It's the first time I'm taking her into my private room, but it's not for simple exploration. There's only one reason I'm taking her inside, and it stands in a corner.
I set Annika down on her feet, then slide my hand into hers as I lead her toward the full-length mirror propped against a wall. Once we're in front of it, I step behind her, prop my chin on her shoulder as my arms slide around her waist.
I'm staring at her reflection, noticing the way her eyes glow sheepishly as she begins to blush, as if she can already tell where I'm going with this. As if she knows what I want to say. Asif she knows that I spent that night after the gala dinner glaring at this mirror from my desk, imagining it was her I could see being reflected, standing there in the black she wore that night.
That whole dinner, all I could think about was how tempting she was in the dress, and how I had to mentally fight the thought of ripping it off her perfect body from the slit on her thigh. Those heinous thoughts followed me into a restless night, and all I could think about was how twisted fate was because I didn't have the liberty of touching her.
Now, she's mine, and even as she stands in my arms wearing the baggiest T-shirt and sweatpants, she's the most beautiful woman in the world.
“You are genuinely the most beautiful creature I've ever met, Annika…” I whisper against the shell of her ear, and she moans softly, her eyes fluttering closed as she leans her head back against my shoulder. My hands slide up her arms, and I sweep her hair away from her neck, her scent gland pulsing with the pheromones she naturally exudes, the exquisite scent of sweet jasmine flowers mingling with something softly citrusy. Her scent is intoxicating, almost painfully so, and as my fingers brush the soft skin of her neck, a shiver of heated awareness rushes through me.
“I wish you could see yourself through my eyes…” I whisper as her body melds against my hardness, her back arching into me, the mounds of her rear pressed against the growing erection between my thighs. I smooth one hand over her chest, across her breasts, and my hand settles on her belly. “I was the fool all along…the one denying and resisting the attraction I felt from the moment you walked into my office…”
Her eyes open at this, flashing with recognition as if she’s just revisiting that memory, four years ago, when we first met. Idip my head at the crook of her neck and press a soft, lingering, wanton kiss there. “Forgive me.”
She reaches out and cradles my cheek, her fingers tender as she whispers, “You are forgiven, Heinrich.”
“We both stop running, then,” I suggest, and when she nods, I pause as I read her soft expression, then say, “If you are ready to be my luna, then let me make it official.”
When Annika tilts her head to the side, I know it’s because she’s learned about what it truly means to be an alpha’s mate, and she knows what to expect. I take a deep breath, soaking up her scent in the air, before parting my lips, canines distending, sharp and pearly. Annika closes her eyes, licking her lips in anticipation, as I sink my sharp fangs into her skin. The initial pierce has her gasping softly, and I hold her firmly as I mark her as my mate, electric sensations shooting through every inch of my being and causing a fusion between our energies that feels inevitable, but liberating all at once.
The moment I remove my canines from her neck, the taste of her blood and essence swimming on my tongue, she turns and wraps her arms around my neck, kissing my lips with desperation, as if she’s seeking to taste herself.
Our kisses become frantic as she practically mounts me, and I’m carrying her to the desk, setting her on her feet and turning her over so she can brace her hands on the table. I’m ripping her clothes from her body, tearing them to shreds like a hungry, starved beast who had a single taste and wants more.
She’s stripped down bare, positioned in a way that allows her to see her reflection in the mirror across the room, and while I slide my hand up her spine, she arches her back and molds to my touch, and that’s when I hook my fingers beneath her chin and pull her face back toward me.
“I want you to keep your eyes on the mirror,” I rasp against her lips before kissing her, and she nods and moans into the kiss. When I pop my lips off, it’s only to travel kisses down her spine as she turns back to the mirror, and I get to my knees, breathing in the scent of her arousal that completely annihilates any other thoughts in my mind. I dip my head between her thighs, licking a fat stripe across her folds and tasting all of her sweet arousal on my tongue.
Eating her out like this becomes my favorite meal, like a five-course dinner as she explodes, rocking against my face, my name falling off her lips with moans before they escalate into screams filled with pleasure. I drink in every last drop of cum as she rides out her orgasm on my face, before I climb up and meet her lips in a kiss of passionate desperation. She doesn’t stop rocking against me, her body convulsing with climax, and I keep her pinned in place with one arm slinked around her tiny waist as I undo my clothes.
Once I’m naked, cock springing free of its confines, I push the tip between her thighs, her walls blooming like a flower around my width, welcoming me into its warmth snugly. I groan against her lips, feeling the mate bond screaming through our united bodies as my inner wolf howls in celebration of uniting with its fated mate.
We don’t stop kissing,can’tstop kissing, passionately feeding each other air as I thrust into her with urgent vigor, hands holding her hips where she’s hitched forward to be open to my strokes. The lewd sounds of skin on skin and our sloppy kisses fill the air, and I leave her lips only to press a kiss on the mark I left on her neck—a mark that will soon heal against her melanated skin and remain there for the rest of our lives, adorned like a jewel only fit for a woman of her caliber, a womanwho never stops amazing me, a woman who has chosen to be the luna to my alpha.
My heart explodes with love as our bodies near the precipice of raw, primal pleasure, and I pull out only to turn her around and prop her on my desk to make the final stretch of our tryst while staring deeply into her eyes. She has her arms wound around my neck, legs tied around my waist, as I fuck her into our shared orgasm.
When we’ve both exploded, I hold her tightly, not wanting to let go, because all I want to do is hold the woman I love. But when she makes no sound, I draw my head back, only to find that she’s staring blankly ahead, her eyes swimming with gold ribbons.
“Annika…?” I frown, but she doesn’t move, doesn’t breathe, and that’s when my heart skips a worried beat.
Just as I’m about to lift her off the desk, she breathes in deeply, audibly, as if she died and is breathing for the first time.
“Annika? What happened?!” I panic. “Annika, look at me.” That’s when she blinks rapidly and then turns her warm chocolate-brown eyes to me.
“I just saw it, Heinrich. I just saw the portal, and it’s not in the mountains.”
Chapter 23 - Annika
Darkness swallows me whole.
For a moment, I think I’ve fainted, that the room has simply spun out from beneath my feet after everything that just happened between Heinrich and me. But the darkness quickly gives way to something else entirely—something far more familiar.
The in-between.
Except, this time, it isn’t quiet, or blindingly white like the last time. It’s dark and loud.
Wind howls through the void like a living, breathing thing, carrying whispers that slither through the air like smoke. The space around me shifts, warping and bending until the darkness tears open like fabric, like a thin veil being stretched open around me.
