Page 61 of A Pack of Pumpkins
“Bram… do you want to come in?”
I nod. Her hair is a tangled halo of black and orange, a pillow crease pressed into one cheek. Her sleep shirt hangs off one shoulder, exposing warm skin. She’s perfect.
I step inside, the door closing behind me. Her space is saturated with her. Plants thrive in the corners, dreamcatchers and twinkle lights. Cozy and whimsical, grounded and free-spirited all at once.
“What happened?” she asks, searching my face.
“I got a visit from Finian tonight.”
Her eyes widen, lips parting. She didn’t know he’d intended to challenge me.
“Did he—”
“Offered me his neck. Almost immediately.” She exhales in relief, making the corner of my mouth twitching up. “Didn’t think I could win, little Ghost?” She stammers out a denial until I hold up a hand. “I couldn't have. I think he was the most dominant.”
Her brow pinches, worry flickering there. My ego’s not that fragile. I didn’t lose my pack. That’s all that matters.
“When I was younger,” I explain, “I never showed the usual traits of a dominant alpha. My father and the other alpha in my pack never made me feel less for it. They taught me that dominance challenges are only worth engaging in if you have something to lose. Tonight, I had something to lose.”
I cup her cheek, and she catches my wrist, bringing it to her nose to scent-mark me. I step into her space. “Ghost, I just wanted to make sure you’re all right. I wasn’t trying—”
She cuts me off with a fingertip to my lips. “Do you want to stay?”
A growl works its way up from my chest. I hook my arms around her waist and lift. Her legs wrap around me instinctively, back pressing to the door. My erection grinds against her heat, and she rolls her hips down into me.
Jack and Dagan are blessedly in their own rooms tonight.
“What do you want, little Ghost?” I rasp.
“You,” she breathes.
I chuckle. “That’s not enough. Tell me what you want me to do.”
Herpupils are blown, fire in her gaze. “I want you to fuck me.”
The words nearly make my knot blow. I reach between us and almost lose it again when I find bare, slick skin already drenched for me. I want to make it last, draw out every whimper and gasp, but I know I can’t. Not tonight. Not after feeling so close to losing something so precious. I just need to have her. To know she’s here, real, mine.
She nods, reading the desperation in my eyes.
I shove down the waistband of my sweatpants, not bothering to take them off. My cock springs free, the heavy length slapping against her soaked pussy. She gasps at the contact, and before I can even move, she lowers herself onto me, taking me in one long, wet slide until she’s speared on my cock.
A feral growl tears out of me, loud enough to rattle the door I’ve got her pinned against. I slam her back into it, holding her there so tight she can’t move an inch farther. She whimpers, tries to bounce on me, but I’m not ready to let her yet.
“Who do you belong to?” I snarl, voice rough enough to scrape bone.
“You,” she gasps.
That’s all it takes. My restraint snaps. My hips drive forward in brutal, pounding thrusts, the door shaking in its frame as I fuck her hard enough to make the walls remember it. She clings to me, nails digging in, gasping encouragements against my neck between broken moans.
I reach down between us, circling her clit with quick, ruthless flicks. Her whole body goes taut, her head tipping back in a ragged cry right as I sink my teeth onto her neck. Not breaking skin, not yet, but hard enough to brand her forme.
Clara shatters around my cock, pulsing and squeezing so tight it drags me under with her. My balls tighten, my knot slams home, popping inside her and swelling until we’re locked together. Hot pulses of my release flood her, filling her in wave after wave until I feel like I’ve claimed every part of her from the inside out.
She’s a trembling heap in my arms by the time it’s over, and I carry her to the pack bed with deliberate care. We curl on our sides, my knot still seated deep, holding us exactly where I want us.
She smiles at me through heavy-lidded eyes before slipping back into the sleep I woke her from.
I don’t sleep. I just watch her breathe, wondering what I ever did to deserve something this fucking perfect.
