For a moment her expression went blank, then a most curious light of female knowledge lit her eyes.

Wolfe narrowed his eyes on her.

“What?” He asked her.

“I climaxed,” she whispered.

He grinned. “Yes, you did. Quite well, too.”

“No.” She shook her head. “While you thought you were torturing me, those screams of agony were actually orgasms. Not big ones, but enough.”

He frowned. “That’s not possible. Do not try to salve my conscience, Hope.”

She laughed. She dared to laugh in his face.

“Want to try it again in a few days, so I can prove it?” she offered.

Heat flared in his body. His cock hardened.

“Do I get to tie you up again?” he asked her, definitely interested.

She shrugged. “If you want to.” But he could see the excitement in her eyes.

Wolfe sighed deeply. “Why do I get the feeling, Hope, that you have effectively turned the tables on me without my knowledge?”

Her sapphire eyes gleamed up at him.

“Maybe because I did. And I won’t grieve over her, Wolfe. I was more terrified for you. I thought for certain she would hurt you. Maybe kill you. I couldn’t live with it, if she had. I would have died with you.”

He touched his lips to hers as he stared into her eyes.

“I love you,” he whispered against the tender curves. “Always, Hope. I will always love you.”

Her eyes drifted close on a drowsy sigh of contentment. He held her tightly to his chest, thanking God every second that she was safe, that the Bitch was dead. Their lives would be safe now, and he needed that for her.

“Wolfe.” Jacob stood beside him, watching him quietly. “We’re going to take her body back to her soldiers. When they awaken, they can do whatever the hell they want to with her.”

“Did they find the cabin as well?” He couldn’t risk that knowledge.

“Hell, they didn’t make it ten feet from the truck. The Bitch wouldn’t have found it if you hadn’t left orders to let her through.”

Wolfe nodded. He hadn’t meant to kill her, but he knew they were all better off with her death.

“We will leave you with your woman then. When should we return?” Amusement lit Jacob’s light blue eyes.

Wolfe grinned. “Weeks perhaps,” he answered him tiredly. “I have time to make up for, my friend. Several years at least.”

Hope slept in his arms, unaware of her mother’s body being carted out of the cabin. As the door closed behind Jacob and the others, he sighed deeply. He had his Hope, just as he had always dreamed of, prayed for. His life would now be complete.

* * * * *

Jacob refused to look back at the couple as he left the cabin. Anger and need rode him hard, arousal was a steady beat of blood in his cock to torment and torture him. But it wasn’t the woman Wolfe held that kept Jacob’s dick in a constant state of readiness. It was the one who awaited him outside.

As he closed the door behind him, Faith moved from her position at the end of the house, her black eyes watching him warily as he stalked toward her. She was a wolf breed, the slender, compact lines of her body were lightly muscular, her breasts high and firm beneath the black t-shirt she wore with black jeans. Her reddish brown hair was a raggedly cut cap of silk and framed her slender face in a way that gave her a vulnerable, untouchable look.

“They’re all right?” she asked as he neared her.

Jacob growled, baring his teeth in warning as she stepped back from him. She was always stepping back, never forward.

“Were they not, you would have known,” he bit out, furious with her once again.

“Well, bite me, why don’t you,” she snapped, her brows lowering in a frown. “It was a reasonable question.”

“From a most unreasonable female,” he accused her harshly. “Return to the cabin and rest. You have not slept in days and I’m tired of the shadows under your eyes.”

“You rest.” Her body came to attention immediately, anger pulsing through her, scenting the air. “Do I tell you how often to sleep?”

He turned to her, fighting the need to reach out to her, to drag her to him.

“Do as I said,” he snapped.

“Fuck you, Jake, you go to sleep…“

“Do not worry, the day will come when you will do just that, Faith. Until you can handle it, I suggest you run now, and run fast, or you may learn what it feels like to have your mate mount you without your permission.” Fury snapped in his body. Her continued defiance roused the beast and made it howl.

He watched her pale. Terror flashed in her eyes a second before she ran. He cursed violently, dragging his hands through his hair as he tamped down the beast that demanded he run her down. He couldn’t. He never could. She was his mate, and yet he would be forever denied her touch. His ravenous, grieving howl echoed through the mountains now, as it echoed through his soul.

The End