Page 27 of Lycans & Lattes

A furious blush burned across my cheeks and down my neck. Getting dicked down to the point of utter exhaustion didn’t sound like the worst way to spend the rest of the night. But I had to work in the morning, and so did he, which meant we both needed to be able to stand. Not to mention, the whole point of a condom was one use, and we’d already stretched that risk. I wasn’t ready for werewolf babies.

“I won’t move,” I promised, cursing myself for not asking Harlow to open the café in the morning.

Several minutes passed before the tension eased enough for him to lift me off him. I lay on my side and watched his cute, tight butt walk across my room to dispose of the condom before returning to my bed.

“Are you okay?” he asked, pulling me into his chest. “I didn’t hurt you?”

I shook my head against his warm skin. “I’m fine. Better than fine. But what just happened? What was that?”

His cheeks reddened. “It something that happens to male wolf anatomy when we’re with our mates. It’s a breeding thing.”

I eyed him. “Umm, what?”

“Have you, uh, ever heard of . . . knotting?”

I blinked at him but didn’t answer. I knew what knotting was from romance books. I hadn’t put two and two together because Wyatt was just Wyatt to me, not a werewolf with wolf anatomy.

“My . . . shaft . . .” He blushed again, and this time, I giggled at the impromptu paranormal creature physiology lesson that was unfolding. “Well, it swells to lock us together in a heat frenzy. It’s harder to control when you’re ovulating . . . My inner wolf can tell that my mate is wanting.”

It was my turn to blush. I wasn’t attuned to my cycle like that. My period came when it came, and the only differences it had made over the last four years were in my mood and energy. I hadn’t had any other trysts since moving to Maple Hollow. When the next alpha had the hots for you, there weren’t many other prospects sniffing around. Aside from Randy, the pumpkin-headed monster and town Casanova, no one in town had so much as acknowledged that I could be a prospective sexual partner.

I swept my fingers across Wyatt’s cheek. “So you weren’t kidding. You really could have kept going all night?”

“And into the morning. And probably the afternoon, if you wanted me to,” he clarified with a grin. “My body would do anything to not only be inside of you, but to satiate you fully. In every way you wanted me.”

“Oh,” was all I could say.

“It shouldn’t happen every time. We’ll be more careful,” he assured me.

But the endorphins flooding my brain didn’t want to be careful. He made it sound like his body was cosmically designed to want to pleasure mine. That was doing nothing to quell my rising libido.

Still, logic finally won out. It was only nine p.m., but I had to get up in a few hours, and I knew I needed to kick him out if I was going to get any sleep. I put on my fuzzy robe.

“We can talk more tomorrow.” I squeezed his bicep. “I’d ask you to stay, but I need to sleep.”

He drew me into a warm hug, his arms wrapping around my shoulders and my lungs filling with his scent. “I understand. The full moon is next week, and I’m struggling not to turn into a sex-crazed mate. I’m sorry. I know that’s intense.”

I hummed, and he planted a kiss on the top of my head. My body was perfectly exhausted and deliciously sore. “Don’t be sorry. I happen to like your kind of intense.”

He groaned. “Don’t tell me that.”

I giggled. “No, no. You’re right.” I pushed at his chest. “You have to go.”

He cupped my cheeks to kiss me gently. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” I echoed, kissing him again, then once more before stepping back and watching him leave.

The nagging void in my chest opened immediately. I had to bite my lip to keep from calling him back to me.

This mate thing was going to be a problem.

12

Wyatt

Isqueezed Willow’s hand, puffing out my chest and straightening my posture as we rounded the corner to the pumpkin patch. My keen senses already told me who was in attendance, and I wanted to remind them that I was their future alpha and if they even looked at my mate sideways, I would end them.

“I can handle myself, wolf boy,” Willow murmured from my side, clearly reading my unspoken thoughts. “You don’t need to hulk out for me.”