“Did your father?”

“If he did, he was from another time and an era where women weren’t the bosses of men.” I shrugged. “I never bothered to argue with him about that because it was futile. He was who he was, and he believed what he wanted to.”

“My father was a traditionalist too.”

I snorted. “Mine would have made your father look like a modern thinker. My dad was ten when he met mother, and he was ninety-eight when he died, Sabina. That’s a long time to be alive, and a long time to be set in your ways, especially when we’re all children of our generation.”

She hummed. “I’m glad you’re not like that.”

I laughed. “I’m sure I have my weaknesses too, but I recognize what you are, and I will always worship you for the calm you bring to us.”

She reached over and cupped my chin, forcing me to look in her direction again. I didn’t open my eyes, though, not really wanting this conversation, even though I knew the importance of it.

When she sighed my name, I looked at her because I had no choice. I needed to see her face when she sighed it like it was a benediction.

Like my name on her lips was a prayer.

When our gazes caught and held, she whispered, “Make me yours?”

The words held power, especially after what I’d just told her, and though I wanted nothing more than to make her mine, I didn’t.

Couldn’t.

“You’re not ready. After what you went through this morning, you want time, and I get that. There’s no rush. We have all the time in this world.”

She tutted. “You’re not listening.”

One second, she was beside me, the next, she straddled me. Her hands moved to either side of my head, and she leaned over me, her large tits swaying with the force and speed of the movement, her hair draping over us like it was a curtain shielding us from the unseeing eyes this place had.

I didn’t care about them, because I was of a dual nature. I was used to being out and exposed, free with nature and at one with it.

Sabina?

I was less sure if she’d be happy.

But I found no shame in what we were doing, it was only natural. Only a declaration of intent, a cementing of vows that those very eyes who were watching us had granted us in the first place.

In the cocoon of her hair, I sucked it in, loving that the scent of her was filling my lungs.

I didn’t touch her, didn’t move my hands, because I wanted her to have this.

I wanted her to own me, and when I took her again, I’d show her what it was like to be owned by me too.

So I let her move, let her take things at her own pace.

Neither of us said a word as she seduced me, but she didn’t realize she had no need to do so.

I was hers. I was born to be hers, to claim her, to possess her. To be claimed and be possessed by her. But I figured this was a lesson she needed to learn.

Just because I was the big, bad alpha of the pack, that didn’t mean I was that with her.

I had another side, a side only she’d see, and I granted the Mother my thanks because in the real world, it might have taken me a long time before I’d have opened up to her all the way.

When she kissed me, slipping her tongue between my lips, I sighed into the kiss, loving her taste, loving the way she played with me.

I could feel her she-wolf in that kiss and was glad for it. I knew if I carried on being passive, the she-wolf would come out to play, demanding all of me, and that was exactly what I wanted.

A lifetime of holding back, of having to restrain myself, wasn’t something I could easily vanquish, but she deserved all of me.

The only woman, in fact, to ever get everything that I was.

I shuddered at the thought, and inside me, where I could hear my wolf, I heard her she-wolf simply because both sides of her belonged to me. She yipped at my shudder, overjoyed at the chink she’d discovered in my control as she thrust her tongue against mine, making us cruise toward a higher plane that made me want to slam my hands into her hair, grip her tight, and hold her fast against me.

But I didn’t.

Not yet.

Not yet.

I shivered when her nails dragged down my belly, drawing nerve endings to life that were born to feel her touch, and as she did the same down my sides, I growled under my breath.

She moaned at the sound, even as she pulled her mouth from mine. When her lips went to my throat, I stared up at the sky, which was in a perpetual twilight no matter how long we’d been here, and I let her torment me.

Let her rile my beast, because only through riling me, would he come out to play.

I’d have loved to let him loose, but it wasn’t as simple as that.

A lifetime’s lessons. Decades worth of control building up into a wall that was impenetrable.

That only she’d ever be able to knock down.

I rasped out an exhalation when she sucked hard on my pulse point, but it was her moan of delight that got to me. And I sensed that was my Achilles’ heel.

The enjoyment she found in teasing me, enticing me.

The way she would rock her hips, grinding her pussy into my belly like what I was doing was the best foreplay ever. In truth, I was lying here, but she was getting herself off, and that was the biggest turn-on I thought I’d ever had in my whole life.

She flipped her hair, letting the ends trace over my chest, and the sensation of that was electric. My stomach rolled, my back arching slightly with the move, and when she ground into me, I felt the claws around my control start to snap.

Fuck.

Though she was wet—I could feel her juices against my abs—she wasn’t ready for me.

She wasn’t. They never were.

I sucked in a breath, and instead of doing the sensible thing and warning her, I let my fingers dig into the earth to keep myself contained.

She didn’t notice, not even when the sweet scent of the soil perfumed the air.

She was too busy tonguing her way down my body, tracing the lines of my chest with her mouth and teeth. When she reached the part where her juices collided with my skin, I felt the gnawing ache in my soul as the wolf started making demands.

The idea of her tasting herself, of her sampling her juices while supping from my flesh was a tease too many.

I reared up slightly, my throat tensing as I watched her work down toward my dick.

I could feel the pre-cum loading the tip, knew she was bare inches from it, and also knew that the second she touched it, that she tasted me, I was done for.

I rasped, “Sabina?”

She hummed, the vibration quivering against my stomach. “Yes?”

Fuck, what? What did I want to say?

Evidently, my reply wasn’t fast enough, because her mouth was there, sliding around the tip of my cock, and I let out a hissed breath that was both a curse and plea combined.

I gulped, letting my head fall back as I dealt with the overload of sensations as she tasted me, humming with pleasure all the fucking while, and then she sucked, and that was it.

My control snapped, and my hands tunneled into her hair, holding her still as I ground out some sharp, harsh exhalations.

She made a rumbling sound that was pure she-wolf, and when she peered up at me through her hair, I saw her bitch staring back at me, and fuck, my wolf wanted to howl.

I felt the breach in my control widen, snapping larger and larger, until the chasm was growing and he could sail through without any issue.