Unbelievable Faith

by Jess Bryant

  “Mine.” He snarled, pulling her hand away and bringing it to his lips. He sucked her fingers, licking each one and tasting her special brand of sweetness. His wolf all but howled and the man growled possessively. “This is mine.”

  Luna leaned up and licked at his tongue as he traced one of her digits. He released her hand and took her mouth. He devoured her, inhaled her, kissed her until there was no more air left in his lungs or even in the room. Still, when he broke the kiss, she whined and twined her arms around him, trying to pull him back for more.

  “Michael.”

  “Slow.” He groaned, kissing and sucking his way to her ear, “I want to make it good for you. The first time…” He paused, realizing what he’d said and felt Luna tense beneath him.

  She nudged his head back up until they were eye to eye and shook her head seriously, “He didn’t touch me like that. He… He wanted… He wanted us mated but he wasn’t my mate. You’re my mate and you’ll be my first, my last and my only, Michael.”

  His heart all but shattered in his chest and he drew in a deep lungful of her scent. The bond surged again as that truth was laid bare between them. Only him, her mate. She would be his in every way. Just as he would be hers.

  “I waited for you too, baby.”

  Her answering smile was sweet as honey, “There’s been no one else?”

  “Never.” He dropped his forehead to hers, “I’ve waited for you forever, Luna.”

  She tilted her chin up and pressed their lips together. She let him kiss her softly this time. Sweetness and purity in the touch that filled him with a hope like he had never known. This was what he’d been waiting for all his life. She was who he’d been made for and now she was here, naked and in his bed, ready for him to take her and claim her, to mark her and mate her.

  They kissed for a long time. Hands slowly stroking over each other as their tongues learned every inch of one another. Her skin was hot to the touch, electric, as the bond poured between them, the heat ratcheting up with each moment they put off the claiming. But he didn’t rush and she didn’t try to force him, not even when his wolf brushed against his skin, wanting to rub himself against her and he felt her wolf answer in response.

  Relief flooded him as he felt her make her presence known. He’d worried. God how he’d worried when she didn’t respond to him immediately. But she was here, with them, now and that was all that mattered. He could feel her there, just beneath the surface, but he couldn’t quite see her. She was playing hide and seek and his wolf bounded inside of him, wanting to catch her and claim her the same way his human half was readying to claim Luna.

  “Michael, ” She arched beneath him as he closed his teeth around her earlobe, biting but still not breaking the skin, “Please.”

  “Please what?” He kissed her teasingly.

  “Make me yours. Please. I feel like… I feel like…”

  “Like what?” He looped an arm around her thigh, lifting and widening her so he could notch himself against the warm, wet heat between them. “You feel like what?”

  “Like I’ll just spin off the planet if you don’t anchor me here to you. Please.” Luna’s nails scored his back as she clutched at him and he groaned, knowing her wolf was as close to the surface as his own. “Please.”

  “You’re mine, Luna.” He growled against her neck as he moved, aligning his hips and giving a small thrust that didn’t quite penetrate, “Say it. Say you’re mine and I swear on my life that I’ll honor and protect you, cherish and love you every moment until I leave this earth.”

  It was a lot to ask. He knew that. Reciting vows from a ceremony they hadn’t even discussed. A ceremony that, if he hadn’t found her when he did she might have been forced into by another male. But it was the idea of that, of her not being his, that made the words fall from his lips now so easily.

  He needed to hear her say it. He needed more than just her body. He needed her promise that she was his and that they would figure all of this out after the heat waned. He needed to know that this mating was real and true and pure.

  Luna whimpered softly and nodded when he met her gaze, “I’m yours, Michael. From now until I leave this earth. I promise. I promise. I…”

  He drove inside of her, stealing her breath and cutting off the rest of her sentence. It was enough. This was more than enough. He groaned as her tight, wet heat surrounded him and gripped him tight. His head dropped forward and he had to close his eyes and count slowly backwards to keep from spilling his seed inside of her right then and there.

  Heaven. God, this was heaven. She was his heaven.

  Made for him didn’t begin to describe it. She fit him in every way. Her body welcomed him as if he belonged there. Holding him deep inside of her, joining them as closely as two people could be.

  He wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that. Joined but unmoving. Simply holding onto one another. Feeling one another and basking in the surge of the bond cementing itself between them. This one act began the process of stitching their souls back together and he wasn’t sure either of them were even breathing until the heat became too much and his hips shifted of their own accord.

  “Oh, God…” Luna moaned and arched beneath him, “Yes. More. Yes.”

  Michael held himself up on his forearms and watched her as he pulled his hips back and plunged deep again and again and again. Her chin tilted up and the muscles in her neck strained as she cried out. Her lips were swollen from his kisses and from where she bit at them. He wanted to bite those lips himself but he didn’t dare, not right now, not when he could feel his teeth elongating, sharpening, shifting with the knowledge that soon he would pierce her flesh and mark her as his.

  “Michael.” Luna wrapped her legs around his waist and rocked against him, “Oh God, I’m close, Michael.”

  “Yeah? You gonna come for me, baby?” He slowed his pace and ground his pelvic bone against her, rubbing her clit and making her whimper. Oh, he was going to enjoy this. Teasing her. Playing with his little mate. Seeing what sounds he could pull from her and what she would do next. He would never, ever, get tired of the way she looked beneath him when she came apart. “I felt you come on my tongue already. Come on my cock, Luna. It’s yours. I’m yours. Get off on me.”

  She whimpered again and her hips began to buck wildly. Michael groaned and held her beneath him. He could feel it coming through the bond. Felt her body tensing before her pussy gripped him tight. Felt her breath catch a moment before a scream jolted out of her. She shivered and shook beneath him and it was all he could do to keep driving inside of her, pushing her through it, instead of simply falling into a trance watching her.

  She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Luna, his mate, in the throes of passion. Her body wrapped lovingly around his as she found release. Everything else was swept away in the tide of her orgasm except for the joy and the rightness that he felt when it finally began to ebb.

  Her eyelids fluttered open, her dark gaze glassy and love drunk, “Oh, Michael… that was…”

  “Not done yet, baby.” He smirked and leaned down, tasting her lips slowly until she began to rock against him again, finding a new rhythm and moaning into his mouth. He pulled back with a grunt, “My turn.”

  Luna whined when he pulled out and then shrieked as he flipped her over. A growl tore out of his throat when she recovered in the new position and arched her back. She pushed her ass at him and glanced over her shoulder, biting into that sexy bottom lip again. He was a total goner for this woman. He gripped her hips and slammed back into her.

  Hard. Too hard. The human side of his brain warned him to slow down and take it easy on her but he was too far gone.

  She was his. His woman. His mate. His. He felt the singular urge to bury himself inside her as deep as he could get and spill his seed. He wanted to breed her, right here and right now. Wanted her carrying their pups. Wanted her bound to him in as many ways as he could tie her to him so that he would never have to go a day without her aga
in.

  “Oh, God, Michael.” Luna moaned his name, one hand going to the headboard to keep herself steady as he pounded against her.

  “So perfect.” He groaned as he levered himself up and covered her hand with one of his own, wrapped the other around her to hold her for his assault, “Fuck, Luna, never letting you go.”

  “Never.” She tilted her head, her hair sliding to one side of her neck, baring her soft flesh for him and his rhythm stuttered.

  She wanted it so bad. Needed it just as badly as he did. She wasn’t fighting him. She wasn’t fighting the bond or the heat. She submitted to his dominance in every way and it made his wolf want to howl with pleasure. She was perfect for them, exactly what they’d never known they needed.

  “Luna…” He groaned, “Come for me again, baby. Come for me so you don’t feel a second of pain when I bite you.”

  Her fingers laced with his, “Do it. Please, Michael. Please, just do it.”

  It might have been the begging. Maybe it was the way he could feel her need through the bond, feel her wolf all but purring with desire. Or maybe it was just that this woman had been made for him and with one simple act he would bind her to him in a way that meant she could never leave him.

  Michael slammed inside of her, as deep as he could get, and then he bared his teeth and sank them into the soft flesh of her neck. Luna screamed. Power exploded throughout the room. Michael came with a grunt of pure, unadulterated satisfaction. His cock and his teeth inside of his mate, leaving his mark, making her his, and God it was absolutely perfect.

  She was so sweet. So damn sweet. So sweet and… submissive.

  His brain clicked back on as the orgasm ebbed and took the heat with it. A chill sank beneath his skin as what he’d been missing clicked into place. He’d been so worried her wolf was hiding out of fear. He’d just been happy to sense her. He’d been so focused on Luna and pleasing her, on mating her and marking her, that he hadn’t been listening to his own wolf and what he sensed. If he’d been paying attention, if he hadn’t been so distracted by the heat and the need to mate, he would have put it together sooner.

  Luna’s wolf wasn’t an Alpha. She wasn’t even dominant. She was submissive.

  He felt her tense below him and knew she must feel his confusion and worry through the bond. She started to pull away from him but he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. He rolled them to the side so his weight wouldn’t land on her but he didn’t loosen his grip, not a bit and after a few more moments of squirming Luna must have realized he wasn’t letting her get away.

  “Don’t.” He nuzzled her neck, licking at the bite mark that was already beginning to heal and turn silvery with the mating scar, “Don’t you run from me, Luna. You’re mine. Nothing is going to change that, do you hear me? Nothing.”

  She didn’t instantly relax but he didn’t release his hold either.

  It wouldn’t be easy. He knew that and she must have known it too. Submissive wolves weren’t born to lead packs. As his queen, she’d stand at his side but lacking the Alpha gene meant anyone in the pack could challenge her. It was dangerous for her, for him, for the life he’d been imagining since the moment he saw her.

  It wouldn’t be easy but when had his life ever been easy?

  He’d devoted his life to this pack, to his pack. He’d given them his blood, sweat and tears. He hadn’t been born to be the Pack Alpha either but he’d made it work when it was thrust upon him and he would make this work too.

  He’d already lost too many people in his life. He wasn’t losing Luna too. Not now and not ever. She was his mate and he’d claimed her. There was no going back. Only forward, together.

  Chapter 12

  Luna lay in Michael’s arms, waiting for the moment he came to his senses and pushed her away. She should have told him. She should have warned him. It had been cowardly not to admit the truth before he’d done something irrevocable like mark her. But that’s what she was, a coward, a weak wolf that was in no way the right mate for this incredible man.

  She’d known he would figure it out. He was smart. He must have had questions about why her wolf hadn’t shown herself even after her human side opened up to him. He must have known that if she felt safe enough to shower with him, to touch him and let him touch her, to let him take her to bed, that her wolf should have trusted him enough to show herself too. But he hadn’t pressed her on the issue or asked about it and she was a coward for not admitting it before it was too late for them.

  Now he was stuck with her. Stuck with a mate that wasn’t an Alpha. Her wolf wasn’t even dominant and it would be an issue for him, for both of them and for the pack.

  They wouldn’t take her seriously. They’d pick and prod at her each time he turned his back. They’d look for any weaknesses and when they found one, they’d exploit it. She would be challenged because in a pack one thing was valued above all else, strength, and despite being fated to a Pack Alpha, she didn’t have it.

  He would hate her for this. Maybe not immediately. Maybe not right now. Still in the throes of heat and bonding, he probably meant it when he said that she was his and nothing would come between them. But eventually it would get old. He would get tired of having to protect her and stand up for her and he would wish that fate had given him a better mate, someone better suited for him than her.

  It would be easier on her heart if he let her go now. She didn’t want to have to watch the passion fade from him as he realized how inferior she was. She didn’t think she would survive losing him, not after everything else she’d lost. He’d saved her but eventually he would tire of her needing a hero and she would be cast aside.

  Heartbroken. Alone. Packless.

  “Stop it.” His gruff voice near her ear sent a chill down her spine and she felt her wolf shiver at the power she heard there. “Don’t pull away from me, Luna. Don’t think for a second that I’m going to let you go. I can feel your fear through the bond, your worry and your doubts but baby, you don’t have to worry anymore. I’m here and I’ve got you and together we can beat anything.”

  “But…”

  Michael rolled them when she tried to argue and she ended up on her back with him looming above her, his eyes serious as they traced her face softly, “Fate put us together for a reason, Luna. You have to believe that. I do. Have faith in fate and if you can’t, have faith in me. We’re mates. Have faith in us.”

  Luna stared up into those intense hazel eyes and fought the urge to cry. How was it possible that he was this good? This kind and sweet? Gentle and giving? Accepting? All her life she’d been around Alphas but she’d never met one like Michael. Was it just because they were mates? Was he only this soft with her? And if he was, how had she gotten so lucky as to have him find her and save her just in the nick of time?

  Fate.

  She reached up and brushed her fingers through his hair, reveling in the feel of the silky strands. He nuzzled into her touch, his eyes closing as he gave a hum of contentment. Her heart walloped in her chest as she took him in, took in what it was she had the power to do to him.

  Maybe she wasn’t powerless, at least not when it came to her mate.

  He’d asked her to have faith in Fate. He wanted her to have faith in them. They were mates, true mates and they were bonded. It was the greatest magic in the world, this ability to recognize your soulmate and truly share your life because you could feel what the other felt, sense what the other needed and be the other half that made a whole being.

  If there was one thing in the world that Luna had never doubted, it was fate. It had brought her this far. It had given Nova that vision. It had sent Michael to that house. It had gotten her out of that basement and into this bed with this gorgeous, sexy, amazing man.

  She bit her lip and nodded, “Okay.”

  Michael’s eyes slid open again, “Okay?”

  “I’ll have faith in you.” She managed a small smile, “In us.”

  He lowered his forehead to hers so that they were eye t
o eye, breathing the same air, “You don’t know how much that means to me, Luna. I’ve waited for you all my life. You’re mine and if the fates saw fit to make us mates, they must know something we don't. Right? They wouldn’t have put us together if they didn’t think it would work.”

  “I know.”

  “Then trust me. Love me. Be mine and I swear that we will make it work. Even if I have to step down from Pack Alpha, we can…”

  “No.” She gasped at his words and shook her head, “No! You can’t! I won’t let you do that for me. I don’t want you to.”

  “Luna.” He frowned, “If it comes down to you or the pack, I’m going to choose you.”

  “But…”

  “Rafe is back now. He’s… healing. He’s mated and he’s getting steadier every day. If I stepped down he could take over. He’s the elder and he was supposed to be the leader anyway. It would be okay.”

  “No.”

  “Luna,”

  “No.” She bristled when he said her name in that calming tone, “You are not stepping down as Pack Alpha because of me. Promise me, Michael. Right here and right now, you swear to me that you won’t do anything that crazy. I’ll keep the faith but you have to as well. I can’t believe I was sent to you just so that you could lose something else. Your pack is our pack now. We’ll find another way to make this work if we have to but you’re not stepping down.”

  Michael’s jaw clenched and unclenched, “They’ll challenge you and…”

  “And I’ll fight whoever I have to.” She cut him off with a tip of her chin, “I’m stronger than I look. I’ve spent my entire life training with Leo and the Crescent Enforcers. I may not have a dominant wolf but I’m not a doormat and I know how to defend myself. If they want to challenge me thinking it’ll be an easy win, that’s their mistake.”