He chased after me, nipping at my heels. I heard his chuckle echo in my mind as he ran faster, an unburdened howl splitting the air. I howled in response to the sound of my mate as I chased him through the dark forest.
The sun set beyond the far hills as we kicked up leaves, thundering through the night. The further we ran eastward, the sparser the forest became as the roaring of waves replaced the sound of crickets and hooting owls. Grae slowed to a stop as we reached the cliffs. Far below, the moonlight gleamed off the choppy ocean waves. Sprays of mist floated up from the waves crashing into the rock. The salty scent mingled with the earthy loam. I howled to the moon again, overcome by the sweeping views.
I took off, racing around the fjords, dipping inland and back out to the sea. Golden leaves danced in the breeze above us as the waves crashed, sea foam flying into the air. I ran and ran, the sweet song of Olmdere filling my veins with the same molten gold. We’d made it out the other side.
I was home.
I chased that crescent moon along the cliffs until my muscles burned and my soul hummed. The moonlight called to me along with the ocean waves, begging to touch my skin, and, with a final leap, I shifted back into my human form. I held my hands skyward, my toes sinking into moss, salty air coating my skin.
Panting deep breaths of sea air, I felt reborn, as if the land was claiming me as much as I claimed it. I tipped my chin up toward the moon, feeling her bless me and welcome me home.
With a final sigh, I dropped my hands and turned to find a Silver Wolf watching me from the shadows. Grae’s golden eyes beamed through the darkness, and I suddenly realized I was standing naked before him.
I fought the urge to cover myself. Not here. Not with the moon on my skin and the sea at my back. I took a step forward, then another, toward that Wolf and his hypnotic golden eyes.
Grae prowled forward, his growl rumbling through me and straight to my core.
I stepped back, leaning against a tree trunk that twisted sideways against the winds. My heart pounded as I let him stalk toward me. I felt each step of his paws echoing through my body. When he was a hair’s breadth away, he shifted, golden eyes morphing to dark umber, smooth muscles and sharp jawline replacing his silver fur. My lips parted at the intensity of his stare and the sight of the rest of him. His chest brushed against my peaked nipples with every heaving breath and I could feel him hard and ready against my belly.
My throat no longer stung, my blisters gone and my shoulder healed. My many wounds from the mines and the fire before that were now blissfully absent. Grae’s own smooth bonfire scent finally replaced the stench of smoke in my hair. My heart and mind and soul still felt their stings, though, and there was only one thing that could ever heal me of that.
His eyes drifted from my lips to search my eyes. “It was always you,” he rumbled, and his words made heat pool between my legs. “My mate.”
His rough hand skimmed up my hip, my belly, and to my breast, sweeping his thumb across my nipple. I arched into the sensation as I held his wanton stare.
“Should we keep moving?” he asked. “The others . . .”
“Right now, there are no others. Just you and me, Grae.”
We’d already outrun the wagon at nearly double the pace. If we kept going, we’d be waiting like sitting ducks in the city. No. We had time, and more importantly, my soul needed this moment as much as my body. I needed Grae’s body to fulfill all the truths I already knew in my heart.
“How badly do you want me to make you mine?” I asked as his other hand settled on my hip and his lips skimmed up to my ear. My breathing hitched at the movement. “Tell me.”
“You were the only one I ever wanted, the only part that felt right.” He trembled as I traced my fingers along the muscles of his back. “Always.”
Grae pulled away to look into my eyes. I permitted my hands to roam further down his back and over his firm ass, urging his hips to press into me.
He let out a groaning breath and kissed me as I rocked against him. The same way I had in the love temple and the ruins but now there was nothing between us but the sweet bliss of his skin against my own. His lips sent tingles throughout my body, the warmth of his skin, the fire of his kisses, the anticipation of what was to come making my legs shake.
Grae pushed his knee between my legs, propping me up with his hard thigh as he deepened our kiss. I ground myself against him, spreading my damp heat over his leg, coating him in my scent, showing him how ready I was for him, as a moan escaped my lips.
“Gods, you’re so wet,” he groaned, his lips leaving mine to trail down to my breast.
His mouth closed around my nipple, tugging on it, and I writhed, uncaring as the rough bark of the tree bit into my back. He circled his tongue around my taut bud and tested the sensitive flesh with his teeth. The sensation sent lightning bolts of pleasure straight to my throbbing clit and I squirmed against him, aching to be touched.
“You feel so good, little fox,” he murmured, reading my body like an open book. He dropped to crouch between my legs. “But how do you taste?”
I sucked in a breath as he hooked my leg over his shoulder. My knee clenched into his muscled back, hanging on for dear life, the anticipation making me shake more wildly than the wind-tousled golden leaves above my head.
Grae’s lips traced the flesh of my inner thigh, his tongue trailing my ocean-sprayed skin closer to my pulsing bundle of nerves. I slung my arm over a low branch, bracing myself, my fingers gripping the bark so tight I thought it might snap. I panted—waiting, waiting, waiting, Gods damn it!—as his breath tickled the hairs between my legs. Every sensation in my body was tipped on a knife’s edge.
His tongue slid over the very place I needed it to be and I cried out, the feeling so overwhelming that my standing leg buckled. I would have fallen, but I knew I wouldn’t, knew Grae was right there, slinging my other knee over his shoulder, putting me at his complete mercy as he pinned my hips to the tree. His tongue slid over me again and my fingers gripped the bark tighter, my arms straining as a deep guttural moan cut above the roar of the waves. Grae’s tongue circled me faster, lapping at my clit, each brush of his wet mouth ringing out feral sounds. He hummed his pleasure against me; the vibrations pushing me higher. My thighs clamped around his head, gripping him tight as I rode his mouth. The building pressure made me squirm, but he held me still, feasting on me as the ocean mist swirled around us.