The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence (18 page)

"What were you afraid of?"

He wouldn't have admitted to anyone in his
pack that he'd ever been afraid of anything, but she would know
bullshit when she heard it, especially from him. "I was afraid that
if I couldn't control myself; that I might try to make you my mate,
really make you my mate. I couldn't bear the thought of hurting you
like that, whether you loved me or not. Once I came into my powers
I couldn't really be around you without feeling the wolf snapping
in my brain to get close to you. A touch would turn into the desire
for more. I don't think you would have stopped me, from anything,
and that frightened me more than anything else. Because you were so
much younger than me. So I shoved you away and it was the hardest
thing I ever did. Did you really think that I didn't love you,
Cadence? Really?"

"I don't know. I hoped you did, but it was so
many years, Jas."

"I'm so sorry. You do understand,
though?"

"Yeah." She turned her head to the side and
regarded him carefully. “Do you regret marking me, like you
did?”

He winced inwardly. With a sigh, he said,
“Yes and no. Yes because I did it wrong. If I’d just told you first
that we were mates and then marked you, you would have had the
knowledge, and my father wouldn’t have had to say no one could talk
to you about it. And then you would have known that I would come
back for you. If I hadn’t marked you, you probably wouldn’t have
had such a hard time with the females in the pack, too. But no, I,
I don’t regret that act of marking you, what it meant to me. It was
the most important thing I ever did, and even though I royally
screwed it up, I still wouldn’t change it.”

She was quiet, looking at him warily,
calculatingly. The silence stretched on long enough that he was
about to ask her what she was thinking about when she threw herself
at him, crushing her lips against his and plunging her hot tongue
into his mouth. Her breath came out on a soft moan, the sweet
natural scent of her skin surrounding him, drowning him, and he
clutched her close, tasted her, and tangled his tongue with hers.
The taste was decadent, like something forbidden, and he wanted to
park his mouth against hers for the rest of his natural life. She
fisted her hands in his hair and pulled away, holding him back. Her
eyes were bright and serious.

“Mark me again, Jason. Make me yours in
truth.”

For a brief moment, the world stopped
spinning, and then he remembered that she wasn’t up for it. Not
yet.

Untangling her fingers from his hair he
kissed her hands. “Not yet, Cades. If I mark you, then I’m going to
want us to make love, and we can’t. You just got out of the
hospital, we have time, there’s no rush.”

She blushed hard and scooted away. “Sorry. I
felt a little, anxious, there for a minute.”

“About what? You’re safe here, I swear.”

“No, about losing you I guess. I don’t want
to lose you.”

“You couldn’t if you tried.” He touched the
marks on the back of her neck. “You’re mine. You always have been.
Often, but not always, alpha pairs are born into the same pack.
Sometimes they’re the same age like my parents, but sometimes the
male is older so he can protect the female. I know that you feel
like I abandoned you and I see now that I left you feeling
unprotected, but I was always watching over you. And the pack was,
too. The reason the girls gave you such a hard time is because you
weren’t acting like their alpha. They wanted to be led. They took
it as an insult that you were not stepping up for them, defending
all of them, like you do for Callie.”

“In a really skewed way that makes sense.”
She smiled and then said she was going to take a shower.

He fixed her something to eat, thankful that
Callie had gone grocery shopping and stocked the kitchen with
things that Cades liked. They talked together while she ate, about
the pack and the future, but he carefully steered the conversation
away from marking. If she threw herself at him again, he wasn’t
sure he had the willpower to stop himself from claiming her
completely, and the last thing he wanted was for their first time
together to be a painful or frightening memory for her.

That night, she asked him to lay with her, to
hold her while she slept, and he’d done it, but it wouldn’t have
been his choice. To have his woman in his bed and his arms but not
take her completely was a little bit of hell in the midst of
heaven, especially for his wolf. But he needed her to feel safe and
be ready. Really ready.

Wednesday night, with still no word about
Chris, he and Cades were sitting on the couch and talking about
nothing and everything, and not really watching whatever Lifetime
snooze-fest she’d picked out. And then she completely surprised
him. Again.

“Jason, I want you to mark me. I’m
ready.”

“Cades, please.” His wolf sat up at
attention.

She shook her head. “No. I’m ready. I’m ready
to be yours in truth. I need it. I need to take this step with
you.”

He closed his eyes. Could he mark her and not
try to make love to her? Probably not. Her arousal was like a
beacon for his wolf.

He felt her hand on his cheek and opened his
eyes. “I’m healed, I feel great. And I’m not asking for this
because of what happened with Chris or anything, I’m asking because
I can’t be in your bed another second and not be with you
completely. We’ve talked over our past until we haven’t left a
stone unturned. We’ve forgiven each other for the lost time, the
anger, the misunderstandings. This is important, I know it is.”

He thought to protest again, but then she did
something he had only ever dreamed about: she licked across his
bottom lip with a soft sigh and whispered, “Please.”

Completely undone by her gesture, something
that wolves did when they were asking for sex, he swept her up in
his arms and carried her to the bedroom, kicking the door shut.

She lay down on his pillow on her side,
swiping her hair away from her neck. "Mark me, again, make me
yours."

His beast snapped and snarled in his brain,
hungry for his mate. He slid against her, as her whole body
tightened in anticipation, her heart beating faster and her
breathing going to soft panting. He shifted her so that her neck
was positioned so he could mark her properly, sliding one arm
underneath her and grasping her close.

"This time, I've got you forever, Cadence."
His fangs extended, sinking into her neck, as he curved his mouth
around her spine just under her hairline so that these marks were
on either side. She moaned softly, gripping his arms, and pushing
her body tightly against him. He growled into her body, and she
relaxed in his arms with a contented sigh. This time, he could
really sense everything about her. The thrum of her heart beating
wildly, the excitement humming in her body, and the main
difference, was the desire that streaked hotly through her, for
him.

"Jason." She whispered, and he released his
hold on her neck as gently as he could. In his excitement he may
have dug deeper than he meant to, she would probably bruise a
little. He licked across the wounds, once, twice, and she shivered
and shifted against him.

She rolled in his arms. "Cadence." He smiled
at her, trying to figure out something romantic to say. She saved
him from thinking too long.

She brushed her hands across his cheeks and
cradled the back of his head in her hands. "I love you. My alpha,
my mate, my heart's missing piece. Make love to me, please." She
pressed her lips against his and his whole body went tight like his
skin was pinched in a vice. She moved from his lips across his jaw
and down to his neck, pulling his flesh into her mouth and biting,
licking the marks and then starting over. He would be well and
bruised by the time she was done, he was sure, but he'd wear the
marks with pride. She was his completely now, and he had no doubt
that she knew he was hers.

She released her hold on his neck and looked
at him, her green eyes filled with love. "I love you, Cadence. My
sweet mate, the love of my life. I'll never let you go again."

Chapter 9

The marking had felt exactly like Cadence
remembered, now that her memories seemed to be set free, except
this time she understood what it meant. And this time, they were
both old enough to act on the feelings that accompanied a
declaration like that. She pulled him down on top of her, and they
kissed,
really
kissed for the first time as mates.

He stroked her cheek with the back of his
hand. “Are you sure that you’re ready? We can wait.”

“Of course I’m ready. I love you. I want to
make to love to you.”

He groaned softly, “I really want to make
love to you, sweetheart, but,”

“But?” She laughed.

“But, my wolf is snapping in my brain so if
you’re sure that you’re ready, then I’m going to apologize in
advance if I split you in half, okay?” He grinned and she laughed
again. It was all she’d ever wanted from him. Love. Acceptance. And
hot, naked fun time.

She smacked him on the ass and said, “Time to
play, my alpha.”

He let out a satisfied grunt and growled, “I
hope you didn’t plan to get any sleep tonight.”

Their clothes came off in a blur of torn
seams and flying fabric and then everything went into slow motion
as he moved slowly, kissing a lingering, hot trail down the center
of her body. He paused above her tingling pussy, one arm hooked
around her thigh, and said with a husky voice, "Look at me."

She went up on her elbows to look at him. She
had a feeling that a lot of their pent up frustration and past
denial was going to make their first time together incredible. "Say
my name." He demanded.

"Jason." She whispered. He rewarded her with
a swipe of his tongue up her tender clit and she moaned as heat
washed through her.

"Who am I?"

"My mate." She locked eyes with him and he
held her gaze while his tongue made a deliberate circle around her
and her brain stalled out.

"And?"

Her mind, still not recovered, screeched in
dismay when he pulled the tip of his tongue back into his mouth at
her silence. She writhed under him. "And?" He demanded again.

"My, my alpha?" She stuttered.

"Good girl." He slid his tongue against her
again, and her body lit up. The fingers of his free hand pierced
her as he pulled her clit into his mouth, sucking it like it was
his favorite piece of candy. She lost the ability to stay up on her
elbows and splayed out on the bed while he twisted his fingers
inside her in a fast rhythm. Her fingers dug into the covers and
her stomach tightened like hands reaching into places they
shouldn’t be able to reach.

His fingers curved upwards and danced against
her most sensitive place and she cried out his name as the wave of
orgasm rushed over her and she shuddered against him. Relentless,
he worked her to another cresting wave of pleasure that thundered
down on her, and when she came, bucking against him at the sheer
pleasure, so intense, so decadent, she couldn't stop from
screaming, he slid his wet fingers from her body and pressed a
nearly chaste kiss to her throbbing clit.

He kissed up her body while she shivered and
panted, capturing her mouth in a hot kiss, settling between her
legs with only the very tip of his cock pressing against her.

He rounded up from her a little, reaching
between them to guide his cock inside her, and she draped her legs
around his hips, helping to draw him inside her with her feet
hooked at the small of his back. They both groaned when he thrust
inside her, his cock filling her perfectly. Almost too long, almost
too thick, but just perfectly made for her body.

As close together as two people could be, he
held himself tightly to her and looked into her eyes, holding her
gaze with an intensity that threatened to burn her alive. “I wanted
to be your first, but I’ll gladly take being your last. I love you,
sweetheart.”

“Definitely my last. I love you, too,
Jas.”

Slowly, he slid out of her, agonizing inch by
inch until just the bare tip of him was inside her, and it was the
last thing he did slowly. He didn’t thrust into her body so much as
try to pound himself through her, and she drove her hips towards
his, frantic to find the rhythm that would allow her to come around
his cock, to feel her body clutch his like a vise and then feel him
come, deep inside her.

He rocked into her, driving the breath from
her lungs with each thrust until the only sound that she could make
was panting, mewling cries as she thrashed under him on the verge
of ecstasy. He bit her neck and shoulder, growling with the most
primal of sounds that made her spine tingle and her body light up,
and she drug her nails down his back and returned each bite with
one of her own.

He jerked them both upright suddenly so he
was on his knees and she was on his lap, her legs wrapped around
him, and he thrust up into her while his hands on her waist drove
her downward. With each bone shattering connection, her nails dug
into his shoulders and scored her pleasure into his flesh.

“Come on, love, come for me again.” He
growled, his fingertips digging nearly painfully into her flesh,
and she reveled in the sound of their bodies coming together, that
hot, wet sound that screamed pleasure and satisfaction.

Her nails dug deeper into his skin as she
moaned, “Uh, Jas.”

Power filled his voice and he growled, “Come,
Cades, come with me!”

Her body responded, and in her mind her wolf
side howled and her human side shrieked in bliss as the center of
her body went liquid and hot, and everything froze for a perfect
moment and then she exploded in climax around him. He thrust hard
up into her, grunting and clenching his teeth together, and then he
let out a harsh strangled cry as his body spasmed inside hers.