Page 109 of The Cowboy and the Stray

“Now?” I said, not sure if I was asking or begging.

He kissed the spot below my ear, then pressed his teeth against the side of my throat.

“This is gonna hurt,” he said.

I said, “Do it.”

He bit down. Not gently at all. I screamed, but he held me tight, arms locked around my shoulders, pinning me to the bed. Blood ran down my neck, hot and thick, and the pain snapped something open in me. I came again, harder than the first time, my body locked up and shaking under him as pain and pleasure coursed through me. He never let go. He kept biting until I stopped shaking, then licked the blood off my neck.

He fucked me again, harder now, almost brutal. He didn’t stop until he came, buried deep inside me, his hands fisted in my hair and his teeth still sunk in my skin.

He pulled out, rolled onto his back, and dragged me on top of him. I collapsed there, my whole body throbbing and raw. For a while, neither of us said anything.

Then, in my head, I heard his voice.

You all right?

I jumped. Not out loud, not in my body. In my brain. It was his voice, but it wasn’t. It was just there.

I looked at him. “Did you⁠—?”

He grinned. “Yeah.”

“That’s weird.”

You get used to it.

I tried to think something back at him. I pictured my own voice, plain and flat as always. I said. I’m hungry.

He laughed, then out loud said, “You’re always hungry.”

I punched him in the arm, then lay back down. “Is this forever?”

“If you want it,” he said. “And I hope you do, because it’s done now.”

I thought about it. “I want it.”

He pulled me closer, tucking my head under his chin. His heartbeat was slow and steady. Mine was racing.

After a while, I said, “What now?”

He thought about it, but I knew the answer before he said it.

He said, “Now we live.”

50. TESS

Calder was out cold, his arm draped over my waist, palm pressed flat against my belly like he was anchoring me to the planet. If I closed my eyes and counted his breaths. It almost worked. I almost believed I could hold still, that my skin wasn’t crawling with the need to get up and move.

My brain was jumpy. It ran in loops, over what happened last night, over the taste of his kiss, over the way the world had shifted sideways and refused to go back. This was supposed to be the part where everything got easier. Instead, my body was itching with static, every nerve dialed up until I thought my teeth would crack.

I stared at the ceiling and tried to name what was wrong.

I could feel Calder in my blood now. In my bones. Was this what it meant to be mated? It was like having a radio station play in the background of my skull. His sleep was deep, steady, a heavy lake with nothing stirring underneath. My nerves were thin ice, cracking under every thought.

I rolled onto my side. Calder’s face was turned toward me, mouth slightly open, a line of stubble shadowing his jaw. I wanted to run a finger over his cheek but didn’t. Instead, I watched the slow rise and fall of his chest. But my muscles wouldn’t let me rest. Something inside was turning itself inside out, and it made me want to scream, or cry, or run until my lungs gave out. The bond hummed, insistent. Not a voice, not a feeling, just a push.

I eased his arm off my waist and slipped out of bed, as quietly as I could. Calder didn’t even twitch. I pulled one of his flannel shirts over my head but didn’t bother with anything else. I padded barefoot down the steps, out through the kitchen. The house was dead quiet, the only sound the hum of the fridge and the distant whir of a ceiling fan.