re not going anywhere,” she scolds firmly. “You need to heal first before you leave this bed.”

Amused by her strict warning, I chuckle lightly. “Have you forgotten that I’m an Alpha-blood? I’ll be healed in no time.”

Her nostrils flare when she huffs discontentedly, squaring her shoulders with defiance, tilting her chin.

“You were knocked out cold only a few minutes ago,” she grouches.

“Are you…” I eye her suspiciously. “... Were you worried about me?”

Cassandra rolls her eyes. “No, I wasn’t. I was only concerned about this pack that wouldn’t have had an Alpha.”

I can’t control my amusement, chuckling as I pull myself out of the hospital bed. “Point taken. I’ll compromise,” I offer, glancing over my shoulder at the skeleton of a bed. “I’ll rest at home, not in the hospital. But I’m gonna need a private nurse.”

***

When I mentioned that I needed a private nurse, Cassandra immediately took the bait and offered to take me back home.

After a long night, the rising sun’s warm, orange hues filtering from the blinds in my bedroom feel delightful. But more than the sun’s welcoming rays. I’m touched by the warmth of Cassandra’s presence as she stays by my side.

Even if she’s passed out on the settee underneath the window in my bedroom.

Shaking my head, I brace my weight on my elbows as I get up. The pain has subsided after just a few hours of sleep, and I know I’m well on my way to recovery. It’s not that I doubted my Alpha’s abilities to heal this fast.

I hate that I had to get some shut-eye when we got home instead of picking up where Cassandra and I left off.

When I fought the rogues last night, all I could think of was coming back home to Cassandra. I fought gallantly, the need to come back to her fueling my snapping canines and strengthening my claws as I tore through those rogues.

For a moment, when I thought I was dead, the only thing I regretted was not being able to do the right thing when it came to Cassandra.

Perhaps this is my second chance, my brief encounter with a near-death experience only driving in the undeniable truth.

Not only do I want Cassandra as my mate, but it’s more than that.

I think I’ve developed feelings for her. Real feelings of sentimentality and softness that I shouldn’t have as an Alpha of my caliber.

I scoff under my breath, feeling foolish for not recognizing the signs sooner, but the derisive sound wakes the woman from her deep sleep on the sofa.

“You’re awake…” she comments groggily, rubbing her eyes with loose fists as she throws her legs over the side of the settee. As she pads across the room in one of the shirts she borrowed from my wardrobe, long, dark hair cascading in waves over her shoulders with the rising sun behind her, she appears angelic.

Mesmerized, I stare at her with my mouth agape, wondering how I’d been so blind. Her ethereal beauty is radiant, filling the room with a soft, warm glow of her aura. Like a goddess in her natural state, Cassandra’s feminine curves whisper forward, her gloriously brown eyes piercing my soul and sentencing me to a lifetime of devotion to her.

She clears her throat, drawing my attention away from my daze.

“How do you—” she clears her throat again, pointing at the sheet covering my legs. “How do you feel now?”

“I feel fine,” I nod, throwing off the sheet and steadily turning to hang my feet off the side of the bed. I barely bat an eye, which indicates to me that I’m already healed thanks to the sped-up healing powers of the Alpha blood in my veins.

But I don’t admit that I feel perfectly fine. When I noticed Cassandra’s concern furrowing her brows, I feigned discomfort with a forced wince and pretended to groan. This prompts Cassandra forward as she falls to her knees in front of me, a hand flying to my wrapped thigh.

“Does it still hurt?” she asks worriedly. “Has it not healed yet?”

“I don’t think so,” I whisper, intently watching the way she cautiously begins to unwrap the bandages covering my thigh.

“Maybe we should change this,” she offers sulkily, her fingers skittering so close to the hem of my shorts that I have to maintain a steady breath to keep myself from getting hard this instant.

She dotes on me with the kind of tenderness I’d never expected to experience from a woman. Watching her carefully peel back the layers of the bandage, tongue pressed in her cheek the way she does when she’s focused on her work, I realize that she cares for me more than I deserve to be cared for.

When my thigh is fully exposed, she gasps, whispering gentle fingertips across the faint scar that remains. The skin had fully bonded where the hybrid wolf had ripped its claws through my flesh. All that’s left are the lashes of darker skin that will soon disappear altogether.

“It’s a miracle…” she breathes in awe, lifting her eyes to meet mine. The round, brown irises glimmer in the natural light, her pupils dilating as if she’s drunk.

Almost as drunk as I am by the scent of sweet florals swooning the air around us. Taking a breath is like drinking in the sultry notes of sweetness that envelop my senses and leave me feeling light-headed.

Reaching out and cupping her cheek is a natural reaction to the way I feel enthralled by her proximity. She doesn’t flinch from my touch, her eyes growing heavier but softer at the same time.

“Of course, I’m healed.”

“You were pretending…” she murmurs, her eyelids fluttering as if she’s about to close her eyes and nestle further into my touch.

“I don’t want to pretend anymore,” I admit, voice gravelly. “I don’t wanna pretend about anything. Last night, when I thought I was gonna die, all I could think about was you, Cassandra,” I profess. “I couldn’t leave things the way they were between us if I died.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t die, then,” she says nervously.

I shake my head, adamant to clear things up between us. “I won’t let another moment pass without you knowing how sorry I am for all the pain I’ve caused. I understand now why you left us before…”

Tears pool in Cassandra’s sweet eyes, gnawing at my heart with the amount of regret I have.

“Please forgive me, Cassie. I thought I knew everything, but it’s clear that I have a lot to learn.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she says with a timid sniffle, placing a hand over the one resting on her cheek. “I told you already, I forgive you. Last night, I was faced with the dreaded thought that you might never wake up again. And I knew—” her voice breaks off in anguish.

Consoling her by stroking the apple of her cheek, I bite down on the torrent of emotions gripping me. I am the luckiest idiot alive, and I am a greedy bastard, too.

“Does that mean you’ll agree to be my mate?”

She nods softly, a stray tear slipping from her eye. I wipe at it with the pad of my thumb and ask, “Can I kiss you now?”

Her breath audibly hitches in her throat when she gasps. Her brows wave as if animated with soft wariness. “Ye-yes.” She nods gently, pensively, almost as if she’s unsure, while her frown deepens.

To ensure her consent, I slide my hand to her chin and stroke her bottom lip, closing the minute distance that’s left between us when I lean in. The tips of our noses almost touch, her breath warm and inviting as it fans my lips.

“I’m sorry too,” she whispers, the tenderness of her voice gently vibrating between us.

“What for?” I ask with a frown.

Her nose scrunches. “For slapping you before.”

I chuckle mindlessly, then. “Are you kidding me? I thought we were past that.”

When she shakes her head into my palm, I realize how much this woman cares about me. That’s why she’d been hesitant to follow through with the kiss I requested. She thought she lost me last night, just as I thought I’d lost the chance ever to see her face again.

Staring with conviction into her eyes, I glimpse my reflection and how my eyes darken. “That was probably the hottest thing you’ve ever done, Cassie. And everything you do is fucking hot.”

Her breath catches again, but this time, I don’t give her a second to doubt herself or my intentions when I capture her lips in a ravenous kiss. The sloppy, lewd sounds of our passionately dancing tongues fill the air as I pull her onto me and lean back on the bed.

She breaks the kiss, her breath a series of hot pants as she straddles my hips more comfortably. Her eyes flick to the cast on my left arm, an obstacle that I don’t need anymore. Sitting upright, I tear the plaster and cotton away. Cassandra takes my hand as I stretch my arm forward, pressing a sweet kiss on the inside of my wrist.

“Healed,” she laments enticingly, eyes meeting mine with a mischievous glint in them.

“Healed,” I concede, laying my palm flat on her chest before nimbly undoing the buttons on the shirt.

The drapes part to reveal the hidden treasures of voluptuous mounds, which I behold with both hands, fingers circling the darker nubs that swell from my touch. She leans down, her breasts dangling before my eyes while my mouth waters to taste her sweet flesh.

I latch onto one breast, moaning and mewling at how delicious the swelled mound feels on my tongue. Cassandra takes the liberty of reaching down to pull my shorts low enough to remove my throbbing hard-on. With dainty fingers, she strokes the length, and I plant my hands on either side of her waist to align her with the tip.

Popping her nipple from my lips, I gaze into her eyes, glossed over with wanton need, dilating her pupils. “I wanna watch you…” I drawl, setting her into position as she bites her bottom lip and has me aching to feel her insides.

She braces a palm on my chest as she slowly sinks onto my length, taking every inch inside her tight walls. She moans as I stretch her out, adjusting to the size as she sits upright with all of me inside her.

“Ah…” she mewls, her head lolling back as her eyes flutter closed, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. I reach out and hook a finger beneath her chin, coercing her to open her eyes again.

“Look at me,” I encourage, spreading my thumb across her bottom lip and nudging it from the confines of her teeth. With her lips parted and eyes glittering at me, she appears so pure and innocent. I feel privileged to be the only man who gets to see her like this.

I’ll never want to stop seeing her this way, the golden light behind her framing her perfect curves as she rides me into bliss. Rolling her hips languidly, my cock nestled inside the warm folds of her essence, she brings me to the peak of my existence where all that’s left to do is hold her to my chest as she unravels above me. My name falls from her lips like a prayer while I mentally send a prayer of my own to the Moon Goddess to thank her for blessing me with a she-wolf like Cassandra.

***

“What’s gonna happen now?” Cassandra asks as we both stare at our interlaced fingers, held up to capture the warmth of the setting sun.

We’d spent most of the day in the tossed sheets of my bed, with the excuse that I needed to rest after last night’s events.

I’d stopped visits to the Rudolph house, wanting to spend every minute with Cassandra for our bodies to attest to our mate bond.

With an arm underneath her, my fingers absentmindedly stroke the scent gland where her pheromones ooze out and tempt me to claim her. The only reason I’m holding back is because I don’t plan on keeping her a secret anymore.

Soon, all of Moon Shine will come to know who their Luna will be. I have it all planned out in my head, but with the hybrid wolf still at large, there are some things I must take care of first.

“We were able to capture some of the rogues. They’ll be interrogated. And Jarrod was able to put a tracker on the hybrid,” I inform Cassandra. “The Council will have to move in quickly. If the hybrid is still at large, it poses a threat to our kind.”

“I know you’ll find him,” she assures me. “I have faith in you.”

“I wanna do this,” I say, stroking her neck more deliberately to beckon her attention there. The heat that permeates from her skin and into my fingertips is enticing, the air filling with the sweetness that beckons to my inner wolf.

Cassandra sighs and closes her eyes. “Then do it, Cyrus. I am ready,” she declares softly.

“I still feel unworthy,” I admit, eyes closing. “The past…”

Cassandra cuts me off by pressing a finger to my lips to hush me. “... Is in the past.”

“You don’t understand,” I insist, gently removing her finger with a soft peck on the digit. “The way I was with you was unforgivable. Even if I had my reasons for behaving that way, it doesn’t justify what I did to hurt you. To chase you away…”

“I am back now,” she says solemnly. “There’s a reason for that.” Her lips curl into a gentle smile, and she turns her face aside to offer me her neck.

Groaning, I shake my head to deny what I crave right now. It’s a longing, a pining of pent-up desire that’s been building ever since the first time we made love.

Goddess! Who am I kidding?

I’ve always wanted to sink my teeth in this she-wolf’s neck, circling her scent gland and claiming her as mine.

But I can’t do it as if it’s not something special, something sacred that needs to be yelled to the entire world to witness.

“Not like this,” I admit, rolling over and cupping her cheek. “I wanna do what’s right.”

“Is this not right?”

I shake my head gently. “I am the Alpha—”

“Of the Moon Shine Pack,” she cuts in, rolling her eyes and giggling lightly. “Yeah, I know. You keep reminding me.”

I chuckle against her lips. “I’ll have to keep reminding you lest you try to slap me again if I make a wrong move.”

Through faltering giggles, she replies, “The only wrong move you could possibly make is not claiming what’s already yours.”

Groaning, I drop my head to the crook of her neck, my lips parting around the scent gland that pulses in synchronicity with her beating heart. It takes every ounce of strength inside not to unsheathe my canines and pierce her skin right this instant.

My mouth waters at the thought of tasting her blood and marking her as mine. Her skin would look so pretty with my territorial bite…

“No…” I reluctantly pull away, the word being a command to myself and my inner wolf, who nags me incessantly, chanting the word “ Mate.” like a mantra in my head. I clear my throat, amusement tugging at my lips as I stare into Cassandra’s disappointed eyes.

“Not like this. You’re not some secret that I’m gonna keep the way I kept my feelings a secret from myself all along.” I throw my head onto the pillow, wrestling against the aching need to fulfill this mating claim, resting my eyes behind my eyelids. “I will claim you in an official ceremony with all of Moon Shine present.”

The deafening silence that stretches has me wondering if I’m about to be slapped. Did I just make a wrong move? My confusion has me opening my eyes to find Cassandra staring at me in disbelief.

“You’re serious?” she frowns.

“What did you expect?” I shrug nonchalantly as if it was common knowledge. “You’re gonna be my mate and the Luna of this pack. We’re gonna do everything by the book.”

“By the book, huh?”: she muses as she lays her head on my chest. “Does that mean we’ll have to give this pack an heir?”

I chuckle, carding my fingers through her hair. “I mean… I’m not opposed to it. Though, I’d like to test out my theory.”

“Your theory?”

“Uh-huh… Trying for more than one.”

“You remember that?” she gasps.

“Obviously,” I snicker, recalling that moment in the library nine years ago. “What did you think I was implying when I suggested we try to change the ways of the Moon Shine Pack?”

“I thought I wasn’t fit to be your mate...”

“Oh, baby…” Grabbing the back of her neck, I pull her to face me and stare into her eyes. “The only reason I said that was because I was dumb back then. Although…” I wear a thoughtful frown now. “Being my mate isn’t gonna be easy.”

“Why?”

“I’m insatiable,” I grin. “And I don’t plan on stopping with one pup.” Chuckling mischievously, I pull her forward and crush my lips to hers. It’s going to be impossible for the Moon Goddess to stop at one child for us. It’s been an age-old occurrence for the Moon Shine Pack to bring forth only one heir. I have a strong feeling that Cassandra and I are about to change history.

We’re both insatiable, primal need always at the tip of our fingers, ready to be unleashed. I want her to have all my babies.