Page 55 of Fat Enemy Mate

Wilf isn't even looking at the bowl. He's looking at me, gold at the edges of his eyes, raw emotion written all over his face.

"Told you I didn't need it," he says under the noise of the crowd.

"We didn’t need it, but here it is anyway," I tell him, squeezing his hand.

Amelia lifts one hand, and the square goes instantly quiet again. Her part is short, which I'm grateful for, because my heart's going hard enough that I couldn't have stood much more. Her voice carries to the back without seeming to rise. She welcomes me. She asks Wilf if he'll honor and protect me with all he has, and he says he will, plain, certain, and full of truth. She asks if I'll stand with him and with this pack, choose them, hold them as mine, even the parts I don't understand yet.

"I will," I say, and it comes out steadier than I expect.

"And you wanted to say more," Amelia says gently. "Now is your chance."

I turn to Wilf, and the square falls away, and it's just him and me.

"My father spent my whole life telling me to run from people like you," I tell him. "He meant it kindly, but he was wrong. You pulled me out of that hut, and you fed me, and you fixed the door so I'd stop flinching at it, and you never once asked me to be something I wasn't. I didn't know what home was. I thought I'd lost the only one I’d ever have, but it turns out home is wherever the people you love are." My voice goes, and I let it. "I choose you. Magic or no magic. I'd have chosen you on that mountain with nothing in the world. I love you."

His jaw works. For a second, he doesn't trust his voice, and then he finds it.

"I love you," he says. "I should have told you the first morning because, looking back, my wolf knew; he just didn’t trust himself to feel it. I'm going to spend a long time making up for not telling you sooner."

Amelia says her last words over both of us, her light old hand on each of our heads, and the blue flame holds, and that's it. I'm bound to him and he to me, the bowl is closed, and the town's already breaking into the party behind us as Wilf pulls me closer and kisses me, slow and certain in front of all of them. The howl goes up around us and makes goosebumps race across my skin.

The rest of the evening is a blur of laughing with my new friends, so many hugs. Nick finds me, takes both my hands, and says, "Welcome home, Lara," meaning it so plainly I have to look away. The band plays for hours, and the entire square feelslike the epicenter of happiness, with laughter echoing off the mountain ridges.

We slip away just before midnight, the music thinning out behind us as Wilf drives us home.Home.

The night is warm, and Wilf doesn’t let go of my hand as we walk the path up to his porch, scooping me up at the bottom in a ridiculous display as he insists on carrying me intoourhome.

“Sorry to steal you from your own party,” he says, shouldering the door.

“I’d rather be here,” I tell him, my face buried in his neck. “With you.”

He sets me down inside in the dark; the cabin is quiet around us, with the warm night coming through the window I left open this morning. He doesn't let go. He brushes the hair back off my face with his thumb, careful the way he's careful with everything when it comes to me, his eyes gone gold and steady on mine.

"You sure?" he says. Not quite a question. But I know he’s nervous about the mating bite. Strangely, I’m not. I want him, I want his wolf.

"I've never been surer of anything," I tell him, and I pull his mouth down to mine.

It’s been six weeks since we declared our love, six weeks of not being able to keep our hands off each other, and yet tonight feels like the first time. Perhaps the bond has changed something, even for me, because every touch of his lips, every sweep of his hands, feels like pure electricity dancing along my skin. I gasp as he walks me back against the door, kissing downmy neck, bunching the dress fabric in his hands before pulling away suddenly.

“Not here,” he growls. “Tonight is too special not to be in a bed.”

I laugh as he chases me through to the bedroom, but the moment I spin around, the words die on my tongue because I see the look in his eyes. The pure want in his expression floors me, and I reach for him, pulling him closer. He kisses me, pushing me down onto the bed, but at the same time, he grabs the fabric of my dress and pulls it from my body. I shiver as the air hits my skin, but it does nothing to cool me down.

Sitting directly in front of him, I quickly work the buttons on his pants until I can palm his cock through the fabric and pull him free. It’s already hard and bobs in front of my face, tempting me, so I reach out and lick the end, enjoying the way he hisses at the contact.

“Goddess, Lara,” he groans, trying to step back, but I hold him steady and wrap my lips around the head before he can move.

He’s big, far too big for my mouth, but I love it and want to try anyway. He begins by resting his hands gently on my hair, but soon I feel them tighten, and he slowly flexes his hips. I know he’s trying to hold back, but I want to feel him lose control. I want to feel his strength. So, I suck him in harder, and I hear the rumble of a growl as he begins to slowly fuck my mouth deeper. I take him in, loving the way he stretches me, and I have to adjust the angle to stop him from going too deep.

Suddenly, he pulls back, and I open my eyes to see him fisting his cock, his eyes burning pure gold. He drops to his knees in front of me and pulls my underwear off, almost tearing it at the sides. There’s nothing restrained about the way helifts both my legs onto his shoulders, spreading me wide before dipping his head and spearing my channel with his tongue. I’m already wet, and he laps it up, spreading it up to my clit and sucking hard. He’s still sucking as he begins to add his fingers, first just one, but quickly two or three. His hands are so big that the stretch feels intense. It’s everything I want.

He pumps his fingers in and out. I’ve lost track of how many he’s using because he’s sucking my clit so hard. I grip his hair as I feel my orgasm building, and he chuckles against my clit as I begin to come apart; when he angles his fingers against my inner wall, I lose all control and come hard, screaming. He doesn’t stop; he wrings every tremor from me until I’m begging him to stop; though as soon as he does and steps back, I protest.

He pulls me towards him and kisses me deeply, letting us taste ourselves for a moment until he spins me around so I’m kneeling on the bed with my butt up. He palms the cheeks and drags some of the wetness up from my channel up to my most sensitive area, pressing one finger into the tight hole as I squirm. He leans over and whispers, “Not tonight, but we’ll build up to it.”

I shudder against him at the thought and find myself instinctively rocking back so his wet finger breaches the hole, and I roll my hips. He groans, “Ahh, good girl.” He says, pumping the finger and rubbing his cock through my folds, bracing himself at my entrance.

He doesn’t wait. I don’t think he can. He pushes inside with his finger still in my ass, and the tightness feels overwhelming. I fist the covers as I feel every ridge of his cock and a whole new level of fullness. I protest as he removes the finger and leans down to lay kisses across my back. One hand comes around to cup my breasts as he buries himself to the hilt. “We have all the time in the world to explore your delicate ass,”he murmurs against my neck, “tonight is about you becoming my mate; I’m going to fill you with my seed.”