Page 14

I move in and take her mouth again. She squeals against my lips. I’ve never pushed her like this. I’m not stopping to ask myself why when I need more of her this bad. She tastes every bit as sweet as before. I pin her there with my hips. When she gasps, I catch her lower lip in my teeth and tug. She grabs my shoulders and digs in her nails. Between kisses, she breathes, “Ezra…”

I drag myself back and press my forehead to hers. My dragon howls at me for stopping.

“This isn’t going to last much longer,” I groan. “We need to bond more.”

“Okay,” she says. I lean back to make sure I didn’t imagine it. She usually fights me on this.

“What?” I have to hear it again.

Aya smiles and fists my shirt when I try to ease away. I’m not fool enough to tell her no when she pulls my mouth down to hers. I kiss her slow this time, until she’s the one who breaks it off with a shaky little laugh. I work my way down to her shoulder and breathe her in. She cups the back of my neck and keeps me there.

Her lips brush my ear. “Not knowing what was going on with you for a week has been agonizing,” she admits. “I get it now.”

I nuzzle her neck, and her heartbeat is going wild. “But you need to let me talk to my dad,” she insists.

I pull back far enough to see her face. “No.” She cocks her head and waits for a reason. “Okay, Aya, I know these are more modern times, but let me keep some of the tradition.” My dragon is with me on this. “I need to win your father’s favor,” I tell her. “It’s the way of the shifter. Let me do this the right way.”

She grumbles into a pout. I steal another kiss and try to pull away. She hangs on and makes me work for it. When we complete the mate bond, I’m keeping her to myself for a solid month, or longer if my dragon gets a vote.

My dick aches, and her arousal is still all over my tongue. I have to get us off this ledge before I do anything that makes the waiting worse. “How about we watch the stars tonight?”

I can smell her wolf jumping at the idea, even as Aya frowns. “But we’re usually in the clan, where we’re chaperoned.”

“You aren’t a pup anymore, Aya.” I hold her stare. “Your wolf is fully grown and has been for a few years now, and so is my dragon. Come watch the stars with me.”

She sighs. “I can’t. I have to meet with the pack about my dusty alpha.”

I snort at her. “Will you stop calling your uncle a dusty wolf?”

Aya bristles. “Jacob is not the true alpha of House of Zorah. He’s a fill-in, all because my father needed a break from the position. And he’s not my uncle, by the way.”

I shrug and open my big mouth. “Well, I heard Jacob lawfully beat him in battle for dominance—” I know it’s a mistake as soon as I hear myself.

She cuts me off with a low growl. Her scent goes bitter with hurt. “I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t there,” she snaps. “I was only there when my father dropped his knee and relinquished his position during his vow renewal ceremony.”

She hasn’t had a lifetime to get used to my particular brand of asshole the way my parents have. “Aya, I didn’t mean—” I reach for her.

She turns her back and pulls the door open. “How about we rain check on seeing the stars?”

My dragon wants to kick my ass for my loose tongue. I’m right behind her by the time she clears the threshold, but she’s stopped dead on the porch with her nose lifted to the wind.

I step out behind her and catch it too. My dragon lunges at another male this close to our mate and only backs off when he knows who it is. Ocran is nearby.

Aya yanks her scrubs straight and scowls at me. Her scent runs warm behind it. “Do whatever you want with my dad, Ezra. I’ll stay out of it like you want me to.”

I had that coming. “Aya, I’m sorry for…”

She takes off down the stairs. “Gotta go!” she calls over her shoulder as she hits the tree line. The scent she leaves behind carries a thread of sorrow that I put there.

She’s still close enough to hear me when I raise my voice. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m an idiot. Please come see me tomorrow and I’ll make it up to you. I’ll make your favorite beef ribs, and we can watch the stars together.”

When she doesn’t answer, I breathe in deep. There’s too little of her on the wind now to tell whether the apology took.

I blow smoke out my nose and don’t bother hiding it. “If you stand me up, I’ll come to House of Zorah and get you myself!”

I catch her answer from deep in the woods. “Asshole.”

I laugh at that. That’s my Aya. She always has to have the last word. “Good, I’ll see you tomorrow night, then!”