“Cazz, please!” I tightened my grip on his shirt and he froze. “I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want to be away from you. I love it when we’re together,” I admitted carefully. “But… a few hours ago you did incredible things to me that made me feel for you. And then you just walked away! And you keep doing that. Every time we’re together you leave me like a bad smell.”
“I am King, Jesse. It is my life to serve the pack and Ghere had found—”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
Cazz’s jaw was tight, his eyes wary
~ JESSE ~Cazz in that very first moment I’d ever seen him, walking towards me out of the dark like an apparition manifesting out of hell itself—tall, broad, so strong, and so cold……Cazz, staring at me intently, his arctic eyes chill and his tone so full of self-satisfaction. “Kitten, I can make them do anything. I can heal—or I can stop their hearts with a word. I could, if I wished, tell you to die, right here. Right now. And you would…”…Cazz standing with his head dropped between his arms, and his hands so tight on the bar in that room off the Den, his knuckles were white. The door shuddered with another barrage
~ JESSE ~He sighed. “Perhaps not. Perhaps your heart wants something you have no words for?”“No, Cazz… I’m serious. I didn’t offer myself to you because I thought I could beat you.”“Why did you offer yourself? Truly?”“Because you were the first man I met who it seemed like could genuinely protect me from the others.”A wave of feeling came through the bond then. That shriek in him. That hollow pain that cried out to be soothed.He had already pulled
~ CASIMIR ~‘I want to watch you get stronger, and stronger and I want to watch you win. I want to be proud to be your mate,. I am proud to be your mate, Cazz—’I’d already had her, just hours earlier. But when she spoke those words it didn’t just light a fire in my belly, it sent a bonfire through my veins. There wasn’t time to consider why, because my wolf threw itself forward as if she were prey to be devoured.I couldn’t speak. Could barely think as I descended on her, forced to take a grip on myself or I might actually have bitten her delicious tongue, I
~ CASIMIR ~Jesse’s eyes were closed, but her mouth was wide, her breath tearing in and out of her extended throat. As our bodies joined again and again, she gave small, sharp cries of joy. And just when I worried I might be too rough, her hand clawed down my back to grip my ass and pull me in harder.Oh fuck.“Jesse… Jesse, say it… say it again—”“S-say what?” she gasped.I shivered, my body flinching from the embarrassment, but my heart rushing towards it. But I couldn’t say it.‘Open your eyes,’
~ JESSE ~I just love you. I just love you and there’s nothing better than when you give yourself to me. It’s… beautiful.I hadn’t meant to say it, but it was there and it was true, and the bond was so deep and close, it just came out.I knew it was a terrible mistake the moment Cazz froze up. Desperation and fear rocketed through me and I held onto him, gripping him, one hand on his beautiful, square jaw, the other buried in his hair.“Don’t do it, Cazz, please,” I breathed, panicking. He didn’t move. His eyes were locked on mine and he stared like he was trying to see inside me.And he could. He could!
~ CASIMIR ~My entire body trembled as I worked to accommodate that torrent of power she’d imparted to me. My head was spinning, my heart was full, and the bond was alive. But it was overwhelming, all of it. So I shook, and I doubted and I tore in half, right down the middle of my soul.Half of me was terrified—this was exactly what I’d been warned about. Exactly what I’d feared. The closer we got, the stronger she would become. And as Alpha female, her power would draw the wolves. She fed off of me, and whatever she gained would benefit her in their eyes.It wasn’t even a matter of loyalty. They sensed it in her, and the animals within followed that kind of power w
~ CASIMIR ~ My father stared at me, power crackling and boiling in the air behind him. I rushed to soothe his suspicions, raising my hands in surrender, which was the only kind of submission he’d accept. “No, no, Dad! I just meant, that’s the hierarchy—if the male dies, the Alpha female is supposed to be the one who leads until the next Alpha takes the—” “And what do you think it does to her if she believes that’s her due? What would you do if you knew that with one step you could snap my neck and take it all fo
~ JESSE ~Cazz was gone the next morning when I woke up.When I realized he was gone, I sat quickly, heart racing. My body wanted to panic. But the moment I was awake he was in my head.'Good morning, mate.''Oh, Cazz. Thank God. I thought you'd run away again.''No, sadly I was called out of the furs by Ghere. The throne needed me. But I'll come to you as soon as I can. Are you meeting Maya this morning?''Yes.''Good.'There was a hea
~ CASIMIR ~I was pretty sure if I didn’t get inside her, I was going to eat her alive.Scooting with her in my lap, still straddling me, I got her so both my knees and her back were flat against the wall. Then I flipped open the wide, leather cuffs that had been secured directly to the wall and first lifted one of her hands, to strap it in so her hand was levered above her shoulder, but with her arm comfortably bent so she could relax. Then I did the same with her other hand on the other side.So I straddled the banana-seat, while she straddled me and her hands were secured to the wall behind her.Her breasts rose and fell with her heavy breathing, and her eyes were bright with desire.Overwhelmed again with how much thought she’d put into this, for a moment I just took her face in my hands and kissed her. But that drew us together—my cock pressing against her, and I couldn’t resist rolling my hips, teasing
~ CASIMIR ~“I made a new Den,” Jesse whispered, her hands over her mouth, staring up at me—those beautiful eyes wide, but also a little fearful. “I know it’s not the same, but I got Ghere to help me because he remembered what things you’d had before and… I hope you like it.”Like it? Was she serious?My heart was slamming against my ribs, and I was having trouble breathing.The room seemed smaller than I remembered because the walls were painted a dull black. But the tighter space than what I’d had down next to the Den just made it feel more intimate.There were two lamps, one on each end, and a chandelier high above. Candles everywhere, though she hadn’t lit mo
~ JESSE ~It was Cazz’s turn to plan the monthly date. But I was humming about this one. Things were finally ready, and impossibly, Ghere had helped me successfully pull off the surprise. But I still had to figure out how to get Cazz there without ruining it.He’d taken me out to the meadow again—my favorite date. Though we’d enjoyed several others now too—and we’d just finished eating. He was leaning back against the cab of the truck, looking out at the city lights, his brows a little heavy.“What are you thinking about?” I asked him, though I had a hunch.He had his arm around me and I was leaning on his shoulder. His hand trailed up and
~ CASIMIR ~I came out of the bathing room after a long bath rubbing my hair with a towel, to find my mate standing in the middle of the chamber with her arms folded and looking sternly at my daughter, who sat on the floor in nothing but a diaper, with her chubby legs straight out. She, too, had her arms folded and her lips pursed in the perfect reflection of her mother.The two glared at each other and half my heart went cold, while the other half wanted to splutter with laughter.“Abigail, I have told you—”“No!”Our daughter could only get her tongue around a few words so far, but
~ JESSE (a few weeks later) ~I had just finished nursing Abigail and was holding her on my lap while Reeca sat with me on the couch.Her eyes were bright and she was beginning to smile, so I was tickling her cheeks to see if I could get her to do it. But she was sleepy because she’d just eaten and only yawned and cooed.“She’s a very calm baby,” Reeca commented from the other end of the couch, smiling. She loved babies, and had been so helpful when I was tired—and just for reassurance for me.She was a calm presence in any room, and with Abigail, she showed a lot of delight and joy that she seemed to stifle in other areas of her life.“Reeca,” I said carefully, because I’d b
~ JESSE ~I was too tired to do more than lift my hands to his neck, so I just curled my face into his chest and let him settle us into the chair, cradled in his arms with my ass in his lap.When he’d sat, I had my head resting on his shoulder and my body curled in his arms.“Do you hurt?” he asked quickly.“No, just tired, like I said.”I felt him relax a little then and another chill started in my blood.“Cazz… what’s happened?” I asked quietly.He turned his head to meet my eyes and lifted his hand to comb hair back from my face. His throat bobbed, but his touch was g
~ JESSE (Hours later) ~My dreams were disturbing—my body in pain, screams of terror, darkness, the floor shaking, the mountain falling, humans fleeing and wolves…I tried to break free, tried desperately to open my eyes and to speak, because I knew I was asleep. But all I did was fade… in and out. The nightmares, or nothing.And through it all, his voice.“Heal… live.”My heart ached. My body hurt. My chest didn’t want to expand. It was as if my flesh fought his words, and I didn’t understand.But finally, the dreams faded and I could hear a heartbeat. Little, and quick. And feel warm flesh. And the breath of my m
~ CASIMIR ~I felt the moment the power went out of Jesse. The entire mountain felt it.I howled with triumph and shifted, sprinting towards the room, ecstatic when there was no sense of Maya gripping my mind or stealing anything from me. But of course, there was no power left for her to steal.I prayed and pleaded and ran, Rory and the others coming in my wake. And the moment I broke through that door in my wolf—the only power left to me anymore—everything slowed. Though my body whipped and my mind was singularly focused, it was as if everything happened in slow motion.I caught a bare glimpse of Jesse on the bed, and at first my heart leaped. She was moving, awake, aware,
~ JESSE ~Maya had me sitting up in the bed, curled forward, gripping my knees. Reeca on one side, helping prop me up, a guard on the other.My body was nothing but a conduit for pain. Wave after wave, my entire lower body condensing, contracting, pushing to get this baby out. I could barely think.Cazz was there, so quiet, so distant, but there, calling his encouragement and pushing love at me through the bond.There was a moment when I thought I wouldn’t make it, when I thought my body would give and I would just drift away.But then I caught Maya smiling. Leaning forward between my legs, reaching, grasping, for