“Do it,” she gasped out. Fast, before I chicken out!
Link slammed into her and went rigid, groaning as warmth shot into her. His teeth sank into her back so hard she was blinded by pleasure and pain. Gritting her teeth and closing her eyes, she swallowed her yelp of pain because this was important. Claiming marks were a big deal. They were a declaration. Link had bonded with her and chosen to fight to stay with her. He’d made the decision to go through unimaginably painful side effects just to get the chance at more time with her, and here he was, in this moment, claiming her. She would bear his mark forever.
Pride, pain, and joy surged through her as he slowed his movement and built the pressure in her middle gently. Her next release came easy with his hands soft on her hips. When he relaxed across her back, his heart pounding against her skin, he did something that felt so right she couldn’t move away if she tried. He began licking her stinging bite-mark. And that soft sound in his throat was back—the satisfied, happy one. The Link who had been bleeding and buckling in on himself outside was gone, and her caring mate was back. The relief she felt was mountainous.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have come at you like that. Are you okay?”
She crossed her arms over the table and settled her chin against them. With a happy smile, she nodded. “Better than okay. You?”
Link sighed a relieved sound. “Well, I bit you so Wolf is practically throwing a fucking party. But yeah. We’re okay. You make things okay. Come here.”
Link slid out of her and turned her in his arms. And when her numb legs gave, he supported her against him. He hugged her tightly and rested his chin on her head as he moved from side to side in a music-less slow dance.
“Link?”
“Mmm?”
“I think you should stay nights here.”
He stopped swaying but didn’t respond, so she rushed onward. “Or if you can’t stomach sleeping in a place that isn’t your den, we can be together at your place. I don’t want to be away from you at night again. I don’t want to be away from you at all.”
Link’s heart rate settled under her cheek. “Vera said I should be with you as much as possible, but I was trying to give you time to be comfortable with this.”
“You think it’s all too fast?”
He chuckled, and the sound warmed her from the inside out. God, she breathed for his laugh.
“Too fast? Maybe for a normal couple with all the time in the world. But for me? No. It feels…painful…when I sleep alone now.” His voice dipped. “Nightmares. Tell her about the nightmares.” Link cleared his throat. “The medicine has some pretty gnarly side effects. I feel better around you.”
“Then you will? You’ll stay with me?”
Link nuzzled his cheek against her temple. “Silly woman, nervous I’ll say no. Can’t you see? Can’t you feel it? I belong to you.”
“No,” she murmured, laying a kiss on his skin right above his heart. “You bit me, Lincoln McCall. Now we belong to each other.”
Chapter Eleven
Why was she so nervous? Nicole clung harder to Link’s waist so she wouldn’t go flying off the back of his snow machine.
Link had talked about the Silvers and their mates as if they were family, and now she would finally meet them. Sure, she felt like she already knew them from everything Link had told her, but it was different putting faces to people who had already grown so important to her. What if they didn’t like her? She was a city-slicker from the lower forty-eight who was playing catch-up on survival training, while the Silvers’ mates were all Alaskan bad-asses. What if they took one look at her, measured her, and deemed her unworthy of Link?
“You smell like terror,” Link called over the roar of the engine, patting her hands where she held onto his taut stomach. “Stop worrying. They won’t bite.”
“Bullcrap. The Silvers are freaking grizzly shifters who can definitely bite, and Vera bit you like a hundred times.”