Kate opened her eyes to a navy sky. Wide and cloudless. Swirls of pink and purple and orange bathed the horizon in the east. The run was over. She’d had more fun last night than she could ever remember having during a shift. He was everything. And he had picked her. The mate bond had been started with their tumble against the car last evening and—

Oh, gods…

Her legs were off the ground and slung over each of Ryan’s shoulders. Her butt wasn’t even touching the grass. She gasped and jerked as his mouth closed around her sex. But he had his big arms locked around her hips. There was nowhere for her to go. Not that she wanted to, she just hadn’t expected to wake up with him literally having her for breakfast.

It was as glorious as the colors in the sky.

His tongue. His lips. Her mind was lost in his attention. She rode the high up and down and moaned until he gave her what she really needed. He slid fingers inside and clamped down hard over her throbbing clit.

A cry left her body. A scream of ecstasy and relief and pain all wrapped into one. It was the cry she been keeping inside since the very first rejection. Since the very first time Ryan had said he had responsibilities more important than her. That he couldn’t choose her. Tears poured down her cheeks as she rode out wave after wave of her orgasm. It was like the floodgates had released on her emotions.

Tears burned her cheeks and she swallowed a sob. She’d some so close to losing him, and she still wasn’t completely his. Ryan hadn’t said the spell yet to finish their bond, but she couldn’t ask him to do. If he told her no one more time, she was quite positive she’d break.

“Hey,” Ryan said, his voice rumbling from deep in his chest. He released her legs, setting them gently on the soft turf before crawling up the length of her body. His mouth trailed along her waist and then up one breast before reaching her mouth. He kissed one corner of her lips and then the other, teasing her up out of the darkness that was threatening her otherwise sunny personality. “That orgasm must not have been good enough. I’ll get right to work on another.”

His big body started to move south again and Kate grabbed at his arms. “No,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “I need you inside me. Right now. Please.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, bringing her slick core into direct contact with his hard and ready cock. It teased her entrance and she flexed, pulling Ryan even closer.

“I can do that,” he said, nuzzling her neck. He shifted his hips and slid into her, inch by thick inch. It’d been good the first time by the truck, but now…now she could feel everything so completely. Not only did her body respond to his touch, but she could feel his pleasure when she stroked him. When she pulled him in deep and squeezed, the groan that left his throat gave her heart a sliver of happiness.

But she couldn’t help but worry a little. Was he really going to choose her over his pack? He’d been so set. So determined to be their savior.

“Stay with me, sweetheart,” Ryan said, his voice soft and his breath gentle against her neck. He stroked slowly inside her while massaging her breast with one hand and cupping her ass with the other. “Right here,” he said, kissing away her tears and then covering her mouth with his. He kissed her like he was dying and she was his last meal. She’d been drowning in need since that very first meeting. He’d been so cold, but now she could feel his body. Feel the promise he seemed to be making her with every stroke and every touch. That he wouldn’t leave her. That he had chosen her.

“I want you Kate. Always.”

Tears ran down her cheeks again. She sobbed into his mouth and dug her fingers into his back, clinging to him as he drove deep. “Yes,” she cried into his mouth as her body coiled again, preparing to release. His name came out on a silent gasp as her body shattered around her.

In the midst of her euphoric high, Ryan spoke the words of the bonding spell. Twice. Perfectly. Heat flickered through her body, burning on her wrists as tattoos etched themselves into her skin. Into her mind. Into her soul. He’d saved her. Chosen her. Everything she could have asked for—it was now hers. Whatever challenges were to come with his pack…and hers, they would face them together.

Emotion gushed between them as he drove harder into her. The spell was finished. They belonged to each other in a way that no one outside of a mate bond would ever understand.

Faster. Harder. Kate clung to Ryan as he buried himself deeper. Joining their souls and their bodies all in the same breath. She could feel her body clenching around his cock, both from his mind and hers. He came hard and she smiled as his roar reverberated through her body. He filled her. He completed her. Fate hadn’t let her down after all.

Ryan rolled, taking her with him as he moved so that she lay across his chest, still impaled by his hard cock. The connection between them was so powerful. She felt his every shudder of pleasure or emotion. Every zing from his hand on her breast. Every clench of her body on his cock was felt doubly through her mind and his. So heady. So overwhelming.

“I’m sorry,” Ryan whispered. “So sorry I made you feel unwanted. That I made you feel that you weren’t enough. It was a lie I told myself to keep—”

“I know,” Kate said, pressing a finger to his lips. She did understand. He’d always wanted her—just as much as she wanted him. His willpower was made of iron, but his heart was made for her.

“I was an idiot.” His arms encircled her and squeezed. His big hands splayed out across her bare back, rubbing up and down. “Now that we’re bonded…”

She tensed. She knew this was coming.

“Now that we’re bonded,” he said again, glancing down at her with those hot, possessive eyes. “You’re going to tell me everything…and I mean everything about this whole mess with Christian Kyle and your grandparents.”

Kate slid to the ground, tucking herself into the crook of his shoulder. If she was going to talk about her family, she needed more focus than she could get with his cock still buried in her body. She closed her eyes and let the ugly truth shape her words. What her grandfather was doing was despicable. He’d been matching wolves without a care for Fate for decades.

“My grandfather is obsessed with the rodeo. With being the best. He breeds his pack to create better riders. Better competitors.”

“We all know that,” Ryan said, and Kate heard the disapproving rumble in her mate’s voice. “I mean, no one says it out loud, but he’s apparently approached Bracken more than once about me and Beau.”

“Well, like I told you earlier, no one in our pack even knew it was possible to turn humans,” she said, quietly, tracing her finger along his naked skin. “Most of them still don’t. My grandfather has always controlled our access to other packs.”

He tightened his grip on her. “I hate him, Kate. I hate him so much.”

Warmth stole through her at those words. He hated her grandfather on her behalf, and she could feel the burning of his hatred mirrored in her own chest. She believed him. “Christian is the first human he’s ever turned before, so I was completely shocked. Grandfather told me they’d picked a man for me.” She swallowed, remembering the moment she’d realized what they were going to do. “And then, before I left, and I found out who…it was…”

“I swear to you, Kate,” he rumbled, his wolf growl warming her. “If he ever tries to lay a finger on you again…”

She put her hand on his chest. “I know. You don’t have to say it.”

“I need to say it.” He kissed the top of her head. “I will rip him apart for you.”

“Thank the gods Christian got the bond spell wrong.” Kate shuddered through a breath. “If he hadn’t mispronounced it, I—”

“I would’ve killed him.”

More tears squeezed between her tightly shut eyelids. “He’s in pain too, Ryan. He needs help. My grandfather ripped his life away from him, and now they’re threatening his sister. They might even be holding her hostage. What would you do if someone had one of your family?”

“Anything,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. He understood.

She let go of her fear and her anxiety. She was safe in Ryan’s arms. She was bonded to him. She bore his mark. She was free of everything she’d been running from and Fate had given her a partner who loved her. He hadn’t said it yet—neither of them had—but she could feel how much he cared for her. How much he did love her, even if he maybe hadn’t realized it yet for himself. She was certainly head over heels in love with him.

Now they just had to figure out where to go from here. If Ryan couldn’t be the Trewitt alpha, where did that leave them?