Not that that would appease the pack, but I’d paid off the loans with my personal fortune, so it had nothing to do with my people. Not a goddamn thing.

Running a hand over her back as I pulled her in closer to me, I muttered, “I’m lucky you don’t hate me.”

“You did more brutal things out on the battlefield.”

“I did. Yes.”

“I know that was the heat of the moment,” she reasoned, “but I also know that you’re not human. You do things your own way. I saw how the hyena reacted when Austin kept shooting looks at me—” She gulped. “I guess I misunderstood that too. I thought he wanted forgiveness for what he was doing, when, really, he was just looking for me to take over.”

I hushed her. “Don’t be hard on yourself. We should have warned you, but sometimes, it’s just for the best to let someone’s natural instincts take control, and you, my mate, have the best instincts of anyone I know.”

Sabina

Feeling silly for being pleased by his compliment, which was essentially his way of telling me I’d make a good serial killer, I leaned up and pressed my lips to his.

“Knight’s napping.”

His grin flashed like lightning, and he rubbed his nose against mine before he dropped his head, letting his nose maintain the connection as he moved down to my chin, all along the side of my jaw. “Do you know what I scent when I do this?”

“Me? Milk?” I teased, but I managed to stop the breathy sigh that came when his tongue flashed out to lick where he’d touched.

“Us. I scent us.” He inhaled. “It’s bliss. There is no perfume like it. I can scent our unit, our family. Knight. Daniel. All of us.”

“Pack. Our pack,” I agreed, tightening my arms about his neck as I leaned up on tiptoe.

“Yes. Ours. I never thought I’d have this,” he continued, the words whispered against my ear. “Never thought I’d be lucky enough to have what I almost lost in the woods, but instead, here I am. With my woman. My pup napping in the bedroom, my brothers helping me, my right-hand men. I’m a lucky man.”

“At least you know it,” I said gruffly, tipping my head back when he traced his lips down my throat. “You’ll never forget what you’ve got. Never stop appreciating what you have.”

“No,” he agreed. “Never. And you’ll never let me.”

He reached down and hiked me up, stunning me when he pressed my butt to the wrought iron railing that surrounded the balcony. With any other man, I’d have been scared about his intent. I’d have feared falling, but Eli would die before he let that happen.

And in all honesty, he wasn’t that much of a risk-taker, so my blood quickened in my chest as I thought about him taking me like this. Here.

When his lips caught mine, his kiss was rougher, harder than before. Not as cherishing, more loaded with a need that he’d evidently been dampening down as the weeks passed without us able to touch one another.

The joy of knowing your mate wanted no other was that there was no fear of straying, so it would make sense that the pack’s old wives would tell us to abstain, just to amp things up. And boy, was I feeling amped. Amped wasn’t even the frickin’ word.

I growled against his lips as I thrust my tongue into his mouth, not letting him stop, keeping him ratcheted up high, so that he wouldn’t remember he’d just leaned me on a railing that might not be able to take the strain of his pounding into me.

Okay, so that made some reason penetrate my brain. As was the fact that anyone in the pack could pass by the house and see us, but Eli’s hands dropped to my ass, and he began to knead the flesh, his fingers growing steadily rougher, until I heard the fabric of my pants tear.

The prospect of having ten tear marks in the seat of my favorite pants should have pissed me off, but instead, it turned me red hot.

In seconds.

He’d lost control.

My mate had lost control.

It seemed impossible, unlikely. Not Eli, who was impervious to all things that busted someone’s self-control, but I supposed, in the aftermath of the hyenas’ pointless and stupid attack, he’d be feeling a little raw, a lot rough.

And whatever he needed, I’d give him.

Always and forever.

When he sliced through my pants like they were made of cobwebs, I wasn’t surprised when my panties shared a similar fate. He spun me around then, and my legs caught his hips as I hiked myself up him.

As our mouths tangled, he bit into me, devouring me with his kiss while he strode forward and pinned me against the wall. My back just glanced off the patio door, and I arched my shoulder in time.

The move disturbed him, broke into his concentration, and he froze for a second, before he hefted me with brute strength alone off him. Before I could complain, he spun me around like I weighed nothing so I was facing the wall this time. I raised my arms, laying my forearms against it as he positioned me.

He grabbed my hips, dragged them out, then pushed one hand to the bottom of my spine. As he moved me right where he wanted me, he bent over me, his fingers coming to my chest where he tore through my shirt, ripping it off me, my bra as well, leaving my boobs dangling in a way I probably wouldn’t be able to maintain for long. Knight was going to wake up for food soon, and my tits had received that message loud and clear.

But I pushed my focus off my baby and focused on my mate—a mate who very much needed me.

His hands were trembling as he let the claws move over the sides of my waist, along my length, before both of them framed my butt, the tips digging in as he stared at me.

I might have felt self-conscious. Might have felt uneasy or uncertain, but I felt neither.

If anything, I was euphoric with the sensation of being alive, and real, and loved.

So fucking beloved.

This man, with all his flaws, all his strengths, wanted me. He thought I was perfect. Thought I was his dream girl, and how couldn’t that make me feel like I was walking on sunshine?

I tipped my hips up, needing him inside me more than I needed my next breath, and when he rubbed his dick against me, I groaned, “You need to get naked. Fast.”

His only answer was a low grunt, but I heard his zipper lower and rolled my eyes at the notion that he could tear my clothes off but had the wherewithal to pull down his fly.

Typical man.

Then, of course, I wasn’t thinking anything.

I was thinking of his dick as it thrust into me.

Having long since ceased being amazed by how wet I was around them, how quickly my arousal could stir, he slipped into me with an ease that had us both sighing with relief.

The sensation of being at one with him was too powerful to ignore, and when he started to rock into me, harder, a little faster, the thing that really got me hot? When those claws of his dug into my hips. It was something new in their repertoire and, Kali Sara, it felt good. So damn good that I could have screamed, if I didn’t think it would have woken Knight up.

Instead, I gritted my teeth, my eyes closed as the sun beat down on me, on us, bathing us in a pool of light that felt holy. That felt blessed.

Unable to stop myself, I leaned on just the one arm, then reached down between us and began to rub my clit. Instantly, it was like a light show went off behind my eyes. Those crazy lasers that had the power to light up the sky with their strength—that was what I felt.