Her Pack by Tamara White
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nateand I have been in the tub for a while now, our skin all pruny but I just can’t find the energy to get out. Instead, I’ve been doing just as I planned and emptying water from the tub, and then refilling it with warm water again.
I thought Nate would grow tired of being in the water with me, but he seems to enjoy the closeness as much as I am.
After refilling the tub for a fourth time, I lean back against him, a soft sigh leaving my lips. “My body is feeling better. It still fucking hurts, but nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be by now.”
Nate nuzzles into my neck, placing a soft kiss just under my ear. “I’m glad it’s helped.”
His breath brushing along my neck gives me goosebumps, and my nipples involuntarily harden. His hand on my stomach makes circles around my belly button. The atmosphere in the room has changed from the relaxed feeling it was only a moment ago. Now it’s charged with something almost alive.
My wolf is pacing in my mind, like she too knows what is going on and is ready for whatever occurs.
Nate nibbles on my shoulder, and I suck in a breath, my body trembling with need. “I want to mark you, Dani.”
“Okay.”
What a stupid ass response was that? My mouth seems unable to come up with words. It’s like the connection between my head and mouth were severed.
He chuckles, his teeth grazing over my shoulder again, like he’s marking his spot, ready to pierce my skin. “Marking doesn’t have to be sexual. I’m not trying to rush you, but my wolf and I want you to bear our mark. If you don’t want that yet, then I need you to say something other than ‘okay’.”
I clear my throat, begging my brain not to fail me now. “You can mark me, so long as I can mark you in return.” There, that’s kinda what I wanted to say. He may think it doesn’t have to be sexual, but being in a bath, nude as the day we’re born, doesn’t exactly make it easy not to think of sex or other things.
“Mark me whenever, wherever you want, Dani. Even without the ceremony, I know I am yours, one hundred percent. I don’t need the pack to see that. I know it in my heart.”
My body flushes with heat at his words, the love I have for him feeling even stronger. I grab his left hand, the one not still playing on my stomach, and place a kiss on the inside of his wrist, silently asking if it’s an okay place for a mark.
He responds by placing yet another kiss on my shoulder, the spot he’s obviously wanting to mark. His teeth graze over the spot, and his right hand moves lower in the water until he’s massaging my center. My body ignites with desire and need. My wolf is panting with anticipation, eager to claim another of her mates.
Nate spreads my fold, gently sliding a finger within me, and I can’t help but clamp down on his wrist with the feeling it brings. I haven’t drawn blood yet. I’m doing my utmost best to remain in control, even as he slides his finger in and out of me in such an agonisingly slow rhythm that I just want to beg him for more.
My back arches as he continues to rub against me and I can feel my orgasm building, ready to tip over at the slightest amount of pressure. Nate seems to know this and controls me with the promise of my release. His teeth graze over my shoulder one more time and I decide enough is enough and bite down deep on his wrist.
His body spasms against my back, and his strokes speed up until he too bites down on my shoulder, causing my orgasm to rock through me. I can hear water splashing to the floor, but thankfully my mouth is still sealed to his wrist, smothering my cries of euphoria. My wolf is purring in my mind as I seem to float back to earth, wondering if it’s possible for an orgasm to cause an out of body experience.
Nate nuzzles his head between the crook of my shoulder and neck, his chest vibrating. Almost like he’s purring in contentment. I giggle a little, the image of him as a cat popping into my head.
“What’s so funny?” He asks, his voice heavy with exhaustion.
“Just imaging you as a cat,” I chuckle. “You know what with you purring back there.”
“Well, excuse me for being content. I’m just enjoying the feeling that comes with having marked you as mine. Now no one can ever try to say we’re not mates. This,” he lifts his hand to trace over the mark he made with his index finger. “This is permanent. Nothing can ever change it.”
I smile, the feeling of possessiveness just as strong in me. It feels amazing to know that this little mark is all I need to do to claim a mate as mine forever. A yawn suddenly escapes me and I find my body suddenly seeped of all energy.
“Time for you to go to bed, Dani. Lean forward so I can climb out. I’ll grab the towels and get you tucked in bed.”
“But I don’t want to go to sleep yet. I’m hungry.” Still, I lean forward so he can climb out of the tub while I pull the plug to drain it.
Nate is quick to grab a towel for himself, drying off quickly and wrapping the towel around his waist. “Come on, once you’re in bed, I’ll go to the kitchen and get you some food. But you are wiped, you need to rest.”
I sigh, standing and getting out of the bath with Nate’s help. Once I’m on the saturated bath mat, he wraps the towel around me and dries me off. I let him do so simply because my body feels heavy and unable to move. Another yawn escapes me and Nate frowns, his eyes worried. “Shit, I shouldn’t have marked you when you were so exhausted.”
“I wanted it,” I remind him with a soft smile. “It was bound to happen eventually, and I for one am very glad that it happened this soon.”
“I’m glad too, I just should have waited until you were not so damn wiped. You look like a ghost, almost.” He wraps the towel around me and picks me up before I can protest. “Come on, I need to get you fed.”
Nate carries me out of the bathroom and back to the room that has unofficially been deemed as mine. He lays me delicately on the bed, before grabbing a pair of pants from the wardrobe and throwing them on. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
He leaves me on the bed staring after him, questioning whether he really did just put pants on while going commando? How the hell did he know they were his pants? What if they weren’t his clothes that he wore, but one of my other mates? For some stupid reason, the thought of him going commando in another of my mates clothes, does things to me it shouldn’t.
I lay back on the bed and try to think of food, but it exhausts my body. My eyes close of their own accord, and before I know it, I’m out like a light.
I lay there,staring at Nate who’s fast asleep, a soft snore escaping him now and then.
I’d fallen asleep after he left yesterday evening, but he woke me up, insisting I eat before I crash for the night. We sat up and devoured our burgers in bed. Nate stayed dressed in the pants he had borrowed and me, in nothing but a towel. But I honestly couldn’t be bothered getting dressed. Which was lucky because I had made one hell of a mess. Thankfully Nate had the smarts to use the towel as a napkin, and cleaned me up, then tucked me in.
I encouraged him to climb into bed with me and get an early night’s sleep too. He was all too eager to join me. Now though, there’s that sense of guilt again. I should have said hello to my other mates. Said goodnight. Helped make dinner. It’s overwhelming trying to have balance without feeling like I would upset someone.
My gaze goes to his wrist, seeing the mark there and feeling a sense of contentment in my heart. Like having marked him is easing the pressure of this relationship. Hopefully, it will continue to feel this way as my mates are all marked one by one. That thought brings a smile to my face. To have each of them marked as mine. To have them by my side as I accept the crown of Alpha Queen. To spend the rest of my life with them. Now, that is what I want most in this world. To be with the ones I love.
It sucks that there is still so much to be done but I honestly feel like I’m at a frozen point at time. I know I have to be cleansed. I know I have to kill Luke. I have to reunite the packs; I need to show everyone that under my rule things will change, then I also have to prove that I am worthy. All the while deciding on whether wolves deserve to revert to having magic, or staying as wolves, forever cursed.
But the dilemma is how to do all those things. My mates are dead set against the idea of me being cleansed again, which is why I’ve had to go behind their back and plan it with Vivienne.
Then there’s the logistics of actually killing Luke. If we capture him, do I perform a formal execution or something? Do I simply kill him in private? How do I kill him? Should I do it like the humans do with an injection of silver, or should he be decapitated, stabbed through the heart? Realistically, none of those options appeal to me at all. At least if we were in a fight for our lives, I’ll feel more comfortable killing him because it will be a case of him or me.
Reuniting the packs is going to be hard, but I hope that Tim, my grandparents and the remaining Elders will be my counsel when it comes time to do that. Hopefully, by showing the packs that I am not just a girl who plans to rule them with no kind of help will assure them I have their best interests at heart.
The only thing that I have sorted out with certainty is to accept our kind as wolves, and only wolves. With everything in disarray as it is, choosing to receive magic, it could make the packs go wild with power and then the humans could suffer from that decision. Most of our kind have no clue of magic existing before, so it makes logistical sense to stick with what we all know.
“Are you seriously awake, right now?” Nate groans, squinting over at me. It’s still dark out, but I haven’t been able to drift back to sleep yet, my mind thinking of various different things.
“Maybe,” I murmur, reaching out to brush his hair to the side so I can see his face more clearly.
He rolls onto his side and then grips me by the hip and pulls me flush against his body. He must have stripped off at some point because I’m not the only one naked anymore.
Nate brushes his nose against mine, his eyes closed. “Is there anything I can do to help you go back to sleep?”
I can suggest a thing or two, but my heart just won’t be in it. “No, I think my brain just decided I needed to be awake for a while.”
“Hmm, well, I’m not getting up anytime soon, so you better tell your brain to go back to sleep.”
I giggle at his frustrated tone. “Don’t worry, you can go back to sleep. I’m happy just staring at my mate,” I tell him softly, running my hands through his hair.
Nate starts to softly snore, and I smile at how relaxed he looks like this. All of my mates have been on edge lately, but I feel by starting the marking with them, it’s making them all a little more relaxed. And what makes it that much more exciting for me, is that it actually feels like it was meant to happen now.
Whereas before, I couldn’t help the strange feeling that the timing was all wrong. Now though, I’ve marked two of them, and mated with one of them. I wasn’t expecting to mate with anyone so soon, but I guess sometimes you can’t fight your desires.
