~

 

“I swear … if this is your idea of wooing…” Zana bit out.

She relaxed against his back, because it would have been futile to expend the energy to do anything else. She liked to save her strength for the fights that she knew she could win.

“This is talking…” George growled back over his shoulder.

He knew he wasn’t going to get much talking done with the alphas all yapping and flapping their jaws in his business. He wanted some privacy. Some alone time with his mate.

It wasn’t as if he could scoop her up and swoop off with her. Not as things stood with the witches and the dragon.

Nothing was settled yet.

Just as his mating to Zana wasn’t a done deal.

He knew that. He wasn’t an idiot. The witch still needed to be wooed, and wooed well.

Mine…

As well as his beast would allow him before it pushed forward and took over the pursuit of their mate. He didn’t much like that idea.

His wolf had changed – was still evolving – and she might have felt like a stabilising influence within him, but he couldn’t be sure how long that would last either.

“Funny way to chat, with me looking at your backside.” She bit out. “Still, you are male, so I guess I’m looking at the right orifice…”

A heartbeat later and she was being lowered down the hard ridges of his body to her feet. The blood rushed back down from her head and warmed her right through, as her body responded to his presence…

“I want you…” George blurted out, and then he let his eyes close for a long moment and grunted in annoyance.

He’d said the first damn thing that had farted out of his brain. It hadn’t been intended and he knew the moment that he’d said it just how wrong it was.

Still, he couldn’t take it back…

The sound of her chuckling made him snap open his eyes, and there she was – laughter ringing from her lips and pure amusement glowing in her ice blue eyes…

“Nice ice breaker…” Zana pressed her lips together to try to stop the chuckling, but the corners still bowed upwards in a grin…

“I mean…” George floundered.

Between his beast repeating its claim on loop within his head, and his brain farting – he didn’t stand a chance.

She was right. He was male – and not the caring – chatty type of modern man that women craved.

He was an alpha. He’d known that from the start, and that somewhat limited him to just how much of a feminine side he could actually connect with, but now that his dominant side was all fangs and claws …

Zana reached up with one hand and slapped her palm against the thick muscle of his shoulder … she had the urge to test that muscle…

“Relax, Alpha. I get it…” she said, letting him off the hook.

George wasn’t sure that he wanted to be let off the hook. She was his mate and he needed to be able to express himself with more than just grunts – at least, he thought he did.

“It’s George…”

“I know.”

“And you’re Zana…”

“I know that too…”

“Don’t call me alpha…” he said.

George didn’t like it. It felt wrong, and it felt impersonal between them – like she was trying to keep him at arm’s length, even when she was pressed up against his naked body like that, making him hard in all the right places, and causing him to ache for her like he’d never ached before…

Damn dragon … if it wasn’t for Roloko then he might have been in the right place and time to woo her.

But then, if it hadn’t of been for Roloko – he might never have met his mate.

“Ok, George…” Zana said his name and immediately heard a deep rumble within his chest. He obviously liked the way that she said it. “So … talk to me, George.”

“We’re mates…” he said, then abruptly stopped.

“I got that email…” she smiled.

“And fate wants us to…” he stopped again. It was harder than he thought it was going to be.

“Bond…” she said and his beast rose up within him…

Mine…

“Mate…” he rushed out, slamming the cage door on his wolf before the beast got a foothold.

“That leads to bonding…” she said…

Mine…

George groaned outwardly as he fought his beast once more…

“You really need to stop saying that word…” George muttered.

“Oh, because of your…?” she shrugged a little…

“Big problem…” George growled back.

“Got it.”

“So, I was wondering…”

“Please don’t ask for a ballpark figure, an estimated time of mating, because…”

“I wasn’t…” George scowled at the thought.

He wasn’t about to pressure her into anything. She was his. And his beast could damn well wait until she was ready – he knew he could…

“Good, so …?” she rolled her eyes around the area. Not that she could see much beyond his chest, his shoulders, and his face… “We’re good? Done here?”

“N-no…” George looked confused.

“O-k…” she relaxed a little more.

She was already fighting her body to try to keep her frame as normal as possible, even with it having a mind of its own and wanting to press herself as damn close as she could get to him…

Hell, if she’d let her body have its way then she might have just crawled up his thick muscled thighs and wrapped herself around him like a clinging vine…

“I just need to know that you are considering it…”

“Hell, yes…”

Zana was more than surprised by the words that shot out of her mouth, she was gobsmacked – but the grin that took his lips and backlit his eyes was almost worth the rush of awkwardness that slapped her around the back of the head and made her wish that the ice storm was back so she could bury her heated cheeks in something frosty.

 “That’s all I needed to know…” George grinned like the wolf that had got its prey right where he wanted it.

“I’m going to go and … dig a big hole and bury myself in it now…” she muttered the last part…

“One more thing…” George rushed out, before she could start to pull away from him…

Then he brought his lips down on hers with a kiss that was more than demanding – it was impossible to say no to.