The mating bond strengthened between them with every passing day, and he knew the potential mating she had with Tanner was fading fast. Her wolf responded to him, not just because he was the alpha, but also because he was her mate.
They were meant to be together.
He felt it. He had to have her. There was no doubt about it in his mind.
Whatever intervention had occurred that had put her within Tanner’s path, it had only been the necessary journey to bring her to him.
They were bonding. He felt it. The connection to her. The need to constantly know where she was. Even now as her pussy tightened around him, there was no breaking what they had built together.
Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over to the sofa and laid her down gently. He stared into her eyes, no longer fucking her.
Gage took his time making love to her, wanting her to feel every inch of his cock, but going deeper than that. To feel the possession he felt of her. The need to make her his, to mark her, to claim her as all his.
He kissed her lips, biting down just a little.
The wolf within him emerged, taking his breath away. Gage jerked back enough to look at her.
Mark her.
Bind her to us.
He pressed his face against her neck, breathing in the sweet scent of her, filling his senses with all that she possessed.
His teeth elongated, the wolf needing this. Not wanting to give her up, but sensing the risk that another could take her away.
Ours.
Take her.
You want her.
He struck, sinking his teeth into her flesh, marking her in a place so that the whole pack would know who she belonged to. As he marked her flesh, it was like her body went into overdrive. Her orgasm flooded her body, and her cunt squeezed him tightly, begging for his spunk. Much to his surprise, he gave it to her, coming hard and deep within her.
Her body milked him of every single drop.
He felt the connection. Before this, it was a thin thread, easily breakable, but now it felt as strong as steel. They were bound together, not just through wolf and pack, but united together as mates.
Tanner had no claim to her. He had no right to her.
Connie now belonged to him.
Gage let go of her neck, licking at the wound and healing it with his alpha saliva. He lifted up enough to stare into her eyes, and he saw tears there, but he couldn’t quite read her expression.
She had a right to be pissed at him. He’d taken the choice out of her hands. He had acted like a selfish asshole.
Neither of them moved, staring into each other’s eyes, waiting.
“You’ve … mated to me?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“That means I now belong to you, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She didn’t know?
He opened his mouth to say something just as there was a slam within the house, making them both jerk.
“I’ve got to go and take care of this,” he said. Gage knew what was happening.
She nodded.
Tanner had been in the house. He would have felt the severing of the mating. Being the mate to reject rather than on the receiving side of it, he would feel the loss where Connie wouldn’t.
Quickly buttoning up his pants, he helped Connie, putting her dress into place, aware his cum was right now spilling out of her pussy. All he wanted to do was push it back in.
He held himself in check. It was next to impossible to do, but he did so.
Cupping her face, he stroked her cheek. “I will be back.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
He smiled at her but took off, going toward Tanner’s room where he found his son on the floor at the base of his bed. Knees drawn up to his chest, covered in sweat.
“You don’t need to tell me what happened. I felt it.” He rubbed at his chest. “Why am I feeling this way? I didn’t fucking want her. Even when I needed to be around her, I hated myself. I was disgusted with my obsession. I don’t fucking want her.” He jerked his foot out, shattering the chair that had been a few inches from him. “Fuck. It shouldn’t hurt like this. I don’t want her.”
Gage closed the door. The wolf wanted to attack to tell his son what an asshole he’d been to let her go. To think for even a second that she wasn’t worthy of him.
Connie was a keeper, and now she belonged to him. He was under no illusion that the difficult part of their mating was over. He knew they were only getting started. Connie would doubt his intentions, and he had to reveal the reason he mated with her was because he loved her.
“This is the consequence of your choice, Tanner. I have warned you time and again you will have to deal with the actions of your choices. This is merely one of them.”