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“Hey.”

His eyes met mine.

“No part of that was fucking. That was lovemaking.”

“Never say that again. There’s nothing wrong with fucking, and we’re going to be doing it a lot, but this thing we’re on is hardly what I wanted for your first––”

“It was perfect,” I told him. “And I want to do it again, at home, in my bed, for hours and––”

“Hours? I need to explain to you about stamina. I’m older than you, so––”

“You’re eight years older. Don’t get crazy. You’re all I need.”

“Yes, I am,” he said firmly. “There will only ever be me for you. Period. You’re done. You took the bite, you’re finished. You will never be without me for the rest of your life.”

“Nor you without me. You’re my alpha now.”

“I was always your alpha,” he let me know.

“I know.”

“But now you feel it.”

There was no question that I did, and finally, everything was settled in my heart. I knew exactly what I was to him. I was his mate, and there was nothing, or no one, more important than me. I had never been so content.

10

DEACON

He was looking at me like I was insane, but it didn’t matter. “You have to take it. Check under the sink, there’s probably a garbage bag. Get one and put it in, because that blanket is coming with us.”

“I suppose that’s just good manners,” he agreed with me. “I find your logic sound.”

“Oh, I’m so glad,” I replied, going for sarcastic, but he was giggling. “You want people sitting on the cum blanket?”

He sputtered out a laugh then, beaming at me. “You’re so romantic.”

I gestured at all of him. “You know what this is? This is the love fog that you’re in at the moment, but when it clears, you’re gonna be all, ‘thank God I listened to my mate, because yeah, that would be really gross if someone sat in a pool of jizz.’”

The laughter bubbling out of him was adorable, but I growled at him instead of confessing my undying love, going to look for a garbage bag myself and finding one. Once the blanket was tucked safely inside, I put his T-shirt in there as well, the one we’d sacrificed to cleanup, wiping between his thighs where my cum had dripped, as well as his ass.

When the bag was closed, I looked at him, finding him more or less presentable with his shirt inside out.

“What?” he asked innocently, big, expressive blue eyes soaking me up, the adoration obvious, his lips swollen and dark like he’d been eating berries.

Crossing to him, I dropped the bag, yanked his shirt out of his pants, and heard the softest, sweetest, most carnal and inviting moan I’d ever heard in my life.

“Stop that, your shirt’s inside out,” I said, easing it gently up over his head.

The second I had it off, his hands slipped up under my sweater, sliding over my abdomen. He lifted it slowly, seductively before leaning forward to press his lips to my skin.

“No,” I scolded him, trying to take a step back. “We have to go back out there and finish helping with the––”

“I want to sit on you, in a chair, with your cock in my ass, and you can bite me again and hold my dick in your hand as you fuck me. Let’s do that instead.”

He was definitely in thrall to me at the moment, but it made sense, as the bond wanted us to mate over and over, sealing us together after the first time. He was all animal, no higher-level brain function happening at the moment. His wolf craved his mate, and that was all he knew, all he wanted.

“Don’t you want that?” he asked, sliding his arms around my neck, trying to pull me down, bring my mouth closer. “Take the sweater off. I want to feel your skin.”