Forsaken by E. M. Moore

14

Iwave bye to Alice as she walks hand in hand with her mate away from the cabin. I’m happy for her, but I also kind of want to shift and tear her head off. I’m one thousand percent sure that makes me a bad person. Or maybe just someone who’s fucking fed up with everything.

Tonight is the party Sean invited me to. We’re actually all going. Nathan and Gayle, too. The former nudges me with his elbow, and I peer up to find him giving me a look. The look that says he’d rather be dragging me up the stairs to hold me down on the bed and fuck me.

Or maybe that’s my imagination.

In this cabin, on Daybreak land, Nathan and I have never felt more right. If I can only forget about the whole fate pairing me with someone else part, I’d jump in with two feet and never look back.

Which is exactly why I want to tear Alice’s head off. Why does she get a mate who accepts her? Why is the same person who wants her also the one she is paired with? Sure, it took them a while, but it wasn’t a year plus.

“And then there were four,” Nathan remarks. The rest of us make unintelligible sounds of agreement.

I feel them all next to me. The dread, the hope, the all-around suck. Robbie has been looking pretty sullen lately. But Trish, the other female wolf, sounds like she’s gaining on her guy. Who knows how many of us will be left after this trip?

Last night, Nathan feasted between my legs again. He said he wanted to make sure he left a lasting impression before I go on my date. And boy, did he. Maybe it’s the forbidden aspect that makes it so damn hot, but I honestly don’t think so. Nathan and I just click.

“Three days in,” Trish says.

My stomach starts to knot. If we’ve been here for three days, I’m five days into my fourteen-day deadline. Nine fucking days.

Nathan reaches out and nonchalantly teases his fingers with mine. When she looks around, he pulls his hands back, and I immediately miss them. He must feel the strain, too. The silent ticking sound of the second hand becomes like a bass drum in our heads.

Tonight isn’t just about my date with Sean. It’s about spying on Sean and Gayle, too. People let loose at these kinds of things. If he and Gayle slip, we’re going to take them down.

Sean’s had enough chances to save me. As soon as I told him they were going to make me go Feral, he should’ve called Greystone up and told them he accepted me. If he cared about me even a little, he would’ve saved me. He’s the only one who has that power.

At this point, I kind of want to approach Sean and Gayle and tell them they can be with each other. I don’t give a shit. It works in my favor as long as for all outward appearances, it’s Sean and me, and Gayle and Nathan.

Although, with how Nathan is acting, I’m not sure his wolf would be able to handle seeing Sean and me together, sleeping in our own house.

If I could trust anybody with what’s going on, I would want them to study Nathan and see why he is so protective of me when I’m not even his fated.

When Alice’s mate’s car disappears from view, the four of us disperse. Sean will be picking me up in an hour, so I head toward my room to get ready. Might as well look the part of the mate who’s trying to win hers back, even when I’m planning on backstabbing him.

After everything he’s done to me, I wish I could stop thinking of it like that.

Nathan watches me as I walk up the stairs, and I bite my lip at his intense stare. I enjoy the way he watches me—as if he’s waiting in the wings to pounce whenever he can. It reminds me of when Sean and I were first paired. Even though he sent me away, I’d have scintillating dreams about him. I’ve never flicked the bean so much in my life.

I have to admit, it’s better with a partner who worships you. In his eyes, I can do nothing wrong.

I enter my room, the outfit I picked for the party is on my bed. We all wore our Greystone uniforms, at the behest of the alpha’s office, to see Alice off, but I certainly won’t be wearing that tonight. I peel off my shirt and skirt, then my undergarments, before stepping into the bathroom. I start the shower, waiting for it to heat up. As soon as the mirror starts to fog, I step inside. Earlier, Nathan and I went for a run to release some energy, so a layer of dirt and sweat currently circles the drain.

Whatever happens tonight, I plan on looking hot. For Nathan. I want to drive him wild. I want him to not be able to think straight. He keeps saying how much he wants to fuck me, but it never seems like the right time. Tonight, hopefully we’ll celebrate with some evidence and some dick.

I pile my wet hair on top of my head, letting the shower spray run down my neck and back. Eyes closed, I soak up the warmth of the water caressing every inch of my skin. There’s a slight shift in the air before I feel a press of lips against the spot where my neck meets my shoulder. I freeze as Nathan’s essence engulfs me.

“Are you crazy?” I ask, leaning into him because it’s one thing to tell him how dangerous this is but it’s another to crave it, too.

“Yes,” he breathes. “I heard the shower kick on, and I couldn’t think straight.”

My core pulses with heat and a need so deep it scares me. “Nathan, what’s happening to us?”

He turns me around. I have a split second to notice he’s as naked as I am before he backs me against the wall of the shower. “What’s happening? What’s happening is that the two of us are so right for each other, we transcend fate. And mate law. And everything we thought we knew.” He passes his thumb over my cheekbone. “We’re not together because someone told us to be. We’re together because we built a bond through friendship. And then it went deeper and deeper.”

I melt at his words. Attraction to Nathan was always a given—physically and mentally. I’ve loved him as a friend. We’ve cried together, laughed together, were angry together. We were so in sync that I didn’t notice the other aspect until it snuck up on us when we kissed in my room. But it was like shooting off a firecracker. The sparks fizzled around us until there was pure electricity zinging through the air. It’s the same right now.

“I don’t give a damn about mate laws, Mia. Mark my words. You’re mine, and no one else can have you.”

“I thought you said by any means necessary?”

He tilts my head back and sucks on my neck. “That was before. If he touches you, I’ll kill him. If you go Feral, I’ll kill him.”

“Your points contradict each other.”

He drops a heated kiss over my collarbone before sliding his fingers up the backside of my thigh, hitching my leg up his muscular one. “Not in my world.”

When we shifted earlier, we played like I imagined. We ran, we hunted, we were so in sync. My wolf was happy, and I was happier.

He was right when he called it a bond. A real one. One made from reality and not from the stars.

“In your world, do mates suck on tits?”

His eyes darken, and he slowly licks his lips. Moving his stare down, a low rumble vibrates from his chest.

He steps back, taking me in for the first time. Everywhere he looks, my skin blooms with heat. He watches so long, I get fidgety. “What are you doing?”

“Taking mental notes.”

Now that he mentions it, my own gaze drops to his straining cock. The head bobs in front of him, thick with tension. He hasn’t let me touch him once, even though I’m dying to. He’s worried he won’t be able to stop himself if he claims me sexually. The last thing we want is for him to go all possessive mate on me in public. For us, that would be a very bad thing. So bad, I don’t even want to think about the consequences.

“This is torture,” he breathes. “I don’t know why I do this to myself.” Stepping forward, he bends low, finally taking my nipple into his mouth. I let out a gasp, then suck it all in, pressing my lips together so no one hears us. He bites down playfully, flicking his tongue over the erect bud in harsh swipes that has me arching into him. Primal need slams into me, and I moan. It comes out guttural with my clenched jaw. With his lips still around my tit, Nathan peers up at me.

“Fuck,” I whisper, mentally snapping a shot. At least I’ll have this memory no matter what happens. Whether I’m in the woods by myself or in a house with Sean.

I reach out, digging my thumbs into his Adonis belt, and pull him toward me, his cock brushing against my belly button. Now that he’s closer, I search for his cock, but he bats my hand away. “I won’t be able to control myself,” he tells me. “You can’t.”

I whine, but he cuts me short when he moves to my other breast, clutching the swell in his hand and devouring it with his hot mouth. My toes curl, and my hips start working, rolling, searching for something I just can’t have right now. “One day, I’m going to ride you,” I tell him, my voice so thick with want that I hardly recognize it. “I’m going to ride you so hard.”

He groans, hooking his arms under my legs and hoisting me in the air, my back skirting over the tile on the way up. I land gracefully, pussy to Nathan’s lips. The best place to be. “Don’t forget about me tonight,” he warns just before he licks out with his tongue.

This is the stuff of movies. This is the hardcore, passionate need I’ve dreamed of. I thought I’d get it when my mate was revealed, but that wasn’t my fate, and I’m okay with that. Nathan is everything.

I rock into his mouth. “How could I forget?”

“When you look at him, you’ll see me. My tongue on your pussy.” He closes his eyes and drags the tip of his tongue up my slit until he reaches my clit. I squirm in his arms, but he easily adjusts to my weight.

I tilt my head back, knowing I can make it last longer if I don’t watch. “Fuck. You’re so good at this,” I whisper.

He squeezes my ass. “And you’re good at taking it.”

I grind all over his face, delving my fingers into his hair as I leave my mouth open in forbidden, silent cries.

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this, Mia. How many times I dreamed of doing this. When you were crying over him, I wanted to slip into your bed and fuck you senseless. I nutted over the anticipation of leaving my seed inside you.”

“Nathan....” I gasp. He glances up to meet my eyes. He’s so raw, honest, open. There’s nothing barricaded off. He’s there for me to see, and I love that feeling.

“Mia, I love you.”

His admission makes my heart stop a moment, then I crash into a climax that he has to quiet with his hand over my mouth again. I buck against him, my head pounding out his words. After several long seconds, he sets me on my feet and drops a kiss to my forehead.

My heart beats unsteadily, like he’s somehow set me on a different rhythm. With his lips still against my forehead, he says, “Don’t answer yet. I’m sorry I’m so selfish. You deserve better.”

My eyelids flutter closed as he moves away. When I open them again, he’s slipping from the shower and strolling naked through the door that leads to his room.

Oh shit.

I place my hand over my chest, waiting for my heart to pump normally again, but it doesn’t come. There’s an extra beat, one reserved for Nathan.

Swallowing the emotion clogging my brain, I move with new determination. I turn the shower off and step out to stand in front of the mirror. Wiping the fog away, I can see myself in the clear spot. I look the same as I always have. It’s not as if there’s a sign above my head that says Nathan Loves Mia, but I feel different.

A knock comes on my side of the bathroom, and I squeak, almost jumping.

“Mia?” Nathan asks.

At the same time, another male voice asks, “Mia, are you in there?”

Sean. Fuck.

“Yeah,” I call out. “Sean, I’m in here.”

“Are you almost ready?”

A thump comes from inside Nathan’s room, and I cringe. Fuckity, fuck-fuck. “Yeah. Want to wait for me downstairs?”

“Sure.”

The door to my room opens and closes, and after that, Nathan’s opens and closes, too. Holy shit. I light a fire under my ass and run around to get ready. The last thing I want is to have Nathan deal with Sean.

I do the quickest blow-drying job of my life. My makeup is applied with shaking fingers before I run out of the room to find I still have fifteen minutes before he was supposed to pick me up. Sean’s early. Of course he fucking is.

I slip my party clothes on, giving myself a last-minute check in the mirror before deciding I’m good enough to go on a date with, and then I head downstairs to find Sean and Nathan sitting at the island together. Nathan pours Sean a shot and pushes it to him over the smooth countertop.

“Dude, I just had two,” Sean protests.

“I thought we were going to a party?”

Sean chuckles and closes his eyes, shooting the shot back. Nathan winks at me.

Like always, we’re on the same team.