Zoey traced the scar that ran across Rafe’s temple. It pinched when he winced like this. Otherwise it was almost invisible. She wondered if he’d gotten it during the attack on his family but she didn’t dare ask. Not yet.

Someday. Someday they’d know everything there was to know about each other. Someday they’d have a foundation of friendship and love and support. They would have their someday because she wasn’t going to back down from this.

Fate hadn’t made a mistake. Maybe the heat had been driving her before. The need to touch and feel and secure the bond had been pulling them together from the moment Rafe walked back into her life. But her mind was clearer now and she knew, this, the two of them, mates, was right.

She pressed her lips to the scar and felt Rafe shudder beneath her. So she does it again, and again. His hands slide around her waist, his arms pulling tight so she kept going. Peppering kisses across his scar and down his cheekbone, along his jaw as he held her close and she could feel the swell of too many emotions to name. She pressed a soft, sweet, kiss to his lips and he kissed her back for a second before pulling away.

“Zo…”

“Shh…” She tried to kiss him again but he shook his head seriously.

“If we do this, there’s no going back. We belong to each other. Now and always.”

Her throat felt tight and she couldn’t find the words. Not this time. So she simply nodded.

Rafe kissed her then, wrapping one hand in her hair the way he seemed to like and she absolutely loved. He tilted her head just so and then he claimed her mouth with a slow, burning kiss that branded her lips and her heart and soul.

Her lips parted on a sigh and he deepened the kiss with a stroke of his tongue. It was so different from their kisses before, when the heat had been on them. Those had been passion and need, fire threatening to burn them to ashes. But this was something else entirely. There was still passion, still need, but the fire had settled into a simmer, one she had a feeling would burn between them forever.

Now and always.

God, how was it possible she was falling in love with this man already? She couldn’t. She shouldn’t. It wasn’t possible and yet. With the bond strengthening between them, she could feel what he was feeling, knew it mirrored her own and amplified it.

The poor, broken man that had lost so much and given up even more. The sweet, caring man that had insisted she accept the bite instead of simply taking what his wolf must already see as his. The tough, determined man that had tracked her down and fought his brother to claim her.

He was hers and she was falling in love with him.

Rafe’s big hands went to her ass, pulling her tight against him and she moaned into his mouth. She could feel him through the fabric of his clothes. Hard and wanting. Wanting her. Again. She arched her hips to rub against him. She could feel her own wetness. She wanted him. Again. Rafe growled low in his chest and then he was moving and she broke the kiss to squeal as he stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“Bedroom.” He nipped at her jaw as he carried her through the cabin. “Gonna do it right this time.”

Zoey wrapped herself around him and nuzzled his neck. The words were on the tip of her tongue to tell him just how right it felt. Nothing had ever felt so good as being in his arms. Being wrapped up in his warmth and safety soothed the raw parts of her that had spent years alone, wondering why fate had been so cruel.

Now she knew. Fate wasn’t cruel. It was twisted and convoluted. It was impossible to change and no matter how hard you fought, there was no denying it.

Rafe was her fate. He always had been. But he hadn’t been ready for her when she came of age. He’d been half-crazed from his parents and brother’s deaths and he’d been feral. If he was worried about claiming her now she knew he would have ravaged her then. So he’d gone away, for years, and they’d both been all alone, healing, trying to find their place, until finally, fate saw fit to bring him back home, back to her.

Finally.

Rafe carried her into the bedroom but surprised her when he didn’t lay her down. Instead he sat on the edge of the bed, keeping her in his lap, and kissing her deeply.

His hands stroked over her ass now, kneading and pulling, shifting her on top of him so that his hard length hit her in all the right places. Only, he was still dressed and she couldn’t have that. She unwound her arms and desperately searched for the hem of his shirt.

“Off.” She broke the kiss as she tugged the material upwards and though he made a low noise of protest he raised his arms for her.

Zoey gasped when she got a good look at his chest. In the woods, she’d been drunk on the magic of the heat. She remembered him taking off his shirt so that they were skin to skin. She remembered stroking her hands all over him and feeling the raised marks. But she couldn’t remember actually seeing the scars until now.

Puckered, round scars dotted his right side from chest to hip in a random, haphazard pattern. Bullet holes. The scars from when he’d been shot. She remembered that day. It had changed the entire pack. She’d known Rafe was shot but she hadn’t seen him then and somehow, in her mind, no matter what she’d heard since, she hadn’t imagined it was this bad.

There was no way he should have survived this. She traced her fingers over the scars slowly, carefully, and felt anger and sadness well up inside her. Someone had hurt her mate. Tried to kill him. And if they’d succeeded she never would have even known he was hers.

“Hey.” Rafe’s voice was rough as he tipped her chin up to meet his gaze, “It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m here. With you.”

Her throat felt tight again but she nodded. She could feel him tense when she touched the wounds. Knew she should leave them alone. She should focus on making him feel good, on sharing this night with him and sealing their bond. But she couldn’t do that without showing him that she understood the importance of these scars, of what he’d lost, and of what she represented to him.

A future.

Zoey leaned down and kissed the first scar lightly. It was just below his collarbone. Rafe made an inhuman sound that she recognized as his wolf’s pain, like at the river, and she steeled herself for him to push her away. Instead, his grip on her tightened. She continued, kissing down his chest, replacing the pain of the scars with what she hoped was comfort. When she got low enough that she couldn’t comfortably bend any further she slid off his lap to kneel at his feet on the floor.

“Zoey.” Rafe growled and when she glanced up she saw the gold of his wolf in his eyes.

“Let me.” She whispered, ignoring the warning in his eyes as she kissed another scar and moved her hands to work open his jeans.

Rafe was panting now. Petting and stroking her hair. But he still didn’t push her away when she ripped open his button and unzipped him. His cock sprang free as she pushed the material aside and her core clenched with need.

He was big, but of course he was. She knew that already. He was superhuman after all. Part man and part beast. And she’d been made for him, her body had taken him, welcomed him, and wanted him again so badly she could feel the wetness on the inside of her thighs.

But first, she wrapped her hand around the thick base of his shaft and basked in the sound he made. Half growl half groan. She stroked him slowly, root to tip, and when a bead of moisture gathered at the fat head she couldn’t resist leaning forward and lapping it up with her tongue.

Rafe cursed and his hands went to her hair, fisting so tight it stung, but it only made her pulse pound and her clit throb. She licked him again, and again, and he let her so she sucked him into her mouth and took him as deep as she dared. Another round of cursing and then his hips were bucking beneath her, driving his length into her mouth while his hands held her head still to take him.

It was bliss. Pleasure. Untold ecstasy. To know that she could make this strong, powerful man come apart. Lose control. Want her this much. She had to clench her thighs together to keep from coming as he groaned her name like a prayer.

She knew the female shifters in the pack didn’t like this act. They talked about it. Freely. Their wolves considered it subjugation to be put on their knees. Even the submissive wolves only did so once they’d established their position with their mate.

But Zoey loved it. Loved this. Loved that Rafe lost control when she touched him like this. Loved the taste of him, the sounds he made. And she also knew by the end of the night she would be getting a wolf of her own so this might be her only chance before her wolf tried to assert dominance and refused to kneel.

Rafe’s hips stuttered and Zoey clutched at his hips. He was close. She could feel it through the connection. He was desperately trying to regain control though and she knew before he pulled out of her mouth that he wasn’t about to let the night end before it even got started.

With a growl, he hauled her up and then tossed her onto the mattress. He loomed over her before she settled. He pinned her arms above her head, notched himself between her thighs and kissed the living hell out of her.

Zoey moaned and tried to pull him closer. She needed closer. Needed more of his skin on hers. Needed his scent all over her. In her. She needed him to come in her again. Wanted to feel him deep inside her. But no matter how she wiggled and bounced she couldn’t get him where she wanted him and it only made her more desperate.

Apparently, she liked controlling alpha males. Which was good. Because that’s exactly what she’d gotten.

Rafe broke the kiss with a groan, “I can taste myself on your tongue. Me and you. Intertwined. It’s fucking perfection.”

He kissed her again and her eyes rolled back into her head. He sucked on her tongue and she whimpered. He teased and played, swirling and swiping and owning her mouth until they were both long overdue for breath and they broke apart panting.

“Fuck, love the way we taste.” He groaned as he trailed kisses down her neck and nipped at her ear, “Maybe I’ll eat you up after I come inside you. Taste you there once you’re full of me. Would you like that?”

The words pouring out of his mouth were filthy and sexy as hell. Zoey moaned and whimpered. She was incoherent with need now, just like in the woods. Only this time there was no blaming the heat, it was just the two of them. They were this good together.

“Rafe, please…” She begged as she struggled to free her arms.

“What do you want, baby? Tell me and I’ll give you the world.”

“You. I want you. All of you.” She panted as he shifted his weight, holding her down with one hand as the other slipped between her thighs to tease her, “Do it. Please. Make me yours.”

“You already are.” He growled and she watched through slitted eyes as he sucked on the fingers he’d been teasing her with, “This is mine.”

“Yes.”

His eyes flashed gold and his nails elongated and when he growled, it was almost pure wolf, with Rafe’s voice just beneath, “Don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t.”

He was positioned to take her. She could feel him at her entrance. And when he paused, those gold eyes on her, she could see his teeth too were longer. He wasn’t going to shift but his wolf was there, with them this time. And he wanted to bite her.

“Do it.” She insisted desperately, “Your wolf needs his mate and I need to belong somewhere.”

“You do belong. With me. You’re mine.” He all but snarled as he drove inside her and she screamed his name in pleasure as her body pulsed around him.

Heaven. This man was hers. Being with him was a gift. She didn’t know if it would always be like this between them. If it was the heat waning or the full moon rising or if it was just the bond, that they were mates. But she had never felt like this before, like she was right where she was supposed to be.

“Rafe!” She cried out as he plunged in and out of her, fast and then faster still. “So close, so close, so... Now. Do it now.”

Her climax hit her like a lightning bolt and a moment later she felt the sharp plunge of teeth in her neck. She screamed at the mix of pleasure and pain. She was electrified, everything inside of her felt as if she’d suddenly grabbed hold of a live wire.

Somewhere in the haze, she could hear Rafe say her name. Hear him tell her to hold onto him. That it was all going to be okay. But as the pleasure of her climax ebbed and the full brunt of the bite took control, she realized there was a reason nobody in the pack ever talked about the mating bite.

It was because it wasn’t heaven but pure and absolute hell.