Chapter 95

Aria

Darren’s arms around me felt like the one thing I had been missing all my life.

As he held me there, curled up on the floor with nothing but the snow and the wind outside, I felt more safe and steady than I’d ever felt before. I had never felt like this with any man—certainly not Jackson, and not any man before him. Darren was the first, and the only, to make me feel truly cared for and wanted.

His lips tasted sweeter than I ever remembered, and it had nothing to do with the aphrodisiac coursing through my veins. In fact, as he carefully lifted me from the floor, cradling me against his chest as if I weighed nothing, I didn’t feel affected by the aphrodisiac at all.

My head felt clearer than ever, if I was being honest.

Wordlessly, Darren carried me across the room and gently set me down on the plush sofa across from the fireplace. Our lips parted hesitantly, and I felt suddenly cold from the loss of him, so much so that I began to shiver as he hastily made a fire.

Surprisingly, his fingers worked quickly to start a fire, and soon the room was filled with warmth. He stood and turned to me again, the orange light creating a halo around his broad form, and I felt my heart surge in my chest.

What happened next was a blur. My head still felt fuzzy and warm, although whether from the venom or the sight of him, I couldn’t be sure. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the sensation of his mouth crashing against mine again, the feel of his hands wrapping around me, his large body pressing me down into the soft cushions of the sofa.

We moved with a frenzied passion as we stripped one another of our heavy coats and snow pants, dripping water onto the floor, and yet Darren also peeled the layers of my clothes back with a surprising amount of care. With a gentle tug, he removed my boots and socks, warming my cold feet between his hands for a moment before moving to my other layers.

As his fingers slipped beneath the waistband of my leggings, I shivered again. He paused, his lips grazing my neck, and pulled back just enough to look at me with half-lidded, slightly glowing eyes.

I nearly lost what was left of myself as I saw those eyes looking at me. Those beautiful eyes, one brown and one blue. The eyes that had followed me all my life, and were now mine.

Even through the haze clouding my mind, they were the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

“You okay?” Darren slurred, his voice rough from the aphrodisiac venom coursing through him.

I nodded, biting my lower lip, unable to speak. Not that I needed to. Smiling softly, I helped him tug off my leggings to reveal the dark, lacy panties I’d packed for the trip.

A low growl rumbled in his throat the moment he saw them. He sat up fully, grabbing the hem of his shirt with both hands and pulling it over his head, his muscles glistening slightly in the firelight from the melted snow on his skin. I sat up on my elbows and traced my fingers across his abdomen, taking note of the way his muscles tightened under my touch, the way his breath hitched as I nudged the waistband of his pants with my thumb.

My shirt was next. With Darren’s help—since I was still clumsy from the venom—I pulled my sweater off. He huffed appreciatively as his eyes flicked over my body, and before I could say a word, he gently pushed me back down onto the sofa and began to pepper me with kisses.

The kisses began at my mouth, slow and warm, his tongue slipping between my lips and swirling around exploratively. But just as I was beginning to moan into his mouth, he moved further down, across my jaw and down the column of my throat.

He paused momentarily at my shoulder, taking a break to nip playfully at the skin until my hips were practically bucking up off the couch, yearning for more.

Then, with painstaking slowness as if teasing me, he hooked one finger under my bra strap and slipped it down.

The moment his mouth connected with my breast, my back arched of its own accord. I couldn’t contain the small whimper that escaped me as he carefully twirled his tongue around the nipple, nor could I contain the shudder of excitement that coursed through my body as his other hand moved down to rub slow circles at the apex of my thighs.

Without even thinking, I reached down between our moving bodies and touched him. He was already warm and impossibly erect, and when my fingers slipped into his boxers and wrapped around his manhood, he throbbed slightly in my hand.

Another growl echoed in his chest, this time deeper and rougher, and he surged forward, biting my neck—right above the mark he’d left on my collarbone all those months ago—and held on as if he might float away if he didn’t.

As I gently stroked his warm member, I smiled against the skin of his shoulder, digging my fingers into his back with my other hand. I relished in the way he rolled his hips against me, the way his fingers stilled on my panties and the way his breathing grew urgent and ragged.

Then, just as slowly as he’d removed my bra, I tugged his boxers down. Down, down until they revealed the slender lines of his hips, the top of his groin, and then, finally, with one last tug, they revealed all of him.

My face flushed instantly at the sight.

“Are… all werewolves this big?” I blurted out, my cheeks heating even more as I realized what I’d just said.

To my surprise, Darren laughed. Not a chuckle or a huff, but a real, genuine laugh. I wasn’t even sure if I’d heard him laugh like that before. But it made me grin sheepishly up at him in response.

“I’m not sure if I’d like you to find out,” he growled in my ear, his hands deftly moving to tug my own panties down. He slipped them off and held them up between his thumb and forefinger, brazenly inspecting the lace for a moment in the firelight, before he lazily dropped them beside the sofa and positioned himself between my thighs. “I think I’d prefer if I’m the only werewolf whose cock you get to see. And feel.”

A soft, excited little whimper escaped me at the sound of those words, even more so when I felt the warm head of his member press against my opening.

“So you’re saying I’m yours, then,” I murmured as he slowly, too slowly, began to push himself into me.

His eyes grew heavy and dark as he looked down at me, a few strands of that raven hair falling out of the bun at the nape of his neck and into his face. He propped himself up on one hand, the other coming up to trace the line of my shoulder, my neck, my jaw. As if he were committing me to memory.

Then, with one final thrust forward, he ground out, “You’ve been mine since the moment I laid eyes on you, Aria.”

The cry of shock and relief that shot out of me as he filled me was immediate and intense, so much so that I clamped my hand over my mouth in surprise. But Darren quickly moved my fingers away as he began to twist his hips against mine, instead covering my lips with his own.

Mine, he had said. Mine.

As we moved together on that sofa, the crackling of the fire mingling with the sound of our heavy breaths in the air, the snow growing darker and darker outside as the sun faded behind the mountain, that word—mine—suddenly sounded like the only word in the entire world.

Mine.

That night was the first night that I truly understood what it meant to be mates.