****
Keira came back to herself bit by bit, aware of the lingering ache in her neck, the full, tender feeling along her labia, the faint pain deep down between her hips. She smiled to herself, fidgeting slightly underneath Raul’s body, and felt him slide off of her with a groan, sinking onto the grass where their battle had brought them. You actually let a man take you. You let a wolf take you. It was beyond Keira’s ability to believe; she had known that she would eventually take a mate, but from her first awakenings to sexual desire, she had always thought that it would be a panther—one of her own kind, someone she could trust.
“How’s your neck?” Keira shivered at the feeling of Raul’s fingertips tracing the place where he’d marked her with his teeth; she felt a thrill of pleasure, a deep, animal impulse that she couldn’t reason away or suppress.
“It hurts like hell,” Keira replied. She turned her head to look at Raul with a smile. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.”
“We reek of each other,” Raul informed her. “When we go to the elementals, they’re going to know right away that we’re mated.”
“They’ll know, the panthers will know, the wolves will know,” Keira shrugged. “We’ll be lucky if they aren’t all fighting over who gets to put us to death first.”
“The elementals won’t want to,” Raul told her firmly. “They’ll want us to unite the two clans, make the peace.”
“Convenient,” Keira said, smiling wryly. “Seeing as how that’s what we’re trying to do.”
“I personally am not a fan of dying for that,” Raul told her. He reached out, and Keira didn’t even try to fight the feeling of comfort and contentment that rose inside of her that came along with his tight embrace, the sensation of his arms coiled around her waist, his body pressed to hers. “We need to take a shower and get dressed, and then we need to meet with the elementals.”
“That would be the logical next step,” Keira agreed. “But for right now I’m kind of happy just lying here.” Raul chuckled, brushing a lock of hair out of her face and leaning in to kiss her lightly on the forehead.
“You wanted this, right?” Raul pulled back and met her gaze, looking down at her intently. “I could feel it in you, but I want to hear you say it.”
“Against my better judgment, yes,” Keira said. She could feel her nerves still tingling, and a more concerning phenomena: she had a sense of Raul’s emotions, dancing just out of the reach of her mind, a shadow-suggestion that was both like and unlike the connection she felt with her clan-mates. “I definitely wanted to screw your brains out—or have you screw mine out. And I wanted to be your mate.”
“You really wanted it,” Raul said again, his voice uncertain.
“You’re the only one I’ve met so far who’s been able to pin me,” Keira admitted. “Even if you were tricky about it.”
“We were both tricky,” Raul countered. His lips slid against her cheek, along her throat, and Raul pulled her around. Keira let her body be manipulated, snuggling closer to the wolf, closing her eyes as the movement sent jolts of sensation from the bite at her neck, the deep ache in her hips, the parts of her body that had received the most attention from Raul. “Next time we spar I’ll let you win.” Keira growled, glaring at him.
“Do not even say you would ever let me win,” she told him, springing free of his embrace and using her momentum to shove Raul onto his back. “If I best you it’s going to because I’m better,” Keira insisted.
“If you best me,” Raul countered. His hands fell to her hips and he grinned up at her. “Give me a chance to recover and wait for the dust to clear on this mess we’re in, and we’ll have a rematch.” Keira looked down at him for a long moment, considering. She had let him take her as his mate; she had let him mark her. She was committed to him. Their bond would only increase in time. The tendrils of feeling that she was receiving from Raul’s contented, satisfied mind would deepen, and she would be as aware of him as she was of any of the members of her clan.
“Can you…feel me?” Keira felt the heat in her cheeks as she blushed.
“Oh yeah,” Raul said, his voice rippling with amusement and desire. “I can feel every inch of you.” Keira rolled her eyes and swatted at him, half-wishing she had her paws instead of normal human hands.
“You know what I mean,” she said sharply. “Can you…feel my mind?”
“A little,” Raul said, nodding slowly.
“It’s going to get more intense every time we have sex, and the longer we spend time together,” Keira said, thinking out loud.
“That does sort of come with the territory of mating,” Raul pointed out. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“I’m okay with it,” Keira said, nodding quickly. “It’s just weird is all.” Raul kissed her on the lips.
“Let’s go inside, have something to eat, and get a shower,” Raul suggested. “You can contemplate all you want about how much of a comedown in prestige you’re suffering while we’re away from the mosquitoes.” Keira laughed and sat up; the sun was beginning to sink in the sky, and Raul did have a point. If they remained outside, lounging in the grass, they’d be attacked by droves of mosquitoes.
She stood and offered Raul her hand; Keira was both surprised and not surprised that he didn’t balk, but merely accepted her assistance, pulling himself up and then immediately wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her close. “I can’t wait to take you again,” Raul murmured in her ear.
“You have to earn it,” Keira told him tartly. “I want to be on top next time.”
“I could go with that,” Raul said, grinning. They went into the safe house together, and Keira checked in the kitchen; there was plenty of food for both of them, even as ravenous as they both were in the aftermath of their mating. “We’ll go to the elementals first thing in the morning,” Raul suggested. “For now, I want to do everything I can to solidify our bond, to cement the fact that we’re mates.” Keira looked at him sharply.
“You think they’re going to try and separate us,” she said; there was no need to specify whom ‘they’ were.
“Pretty sure,” Raul said with a nod. “Either your Alpha or mine.”
“You said Reginald tried to ambush you before—before my people came into the battle,” Keira said, remembering the details that Raul had recited when she’d cleaned his wounds earlier in the day. “Where did he go?” Raul shrugged.
“No idea,” Raul said. “By the time the skirmish ended, he’d disappeared. I suspected he went home injured, but there’s no way—right now—to know for sure.”
“We need to watch out for him,” Keira said.
“We’ll worry about that tomorrow,” Raul told her. “Tonight is just for us.” Keira looked at him intently for a moment and then nodded. She could feel the tendrils of Raul’s thoughts worming their way into her mind, working their way deeper. She had done something absolutely irrevocable in letting him take her, letting him mark her as his mate. Raul took her hand and led her towards the bathroom, and Keira let herself be led, trying to decide which of their clans was more likely to pose the most immediate threat. Keira knew instinctively that she and Raul would be making love throughout the night—but she wasn’t certain, given how much the situation surrounding them weighed on her, just how thoroughly she would be able to give herself to Raul. We need to find allies, she thought as she stepped into the shower, ducking into Raul’s ready embrace as the water sluiced down from the showerhead. We need to get some people on both sides who can keep Harold and Reginald both off of us. She told herself that she would broach the topic with Raul later; for the time being, she wanted to just enjoy him.