Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
I put my lips to the ridge of her ear. “I won’t take you for our first time together like that. Not with you feeling this way.” I stroke her hair. “I promise you, you don’t need to be afraid of me, Stacy. You’re gonna be mine. My wife. My most treasured belonging. I don’t want to claim you the first time, the time that connects us to one another permanently, with you full of fear.”
She doesn’t get me. Doesn’t seem to get this, though she should because she should’ve grown up learning all this would be.
“Eyes on mine, Blossom,” I request gently.
She looks up into my eyes. Hers are confused.
I hold her gaze for a minute. “Settle down, sweetheart.”
“What should I do instead?” she finally asks, awkwardly.
“You just want it over with,” I say.
She doesn’t deny it; it’s written all over her face and her entire body language speaks volumes. I’m very good at de-escalating situations, helping folks calm down, but that’s not working here and now. And I need it to work.
“Bracing for it to be over with isn’t how it is with your mate. Especially not since your fated mate is me. No, babe. When I take you, my goal is for it to be so good you’ll be ready to beg me for more instead of bracing like something bad’s about to happen.”
Her forehead crinkles, she looks away, and I know she doesn’t know what to make of me.
“Lie here for a while with me. We’ll take things slow,” I whisper and press my lips to her forehead briefly. “Where’s your pack?”
“I’m not allowed to tell you,” she says.
She’ll tell me. Maybe not yet, but she will tell me.
“So, you do have a pack?” I prompt.
“Yes.”
“And you understand what happens when an alpha identifies his fated mate.”
She stiffens. “Not really.”
“Not really?” I prod.
“I know what you want from me if that’s what you’re asking.”
“And what do you think I want from you?”
“To fuck me.”
I groan with the ache in my groin. “Fuck yeah, I do, but that’s not all. If you’re in a pack, how do you not know much about an alpha’s fated mate and her place in his life?”
“I understand the concept of it. Heard stories when I was younger. My, um… our uh… alpha doesn’t have a mate. He says it’s a myth. So did our previous alpha.”
“Ah. Now we’re getting somewhere. What do you know about the supposed myth of the mate bond?”
“Not much… really. I mean, it’s obvious that there’s sex involved. There’s always sex involved between males and females. But one male, one female until the end of life, my…” she clears her throat, “my alpha says an alpha isn’t built that way.”
“First, he’s no longer your alpha. I am.”
She nibbles on her thumbnail nervously, averting her gaze.
“And you’ve had sex before?”
“You already asked that.”
“I’m making sure I didn’t misunderstand. Eyes on me, please.”
Her gaze returns. “I have. Yes.”
“More than once?”
She drops her gaze again. This is obviously out of habit.
“Yes.”
I suppress the urge to growl.
“Do you have a family?”
She stiffens. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Forget questions for now, though you’re eventually gonna need to talk to me about all of it. I won’t bombard you more right now. For now, how about I treat you like you know nothing about pack structure since our structure here is obviously different from what you know?”
She’s trembling less. I stroke her back and her hair as I resume talking.
“An unmated alpha can have as much sex as he wants with as many females as he chooses, but that only happens until he catches the scent of his fated mate.”
“I’ve heard that much.”
“So, you do get it.”
“He doesn’t believe in it so it’s not something that’s part of pack life for us. I remember some of it from when I was younger, when our pack was larger.”
“He doesn’t believe in it because he hasn’t scented his mate yet. Once he does, that’ll change. He’ll have one mate for life.”
Her expression shows she’s skeptical.
“Betas and omegas usually mate for life as well. Family structure is important to wolf shifters.”
“Not to everyone,” she says softly.
“Not in your pack?”
She shrugs.
I frown. “It’s important here. We take care of our own. Take our relationship with our mates seriously. The bond is sacred. Not the case in your old pack, obviously.”
“Not lately, no. It used to be like that, sort of, I guess. Before.”
I wait for her to expand on that. She doesn’t, and I told her I wouldn’t bombard her with questions, so I continue explaining, “You’ll soon see how it’s supposed to be. Obviously, betas breed without limitations and make up the majority of every pack.”
“Yes,” she agrees.
“And you probably know omega males have difficulty breeding, omega females being the opposite – they often have multiple births, go into heat more often, right?”