Fated Hearts (Echoes of Darkness Prequel)

22

Ava

I wake up draped across Logan’s naked chest, my head in the crook of his neck, nose pressed against the side of his throat like I sought out his smell unconsciously, one of his arms at the small of my back and the other at the nape of my neck. I’m still completely naked, and my wrists are bandaged.

Logan’s skin feels amazing against mine, his intoxicating scent wrapping around me in waves, settling something deep inside of me. I know I should run for the hills. I should try to slip from his hold as quietly as I can, grab some clothes, and run. But I can’t. The scorching fire of need is still blazing, though settled slightly by the multiple orgasms Logan gave me earlier when he ate my pussy with the hunger of a prisoner on death row receiving his last meal.

Images of us on the shower floor flash through my mind, and I’m suddenly aware of the hardness pressing into my belly. I instantly get wet.

Logan is sleeping beneath me. I blink a few times, taking him in: smooth brown skin rippling with muscles, the perfectly etched V, and the trail of slightly curly hair disappearing in the waistband of his gray sweats. Without thinking, I trace the tattoo on his right bicep with my fingers and glide my hand down his torso until I reach the waistband of his sweats and let a finger slip inside. I’m instantly met with the head of his cock. I swallow hard. Should I? Fuck, I can’t stop myself from circling the silky tip with my finger. A bead of precum comes out. My mouth waters with the need to taste it as I spread it around.

I know I shouldn’t, but yet again, it doesn’t feel like I have much choice. Before I can even grasp the repercussions of what I’m about to do, my body makes the decision for me as my hand inches down. I wrap my fingers around his shaft, the heated skin like velvet against the palm of my hand. I gulp at the sheer size of it, so long and thick, with veins bulging along the sides. I pump my hand up and down, and it twitches with a spasm against my palm.

Suddenly, a large hand grabs my wrist, halting my movement. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you don’t want me to flip you over and fuck you, then you need to stop,” Logan rumbles beneath me in a deep, sleepy voice that stokes the fire inside of me even more. “I won’t be able to restrain myself if you keep touching me.”

“Maybe that’s exactly what I want,” I blurt out and lift my head to look at him, gulping at the intensity in his half-lidded stare as our eyes collide. There’s so much hunger in them. His lips look so pillowy and soft. All I want is to kiss him and sink onto his cock.

His Adam’s apple bobs in his throat. “We can’t. We need to talk first. I have to explain everything to you. There’s no excuse for what I have done, but I hope you’ll eventually find it within yourself to forgive me. I’m so, so sorry, Ava. For everything…”

His words bring me back to reality like a bucket of ice-cold water thrown at my face. I immediately disentangle myself from him, even if I feel like dying for putting space between us. I shouldn’t feel like this, not after everything he did to me.

“I want to leave. Please take me home.” I feel too exposed all of a sudden. I take the sheet thrown haphazardly on the side of the bed and wrap it around me as I stand.

Logan pushes up from the bed and stands on the other side. “I can’t do that, even if I wanted to, we are snowed in…we can’t leave. Besides, you’re in heat. You’re going to start burning up again soon.”

My fingers clench, fisting the sheet. “I don’t care. I want to go home.”

“You don’t understand. You’re going to start feeling worse by the minute, and your wolf will eventually take control of your body.” He runs a hand through his curls, a pained look passing over his face. “It’s because we’re fated mates. You’re going to be in heat until the mating bond is completed.”

“What?” I ask in a high-pitched voice. “An hour ago you thought I killed your mate, but now you’ve changed your mind? We’re fated mates now? What the fuck is this crazy shit? What does mate even mean?”

“Fated mates are like halves of a splintered soul, endlessly searching for each other and destined to be together for eternity. Don’t you feel it, Ava? The sense of rightness when we are near. The longing, the scorching need?”

This is exactly how I feel, but I don’t tell him that. “You’re delusional,” I mutter instead and take a step back.

“Listen to me, please. Fuck. I don’t even know where to start.” He presses the heels of his palms into his eyes and then looks at me. “Hope Moore, the woman you received your heart from… she was my fated mate. I have dreamed about her for five years until the dreams stopped abruptly four months ago.”

He takes a deep breath in and continues, “I didn’t understand why she didn’t come to me as she was supposed to, but now I do. She couldn’t because she was kidnapped, and then she died, and you received her heart. I don’t know how, but receiving Hope’s heart somehow transformed you into my fated mate, into a wolf shifter. I felt this magnetic attraction to you from the first moment I saw you at the Shabby Shotglass, and I know you felt it, too. All I wanted to do was claim you right then and there. I fought it because I thought I was betraying my mate. I didn’t…I didn’t know what happened to Hope.”

“So what, I’m like a pity fuck delivered to you by destiny? Should I feel honored or something?” I scoff, trying to mask the way my voice trembles as my heart bleeds inside my chest, the caustic sting of jealousy ravaging my insides.

“It’s nothing like that, Ava. Fated mates are sacred. You’re everything to me.” He shakes his head, a curl falling over his forehead with the movement. My hand itches with the need to push it back and caress his gorgeous face.

Stupid, Ava. Stupid.

I arch an eyebrow at him. “Oh, I’m sorry, was I everything to you when you tied me up and then hung me on a hook like Jeffrey Dahmer Jr.? Or when you pointed a gun at my head and wanted to shoot me?” My tone drips with venom.

He winces like I’ve hit him and sinks to his knees in front of me. My eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“Please, Ava. Please, you have to forgive me. I can’t even express how sorry I am for doing those things to you. My fury blinded me. There’s this rogue wolf shifter that’s been on a killing spree for months. You probably saw it on the news, all the animal attacks happening recently. The rogue’s responsible for all of them. It’s been evading us all this time, hiding its scent somehow. When I saw you next to the two bodies in the woods, I lost it. I thought you were the rogue.”

I think of Tony’s body, mangled on the blood-soaked ground. “Tony was my friend, pendejo . He was such a good person. How could you ever think I could do something like that to him?” A tear crests over my eyelashes and falls, rolling over my cheek. I wipe at it furiously.

Logan stands and takes a tentative step toward me. At that, I step back, and he stops. A sorrowful expression takes over his face. Eyes filled with regret meet mine as his shoulders slump. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were my fated mate. I just…Fuck.” He grabs his hair in fistfuls and pulls at it. “I’m so stupid. So fucking stupid. Please, Ava, you have to forgive me.”

“I don’t know if I can,” I whisper. Despite myself, a wave of fire passes through my body, making me sway slightly on my feet. I suddenly feel lightheaded. “How do I stop this…this inferno that burns me from the inside out? I want it to stop. I don’t think I can take any more of this.”

“You can’t. The only way to stop it is to complete the mating bond.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means the moment we have sex, our souls will be forever intertwined. You will be mine, and I will be yours for all eternity. It’s a sacred union, even more so than marriage, because you can never divorce out of a mating bond. It’s for life and beyond.”

“Yeah, I’ll pass. There must be another way.”

“Trust me, there isn’t.”

“So what? If I refuse to complete it, I’ll just burn until I die? Because it feels like I’m dying with every second you’re not touching me. I hate it. I don’t want to feel this way anymore.” The tears start falling freely now, and I know I must look like an emotional wreck, but it’s so difficult having Logan in front of me and not giving myself to him fully. It literally hurts, like being gutted with a rusty knife.

“I don’t know, honestly. I have never heard of a fated mate refusing to bond once the female is in heat. And I’m hurting too, Ava. It takes everything I have in me not to bend you over and fuck you into oblivion. I don’t know how much longer I can control myself. I can smell your arousal from here, and it’s making my wolf crazy. You’re not the only one struggling.”

Gulping at his words, my gaze roves over his body. Sweat dots his hairline, his muscles are locked up, and his fingers clench and unclench at his sides as if he is barely restraining himself. I inhale deeply, but it’s like I’m in the bowels of Hell again.

“I need a moment to process all of this,” I mumble weakly, but when I want to turn around, I can’t. It’s like someone else shoves me into the back seat of my mind so all I can do is watch everything unfold in front of my eyes as my legs eat up the space between me and Logan.

I practically tackle him to the bed, and my lips fuse with his in a mind-numbing kiss. There’s nothing slow or tender about the way our lips and tongues move against each other. It’s all-consuming and raw, like jumping from the edge of a cliff and falling into the abyss. Logan’s fingers bite savagely into my hips as I gyrate on top of him, the friction making me see stars.

I succumb to the feeling and let it consume me completely.