Page 65 of Claimed

She smiles and stares off into space for a minute. “I didn’t think it could be like this,” she admits.

“Like what?” I ask and reach for my drink.

“The… the…” She lowers her voice. “The sex.”

I choke on my drink for a second and once I recover, I giggle. While waving my hand. “I’ll have to take your word for it. All grown up and never even been kissed over here. But, please feel free tonotelaborate. If you weren’t mated to my brother I’d want all the hot and heavy details but… it’s Greyson, so…”

“Point taken,” she says. “My turn to make drinks.”

She hops off her stool and wobbles. Then she giggles.

I giggle too.

“I like these drinks. They make me all warm and gooey,” she says as she opens the fridge and pulls out the juice.

I’m feeling warm and gooey myself. “Mission accomplished then. I was hoping to help you relax. And get you talking,” I admit.

She laughs and slaps her leg animatedly. “Mission accomplished, I guess.”

“Talking to you, Amie and her sister Ivy… I so, so hope I wind up with a super alpha. Or even a regular one. To hear about the knotyour whole life and never get it? A crying shame. Please Lord don’t let me have to mate a beta.”

She lifts her glass and taps my glass with hers. “The knot? It’s amazing!” she exclaims, and she does it so animatedly I can tell she’sfor sureas much of a lightweight as me. “Sex has never been like this. I hated it before this.” She makes a face of distaste. “And I didn’t know much about the knot thing. A couple of the older ladies in our pack brought it up, but I thought it was a myth.”

And I can tell something else, too. She’s going to be part of the girl crew. I decide she needs to know this, but before I get a chance to say it, she leans in closer and even more animated.

“And I don’t even think it’sjustabout the knot. Because yeah, that expanding thing and vibration thing is incredible but nobody ever used their tongue on medown thereand phew… the way Greyson does that? Oh, my stars… that’s some magic.”

I’m stunned silent for a second but then I burst out laughing.

She covers her face, which is red with embarrassment.

“You’re totally gonna be a key member of the girl crew,” I say. “I’ve had great friends in the pack already but the new girls coming in to mate with the council? You’re gonna fit in with everyone really well. Amie. Ivy. Definitely. I bet Erica, too.”

“Unless they secretly hate me because of what I’ve done. Especially Ivy.” Her expression is now sad.

“No, no. They won’t hate you. Everyone has their regrets in life. Erica feels like everyone will hate her and they won’t once they get to know her, not as long as she treats Riley right, which I think she will. So with Erica you’ve got someone who knows how you feel. And Ivy and Amelia were both resistant to mating with shifters, hadn’t even known shifters exist before all this – or Ivydidn’t, Amie sort of knew but hadn’t had visual confirmation of it until Mason saw her, marched up to her and laid a hot, wet one on her before he whisked her off home to knot and mate her.”

Stacy fans herself. “If you told me all this a week ago, I’d have been mortified for her. It’s so, so frightening to have an alpha set his sights on you and not give you a choice. Now, after seeing and experiencing a super alpha who sees his mate and decides he’s claiming her? When it’s fated? Now I think it’s hot.” She over enunciates hot and then takes a big sip of her drink. I follow suit.

“Greyson carried me home telling me he was going to light me up. And did he ever.” She smiles, then tacks on, “Like a glowworm.”

I giggle. “Too much information. You can fill Ivy and Amie in if I leave the room.”

“Deal,” she says and laughs, but then her smile dies and I know she still thinks Ivy will hold her shooting Tyson against her.

“And seriously, once you talk about your side of the story, Ivy will get it. I really believe that. Ivy’s had a rough go, too. She thought she’d never be able to show her face around here again after Ty rutted her in front of half the pack when he lost it about the way Mason was looking at her. She’s settling in though. She’s getting more and more comfortable. She sees that this is the place for her, the people for Her. Hopefully it won’t take long and you’ll see it too.”

“I mean… I’ve seen plenty of females rutted against their will.” She shrugs. “It’s not pretty but no other female would hold that against the girl. We understand. Males can get… aggressive.”

“Well, I’d never seen it until then. I’ve heard of it but never seen it in this village in my lifetime. It wasn’t easy to watch.”

“It never is,” she says softly and gets a faraway, sad look in her eyes.

“But we don’t need to talk about that dark time. Ivy and Ty are fine now. She thought she’d hold her grudge forever and after witnessing it myself, I thought she should. But, now she’s pregnant with his baby and over the moon about it.”

“Aw, that’s nice. I’m glad they could work it out.”

“I hafta pee,” I tell her. And on that thought, I have another thought, so I grab my bag and take it to the bathroom with me.

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