my ankles locking behind his back as he slammed home.
“Hold on,” he said, his voice gruff.
I grabbed his shoulders, my nails piercing his skin as he slid out only to violently thrust back into me. “Ryder.”
“More,” he returned, picking up his pace and taking me with a ferocity I had never seen in him before.
He pistoned into me, his need a darkness that threatened to consume us both. I encouraged it—welcomed it—and held him to me while lifting my hips to meet his.
It was savage, animalistic insanity.
I drew blood.
He bit my neck, nibbled my chin, and recaptured my mouth.
It was hard.
Fast.
Harsh.
And stunningly perfect.
His beast had taken over, forcing me to feel his yearning, his claim, his need to keep me.
“Forever,” I heard Ryder whisper, the reverence in his tone a kiss to my senses. “Mate.”
My inner walls clamped around him, that word one I recognized to my very soul. “Mate,” I echoed, coming apart beneath him in a climax that blanketed my vision in shades of black. His teeth sealed around my shoulder, biting down in a way that made my wolf howl in approval.
I sank my teeth into his shoulder as well, moaning at the taste of his blood on my tongue. He growled my name, his orgasm erupting inside me in a pulsing wave of heat and bliss. His tremors rivaled mine, both of us breathing heavily.
And then we were kissing each other as though our lives depended on it.
His air became mine.
My air became his.
Our bodies were already moving again, his shaft still hard and virile inside. He rolled onto his back to let me ride him. Then later he rolled me beneath him again to plunge deep inside me. And eventually he sat up, forcing me to straddle him as he slowed the pace and stared into my eyes.
I vaguely noticed the sun, realizing we’d been doing this for hours and hours.
But I couldn’t stop.
Nor did I even want to try.
I felt connected to him. Branded. Entirely possessed.
His arms came around me as I circled mine around his neck, our tongues dueling in a lazy kiss that matched our rhythm below. He’d come inside me countless times, just as I’d fallen into ecstasy over and over again.
But this pace had nothing to do with pleasure. We were merely existing together, our bodies marrying one another in a dance only known to mates.
I didn’t fully understand it. However, my hybrid nature did.
We were creating an eternal vow to each other.
Born of an emotion I never truly understood until I met Ryder—love.
I loved Rae and Silas as my sister and brother.
But Ryder I loved as something more.
My other half.
My soul’s ideal connection.
My wolf’s beast.
He kissed me softly, his tongue whispering the words back to me as we came together in unison, our bodies exhausted and depleted yet renewed and full. I started to cry, the sensation almost too much. He drew his lips over my skin, absorbing each tear as though it were his due, then he eased us back onto the bed again with me beneath him once more.
“You know what this means, right?” he asked me, his voice a low, masculine purr to my senses.
“You’re keeping me,” I told him, palming his cheek.
“I am,” he said, smiling down at me. “My forever pet.”
“I’m not calling you my master,” I murmured, yawning. It seemed like the right reply, mostly because my wolf refused to be completely tamed.
He chuckled. “You will if I tell you to.”
“Mmm,” I hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
“You’re magnificent, Willow.” He drew his lips across my cheek to my ear. “And I’m not just talking about the sex.”
I smiled, my eyes falling closed. “You’re magnificent, too.” I yawned again. “And I am talking about the sex.”
He laughed this time, the sound a rumble from his chest to mine, making my legs clench around him. “You intrigue me, pet,” he said, playing on one of our first conversations.
“That’s good,” I whispered. “I rather like being alive.”
His lips curled against my cheek. “I like you being alive, too.”
“Then I guess I need another hammer.”
“Going to try to hit me with it?” he mused.
Probably not. “Yes,” I said instead.
“Good.” His nose skimmed my jaw. “Try not to miss this time.”
“I won’t.”
He rolled off of me to draw me into his side, my head using his shoulder as a pillow. My bite mark on the opposite side hadn’t started to heal yet, pleasing me in the darkest sense. Mine.
“I love you, Willow,” he whispered, his lips pressing into