When she moaned, her eyes wide, her tongue coming out to lick her lips, I peered down and saw I was naked too. Butt naked.

Not a stitch on me.

My dick was hard, standing so far from my body that I felt like I’d never had sex before.

I specifically remembered grabbing one of my mom’s romance books when I was fourteen and reading only the sex scenes in it. I’d once read this particular scene where the author had described the guy’s dick as a heat-seeking missile, and I’d almost pissed my pants with my own ‘missile,’ but fuck.

At that moment?

I got it.

And it blew my fucking mind.

If I didn’t get into her pussy soon, if I didn’t claim her, make her mine, and have her around me taking everything I had to give?

I’d lose all reason.

I’d go insane.

A hunger I’d never known before swept over me. It made me shake, made my body tremble, and because I wasn’t used to being out of control, because I was used to being very much in control, it had me hovering in place.

I wanted to tear into her, rip into her, shower her in violence, make her submit to me—

No!

Never.

I could never, would never hurt her.

I shivered from the strange desires flowing through me, that were taking over my mind, ripping into my brain like I was another person, a whole different kind of man.

They were alien, and yet, they belonged to me. But they didn’t.

That wasn’t me. I wasn’t that kind of man.

As I shuddered, my mind adrift with terrifying images of me making Sabina submit, I didn’t even notice my mate sitting up. Not until she was there, her lips around my cock.

Only the heat of her mouth brought me back to the moment. Only that made me wake up, those strange thoughts fluttering away like they’d never existed.

I reached down, slipped my hands through her hair, and took big chunks of it in my fingers so I could make her shiver in turn, and I watched her take me.

Watched her suck on me like she was voracious, and I was a feast.

She swallowed me halfway, and when she gagged? I swear, I’d never witnessed anything so sexy in my life. But after that, she just kept on working me, slurping me down, not stopping until she had enough spit to lubricate her way. I felt the weight of it dripping down, and she scooped it up, used it to grab my shaft at the base and jack me off.

My shoulders hunched and my stomach clenched as I fought the need to avoid her mouth while also wanting nothing more than to have her swallow me whole.

She moved her head fast, sucked me down hard, until I had no choice but to come.

When she took it all, all I had to give, my eyes crossed, and I tipped my head back and roared out my groan of delight, of pleasure.

I moaned into this strange clearing before she sucked down harder, getting every last fucking drop, and I howled like my wolf was in control as she took my seed into her.

When I’d finished coming, when she stopped, the pair of us collapsed onto the ground.

I almost thought we’d be returned to the totem, but we weren’t.

Instead, panting, we lay beside each other, naked, utterly naked, in a place I’d never seen before.

“Where are we?”

Her voice was soft, melodious. A gentle hum.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, but even though I was scared for her—even though I knew I needed to get off my ass and explore the area to make sure no one was going to endanger her, I couldn’t.

I was too calm.

Too happy.

I felt restful, at peace, and when she curved against me? When she slipped her thigh over mine and pressed her head to my chest? I had no choice but to slide my arm around her waist and haul her even closer. The pair of us fell asleep like that.

Restful and content.

Joined, even if the claiming was still to come.

Sabina

When I woke up, I knew we were still in that strange place.

I had no idea if this was normal, no idea if this was how it usually went down or if it was because of what had happened at the totem, but I didn’t have it in me to worry.

When I twisted my head to the side, I saw Austin was still sleeping, his mouth parted, his eyes closed as his lashes fluttered like he was deep in a REM cycle.

I bit my lip at just how beautiful he was.

More than that, I bit my lip at how he’d reacted to my probing thoughts.

I hadn’t known I could do that, not until I orgasmed, and we moved here. Wherever here was.

Maybe this was normal for claimings, or maybe it was normal when an omega was claimed, but what I’d done?

Heinous.

Terrible to make him think such thoughts, to see him respond to the triggers I’d placed in his mind.

But it wouldn’t stop me from testing Ethan and Eli, wherever the hell they were, the same way.

I wanted them here at my side, but something told me I had to be patient.

This was my time with Austin.

This was my moment to connect with him in a way that would never be attainable with three men to satisfy.

So I embraced it, even though it was crazy, and I even thanked the Mother for giving me this time. This memory with one of my men.

A sigh escaped me as I started to sit up, and when his hand rubbed the bottom of my back, I sighed with guilt, twisting around to mutter, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

He smiled, and that smile, like always, lit me up inside.

Something about him made me feel safe. I’d known that before, but after implanting those feelings in him, doing something I had no real awareness of understanding, I’d seen the mettle of the man.

And he was good.

Just like I’d known.

But I’d had to test.

I’d seen my father beat my momma too many times to just trust in this insanity of a mate bond. Sure, I felt like I knew him inside out, but there was so much I was learning, so much I had to process at the moment, that I wasn’t sure what I could trust. What was real and what was a part of this new madness that was the universe for me right now.

I remembered him slapping her, grabbing her by the hair, and dragging her down the stairs when she was five minutes later than she’d promised. I remembered her being degraded by him in front of his friends, being treated like a servant by him, and I’d just needed to make sure that the Mother knew what was best for me.

“You did that, didn’t you?”

I bit my lip. “Did what?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “That thing before you started sucking me off.”

I looked away, feeling guilty and annoyed that I couldn’t shield my goddamn thoughts.

He snorted. “Why did you do that?”

Because he sounded curious more than anything else, when I deserved his anger, I hunched my shoulders as I stared down at my knees. “I mean, I didn’t bring us here.”

“No, I think this is normal though.” He blinked. “Here I was, thinking our claiming was going to be like a gang bang, and now we’re in another place—”

I hummed. “Another time.”

“You think so?” he asked, peering around.

I nodded. “I think so.” Then, my lips twitched. “A gang bang, hmm? Are you disappointed?”

His grin was quick, like lightning, and it filled me with even more amusement than I already felt. It also took away my nerves and my embarrassment for what I’d done.