He takes a deep breath in and continues, “I didn’t understand why she didn’t come to me as she was supposed to, but now I do. She couldn’t because she was kidnapped, and then she died, and you received her heart. I don’t know how, but receiving Hope’s heart somehow transformed you into my fated mate, into a wolf shifter. I felt this magnetic attraction to you from the first moment I saw you at the Shabby Shotglass, and I know you felt it, too. All I wanted to do was claim you right then and there. I fought it because I thought I was betraying my mate. I didn’t…I didn’t know what happened to Hope.”
“So what, I’m like a pity fuck delivered to you by destiny? Should I feel honored or something?” I scoff, trying to mask the way my voice trembles as my heart bleeds inside my chest, the caustic sting of jealousy ravaging my insides.
“It’s nothing like that, Ava. Fated mates are sacred. You’re everything to me.” He shakes his head, a curl falling over his forehead with the movement. My hand itches with the need to push it back and caress his gorgeous face.
Stupid, Ava. Stupid.
I arch an eyebrow at him. “Oh, I’m sorry, was I everything to you when you tied me up and then hung me on a hook like Jeffrey Dahmer Jr.? Or when you pointed a gun at my head and wanted to shoot me?” My tone drips with venom.
He winces like I’ve hit him and sinks to his knees in front of me. My eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
“Please, Ava. Please, you have to forgive me. I can’t even express how sorry I am for doing those things to you. My fury blinded me. There’s this rogue wolf shifter that’s been on a killing spree for months. You probably saw it on the news, all the animal attacks happening recently. The rogue’s responsiblefor all of them. It’s been evading us all this time, hiding its scent somehow. When I saw you next to the two bodies in the woods, I lost it. I thought you were the rogue.”
I think of Tony’s body, mangled on the blood-soaked ground. “Tony was my friend,pendejo. He was such a good person. How could you ever think I could do something like that to him?” A tear crests over my eyelashes and falls, rolling over my cheek. I wipe at it furiously.
Logan stands and takes a tentative step toward me. At that, I step back, and he stops. A sorrowful expression takes over his face. Eyes filled with regret meet mine as his shoulders slump. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were my fated mate. I just…Fuck.” He grabs his hair in fistfuls and pulls at it. “I’m so stupid. So fucking stupid. Please, Ava, you have to forgive me.”
“I don’t know if I can,” I whisper. Despite myself, a wave of fire passes through my body, making me sway slightly on my feet. I suddenly feel lightheaded. “How do I stop this…this inferno that burns me from the inside out? I want it to stop. I don’t think I can take any more of this.”
“You can’t. The only way to stop it is to complete the mating bond.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means the moment we have sex, our souls will be forever intertwined. You will be mine, and I will be yours for all eternity. It’s a sacred union, even more so than marriage, because you can never divorce out of a mating bond. It’s for life and beyond.”
“Yeah, I’ll pass. There must be another way.”
“Trust me, there isn’t.”
“So what? If I refuse to complete it, I’ll just burn until I die? Because it feels like I’m dying with every second you’re not touching me. I hate it. I don’t want to feel this way anymore.” The tears start falling freely now, and I know I must look like an emotional wreck, but it’s so difficult having Logan in front of meand not giving myself to him fully. It literally hurts, like being gutted with a rusty knife.
“I don’t know, honestly. I have never heard of a fated mate refusing to bond once the female is in heat. And I’m hurting too, Ava. It takes everything I have in me not to bend you over and fuck you into oblivion. I don’t know how much longer I can control myself. I can smell your arousal from here, and it’s making my wolf crazy. You’re not the only one struggling.”
Gulping at his words, my gaze roves over his body. Sweat dots his hairline, his muscles are locked up, and his fingers clench and unclench at his sides as if he is barely restraining himself. I inhale deeply, but it’s like I’m in the bowels of Hell again.
“I need a moment to process all of this,” I mumble weakly, but when I want to turn around, I can’t. It’s like someone else shoves me into the back seat of my mind so all I can do is watch everything unfold in front of my eyes as my legs eat up the space between me and Logan.
I practically tackle him to the bed, and my lips fuse with his in a mind-numbing kiss. There’s nothing slow or tender about the way our lips and tongues move against each other. It’s all-consuming and raw, like jumping from the edge of a cliff and falling into the abyss. Logan’s fingers bite savagely into my hips as I gyrate on top of him, the friction making me see stars.
I succumb to the feeling and let it consume me completely.
23
Logan
Ava’s eyes glow with animalistic hunger as her wolf takes over. She steps toward me purposefully and drops the sheet to the floor. Since the moment she woke up, she was a ticking time bomb, and I knew this would happen eventually, but I at least wanted to try to explain my reasoning and apologize. I just hope she’ll be able to forgive me at some point. I’ll do anything to regain her trust. The moment her lips touch mine, I’m a goner. My wolf pushes me aside, a spectator in my own mind as the mating bond begins.
A groan rumbles from deep within my chest as Ava pulls down the waistband of my sweats and frees my throbbing cock, sinking on top of me inch by agonizing inch with a tantalizing moan. Blazing topaz-green eyes lock with mine, and I almost black outthe moment I feel her silky heat wrapped around me.Fuck. She looks like a goddess on top of me, perfect heart-shaped face, bee-stung lips, pupils blown to the max, and rosy taut nipples that beg to be sucked.
Before she can sink all the way to the hilt, I grab her hips and maneuver her onto her belly with her plump ass in the air. I love her ass. I love her body. I love everything about her. I take my sweats off quickly, and I can’t stop myself from marking her thighs with my teeth before I dip and taste her as my tongue pushes through her slick folds, licking her slowly from clit to the back hole a few times. She tastes like sin and heaven wrapped into one perfect curvy package.
I fist her hair and pull at the same time I enter her, thrusting in one swift motion. Her whole body shakes as she lets out a mewl. Her tight pussy takes me so beautifully. I let her adjust to the size for a few seconds before I start hammering into her like a man possessed. The sound of our bodies slapping together alongside our ragged breaths and pleasured moans fills the air.
Dropping the silky strands, I band my arm around her waist and lift her torso. A low hiss leaves my lips when her back fuses completely with my front. It’s fucking bliss. I use my hand wrapped around her delicate jaw to guide her head to the side so I can capture her lips with mine. Greedily, I swallow her loud moans and whimpers. My balls tighten in response to the delicious shivers she sends down my spine as her nails score my scalp. I palm her perfect breast and pinch her nipple before I let my hand skate downward toward her mound. The moment the pad of my middle finger finds her clit, her hips buck.
I kiss her deeply one last time before I sink my teeth into the side of her neck and thrust into her like a piston, finally claiming Ava as my mate. In the next moment, her pussy spasms violently around me as it traps my cock in a vise-like grip.
A tsunami of white-hot pleasure slams into me, making myvision blurry. We both fall over the edge together, me with a loud groan, her with a shrill cry. I feel the very fabric of my soul disintegrate and then be completely rebuilt as the mating bond fuses us. It’s like my world has shifted on its axis and been blown apart at the same time into tiny little atoms, all coming together into a cosmic explosion. It’s like finally arriving home. Ava is my home now, for all eternity. Mine to cherish and protect. My Luna. My everything.
