She wanted this to go on and on, she forever locked with him in the splendid silence of the night woods. Moonlight filtered through the trees to touch them like a gentle embrace.

But their bodies wanted mating, the basic need to procreate driving them on. A wave of black pleasure washed over Iona, beginning where Eric joined with her and rippling through every inch of her body.

Eric! I love you!

Iona cried out as the thought tore through her, and she nearly fell, but Eric held her upright, his hands rock steady. He groaned low in his throat, and she felt his seed scalding her, filling her up, heady heat and pleasure.

The sensation sent her over the top. Iona’s cries rang out into the night, blending with Eric’s as they sealed themselves together. Mating.

Iona collapsed on top of him, laughing again, so happy to be gathered into his arms. She was warm, safe, well.

I love you, Eric, the voice whispered inside her, and Iona shook.

They shifted to run back to the cabin, this time side by side. Eric’s leopard’s shoulder bumped Iona’s as they negotiated narrow parts of the trails.

Their breaths steamed, the November night cold and clear. The rivulets of snow that ran through the woods were hard packed, their paws making no indentations in it.

Eric flowed back to his human form when they reached the cabin porch, and he turned, watching her expectantly.

Think of the form you want to be, then be it.

Iona pictured herself as her human, tallish and bare, with thick dark hair and eyes of icy blue. She took a step forward, visualizing herself easing into human form as quickly as Eric had.

Her limbs distorted and changed as slowly as ever, her muscles protesting as they moved from long-legged panther to a woman with hips more curved than she wanted them to be.

“Ow,” she said, when her mouth became human.

Eric shook his head. “You’ll get it.”

“What are you laughing at, hot-ass?”

“Not laughing. Enjoying.”

Eric shoved open the door and let himself into the cabin first. This let Iona stand back to observe his oh-so-nice butt. Tight and smooth, it was fine indeed.

Iona followed Eric into the high-ceilinged front room, enjoying watching him bend down to touch a long-handled lighter to start the fire he’d laid.

“You don’t have to bother with that,” she said. “I’m not cold.”

“Me either.” Eric set the lighter back on its shelf. “The mating frenzy makes you forget about hot and cold, and sleep, food, and safety. You can die from not paying attention.”

With warmth and need wrapping around her, Iona couldn’t quite grasp that. “You’ve been in the mating frenzy before.”

Eric looked up at her, his eyes quiet. “Yes.”

“With Kirsten.”

“Yes.”

Iona touched her hands together. “You must have loved her very much.”

Eric nodded. “Yes. Very much.”

“Then why do you want another mate?”

Eric pushed himself from the fireplace and came to her, the first flickers of fire shadowing his tall, naked body. He skimmed warm hands down her arms.

“Because I saw you.”

Words stuck in Iona’s throat. The heat of his hands made her realize that she truly was cold, and she shivered.

Eric’s eyes darkened. He cupped Iona’s face in his hands and drew her up to kiss her.

His mouth was as warm as his skin. Eric kissed her with slow seduction, the frenzy slightly abated from all their lovemaking, but not by much. His lips sought, touched, warmed. Iona slid her arms around him as he kissed her, and pulled him close.

The surging fire began to grow, the only light, filling the room with a rosy glow. In it, Eric lifted Iona and carried her to the thick rug in front of the hearth.

On this rug, where Iona had played as a child, cuddled with her mother as a preteen, and daydreamed with her little sister as a teenager, Eric laid her down and made slow, sweet love to her. With his warm weight on her, his jade green eyes watching her, Iona knew she wanted to be no other place.

“Iona,” he said, his voice rasping. “Say you’ll be my mate. Sun and moon. Please.”

The please had so much emptiness in it, so many years of loneliness, that it wrenched Iona’s heart. “All right,” she whispered.

They spent the rest of the night making love, first on the hearth rug, then in the large bedroom on the first floor. Eric said very little after her acceptance, but he kept looking at her with such triumph in his eyes that he made her nervous.

Iona’s nerves wound up even more in the morning when they banked the fires, locked up the cabin, and headed back to Shiftertown.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Iona noticed a change in the Shifters when she returned to Eric’s house, and not just the smirks that told her that everyone knew how much sex she and Eric had enjoyed last night. The Shifters seemed to know, without being told, that she’d agreed to be Eric’s mate.

Shane, who’d entered the kitchen to talk to Diego, snapped his head around to look at Iona as she and Eric came in the front door. Then Shane took a deliberate step back, as though acknowledging he should stay away from her.

Cassidy rushed to Iona and hugged her hard, kissing her on the cheek. “Welcome to the clan,” she said.

Jace’s embrace, coming a second later, was as warm and heartfelt. “Thanks, Iona,” he said in her ear. “Dad needs you.”

Diego laughed and grabbed Iona for another hug, this one Diego-and-Cassidy scented. “It’s not so bad here once you get used to it,” he said, with a slow wink at Cassidy. “Eric, you need to build on to your house. You can’t stuff Iona into that shoebox-sized room of yours.”

“I’ll vacate my room and sleep downstairs,” Jace said, sounding unworried. “I’d rather, with all the mating that will be going on up here. I’ll need the quiet. The babies can have Dad’s room, until they get big enough to start screaming for their own space.”

“You’re very thoughtful, Son,” Eric said, deadpan.

“He just wants the man cave to himself,” Cassidy said. “Diego and I might have to join him down there if Eric gets too loud. He is clan leader, after all.” She laughed and then slid her hand to her abdomen. “Ooh, she’s ready to fight her way out soon.”

“You don’t know it’s a she, chiquita.” Diego leaned to Cassidy’s ear and licked it. “We’ve never had an ultrasound.”