She shook her head, her long blond hair floating around her shoulders. “No, well, maybe a little. A few memories have started leaking through. But I’m definitely sensing all that we did together. It’s a fae thing.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of you. You saved me and maybe you’re feeling something that’s not real.”
She put a fist to her chest. “What I feel is a powerful connection to you that I can’t explain. I don’t want it to be there, but it is. And I’ll tell you something else. Though I’d blocked my dreamglide memories, each afternoon when I would wake up, I knew I’d been with you. I could smell your musky wolfness on my skin even though it was only a dreamgliding experience. I just never wanted to own the truth of what we’d been doing. Your territory represents what I hate most about the alter experience, that we live in such a violent place.”
“I know. That’s why I’m confused.”
She took a few more steps so that she was only five feet away from him. Her brows were drawn tightly together. “Fergus, I don’t want to hold back from you right now. I may not understand what’s going on, but I’m relinquishing at least some of my fears about what your territory is like, what it would be like to truly be with you. But this isn’t easy for me.”
Fergus was stunned. “You know I’ve been wanting to date you, but you’ve refused and I’ve understood. You don’t have to do this, Mary, not any of it. When I first came to you in the dreamglide, I promised myself I would never ask you to come to Savage. Even I knew it was too much. You’re a sensitive fae woman. You have a right to despise my territory.
“But with that said, I know that you weren’t having these thoughts even a half hour ago, so what changed?” He watched her swallow hard, but she remained silent as though debating what she should tell him.
He continued, “Please tell me. I need to know. You’re talking about coming with me to Savage, that you’re needed there, but we would be heading into a dangerous situation. At the very least, I need you to be honest with me.”
At that, she drew a deep breath and lowered her shoulders. “I had a ghost come to me just a few minutes ago. She talked to me for some time and was very clear about what I should do.”
“You’re taking orders from a ghost?”
A hint of a smile curved her lips and an amused glimmer entered her light brown eyes, the Mary he knew. “When you put it that way, it does sound odd. But she was very persuasive. Besides, are you really going to reject the invitation? Maybe together we can figure out what’s happening between us. It can’t be an accident we’ve found each other or that you can build dreamglides and I can, at times, feel very wolfish.”
When she put it that way, he didn’t know how he could refuse her. Besides, she stood in front of him in an almost-sheer nightgown. What he wanted most was standing, in real-time, right in front of him. “I’m open.”
She took another deep breath, this one punctuated with a huffing sound that was definitely more wolf than fae. “I also know that going into Savage I should be well-marked by you. Warren told me what’s going on, about who I am in terms of your wolf-world. He said I was alpha-mate material and all the unbonded alphas would pursue me. If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt Warren, will you? Mark me, I mean?”
Fergus felt like a sledge-hammer had just hit him between the eyes. He couldn’t think and he was suddenly dizzy with need as well. Mary was offering herself in real-time, Mary, who he’d lusted after so badly he’d somehow fabricated a dreamglide so he could seduce her while she was sleeping. This Mary, this beautiful woman who had saved his life.
He closed the remaining distance between them and took her arms gently in hand. “I’ve wanted you so much, just like this, in the flesh. You have no idea. I’ve craved being with you and now you’re here and you’re willing. But are you positive you want to do this, because I’m not sure there’s any going back afterward.”
“This is what I want. But what about you?”
Fergus felt all male in this moment. He might never understand what was going on with Mary, but right now he didn’t care. He was at the top of his alpha-mate hunting cycle, and she had everything he needed.
He removed the towel from around his waist, let it fall to the floor, then took her in his arms. She moaned softly as he slanted his lips over hers. She parted immediately, the exact invitatio
n he needed, and he drove his tongue inside with deep thrusts.
She leaned into him, sliding her arms around his neck. Nothing could have felt better to him than the surrender of these movements. Mary, at last, was his in real-time.
Thank God he was fully healed, because he would need to be at full-strength to mark Mary the way he needed to.
When he drew back from her, his jaw trembled. He pulled his lips back and bared his teeth.
He couldn’t help what he was doing. It was a dominance signal.
She didn’t seem distressed, either, as she brought her hand forward and rubbed her fingers over his incisors. Her touch sent a thrill straight to his cock. Then she kissed him.
You’re shaking, Fergus. You need something from me right now, don’t you? How about I stretch out on my belly?
He drew back and tilted his head, eyes closed. He released a long, low howl, but from years of training kept the volume turned down. He didn’t want the Revel neighborhood to know there was a shifter at large.
~ ~ ~
Mary saw the angle of his throat and with an instinct that was more wolf than fae opened her mouth wide and took the front part of his neck in her mouth. She clamped down hard at the same time.
Mary, that’s fucking hot.
She slowly started backing him up to the bed, while retaining her hold on him. She released his throat, but at the same time gave him a hard shove. He fell backward and she took half-a-second to strip out of the silky nightgown.