I press closer, letting my scent wrap around him. Honey-green meeting cedar-smoke. Familiar. Grounding.
"Look at me." I wait until his eyes focus. "Who are you?"
The question forces him to think instead of react. His hands finally lift to my waist, gripping like I might disappear.
"Yours," he manages. "Pack. Safe."
"That's right." I brush my lips across his forehead. "You're pack. You're ours. And we take care of each other."
His grip tightens. The need in his scent intensifies, narrowing, focusing entirely on me. I feel the shift in his attention, his awareness of Tyler and Julian fading as instinct takes over.
Tyler senses it too. His hand squeezes my shoulder briefly before releasing. "We should give you space," he saysquietly.
Julian's already moving toward the door. "We'll be in the living room. You need anything, we're right outside."
Tyler catches my eye. "You good?" I nod. This is right, all of it. "We're not going anywhere."
The door closes behind them.
Not locked. I could leave if I wanted.
I don't want to.
Calder's control shatters like glass.
The pull becomes irresistible. He drags me against him with desperate strength, burying his face in the curve of my neck. Breath comes hot against my skin, ragged and rough.
His voice breaks. "I can’t lose you before I even?—"
"I'm here." I thread my fingers through his hair, holding him to me.
A sound tears from his chest, relief and need and fear all tangled together. Hands map my body with urgent reverence, as if confirming every inch of me remains whole and real.
I meet him kiss for fevered kiss, touch for trembling touch. Let him feel my pulse racing, my breath catching, my body responding to his with the same intensity.
This isn't like the heat. That was a slow revelation, gentle discovery.
This is wildfire.
His mouth claims mine with bruising pressure. My back hits the wall and I gasp against his lips, feeling the full weight of him pressed along every line of my body.
"Mine." His hands slide beneath my shirt, skin seeking skin.
"Yours," I breathe. "Always."
He lifts me and I wrap my legs around his waist, letting him carry me to the bed. We fall together in a tangle of reaching hands and seeking mouths. Clothes disappear between one breath and the next, his shirt, my sweater, barriers stripped away until nothing exists between us but heat and need and the overwhelming certainty that this is right.
The mouth I love trails down my throat and pauses over my scent gland. I feel lips part, feel the sharp edge of teeth press against the skin?—
And hold there.
"Please." I don't know what I'm begging for. The bite or the restraint. Both. Neither. Everything.
He growls and pulls back just enough to press open-mouthed kisses across my throat instead. Hot and wet and worshipful. His teeth scrape without breaking skin, gentle marks that send fire racing through my veins.
I arch into him, overwhelmed by sensation. His hands, his mouth, the weight of him above me, the scent of cedar-smoke saturating every breath I take.
"I need—" He can't finish the sentence.
