I wonder if he’d be proud of my dedication to this pack if he were still alive. If I’m living up to his expectations.
Not that I wanted to shoulder them in the first place. I didn’t want the responsibility of Alpha, with everyone relying on me. Except as the oldest and his only son, I was the heir apparent and raised to succeed him.
The alternative was to let one of my cousins be named heir if I didn’t accept. I couldn’t fathom my father’s legacy sullied by Lorne taking over with Cormac whispering in his ear. They’d run Silver Falls into the ground and undo all the good Dad did for us.
It’s why, when it came down to it, I accepted my duty to care for the pack and do everything in my power to continue building a prosperous, comfortable community.
Finding my fated mate never factored into any of my goals for leading them. It takes all my dominance to cultivate everyone’s respect as their alpha. When the bond first awoke, my greatest worry beyond my misplaced anger at her was obliterating my efforts to run the pack smoothly.
Navigating how to continue as I have been when any little slight towards my mate makes me fucking feral might prove difficult.
I want them all to see the things my wolf has from the beginning and fought me fiercely over when I denied it. To see what I’ve realized for myself once I stopped blinding myself to her. How strong and resilient she is, raising her sisters alone and enduring the treatment of the pack, still offering her help to those that needed it. How amazing it is that she tamed the most inhospitable parts of this mountain and bent it to her will to provide where I failed her.
She’s more than worthy as a mate—as my mate.
Perhaps then I’ll feel less inclined to decimate half the pack’s numbers for as little as giving her a look I don’t like. No matter what, I need to snuff out the idea spreading throughout the community that I’ll be choosing anyone else.
The mere thought annoys my wolf. There is no one other than our fated.
He’s tempted to track down Avery and reassure himself she’s safe despite not being directly involved in tonight’s incident. My lips twitch. More like he just wants to rub all over her as much as she’ll let him.
My eyelids grow heavy as I imagine her hands stroking my fur. Letting me nuzzle her tits. Pulling her in close to straddle my lap to watch those pretty lips part for me. Those nimble fingers exploring my chest, mapping the bumps and valleys of my abs and following the trail of hair lower before touching my cock.
A rumble climbs my throat and I circle my hand around my erection. I tip my head back with a ragged groan.
Claim. Need to take what’s mine.
There’s no fighting a scene my imagination has always conjured, long before I knew she was my fate. Golden brown hair I want to tangle my fingers in. An expressive mouth I want to claim for myself. Defiant amber eyes that have always made my heart beat harder, even when I thought she deserved my hate.
Avery’s always been in my fantasies. The first female I took notice of. The first one I thought of kissing. The one who haunted my dreams with things I thought I couldn’t have in reality.
It shouldn’t have blindsided me that she’d turn out to be my mate when deep down this draw to her has always been there. Bonds awake at random, yet the strongest always sense some sort of pull prior to fate revealing its intentions.
A thrumming warmth floods my chest, urging me along now that I’m not resisting this like my life depended on it.
Distant memories surface one after another, brighter and clearer with her gorgeous smile and that laugh—that incredible laugh that never fails to light my heart on fire.
The way I’d reorient myself subconsciously whenever she was around before a tether ever tied me to her.
How I needed her attention on me, whether I realized it or not, because whenever she gave it to another male I didn’t like it.
I recognize it now. The signals were always there that she was mine.
Once I’ve earned her back, I’m claiming my perfect mate. I’ll erase the night I rejected her from her mind, overwrite every second until I’ve proven to her I’ll spend the rest of my days worshiping her.
My lips and tongue will know every inch of her body.
My hands will memorize the softness of her skin, the swell of her hips and breasts, the quiver of her thighs when I wrap them around my head to devour her.
My cock will only know her fingers, the heavenly tight heat of her pussy.
Fuck.
I tighten my fist and quicken my pace, imagining what it will be like to knot her. To be locked inside her and feel her stretched around me, her nails scrabbling as she clings to me, beautiful features contorted with a silent cry of ecstasy. Her arousal so thick in the air I can taste it on my tongue. My stomach concaves with desire, a jagged breath tinged with pleasure punching from my lungs.
I want to know what she feels like when she comes on my cock while I’m knotting her. With her legs around me and her hands pinned above her head, with her on top riding me, fucking fuck, with her presenting for my eyes only, her head down and ass high in the air just for me.
I want to learn all the ways to make her whimper and her body beg for more when I lick the mating bite I’m going to mark her with.
My teeth sink into my lip, canines close to drawing blood as I picture drawing her hair to the side and seeing my claim on her, grazing it with my fingers, my lips. The way it’ll make her blush, and then I’ll herd my pretty little mate against the nearest wall and sink to my knees to taste that heady lust making her honeyed scent drive me insane.
A burst of—something pulses in my chest. A reaction to my arousal, I realize. It travels along the delicate threads that survived without fully severing.
Fascinated, I turn more of my attention inward to find the bond, slowing my fist curled around my throbbing shaft to keep my release teetering on the edge. A breath hisses between my teeth at the feel of plucking the strands of magic while I stroke myself, allowing me to feel her while amplifying the pleasure I’m bringing myself.
I grin when there’s an answering shudder from her end. She liked that. If I focus, I can direct an astral touch to caress the connection. This time it earns me a shiver in response.
Experimenting, I try giving it a spank. I grip the slippery rocks to keep my balance when an electric jolt rockets through me, then feel an enticing thrill from her, tucked safely away in her cottage. Wicked delight races through me.
I trace my tongue along my lower lip, my shoulder and arm flexing with each glide of my hand over my thick cock while playing with her through the bond, opening myself to allow her to experience everything I’m feeling with my head full of her.
Using projection across the bond, I drag my knuckles over the curve of her tits, circling her nipples before sending my touch in a meandering path down her stomach, dipping between her thighs to pet her clit. The magic thrum pulses with her need, reigniting my hunger for her more intensely when she tugs the connection.
More.
I’ll give her everything she needs. I’m relentless, matching the speed I’m jerking my cock with my phantom fingers plunging inside her. When she comes, I feel it, the sensation resonating within me from our link.
“Oh, fuck,” I utter.
My balls tighten and I come hard, spilling over my fingers with her name on my lips. I slump back, catching my breath with a puff of laughter. Checking on the bond, I find her languid with tantalizing shivers.
I’m not able to bask in the pride of making her come through the mate bond for long. Liam’s scent carries on the breeze. With a content sigh, I hoist myself from the spring and shift back to my fur.