Page 178 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

“That was almost your sister’s wedding slogan.”

She blinked. Then she laughed, soft and startled, and the sound took another piece of death out of the room.

I eased back enough to strip off the ruined shirt. Cassie watched me with a look that made my body harden despite blood, fear, and the knowledge that Sava would skin me if I so much as brushed the wrong bruise.

Her gaze dropped to my chest, then lower.

“Well,” she murmured. “That’s very unfair of you.”

I leaned over her, one hand braced beside her shoulder. “You are injured.”

“I’m injured, not blind.”

I kissed the corner of her mouth because I could not help it. “Tell me if anything hurts.”

“Everything hurts. I’ll tell you if it hurts in a way I don’t like.”

My breath left me. There was Cassie. Bruised, bitten, hunted through the dark, and still somehow able to make desire feel like defiance instead of surrender.

I touched her as if she were both precious and powerful, because she was. I kissed the unmarked side of her throat, the line of her jaw, the soft skin beneath her ear. Her pulse beat fast against my mouth. The mark answered, dark and warm beneath the bandage, and mine pulled so sharply I had to stop and breathe against her shoulder.

Cassie’s fingers stroked the back of my neck. “Stay with me.”

“I am trying.”

“No. Don’t try to become marble. Stay with me.”

I lifted my head.

Her eyes were bright with pain and want and something I was too afraid to name for both of us.

So I stayed. I let her see the hunger. The fear. The reverence. I let her feel the tremor in my hands when I slid the blanket down only far enough to touch what she offered. I avoided the bandaged hip, the bruised ribs, the clawed arm. I learned the map of her injuries by refusing to let desire blur them. I kissed the edges of bruises without touching the centers. I put my mouth to the places where she sighed instead of flinched.

When she reached for me, I let her guide. Her hand on my wrist. Her knee shifting carefully against my side. Her mouth finding mine when the memory of the hunt tried to climb between us.

There was heat, yes. There was the deep, brutal need that had been burning since the moment my wolf scented her in the circle and destroyed every plan laid before me. There was also her breath against my cheek when she whispered my name, and the way the bond settled when I moved slowly enough for her body to believe me.

When I finally came over her, careful with my weight, she cupped my face in both hands.

“Look at me,” she said.

I did.

“If you disappear into that wolf again, I’m going to be furious.”

A rough sound left me. “That is your threat?”

“Yes. I’m tired, I hurt everywhere, and I have been chased by murder wolves. Fury is what I have available.”

I kissed her palm. “Then I will stay.”

She drew me down. I wanted to bury myself in her until there was nothing left of the hunt, nothing left of the fear, only us. I lowered my head and spread her legs with a reverence that bordered on prayer. I didn’t rush. I traced the hollow of her hip with a callused thumb, tasting the salt of her skin. I wanted to memorize every inch of her. She gasped, her back arching off the mattress, her hands burying in my hair, holding me there.

I needed to consume her pleasure to distract her from the pain. I wrapped my hand around her thigh, my fingers pressing into the soft flesh to keep her open to me, and I went to work. I added a finger, curling up to rub against that spot deep inside that made her tremble. I matched the rhythm of my fingers with the suction of my mouth, driving her wild. Her hips bucked against my face, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps. I watched her face, memorizing the way her eyes rolled back, the way her fingers clenched in my hair, the way her body bowed.

“Keep going,” she whispered.

I wanted to make her forget the wolves outside. I wanted to make her forget the bite. I focused entirely on the taste of her, the heat of her, the sound of her small noises. I took her higher, faster, her moans turning into whimpers, her back arching until she was pressed against my mouth. She was so close. I could feel the tension coiling in her thighs, the way her body trembled around my fingers. She came apart with a cry that was muffled against the sheets, her body shuddering violently, her nails digging into my scalp.