Page 71 of The Forbidden Alpha

Ethan groaned, emptying himself inside me.

He pulled back, confusion marring his features, but I wasn’t done. I gripped the back of his neck, yanked him toward me, as I bit his neck. I dragged my tongue over the wound. Beneath my lips, a black, half-moon mark flared—burning into his flesh. I’d branded him as mine. It shouldn’t have been possible, but as the ink-black crescent set into his skin, the room went still.

“Adea,” he rasped, his touch hovering over the mark. It pulsed, a throb that seemed to sync with his heartbeat. “This isn’t possible…”

I felt a surge of cold triumph that made no sense. He shook his head, his focus shattering back into desperate, carnal need. “It doesn’t matter,” he growled, pulling me back into his chest. “You’re marked. You’re mine.”

Later, when the spray of the waterfall shower finally washed the sweat and soot from our skin, he held me pinned against the wet black tile. The steam wrapped around us in a haze as he rested his forehead against mine, his large thumb tracing the brand I’d carved into his neck.

“I love you, my little mate,” he murmured into the humid air, his green eyes dark with promises. “Tonight is the full moon. Your wolf is right beneath the surface, Adea. I can feel her pacing behind your ribs. We’re going to let her free.”

Chapter 38

The orange and yellow hues of the setting sun were dipping low over the horizon as we got out of the car at the forest boundary. The air out here reminded me of my sanctuary back at Half Moon. There was a slight, cool breeze that brought the promise of pine needles.

Odis and Olivia would be standing watch at the perimeter line, and for once he wasn’t in a three-piece suit. Tonight, he wore tactical gear, similar to what the Enforcers wore. His jaw muscles flickered in a rhythm that betrayed the storm raging beneath his professional mask. Olivia matched him. She smiled at me, but it didn’t reach her eyes. They headed out as Ethan made his way around the car. He wore nothing but black, fitted tactical pants, his heavily muscled chest and shoulders catching the last bleeding shards of sunlight. The black half-moon mark I had carved into the side of his neck was a raised, angry welt. I smiled, biting my bottom lip as pride pulsed in my chest.

“Are you ready, Wildflower?” he asked, his voice a low vibration that seemed to roll across the forest floor. He extended a wide, calloused palm toward me.

My pulse stuttered. A cold spike of nerves prickled beneath my skin, warring with the hope that had driven me all day. I wanted this. Years of needing nothing more than to shed my human skin, to feel the wind against my face as I raced in wolf form—but the promise of it was terrifying. I knew what the shift required: my bones fracturing and skin reshaping.

My voice failed me. I offered a sharp nod, closing the distance between us until my fingers were swallowed by his hold. The heat of his touch sent a frantic, tingling current up my forearm, a spark from the true mate bond that had fused our souls in blood.

We began to run.

Ethan didn’t rush me, but his grip on my hand was a silent vow as our pace quickened. The deeper we descended into the canyon, the heat began to evaporate, replaced by the cool, heavy mist rising from the black hidden pool below.

As Ethan led me into the trees, I glanced back up from where we came. Odis stood alone at the boundary line, his back to us, a single wall of shadow between our isolation and the rest of the pack on their run.

Wolfless.

The word had been branded into my identity since the day of my failed maturity. I had spent the last ten years carrying that weight of being a charity case. I’d accepted that I’d never meet her, but as we strode into the woods, something uncoiled in my chest. The skin over the unhealed craters on my neck and shoulder throbbed violently, the heat spreading downward into my chest until my lungs felt like they were filled with fire. Coming to a stop, I gasped as warmth melted from my chest and spread outward.

Adea.

The voice didn’t come from the forest surrounding us. It exploded from the vault inside—the door kicked open as an ancient roar shattered the silence of my thoughts. Ethan’s hand wrapped around my wrist, hoisting me against his chest. My eyes widened and my breath stalled as a fountain of emotions welled.

Who… are you? I mentally rasped, my hands curled against Ethan’s chest as my knees threatened to give.

Korra, she roared back, her voice strong and magical. It made my soul ache. Finally. I’ve clawed against the cell keeping us apart. Something ancient locked the door before you were old enough to find it.

Everything came crushing down. The burden lifted. I wasn’t defective. I had never been wolfless.

The tears streaked down my cheeks.

Who? I pressed desperately. Who locked it?

But she didn’t answer. The silence that followed was deliberate. I filed it away. I’d ask her again later.

You have never been alone, Korra promised. The moon calls us. It’s time to let me free.

I gulped, tilting my head back to meet Ethan’s stormy green gaze. There was a stillness staring back that wasn’t patience—it was a predator, waiting. He knew. Could he feel her?

“Reveal the other half of my mate,” he murmured, his hand cupping my cheek.

The moment the white light of the moon cleared the canyon rim and struck my face, the world tilted.

I flinched, anticipating the agony to come, but there was none. Instead, pure energy surged through my veins. My body unfolded, and breathless, I watched as my arms melted, the joints sliding and locking into a powerful limb, finding their true shape.