Chapter 93

Rachel POV

Moonglow Pack - Art's Cabin

Pain caused me to stiffen in Tyler's arms, my whole body locking up as his teeth sank deep into my throat.

I knew I'd have a mating mark no one could deny soon. His bite would be one of the worst I'd ever seen and, inside me, Rayne threw back her head to howl in pleasure; she was proud her mate wanted her so fiercely.

Tyler disengaged his teeth from my body with such care I wondered if he was afraid he'd torn out my throat. He licked at the wound to seal it, lapping my blood away from the teeth marks over and over until my body was responding in an entirely different way to his attention.

My nipples had hardened to stiff peaks and hot desire pooled down low in my belly, making me squirm as I rubbed my thighs together to try to calm the sensation.

"Stop. I don't know what kind of situation we're in, but I don't think we're ready to give in to those desires."

I nodded so hard my teeth started chattering again. I focused on my fingers until they unclenched from Tyler's shoulders, each joint feeling as if it was breaking as I used all my mental faculties to force my fingers to respond to my commands.

Shaking my hands to loosen them, I murmured, "I'm going to get into the bed. You need to ask Art about Nathan. He was---he was terribly upset, Tyler."

I shuddered again with a full-body tremor at the memory of Nathan's Lycan form breaking through the door of my room to try to grab me. What would he have done to me if he'd gotten to me? Would he have been able to keep himself from crushing me? Killing me?

I couldn't help wondering if he'd have been able to control himself enough to mark me without ripping my throat out. His face hadn't been even close to human.

"Find out if he's okay?"

Tyler clearly didn't want to leave me. I crawled under the blankets on what was meant to be Art's bed, pulling them up to my chin as my teeth chattered.

"Please?"

Tyler nodded his understanding before leaving me to go find out what he could about Nathan. I knew nothing about what had happened outside the cabin. Once I'd barred the door between me and the Alphas, I had sank into my fear, crouching on the floor with no more spine than a cornered animal.

A part of me was humiliated at my weakness while another part spurred me to grip my belly again, grateful the firm bump there proved my baby was still safe. My body was protecting my baby girl even if I couldn't focus enough to fight for her.

Time seemed to pass in strange spurts. One moment Tyler was rocking me, then a year passed while I unclenched my hands from his body, and it took a week to get under the blankets before he left me only to return in a blink.

"He's fine. Sleeping. The witch is cleaning him up. They've 'healed' the Modesty Cabin, whatever that means, but don't want you to return to it. Windsor seems worried Lewis might react to your scent even with the suppressant in the air."

Tyler was sneering in a way which made me think he didn't like anything he'd said. I could practically taste his anger on the air which was bizarre as I couldn't smell anything at all myself.

"Did you see him? Did you go inside the cabin?"

I wondered if they'd used magic to repair the door, the window, the walls---I shook all over again as I realized how much damage Nathan had been able to do within such a short time. I wouldn't have stood a chance against him in a fight. He'd have taken me apart if Art had not been ready to save me.

Tyler drew my attention back to him as he slipped under the blankets to join me in the bed. His body was huge and hard and hot beside mine. I pressed myself against him from shoulder to ankle, stretching to match as much of my body to his as possible. I never wanted him to move again.

His hand landed heavily on my hip, squeezed, "Are you trying to get us into trouble?"

I shook my head, "I'm just trying to get closer. I can't seem to get close enough. I never want you to leave me again. Don't leave me?"

"I wasn't the one who left," Tyler mumbled, pressing a kiss against my temple to soothe the sting of his words.

I had been the one to throw away our mating. I'd rejected him, but had we ever been a mated couple? The mark on my shoulder had barely been a whisper in comparison to the deep bruise I could feel around this new claim. Tyler had held my lies against me. He'd hated me for a situation I'd been too young and too inexperienced to work out any other way than the one given me.

"Were we really together enough for either of us to leave?"

We fell silent as our thoughts took us back to the past. I didn't want to think about the sadness of before. I wanted to be held by my mate who had arrived to save the day for me even if he'd been angry, even if he'd been resentful, even if he'd been so many other things, but he had to love me, too. Didn't he?

"Do you love me, Tyler?"

I needed to hear him say it as much as I needed to feel his body against mine. I didn't care about my lack of smell. I focused on the sound of his heart beating as I rested my cheek on his chest and tracked the feel of it with my palm over his pulse in his wrist.

He seemed to be thinking before he spoke. I held my breath until he let out his own in a sigh.

"Yes. I love you, Rachel. Why? Do you mean to tell me you don't love me now?"

I had screamed for him in my fear. I'd asked Rayne to shout as loud as she could to her mate because I loved him, loved him, loved him.

Pushing myself up, I matched my lips to his, kissing him with all the intensity of my feelings. I tried to tell him how much I wanted him, how much I needed him, how much I desired him with my mouth. Every time he breathed out, I breathed in until we were sharing one breath back and forth and stars were bursting behind my eyes.

Tyler broke the kiss before I could pass out, leaning his forehead against mine as he said, "Wait. Wait, wait, wait. You're going to pass out. Or I am. I don't think Wynd would ever forgive me if I blanked out from a kiss."

"I'd hate to cause a big, bad Alpha to be brought low from something so simple. Guess we'd better take a minute to breathe."

We giggled as giddy as children snuggled up together in Art's bed. I had never felt so happy which was causing me a sense of unreality because not so long ago I knew I had never been so scared.

Bringing Tyler's hand over to my belly, I whispered, "Feel. She's moving a little now. It's like butterfly wings inside. I can't deny she's getting bigger. I was so scared, Tyler. There was a minute when I was going to shift and I couldn't stop and all I could think was I was about to kill our daughter."

Tears fell from my eyes again. The salt in them stung my cheeks and the corners of my lips and I knew I had to look like Hell. I felt as if I was wrecked. My body would heal from the wounds in a few more minutes -werewolves were notoriously hardy creatures- but I would need to bathe myself before I'd be fit for public consumption again.

"You wouldn't have been to blame," Tyler murmured, pressing kisses against my temple, "You didn't shift either. You saved her. She's right here. Safe and sound."

His hand flexed over the swell of my belly and I moved to put both hands over his, wanting to hold him close to me, as close to our daughter as I could get him.

"I'll keep her safe, Tyler. Will you keep me safe? I don't want you to go. I don't care what Moonglow Pack has to say. I don't care about my mother's claim on their Alpha House. I don't care about any of this anymore. I just want to go home with you, with my mate. Can't I just go home with you?"

My heart was beating too fast and I cried against him as my emotions swelled up again bigger than my body could hold back.

What kind of mess had I gotten us into this time?