Page 228 of Kingdoms of Night

“However, I’m not punishing you, Riley. I’m putting your needs first. Becausethatis what a good Alpha does.”

He curled his fingers again with his final three words, driving his statement home by forcing my body into a climax that blanketed my vision in bright white lights.

His name left my mouth on a pant as I grabbed his wrist and forced his hand to remain between my thighs.

Not that he’d tried to remove it.

He’d simply continued to stroke me, drawing out my pleasure while his purr soothed me with the comforting rhythm.

“Mmm, I could get used to those sounds,” he hummed. “And the way you’re clamping down around me makes me want to sink into your slick cunt and knot you for days.”

“Yes.” I pressed against his hand and then back into his groin. “I want your knot. Only your knot. No other knot.”

“Is that you speaking? Or your heat?” he asked against my ear, a hint of sensual teasing in his voice.

“It’s me. It’s both. It’s… my wolf.” I shuddered as his palm flexed, my body more than ready to go again. “I want you, Jonas. I’ve wanted you since the first day I saw you. My Icelandic knight. My Alpha. My protector. My…”My future.

Oh, I was lost to him. To us. Tothis.

Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was my wolf taking control. Maybe it was the suppressants breaking my mind.

But I no longer wanted to fight this attraction. I no longer wanted to hate him, to avoid him, or to dismiss him.

I just wanted Jonas.

“Knot me,” I begged. “Please.”

“No.” He nipped my earlobe, my heart sinking with that easy denial.

He wanted to prove his control to me. To show me how an Alpha controlled his rut.

Was it because of my behavior? My rudeness? Or because of what he’d told me about his biological father?

His hand left my slick heat to trail upward to my jaw.

A tear blurred my vision, my heart seeming to break at the realization that he’d meant every word about not knotting me.

He gripped my chin and pulled my head back to look at him over my shoulder.

His icy gaze captured mine.

“I want to kiss you first,” he said. “Then I’ll knot you.” He pulled me closer, his lips only a hairsbreadth from mine. “And once I’m deep inside you, I’m going to claim you.”

My heart stopped. “Jonas…”

He brushed his mouth against mine, silencing me. “My wolf has chosen you. He’s going to claim you, Riley. Just like your wolf is going to claim mine.”

My inner animal hummed as though agreeing with that assessment.

She’d chosen him from the first day we’d met.

I’d just been fighting the instinct while being utterly rude to Jonas.

But he didn’t seem to mind now.

His light blue eyes were intense, holding me captive as he said, “And after I claim you, I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you what it means to have a good Alpha mate.”

CHAPTERELEVEN