Ember steps inside, gaze sweeping over everything. “Wow, it’s nice to be Alpha, isn’t it?”
“It has its advantages,” I try for casual, but my voice is rough.
Her lips curve, sly. “Like being big and broody and having a dick that expands?” she teases, throwing her words back at me from a few days ago.
I can’t help the laugh that rumbles in my chest. “Something like that.”
For a moment, silence stretches between us, broken only by the crackle of the fire. She stops at the window, her hand trailing over the paneled glass. “Why did you leave during the Taste trial when you saw it was me?” she asks softly. “Did you not want it to be?”
I swallow. “Because when I saw it was you, the woman I couldn’t stop thinking about, the one every wolf has made a target. It was all too much.”
Her eyes cut to mine. “You think this isn’t too much for me? At least you had years to prepare. I had nothing.”
“Prepare?” I huff. “I’m a professional at being alone, Ember. That’s all I’ve ever been.”
Her gaze softens at our sense of mutual understanding, the firelight dancing across her face. “Why didn’t you ever take a mate during mating season before now?”
“Because I believed in the trials.”
“Believed?” she presses.
“Believe,” I correct, holding her gaze.
The air thickens, humming with unspoken things. My wolf clawing inside me, demanding I claim her, mark her, taste her again.
“What makes it different this time?” she whispers, “What makes you so sure?”
“Everything,” I say simply. “Your scent. Your song. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
She frowns, intrigued. “My song?”
“The howling trial,” I remind her. “What did you hear?”
Her voice is soft, “A song of loneliness. Cold isolation. But it ended with … hope.”
“Exactly.” I step closer, every muscle in me straining to touch her. “To me, you smell like jasmine and cedarwood, which reminds me of my youth and my parents in the pine trees of Maine. Fated mates’ scents remind them of happiness and comfort. While the howling brings us deeper into their soul, telling us their inner song.”
“Fated mates,” she whispers, “The trials were created for that purpose, I suppose, but so many mates come and go through the cave or return from their mating season—I never truly believed in its power before. I can tell the way you are looking at me, you did?”
“I’m not going to lie, after these ten long years, I had started to doubt. But then I can’t explain your scent. Jasmineand warmth. Home.Mine.” My throat resonates with the last word.
Her lips part, a sharp inhale rattling between us.
“Ember,” I growl softly, the Alpha power hums in my voice before I can stop it, “come.”
Her green eyes flare. “Don’t use your Alpha voice on me. You’re not my Alpha. You can’t order me around.”
I shoot her a wicked smirk. “I disagree. An Alpha’s voice isn’t limited to his pack. We hold it back out of respect. But I could command anyone I wanted.”
She bites her bottom lip, fighting some internal battle. Then, eyes flaring, edges of her luscious mouth quirking up in a dare, she demands, “Prove it.”
Heat tears through me. I step closer, every line of my body vibrating with restraint. “Kneel.”
For a heartbeat, she resists. Then, shuddering, she folds to my power, lowering herself before me.
Gods. The sight of her kneeling at my feet unravels every shred of restraint I have left. I release the command instantly, but it doesn’t matter — the image is already burned into me.
Her gaze lifts, wide and breathless, before flicking downward. She spies my hardness that only grows at the sight of her, and her lips curve into a sinful grin.