“I thought for sure your sister would have put up more of a fight about us shacking up together.” Angelita gave my hand a squeeze before walking toward the bathroom of my apartment. I crossed the room, thankful to be alone with her. We’d retreated from the main house after dinner, neither of us wanting to deal with the tension between our two sets of non-parental units. We needed quiet and peace, and to talk some more. Just the two of us.

I reached the end of the bed and sat down, remembering the tone of Charlotte’s voice when she’d finally agreed with Bez. “I’m sure she’s not quite done yet, but the worst is probably over.”

The sound of water running was my only answer, and I counted until it stopped. Eight seconds to silence, three more as she reached for the towel, and then the rustle of fabric as she dried her face. Angelita never understood how in tune with her I was. How much I knew about what she was doing and feeling just by the sounds she made, by the smell of her, by the tone of her voice. I couldn’t see her emotions expressed, but I felt them. Strongly and deeply.

The click of the light going off had me cocking my head. Angelita padded across the floor toward me, bringing her warm, earthy smell with her. Want burned deep and strong inside of me, need. My mate and I were about to sleep together in the same bed for the first time, and I was wound tight in anticipation of feeling her against me all night long.

When it seemed to take forever for her to get to me, I reached out, needing to touch her, too impatient to wait until she crawled into bed with me. It took a second, but I finally grasped her hand with mine, immediately pulling her on top of me, rolling her to the side so she lay between my body and the wall. Protecting her from the rest of the world. Wanting to hide her away.

“What’s gotten into you?” she asked with a laugh. That joy, that ease—I craved it all the time. I wanted her happy and relaxed, wanted her animal side to be comfortable no matter where we were.

I shrugged, nuzzling into her neck in a mimic of the way she always did to me. “Your scent.”

“My scent?” Fuck, her words came out a little softer, a little rougher. Her smell changed, deepening with arousal as she curled into my body. I knew that scent. I loved that scent. My body responded, sending my blood to my already hardening cock, throwing my heart into overdrive.

We were alone…for the entire night.

“Yeah, it’s calling to me. I need more of it.” I ran my hands over her back, pulling her closer the lower I went. Pressing my fingers deep into her flesh as I moved below her waist. Skin welcomed me, warm, soft, not enough and too much at the same time. Cotton and lace slid over the backs of my hands as I reached lower, as I moved under her clothes. As I craved. “Damn, Leelee. You’re driving me crazy here.”

She moaned this time instead of giggling, creeping closer as I kneaded the flesh of her ass. “I try.”

“You succeed.” I gripped her tight, melding my mouth with hers. Fuck, my chest hurt. There was a pressure, a need deep within me to join with this woman. Something I hadn’t felt before. I wanted to do more than love on her, wanted to go beyond my lips against hers and my hands all over her. I wanted to take her. To join us together forever as mates. To fuck and bite and claim—to give in to what I’d resisted for so long—to give myself to the woman the fates deemed my perfect match.

That same need had always been present, but it’d simmered at first. Barely more than a warm breath when I would hear Angelita’s voice or smell her scent. It’d grown over the years since we met, building higher, burning brighter. And hotter. So fucking hot.

My Angelita wasn’t a timid girl. She rolled me onto my back, moving in concert with me, straddling my hips with her hands against my chest. “We’re alone.”

The pressure, the heat. This girl was such a tease. And I loved it. I rocked her over me, shifting until we were lined up exactly as I wanted us to be. Well, not quite exactly. There were still too many layers between us. “I know.”

“So,” she said, sitting up and moving her hips in a way that made me groan. Made me need. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. Watch a movie?” I tried to keep my voice calm, almost detached to match hers, but it was so hard. As was I. Angelita rocked on top of me, dragging her pussy over my cock. The heat from her, the pressure—it was too much and not enough all at the same time. I kept my hands on her hips, guiding her, lifting my hips to match her rhythm as we moved. This wasn’t new. I’d felt her come before like this, heard her little gasps and fell apart at her satisfied moans. This, we were good at.

“Huh,” she said, almost gasping the word. “I… Oh, God… I wonder what’s…on.”

No, she didn’t. Her breath sped up, the warmth between her legs growing. She rocked harder, snapping her hips faster. Releasing a gasp every few strokes as I pushed against her. She wasn’t wondering anything except when I was going to make her come. And I hated to keep her waiting.

Without a word, I rolled us both, caging her in with my arms as my hips settled between her legs.

She squealed, holding on to me, sounding pouty as she said, “No fair.”

“Sure, it is.” I lined my cock up with where she was so wet for me and rolled my hips. She shivered, clinging to my shoulders. Breathing out a deep sigh as I picked up where we’d left off. I dropped my weight onto her a little more, knowing she liked that. Knowing how much she felt protected and cared for when I surrounded her. Angelita hitched her leg over my hip and opened herself wider for me. One of these days—I grunted, trying to hold back as my thoughts swirled to things we had yet to experience. We’d been naked around each other already. I’d felt every inch of her—kissed each one, too. We’d managed to find time to do the things most people our age did. Except for one.

Pumping my hips, grunting with every stroke, I let my mind conjure up how it would feel to push inside my mate. Tried to imagine what all that soft, warm, wet flesh enveloping mine would be like. The base of my spine started to tingle, and my arms shook. Fuck, I wanted her. Wanted to know every part, to discover ourselves together in all ways. She’d been my first kiss, my first love. She was mine, but sex meant something more to a shapeshifter like my Angelita. It meant mating, claiming, and—if she lost control—biting. I couldn’t wait for that day. Angelita was too afraid of the bite to be as excited as I was. It was a point of contention with no compromise, and one we’d been discussing for months.

“Please, Julian.”

Angelita’s breathy plea brought me back to the moment. I refocused on her, centered myself, and picked up my pace. My girl was needy, shaking beneath me as she climbed toward her release. I wanted to give that to her. Needed to. Those moments when she cried out her satiation were some of my favorites and, knowing I did that for her, some of my proudest. I growled low and dark, dropping my head to her shoulder. Fuck, I was going to come in my pants, without anything more than a bump and grind. I tried to stop, I really did, but she felt so good. So warm. And I knew she was so wet for me.

“I can’t…” The words wouldn’t come. I wanted to tell her I couldn’t wait, couldn’t last. Couldn’t resist her. Luckily, she knew. She always knew.

“So close.” She growled darkly, her hips pressing against mine. Her entire body wrapping around me as her nails dug into my back. I knew her tells, could feel her growing tight and fluttering where I pressed against her. Not long now. I had to hold on. Had to get her there. Fuck, I had to make her come first. Always.

Digging deep for any wisp of control I had left, knowing she liked it when I talked a little dirty to her, I whispered, “C’mon, Leelee. I want to know how wet you’re going to get tonight. Let me feel you come against my cock.”

She gasped, her muscles clenching, her entire body going stiff as pleasure broke over her. I froze for just a moment, sinking into the sensations of her orgasm. The sound of her stuttered breath, the near pain of her claws slipping out and pressing into the flesh of my back, the pulse of her pussy against me, the scent of her slickness teasing me with what I wanted to feel and taste. Glorious. Perfect. Fucking mine.

I thrust against her one last time and followed her over that edge. Grunting through my own release as I pressed her into the mattress. There was no stopping, no holding back. I came hard and long, collapsing just to the side of my girl as I finally came back from the depths of pleasure.

Angelita curled around me when we were quiet once more, her body warm and pliant beneath my hands. “We really should do that without clothes in the way.”

I chuckled and sighed. “You know we can’t.”

“We can,” she said, running her nose along my cheek. “I want to.”

“But if you lose control and bite me—”

“We’ll be mates.”

“Right, but that’s not enough.” I ran my hands over her curves, wishing she’d see things my way just this once. “We’re mates now, and I know claiming each other is the next step. But then what? I stay human and get left behind?”

“I wouldn’t—”

“Mean to. You wouldn’t mean to, but you would. Every time you went for a run in the woods, every time you shifted wolf in your sleep like you do. Every single moment of your life you’d be different from me because of your wolf side, and I don’t want that. I want to know my forever is the same as yours.”

“Julian—”

“I want you to turn me into a wolf shifter.” The words escaped without thought, without care. My biggest want, my most desperate need, laid bare before Angelita. And I knew exactly how she’d answer.

As expected, Angelita stiffened, trying to pull away. “I can’t.”

“You can,” I said as I gripped her, refusing to let her back away from the conversation we needed to have. “I know you can.”

Her hands pulled me closer, tugging hard at my shoulders. Fear making her grabby. “I can’t lose you, too. I won’t do it.”

Pain. Dread. Those were the things holding her back. I understood her reservations—she’d watched her entire family, her entire pack, be slaughtered. She’d lost everything. I understood, all right, but that didn’t make her refusal any easier to accept. “You won’t lose me, Leelee. I’ll come through and be just like you.”

“You could die or go mad. I won’t do it.”

I pulled back, my forehead against hers. Wishing I could see her face as I whispered, “It’s what I want, Lee. It’s the future I’ve chosen for myself.” Time to show my hand. “If you won’t do this for me, I’ll get Gates or one of the other guys to do it.”

I smelled her tears before I heard her gasp, knew she was crying by the way her body went soft even before that.

“You won’t lose me,” I whispered, holding her tighter. “Trust the fates to keep us together forever.”

Angelita shook her head. “The fates did nothing to save my family. I can’t trust them.”

“Trust me, then.”

She lay silent for a long time. I could almost sense her eyes on me, could imagine her watching me as she contemplated our future. I tried to stay calm, to remain steadfast, but this issue always upset the two of us. There was no middle ground for us. She wanted me human, and I didn’t.

“I don’t know if you can beat death,” she whispered, her tears coming harder.

I kissed her lips and wiped away the wetness on her cheeks. As frustrating as it was to be caught within her fear cycle, I could never blame her. I would always take care of her. “And that right there is why we can’t go further, Lee. You don’t trust me enough, which means there are cracks in our connection.”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Yeah, it is.” I rolled off the bed, heading for my dresser to grab a clean pair of sweats. “I want you, Angelita. Every day. Forever. I don’t want to miss a single experience with you. I want to laugh with you, want to be intimate with you, and yes, I want to run in wolf form with you. I want to be able to take adventures with you. But you just want to keep me in a box, all locked up and as safe as you can make me.”

The bed squeaked behind me, and the sheets rustled in a way that told me she was sitting up. “Why is it wrong to want you safe?”

“Because life isn’t safe, and I want to live it. You lost your family, and so did I. Yes, I got to keep my sister, but I lost my parents. I lost a lot of my independence too. But I refuse to give up or give in.” I headed for the bathroom, needing a break. Needing a moment. But not before I said my piece. “There is nothing we can’t do so long as we’re together, Leelee. I just wish you had enough faith in me to believe that.”

I shut the bathroom door behind me and stood there, listening. Trying not to feel the crushing disappointment that conversations about sex and mating and changing always brought on. The sense of failure. My hands in my hair, I tugged and bit back the tears burning my eyes. Someday, she’d trust me. Someday, she’d hear me.

Someday, she’d love me enough to want to keep me forever.