I want to know what she feels like when she comes on my cock while I’m knotting her. With her legs around me and her hands pinned above her head, with her on top riding me, fucking fuck, with her presenting for my eyes only, her head down and ass high in the air just for me.

I want to learn all the ways to make her whimper and her body beg for more when I lick the mating bite I’m going to mark her with.

My teeth sink into my lip, canines close to drawing blood as I picture drawing her hair to the side and seeing my claim on her, grazing it with my fingers, my lips. The way it’ll make her blush, and then I’ll herd my pretty little mate against the nearest wall and sink to my knees to taste that heady lust making her honeyed scent drive me insane.

A burst of—something pulses in my chest. A reaction to my arousal, I realize. It travels along the delicate threads that survived without fully severing.

Fascinated, I turn more of my attention inward to find the bond, slowing my fist curled around my throbbing shaft to keep my release teetering on the edge. A breath hisses between my teeth at the feel of plucking the strands of magic while I stroke myself, allowing me to feel her while amplifying the pleasure I’m bringing myself.

I grin when there’s an answering shudder from her end. She liked that. If I focus, I can direct an astral touch to caress the connection. This time it earns me a shiver in response.

Experimenting, I try giving it a spank. I grip the slippery rocks to keep my balance when an electric jolt rockets through me, then feel an enticing thrill from her, tucked safely away in her cottage. Wicked delight races through me.

I trace my tongue along my lower lip, my shoulder and arm flexing with each glide of my hand over my thick cock while playing with her through the bond, opening myself to allow her to experience everything I’m feeling with my head full of her.

Using projection across the bond, I drag my knuckles over the curve of her tits, circling her nipples before sending my touch in a meandering path down her stomach, dipping between her thighs to pet her clit. The magic thrum pulses with her need, reigniting my hunger for her more intensely when she tugs the connection.

More.

I’ll give her everything she needs. I’m relentless, matching the speed I’m jerking my cock with my phantom fingers plunging inside her. When she comes, I feel it, the sensation resonating within me from our link.

“Oh, fuck,” I utter.

My balls tighten and I come hard, spilling over my fingers with her name on my lips. I slump back, catching my breath with a puff of laughter. Checking on the bond, I find her languid with tantalizing shivers.

I’m not able to bask in the pride of making her come through the mate bond for long. Liam’s scent carries on the breeze. With a content sigh, I hoist myself from the spring and shift back to my fur.

For the first time in years, I feel right. Lighter, a sense of balance within my grasp.

21AVERY

My name is no longer on the kitchen duty roster. I went yesterday and Alma shooed me right back out the door. Taryn tried to sneak out with me until Alma grabbed her by the collar and put her back to work. When I crossed the commons to find out what was up, I couldn’t find my name on any of the assignments, granting me the ability to do as I usually please once more.

It’s Caden’s doing. Gratitude and something pleasant plucked at my heartstrings until I tamped down on it.

I’m still not sure what to think when it comes to him, or if I can trust that my feelings towards him are truly my own. What if it’s only the bond influencing our emotions? Is it the only reason we became friends in the first place, because it was the root of why I liked being around him so much? Without being fated mates, would we have found our way to each other?

I should still hate him, shouldn’t I? The feeling of his arms cradling me to his chest and his comforting scent enveloping me like a blanket on a foggy morning makes me think otherwise.

I drape an arm over my eyes in bed, unable to make my mind quiet. I strain my ears, my throbbing pulse calming when I register the steady breaths of Caden’s wolf outside. Biting my lip, I roll towards the wall, laying a hand over the crevices where his scent seeps through. I tuck my nose against it, heart skipping a beat when he stirs to sniff where my scent must be bleeding through the tiny cracks to him.

He rumbles inquisitively before flopping down again. I trace the barrier between us, examining the flickers of yearning in the bond to sleep in the arms of my mate. Is it from me or him? I can’t tell the source from the way it overlaps on itself, ingrained in the enchanted tethers. There are a few more strands than there were before he followed me in the woods and we almost kissed.

More still after…whatever that was the other night when I was bathing and felt his pleasure along the magic threads connecting us.

A shiver races down my spine at the memory of him exploring the bond and using it to touch me. Caressing the curve of my breasts, teasing my neck, and skimming a fluttering path down my stomach to delve between my thighs until he had me shuddering without even being in the room with me. I had no idea fated mates could do such things with the magic…or that I’d come so hard from its stimulation.

A burst of heat spreads throughout my body all over again. My thighs squeeze at the coil of desire, vividly remembering how he made me writhe with his fingers. A soft noise catches in my throat as my core clenches with the need for the real thing, and so much more.

Caden’s wolf is still awake. He purrs outside, scratching at the wall.

I swallow, smothering those thoughts, my cheeks burning. Will he remember this when he shifts back in the morning?

My wolf chuffs, sprawling on her back. She thinks my reluctance is silly. This is the way of mates.

An old pang echoes in my heart. My parents were fated, too. It used to make me and the girls giggle when he’d be outside with us until he’d stumble out of nowhere. He’d wink at us and say she was yanking him in for dinnertime.

They were so happy. It destroyed our father when she went missing.

Eventually, I drift to sleep, my endless worries muted by the soothing presence of the wolf on the other side of the wall lulling everything that plagues me to the back of my mind.

In the morning, I get up early to shift with a renewed spark. I’m ready to let my wolf run free again.

Caden hasn’t left yet. He’s stretching outside my window, the taut muscles in his back and ass flexing in the glow of morning sun. I map the hard planes of his incredible broad physique from his shoulders to his sculpted ass and thighs, struggling to catch my breath.

He angles his head back slightly and I spot the hint of a smirk before I duck from the window. His deep laughter makes my stomach dip.

I wait him out, not leaving until the slack in the bond stretches with the distance between us. The girls are still asleep when I slip out the door. I skip shoes, then pluck at my clothes with a hum. Peeling them off, I tie the leggings and shirt dress together to make a loop my wolf can wear until I figure out a better way to transport my clothes if I don’t plan to return to get dressed.

Most people leave out spare clothing draped on a line by their houses or put out a box for sharing. It’s not uncommon to see things passed around a few families, often amongst those who have come of age and want to let their wolf out all the time. I don’t know if that extends to me yet.

This time it’s not as difficult to find the instinct to enact the change, the one I didn’t understand at first. It’s more natural than my first experience, less like my body is snapping and reforming anew in a state of panic and heartache, more seamlessly transitioning to my fur. My wolf feels more tangible to me now and she helps me through it as I give her control.