The Dancer (Dark Side of the Moon #1)

Chapter Nine

Quinn

I’ve been awake for five minutes, a stupid smile spread across my face. On the floor beside my bed is the most enormous black wolf I have ever seen, snoring loudly, lying on his back. I felt the mate bond yesterday when I touched Elias, but I’m still unsure how to proceed.

Elias makes me feel safe, protected, and special.

I want to take the chance and jump at what he is offering, but my fear still holds me back. Slipping my hand off the edge of the bed, I run my nails along his stomach to his chest. His eyes flutter open, and I momentarily lose myself in the amber pools.

“You broke into my room,” I say in a whisper. The wolf huffs, and I smile. “Can I talk to you?”

Elias’s wolf rolls over to his stomach before I see the shimmer of his change fall over him. It takes moments before Elias crouches before me in his human form. His skin is a tan, golden brown. The ink he has on his arms that entranced me mere days ago extends up his arms and meets on his back between his shoulder blades.

He stares at me with lust and hope scrolled across his features.

“Morning.” His voice is deep and gravelly, and I wonder if that is how it always sounds in the morning. “I didn’t break in. You left the window open.”

I want to laugh at the fact he feels the need to point that out. But we need to have a more serious conversation. Slipping from the bed, I grab a towel hanging from my door and hand it to him.

“Please cover yourself,” I murmur, not looking at him.

I am already on edge and aroused simply because he is here. Having to look at him naked is liable to have me spreading my legs like a bitch in heat. His footsteps draw closer before he takes the towel. The rustle of fabric has me wanting to turn back to him, but I remain, firmly facing the door.

“I’m decent. Sort of,” he rasps in my ear.

The heat of his body behind mine has me wanting to push my ass back against his groin. I know he is aroused. There was no way to keep his erection hidden from sight before I looked away. I slip away, sit on the edge of the bed, and stare up at him.

“I felt the mate bond yesterday.”

Shock crosses his features before he falls to his knees before me. He says nothing, he simply lays his head in my lap. This massive man. One of the most powerful Alphas in the world on his knees. For me.

I thread my fingers through his hair, playing with the length, waiting for him to say something. We stay like that for long minutes before he finally pulls away.

“What does that mean?” he asks. “I don’t want to pressure you, but I am losing my ever-loving mind having to be apart from you.”

“I know this isn’t what you had in mind when you found your mate, neither did I. But I can’t just jump into this. I have some issues trusting men, and my mind and soul are at war right now.”

“Did someone hurt you?”

The flash of yellow in his eyes has me cupping his face in my hands. The man may be protective of me already, but his beast is downright homicidal.

“No.” I shake my head vehemently. “But my mom…”

I trail off, unable to finish the sentence before my throat closes with emotion and tears well in my eyes. Elias wraps his thick arms around my waist, holding me, his head pressed to my chest, while I regain control of my emotions.

“What do you need from me?” he murmurs.

“Time.” It’s the only honest answer I can give him. “I need to get to know you and build up trust.”

“I can do that,” he says with a sigh, releasing me to stare into my eyes. “But I need something in return.”

“Such as?”

“Two things, actually.” His devilish grin floors me, stealing all logical thought from my brain. “I want you to live in my house. You’ll have your own room,” he quickly adds before I can object.

“And the second thing?”

“I need you smelling like me.”

My mind races with a million dirty thoughts, and I can feel my pussy growing slick. I know he can smell my arousal by the way his gaze darkens. Is he just like all other men, after all? Looking for a hole to fill and slake his lust? Have my suspicions been right all along?

“You want to fuck me?” I can hear the note of anger in my voice. I push him away. “That’s what this is about?”

Elias sighs loudly. “Yes. I want to fuck you. I want to bury myself so deep in your cunt that you don’t know where I begin and you end. I want to rutt you like a mindless beast, knot you, breed you, mark the shit out of you, and keep you forever.” He watches me closely with every word that falls from his lips. “But you’re not ready. And I will wait until you are. For now, I just want to make sure you smell like me. I don’t want to rip someone’s head off the next time they accidentally touch you or because they wrongly think you’re available.”

My tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. His dirty words, the things he wants to do to me, are replaying on a loop in my mind.

“And how do you propose to do that?” My voice is husky even to my ears.

“Spread your legs and let me eat that pussy like I wanted to in the club.”