As soon as Dodge disappeared, Shea got up and returned to her borrowed bedroom. It was really Colt’s, and while she had marveled at the hand-carved furniture he decorated his masculine bedroom with her first night there, right now she was too preoccupied with her throbbing pussy.
She never made it to the shower. As soon as she kicked off her leggings and pulled her panties off, her hand went straight to her pussy. She rubbed it, trying to release some of the pressure. Some of the need. It helped.
Not enough, though. Shea couldn’t say why she was so sure, but she knew that she needed something inside of her. Something for her pussy walls to tighten around. And since going to find Colton was never going to happen, she climbed up on the bed and slipped her pointer finger inside of her.
“Unh.”
Yes.
That hit the spot.
It felt so good, in fact, that Shea gave herself away to the pleasure coursing through her. She never even noticed that the had door opened until Colton walked into the room, calling her name, worried that he couldn’t find her.
She squeaked. Colton immediately slammed the door closed behind him.
He took one look at her—her legs spread, one finger inside, her thumb pressed against her clit—and he gaped across the room at her.
“So that’s what Dodge meant by you need me. You’re ready to mate,” he growled.
No denying it. He’d caught her with her hand in her pussy—literally. And while it might be a little late to try to explain what Colton had walked in on, she figured it was worth a try.
She pulled her hand back, hiding it beneath her ass as she sat up, an imploring expression on her face.
“I think I know what’s going on,” she told him. She’d been hoping she was wrong, but even after she’d felt her finger inside of her, she knew that that wasn’t long or thick enough to ease her terrible ache. “He warned me. He said that, when the second blood exchange was complete, he’d find me. That I’d be begging him to finish it. Well, here I am. And, well, I’m willing to beg.”
“Him?”
“No, you idiot. You.”
“You… you want me to mate you? Like… now?”
“Why not? I thought that’s what you wanted. I mean, you don’t have to—if you still think we should wait, I totally get it. But… I’m ready when you are.” She let out an uncomfortable chuckle when he still stared at her. “Obviously.”
Colton edged closer to the foot of the bed. “I’ve never done this before.”
That wasn’t a no. “I know. Me neither. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t understand. I… shit, Shea, I don’t have any condoms.”
Was he serious?
“Colt, I appreciate that you’re thinking about safe sex right now, but it’s okay. You’re clean. I’m clean. And it’s not like you can make me pregnant—”
The rumble started deep in his chest. His eyes iced over, flashing that strangely pale blue, before the darker color bled back.
Oof. His wolf hadn’t liked that at all.
She realized what it was she had said a heartbeat later.
“Well you can, obviously you can,” she said nervously. “That’s the whole point of having a mate, right? But we don’t have to be bonded mates to have sex, right? That’s what Evangeline told
me. She got busy with Maddox a bunch of times before the big one.”
“If I mate you without anything between us, I’ll claim you. It’s a biological fact. I’m not fucking around when I say that it would be entirely out of my control. I’d come, then I would bite, and you would be my mate for life. And since you don’t want to be—”
Shea was dying for some relief thanks to whatever Julian’s vampire blood was doing to her, but she could wait a little longer. This was important. “Really, Colton? Are you serious right now?”
He ran his hand over his face. “I shouldn’t have said it like that. Forget it. I just… I don’t want to force you into something while you’re like this. We talked about consent before… if I mate you right now, while you’re feeling the effects of that Nightwalker’s blood, it’s as bad as if you were drunk.”