“Perfect…every single inch of you.”

Coming to stand before her again, he still didn’t reach for her. But his hungry gaze felt enough like a touch that a tremor rippled down her spine. As he slowly undressed, her breathing deepened as electricity arched between them and the silence seemed to stretch on and on. Every part of her seemed to ache for him; her br**sts felt heavy, her ni**les were hard, and her cl*t was pulsing. “Nick,” she appealed.

His piercing gaze ensnared hers. “What do you want? Tell me, Shay. Tell me, and I’ll give it to you.”

Somehow, his dominant tone created a trancelike effect that made both her and her wolf total slaves. “You,” she rasped. “All of you.” It was an echo of something he had once said to her. And it got Shaya what she wanted: a growl rumbled up his chest as he fit her body to his, crushing her br**sts against him and cupping her ass. His mouth, tongue, and hands were demanding, dominating, and possessive. She more or less liquefied under the assault to her senses, threading her fingers through his hair and tugging.

He closed his mouth around her nipple, sucking hard and raking his teeth over it. Moving on to the other nipple, he lashed it with his tongue and then drew it into his mouth. At the same time, his hand skimmed over her flat stomach and down to cup her hard. Then two fingers sank deep inside her and swirled around.

“I love how you get so wet for me.” Kissing her again, Nick slowly thrust his fingers in and out of her, loving the moans she fed him, watching every expression that flashed across her face. Withdrawing his fingers, he moved one to circle the puckered hole where a butt plug was snugly positioned inside her. “I’m going to finally take you here tonight, baby. Do you want that?”

Shaya nodded, wanting her mate to have claimed her in every possible way—this was the only step they hadn’t yet taken, because Nick had wanted her to be totally ready. Also, he’d explained that he didn’t want her to surrender this way just to please him or out of curiosity, that he wanted her to want it as much as he did. She did, and she wasn’t embarrassed to admit it.

“On the bed, baby.” Once she clambered onto the bed and lay on her back, he crawled over her and took her mouth, branding it. He ended the kiss with a bite to her lip. “Spread your legs,” he rumbled. “I want to taste this pu**y that was made for me.”

Once she’d followed his order, Nick kissed, licked, and bit his way down her body to dip his tongue into her navel before going lower still. He flicked her cl*t with the tip of his tongue, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from her. He might have made her beg a little, but the scent of her pu**y was much too tempting. Sliding his hands under her thighs, he tilted her h*ps and hooked her legs over his shoulders. Then he licked, sipped, and drank from her, savoring her taste and her moans. Each one of his senses was filled with, and overwhelmed by, her.

One thing he loved about Shaya was that her responses were without deception or exaggeration; she simply allowed her desire to flood her veins, rule her, and take her where she needed to be. The way she writhed and arched, the way she pulled on his hair, the way she groaned and whimpered and dug her heels between his shoulder blades—all of it was real, and all of it sent an agonizing need rocketing through him. “I need to be inside you. Right f**king now. Turn over.”

Those words caused quivers deep in her stomach. Needing to come so badly, Shaya obediently positioned herself on her hands and knees. He smoothed his hands over her ass as he came to kneel behind her, letting his c*ck rub against her slit. It felt good and all, but she really couldn’t wait much longer. “Nick, I need to come.”

He positioned his c*ck at the entrance of her pu**y. Keeping one hand on her hip, he held her shoulder with the other. “When I’m ready for you to come, I’ll tell you.” He slammed home, groaning as her walls clamped down on him. Buried inside his mate, the aching need in his body eased. But then it exploded.

Shaya cried out as Nick began to ruthlessly hammer into her, thrusting hard, driving deep. His pace was feverish, frenzied, and was sending her into that same frenzied state; she was moaning, whimpering, and instinctively pushing back against him. Well, actually, she was trying to push back, but his iron hold prevented her from moving. Still, her attempts earned her a growl and the prick of claws against her skin—Nick’s way of telling her to keep still, that he was in control and she’d take what he gave her.

“I love the feel of your pu**y around me. Know what else I love?” Nick slid his hand into her hair and pulled, urging her upright so her back was to his chest, and bringing her face to his. “You. Every goddamn inch of you—inside and out. Can you feel it?”

She could. She could feel it flowing over her, centering her, sheltering her, and wrapping around her. Even if she hadn’t known it with every cell and every bone of her body, she would have known it from the look in his eyes right then. He loved her. Loved her with an intensity that he would never have thought himself capable of—it was deep, and boundless, and true. It was also returned. She looped her arms around his neck. “And I love you.”

The words made Nick pause in his movements. He truly hadn’t expected her to give him those words, hadn’t believed she felt that way—not yet. He could have used their bond anytime to find out for sure, but he hadn’t wanted to delve that deeply in case what he found wasn’t what he’d hoped to find. But now what she felt was radiating from the bond. So knowing that it was true, feeling it was true, Nick was filled with elation and a sense of completeness that only Shaya could have given him. It made something settle deep inside his wolf, gave the animal a peace he’d never otherwise have known.

“Come here, baby.” Her mouth met his, and Nick devoured it, dominated it, but also cherished it. Then he placed a hand on her lower back and gently pressed forward until she was leaning on her elbows. “Now I’m going to make you come.” With that, he began f**king her with hard, feral digs that made her cry out, made her gasp his name and tear at the bed sheets with her claws. “Now.”

The combination of his order, the feel of his teeth buried in her shoulder, and the light pinch on her cl*t had her body imploding. She threw her head back, screaming. That was when, in one smooth movement, he pulled out the butt plug and thrust into her ass. She screamed again as the sensation intensified her cl**ax.

Nick didn’t move one single inch as she came down from her orgasm. When she began to writhe, he cinched her h*ps and held her still. “You okay, baby?” He couldn’t sense any pain from her, but he needed to hear her say it.

“Move, Nick; I need you to move. It hurts a little, but it’s a good hurt.”

Satisfied, Nick slowly withdrew until only the head of his c*ck was inside her, and then he thrust forward just as slowly. “Fuck, baby, that feels so good.” He did it over and over, not picking up the pace until she became restless against him and begged for more. When she tried slamming back into him, he hardened his thrusts slightly, staying fully connected to her through their bond so he could make sure she wasn’t in pain.

“Let go, Nick. I know you’re holding back.”

It seemed he wasn’t the only one who was tapping into the bond. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’d never hurt me. You’ve lost control lots of times, but you’ve never once hurt me, and you won’t do it now. Let go.”

Groaning, he began frantically pumping his hips, taking what he wanted and giving her what she needed. Every thrust was a brand, a reminder that she was his. Her noises drove him crazy and spurred him on until his pace was frenzied and relentless, offering her no mercy, ensuring she never forgot this, never forgot how good it felt.

“Nick, I need to come.”

“Then come.” As her body tightened and rippled around him, pure rapture tore through Nick—a pleasure/pain that went on and on—and he exploded inside her.

Shaya screamed his name as a blistering, white-hot fire tore through her mind, body, and soul—bowing her back and sending tremor after tremor ripping through her, obliterating every thought she had in her mind except for one: She loved the bastard.

“I’m not a bastard,” Nick practically slurred as they sank onto the mattress, still joined.

She hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud. “Sure you’re not, Beavis,” she panted.

He growled and nipped her shoulder, rolling them onto their sides. “I’m not stupid.”

“No, you’re just slow. And it’s such a shame too.”

“If I’m Beavis, you’re Butt-Head.”

She snorted. “You wouldn’t call me that.”

Smiling, he licked one of the marks he’d left on her nape. “Sure I would, Butt-Head.”

Indignant, Shaya shuffled over so that his c*ck slipped out of her. “The fact you think you can get away with that just proves that you’re dumb.” Then she dashed for the shower. Of course he followed her, and of course he made her come with his mouth again. Having stripped off the shredded bed sheets, they eventually collapsed on the bed, still na**d.

“I can’t believe you’ve already ruined the brand-new sheets. You need to learn better self-control,” he teased.

“I refer back to my earlier comment—you’re a bastard.”

Chuckling, Nick moved onto his side and pulled her to him. “Yeah, well, you still love me.”

She could sense his utter surprise. “You should have known I love you. You’ve heard what they say: ‘Love sucks; true love swallows.’ As I recall, I’ve always taken every last drop.”

He groaned. “Now I’m getting hard again.”

“Sorry, stud, but we can’t do anything about it until we’ve decided something important.”

“What’s that?” he asked, licking at his claiming mark. He couldn’t think of anything more important than making her come all over again—it was his favorite thing to do.

“What are we going to name the pack? It needs a name.”

“Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. Any ideas?”

“Well…when Taryn, Caleb, Joey—that’s the kid that Taryn thought was her true mate and died when he was nine—and I were little, we used to pretend we were a special ops team.”

“Special ops team?” He chuckled.

“Taryn and I weren’t girly as kids. Anyway, we used to call our team ‘Mercury Ops.’ I think that would be good for a pack name.”

“The Mercury Ops Pack?” he echoed with distaste.

She slapped his arm. “No. The Mercury Pack. It would mean a lot to me. And to Taryn. And to Caleb. And to Joey, whose soul may haunt you forever if you say no.” She fixed a pitiful look on her face. “Please?”

“Oh, I do love to hear you beg, Shay.”

“I’ve already run it by Derren and the others; they all like it.”

He narrowed his eyes as he realized something. “And here I thought they were working on you, but you’ve been working with them, haven’t you?”

She shrugged unapologetically. “Your wolf will always feel like something’s missing if he doesn’t do what he was born to do. That’s not good with me. So…the Mercury Pack—yes or no?”

“If I say no?”

“I’ll harass you until you say yes.” When a strange glint entered that dusky-green gaze, Shaya automatically became wary.

“I’ll tell you what: I’ll say yes if you agree to something.”

That didn’t sound good. “What is it you want?”

“I want you to drop this fantasy you have of me dressing like a sailor.”

“Oh, but—”

He rolled onto his back, holding up a hand to cut her off. “No, no, I am not dressing like a f**king sailor.”

She pouted. “Oh, come on! After the first few times, it won’t even feel kinky anymore.”

“No.”

“But you’d look so—”

“No.”

“Can’t you at least think—?”

“No.”

She growled and gave him the sulkiest pout ever. “Trey does it for Taryn.”

Nick felt his face scrunch up. “Jeez, Shay, I so did not need to know that.” The image came unbidden to his mind, and Nick feared it might just pop into his head whenever he was around the Alpha male in the future.

Her voice turned sultry. “If you do it, I may reconsider the pole dancing scenario you had in mind.”

A short pause. “I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”