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Claim.
The word reverberated through my entire being. My body still throbs with the afterglow, and his presence inside me is unyielding. I feel claimed in every way. But I’m… not. Despite the possessiveness rolling off the alpha in waves, despite the knot tying me to him, and his growled words of ownership while he fucked me, he didn’t bite down on my neck and claim me in his rut. He… bit the pillow instead, shredding it.
I’m lucky. I know that. Some girls come out of an encounter with a strange alpha with a claiming mark on their neck and an eternal bond forged to a man they didn’t pick. And once my brain comes back from whichever stratosphere it’s currently vacationing in, I’ll feel gratitude. I know I will.
My chest tightens, darkness flirting with the edges of my heart.
I can’t think about what we just did. How much it hurts.
Why I like that it does.
THIRTEEN
IN A MANGER
HIM
A singular tear trickles down her temple, and though no fresh bond ties us together, I can feel her despair almost like a tangible force as my chest reverberates with the ache of inexplicable anguish mirrored in her forest-green eyes.
“Eve,” I whisper, kissing her temple and tasting her sorrow. “Don’t cry.”
“I-It hurts,” she sniffles, but we both know that’s not why.
“I know,” I say anyway, because challenging her will only mean delving into my own need to complete the connection every instinct in my body is screaming for. Instead, I reach between us and find her well-tended clit.
She sucks in a breath, squirming underneath me, but my knot quickly makes her still, brows locking up in a frown.
“Nngh!”It’s a sound of protest, but her pussy obeys my demand. I groan as her slick muscles squeeze on my knot, the sensation coaxing another trickle of semen from my cock. Damn, she feels so fucking good.
“Good girl,” I rasp, pressing my forehead to hers. My entire body thrums as I rub her to another climax, her orgasm hitting hard and swift despite my thumb moving much gentler on her overstimulated flesh than before.
“Ah! God!” She cries out underneath me, pussy fluttering around my cock, and I feel the ache in my jaw to bite down on her neck once more.
“Fuck,” I whisper hoarsely into the shared air between us, clenching my teeth against the instinctive need for everything she is. This… this isn’t what I came here for, but I should have known… The moment her scent hit my nostrils, my body came alive like I'd never known was possible.
One night was never going to be enough.
“Fuck,” I whisper again, burying my face in her hair as she comes down from her orgasm, body trembling under mine.
My mate.
The word alone sends my heart racing and my mind spinning. I always knew I’d find her one day, sensed her in my gut, yet I didn’t go looking. Didn’t make it a priority. But she’d been here all along. Alone. Waiting for me.
Unexpected guilt makes me grit my teeth. She should have been by my side all along, under my protection. What if something had happened to her while I was toobusyto be her damn alpha?
A chill runs down my spine as the reality of my choices hit me like a ton of bricks. What if somethingdid?
“Has anyone ever hurt you?” The growled question is out of my throat before I can stop myself.
She blinks up at me. “Uh… hurt me? What do you mean?”
“Has anyone hit you? Violated you? Threatened you?” I clarify, my mind kicking into overdrive with all the ways she could have been harmed without me there to protect her.
“What, like, ever?” she asks, confused. “I mean, I work customer service, threats are kind of part of life…”
My eyes narrow to slits. “At work? You face threatsat work?”
“I… I don’t understand what’s happening right now,” she says, voice small.
