Page 99 of Blood and Magic
“Last chance to back out,” Mill said, giving me a wink while pushing adoration and reverence down our connection.
“Not a chance,” I replied as my cheeks burned with desire.
“Vermillion, once you complete the bond,” Kodiak continued, “there will be no others. You will use your body, blood, and soul to protect Maeve. Do you agree?”
“Yes,” Mill said, holding my stare so I knew he meant it.
“Maeve, once you complete the bond, there will be no others. You will use your body, blood, and soul to protect Vermillion. Do you agree?”
“Yes,” I said.
The crowd erupted into cheers, clapping as they stood to greet the new couple.
“It’s my honor to announce Vermillion and Maeve mated in the eyes of the pack and the traditions of our ancestors,” Kodiak said, his voice booming over the onlookers. “May you know great joy. May you never be torn apart.”
I stepped closer to Mill, threw my arms around his neck, and kissed the hell out of him. It had taken us such a long and winding road to get here, but we’d made it. With him, I could do anything. With him, I could touch the sky. And as long as we were together, I’d help him do the same.
I stepped back and grabbed his hand, but my attention caught on a shape near the tree line behind us.
A burnt-orange fox sat with its tail wrapped around its front legs, a curious, pleasant expression on its tiny face. My inner fox immediately recognized it as family, as someone close to me. But who? Shifters only transitioned on the full moon, which was weeks away. I’d just been about to get Mill’s attention so he could see, so I could ask what it was, but the fox stood and sauntered back into the woods. And the night carried on.
The party was still going by the time we left. The pack had been through a lot recently, and everyone needed the revelry. Music blared through the speakers, and mirth echoed through the pack bonds, adding an intoxicating coat to an already dreamy experience.
We burst into our room in a tangle of kisses and desperate embraces. I clawed at his linen trousers, desperate to tear them from his body, but he chuckled and pulled my hands away.
“Mill,” I whined, trying to get at them again.
He leaned back and stared down at me with an eyebrow raised. “Patience, baby.”
Patience?
I’d been patient for seventeen years.
At my indignant pout, he ran his thumb over my bottom lip and stuck it in my mouth. I wrapped my tongue around it, sucking it the way I wanted to do to his dick.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he said, shaking his head. “Such insolence.”
“Yeah?” I bit down on his finger, enough to make him hiss in a sharp breath. “What are you going to do about it?”
He paused long enough to send a quiver down my spine before bending to haul me over his shoulder. I squealed with delight as he walked me to the bed and plopped me unceremoniously in the center. I bounced and rolled onto my knees, waiting for his next move. Mill stared down at me like a disapproving teacher who couldn’t wait to take a ruler to my ass. I wanted him to. I wanted every deliciously vile thing he planned to do to me. And then I wanted him to mark me in the way only a dominant shifter could.
“That depends entirely on you,” he said as he put his hands on his hips. “If you’re a good girl, I’ll make you come on my face before I bite you.”
My lower belly tightened and sent a hot surge to my cunt. “And if I’m bad?”
His wolfish grin gave him away. “I’ll make you come twenty times before I bite you.”
“Twenty?” I balked. “That doesn’t sound like a punishment.”
He let out a condescending laugh and shook his head. “Oh, you sweet girl.”
Mill held up two fingers and waved them, gesturing me closer. I crawled to him, and when I got within arm’s reach, he grabbed the bottom of my dress and hoisted it over my head. The cool bite of air rushed in around me, my skin pebbling, but the heat of my desire for him burned through my blood. He nodded toward the mattress.
“Lie down,” he said.
I nearly tripped over myself to do as he asked, another wave of his affection shooting down the bond as I stretched out on the duvet. The mattress dipped as he crawled over me, running his hands up my shins to my knees and thighs.
“You are the most miraculous thing that’s ever happened to me,” he murmured. “Do you know that?”
