Pack Ruin (The Splintered Bond #3)

33. A Perfect Moment

33

A Perfect Moment

LUKE

I ’d always thought Flor was the most graceful shifter I’d ever known. But her strength and self-assurance practically radiated from her now as she approached me. She stopped a few inches away, her amber eyes almost glowing. I would have believed the almost-cool expression she wore, if her cheeks hadn’t flushed before she spoke.

“Luke,” she began, then swallowed.

“Flor.” I tried to say her name with all the love I felt, but my voice trembled. “Little fighter.”

She lifted a hand to my face, then let it drop down to my heart, where she pressed it slightly, her smile widening. “Your heart is racing.” I nodded dumbly. “So is mine.” Taking my hand, she placed it on her own chest. Through the thin t-shirt, her nipple beaded up under my palm, and I felt my cock go stiffer than it ever had. “Come on.”

We moved together to the small bedroom, and I smiled when Flor shucked off the boxers, then lifted her arms and waited. I grabbed the edges of the oversized shirt and pulled it off, then dropped to my knees. “You’re exquisite,” I rasped. “All my dreams, come true.”

I kissed her stomach, my hands spanning her narrow waist, then tasted her warm skin, drawing letters with my tongue. Spelling out passages from the love letters I’d written years ago. She wove her fingers in my hair and moaned softly when I reached the final words, right over her red curls. I pressed my face into her, breathing in the heated cinnamon and jasmine scent of her, surprised when she pushed me away.

“Your turn, Luke,” she insisted.

I knew what she meant, and I stood again, dropping the borrowed shirt and trousers to the floor. I leaned over, slowly, and picked up both pieces of clothing, then carried them to the dresser, knowing what she saw. “I always thought I would wait until dark, in my dreams. So you didn’t see… me.”

“So many.” She breathed the words.

There were a lot, crisscrossing my back. The ones higher up weren’t as noticeable. The worst marks were at the base of my spine and over my buttocks, where Callaway had whipped me like a child, but with silver. The scars burned under Flor’s gaze.

I took my time folding the shirt, giving her a chance to leave. When I heard her move across the room, and the door click shut, I let out a shuddering breath, my eyes closed. I didn’t blame her. My scars weren’t a beautiful star like hers, or marks of valor, like other shifters sometimes wore. They were proof of my weakness. I hadn’t ever wanted her to see them. And I suppose she hadn’t wanted to, either. I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood, knowing I needed to keep the pain inside.

“No.” Flor’s voice was quiet behind me, and I startled as I felt her hand move over the rough skin on my back. “Whatever you were thinking, you’re wrong.”

My breath caught. “You didn’t leave.”

“I already left you once, Luke. I about got myself killed getting back to you. From now on, let’s stay together.” Her hands moved around me to my front, locking together as if she was planning never to let go. That was exactly what I wanted, too.

Her lips pressed against all the scars she could reach on my back, and then she pulled me over to the bed, climbing to stand on the mattress before she turned me around, and finished kissing the ones on my shoulders. She laughed when she got to the topmost one, at my nape. “Sometimes I hate being so short.”

“Good thing you have plenty of mates to help reach things on top shelves, then.”

She growled, hooked a leg around me, and in less than two seconds, had me flat on my back on the mattress, while she sat on top of my chest. Her move had been so fluid that I couldn’t quite figure out what she’d done to get me there.

“How—” I managed, before she slid down and pressed the tip of my swollen cock to her entrance. Somehow, she was already drenched. When she descended a little, I made a guttural noise. “Flor… let me… first…”

She put two fingers in her mouth and swirled them around, then placed them exactly where she wanted them, drawing what felt like figure eights over her clit. “Shush, hot stuff. I’m making a whole stack of fantasies come true.”

“What?”

Her eyes twinkled as she moved her hips, taking just the first two inches of me inside her as she touched herself. “I dreamed about this when I lived in the dorms. I’d lie in my cot late at night, wondering what it would feel like to have you underneath me, inside me. Looking up at me.”

It was the most erotic, honest, emotionally charged moment of my life. I tried to let her see how intense and perfect she felt, wanted to tell her so, but I was afraid I might come too soon and spoil the moment, so I stared up at her and hoped she could see it.

Her eyes gleamed gold, and I knew I was seeing her wolf. My own battered, hungry wolf rose to greet her. Howled in ecstasy at being so close to our mate.

“Mate,” I murmured. “My mate.”

Deep in her gaze, twin moons shone as she replied, “Yes.”

As she moved, it felt like we were waking from a dream that had begun a long, long time ago. Like the spirals of bliss that caught us were carrying us into some bright, new morning.

There was a roaring in my ears as she began to climax and rode me faster, leaning over me, her face by my ear.

Her breath in my hair.

Her teeth in my neck.

“Mine,” she growled, claiming me.

I twisted to one side, and my teeth found her shoulder, sinking deep, as I snarled out my own release. “Mine.”

Our souls became one, twisting and binding. Her wolf fought to surface, and my own nudged her, showing her the way. Our hearts began to beat at the same rate, and I felt her. Her passion, her strength. The love she’d hidden from me, and even herself, for years when she was young. Her forgiveness.

It was a perfect moment, until it wasn’t.

Grigor’s voice roared through our joined consciousness. The joy turned to panic, and the pleasure became pain. Get her out. Now. GET HER OUT!