Chapter 5.

Megan couldn’t believe she was finally saying it, and she wanted to say it again. Her heart was hammering in her chest after tonight’s events, and she didn’t want to waste another moment being apart from Lucas.

If those stupid Alphas had their way, he probably wouldn’t be here at all, and that only strengthened her resolve to bond with him straight away.

“They destroyed his mark so I couldn’t identify him, but everything else is there. The beautiful smell, the instant attraction… um.”

Heat coursed up her face in a rush as she told her parents everything. She shouldn’t be embarrassed, she knew. What she was feeling was natural and exactly what her mother had told her she would experience.

But explaining it to her parents was strangely awkward.

“Show me the mark,” her father said, and she turned to Lucas, encouraging her mate with a smile. He stood up awkwardly on his sore leg and lifted the t-shirt Reagan had given him to wear.

A sigh escaped her lips at the sight of his damaged torso. Desire and disgust fighting for supremacy. His body was so beautiful, so thin and yet muscled. To think someone would hurt him like that, intentionally, was simply horrible.

“What happened?” her mother asked, her gaze trained on the scarring around his belly button.

“Alpha Bill… got drunk one night and took a knife to me. He told me that I didn’t deserve a mate and attempted to remove my mark. It’s mostly gone, as you can see. There’s a tail of the crescent here and here,” He pointed to the start and the end of their identical marks, “but he cut the rest off.”

“That must have been painful,” Reagan whispered, his throat working as he swallowed hard.

Lucas shrugged. “They had me back working within a few days. Just a flesh wound, they said. Nothing serious. And they were right.”

“And this is the sort of thing that goes on within your pack?” her dad asked, his voice deep, dark, and angry.

A shiver ran over her skin. She didn’t think she’d ever heard her father’s voice sound like that.

Lucas nodded once, his eyes shadowed with pain. “Yes.”

Her dad stood up and motioned to her mum. “Katherine, let’s head out to speak to the leaders. I’m going to see an end to this barbaric crap that’s happening in Robinvale.”

His eyes slid over to her. “And Megan, we’ll be gone a few hours, with Reagan. Perhaps your mate and you would like to finish bonding, so we can take him back to the Borough as your official mate.”

The heat of her embarrassment before may have been like a kitchen fire; now, a full wild brush fire spread up her face.

She swallowed hard. “Thank you, Dad.”

The other three left, and she turned to Lucas, whose fiery complexion, she was sure, mirrored her own.

“I can’t believe they want us to… mate, now.”

She giggled and stood up, mindful of his leg. She needed to give him a choice. After years of living under the oppression of his Alphas, the last thing she wanted was to make him feel like he didn’t have a choice with her.

“We don’t have to, you know. If you don’t want to. I know you were reluctant to get to know me, let alone mate with me… Is that still the case, Lucas?”

She sincerely hoped not, but there was no way of knowing how he felt.

She sat down next to him, and he shuffled closer, taking both of her hands in his.

“I always wanted to know you. I still do. I’m sorry I wasn’t who you needed me to be yesterday. My past is… complicated and horrible… and I don’t want to put any of that on you.”

She made a dismissive noise out of the side of her mouth.

“You’ve been abused by people who were supposed to look after you. That’s not your fault. I just…” she gathered all the strength her parents had put into her. She needed to be the brave one here. She’d been the one with the blessed life. “I need to know if you want me. If you don’t, you can still live in the Borough—my family will take you in, no questions asked. I’m not something you have to take on. I don’t want to be another thing in your life that’s been forced upon you.”

He drew her closer without saying a word until she was sitting on his lap and he was cupping her face with his hand.

“I want you. I desire you. I would love, more than anything, to be your mate. If you’ll have me? Scars and all.”

Tears leaked down her face, but she leaned forward as he pressed his lips to hers.

Pleasure curled in her heart at the first touch of his mouth against hers. A moan escaped her throat, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him. Not wanting to let him go, ever.

The kiss went on and on, his tongue delving in to meet hers. She thrust her tongue back, wanting to taste him as well. Needing so desperately to know what this felt like. This magical thing that came with love and being a woman.

His rough hands moved down, stroking the skin of her throat, her arms, his touch causing waves of awareness to flow over her body.

Then they moved over her aching breasts. She gasped against his mouth as her nipples hardened and he flicked each one with his thumb.

He tore their mouths apart.

“Where can we go? Do you have a bed?”

She did. But it was two singles in the one room. “Yes, but we may need to be creative.”

He grinned and stood up, taking her hand. “Lead the way, my beautiful mate.”

She tugged his arm and he followed with a smile. She walked into the room she was sharing with Reagan. Under no circumstances was she making love for the first time in her parents’ bed.

“Ah. Let’s push them together.” Lucas said, and before she could protest, he was tugging and pushing the two beds against one of the walls.

“Your leg!”

He hopped over to her, pulling her down onto the bed with him.

“I’ve had a lot worse, and believe me, your touch is healing.”

Sadness flowed through her at the thought of all he’d suffered while she’d been safe and happy, waiting in Greensborough.

“I’m so sorry you had this all done to you.”

She dropped her head as tears gathered, hot and tingly in her eyes.

He lifted her chin again with his roughened finger tips. “Don’t think about it now. You are Heaven to me, and I will never forget that. Nor take you for granted. You have saved me.”

He kissed her once again, his hands busy lifting the hem of her t-shirt. She moved back to help him remove it.

She grabbed for his top and pulled it off, too, wanting him naked so she could feel his skin against hers. She lifted her hands to spread her palms over his warm skin, loving the feel of his strong muscles beneath her hands.

“I know I’m not very big. I know you’re used to Alpha men. But I will grow now that I have the chance to shift, and get stronger.”

His words hurt her, though they were meant to be thoughtful.

She looked him straight in the eye. “You are my mate. My destiny. You are perfect in every way. And I have never known any man… so if you’re comparing yourself to anyone, your only competition is yourself.”

His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open.

“You’ve never… why?”

She shrugged, shivering as his fingers traced her nipples and the upper swell of her breasts.

“I was waiting for you. I knew you’d find me, sooner or later.”

And it was true. No one else had ever felt right. Even a simple teenage kiss had felt wrong. She’d waited, and she was glad.

His gaze burned with intensity as he stared at her. “I will make sure you never regret your decision to fight for me, Megan, I promise you.”

“I know,” she said, lifting her arms to pull him closer.

His lips found hers once again and he unclipped her bra, the material falling away. She shivered as he stared at her, cupping her breasts and smiling with a contented look on his face.

“You are an incredibly beautiful woman.”

She was glad she pleased him, having had nothing to compare herself to except other women her own age. And often, she’d found herself lacking.

She pushed such negative thoughts aside and stood up. Pushing her shorts off, she left her knickers on, then lay down, wanting to know what it felt like to be his woman.

“Come here. Please.”

She held up her arms and he nodded, and stood to strip his shorts off.

His cock sprung up, pointing directly at her. She’d never seen such a display before. It had changed from when she’d seen him naked this evening, after shifting. It was hard, and redder.

He lay down next to her and pulled her knickers off, throwing them on the ground.

She lay stiffly, not sure what to do.

“Touch me, beautiful, please.”

He took her hand and wrapped it around the hot shaft of his cock. A naïve squeal rose in her throat, but she pushed it down, wanting to feel more.

It was silky smooth and so different to anything she’d ever touched before. She was rewarded when he groaned and dropped his head, suckling on one of her nipples.

She cried out in shock, then arched her back to get closer, pleasure arrowing down from her breasts to her belly.

He slipped a hand between her thighs and gently pushed them apart with his fingers.

She tried to relax and closed her eyes, using one hand on his shaft and the other hand to hold him to her breast where his mouth was doing wicked things to her flesh.

“Ah…” She gasped and groaned when his fingers slid over her, circling her clit and rubbing her in a way that made her skin tingle, her organ throb.

She squirmed as he began to kiss lower, moving until he lay between her thighs and set his tongue where his fingers had been.

Pleasure exploded in her belly, licks of fire caressing her pussy as he ate around the lips, then moved up and down. Dipping his tongue inside of her, then moving around and up to where she was most sensitive.

“Lucas… oh…. fuck!”

She grabbed at his hair and held tight as a wave of pleasure began to build like a coming storm. His fingers slid inside her and she screamed out, pulses of ecstasy moving through her belly as blinding flashes blew apart her mind.

He moved up, covered her body, separated her legs, then thrust inside her in one long stroke.

Pain splintered inside of her, dulling some of the pleasure, but she floated down slowly, her high too far up to destroy completely.

Lucas didn’t move, though he trembled beneath her hands. She had to assume he was staying still to allow her time to adjust.

Eventually, she opened her eyes, and he was staring down at her, the love she saw on his face everything she had ever dreamed about.

“Are you all right, my mate?”

She nodded, lifting her legs to wrap around his slim waist.

“Please keep going.”

He dropped down and kissed her, his tongue spearing between her lips as he began to move, thrusting his hips so that his cock matched the movement of his tongue.

She sucked on his tongue, loving the flavour of his mouth mixed with her own, while his hips beat harder and harder against her in a primitive dance she’d only ever heard about.

The swell of the wave began again, this time moving through her as one, long, steady pulse.

She cried out again, his movements turning erratic as he pumped into her, then strained against her.

She gasped, she was almost there.

Then it happened.

He cried out as his seed pulsed into her, the sound so primitive and raw it made her turn her head and bite into his shoulder in response. His orgasm called to hers, her pussy going into instant, sudden, and violent convulsions.

Her orgasm slammed into her with no warning and the strength of a truck. She screamed as it tore her apart, her body squeezing every drop out of Lucas until he finally collapsed on top of her.

She shuddered over and over again, loving every second, every moment of this. Her mating. A time she would never forget.

Lucas lay on top of her, and she held him tight, stroking his back and his hair as his breathing grew steady.

She let herself relax, a giggle rising and lifting her lips into a smile.

What an incredible night.

What a weekend!

She’d known she would meet her mate at this festival, but everything else had been a massive surprise, and the best part was, she was sure that she and Lucas would continue as they had begun.

Her life with Lucas was going to be one unplanned, amazing adventure.

She heard Reagan and her parents come home during the night, but she and Lucas weren’t disturbed.

Her family knew she’d found her mate, and tomorrow they would set off home, and her life would be better than it had ever been, with her mate at her side.