Unsurprisingly, she felt right against him, her body fitting perfectly as they moved together; there were a good two hundred people in the club, but they might as well have been alone in the universe.

Rye caressed her arms, her back, her ass, exploring his mate. When he couldn’t stop himself from doing so, he tilted her head up, and kissed her plump lips. Not only did she let him - she responded touch for touch and leaned closer to him, her soft curves pushed against his hard flesh.

“I’m going to take you home tonight.” It wasn’t a question. “I’ll make you scream my name so loud the entire town will know you’re mine.”

“Get it right, pretty boy,” the vixen replied, biting his lip playfully. “I’m getting you home, as there are no sensitive ears at my place. And you’d better make me scream.”

Fuck. She was so fucking perfect for him - the very first woman who’d ever dared to speak up to him.

“Holy fuck, Ace!” came from a feminine voice close by; Rye was too busy nipping at his mate’s neck to care enough to check whose.

“Wanna introduce me to your friend?”

The voice sounded flirty and, to his amusement, Aisling growled a warning.

“Oh. Right. Well, that explains things. Catch you later!”

Rye smiled against her skin, but didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. His little mate was slowly understanding what Tracy had made him realize; he could wait…as long as she didn’t take too long to understand she was his.

“That was Rain, by the way. She’s a witch - a good one. We’ll get her to place specific wards around your home tomorrow.”

Her tone was curt.

“She’s a friend of yours, then.”

“Yes?”

She didn’t sound quite sure about that.

“Yet you growl at her because she sounds interested in me…”

“I will kick you in the balls if you mention that again.”

“You’re possessive- we both are. Can you imagine how much more we’ll be, once I’ve pounded this pussy all night long, Aisling?”

“Or maybe that will be enough to get it out of our systems.”

He bit her earlobe a little harder than necessary, punishingly. Ace shivered and plastered herself against him.

“You like that, do you?”

Teasing her always had consequences; he wasn’t sure what she’d do, but he expected retaliation.

Yet she shocked him by gliding her hand right inside his pants, into his boxers, and firmly grabbing his throbbing cock; she pumped it twice and flicked her finger over the sensitive head, before pushing up on her tiptoes and getting to his ear.

“You like that, do you?” she parroted in a soft whisper, before nibbling at his earlobe.

Fucking hell.

Enough nonsense. He just grabbed her, threw her on his shoulder, and called to his Beta, “Daunte, we’re going. Now.”

---

Aisling’s friends, who he still hadn’t been introduced to, left with them. Two of them sat with them in the back of the pride’s SUV, the other one sat in the front. Ace spent the whole way on top of him, grinding against him, biting and licking like they were alone in the world. He hadn’t taken her for an exhibitionist, but she was proving him wrong.

Good. He wanted the world to see she was his.

Daunte had offered to drive, saying, “I really don’t want to see you guys going at it.”

He really did seem disgusted, which was strange, because Daunte was really into watching people fuck.

Rye was a little too preoccupied to analyze it, trying not to come in his pants.

“I’m going to plunge inside that hot pussy the moment we’re alone,” he told Ace, cupping her under her short shorts.

Fuck, she was already so damn wet.

“I don’t see why you’re waiting,” one of the girls said. “You’re basically fucking anyway.”

They were. Ace had taken his cock out, and never stopped touching it.

“Fabric interior. Cleaning cum is a bitch,” he replied with a shrug.

Finally - finally - Daunte, who’d been driving way above the limit the last few miles, swerved in front of the house and they burst out of the car.

They didn’t make it indoors. Aisling’s hands, partially shifted, tore through his clothes, and he took it as an invitation to do the same. Fucking hell, she was perfect, with her small, firm tits he wanted to suck and bite and lick…

He did just that, bending down to reach them, while pushing his desperate cock deep inside his mate’s drenched heat.

Rye stayed still one infinite instant, not quite understanding everything he felt; his insides were exploding, his heart contracted, and the tiger inside him roared, hard. He felt her claws deep inside his back - those would mark, and leave scars. They were meant to. So would the marks he’d made on her forearms without consciously choosing to do so. He’d drawn blood. He’d claimed her; and she’d claimed him right back.

“What. The. Hell.”

He should have felt sorry for her; she was only now realizing the force at work. But Rye just laughed, and drew his dick back before plunging harder inside her, making her cry out in pleasure and pain. Then, he did it again, and again, and again, until she was panting, whimpering, chanting please.

They came together in under ten minutes- in other circumstances, it would have been embarrassing.

Still panting like she’d finished a sprint, Ace glared accusingly, saying, “You don’t look surprised.”

Rye just shrugged, particularly self-satisfied. There was no denying that, of the two of them, she normally had the upper hand. She had more contacts, she was better at subtle shit - he hadn’t even guessed that Lola, the kid he’d looked after since she was a newborn, had wolf in her, yet one sniff, and Aisling knew.

But, for all that, the woman had been completely blind about the one thing that mattered between them.

“Surprised by what?” he asked playfully, yet seriously.

He needed to hear her say it.

Aisling rolled her eyes, but she must have sensed what he wanted, because she spelled it out. “You’re my true mate.”

Damn right he was. He ruffled her wavy hair and kissed her forehead. “And you’re mine. Now get your pretty ass up.”

He got to his feet and lent her a hand to help her up. “There’s about eleven rooms I need to fuck you in inside this house. Better get to it.”