Mag-log inMaraBy eleven, I had already reset one werewolf wrist, vaccinated two dogs, and removed a sock from a Labrador. Again. Not the same Labrador. Which somehow made it worse."You people need to stop leaving laundry where your dogs can reach it."The Labrador's owner looked embarrassed. "He's never done this before."I stared at the sock sitting in the stainless steel tray. "Apparently he's branching out."Tessa snorted from the doorway.I finished giving the owner discharge instructions, sent them home, and had approximately thirty seconds of peace before the front bell jingled.Tessa looked toward reception. Then back at me. Her eyebrows climbed."No.""What?""Oh, nothing."That tone meant something. I walked out front.Kieran stood near the door. My stomach immediately did that annoying little flip again. Which was becoming a problem. He looked significantly more put together than he had that morning. Shirt. Shoes. Hair no longer destroyed by sleep. Shame. I had liked the sleep versi
KieranSelene was waiting for me.I had barely made it through the front doors of the main house before I caught her scent. Anger. Sharp enough to cut through everything else, sharp enough to make the whole hallway feel smaller than it was.Cassian noticed too. Rhett muttered, "Good luck," and immediately disappeared down the hall. I made a mental note to assign him something unpleasant later.Selene stepped out of the council room. Her eyes landed on me. Then narrowed. She didn't say anything at first. She didn't have to. Werewolf senses were inconveniently thorough.Her gaze moved over my clothes. My neck. Then back to my face."You slept with her."Cassian stopped beside me. I looked at him. He lifted both hands. "I'm leaving.""Stay."His face fell.Selene's attention never left me. "You slept with Mara.""That is none of your business."Her eyes flashed gold. "So that's a yes.""Selene.""You didn't even come home.""No."Something in her expression cracked. Not quite anger. Some
MaraThe apartment felt offensively quiet after Kieran left. I sat in bed for a full minute staring at the closed door. Then at the sheets. Then at the ceiling. Then back at the sheets."Well."That was apparently all my brain had. Well. I had gone on one date with Kieran. One. Then somehow one date had turned into dinner, laughter, a kiss at my front door, and I looked at the disaster around me."Fantastic."My clothes were scattered across the floor. His shirt had somehow ended up near the tiny kitchen. One pillow was on the ground. The blanket was half twisted around my legs. And the poppies he had brought me last night were sitting in a jar on my counter looking far too innocent considering the events they had witnessed.I covered my face. "Oh my God."The worst part? I wasn't horrified. I wasn't embarrassed. Okay. I was a little embarrassed. But mostly? I felt good. Annoyingly good. Warm. Relaxed. Happy. My body hurt in that very specific I made decisions last night kind of way,
KieranI woke to footsteps on the stairs.Mara was still completely unconscious against me.For half a second, I didn't move. I just looked down at her. She was curled into my chest beneath the blankets, one leg tangled with mine, her cheek pressed against my shoulder like she had decided sometime during the night that I was a pillow. Her hair was everywhere. Across my chest. Across her face. Half beneath my arm.My wolf was unbearably pleased. Mate. I couldn't even argue with him. There was something about waking up with Mara tucked against me that settled something deep inside my chest. No ceremony. No elders. No expectations. She had chosen this. Chosen me.The footsteps came closer. My wolf immediately went alert. I carefully slid my arm from beneath Mara. She made a quiet sound and rolled toward the warm spot I'd left behind. I froze. She didn't wake. Good.I climbed out of bed, grabbed my jeans from the floor, and pulled them on as quietly as possible. Another step outside. The
MaraThe first wave crested before I'd even registered it building. It wasn't the familiar, manageable curl of pleasure. This was tectonic. It started at the base of my spine and detonated outward, white-hot and obliterating.My mouth opened, and the sound that came out was foreign, a high, keening thing I'd never heard myself make, that I didn't know my body could produce.The orgasm had me by the throat. Not the polite little sighs I'd taught myself to fake, not the silent tightening I managed alone. It rolled through me in waves, each one punishing, each one dragged out by the steady rhythm of his hips, and I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but sob against his shoulder.My nails raked down his back. I heard it through the fog... the sharp hiss of his breath, the way his rhythm stuttered and regained itself. My body clenched around him, again and again, and with each pulse, another aftershock burst through me, until I wasn't sure where the orgasm ended and I b
MaraI opened my mouth to respond, but his hand was already at the button of my jeans, and whatever clever retort I'd been constructing dissolved into nothing. He popped it open. The zipper followed. Then he was peeling the denim down my legs, his eyes never leaving mine, and I was losing the ability to think."Tell me if I need to stop," he said softly as my jeans joined the growing pile on the floor.I nodded."Out loud, Mara."The sound of my name in that voice, rough around the edges, did things to me I couldn't explain. "I'll tell you."He kissed me again. Not desperate... worse, far worse, it was tender. His lips moved over mine with a patience that felt like a promise, and I sank into it, into him, until the world narrowed to the heat of his mouth and the press of his body.Somewhere beneath the haze, an old fear scratched at the back of my mind. I'd had sex before. I'd never had an orgasm. Not from another person. Only ever alone, with my toy, when no one was watching, when th







