If that didn’t annihilate me, I wasn’t sure what could.

Just thinking of me bringing this powerful man pleasure by the taste of me?

Undeniably incredible.

I shuddered again when he sucked down on my clit, then yelped when he took the padded labia beside my slit and nipped it. My hips bucked, butt dancing to evade his mouth, but he got me good.

Before I could even mewl out a complaint, he covered me. His chest sliding against my back with the water’s aid, his face settling into the crook of my neck.

I felt his breath there, rumbling against my cheek, and I just knew his wolf was close to the surface. Especially when his tongue darted out to flutter over my earlobe, which he proceeded to nip.

Tingles shot throughout my body, making me feel like I’d stuck my finger in a socket—who knew that could feel good? And no, kids, don’t try this at home—and I moaned when he rocked his hips and his dick landed between my ass cheeks.

In my ear, he whispered, “I love you, mate.”

Tears welled in my eyes. “I love you.” Kali Sara, how I meant it.

His hand slipped over my waist, down between my thighs, and I felt him reach for his cock that way, his knuckles brushing my pussy.

Eyes fluttering shut, I waited for him to find his place, but he surprised me.

He didn’t just thrust in, no. He raised his arms, slipping first one then the other down mine, until our fingers were bridged in the lapping shore.

Then, and only then, did he slide home.

And he didn’t fuck me.

Proving that even if his beast was tugging at his control, Ethan mastered it…

Because like he’d tasted me, he savored this moment.

He took a lifetime, rocking inside me, making me feel every inch of him, letting him explore every inch of me. And all the while, the world lazily spun on around us.

The twilight was hushed, the water lapped at our skin, the tumble of the fall rasped along my eardrums while his breath did the same thing.

His fingers tightened around mine, holding me in place, even as he kept me safe, sheltered and secure in his hold.

I hated that I couldn’t see his eyes, but I loved that I could hear his breathing.

The rasping groans, the low grunts, the swift inhales, and the sharp exhalations.

I loved that I could hear him getting to that moment when, out of nowhere, something changed.

It went from being lazy and somnolent, to a claiming.

He moved faster, and the growl that escaped him had me slumping in his hold. My she-wolf had no desire to fight. He’d screwed that right out of me. She just wanted what I did—him.

I moaned as he started to move faster, no longer content to just be languid with how he took me. And I could hear his heartbeat, could feel his breath changing, and knew my body was going through a similar transformation.

I shuddered at the thought as my skin grew hypersensitive, and a keening cry escaped me when he bit my shoulder. Hard. Harder than he’d bit my labia, and I exploded.

It hit me out of nowhere.

I’d never known I needed the sharp sting of pain to make the pleasure come, to make it arrive like a freight train that was derailing, but Kali Sara, when it hit, it hit good.

I felt like I was imploding, decimated into a thousand shards of glittering light that was only kept together by this man’s glue.

He held me through it, and it didn’t surprise me that only when he knew I’d got mine, when he knew I was satisfied, did he let go.

Of course, by now, I was used to the knot, used to the pleasure that came with it, but my hands struggled in his hold, and I twisted them around, gripping his tightly as I dug our joined fists into the sand and surfed through the colossal first wave as he exploded inside me and connected with me, that knot burrowing in deep, so I didn’t know where he started and I ended.

Fingers clenched around his, I shuddered as the pleasure cascaded inside me, much as the beautiful waterfall behind me surged into the pool. I felt like I was put back together again, like my life was finally starting to make sense, and the strangest thing happened.

Something that hadn’t with Eli or Austin.

I couldn’t just feel him physically, I could hear his thoughts again, sure, but I felt him.

And more than that.

I felt the world around me like it had a heartbeat.

It was surreal, and not what I needed after a mind-blowing orgasm but—

“It’s to be expected,” he rasped, as he slumped on me for a second before he almost immediately took his weight off me.

I wasn’t surprised to find myself adjusted as we rolled onto our sides, the knot still uniting us, my back to his chest, of course, but just more comfortable.

Even if the water did slosh me in the face a little.

He knew, and laughing, he moved his arm so I could rest my head on it.

“Better?” he inquired, teasing me like Ethan had never teased me before.

If I thought the world had come to a standstill before, it certainly did now.

“Are you being playful?” I squeaked, frickin’ shook when he snorted as he kissed my throat.

“My knot in my mate? You bet your fine ass I’m feeling playful.”

And dear Lord, he didn’t just sound relieved, like he’d had the weight of the world taken off his shoulders, but he felt it too.

He felt lighter.

And I knew that sounded crazy, but to me, somehow, it made sense.

I reached up and rubbed my forehead, dispersing a few annoying drops of water that tickled my skin. With each movement, however, I felt like I was going in slow motion, and I wasn’t sure if I was tripping or not.

Another snort escaped my uptight—now downtight—mate. “It’s the omega bond, Sabina.” He sighed like he was happy. Like he was redolent, and damn if I wasn’t happy too, knowing that he was feeling like that after a lifetime of being anal-retentive and such, but I needed answers. “Remember Eli said things would make sense once you were claimed? Now you’re tied to us, we’re your anchors. That means the Mother can let loose and give you your powers without fear of you sinking like a stone in the water.”

My brow puckered, and though what he said made sense, it also had me twitching.

I bit my lip, trying to work through what I was currently experiencing, and then, I felt the heartbeats.

Yeah, I felt them.

“There are many animals here,” he reassured me, but what reassured me was that he could hear my damn thoughts without me having to say a single word.

“There are? Eli and Austin never said that.”

“Why would they? It’s to be assumed. It is a magical forest,” he teased, and there was no hiding from the fact that this teasing stuff made the entire situation more surreal.

“Is my pussy a hallucinogen?” I blurted out.

He froze, then started snickering, and when a laugh howled from him, I figured I had my confirmation. He’d dipped his wick into my magic mushroom pot, and somehow, he’d turned into Austin.

Well, not even Austin cackled like that.

I peered at him over my shoulder, amused that he was just so fucking happy, and I shook my head at the sight of him.

Pouting, I mumbled, “You’d think the Mother would give me a breather after that killer orgasm.”

“When better to open the floodgates?” he questioned, and though his tone grew a little more serious, it wasn’t enough for me to accept that answer.