He slapped my ass, just a little, and the jiggle had me shuddering as I moved my fingers faster, harder. Needing more, needing everything he could give me.

When he grabbed both buttcheeks and parted them, I felt his spit trickle down the crack, and shuddered when it pooled in the pucker of my ass.

None of them had ever taken me there, and to be honest, it wasn’t a big turn on for me, but when he started rubbing it with his finger, a finger that was de-clawed, thank God, I groaned as he pressed it in with a care that spoke of his love for me.

Moaning as he pressed down, his digit rubbing against his dick inside me, I squeaked as I rolled up onto tiptoe, and he responded by powering into me.

A shriek escaped me as he squeezed another finger into my ass, and I felt the soft liquid of his spit as he lubed his way in, and when, with his other hand, he spanked me again, I had no alternative but to just let go. Just to fly into the heat, the light, the goddamn inferno that was the power of my orgasm.

His knot appeared barely seconds later as I felt it locking into me, and when it did and he spanked me again, I felt the vibrations deep inside me, rocking against the fingers in my butt.

My head knocked into the wall with a dull thunk that had me laughing, even as I moaned and groaned through the pleasure of my release, of his release too. He snorted, then reached over and rubbed my head as he carefully pulled his dirty, dirty fingers out of me.

“You okay, darlin’?” he rasped, his voice low and husky.

“Perfect,” I replied, meaning it.

Carefully, he helped me stand, which was great because my boobs were aching already, but the new angle had us both hissing.

“We gonna waddle to the bed?” I teased, looking over my shoulder at him, loving the tender kiss he pressed to my temple, which made the way we were connected all the more powerful.

“Nope, we’re gonna waddle over to that bench over there.”

I eyed the filigree iron with a crinkle of my nose. “Remind me to change the furniture out here, hmm?”

“Most definitely,” he agreed as he shuffled us the few steps forward, before he took a seat and brought me with him.

He rearranged us so that I was more comfortable, before he slipped his hands between my legs and began to touch my clit. A hiss escaped me, one that had me arching against his chest, as my pussy pulsed around his knot.

“Too sensitive,” I grumbled, slapping at his hand.

He stopped, but bridged our fingers together over my mons. “This is home,” he rasped. “You know that, don’t you?”

I knew what he meant, and I twisted my head slightly so I could bury my face in his throat. “I love you.”

“I love you too. But sometimes, those words aren’t enough,” he countered. “Sometimes, they don’t even begin to quantify exactly how much I feel for you.”

“You show me in a million ways, my darlin’,” I whispered back. “And that is more powerful than anything you could ever tell me.” I kissed his pulse point, then closed my eyes. “How come you can turn your fingers into claws now? Hmm?” I asked drowsily.

“We’ve always been able to do it. Just avoided it around you. We didn’t want to freak you out.”

“What changed?” I harrumphed. “Am I impossible to freak out now?”

He snorted. “After what we’ve been through? Yeah. You are.”

My nose crinkled, but I just grumbled, “Wake me up when Knight squawks for milk?”

He laughed softly, but his head rested against mine. “Always. Little booger deserves a good meal or twenty after what he’s done for the pack.”

“Should get a medal,” I whispered sleepily, and though he answered, I let myself drift because, for the first time in a long while, I was safe and replete, filled with my mate, his knot pulsing away inside me—a living, breathing connection that would never, could never die.

The cackle faded away before it had a chance to soar higher, louder, taking over the clearing where I found myself.

It wasn’t the same as the one in my other dream. If anything, it was a totem circle. Only it looked different.

Then I registered it was different.

It wasn’t my totem.

But the way the cackle died? I knew that meant the threat had gone.

I was safe. The hyenas were no danger to me or to Lara anymore, because when I whipped around to find the source of the cackle, there was only silence. Peace.

Relief had my attention shifting elsewhere—to more interesting, newer things, and I blinked at the totem, then stared up at the different animals that decorated the obelisk.

Ours celebrated wolves, but this one housed a bear, a tiger, a wolf, and an eagle. It was massive. Made ours, one that felt like it scraped the sky, appear teeny tiny.

Unsure as to why I was here, I stepped forward, knowing that where I was standing wasn’t the totem’s inner circle.

It was a risk.

I knew that.

Our totem sent energy through us every time we breached the outer circle, that was how, I felt certain, Knight had helped heal his fathers, our pack. It was clear to me that he had healing gifts, but they’d been amplified by the totem, and I’d never not be grateful about that because, damn, he’d saved so many people.

Had spared so many lives.

He was a hero, and he wasn’t even six months old yet!

As pride filled me, I felt the buzz as the totem did its scanning thing, and I made my way into the inner circle.

Before my eyes, and the second I was inside, the totem morphed, the bear, tiger, wolf, and eagle separating from the stand and turning corporeal.

The bear lumbered forward, the tiger and wolf pounced down to the ground, and the eagle soared into the sky, circling where the obelisk once stood.

I staggered back at the sight. But even though there was no visible barrier between my position and where I’d originally been standing when I’d found myself here, I ran up against one as my body collided into it. The animals didn’t come closer to me though, so I watched them warily, wondering if they were going to attack as I stuck to the edge of the circle.

But they didn’t attack.

If anything, they changed once more.

The eagle flew down to my level, and the wind from his wings became a tangible thing. Pictures and colors and moving objects blurred until it was like I was seeing a kind of rudimentary cinema screen.

My mouth worked as I saw a woman drift onto the screen, followed by another and another.

I recognized them all.

My mom. Merinda. Maribel.

The sight had my brows lifting.

They were pregnant, and as the eagle carried on flapping its wings, babies appeared in front of them.

First me. Then Cyrilo, who immediately faded into the shadows. Then Jana, who suffered a similar fate, which told me they were dead in this ‘movie,’ then Lara.

In front of me, little balls of light appeared, dancing around my head like in the Tom & Jerry cartoons. When Tom had been knocked out and he’d been dazed, stars had circled him. Well, lights moved around me now.

But in my arms, Knight was there.

I counted the lights, and gasped when I counted four. Then Daniel was there, standing to the side, but a part of my unit. My family, even if it wasn’t by blood. He was different. Not as young as I knew him now, but older. A man. His eyes were tired, loaded with a sadness I wanted to cure but couldn’t.