by Leia Stone
Curt’s nostril flared. “You need to learn to curb your anger, son.”
Sawyer barked out a laugh. “I love you, Father, but with all due respect, you’re not angry enough.”
Curt stood, veins flaring in his neck. “You think I don’t want to wipe every bloodsucker off the face of the earth? They’re a constant thorn in my side, but if I acted on every instigation, we’d be at war.”
Sawyer let go of my fur and stood, leaning into his father as alpha power spread throughout the room, becoming like a heavy blanket. “Instigation? That motherfucker raped her. Pinned her down with three of his friends and stole her virginity.”
Curt quickly looked down at the table, avoiding his son’s gaze in a clear show of submission that nearly knocked my wolf backward.
Sawyer was much more dominant than his father, that was very clear.
“You can’t go murdering every person that—”
“What if it was Sage?” Sawyer’s voice was barely human. “What if that blood bag had raped Sage?” Sawyer asked his father.
Curt’s eyes flashed yellow. “I’d tear him limb from limb,” Curt growled, fur rising on his neck.
Sawyer nodded, and Curt shook his head at his son. “You really love her.”
My heart beat wildly in both my wolf and my human body.
“I do,” Sawyer said boldly.
His father nodded, looking a bit sad. “Let’s hope for all of our sakes that she’s not like her mother and that she feels the same.”
Ouch. I would be pissed at that comment if I didn’t see a painful memory cross his face. He really had loved my mom … that was so clear, and because of the curse he had to marry someone who loved him. Mrs. Hudson. I felt sad now wondering if he’d grown to love her, or if he just respected her.
I guess it wasn’t my business.
“Goodnight, son.” Curt turned and left the room, letting the door close behind him.
When he was gone, Sawyer looked down at me with a lopsided grin. “When did you get the power of invisibility?”
My wolf snuggled into his hand and Sawyer shook his head in amazement, kneeling down to pet my ears. “I can’t really fully see you, you look like a ghost to me. But I could sense you. The moment you walked in I knew.”
My wolf nuzzled into him, and he pulled my face up to look up at his. “Send Demi to my apartment. I need to see her,” he said, then he leaned down and kissed the top of my snout.
With a nod, my wolf took off down the hallway, through the glass wall, and then headed back to the dorm.
“Alright, ladies,” the two guards in my dorm shouted, shaking Sage and I from our trance. “The threat is gone, you can go back to sleep.”
We thanked them and they left, and then Sage yanked on my arm. “Tell me everything. What the fuck, Demi?”
I sighed. “You know how I told you about my … attack?” I tried not to use the “r” word too much. People didn’t like the word rape, that’s why a child rapist was called a pedophile. It softened the blow.
She nodded.
“Well…” My voice shook. “With the cuffs on … I couldn’t shift and protect myself so my wolf … split.”
Her hands came to her face, grasping the edges of her mouth. “Ohmygod, I’m so sorry.” She reached out and held my hands.
I nodded, thanking her, and told her how I only just discovered it the night I shifted for the first time with Sawyer. I didn’t yet tell her I was half Paladin, I was still processing that one. But I told her everything I’d just overheard in the meeting room.
Sage looked hopeful. “That’s good. If the witch can change Sawyer’s DNA, then it won’t even go to trial.”
“And if she can’t?” My voice cracked. Trial? I wondered if there was like a magical court system or something.
Before either of us could remark on that, my wolf was back, trotting into the room like it was no big deal. She must have walked through the glass window again.
Weird. Would never get used to that one.
“That was crazy. What other powers do you have?” I asked my wolf and reached out a hand to her. She gave me a lopsided grin and then went semitransparent, joining our bodies into one.
“That’s … I’m sorry, girl, but that’s some freaky shit.” Sage laughed and I joined her. It was. I wasn’t going to deny that.
I popped to my feet and smoothed my hair. It was four a.m. and Sawyer wanted to see me. Was that considered a booty call?
I certainly hoped so.
Sage had a devilish grin. “Where you going?”
“To see Sawyer.” I winked.
Sage smiled, but then her face faltered. “Hey, Demi? Don’t break him. He’s fragile, okay?”
My brow furrowed at that. If anyone was going to get hurt or broken, it was definitely me. And Sawyer wasn’t someone I would call fragile, but I nodded anyway to assure her. She was just protecting her cousin.
“Promise,” I told her, wondering what would make her say that. She and Sawyer seemed to be close, and I wondered now what he’d told her about me.
I’d always been told I was a bit aloof emotionally and hard to read. Sometimes I forgot that I came across like that. Sawyer knew how much I cared about him, right?
Now I wasn’t so sure.
The moment I stepped out into the hallway of my dorm, Eugene was waiting for me. “Sawyer is expecting you,” he said.
A short five-minute golf cart ride across campus later and I was at Sawyer’s front door.
It was late, I was tired, but I couldn’t stop replaying the things he said to his father about me in my head. The way he’d stuck up for me, no one had ever done that for me before, not even my parents. After the attack, their hands were tied. They’d filed the complaint but they were two poor banished wolves living out in the human world. Sawyer had just stared down his father, the alpha of all of Wolf City, and told him that he should be madder about what happened to me.
My chest tightened with emotion and I knocked softly on the door. When he pulled it back, eyes roaming over my face, checking for any signs of distress, something burst open inside of me.
I loved him. I really fucking loved him. He was a catch, not just because he was rich or the future alpha or any of that shit. He was sweet and sexy and he fucking fought for me. He’d killed for me. Twice.
“I’m in love with you!” I blurted out, causing a grin to pull at his lips as Eugene took this moment to back up and give us privacy. “I mean, I’m not good with this fuzzy feelings shit, but I’m so fucking in love with you it hurts.” I grabbed my chest and he stepped out into the doorway and grasped the sides of my face. Looking down at me with searing blue eyes, he smiled, showing me his chin butt in all its glory.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked, looking at my lips.
I looked at him through a half-lidded gaze and started to push him back into his apartment with my hips, pressing my pelvis into him until we were inside, then I shut the door behind me. Leaning forward, I trailed my tongue along his salty neck and then whispered in his ear. “Make love to me, Sawyer.”
It was like he was made of combustible materials and I’d just lit him on fire. His skin flared with heat as his warm lips crashed to mine in a hungry kiss that confirmed every feeling I had.
I was made for him.
He was made for me.
And fuck anyone who tried to stand in my way.
His tongue slipped into my mouth and I moaned as he swallowed my sounds. I kissed him with a feverish urgency as heat built up, threatening to burst me from the inside out. Remembering what he’d said before about letting me lead, I started to walk backward into his bedroom. His hand snaked up my shirt but stayed just under my bra, until I reached up and pushed it higher, giving him permission. When he cupped my breast, pressure exploded between my legs, causing me to growl as I pushed him backward on the bed.
He fell onto the crisp white sheets, while I stayed standing.
Reaching down to grasp the edges of my shirt, I pull
ed it up over my head, watching his eyes rake over me with satisfaction. He did the same, one handed, revealing a perfect chest and abs. Unbuttoning my shorts, I let them fall to the floor as he mimicked my movements, taking his shorts off and matching me.
He lay there, in his boxers, on his back but propped up on his elbows just watching me, waiting. I had all of the control and that was sexy as hell. In one move I slipped off my bra and his eyes went yellow. Leaning forward, I crawled up his body, slowly, brushing my breasts against his stomach and tracing my nipples up his abs.
“Fuck, Demi…” he groaned, causing a satisfied grin to pull at my lips.
When I reached him, I took one of his hands and placed it on my left breast, then I leaned down slowly and took his bottom lip into my mouth. His hardness grew beneath me as I grabbed for his other hand and slipped it under my panties, between my legs.
We both moaned at the same time.
His tongue slipped into my mouth, gliding with mine as need built up inside of me.
I needed Sawyer like I’ve never needed a man before. One of his fingers slipped inside of me and a low satisfying groan ripped from my throat.
“Is this okay?” he asked, breathy in my ear.
I swallowed hard. “Yes.” I panted as I moved my hips harder into his hand.
I pulled my mouth away from him and arched my back as he came up to take my nipple into his mouth and suck. Something unfurled inside of me as I reached between us and grabbed his hardness, stroking.
“Demi…” he groaned.
His hand came down on my lower back, and in one swift move he flipped me underneath him, with him on top of me.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
I nodded as his fingers continued to move inside of me.
“Condom?” My breaths were coming out in short gasps as he fiddled with the nightstand beside his bed. I needed to be closer to him, to come together as one. He tore the condom wrapper off with his teeth and then put it on, the entire time keeping his blue eyes locked on mine.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I’d never been more sure about anything. From the day I’d first met him, I just had a feeling he would be special to me, something I didn’t even want to admit to myself at the time.
“Absolutely.”
With that, he peeled off my underwear, kissing up my thigh as he came back up, giving one lick right between my legs that nearly sent me over the edge.
He growled in satisfaction and I grasped the bedsheets as a pulsing heat throbbed between my legs. Then he was inside of me.
I cried out as pleasure filtered throughout my body with each rock of his hips. Heat, pressure, and pure fucking pleasure danced across my skin in equal measure. His lips landed on my neck, kissing as his fingers went between us, massaging my most sensitive spot.
“Is this okay?” Sawyer whispered in my ear.
“Don’t stop,” I managed to gasp. Everything about this was okay. The time I had sex with Isaac, it wasn’t like this. Nothing I’d ever had was like this.
A dull vibration started to rattle my chest as Sawyer moved his fingers faster, pumped his hips harder. I threw my head back onto the bed and he kissed my neck before dragging his tongue along my collarbone.
Oh dear God, I was going to explode.
‘I love you,’ he breathed.
‘I love you too,’ I moaned, and then my head jerked back as I realized we’d just spoken in each other’s mind.
His eyes were wide in shock as the dull vibration grew stronger, until I felt his emotions bleed into me, filling me almost as if I were tapping into my wolf’s emotions.
“Do you feel that?” he asked.
I nodded, gasping as he continued rocking over me. “What is it?”
He grasped one side of my face with his free hand and rested his forehead on mine as feelings of pure adoration rocked through me.
He adored me. He adored everything about me. My goofy shirts, my laugh, my love for photography.
“We’re imprinting,” he huffed, as an orgasm rocked my body.
“We’re wh—?” I didn’t have time to ask what that was or what it meant, because waves of bliss crashed into me as I raked my nails down his back, crying out. A bright white light emanated from my chest and then from his, meeting in the air between us and becoming a ball of blinding light.
Images flashed into my mind. They were of me … but from Sawyer’s point of view. Me running out of the hall at Delphi, howling at the sky as my wolf tried to break free. Me taking pictures across campus and Sawyer watching while talking to his friends. Images of the first time I shifted and how he’d helped my wolf. Feelings of arousal, possession, love, fear, all rocked through me as I tried to make sense of what was happening.
Sawyer shuddered over me, groaning in pleasure as our bodies tightened around each other, muscles clenching as our pleasure reached a crescendo. Pulses of pleasure and magic mixed together as we both panted, and the light became so bright I had to close my eyes. Then it flared brightly and was gone as quickly as it had come.
I popped my eyes open. Sawyer climbed off of me and lay next to me, breathless.
I tried to catch my own breath, looking up at the ceiling and trying to figure out what to say.
“What the fuck was that?” I finally asked, and then busted out laughing. He started to laugh as well, and pretty soon we were both full-on snort giggling.
Once the reality hit, that we’d just… imprinted … my laughter died in my throat and I propped up on an elbow. “Sawyer, what’s imprinting? What was that light?”
I remembered it from the first time we’d kissed. I thought it had to do with my split shifting and what the book said about being able to feed on my powers … but maybe not.
He rolled over and sighed, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “Did your parents ever tell you about true mates? Not just the mates we choose and marry, but the ones destined by fate?”
My mouth went dry as I shook my head.
“Demi, from the day I saw you at Delphi, I knew you were my true mate.”
My heart hammered in my throat.
Were true mates like soulmates?
“I felt it too. I mean, I didn’t know what it was but…” I let that sentence linger. “What is imprinting? That white light?”
He looked at me plainly, hard to read. “I don’t really know. I mean, I’ve heard of it as a special bond between … Paladin wolves. It’s a magic thing between true mates.”
Oh fuck.
I wasn’t calm enough to hide my response; my eyes widened and I chewed my lip as I fought for words. But Sawyer just looked … acceptingly … at me. “It’s okay, Demi. I know.”
I frowned. “You … know … what?”
Please don’t say that I’m a Paladin.
“That you’re part Paladin.”
Shit. I sat upright and covered my breasts. “What? I mean. That’s a big problem … right?” He stood at the end of the bed and tossed me a shirt, then walked into the bathroom and emerged a few moments later in basketball shorts.
Sitting next to me, he pulled me onto his lap. “That book page I showed you about what you are … it said the split shifting only happens with Paladins. Then I looked up why your parents were banished and found out what your mom did … I put two and two together,” he confessed. “I’ve known for a while.”
Ahhh, well, that was smart of him, and shitty for me. “You should have told me sooner.” I hugged my arms and he pulled the blanket around us.
“Sorry, I was still trying to figure it all out.” He tucked me tighter into his body, his warmth pressing against me. “Look, it doesn’t matter to me what you are or who you are. I love you, Demi, all of you.”
“So is imprinting in that book you have?” I asked.
He chuckled. “No, that comes from stories my great grandmother told me as a child.” I leaned into him, looking up at him as he smiled down on me. “It can only happen with true mates she told me, and it’s a Pala
din thing.”
“What does imprinting mean?”
“Imprinted true mates can speak into each other’s minds no matter the distance,” he told me.
I shrugged. “Kinda handy.”
‘Testing, testing.’ I tried.
His chin butt puckered as he grinned.
‘One, two, three…’
Whoa, that’s crazy. “What else?” I couldn’t help the smile that lit up my face.
He swallowed hard, reaching out to stroke my cheek. “They can feel each other’s feelings. Sense things.”
His fingers trailed down my neck and I shivered as they stroked the top of my breasts.
“What else?”
He shrugged. “That’s all I remember. I was young when she died.”
He lay back on his pillow and looked up at the ceiling as I snuggled in beside him, feeling completely at home in his arms.
“True mates huh?” I looked up at him.
He grinned. “Can’t argue with fate.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “No, we can’t.”
I lay there on his chest, listening to the rise and fall of his breath as the weight of sleep pulled at me.
“In the endless garden of flowers, I will always pick you,” Sawyer whispered in my ear and my eyelids fluttered.
“Who said that?” I muttered, my eyelids unable to stay open.
“A.J. Lawless.”
I grinned, thinking of how true I wanted that statement to be. Even though Sawyer said he was picking me early at the selection ceremony, I would still be nervous until it was a done deal. I wanted to be with him, and having all of these other girls after my man was making me stabby.
“How do you feel?” Sage asked me as she appraised the brand-new deep blue gown Sawyer had sent over for me.
“Nervous as hell.” I gulped, clutching her hand as our limo driver drove us to the lakeside country club where Sawyer was going to tell the entire selection of girls and their parents that he’d chosen me early.
I’d spent every night this week at Sawyer’s, and the mind talking thing was coming in really handy.
‘I feel like I’m going to puke,’ I told him as the limo pulled up to the country club entrance.
