Chapter 4

Caelan's POV

"Some of it." I said

Elena's eyebrow arches. "Which parts?"

"The curse. About Annalise putting a curse on her, but definitely not why it happened. That my patrol found her in the mountains."

"But not that the patrol was you. Not about Montana."

"No."

She's quiet for a long moment, studying me with those sharp brown eyes that see too much.

"She's going to find out eventually, Caelan. The pack talks. Someone will slip up."

As much I would love to say that no one dares but I know she's right. Secrets have a way of festering in pack dynamics, especially ones this big. But right now, Aeliana can barely handle the truth about being cursed. Learning that I'd been stalking her for months, that I'd taken her from her bed while she slept.

It would destroy what little progress we've made.

"She needs time," I say finally.

"And you need to stop thinking with your dick."

The blunt assessment makes me flinch. "Elena...." I missed out

"Don't." She holds up a hand. "I can smell your arousal from here, brother. And I saw how you looked at her yesterday when I was changing her clothes. Like you wanted to devour her."

I did. I do and thankfully Aeliana wolf seems to be dormant else she would know about my constant arousals ever since I smelled her across the roadm

The memory of seeing her unconscious in my bed, silk nightgown clinging to curves I've worshipped with my mouth, had nearly shattered my control completely. Two years of nothing, and suddenly she was there, soft and warm and mine.

I'd had to leave the room before I did something unforgivable like taking her there while she was unconscious.

"The mate bond..."

"Is not an excuse." Elena's voice is sharp. "She's traumatized, confused, and you're walking around with your emotions written all over your face. Give her space to breathe."

Space. When all I want is to be close enough to touch, to reassure myself she's real.

"What if she tries to leave?"

"Then you let her."

The words hit like a physical blow. "Elena..."

"You let her," she repeats firmly. "Because if you force this, if you push too hard too fast, you'll lose her forever. The woman who loved you enough to fight a witch for this pack, for you, for your love and bond... she's still in there. But you have to let her find her way back."

She leaves me alone with that truth, and I slump into my desk chair like a man defeated.

Through the office window, I can see the mountains where we took our first run in our wolf form when she shifted for the first which was also the first time our wolf made love in their form. "Let me out Damon my wolf growled at me, I need to protect my mate". Ever since Aeliana's disappearance Damon did not spare an effort to let his disappointment known to me. He was and still is disappointed in my inability to protect our mate, ever since then it has always been a battle of control between us. I don't know if I will ever gain his trust and confidence again.

That been said I need to sort my self out before everyone in the pack come to knowledge of the Alpha's unsolved needs. Picturing Aeliana's face and hands wasn't hard....well by now I kinda use to to it as that has been my only companion since two years.

Pathetic.... I stood up from my chair and lock the office door behind me, while I leaned against it, chest heaving, pant bulging.

Two years of agony, Two years of celibacy while being mated to perfection incarnate has reduced me to this... stealing moments of relief like a desperate teenager. My cock is already straining against my jeans, has been since the moment I saw her in that silk nightgown, and the ache is becoming unbearable.

I don't even make it to my chair.

My back hits the table as I free myself with shaking hands, already lost to the memory of her skin. Not the lost woman from moments ago, but my Aeliana. The one who used to drop to her knees without being asked, who would take me in her mouth until I was seeing stars and growling her name.

Fuck.

My hand moves with brutal efficiency, rough and desperate. I think about the way she used to look up at me through her lashes, eyes darken with lust as she worked me with that sinful mouth. How she'd moan around my length like tasting me was the sweetest torture.

The silk nightgown flashes behind my eyelids.. how it clung to her breasts, outlined her nipples, rode up her thighs when she moved. How easy it would be to push it up, to bury myself between her legs and make her remember exactly who she belongs to.

Mine. Mine. Fucking mine.

My pace becomes punishing, my breathing ragged. Two years of this.... of her face behind my eyelids, of her phantom touch driving me to the edge of madness. Two years of waking up hard and aching, of taking myself in hand while imagining it was her tight heat surrounding me instead.

The memory of her scent, stronger now, richer, tinged with that sweet arousal when our eyes met.... sends me over the edge. I come hard enough to see stars, her name a broken growl on my lips as I spill all over my hand and unto the floor.

For exactly thirty seconds, the world makes sense again.

Then reality crashes back like a freight train. She's here, but she's not really here. Not yet. She looks at me like I'm a stranger, when I used to be her everything.

And I still have to face the pack meeting in an hour, pretending I have everything under control when her whispered words are echoing in my head

Aeliana POV

I can't believe this is happening to me, first I was taken from my happy place, the home I have come to know for the past 2 years, now here I am having a wet dream about Cealan, damn his sexy abs that graces my fingers when I caress them. I have never had any dream this intense. And definitely I haven't seen any face, just of a body ramming inside me from the back. But this….this is definitely, it felt as if it were real, his tongue down my throat with his fingers driving me crazy. While my palm burns from the heat emitting from his cock while I jerk him off. My body shivers as I remember the details of my dream. Fuck Aeliana you are really sex deprived for having a wet dream for someone you just met barely 24 hours, Mate or not. But I can't help my self, I can feel my body humming in his presence and his calling me to worship him with my tongue. Aeliana you need to get yourself together.