Page 139 of Mortal Shift
“This is all very touching,” Ryker said, “but if you two don’t mind, I have a hunt to lead.”
“And we’re ready to follow, alpha,” Cole said, releasing me long enough to shed his shirt. My breath caught in my throat as I took in his taut body, and heat shot between my legs. It was all I could do not to jump him in front of the entire pack and claim him as mine…and I wasn’t even sure the mate bond was to blame.
Cole chuckled, a low rumble in his throat. “Soon, my mate. I promise.”
“Later,” Ryker snarled, and then shifted into his wolf form.
“Not too much later,” Cole promised under his breath, sending a thrill through me. “For now, you’ll just have to settle for riding me the other way.”
And then he stepped back, his eyes holding me pinned to the spot, and shifted, and my breath caught in my throat all over again. I’d forgotten how mesmerizing his wolf form was.
He closed the gap between us and touched his forehead to mine, then crouched beside me. I wasted no time scrambling onto his back, feeling safer than I had in a long time. And I didn’t know how I’d been worried about being humiliated in the eyes of the pack by riding him before, because I was him, and he was me, and there was nothing more natural in the world.
Ryker threw back his head and howled long and loud into the night, then turned and loped into the darkness. Cole turned his head to look at me, and then, together, we fell in with the pack and ran through the night.
*
The fake sun was streaming in through my dorm window, playing a gentle heat across my closed eyes as I slowly woke. It had been a long night, and all my muscles ached deliciously—and not just from the hunt. Mine and Cole’s reunion had been…satisfying.
It took a moment, wrapped up warm and comfortable in my soft bed, for me to realize what had woken me. There was the quiet murmur of lowered voices coming from the other side of the room.
“You’re asking the wrong person. It’s not my choice.”
That was Cole’s voice, and my lips curved a little of their own accord as the sound of it drifted to my still-drowsy ears.
“She’s your mate. Will you not just order her?”
I frowned. That was Thessalia’s voice. I didn’t like that she was in my dorm, talking to my mate, and possessiveness tightened my chest and coiled my muscles, but I forced them to relax again, lying still and now fully alert as I listened to the conversation.
“No, I won’t just order her,” Cole said in an angry whisper. “She’s my mate, not my pet.”
“Or ask her, then,” Thessalia said, voice laced with impatience. “The girl clearly feels something for you, she won’t refuse.”
“Thessalia, you are a friend and an ally,” Cole rumbled, his voice tight with anger, “and that is the only reason I’m not throwing you out of here right now. But do noteversuggest I manipulate my mate for your benefit, or any other reason. If you so much as think—”
“Oh, relax. Keep your beast on its leash. I kept the creature alive while you were gone, did I not?”
“You did. And you have my gratitude for that. But my gratitude has limits.”
My lips curled into a satisfied smile, and it didn’t bother me quite so much that another female—Cole’s former fiancé, at that—was in our dorm. No-one had come to my defense like that before.
But like I kept telling Cole, I didn’t want to be protected; I wanted to learn how to fight my own battles.
“What is it you want?” I asked, sitting up and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
“Ah. It grows bored of feigning sleep. Finally.”
“Hardly the best way to get her on your side, Thessalia,” Cole said, and I could hear the eyeroll in his voice.
“Would you have me flatter her duplicitously?”
I climbed from the bed and crossed the room to Cole, running my hand across his chest. Thessalia rolled her eyes and looked away.
Cole twisted his head to plant a kiss on my lips, and for a moment I lost myself to the taste of him. I’d missed this, and one night wasn’t enough to banish the longing from my soul. A thousand nights might not do that.
Cole pulled back with a low chuckle.
“Didn’t know you enjoyed an audience,” he said, his voice a low rumble. I pouted.
