Page 27 of Oracle
I’d take it to my fucking grave that a bear was now my favorite animal. Hell, maybe it really was. I loved her comparison of me to the animal. It seemed she was making me question a lot of things about myself recently.
The biggest one being that I didn’t have to be in control always. That I could trust her to keep the wolves safe. It was hard to give up control after watching my father be murdered when a lone wolf came into our territory and challenged him for alpha. Little did we know at the time that he wasn’t alone. He had gathered a crew that ambushed my father as they were fighting and overwhelmed and killed him before anyone could react to save him. It was over before we could blink twice.
I’d never forget the trembling of my two sisters at my side and the way my mother fell to her knees and wailed to the Goddess. That scream of agony haunted my nightmares along with watching the life leave my father’s eyes as he was slain.
It had led to me being a bit more of a control freak and tight ass about security. I wanted my hand in every aspect of life, which was why I traveled to the Summit. To not live a sheltered life in the bubble of our territory. I had a thirst to never be blindsided again.
Once our pack had recovered from the shock, we managed to revolt and kill the intruders. My uncle was named Alpha and I made a vow to my father that day as I kneeled over his grave to become strong, smart, and to never let my guard down. To protect not just my mother and sister, but everyone I could.
Caleb patted the floor and pouted at her with puppy dog eyes. “Okay, beauty, come back down here. Pleaseeeee.”
His whining ripped me from the phantom memory playing out in my head and I smiled at the woman who had me wanting to let my guard down for the first time. To let her into my heart and to trust her guidance.
Kira dropped to her knees and sat back on her heels as she lifted her glass of wine once more. Thankfully, Caleb intervened, being closer to her, and grabbed the glass from her. Before she could complain about it, he slammed his lips to her mouth.
It was kind of hot seeing the way she was stunned for a moment but then melted like warm butter in the sun under his touch. Her cheeks were tinged pink as she thread her hands into his hair and kissed him back with so much passion it elicited a groan from him.
I was just about to ask if she wanted to go back to her room to get some sleep with us, calling the game a close, but it was clear she had other intentions on her mind as her hands fell to the bottom of Caleb’s shirt and tugged up. He quickly placed her wine glass to the side and raised his arms, pulling the shirt off fully since Kira couldn’t reach the top.
Mate.
Fuck, yes.This is what we needed. After spending hours with her, I felt closer than ever, and having physical intimacy with her in any way would just be the icing on the cake for the night.
As she placed a hand on Caleb’s bare chest and pushed him onto his back, she quickly crawled up to straddle him. Glancing over at me, she gestured with a finger to come closer, and like a moth to a flame I closed the distance between us. I needed to feel her. I needed to hear her moans as I learned her body and brought her to her peak. I wanted her to beg me for that sweet release.
Her hips began to grind over Caleb’s probably rock-hard cock as she pulled my head down to kiss me. Nipping at my lip, she quickly soothed it with her tongue before smiling and admonishing me. “You have way too many clothes on, Luca. Change that.”
A quiet alarm was ringing in my head and I forced the lust out of my mind for a moment as I pulled back from her, our heavy breaths mingling as I asked, “Are you sure, precious? We’ve all been drinking a lot and I want to make sure this is truly what you want, not just under the influence of alcohol.”
Her body stiffened as her mouth opened in shock and I silently cursed myself for killing the mood. However, I didn’t regret asking and if I had to redo the situation, I’d do it all over again.
“Strip. Now,” she commanded as I saw molten heat reflecting in her eyes as she licked her bottom lip like she was about to feast.
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered, quickly standing and stripping out of my shirt and sweats before pulling her off of Caleb. “Think you can strip for me too, precious?”
Not an ounce of hesitation occurred. She made quick work of pulling her shirt off and tossing it to the ground before shimmying out of her sweats that were rolled a few times at the waist, the size much too large for her. Once they pooled at her feet, I drank in the sight of her perfect body.
It wasn’t the first time I had seen her naked, since we were shifters. It was a common occurrence. But I’d never been able to act upon the urges I’d felt in previous situations, and now…now my head was running rampant with everything I wanted to do to her.
Caleb stripped at the same time she did and walked up behind her, placing his hands on her hips and nuzzling into her neck, pressing kisses along her skin. But a second later, his head jerked back and his eyes narrowed on her skin; now that I was focusing on it, it looked like she had some kind of black mark on her.
“What’s this?”
She bit her lip and ducked her head, her eyes falling to the ground as if embarrassed to talk about it. “You guys probably won’t like the reasoning and I don’t want to ruin our night together.”
Reaching out, I placed a finger under her chin, pulling her eyes back up to meet my own. “You are an alpha, Kira. You are the head of our council and you don’t avert your eyes for anyone. Do you hear me?”
A sharp inhale of breath was her response as she blinked rapidly at me. Quickly she shook her head and rebutted, “I may be the leader of the wolves, but my mates are my equals and when it comes to our relationships, I will never use my rank to demolish your own feelings.”
Caleb’s hands came to rest on the sides of her arms, rubbing gently up and down as he kissed her temple and tried to coerce the truth from her once more. “Whatever the reasoning is, we will respect it. Just because you are our mate, doesn’t mean you need to base your decisions around what you think we want. You are your own woman still and we are simply here to support you and love you along the way.”
“Jameson,” she blurted out. We didn’t push her for more information but thankfully, she didn’t make us wait long. She took a deep breath and expanded, “He was losing his connection to his wolf after rejecting the bond after we had sex. Eventually his wolf would have faded completely as our bond officially died with time. The only way to fix it was to place a claiming bite on each other, apparently.”
“I’ve never heard of that,” Caleb admitted.
I had, though. It was a rare tradition with mates to mark each other for other wolves to see they were claimed. It wasn’t widely practiced, because it did nothing supposedly for fated mates who hadn’t rejected the bond. But there were whispers that its purpose was for bringing back two splintered souls into harmony.
So, she had been worried that we would judge her for solidifying her bond with Jameson, accepting him back into the fold.
