she stretched out on top of him. “You were meant to be in the other sector,” he said with a scowl.
“I know.” She’d swapped sectors with another soldier after deciding to see if she could find some of his hidden treats before he sent her the clues. “What did you hide for me?”
He gripped her hips. “Bad kitties don’t get presents.”
Pretending to growl at him, she wiggled out of his hold and went to the tree roots. His gift was hidden in a small hole among the roots. It wasn’t a necklace or a bracelet. No, it was a string of tiny sparkling beads meant to tie off braids. Her eyes burned at the beauty and perfection of the gift. “Where did you get this?”
Nuzzling at her from behind, he said, “Special order from New York.”
He was so damn wonderful. And she wanted the whole wide world to know he was hers, for no one to ever again question their relationship. Placing the beads on the ground with care, she turned into his arms and kissed him. He groaned, hitching her onto his thighs as he knelt on the ground. “Say yes,” he whispered. “Say yes, Dezi.”
Her heart overflowing with love, Desiree wrapped her arms around him, put her lips right to his ear, and said, “Yes.”
The mating bond ignited, stealing her breath and making the air rush out of his lungs. His arms locked around her, hers around him as the power of it gripped them both by the throat and demanded everything they had. Trembling in the aftermath, Felix in a similar condition, she realized she could feel the earth and the warmth of him inside her now.
Her leopard stretched out in pure, happy delight as Felix fell back, taking both of them to the forest floor. Lying flat on his back, his hands on her hips, he watched her push the hair off her face . . . and he smiled. A gorgeous, deep smile that creased his cheeks and that was so infectious she was grinning madly when she kissed him. “You taste smug.”
“I am smug,” he said, shifting his hands to her ass. “I just convinced my impossibly beautiful, dangerously sexy dominant leopard changeling to mate with me.” Amber eyes glowed with the wolf’s delight. “This smug isn’t going to wear off for a while.” He groaned as she rubbed her body over his hard one. “Especially if you keep doing things like that.”
Desiree decided she liked him smug. She particularly liked how he held her eyes as they just lay there looking at one another with matching grins. “I feel slightly drunk.”
“Yeah, the mating bond packs a punch.” He ran a hand over her back. “Thanks for hitting on me right back at the start.”
“Thanks for taking the risk and playing with me.” Running her fingers through his hair, she rubbed her nose against his. “So, where are we going to live?”
Epilogue
They ended up building an aerie near the SnowDancer den. As a wolf and for his work, Felix needed to be physically closer to his pack, and Desiree was plenty fast enough to run down to DarkRiver land whenever she wanted. Settling in the den was out, however—she loved the sense of family and stability that was Pack, but she’d go nuts living that close to so many packmates.
The aerie was a happy medium, ensuring her leopard had its own small territory while giving Felix quick access to the den. Desiree didn’t stick to the aerie, of course, coming in and out of the den as needed. And Felix came down with her to see her parents and packmates regularly. The distance could’ve been problematic with her own responsibilities as a DarkRiver senior soldier, but Riley and Mercy had figured things out so she now worked with both the SnowDancer and DarkRiver teams.
Her alpha had cupped her face at the news of her mating and, panther-green eyes holding her own, said, “You may have mated with a wolf but you’re DarkRiver—no way in hell am I allowing Hawke to steal you.” A snarl. “You’re on the road to becoming a sentinel and I expect the same things from you that I expect from my other sentinels.”
“Yes, sir,” Desiree said, Lucas’s approval the icing on her joy.
“It’ll mean a lot of hard work and long hours for you,” Lucas warned. “Your mate going to be able to handle it?”
“Absolutely.” Desiree had not a doubt in her mind about that, not after Felix had offered