spills past my lips, and he smiles, approving of my reaction. My mind swings back to Martell, to how he denied me because of my magic and called me an abomination, yet Ragnar doesn’t bat an eye that I just burned him.
Except, I’m falling so quickly for his charm when my priority should be finding my sisters, not taking over territory with a pack of Viking Alphas. And in response, my wolf bristles inside me with disapproval that I would even consider another Alpha when we have Martell. I clench my teeth at how nothing I do will make her understand that he’s not ours.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.” I push against his chest, needing to clear my mind and not let the heady emotions control me. “My wolf has already found her mate, and she longs for him. Did you hear her earlier growling at you?” Even in my head, my lame excuse sounds like just that. I’m scared to let myself feel the things I do for Ragnar.
One of his eyebrows arches. “Where is your mate now?”
“Hopefully as far from me as possible.”
“Then what’s the problem? It’s not your wolf I want to fuck. You must be feeling the pull between us, Narah.”
My skin flushes at his words. “But I also feel my wolf rejecting you.” I push against his shoulders, straining to get down to my feet. Fire fills my lungs that my instincts so easily lead me.
Ragnar licks his lips. “There’s only one way to retrain your wolf and make her forget your fated mate. We realign her.”
I offer him a narrowing gaze in response. “What are you talking about?”
“Our wolves are primal animals who long for one thing—rutting with their mate.” Ragnar’s arms squeeze around me, his muscles tense as he drops down to his knees in the field with me still clinging to him.
My breath wedges in my chest as he lowers me to the ground on my back, and he follows, covering me with his body. I keep my legs wrapped around him as I quiver at what he’s proposing.
The grass tickles the side of my face while Ragnar kisses my cheek and makes a path to my neck. I cry out with pleasure, my spine curving in response, pressing my breasts against him with a growing need coming over me.
“So, to help your wolf,” he whispers in my ear, “I will mark you as mine.”
His words have me stiffening beneath him, then I tremble to hear he will take me as his own.
“Wait! What? Don’t you dare. And is that even possible?” My stomach heaves from my wolf’s protesting snarl, her anger leaching through my veins, while my whole body burns with heat. I’m at two extremes, feeling like I’m coming apart at the seams between two overbearing needs.
He pulls back to look down at me, grinning wickedly. “What scares you, little fox? That you’ll enjoy it or that you have to finally admit the truth of what you want from me?”
“I don’t understand. You’re going to make me your mate?” My mind fires up all kinds of scenarios where he’ll leave me, because I wasn’t good enough for Martell, so how can I be good enough for him? And what now? I need to be forced into a being with a mate?
“Think of it as a distraction to stop your wolf from pining for your fated mate. Unless, of course, you have every intention of returning to him.” His hand slides over my shoulder and down my chest, cupping my breast.
A moan rolls over my throat, and I’m attuned to every single touch, every movement of his body against mine. He angles his hips to fit perfectly between my legs and presses his hard cock to the apex of my thighs. The warmth of his body on mine reminds me how tiny I am compared to him, how I know exactly what I’m doing, and yet I still blush.
Finding my voice, I ask, “What does marking me as yours really mean then?”
“That I’ll allow your wolf to believe I am your fated mate, but there will be no painful longing, no agony for your soulmate. You will rarely find another fated mate. I’m giving you a gift, Narah. You ran from your soulmate, and now I’m going to make you forget him.”
“I didn’t run,” I admit, unsure why I even told him, but the words rush past my lips regardless. “The bastard rejected me then he tried to kill me