Page 44 of Alpha Exile

Somehow, my own thoughts are echoed aloud in Delilah's familiar voice, which sneaks up on me so eerily that I jump a little.

"I wasn't planning on it," I protest, turning away from the caverns and towards her. "It's just... I can't believe we're not going right back in there this very second. It feels like betrayal to stand out here, being with you, while he's in there."

Though the sight of her naked body, the smell of her sweat, and the lingering arousal I can taste in the air and feel through our bond is enough to make my jeans tighten, despite my noble intentions towards my best friend.

"We're not just out here having fun," Delilah points out, grabbing my wrist and tugging me away from the caverns. "We're renewing our mate bond, making it stronger. It's the only way to be ready for another battle against Delphine, short of waiting for days. Unless you were planning on sleeping?"

I don't think I'll be able to do that as long as Roarke is in there, alone and possibly without his soul. Delilah has a good point, though. I'm practically swaying on my feet with exhaustion, but I know as soon as I bury myself in her and feel our bond strengthen, that'll change. Our mate bond connects us to the pack and the land, which is the source of our strength, and the only way we'll defeat that heinous bitch once and for all.

"I just can't help but feel that he should be here. It isn't right that he's not. At the same time, I know I can't change it unless I do something."

Turning towards Delilah fully, I'm struck by the beauty of her naked body. Her slender waist, pale skin, wide hips, and flushed breasts all stir feelings of attraction within me. But it's the sympathetic, knowing expression in her crystal green eyes that makes me stalk forward to draw her into my arms and bury my head in her hair.

She whispers, "I miss him too. I want more than anything to just race in there and get him back. But we can't go in unprepared—or weak."

"I know that."

"She could steal you back," Delilah adds, her pulse quickening beneath my hands as I splay them along her back and dig my fingers into her soft skin. "If you're not fully bonded to me, if the threads aren't strong, it'll be easy for her to take you. Even while I'm fully awake. And I—I couldn't survive that again."

Neither could I.

And, I have to admit, her flushed skin and warm, naked body against me are too compelling to resist. Even if nobly turning her away were the right choice, I'm not sure that I could. Which is why I go with her as she leads me to a tarp in the middle of the woods, splayed out and staked down into the soft earth, an open box of condoms spilling out onto one of its corners.

I raise my brow at that sight. "Finn?"

"You guessed it." Delilah stretches up to kiss my mouth, murmuring against my lips. "Now, let me make you feel better. Then we can both strike out into the darkness to get our boy back."

Tilting my head, I kiss her back and guide her hands down to the waistband of my pants. As I strip my shirt off, I break away from her lips and tell her, "I've always loved you, you know."

"I do." Her breath catches as I take her hips in my hands and pull them forward, snugly fitting her body against mine. "I love you too. Especially the man you've become."

"I never would've become that man without you," I admit, my arousal growing and lengthening as she splays her thighs against me, her lips parted and her hips moving up and down. "Everything I am is because of you, Delilah. I belong to you. Body and soul."

"Then prove it," she says.

With eager hands, she guides me down to the tarp with her. First I hold my body above hers, my hands bracketing her on either side, and I drag kisses across her flushed skin. I taste her cheeks and lips, her neck and shoulders, down to her breasts and nipples, which peak beneath my tongue.

At the same time, I reach between her thighs and press them open with my fingers. She's hot and flushed, aroused and wet from already mating. The wolf in me rises at that, lashing his tail and prowling forward with a growl, hungry to leave his scent behind his pack mates' and freshly mark his territory.

So I slide further south, licking and nibbling at her abdomen, inhaling her scent. She twists up beneath me and whimpers, the sound going straight towards my cock. Guiding her thighs open with my palms, I dip my head between them, the sight and smell of her arousing me nearly to the point of pain.

Then I part my lips, look up her curved body towards her flushed face, and press my mouth down on her. I fit my lips on her to find suction, slide my tongue out, and flick its muscle against her clit as I suck hungrily on her apex.

"Kieran." Delilah's hands twist in my hair, and she moans as she guides my mouth up against her, sliding her slick heat onto my splayed tongue. "Oh, Kieran—ah!"

She moans and twists beneath me, the heady taste of her and the scent of her body filling my senses and overriding everything else. I can sense the bond beneath us, can feel her flushed arousal through the threads that bind us together and grow tight, though I can't see the threads themselves. Reaching down beneath my mouth, I push a finger inside her and crook it up towards her belly, enjoying the strangled sound of desire that leaves her mouth.

Then she's growling, her fingernails lengthening and digging into my scalp, my wolf bursting against my skin and twitching in my loins. Her hips lift off the tarp and her entire body tenses—then collapses against me in delicate waves, cries of ecstasy leaving her mouth.

They're sounds that I know will fill the forest and hit her other mates' ears, and I revel in them, enjoying the flushed desire I can draw from her body.

As I feel her come down, I draw my mouth slowly off her and turn my head to kiss the inside of her thighs. Then I climb up her body, wrapping her legs around my waist and pulling her into my lap. Her quick fingers find a condom as our mouths meet in a sensuous kiss, and a moment later I'm rolling it down my length so I can position her over me and bury my shaft in her body.

The quick intake of her breath lets me know to hold myself still for a moment. She relaxes onto me, rolling forward and working her hips back and forth. Her body shudders as she lets me in, and she bites her lower lip delicately, flushed and beautiful from head to toe.

Pushing her hair back from her shoulder, I bury my face in her neck and lean into her scent. Then I grab her hips, brace my folded legs beneath me, and work myself into her until I feel a steady rhythm of pleasure build inside me.

Delilah's cries of desire and the tightness of her warm body around my length push me to the edge. Wrapping my fingers in her hair, I dive towards it, thrusting harder and faster, pulling her tight against me until I'm buried in her fully.

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