34. Endgame

34

Endgame

I watch as the light dims from my eyes on the selfie camera of Cameron's phone before the battery dies completely. "Why is this happening?" I ask, turning back to Cameron, lying on his side next to me. He's already placed our wet clothes on stones outside the cave to dry. He's completely naked, wrapped in part of the sleeping bag, with his head propped up by a muscular arm as he rests a hand on my thigh. "I've heard about powerful werewolves who had the power of mind reading. Their eyes glow whenever they use their abilities. I've just never met one in real life. "

I shoot him a disbelieving look before tossing the phone to him. "Are you fucking with me?" I lie down next to him, and he pulls me in close. I hide my sharp breath as I revel in the feel of his muscular body pushed against mine.

He grins and kisses my cheek, his hand running lazily up and down my bare back. "No, I'm being serious. I think coming together with me—your mate—is helping you transition into your full powers." He looks me in the eyes and shakes his head slightly. "And damn, are you powerful."

"I wonder what else I can do." My mind replays the feelings—Cameron's feelings—my cunt pulsing around him. Having two orgasms barrel through me at once was the most mind-fucking, amazing experience I've ever had, but that can't be the purpose of my powers. I'm not a very powerful werewolf if I can only read minds during sex.

"We'll have to start training so you can reach your full potential."

My fingers travel up and down his back, feeling the subtle remnants of the scratches I caused nights before. They should be worse, but I guess his werewolf powers offer some sort of healing effect. "Sorry about these."

He grabs my arm and brings my fingers to his lips to kiss. "Are you kidding me? I'm hard just thinking about you scratching the shit out of me." He nudges into me slightly as if he needs his erection to prove the point. "It's every male's dream to help their mate come into their full power. I never would have dreamed mine would be so powerful."

"So that wasn't because of the Blood Moon? It was because of you?" I mentally scan my body, noticing that the pain in my head and feet is almost gone.

"The Blood Moon probably had a little to do with it, but you can thank me for your sudden burst of strength and all-around euphoric feeling." He smirks.

I shove his shoulder with a grin. "Okay, cocky asshole."

He wraps his arms tighter around me and kisses up my neck. "I'm sorry, I will never compare to my powerful mate. I'm a jealous prick."

"I thought you were the most powerful werewolf."

He pulls me back to study me. "Who told you that?"

"Jack." Nerves shoot up my spine. I hate that I must bring him into this moment, and I'm nervous Cameron will become all macho alpha jealous.

He laughs, his smile reaching his brown eyes. "Seems a bit odd of him to mention that about the competition, but hey, I guess I should thank him for the compliment."

I shove him. "Hey, he's not competition!"

He cups my chin. "Oh, believe me, I know. I doubt he sees it that way. But honestly, what a weird thing to say."

I giggle a little. "Yeah, you should have seen him. He did the whole, "I'm going to reveal my evil plan before the good guy comes and saves the day" shit. So very stereotypical evil villain." Jack's more complex than that. He's grown up thinking werewolves murdered both of our parents. He's been brainwashed, but there comes a point when adults must decide for themselves between good and evil, and he clearly made the wrong choice.

Cameron shakes his head before resting it in the crook of my neck. "And they say werewolves have dog-sized brains." He takes a big breath, inhaling the smell of me. I guess being obsessed with each other's smell is a werewolf thing, too. "Ah, my mate. We are going to have such powerful kids."

My body stiffens, and panic rings through me. Obviously, the whole knot thing is to ensure I get pregnant, but during sex, the idea was hot. Maybe I've always had a breeding kink, but now reality has settled around me. Breeding means babies. Babies mean a whole new life. I've given myself over to Cameron. He's my mate, and coming together with him completely made my body's reaction to him fully connect in my brain. He's endgame for me. But there's so much we haven't figured out. Are we going to live here together? Get married? Push out a litter of pups right away? I have a life in New York—friends. Am I ready to give that up and settle down here?

"Woah, woah, woah." Cameron grabs my neck, sensing my internal panic and urging my darting eyes to focus on his. "Stop freaking out. You don't get pregnant until you're ready."

"But Cameron, we just… You just…"

"I know what it feels like, but I'm basically shooting blanks until you're ready."

"What?" Is he on… birth control?

He sighs. "I'm sorry, I forget how little you know about us. It's a werewolf thing. Females can't get pregnant until they want to. Your brain controls your body. Female werewolves have amazing mental abilities. It's kind of a version of the mind reading."

I exhale, feeling the weight of the world thin around me. I'm not fully a werewolf, not even close, but I do apparently have mind-reading powers, so I imagine I can have the power not to get pregnant.

Cameron wraps me in an embrace. "We've got a lot to figure out before we start thinking about kids. Although, I can't say my primitive male brain doesn't revel in the idea."

I smile. "I wish I knew you when you were a kid."

"Yeah, I have a feeling life would have been much easier if you were around." A heaviness clouds his eyes.

I draw circles down his arms. "What was it like—your childhood?"

"Pretty lonely. Werewolf identities are top secret since we must hide from the Hunters. My identity has been known since I was a kid. My powers came early, so everyone knew I'd be the Human Liaison one day. None of the other werewolf kids could hang out with me. It was just Carmen and me."

"What about your parents?"

"Dead. Hunters." He shrugs as if it's a typical thing.

Sadness fills me. Even though my parents fell to the same fate, it seems worse that Cameron had to experience growing up as an orphan. Maybe that's what happens when you have a mate—their sadness supersedes your own.

"Who took care of you?"

"We got tossed around to different council members. Old werewolves that were never at too great of a risk."

"Did you go to school?" More questions bubble at the surface of my brain. There's his whole life I need to know about.

"Yeah, we went to McKlenny, but we weren't allowed to get too close to any children. We were a walking hazard."

"Oh! We used to play McKlenny in sports! I went to Howard."

"Yeah, I know." He smiles.

"How do you know?"

"I knew who you were, Red, remember? I always knew you as Mildred, so it took me a while to put together."

I cringe at my name. "Oh, yeah. That's right." When he told me he knew my father earlier, I didn't put together that it meant he knew of me growing up .

"I could sense you were my mate the moment I saw you in that clearing. It infuriated me. You were a New York Times reporter, threatening to reveal my people's identity, plus the Blood Moon made me extra irritable."

"I could tell." I scoff.

He cups my face, smiling. "I'm sorry, okay? I was an idiot." His smile melts a bit. "Anyways, your father took me under his wing when I was six and you were four. He was always talking about you."

"Really? What would he say?" A piece of my father. I hadn't realized how desperate I was to hear more about him.

"He just talked about how smart and talented you were. You were always getting in trouble in school, just like your mom used to. He would tell me that someday he'd bring you by the Council meetings so I could meet you, but that day never came." His eyes fill with sadness.

I nod. "I wish I would have known you. I didn't have many friends either. Especially in high school." I don't bother mentioning Jack was my only friend. There's no need to bring him up in this conversation twice.

He shakes his head. "I always knew Howard was full of a bunch of idiots."

I chuckle and hit his arm. "Hey! I went there, remember?"

"Oh, you were the exception, my mate—absolutely."

I kiss him with a smile, my toes curling. I gaze into his eyes, not wanting the conversation to end. I want to share everything about my childhood with him. I want to know everything about him.

"You wouldn't have liked me in high school. I was chubby." I immediately regret my words. What the fuck is he supposed to say to that? Now I'm just word vomiting.

His head jerks back. "What? I know what you looked like in high school; you were fucking sexy."

I roll my eyes, even if my heart lifts, to the fact that he kept tabs on me all these years until I left for New York. "Okay, shut up. That was a stupid thing of me to bring up. I wasn't asking you to lie to me about being skinny."

He grabs my chin. "I said you were fucking sexy, not skinny. Your size doesn't make you any less or more beautiful."

My heart hammers in my chest. His words. My childhood self heals a little. A tear rolls down my cheek. He wipes it away. I should have dealt with my body issues years ago, but I always kept myself too busy. Of course, I need to learn to love myself at any size, but to know I have a partner—a mate—who loves me in all my forms, does make the work less daunting.

I tether my lips to him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him into me. My core heats, and I grind against him. I swear this man could get me off just by his words. His hands explore my backside, picking up my ass and grinding me against his length. I'm about to climb on, fuck him again until I can't see straight, but then he pulls back. "Red, before we start again—because I want to fuck you fully and thoroughly, we should talk about our next move."

It takes a second for my brain to settle, but I nod and gulp. "Yeah, you're right." I sit up to look outside the cave entrance. It's nearly nighttime. We've spent a whole day hiding out. "Granny. We need to get back to her and make sure she's okay." I start to stand, but Cameron pulls me back. "It's not safe, Red. You still need time to heal, and it's too dangerous to do so in the middle of the night."

I pull away. "I feel fine."

"That's just because you're close to me. The mating bond has healing effects. You need to rest for a night with me before we go and battle the Hunters. Granny will be fine. She's a civilian. If the Hunters mess with her, they face a whole sleuth of legal repercussions."

"They didn't seem to care about legal repercussions when Jack kidnapped me and tied me to a chair." I don't mention that he also threatened to torture and impregnate me. Although I hate to admit it, Cameron's right about me needing time to heal, and if I mention that, he'll go full monster mode, and I do need a whole night snuggling up to him. But I sure as hell won't be able to get any sleep without knowing I thought of every possible option to go to Granny first.

"You're part werewolf, remember? They are well aware of your family's lineage. The police force couldn't care less about us. Unless the Human Liaison is hurt."

"So Hunters can just kill dozens of werewolves without any repercussion?"

"No. They'll still pay attention to mass murder. We just haven't been able to prove that the people killed and placed in that clearing were killed by Hunters. The police think it's a few rouge werewolves."

"I can vouch. Jack told me everything. If they don't listen to me, I'll threaten to leak a story."

Cameron nods. "That's what I'm hoping. We'll check on Granny in the morning, and then visit Sergeant Brick. Threaten him to treat the murders seriously, or you'll exploit the corruption.

"I'll need more evidence, though."

Silence passes between us before the idea pops into my head. "I'll need to record Jack's confession. If he revealed everything before, he'll do it again."

"No."

"But Cameron…"

"No! I'm not leaving you with that psychopath again!" His voice raises, and the veins in his neck bulge .

I grab his arm, letting him feel my power as my grip tightens. "I don't need protecting. Once I regain my strength, I can protect myself." I say it to convince myself as much as him. He's overpowered me once, but now I know a fraction more about my capabilities. I just need a full night's rest, and I could beat him.

He sighs, reaching for me. I allow him to pull me close and lie down next to him. "I know, but there has to be a better way."

"I'm listening."

His fangs prick my neck. "Cameron!" It still amazes me that he can transform parts of himself so quickly.

"Maybe I was wrong to prolong fucking to figure this out. I think I need to fill you up again so my brain can work at full capacity." His hand reaches for my breasts, and his erection presses against my ass.

I exhale. "Cameron," I say in a warning tone, even if my body betrays me and I lean into him.

"Okay, okay, fine. We'll do it your way. Just fuck me already."

I laugh as his fingers find the heat pooling between my legs, and I sigh in satisfaction. And just like that, my worries for the morning dissipate from my brain.