“Grandbabies?” she echoed, eyes going wide. “I feel like I should remind you—again—that we met maybe an hour ago.”
“I know down to the minute when I first laid eyes on you, baby.” I grinned at the dreamy sigh that nickname puffed from her lips. “I wish like fuck that there were a lot more of them, but I can’t change that. All I can do is make the most of the time we have now, while keeping in mind that this is all new to you. We’ll move at whatever pace works for you”—even if it fucking killed me—“and I’ll warn my mom to lay off on talking about babies until you’re ready for it.”
“I—What—Ugh!” She let out a growl that was worthy of any she-wolf and whirled away from me. “Are matings always like this?”
I wasn’t sure what about my promise had set her off when I’d thought it was going to help. “Like what?”
She threw her hands up in the air. “I was freaking out about you mentioning babies so soon. Then you offered to let our relationship go at my speed and have your mom back off, and I felt the strangest sense of disappointment. As though going slow was somehow…wrong.”
I prowled over to her and slid a palm down her back, pressing her chest against mine. “What you’re feeling is the power of fated mates. There’s bound to be some inner conflict when your soul knows you were born to be mine, and your mind is trying to catch up because it’s outside your realm of experience.”
“I guess that makes sense.” She wrapped her arms around my body and dropped her head against my chest. “Maybe it’ll help if I knew more about what usually happens with fated mates.”
“Sure, baby. Whatever you need.” I led her back over to the couch and got us comfortable again with her on my lap. “Shifters can recognize their mate at first sight or smell.”
She turned her head to sniff her shoulder. “Is that your subtle way of trying to tell me I smell?”
“Only like the best thing I’ve ever smelled.” I buried my nose in her neck and inhaled deeply, her delicious scent filling my lungs and giving my wolf the first sense of peace he’d had since she talked about going back to her campus. “It’s the biggest fucking turn-on for me.”
Larissa wiggled on my lap, gasping when my cock pressed against her ass. A pretty pink blush filled her cheeks. “Yeah, I kind of noticed.”
“Only kind of?” I growled, shifting my hips up.
“Definitely more than kind of,” she confirmed with a giggle. “Since that would be difficult to miss.”
I maneuvered her to the left when she started to wiggle again. When my cock nestled between her thighs, she went still, and her scent deepened and turned sweeter. “Fated mates feel a fierce desire for each other. The need is more intense when they first meet, but it never wavers over the years. I’ll always want you. That will never change.”
She tilted her head to the side and smiled shyly at me. “I like the sound of that.”
“I’m glad, baby.” I brushed my lips across her cheek. “Because there are other aspects of mating that are probably going to be more difficult for you to accept.”
Her eyes went wide again. “Like what?”
“A part of the process involves me marking you.” I brushed my fingers down her neck to her shoulder. “While we’re still connected after sex, I’ll bite you here, and it will solidify our connection, making you mine forever.”
“It won’t turn me into a shifter, right?” she asked.
“No, you’ll still be human,” I assured her, “but you’ll age slower and heal faster.”
Her eyes narrowed, but they gleamed with humor. “No super strength, huh?”
“Nope.” I grinned. “But you’ll have me around to kick ass if you ever need it.”
“That works for me.” She winked, and she was so fucking adorable, I almost spread her out on the couch so I could taste every inch of her body. But then she turned serious again. “Will it hurt?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been told it enhances the sexual experience, taking our pleasure to another level.”
“Wow,” she breathed, the scent of her desire filling the room again.
I lowered my head, intending to claim her sweet lips in our first kiss, and wanted to howl in frustration when there was a knock on my door. I wanted nothing more than to ignore the world outside of this room, but my responsibilities as alpha made that impossible. “Sorry, baby,” I whispered before stalking over to the door to flip the lock. I waited until I returned to Larissa before I called out, “Come in!”
The door opened, and two members of my pack walked in. Luke had been working his way up the ranks of the pack ever since he turned eighteen, but his sister was a different story. Her parents had given her pretty much anything she wanted, and she’d grown to expect everyone else to treat her the same. Neither my wolf nor I respected her much, but it wasn’t her presence that bothered me at the moment.