Page 41 of Wulver's Flame
She sighed, her teeth loosened, but she didn't release me.
Sköll didn't like the thought of her heat ending. He purred louder until the thunderous rumbling vibrated to her. She sniffed my neck and tangled her hands through my hair.
She didn’t release my neck until sleep took her. Only then did her teeth slide free.
When I was marked, mated, and she was bred.
???
She slept like the dead from the morning sun until night-watching.
Sköll paced beneath my skin. We checked on her breathing often, only leaving her side when we had to. We needed to see the rise and fall of her chest like it was our next breath, but she didn't awaken.
Her nest was beyond ruined, but the beautiful scent of our mating remained.
I found myself touching the spot she marked again and again, in astonishment at the depth of her ferocious bite.
Her blunt little teeth did that, yet she still bit like a predator. Gods only knew what her wolf would become. I wondered what kind of wolf would emerge from Liùsaidh Flamehair.
Sköll sat up with a surge of excitement.
Mate. The word purred in my mind.
A soft moan interrupted us.
She stirred.
I approached the bed, hesitating as her eyelashes fluttered. The dazed look was not from heat, but confusion. I pried into our bond as she fully awakened.
“What happened?” she croaked.
Beneath the confusion, I could feel her mortal senses return. She leaned on her elbow and touched the scar on her neck.
Her revulsion struck so deep I nearly stepped back. But the prophecy pulled me forward, like a leash.
Sköll’s happiness filtered into the background as caution crept in. Her hand moved to her chest, feeling my presence—our bond.
“You cursed me with your demon magic,” she whispered, her voice shaking.“This does not feel pleasant. What did you do?”
Sköll snarled inside me, and a low growl rumbled in my chest. Liùsaidh’s eyes locked onto mine.
“Your eyes, I remember,” she said, but trailed off.“By the Gods. What did you do to me? I lay with you.”
Horror flooded our bond. I tried to calm her through the bond, but her panic grew. She rubbed her chest.
“What is this? What is inside me?” she cried.
“That is our bond. The Gods willed this through fate and blood. This bond can never be broken, Liùsaidh. Not by me or you,” I said, barely restraining my rising ire.
“No. I am not a beast. I reject this curse and I reject you,” she said, sitting up.
“And what about our child in your belly? Will you reject it too?” I snarled as my words ripped into Sköll’s soul.
Before either of us could talk any further, Sköll’s growl increased. I couldn't stop him. The thought of our mate rejecting his pups made him want to kill. He ripped out of me, tearing through my clothes. I dropped to the floor as bones cracked, flesh rippled, and sharp claws lengthened.
Liùsaidh’s terror burned us so deep through the bond that we halted. We heard her scream like needles in our ears. Yet it was nothing compared to the pain in our chest, through the bond. Sköll lifted his head slowly, watching Liùsaidh before his lips bared and he growled at our mate.
Long, low and threatening.
