Page 41 of Protected By Her Mate

I let out a happy growl, a wolf version of a purr and breathe her in. From this angle I can smell up her skirt and it makes my mouth water, makes me want to knock her on her back, use my teeth to tear away the panties and lap her up.

“Should I get on your back now?” she asks hesitantly.

I shuffle around until my ribcage touches her knees, encouraging her to climb on.

She stands and gingerly lifts a leg over top of me, straddling me. As she lowers herself, I stand, lifting her off the ground. She gasps and takes fistfuls of my fur in her hands.

You need to hang on tighter than that, I tell her through our bond.

She’s not able to clearly read my thoughts yet, but she’s starting to, so I beam an image into her mind of her gripping me, her arms wrapped around my neck, her knees clinging to my sides.

Without a word, she complies with my message, slipping her arms around me. “Let’s go,” she says in my ear. “I want to see New York the way you see it.”

She doesn’t have to tell me twice.

I leap on top of the dumpster and then to the fire escape above it.

Her grip turns into a stranglehold. “This isn’t what I thought you meant by going for a run!”

I let out a huff of laughter and continue climbing, leaping up the fire escape so fast it becomes a blur. When we reach the roof, she’s gasping and laughing, babbling in my ear, “Oh my god, that was the best!”

She thinks that was the best? Not even close.

I look around just to be safe, but I don’t need to. I have every part of the city mapped in my brain. Every roof, every building. I’ve seen them come and go for over a century. This is my city.

She screams as I race toward the edge of the roof. “Oh god! No, no, no…!”

I leap, stretching my limbs out as we soar through the air. We land on the roof of the next building and before she can catch her breath, we’re leaping onto another rooftop.

I want to catch every thought and feeling as she has them, feel what it’s like to do this for the first time again. I can’t dip into her brain though; she’s too precious to risk dropping. I can’t get distracted for a single second.

Her delighted laughter is enough for now, a tinkling balm to my ears, music I can listen to forever.

We run and leap, going from building to building, occasionally stopping so she can look out over Central Park or gaze at the Statue of Liberty, seeing it from a new perspective.

Finally, after an hour, I sense her energy depleting. The excitement of our run is draining her, but there’s one more thing I want her to see. It’s what brought me back to New York in the first place and, before Charlie, it was why I stayed.

I urge her through our connection to hang on as tight as she can and she does, a thrill going through me at how close our mating bond has become. Briefly I remember Magdalene visiting me at Wolf-Haven castle, urging me not to mate with her. She’s right. I’m caught in an impossible situation. If I mate with Charlie, she might die. If I don’t mate with her, I’ll lose her anyway. Both options tear me apart.

Brooklyn Bridge is in sight now. Charlie lets out a shriek as I leap and climb the steel supports of the bridge, the muscles beneath my skin bunching against her as we go higher and higher.

My paws land with precision, each footfall familiar until I’m standing on the tower, facing the sun as it slips slowly beneath the horizon bathing the water below us in a soft fiery glow and lighting up the city with its dying rays.

Charlie slides off my back and drops to her knees next to me.

I shift to my human and crouch by her side. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes shine with tears. “I’m… I’m….” She swipes them away as she meets my eyes. “I’ve lived here my whole life, left the island a handful of times, but this…” She sweeps her arm out and laughs unsteadily. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” She throws her arms around me and tilts her head to the side to watch the sunset. “Thank you, Lennox. This is the best gift I’ve ever received.”

I hold her against me, content that I’ve pleased my mate.

She tilts her face up to look at me. “Am I?”

“Are you what?”

“Am I your mate?”

Chapter 16

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