I don't know how long we stayed like that maybe 30 minutes?
His breath hot against my spine. His palm steady between my shoulder blades, grounding me. Every inch of him still inside me, like he couldn't bear to let go. I didn't move either. Couldn't. Wouldn't.
There was something terrifyingly perfect about the stillness. About everything...it just seemed like a deja vu. Like I had been here.
His nose brushed the back of my neck, bringing me back. I felt him inhale. Like he was memorizing the scent of me—like it calmed something feral in him.
And then I heard it.
A small, almost imperceptible sigh. His lips ghosting over my skin.
"...You smell like mine. Like you were always mine." he said, almost to himself.
I swallowed thickly. "I thought wolves only said cheesy things like that when they were mated."
"We don't," he murmured. "That's the problem."
I blinked.
Wait.
He slowly pulled back, only enough to flip me over again, handling me like I might shatter under his fingers. His body hovered over mine, his silver eyes glowing faintly. Wolfish. Wild and extremely sexy.
But guilty.
I raised a brow. "So. Let me get this straight, your majesty."
He groaned. "Ezra—don't."
"You dragged me to your pack grounds. Bit my neck like you wanted to devour me. Called me yours. Then literally howled while inside me. And you're saying now it's a problem?"
Zayden narrowed his eyes. "You're insufferable."
"And you—" I poked his chest, "—said you had no interest in me. You called me annoying."
"You are annoying."
"You're still inside me."
He let out a broken sound that might've been a laugh. Or a whimper. Or both. "Fuck."
"You said you didn't even like guys."
"I don't like guys," he muttered, but his gaze dropped to my lips like a starving man looking at his final meal.
"Neither do i. But hou like me, though."
Silence.
And then, a slow growl—one that started low in his chest and spread across my skin like thunder.
He kissed me.
Hard. Desperate. Like he was punishing me for being right. Like I'd dragged some dark truth out of him he didn't want to face.
I kissed him back with the same energy. My fingers curled into his hair, tugging slightly. That earned me another low sound—a warning. A promise. His tongue tangled with mine, and I arched into him without even thinking. That was my mistake.
Zayden broke the kiss first, panting. His forehead dropped to mine. "You're going to ruin me. You just might be the end of me"
"I think you're already ruined," I whispered, brushing a finger down his jaw. "But I'll take the blame."
His smile was sharp. Dangerous.
Then he shifted his hips, reminding me exactly where he still was.
I gasped, fingernails digging into his back.
"You talk too much," he murmured. "it drives me insane"
"And you act like I don't make you lose control."
His body stilled again.
Then he leaned in, close enough that his lips barely brushed my ear.
"You're the first thing I've lost control for in hundreds of years."
I went quiet. My throat tightened.
Not because I didn't know what to say.
Because I finally felt it.
This wasn't about the heat.
It never was.
It was about something ancient. Something burning and buried and buried and burning, waiting for the right person to draw it out. To draw him out.
And maybe that person was me. Maybe I was who he lost control for.
His mark pulsed on my skin, still glowing faintly.
I lifted my wrist. "This thing still hasn't stopped," I said softly.
"It won't," Zayden said, brushing his fingers over it. "Not until the bond finishes forming and we're fated forever."
"Is that what this is?"
He didn't answer. He just kissed my palm.
Like he wasn't ready to say it yet.
But somehow, that meant more than a yes.