This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,107

wave. My whole world rips and it feels like my foundations shift. It’s more than pleasure. It’s darkness and need, hope and violence. As I match the fury in Tristan’s final thrusts before he crashes with me, my wolf’s energy rises to the surface, seeking, trying to reach beyond me.

I’m searching for the true mate bond I can’t attain. Will never attain.

With furious determination, I push the threatening heartache from my mind, refusing to allow it to define this moment. I have to accept who I am, that I can share my body and heart with Tristan, even if there will never be a soul connection between us.

Tristan remains poised above me, his fists on either side of my head, his chest rising and falling, rapid breaths that match how fast I’m breathing. He searches my eyes, demanding but not furious anymore, before he dips his head to nudge my lips with his, another brief testing pressure.

I arch to follow his lips, demanding that he kiss me fully, enjoying the taste of his mouth before I drop my head back onto the bed and wait for him to respond.

He makes a pleased sound in the back of his throat, his lips relaxed, a satisfied smile growing on his lips again.

The bedsheets are strewn around us. I’m still gripping a section of them in my fist and I slowly release it, sighing with remnant pleasure as he withdraws his body from mine.

I’m prepared for him to leave the bed, but he stays where he is, dipping his head to my thighs and nudging them, one after the other, with his lips, stroking kisses up to my lower stomach.

His tongue swirls across my skin, along my ribcage, across my breasts, pausing at the bruise I sustained tonight. The cut has closed already, but the wound will take another day to disappear. He whispers kisses around its edges before he continues over to my shoulder, down my right arm, all the way to my fingers, where he turns my palm over and sucks on the inside of my forefinger. I gasp and shiver as he works his way back up my arm and across my collarbone to my other shoulder.

It’s a careful, methodical process that makes my wolf’s energy purr, contentment lulling me into submission as I accept his attention.

His lips ease across my neck, his hands brushing across my body. I don’t think anything of it when he folds one hand around my left shoulder and presses the palm of his other hand against my jaw on the same side.

I watch him lazily as his incisors descend and he lowers his mouth to my shoulder, preparing to nip.

My eyes fly wide. “No!”

His only reaction to my sudden tension is to pause and level his gaze with mine. “My instincts tell me this is right, Tessa.”

My breathing is suddenly out of my control, but it’s because of misery not panic. He’s forcing me to face the fact that I’m losing something I never had.

“You said that the woman you mark will be yours forever,” I say. “How can I be yours forever when I won’t live longer than another year?”

He doesn’t deny my question, but his response is equally unequivocal. “My forever only lasts as long as I’m alive. My forever will be shorter than yours. But for the time I have left, I want you by my side.”

He’s telling me he doesn’t expect to live beyond the next few months. I’ve never wanted to say yes more badly in my life. My lips part, my body more alive even than when my wolf runs free.

Tristan’s thumb strokes my shoulder, his other hand soft and compelling against my jaw. “You withstood my worst, Tessa. Hell, you invited it.” His voice is thick, his calm receding, a new anger growing in his shifting eyes, becoming more animal as he speaks.

“There’s no such thing as normal bonding for creatures like you and me because our true nature is to rip apart anything that binds us,” he says. “We refuse to be caged. You have fought me every step of the way. You would rather tear yourself apart than give in to the idea that I have any control over you.”

His grip tightens on my shoulder, demanding that I agree. “I will never find an equal like you. You’re the one I want.”

I guard my thoughts, making sure he doesn’t have a window into my inner turmoil. My response could break us. I will never agree