Before I can open the door fully, Logan barrels inside and pulls me into his big arms. A shudder passes through him as he bands an arm across my middle, and brings the other to the nape of my neck, holding me possessively while he buries his nose into my hair and closes the door with his heel at the same time.
His woodsy smell envelops me like a cloud, and my heart slams into my ribcage so hard I’m surprised my ribs are still intact. The mating bond purrs between my ribs as my wolf finally settles for the first time in hours. A sense of complete peace encompasses me. I’d like to say I’m allotting myself a few more seconds of pure bliss before I pull back, but the truth is I physically can’t move; my wolf is not allowing me to. She’s locking my muscles while she basks in the warmth rolling off Logan and sinking deep into my bones.
“Fuck, baby. Don’t ever run away from me again. I went crazy looking for you,” he says roughly.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper and swallow hard. “But seeing that look of utter guilt on your face, Logan, it nearly destroyed me. I felt as though someone clawed my heart right out of my chest. I know I acted irrationally…letting my emotions get the best of me, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was get away from you.”
“I know, baby. I know.” Logan pulls back. His gaze zeros in on my lips. A long heartbeat passes before he frames my jaw with his big hand, tracing my lower lip with his thumb, his touch, and the way his body feels against mine, igniting my blood and soaking my panties. “I’m dying to kiss you. Can I kiss you?”
There’s nothing I want more.However, I don’t tell him that. I slip out of his hold and look down, my fingers clenching at my sides as my teeth sink into my lower lip. “What about your fiancé?” That black hole in my chest is cracked wide open again, threatening to swallow me whole.
He runs a hand over his face. “I was never engaged. I was supposed to get engaged yesterday.”
I shake my head and finally lift my eyes to his, my eyebrows pinching in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“Let’s take a seat, and I’ll explain everything,” he says, urging me to sit on the couch. He takes off his jacket, drapes it on the back of the couch, and heaves out a deep sigh as he plops downnext to me. I can’t stop roving my eyes over the entire length of his body. He looks incredible in jeans and a baby blue tee that stretches over his muscles like second skin and makes his amber skin pop.
“As an Alpha to the pack, I am obligated to take a mate before the age of twenty-five; otherwise, the pack was going to be weakened. But I knew I had a fated mate out there somewhere, and I couldn’t just settle for a chosen mate. I waited and waited and never lost my hope that my fated mate would eventually come to me.”
He pauses, swallows, and then continues, “Then the children of my pack got touched by the weakness and fell into an endless sleep. I suddenly found myself between a rock and a hard place. I did a lot of research in the hopes of finding a cure, but not even Malik was able to bring them back past a certain point. It was just going to get worse and worse from there. The weakness would eventually spread to the whole pack. So, I promised to get engaged to Grace, a wolf from a neighboring pack, a month before my twenty-fifth birthday and marry a chosen mate the day I turned twenty-five. I have never even kissed Grace. Hell, I’ve only met her once. That’s it. I was going to marry her and make her my mate because I had to.”
“Wait. Um, so you didn’t get engaged to her after all?” I interrupt, fumbling with my fingers in my lap because I suddenly don’t know what to do with my hands.
“No, Ava. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I didn’t. She went home. Her father, the Alpha of the Ironclaw pack, was not happy about it when I told them I had found my fated mate, even if fated mates are sacred to our kind. Turns out he was a piece of shit and only wanted to marry Grace to me because of his gambling debts. Anyway, when the truth came out, I offered to pay off his debt as a consolation gift for Grace, and they eventually left.”
“But what about the kids?”
“They woke up the moment we completed the mating bond. That was the only thing needed to cure the children and then strengthen the pack; the wedding was just a formality.”
I take a moment to sit with what he just told me. “Why didn’t you tell me? When we were at the cabin, you could have said something.”
His shoulders slump. “Honestly…I was ashamed and afraid of your reaction. The days I spent with you at the cabin were the best days of my life. I have never known such happiness, such peace.”
His Adam’s apple bobs in his throat, and he places a warm hand over mine before continuing. “And deep down, I knew I had to tell you, but I was afraid you would think I betrayed you somehow, that I accepted to take a chosen mate when all I ever wanted was my fated. And I got so lost in you, that I completely forgot about my responsibilities as an Alpha and the engagement party. It felt good not to have the weight of the world pressing down on my shoulders for a weekend.”
“I can understand that, Logan…that you were in a difficult position. I just wish you would have told me.”
“I was going to. I know it sounds like I’m just saying this right now, but I never meant to hurt you. I need you so much, baby. I can’t live without you. You’re everything to me. Please forgive me.”
I look down, slip my hand from under Logan’s big one, and scoot over with the intention of standing up. “I don’t know, Logan. I need some time to thin—”
Before I can finish my sentence or stand, Logan pulls me in his lap in one smooth motion. His fingers bite into my hips as he maneuvers me on top of him so my knees are on either side of his muscular thighs, his huge erection pressing right at my center. His lips crash to mine, and his silken tongue invades my mouth,rendering me stupid. Desire surges in my veins as Logan kisses me so thoroughly he steals the breath in my lungs along with any rational thought I might have.
Logan gets up with me wrapped around his body, and with long strides, he ambles to the bed and throws me on top of it. His hand slips inside my shirt and cups my breast as his finger brushes over my taut nipple, eliciting a desperate whimper from my mouth. His other hand unbuttons my jeans and unzips them with hurried movements before his fingers glide into my panties and find my soaked slit.
“Your pussy is dripping for me, baby,”he rasps through our mental link and shoves two fingers inside me, pumping them in a maddening rhythm as the heel of his palm rubs into my clit. He continues to kiss me ravenously as he moves his fingers, and feral sounds that I don’t even recognize leap from deep within my chest.
“Aaaah…so good, Logan. I’m so close!”
He suddenly pulls back.
My eyebrows furrow. “Why did you stop?”
We’re both breathing hard, our chests heaving as he brings the fingers that were inside me to his mouth and licks them clean. His tongue darts out, tracing his lips like he doesn’t want to waste even a drop of my arousal before saying, “I need to be inside you. And, baby, you can take as much time as you want to think, but I told you before, I’m not above playing dirty, and I’ll use every trick in my arsenal to keep you because you’re my fated mate, and I will never let you go.”
With rapid movements, Logan peels off my jeans along with my lacy thong that he brings to his nose, inhaling the scrap of material deeply before pocketing it with a wink. When he opens his zipper, his massive cock juts out. He enters me with a hiss as our eyes lock. Golden fire sends my pulse into overdrive, and a loud moan tumbles free from my lips.
His nostrils flare as his hips start moving painstakingly slow, so slow I feel every inch of his cock deliciously ravaging my insides.
