Page 20 of Rituals & Runes

Hailey bent her head down and grasped her chin. Her gaze glazed over as she contemplated what I asked. My chest tensed and I moved my hand again. Waiting for her answer left me jittery.

Kaden’s tension amped up. I had the urge to reach out and caress him, to help soothe his twisted nerves, but I didn’t know if I should do that. If I was allowed to. Because his pack didn’t see me as his mate. His pack saw me as either a cure for their illness or a hybrid reject.

“Aila, I combed through my vision again.” She looked up. “Unfortunately, I don’t see any way around it. You will have to die.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. It wasn’t every day someone told me I would face my death. I’d come here hoping for a solution, but I couldn’t blame Hailey. The unfairness of my pack cursing others and me being the cure ripped through me. Impotence weighed on me.

I shook Hailey’s hand. “Thank you. I do want to help your pack. I don’t want you to be destined to waste away but I wish we could find some way to lift the curse without me dying.”

Kaden stood up. “Thank you, Hailey.”

“Of course, Alpha Kaden. It hurts me to deliver such news.” Hailey accompanied us to the front door. “Aila and Kaden, I sense that you are fated mates. I want you to be able to stay together, regardless of the fact you are half-human and come from our pack’s enemy pack. Perhaps, the connection between you both will provide some way to both help our pack and keep Aila alive. Still, from what I saw in the vision, I can guarantee nothing.”

Kaden and I drove again to another location, this time passing the main compound around a few more curves. We left behind other cabins until no other houses remained and we reached the end of the road.? Alone, my simmering heat returned. Flames built between my thighs again, licking my insides. I rested my head on the cool, leather seat, trying to find an antidote.

But the only one sat next to me.

An expansive, two-story cabin with three garages and multiple rooms towered above us.

Kaden came around my side of the car and helped me out. Electric current flowed between us that set off butterflies in my belly as his hand settled in mine. “Come, this is my house, but I want you to see your future home. If you don’t like it, we can always move.”

My heart skipped a beat and warmth spread up my arm as he spoke those words and then interlaced our hands. “I am glad for your confidence, Kaden, and I believe we could find a way, but only time will tell.”

As he led me toward the house,?he said, “Let’s forget about things for a moment. I’ll help you forget.”

We removed our boots and jackets inside a foyer with wooden benches and hooks to hang coats. Kaden scooped me up, wrapped my legs around his waist, and captured my mouth. His tongue thrust between my lips, tangling with mine in a heated kiss that sent tingles down my spine. I didn’t have much experience but that didn’t seem to matter to him as he took control. His sweeping strokes guided me, telling me he would be the master of my body and my soul.

When he broke the kiss, he nipped my lower lip and then said, “I’ll show you the house later. Let me take you to my favorite room.”

Knocked off center, my breath quickened and I stared at him, my lips parted. And a secret fear twisted around my center. Kaden still didn’t know about my lack of experience, nor that I had been rejected by another. I had been abandoned by everyone I knew, but for some reason that didn’t bother me as much as what happened regarding Paxton. My wolf had also impressed on me that I could trust him in a way my woman had at first not understood.

Still, these worries slithered through me as he carried me to a spacious living room with high wooden rafters, a huge fire roaring in a brick fireplace, and a lit-up Christmas tree, so huge it almost touched the ceiling.

He settled me on a dark, soft center carpet with my legs positioned toward the fire. Soft light shone over his angled face. His eyes blazed with hunger. “Tonight, you’re mine, Aila. You are my one true mate, and I am going to claim you while I fuck you until you can’t walk. Do you understand?”

My tongue dried up in my mouth and my thighs clenched with a need beyond my mating heat. “My heat is driving me crazy. And more than that, I want you to claim me, and for me to claim you. I do but—“

His hands slid up the sides of my legs toward my middle where he gathered the hem of my blouse in his hand. His burning gaze hooked mine. “I’m a male. Every single male in this place knows your heat is driving you crazy. That’s why I’m here, now tell me, has anyone ever tasted you between your legs, my Wolfling?”

Heat bloomed up my cheeks and flooded me between the legs. I pressed my hand to my mouth while shaking my head. I couldn’t believe how he talked—I’d never heard someone speak that way. It intrigued and aroused me. Made my nipples bead and my thighs clench.

In a flash, he caged me with two defined arms and hovered his mouth near my ear. He whispered in a husky voice, “Good because I want to be the first and last man to claim every single part of you. That little vixen that came out in the room was only the beginning. I’m going to be bringing her out more often, and you’re going to love it.”

My nipples pebbled even harder, and my hips squirmed beneath him. I took hold of his arms. “Kaden—“

A low growl rumbled from his chest sending vibrations through my body. With a hard voice that rang with authority, he said, “I’m in control here. Let my arms go.”

I snapped my hands away but did the only thing I could to halt him. Kissed him on the mouth then while still connected mumbled, “Kaden, I need to tell you something important.”

He melded his body to mine, hard muscle against my frame, and his rock, hard maleness pressed against my stomach. My mind swerved and I almost forget what I wanted to say. “What, darling Wolfling?”

“I’ve never done any of this before,” I blurted out.

He grasped my cheeks and nibbled along my jaw then down the curve of my throat. “That only makes my cock harder for you, makes my tongue salivate to be the first man to lick your pretty pussy, because I already know it’s going to be the prettiest pussy I’ll ever taste. And the fact that you’re a submissive—my cock hurts to have your sexy cunt squeezing every last drop of cum from me.”

My jaw almost dropped at his words yet they ignited a volcanic fire between my legs. Made my heat surge, and an animalistic lust that I’d never experienced before tear through me.

With my heart thundering in my chest, my wolf pranced and preened, delighted by how close Kaden had become. She urged me forward, urged me to allow this dominant, alpha male to claim and mate me.

---