Page 58 of Claiming His Rejected Mate

I don’t knock.

The door creaks open under my hand, and I step inside, the soft click of the latch shutting behind me the only sound in the room. Hazel stands by the window, her back to me. I know she can sense me, smell me, feel me. But she doesn’t turn. I can feel the reluctance shehas toward me. Even after making love. Even after she howled my name as I came undone inside her.

She doesn’t deserve someone like me. She never did. And I know she questions the Goddess every day for making her deal with me.

But there’s nothing else I can do. After the last time, the healer said Hazel's wolf is weakened and under the seal. She has less influence on Hazel's well-being. If nothing is done, if she keeps cycling through heat without relief, Hazel may never fully recover. She will only continue to be a shell of herself.

And it would be all my fault.

I walk toward her. Every step I take feels heavier, like the space between us is fighting to stay intact.

She turns then, her gray eyes sharp and guarded as they meet mine. I’m barely two feet away from her. I can feel her warmth radiating in the space between us. It's thick and full. It's madly arousing. How could I have been so insensitive as to risk her losing the essence of her life, her wolf, her joy?

“What do you want, Kieran?” Her eyes are blazing, but I still see the vulnerability in them. The pain in them. The heated blazing desire of her wolf is flashing behind her eyes. She must feel what I do. I have to make her know the things I want to say to her somehow. But I can also smell her desire. She's been suppressing her wolf's desire under the seal, along with her need for me.

I think of how I've tortured her by pushing her away, staying away from her, not loving her the way I was meant to, not pleasing her the way her body needs. The dark circles under her eyes tell me nothing has worked to alleviate her discomfort.

How can anything work when I'm all she needs and I haven't been there?

I don’t answer. Words feel useless, empty, when the air between us is thick with the weight of everything unsaid. Her scent wraps around me, stirring something primal and unrelenting in my chest.

I eliminate the space between us. I want to tell her so much, explain so much to her. But words don’t feel enough. My heart races in my chest, and my mouth is wet with need for her. Her pheromones are enticing me, drawing me further into her. I know she feels this pull. Iknow she wants me just as much as I want her. Her body does not lie. Her wolf’s desires are plain as day. But it doesn’t hide the anger that she feels for me.

She backs into the wall. “Kieran...”

My hand braces against the wall beside her head. Her anger and desire war in her expression. My pounding heart drowns out every rational thought, everything I wanted to say about Damon, about how I was wrong all along. I know I should use my words.

She tries to protest again, but her voice falters. She can fight me off. I’ve seen her fight multiple times. I felt the strength in her bones and the determination of her fists. But she doesn’t.

“Tell me to leave,” I murmur instead, my lips so close to hers I can feel the warmth of her breath. “Tell me you don’t feel it.”

Her hands press against my chest, her touch sending a jolt through me that makes my wolf snarl with satisfaction. But she doesn’t push me away.

“I hate you,” she whispers, her voice trembling.

“No, you don’t,” I reply, my voice steady.

It doesn’t matter who moves first. All I know is that in an instant, her lips are on mine, the kiss fierce and desperate as the tension between us explodes. My hands grip her waist, pulling her flush against me as the fire between us roars to life. She fists my shirt, her nails digging into my skin as if she is trying to anchor herself.

The room fades, the world narrowing to just her—the taste of her, the feel of her, the way she fits perfectly against me. My wolf howls in satisfaction, his need for her will finally be sated, if only for a small moment.

I want her. I need her so bad.

I want her to feel the regret that I’ve felt for months since I found out she was innocent. I want her to feel the ache in my heart when I realized that she may never be mine. I want her to feel all the love that I’ve wanted to pour into her since the moment I set my eyes on her.

So, when I enter her, feel her tighten around me, suction me in like she’s been waiting just to do this, I am reminded again, why she is where I belong. And I feel the anger at Damon again. The guilt floodsback into my chest, and I lean toward her face and plunge all of my length into her.

“I need you, Hazel,” I murmur. But she just moans in pleasure as I move, tangled in the pleasure and relief that I am giving her, that I am experiencing. Each pump is an apology. A confession. A baring of my soul. An admittance that my soul belongs to her and her alone.

I make her cum, over and over again, interchanging between my fingers, my raging hard cock and my eager mouth, using them all over her at once, triggering every pleasure point of her body, feeling her juices coat me, all along my thighs, my neck, my arms. The air is thick with our scent, with our love, with our bond.

She opens her eyes now, and I am lost in the gorgeous grey of them. I see the storm brewing in them. I see the questions that fill her heart.

Even in the heat of our lust, there’s a part of her that holds back.

I feel it in the way she tenses, the way her hands falter against my chest. She pulls back suddenly, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she stares up at me with wide, conflicted eyes.

Before either of us can say more, a sharp knock at the door shatters the moment.

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