“You can do this?”

Graeme tilted his head and shrugged. “Aye.”

I wasn’t inspired by his confidence, but he was the best chance I had. “What are we waiting for then?” I braced myself.

He didn’t change shape, just stood there. Didn’t he have to shift into his dragen form to travel through worlds? That’s what the chief had said. I made a hand gesture, somewhere between get on with it and stop screwing me around.

He shrugged again, this time with a grin that clearly said he was going to enjoy this. “This is probably going to hurt, wolfen.”

“I can take it.”

He chuckled. “Then it’ll be up to you to find a way to bring her back.” His fist lashed out and connected with my head.

The world started to fade.

The asshole had knocked me out.

* * *

The rhythmic sound of soft breathing reached my ears in the soft darkness. Taking a moment to let my eyes adjust, I carefully rolled onto my side, the soft mattress creaking under my weight. The scent of apples surrounded me, filling every inhalation I managed to drag into my lungs, burning a path through my veins and merging with my blood. It was as if now I knew her scent, this world couldn’t hide it from me anymore.

I stared at the woman laid sprawled out next to me. Her hair fanned across the pillow, a dark blood red in the shadows of the room, the curls misbehaving even when she was asleep as they twisted and tangled, snagging on the cotton pillowcase. The light of the moon cast her skin in ivory shadows, picking out every freckle as if they were stars dotted on the midnight sky.

I’d found her. Relief hit me, and if I’d been standing, I would have sunk to my knees. As it was, I allowed myself a satisfied smile, my eyes traveling over the rest of her, checking for injuries or any sign of harm.

Quick as a flash, I leaned in and sniffed at the T-shirt she was wearing, her long, shapely legs forgotten for the moment. Mac… A low growl rumbled in my chest, but I forced it back. I recognized the room now. He’d found my mate and taken care of her, and for that I owed the male. But that shirt had to go. Sitting up, I yanked mine over my head and contemplated the best way to get his off and mine on her.

“Hmmmmmm?” She rolled over, slinging her leg over mine and her arm over my waist. Or where my waist should have been, if I’d been lying down. Right now, her hand was rested on my groin. It was pure torture.

“Sweetheart?”

She was warm and languid as she stretched into me, pressing her body against mine. She blinked her eyes open, a lazy grin lifting the corner of her mouth as she recognized me. “Hey, there.” Her hand slid across the denim of my jeans and her smile widened as she traced the hard outline with her nail. “I was dreaming about you.”

“You always dream about me,” I teased as she scraped her nails along the rock hard bulge in my jeans.

“You came for me.”

Swallowing a groan, I cupped her cheek, smoothing a curl back with my thumb. “Always.”

Her foot trailed up my leg, tugging at my jeans as she tilted her face up to mine. She locked eyes with me and I couldn’t look away. This woman was my future, fate be damned.

“Missed you,” she breathed. She glanced down, then back up again, pressing her hand harder against my crotch. “I think you missed me, too.”

“Well, you did disappear at the worst time.”

“So I did,” she mused, her finger flicking my top button open. She paused, biting her bottom lip as she peered up at me. “Want me to make it up to you?”

“Little minx,” I growled, rolling her over so I straddled her and seized her lips with mine. The bed dipped beneath us, her hand giving up its prize to score my back as she arched into me on a throaty moan. Her scent sweetened, the cinnamon that drove me wild threading through her already irresistible fragrance and deepening it to a soft spice that had my erection straining against my jeans. “Fuck … what you do to me, sweetheart.” Her answer was a soft giggle as I nipped at her neck, my hand tugging off the offensive shirt and tossing it over my shoulder. “It’s a good thing I like Mac,” I grumbled, my mouth closing around her breast and sucking it into my mouth. Her hands clung to my shoulders as I moved my attention to her other breast, tonguing the peak until she writhed beneath me, rubbing at the sweet heat between her legs. Cupping her breasts, I pressed a kiss to her soft, rounded stomach, taking the flesh between my teeth and nipping. “Don’t ever leave me like that again,” I warned, unable to put a voice to the panic that had consumed me.

“I won’t,” she whimpered as I licked the side of her hip, my hands spanning her ribcage and holding her still. “Nial…” I glanced up at the tremor in her voice. “I was scared.”

“Never again,” I vowed, moving my hands down to her hips. Her slick heat called to me, her scent spicy and intense as I dipped my head, spreading her legs with my shoulders. Inhaling, I groaned, cursing as she clenched around the finger I had slipped inside. “Fuck. Never again.” Her nails dug into my scalp as I bowed my head and tasted my mate properly for the first time, with all my senses, her little whimpers and groans urging me on. Her hips jerked beneath my hands as I licked and stroked, until she arched on a strangled moan, pressing herself against me.

Once she had remembered how to breathe, I shoved my jeans off and crawled to kneel over her body, resting on my elbows so I could cradle her head in my hands. “Be mine?” The question had crawled through my mind, insistent despite every reason not to ask. Even when I’d thought of turning away, my heart had demanded that I find another way. Now, there was nothing I wouldn’t do—nothing I couldn’t face—if she said yes.

“You sure?” She gasped as I slid inside her an inch, wrapping her legs around me and urging me on.

“The second I met you, you were the only woman for me. It’s you who gets to choose.” I forced myself to say the words, even though the thought of her looking at another male made me want to kill somebody. Painfully. But it was her decision.

She tilted her hips, arching her back as I slid all the way in, her body clenching around mine. “You’re mine,” she whispered, claiming my mouth in a kiss that sealed her promise into my skin.

I thrust harder, her words spurring me on, the little sounds she made as her body welcomed me, grasping at me and holding me close, driving me insane with need. Kissing her neck, I licked the salt from her skin, the only thing stopping me from claiming her right now was the fact that I wasn’t covering her from behind. If her ass was in the air, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from mounting her and sinking my teeth in. I knew it, as sure as I knew how to make my mate claw at me with pleasure, how to slide inside her and drag every sensation from her gorgeous curvy body. The bedsprings groaned their protest, blending seamlessly with our gasps and grunts and cries, the air thick with the scent of apples and passion, her eyes wide as she forced them to stay open, despite the strain of wanting them to shut, so she could lose herself in the orgasm that wracked her body from her fingers to her toes.

She squeezed around me, her heels digging into my ass, her hoarse scream shooting my orgasm through me on a roar.

Slowing, I dipped my head, stealing a languid kiss, deepening it as she sighed her content and opened up to me. Our foreheads touched, our eyes so close, I had to choose one to focus on. “Mine,” I echoed my earlier vow.

Her smile was smug as I rolled over to my side, sliding my hand across her stomach to cup her hip. “No, you’re mine, remember?”

“Always have been,” I admitted on a chuckle.

Rolling to face me, she traced the curve of my cheek, her finger dipping to my mouth. “How are we going to get home?” She didn’t sound too worried, she was still enjoying the afterglow.

“I don’t know. We could try and go to sleep?” Worth a try, though I wasn’t pinning my hopes on it. Her pendant laid between her breasts and I eyed it warily.

“Perv,” she whispered on a giggle, when she noticed where my attention was focused.

“Only with you.”