CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Two months later

Blair’s release crashed into her out of absolutely nowhere, wrenching at her spine and trapping a scream in her throat as sheer bliss flooded her body. The pleasure went on and on and on until, finally, it subsided.

She melted into the mattress, heaving in breaths. Her thigh muscles jumped. Her heart pounded. Her lungs burned.

God bless that tongue, she thought as Luke wiped his face on her inner thigh and then gave it a quick nip.

He rose above her, his blue eyes dark and hot and glittering with something that made her shiver. He’d given her two delicious orgasms, and now her pussy was aching to be filled. Her body felt all jittery and jumpy, like every sense and nerve-ending was heightened.

Luke slowly raked his gaze over her, masculine satisfaction dancing along their bond. “Such a delectable sight.” He settled the full weight of his body over hers, making her breath catch.

She totally loved it when he surrounded her this way, becoming all she could feel and see and smell. His body was so big and broad it was like he curved around her. Like she perfectly fit into that groove there.

Blair went to rest her hands on the solid bulk of his shoulders, but his fingers snapped around her wrists. He stretched her arms straight above her head and held her wrists against the mattress. Her hormones lost their mind.

Luke’s eyes gleamed. “A shot of excitement just pulsed right down our bond.” Curling one hand tight around both her wrists, he used his free hand to lodge the smooth head of his cock inside her. “I’m going to take you like this, so you can barely move.”

She flexed her fingers. “But I want to touch you. Scratch you. Mark you all up.” Her animal was driving her to do that very thing.

He dipped his face to hers. “Tough.”

Tough? A little growl rattled in her throat.

He smiled. “Do that again.”

“Fuck off.”

“I’d rather just fuck you.” He brought his mouth down on hers and kissed her with such need and urgency it made her head spin.

She pulled in a breath as he began to sink inside her, stretching her perfectly. The pressure was just … she loved it. Needed it. Craved it.

Halfway inside her, Luke paused, his gaze firmly latched on hers. “Say it.”

She swiped her tongue along her lower lip. “I love you.”

Satisfaction, adoration, and triumph burst along their connection. “And I love you, baby. Always will. In this life and even after.” A mask of intensity slipped over his face as he abruptly jacked his hips forward, driving so deep inside her it hurt in the best way.

He didn’t give her a moment to adjust. He aggressively slammed his hips forward again and again. She curled her legs around him, eager to take every savage thrust.

She wasn’t going to last long. Neither was he—she could feel through their bond that he was as tightly wound and frantic to come as she was.

Pinned down by his weight with her wrists shackled by his hand, she felt taken. Possessed. Claimed. Her little female soaked it all up.

He said something, but Blair didn’t take in the words, caught up in sensation—the deep slams of his cock, the heavy weight of his body, the slapping of flesh against wet flesh, the tight grip on her wrists.

He bit her jaw hard. “I said, give me your throat.” The sheer power in his voice made her skin prickle.

She might have fought him on it if she wasn’t so desperate to come. A building orgasm coiled in her lower stomach, raring to strike. Each brutal drive of his cock made it contract and tauten and thicken.

Blair gave him her throat, almost smiling at his groan. “Harder.”

He buried his face into the crook of her neck and licked a line up her throat. “Such a greedy little thing.”

Drunk on the taste and feel and scent of his mate, Luke plunged harder and faster. Her body jolted with each heavy punch of his hips, and her breasts chafed against his chest as they bounced. His balls audibly slapped her flesh, blending with the wet sound of her pussy sucking at his dick.

His cat urged him to bite her neck again, to leave yet another mark. The animal felt relaxed and secure in their mating now, but he was no less territorial; no less eager to always ensure she felt owned. Especially at moments like these, while her arousal-spiced scent flooded his lungs and she submissively exposed her throat to him.

Luke switched his angle, pounding deeper, hitting aspot inside her that made her pussy clench and ripple. He felt through their bond as her release surged towards her; watched a hot flush sweep up her chest, neck, and face.

An echo of white-hot pleasure thundered along their bond as she fractured with a scream, her body shaking and tightening, her heels digging into his lower back. Like that, his own blinding release swallowed him whole. He cursed against her neck and then sank his teeth down hard as he fucked his orgasm into her body, his cock pulsing with every harsh blast of come.

Boneless and sated, he fairly collapsed over Blair, struggling to catch his breath. She lay beneath him, her eyes closed, her swollen lips parted, her cheeks flushed.

Releasing her wrists, he pressed soft kisses down one side of her face and then withdrew his softening cock. Curling an arm around her waist, he rolled them both onto their sides. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” she slurred, burrowing into him.

Nuzzling the fresh bite on her neck, Luke coasted his fingertips down her arm. “By the way, you’re forgiven.”

She looked at him, her eyes dazed, her brow furrowed. “For what?”

“Slapping me on the head.”

“You were taking too long to make me come. And you were doing it on purpose. Besides, I didn’t slap you. It was more like a swat. Though you would have deserved worse after the smacks you dished out last night. My poor butt felt like it was on fire.”

Chuckling, he stroked a hand down her back to palm her ass. “You liked it.” Feeling the lingering indentation of his teeth there, he carefully traced the mark with one fingertip. He’d had a whole lot of fun with that luscious ass the night before—bit it, spanked it, fucked it. “You sore?”

“A little.” She gave him a mock glare and poked his chest. “But that doesn’t bother you much, does it?”

He tried stifling a smile but failed. “Do I like that every time you sit down today you’ll remember that I took your ass last night? Yeah. Yeah, I do like it.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you haven’t done it before, but whatever.”

He’d first claimed her ass the night before their mating ceremony six weeks ago—a ceremony that was a little on the tense side, since the entire Sylvan Pack insisted on being present. After the mess with Donal, his pride hadn’t been so comfortable with having them around. And since bush dogs weren’t fans of pallas cats, the whole thing had had the potential to go tits up.

It hadn’t, though.

Everyone had been on their best behavior. And after the drinks began to flow during the after-party, the guests had started to officially relax and were soon mixing just fine.

Luke still wasn’t quite used to her parents being so welcoming toward him—it felt a little odd. His unforgiving cat wasn’t inclined to trust the couple and still didn’t like them, but he didn’t always growl while in their presence anymore. Progress.

Blair shivered a little in his arms as he breezed his fingers over the sensitive spot between her shoulder blades—a spot he often zeroed in on just to get that exact response from her, so he wasn’t surprised that she bit his chest in retaliation. He’d mapped every inch of her body in his mind. He knew every line, curve, freckle, scar, and sensitive zone on her body.

She stretched. “Come on, I need coffee, a shower, and food. And not necessarily in that order.”

“We still on for spending the day together?” he asked as she sat upright. “We need some alone time.”

“I’m up for it, I’m just not so sure it will happen. Whenever we set aside a day for us to have some quality time, it somehow gets hijacked.”

“Not today it won’t.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so.”

“I have to tell you, I am fascinated,” said Bailey, watching as four bush dogs playfully attacked a befuddled grizzly in the complex’s communal backyard a few hours later. “They’re just so small, and yet they’re definitely gonna take him down—something they appear to be dragging out for fun.”

“He really shouldn’t have dared them,” said Blair.

Havana sighed. “He’s a little slow that way.”

It would appear so. Everyone knew that a group of bush dogs could overpower any animal, but the grizzly hadn’t believed it—something he’d expressed to her relatives, who were delighted to have the opportunity to humiliate someone. It always made their day.

Blair didn’t know the grizzly very well, but she did know that he was something of a clown—a very likeable, good-looking clown who surprisingly still made a very valuable enforcer. Uber strong or not, his bear was having no luck shaking off the bush dogs.

She looked at Finley, trying to gauge whether or not the female might feel like jumping to her new boyfriend’s defense, but the woman seemed entertained. She was far less serious these days. There had been no more silliness from her or the rest of the pride about Blair holding the position of Beta female. Finley had officially backed off, and her followers had taken her lead.

Feeling a rush of amusement tumble along the mating bond, Blair turned her head to see Luke laughing with Tate, Vinnie, and Elle. The joke might have been at Alex’s expense, because he was looking pretty surly over there in their little group. Then again, that was kind of his default mode unless he was with Bree.

Other groups were here and there—some in their animal forms, some not. Blair wasn’t even sure how it came about that so many gathered out here. She and Luke had meant to let their animals run together in the yard but had hesitated on finding Aspen and Camden near the pond in their animal forms—his tiger was pretty antisocial. She and Luke had been about to return inside, but then her parents, Mitch, and Kiesha were escorted to the backyard by Bailey … and somehow everyone got talking. Little by little, more and more people had begun to trickle outside.

Bye, bye alone time with Luke.

As Blair’s family visited every couple of weeks or so, the pride was used to them now. But a few did still hold it against Embry that he’d been so closed to the idea that one of his own was Blair’s stalker; they believed he might have otherwise seen that his old Beta was a freaking maniac, despite the fact that no one else had.

It was really no surprise that Embry had promoted Antoine to Beta, or that he’d then given Mitch the position of Head Enforcer. Although both males were happy with their promotions, they claimed that the whole thing felt tainted by whathad led to them.

The Donal clusterfuck was still an unhealed wound for the pack, as was the fact that they’d once mistakenly pinned the blame for two deaths on a ten-year-old child who they’d subsequently ostracized. Embry had invited Gabriel to return to the Sylvan Pack but he’d declined. Blair was pretty sure she’d have done the same in Gabriel’s shoes.

“And the grizzly bites the dust,” said Havana just as he toppled over like a dead weight.

The four bush dogs let out satisfied little yips and then jumped into the pond like kids doing cannon ball moves.

Bailey smiled at Blair. “I’m finding that I really like bush dogs. Your family’s animals are fun. My snake wants to play with them.”

Blair felt her brow furrow. “I don’t think that would work out so well. Your mamba would try to bite them, and then they’d eat her. And if she didn’t try to bite them, well, they’d likely still eat her.”

“In which case, you should totally let your mamba go play with them,” snarked Aspen, approaching with Camden and Deke.

Bailey gave her a bored look. “You’re not still being whiny because she bit your bearcat’s nipple, are you?”

Aspen’s mouth thinned, and she opened it as if to yell … but then Camden put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Don’t waste your time pointing out that she did anything wrong. It will fly right over her head.”

Smiling at him, Bailey put a fist to her heart. “I love how well you get me.”

Aspen rolled her eyes and then cut them to Blair. “Your family seems to be enjoying themselves. Are your parents still making an effort to be nice to Luke?”

“Yup,” replied Blair. “I wouldn’t allow anything else.”

“Do you think it’ll stay that way?” asked Havana.

“I do.” Blair had been doubtful at first, but it was clear to see that her parents had officially changed their stance on her relationship with Luke. As if the moment their own personal bullshit stopped clouding their opinions they’d finally seen him.

He told her that Noelle recently said to him, “You love her, you make her happy. Keep doing that.”

That the woman acknowledged he made Blair happy said everything.

“It’s surprising how well she and Ingrid now get along,” said Blair. “I wasn’t so sure if Ingrid would give her another chance.”

“I think she only did it for your sake,” said Havana. “As for Valentina … yeah, I think it’s gonna take a few years before she does anything but snarl at your mom.”

Blair winced. “Probably. Can’t say I blame her, really. Luke is her nephew after all, and Noelle was always rude to Valentina whenever the woman took me on day trips when I was a kid.” Wolverines could sure hold a grudge.

“What are you doing?” asked Deke, frowning at Bailey.

The mamba’s unfocused eyes cleared, and she stopped dancing her fingers along her inner arm. “Wondering why we can’t tickle ourselves. Don’t you think it’s weird? I mean, we can make ourselves come just fine. There ain’t much of a difference.”

Blair exchanged an amused look with Havana.

Deke sighed at Bailey. “You’ll just blurt out any ole thing, won’t you?”

“Tact is for losers,” she told him.

He snorted. “You just like making people uncomfortable.”

“Well … I prefer to piss them off, but ‘uncomfortable’ will do in a pinch.”

“Why? Why not simply let people be?”

“I don’t question your life choices.”

“But you should question your own.”

“Whatever for?”

The enforcer stared at the mamba, as if desperately trying to understand her. Or to intimidate her, maybe. It was hard to tell with him at times. He was difficult to read.

Bailey’s lips curved as she met his stare with her own. “All this intense eye contact … I feel like we’re bonding right now. Don’t you?”

Grunting, he shook his head and walked away.

Watching him go, Bailey blew out a breath. “He so doesn’t deserve that butt.”

Blair frowned. “What?”

“It’s a spectacular ass,” said Bailey. “Nature should have given it to someone worthy.”

Aspen blinked at her. “By ‘worthy,’ you mean someone who’ll take your shit without dishing it back or asking you to be more conscious of your behavior?”

“Yes,” said Bailey. “That is exactly what I mean.”

Tate exhaled heavily. “Do you have to bring up old shit?”

Luke felt his brows draw together. “When said ‘shit’ left me with a scar, yeah.”

“You can’t still be pissed about that. We were kids. I don’t even know why you made such a big deal about it back then.”

“Oh, you don’t?” Unbelievable.

“It’s not like it was the first time I stabbed you with scissors.”

“But it was the first time you did it unprovoked.”

Tate’s brow creased. “You threw a balloon at me.”

“Yeah. A balloon.”

“It was filled with paint, you little shit.”

“Good God, boys, can you not stop squabbling?” Vinnie broke in. “You’re too old for this now. I—” He cut off, his brow pinching as Deke approached. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” the enforcer clipped, his expression dark, his nostrils flaring.

“Well you seem fine,” Alex deadpanned.

Deke fired the wolverine a narrow-eyed glare.

Elle sighed. “You’re grumpier than Alex these days, and that’s saying something. You recently got to kill a bunch of extremists. That should have cheered you up. Especially since we got away with it.”

The extremists had contacted Vinnie about Wheeler, but they’d bought his story that all had been fine at the meeting when he left the drop-off point. The police hadn’t contacted either Vinnie or Camden regarding Zayne, so they were all currently presuming that there’d been no evidence to link the celebrity to them.

“I’m not grumpy,” Deke told Elle.

“Ooh, I beg to differ,” she said. “And I’m thinking that Bailey”—she tipped her chin toward the mamba—“has something to … God, I honestly feel sorry for Havana at times.”

Tracking his sister’s gaze, Luke saw the Alpha female standing between Aspen and Bailey, palming each of their foreheads as they argued about God knew what. Blair was battling a smile, her shoulders shaking.

As if she felt his attention settle on her, Blair looked his way. A smile did curve her mouth, then. It wasn’t one of amusement. It was a wan “I told you our quality time would be invaded” smile. Yeah, it was becoming too much of a pattern for his liking.

“Havana told me that those two have been bickering about the most senseless stuff since the day they first met,” said Tate.

Deke grunted. “I can believe that. They’ll argue over just about anything.”

“Like there aren’t bigger things going on in the world,” said Elle, shaking her head. “They should be more concerned that the Harbinger will soon be born.” She glanced over at Damian, who was snuggling on a bench with the girlfriend he’d recently discovered was also his true mate. “When those two reproduce, we are fucked.”

Vinnie frowned. “Instead of branding their future child the Harbinger of Death, could you not just make peace with Damian and congratulate them on their mating?”

“I offered the girl my condolences,” Elle told him. “There’s really nothing else to be said on the matter.”

Vinnie rolled his eyes. “I worry about you, Elle. I really do.”

“Why? I didn’t mate Beelzebub.”

“Your brother is not—forget it, let’s just drop the subject.”

“As you wish,” said Elle, ever so graciously. “I want to return to the topic of why Deke’s being so grumpy anyway. Tell us what’s wrong.”

The enforcer sighed. “Nothing is wrong, I’m perfectly—what the fuck?”

Whipping his head to the side, Luke saw his mate running at Aspen and Bailey like a human crab. The two females ceased arguing in an instant, their eyes going wide. They squealed like little girls and took off, but an undeterred Blair chased them around the yard.

Scraping a hand over his jaw, Luke chuckled. Not a lot could spook a pallas cat, but people were quick to move out of his mate’s way, all looking varying degrees of freaked out. Damian and his mate actually jumped up onto the bench.

“Please, no more!” Bailey cried out, almost falling into the pond as the bush dogs leapt out of the water. Mitch’s animal nearly crashed into the grizzly, who then snapped his jaw at him, grazing the bush dog’s ear and eliciting a little yelp from him.

Blair stopped running, her muscles tensing. Uh-oh. She slowly turned toward the bear, who froze. She twisted—Jesus Christ—only the front half of her body 360 degrees and planted her palms back on the ground. That was when the grizzly bolted.

Materializing beside Tate, Havana laughed as Blair pursued the freaked out grizzly. “Luke, your mate is an absolute treasure.”

He grinned. “Not telling me something I don’t already know.” When said mate finally righted her body and stood, he crossed straight to her and drew her close. She melted into him, her body aligning perfectly to his—a reminder of how every inch of her was tailor-made to “fit” him. “Are you finished terrorizing people?” he asked.

“For now,” replied Blair, linking her fingers at the back of his neck.

Luke brushed his nose against hers. “I’m pretty sure you scarred that grizzly for life, by the way. Never seen one climb a tree before.”

Her lips flattened. “He made my brother bleed. I can do that to Mitch. No one else is allowed that privilege.”

“I’d call you a nut, but I have pretty much the same mindset when it comes to my siblings.” Luke dipped his head and fit his lips to hers. He sank into the moment as he sipped from her mouth, savoring her taste, swallowing her breathy little moan, and breathing her in, feeling “home.”

Breaking the kiss, he slid his fingers into her hair and began a light massage that made her eyes fall closed.

“I really do love your hands,” she said.

His lips curved. “They aim to please.” He pressed another kiss to her mouth. “I say we head back to our apartment.”

“Abandon my family when they’ve come all this way to visit us?” she asked, not opening her eyes.

“Is that a problem?”

“No.”

Seeing that Aspen and Bailey were trying to creep up on his mate from behind, each holding a long branch, he inwardly sighed. Their gazes locking on his, they both put a finger to their mouths. He gave them a quick shake of the head and mouthed “go away.” They paused, their shoulders slumping.

Luke dropped a kiss on the tip of Blair’s nose. “Then let’s go.”

She did a long, languid stretch. “One thing first.”

“What?”

A pop rang through the air as she pulled down one arm at an awkward angle. He cringed. Turning toward the women behind her, she did the same with the other arm, making them both wince. Then she did something with her neck that made even Luke’s gut clench.

Dropping the branch she held, Aspen slapped her hands to her face. “This is so wrong!”

A shuddering Bailey backed up. “And too weird even for me.”

As the two females ran off, Blair turned back to him and said, “Given that Bailey’s capacity for weird is close to bottomless, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

He couldn’t help but smile. His mate was nuts. Utterly and completely. She was also wrapped around his heart so tight it almost hurt. Her name was carved into his soul like a brand, deep and binding, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I fucking love you, you know.”

Warmth bled into her expression. “I do know. And I love you right back.”

“Then you’ll slide your joints back into place so my stomach stops rolling and curdling.”

She sighed. “If I must.”

“You really, really must.”

There were pops and a distinct snap as she righted her joints.“There. Happy?”

He felt his face soften. “Of course. There’s no way I could be anything else when I have you, is there?”