Troy licks my chin, cleaning me up. “You’re a dream. You know that? Over the years, I’d wondered what our fourth mate would be like. What kind of balance they’d bring to the pack. I never imagined it would feel sorightto have you here.”
He kisses his way down my neck, but when he reaches my chest, I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“I need food first,” I tell him. “We can return here right after, but I need to eat if we’re going to fuck.”
He shudders with effort but pulls himself away. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
His head hangs low, and I realize he’s already beating himself up over how he’s treating me. I scramble forward and tip his chin up with my hand.
“Hey. Look at me.”
He lifts his gaze, his beautiful blue eyes even more striking in his half form.
“I know it’s only going to get harder for you,” I say softly. Something warm glows in my chest, and I know exactly what to say to him. “I want nothing more than to let you inside me right now. I want to take your knot and feel you come. But you freaked out the last time I almost passed out after an orgasm, so we need to make sure that doesn’t happen again, yeah?”
Troy’s smirk holds a good deal of pride—and embarrassment. “Yeah. I’ll try not to blame myself every time you have a human reaction to something I do.”
“That’s a good plan.” I scratch my neck. “So, I think I’ll wash this off me first, then we can make a big meal for everyone. I’m sure Sebastian and Carter will be starving when they return.”
I glance toward the window, where the pale winter light tells me the sky must still be overcast. That’s when I realize it’s Christmas Day, and we’d missed celebrating that last night. That’s never happened to me before. Christmas isn’t the best holiday for people without families, so I’d never been overly fond of it. I’d spent the last four of them alone, and if I could, I even picked up shifts at work so other employees with families could take time off. But to forget about it entirely…?
Troy rolls off the bed and holds out a hand for me. “Yeah, but they won’t be hungry for food. They’ll want to be knot-deep in your pussy the moment they step through the door.”
I put my hands on my hips and stare him down. “Well, tough. Until the full moon truly hits, like you said, we’ll all justhave to resist the call. Do you know it’s Christmas?” I point at the bedroom door, in the direction of the living room and the decorated tree standing there. “I ruined your holiday plans. We need to get them back on track. I don’t want you guys to miss out on Christmas.”
Troy blinks at me, then throws his head back and laughs. “Oh, Emma.”
He steps closer to me and wraps me in a big hug, squishing me to his furry chest. I struggle for a moment, still angry at myself for allowing thistinybit of crucial information to slip past me. But Troy just keeps holding me, and eventually, I let out a deep breath and relax.
“That’s it,” Troy purrs. “Now listen to me. You didn’truinanything, and this is the last time we’re having this conversation. You’re the best Christmas present we could have asked for, and that’s the whole truth. Now, if you want to celebrate Christmas today, we can try and put on an early lunch, but I’ll warn you it’s going to get more and more difficult for us all to keep our hands to ourselves.”
Warmth spreads through my limbs at his words.
Then his cock nudges me in the belly, and I laugh, grinning up at him. “How about a Christmas brunch?”
Chapter
Twenty-Three
SEBASTIAN
My feet are fucking freezing, but I can’t go back yet. I woke up in the predawn darkness,lickingEmma’s neck in my sleep, and shot out of bed so fast, I collided with a wall. Carter took one look at me and dragged me over to the bathroom for a quick release, but it barely took the edge off my need. When we returned to the bedroom, Troy growled at us to be quiet—and I knew he would have bitten our heads off if we’d woken Emma before she got a good night’s sleep.
So we opted to go out instead, straight into the still-raging snowstorm. We’ve fucked twice already, once against a tree and once rolling around in the snow, but my godsdamned cock remains hard, and I don’t know if it’s safe to return to Emma yet.
The worst thing is that the full moon hasn’t even hit. If this is how bad I am now, there’s no telling how desperate I’ll become once its true power is unleashed on me.
“Sebastian,” Carter bellows from behind me, “that’s enough. Let’s get back to the house.”
I shake my head, clumps of snow flying from my fur. My feet may be cold, but the rest of me is burning up, a fever that won’t break until sunrise tomorrow.
Suddenly, my alpha is beside me. He catches me by the scruff of my neck and forcefully pulls me to a stop. “Seb. Look at me.”
There’s a quiet command in his words—but not the alpha’s power because he wouldn’t do that to me without a good reason.
I shudder, my shoulders hunching as I lean my hands on my knees and breathe a huge lungful of the frigid air in an effort to calm myself.“Fuck, I’m sorry.”
My breath puffs up between us, then disappears with the next gust of wind.
