“Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever made me come like that,” he said softly, then nipped at my bottom lip. “Well, other than the first blowjob you gave me.”

I chuckled, then wound my hands around his back, trapping him in my embrace as a flare of jealousy pummeled me at the thought of any woman ever touching or seeing him.

My wolf growled in agreement, but I shoved her down. This moment was between Kaillen and me.

“Is that jealousy I detect in your scent, my love?” His lips lifted in a wry smile.

I leaned up and bit his shoulder.

He grimaced, then laughed darkly. “So fierce. What has you jealous, colantha?”

My toes curled at that endearment. “You were talking about what other women have done to you.”

A wicked smile curved his lips. “My mistake. It won’t happen again.”

My fingernails lengthened, my body automatically calling upon my wolf’s powers as they turned into claws. They bit into his back, breaking through the skin until beads of blood were drawn so he would know how much I disliked that.

He hissed, the sound deep and low. “You’re beginning to act as possessive as me.” His wicked smile grew. “I like it.”

I raked my claws over his back, but the slashes sealed instantly from his power. “Carlos told me you’re a womanizer.”

He stiffened. “Why are you talking about Carlos?” he growled.

“I’m talking about what he said. Are you?”

“Am I what?”

“A womanizer?” I held my breath, waiting for the answer.

“The community thinks I am.”

I pinched him. Hard. “That’s not an answer.”

His lips twitched as he brushed my fingers away. “No, I’m not a womanizer.”

“Then why do people think you are?”

“Because I want them to, so I’ve built that into my reputation.”

“Why would you want people thinking that?”

He traced a finger along the curve of my breast. “Maintaining a certain appearance is imperative to my line of work. I need to come off as ruthless and someone who doesn’t give a shit about who I hurt. Killing easily and being perceived as a womanizer are two ways to do that. The less people know about my true character, the better.”

“Meaning that you actually do care about people? Is that why you also hide your man cave and what you’ve done here in Portland with the homeless kids? It’s all part of your image?”

His lips curved. “That’s exactly it, colantha.”

“Do you like hanging out at the Black Underbelly?”

“Not particularly.” He bent down to suck my tit, and I gasped. “But it’s where half my jobs come from, so it’s a necessity.”

“You seemed to enjoy it when I first met you.” The lust inside me grew when his hand traveled down between my thighs and his fingers parted my slick folds.

He rumbled in pleasure when he found how ready I was. “Good. Then I was doing my job well.”

My nostrils flared, but I scented no deception in him. Only the scent of mandarins, honeysuckle, and heady musk. He was being honest, about all of it.

Satisfied and happier than I wanted to admit that he hadn’t fucked every female in the Shadow Zone—and didn’t actually enjoy random women offering him blowjobs—my claws disappeared until my human nails dug into his shoulders.

“That’s better,” he murmured. He leaned down again and gave me another long, sensual kiss as his fingers continued to tease and stroke. “I’ve dreamed of you doing that to me since the moment we met.”

“Shredding your skin?”

He laughed darkly. “I was referring to the blowjob, but if you’re into kink, we can do that too.”

I gave a throaty chuckle. “Not really. Drawing blood doesn’t do it for me.”

He nipped at my mouth again, and my breath sucked in as his fingers continued to play me like a fiddle. “Good, ’cause I don’t think I could stomach drawing your blood, but if you really wanted it, I’d do it.”

“No blood,” I said breathlessly when he nipped my ear. “Just fucking.”

His eyes darkened, and he kissed me again as his hand wandered up, until he found my full breasts, aching with need for him. He squeezed, eliciting a rasped cry from me. “My mate. My woman.”

Yes. And then he was kissing me again as his length hardened against my thigh.

His hands and mouth were everywhere again, sucking, licking, and biting. But instead of his mouth settling between my thighs as I had done to him, he shifted until he hovered over me, his eyes burning and questioning.

With a deft movement, he positioned himself between my legs, his stiff erection brushing my entrance, and I knew what he was asking.

“Yes,” was all I said to his silent question.

He groaned when I parted my thighs more, and a deep growl of satisfaction and possession tore from him. In one swift move, he locked his hand onto my hip and tilted his erection.

His tip entered me first, the thick girth teasing me. I cried out, my fingernails raking down his skin again as the need to have him fill me made me pant.

He thrust more, entering me inch by inch, and his entire body began to tremble, the strain of what he was doing etching itself onto his face as his jaw locked and fire burned in his eyes.

“So tight,” he whispered. “And mine.” His growl came out low and throaty, and then he slammed the remaining distance into me until he was fully sheathed.

I cried out at how huge he was seated inside me, but the way he was already rubbing me, scraping in me . . . my breaths turned harsh and desperate as I gripped his ass and begged him for more.

He began to move, long hot strokes of pent-up need and aching desire.

I tilted my hips, joining him and matching each pump and stroke. “More, more,” I demanded.

He picked up his pace, his breathing turning as ragged as mine as his eyes glowed with unfiltered desire. I leaned up, kissing him and biting him as he rammed into me again and again.

Groaning, he kissed me back, then began fucking me in earnest, slapping against me as he rode me rough and hard. I cried out as the waves began to build, his huge cock demanding that I respond, and I was helpless to resist.

More. More. More. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Our bodies moved in sync, our breaths ragged and shallow. The fierce strain on his face grew, as the peak for me grew higher, then higher. I chased that mountain, the need to shatter all around him fighting me in its battle for this to never end.

But Kaillen wouldn’t abate. His groans turned guttural, his pounding relentless, and his cock stretched and filled me so completely that I couldn’t stop the inevitable.

“I’m going to come,” I whispered.

His eyes flashed, and his canines lengthened as he kept up a vicious tempo.

And seeing that triggered something in me. My wolf whined, her power pulsing through my core. My canines shifted, tips appearing and elongating in my mouth.

I didn’t think. Didn’t question. I followed the instinct that had led me to this moment, to this day when I accepted that I was his and he was mine. So I leaned up just as he bent down.

Our sharp teeth pierced each other’s flesh simultaneously. His magic flowed into me, and mine into him. It wrapped around us in hot waves of desire and power that molded our bodies as one just as the mountainous peek was reached.

I cried out as an orgasm ripped through my defenses at the same time he roared his release. My mouth clamped harder onto his neck, as his did to mine.

Our mouths stayed locked onto one another as the claiming bond took root. Magic poured through my veins, the hunter’s essence coating my inside in crimson fire and black flames, just as mine wound around him in golden light and an explosion of sparks. Our souls fused, our bodies joined, and somewhere in the pure ecstasy of all that was happening, I knew that I had found where I belonged.

Home. The hunter was my home. He always had been, and he always would be.