Page 12 of His Secret Mate

He filled her up, but wanted to keep fucking her, continuing to fill her with his seed. That wasn’t true—he wanted to allow a knot to form and to drive it up into her, allowing her to experience the complete ecstasy of being mated to an alpha dire wolf. He knew—in the dim recesses of his mind that were still capable of functioning like a human—that was his wolf talking. He knew what it wanted. It wanted Lara completely. He wanted to allow his fangs to elongate, sinking into her throat and marking her for all time.

Orion forced himself to slide from her body, rolling onto his back and dragging her with him so that they were fitted together. There. It was done. They were together. He closed his eyes and drifted into a blissful slumber.

CHAPTER 5

LARA

Lara woke, wrapped naked in Orion’s arms. For just the briefest moment, she allowed herself to bask in the feeling this man evoked in her. Were they fated mates? She didn’t know. Well, maybe she did, but she didn’t have time to be anyone’s fated mate. She had a job to do, and she was damn well going to do it.

She slipped from the bed and went back to the dormitory, taking a quick shower and getting dressed for the day. Lara chose her clothing carefully. She was unsure of what had happened or more precisely, what it meant to either of them. It still seemed unclear. All Lara knew was that she needed to harvest the Solanum Mystica and get it back to her lab in Otter Cove. She could do, and had been doing, some preliminary work up here at the Aurora Station, but the station didn’t have all of the equipment she needed.

Lara wondered briefly how she might feel about everything if she wasn’t committed to helping the Tasmanian Devil community. The idea of being here with Orion, somewhat removed from the Resistance and praying she could find a cure in time for DFTD, had a lot of appeal. It was peaceful and stark but had a romantic beauty all its own.

Not knowing what else to do and not wanting to appear either clingy or aloof, Lara headed into the kitchen and began making a breakfast casserole with potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs, onions, peppers, black beans, and cheese. She wouldn’t wake him, although she’d noticed his enhanced sense of smell as a dire wolf often found him heading for the kitchen when food was involved. But she could make a casserole, and he could reheat it if needed.

She looked out the window at the desolate and beautiful landscape that stretched before her. The kitchen was situated in an area that offered a panoramic view of the wilderness. The sky was a menacing shade of charcoal, thick clouds roiling and whispering promises of chaos. Lara stood looking across the wide expanse, her gaze fixed on the distant tree line where she was sure the Solanum Mystica and all of its secrets awaited her. She could almost feel the electric charge in the air, the storm brewing on the horizon.

Lara could feel his presence before he wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. She still couldn’t hear him when he approached. She supposed his stealth was part of what made dire wolves such excellent predators. That he saw her as some kind of tasty snack made her insides turn to liquid fire. She’d been attracted to him before, but now just knowing he was close made her nipples stiffen and her sex soften. A single night had not been enough. What the hell was she going to do?

"There's another storm coming, Lara," Orion whispered, his voice steady but edged with concern. He leaned against her, pressing her into the counter, his presence a comforting weight and a reminder of what it had felt like last night to be surrounded by him. "It's too risky to venture out now."

It was as if he could read her mind. She turned in his arms to face him, her aquamarine eyes flashing with determination. "Orion, you know I need to harvest that plant. I am convinced it could prove to be the key to finding a cure. And there’s no telling what else it might be able to help us with. The plant was thought to be extinct, and yet here it is. If I don't get the samples I need, it could be lost forever. We don’t know that it will survive another storm, much less the rest of the season."

Orion sighed, stepped back and ran a hand through his dark hair, the silver streaks glinting in the dim light. "I won't lie to you. I doubt the plant will last much longer. It probably won’t even survive the incoming storm. But all things in the Arctic have their season; it should rebound next year or maybe even next season. We don’t know what its blooming or life cycle is. We can wait; it’s not worth risking your life for."

That’s where he was wrong—it was. Lara clenched her fists, a knot of frustration tightening in her gut.

“Don’t give me that look,” he rumbled low. “You are not to leave the safety of this building. Hell, I don’t even want you going over to the hangar.”

“Couldn’t we take one of the vehicles? Aren’t they designed to work in weather like this?” She glanced back over her shoulder and out the window. The storm seemed to be on a kind of collision course with the station. She could almost feel its icy breath. "I can't wait, Orion. Trudi and her people don't have the luxury of time."

His brow furrowed, a shadow of confusion passing over his handsome features. "Why do you say that? I mean, I know the disease is eating away at their numbers, but what's so urgent that you can't wait for better conditions?"

Lara hesitated, the secret she had been keeping pressing heavily on her mind. Not only was it the secret of a friend, but it was confidential information shared between her as a doctor and Trudi as her patient. Only Lara and Hamish knew the truth, the dark specter that had been haunting Trudi. Lara had found the beginning markers of DFTD in some of the tests she had run at Trudi’s request. Once the disease took hold, it could produce lethal results at a devastating pace. Trudi's time could be slipping away. Every second counted, every sample, every discovery.

"Trudi's running out of time," Lara whispered, her voice barely audible over the rising wind. "I can't ask her to wait any longer."

“You mean those of her kind who have it.”

She looked into his eyes—her haunted eyes locking with his. She needed to make him understand—it wasn’t just a commitment to her research and helping others. It was personal. It was Trudi. “No, Orion, I mean Trudi herself.”

Orion looked like someone who’d been punched in the gut. His expression softened as the light of understanding dawned in his eyes. "You mean?” Lara nodded. “Okay, I get it, but going out there now could be a death sentence. I forbid you to go."

“You forbid? Just because we had sex does not make you the boss of me.”

His laughter had a dark edge to it. “For someone who’s been around a lot of shifters, you don’t really get the whole fated mate thing, do you? Last night wasn’t just some casual, one night kind of thing. I didn’t inflict a claiming bite, but that doesn’t lessen what happened between us. You are my mate, and I damn sure am the boss of you, especially here at the station. You look out at the incoming storm and the beautiful wilderness and think it’s just snow. I see it for the kind of killer storm that will sweep through here, killing everything in its path that doesn’t have the good sense to stay out of its reach.”

She shook her head. Her decision was made. If he wouldn’t help her, she would go alone. He’d shown her on the map where he had last seen the plant. She was certain at least one of the vehicles out in the hangar had to have a nav unit. She’d enter the GPS coordinates from the map and drive straight to the plant, hop out, get what she needed and be back before he even knew she was gone. Her decision was made. It had been made even before she’d stowed away on the plane.

"I have to do this, Orion. For Trudi."

“You do not owe her your life. You will not leave the station. Am I clear about that?”

Before he could protest further, Lara turned and made her way back towards her room.

“I moved your things into my room,” he said.

She stopped but didn’t turn around. “You might have asked.”

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