Hope surged inside me. I may have been battered and bruised, but if Willow wanted to play doctor, I was happy to oblige.
I pulled her back to me and edged us into the kitchen where Theo couldn’t hear us.
I cupped her face and kissed her lips gently. “I should have told you before. My wolf sees you as my mate.”
My gaze danced between hers as she looked up at me. My heart forgot how to beat in those few seconds between my confession and the moment she moved her lips.
“I have a confession of my own.”
“Oh?” She moved back, taking small steps toward the stairs. Is this where she told me to hit the road?
“I was just waiting for you to admit you can’t live without me. I knew we were intended for each other long before I returned to Sleepy Briar.”
I brushed her hair aside and ease a kiss to the pulse point before raking my teeth over her tender flesh. “I can’t imagine living without you now.”
Bright eyes find mine. “Me either. I want to be bitten, kissed, and claimed. Wanna come upstairs?” Her grin turns wicked when I scoop her up into my arms and hit the stairs. We pause to check in on a snoring Theo before falling into our bed.
I strip her of her clothes and bite, lick and nip my way from her ankles to her lips. The moon is high enough in the sky by this time to wash us in soft white light through the opened bedroom curtains.
I sink my teeth into the flesh of her shoulder to the sound of her shocked moan. Not enough to break the skin but enough for her to feel my claiming bit. “Youareclaimed, baby. The second you took my milk you belonged to me. Forever.”
Her grin grew and I fell between her legs. Our breaths mingled. “Forever,” she echoed after me and for the first time in my life, I felt I belonged.
* * *
Thankyou for reading Moon Claimed! I truly hope you enjoyed the Forbidden and Mated series. In this series, you read about the witches of Sleepy Briar. You can read their completed series, Magically Mated, here.
Read on for the first chapter of Mated by the Alpha.
Chapter One
“This better workor else we’ll be finding a new place to call home come next month, Luna.”
Sadie smirked at her cat when all she got back was a smug, meow.
She gathered a pinch of crushed lavender and sprinkled in the last of the ingredients needed for her love potion. A puff of purple smoke twined high before diving back into the concoction that would—fingers crossed—work this time and play cupid in a sort of way between a witch and her powers.
“Fourth time’s the charm. I hope.” Sadie tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and let out a deep sigh.
She’d promised her banished coven sister a spell that would help restore her stripped powers. Though Sadie refused payment, Harlow had insisted. Shoved between the snow outside and a hard place, Sadie didn’t have much choice in the matter. Success would net her a cool two grand—enough to save her tavern, The Cauldron Bubble, and the attached apartment. Added bonus, it would also save her coven sister in the process. Double score!
Only if she could get the damn thing to work. Getting the spell to take hold was proving to be more difficult than she’d anticipated. All three previous batches had fizzled out along with her patience.
If she didn’t get this to work soon it was bye-bye to the only security she had and hello cold streets of Sleepy Briar. Panic sent a cold shudder down her spine, and she wiggled her toes nestled inside her favorite warm wool socks. She still had time. Twenty-four hours, to be exact. Her gaze fell to her hands as she splayed her fingers out to call forth her magic, searching for a little calm in her own personal hellish storm.
Encased in the magic-tinged wave of heat that flooded her body came a rush of power laced with memories of the last time she felt so much energy in her palms. Sweet, delicious, mind-blowing, pure masculine strength in the form of the sinfully sexy alpha pressed up against every aching inch of her body. Okay…make that every horny inch of her body.
An unbeckoned smile spread across her lips. “Gah, you need to stop thinking about him, Sadie.” It never turned out well. He didn’t want anything to do with her. He made that much clear the last time.
Sadie flexed her fingers and forced herself to focus on the task at hand.
But that didn’t work. Had it only been three nights ago that he’d almost taken her? Her core still vibrated with pent-up need for him.
No, what she needed was to forget him. Forget the way his lips ignited a fire in her belly as he brushed them across her quivering stomach. Forget the way her body had molded into his strong arms. How his gaze, luminous with an unusual red tinge, pulled her into his world. Body and soul.
But more importantly, forget how he’d left her wet and wanting, spread open for him on her bar top with a growled, “Sorry, pack business.”
She didn’t buy that lame excuse then and sure the Hades didn’t now.