Chapter 20

Chapter 20
When Erik erupted, I felt him from head to toe. Every fiber of me squeezed, relaxed, breathed and drank him in. He stiffened and lowered his head just in time to muffle my pleasured cry with his mouth.

What couldn’t have been more than a few seconds felt like an eternity of him swelling in me, pumping, and my body quivering, convulsing.

And then, slowly, my breathing started to go back to normal. My pulse descended from the peak seconds before.

But something was different. Something was... just different.

“Feel that?” Erik said. “Feel me holding us together?”

That was it. Inside me, we were held together physically. “Yeah,” I said.

“It’s unbelievable but...”

“What is it?” he smiled. “I didn’t know it was possible, but that’s... that’s what happens when we bind ourselves to our mates. I don’t want to lose you again, Izzy.”

I touched his cheeks.

The footsteps outside the door approached then continued down the hall.

“Security guard,” Erik said. “I might’ve played it up for fun.”

A wave of something like anger mixed with fear mixed with overwhelming happiness slammed full into my chest. “You... you’re serious? You just did what I think you did?”

Erik shrugged. “If I thought you’d be so upset about the security guy I —”

“You know what I’m talking about,” I said.

The ball inside me loosened slightly. I thought maybe I could have pulled away, if I wanted.

If I wanted. Squeezing my heels into Erik’s muscled ass, I gripped him to me.

Looking down at me, Erik’s face shrank back to normal, and a few seconds later all the hair was gone and he was himself again. For a long moment we just stared at each other, each watching the other one breath.

Somehow, I felt his pulse beating inside me. I felt his breath in my chest. It was like we were two bodies with one soul shared between us.

“What am I feeling?” I asked. “It’s like... I don’t know, it’s like I have more senses than I had before. Which makes no sense. So to speak.”

“You’re my mate,” he said. “This bulge holding us together,” he took a breath. “It’s... this is it, you’re mine and I’m yours. I did it. I really did it.”

He looked like he was about to collapse. Suddenly, Erik’s arms went wobbly and he bent his elbows, falling heavily onto me, pinning me between his heft and the top of the desk.

“Are you okay?” I said.

When he lifted his head, I had my answer.

“Never been better in my life,” he said. His voice was sleepy, almost tipsy. “But I don’t think we have much time to lie around and be lovey.”

“Huh?”

“Meeting,” he groaned, pushing off the desk and taking his wonderful heft away. “Only got... an hour? Hour and a half? And if I’m going to be Captain Brazen about having a pureblood human as a mate, I’m going to have to make some choices.”

“Like what?” I asked, taking the hand Erik extended and hopping to the floor. My thighs still burned with his friction, the inside of me wanted him

again already, which made me smile inwardly. “About Atlas?”

Erik shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’ve got to resign.”

“What?” I almost shouted. “You can’t be serious. You’re the best leader this town’s had in a hundred years and you’re just going to give up?”

He shrugged. “What else can I do? They’ll never accept you as my mate. And before you get irritated again, it’s nothing personal, it’s—”

“You know what you said about stealing the money? How it was Atlas’s mate who did it and ran?” I bent over, and pulled up my khakis. Kicking around a few of the scattered papers, I found the one I wanted.

“What about it? I mean, yeah? But what’s the... oh my goodness.”

I couldn’t help giggling. “You just said oh my goodness. What are you, my grandma?”

Erik screwed up his lips and pinched me on the stomach. “Good one, boo-boo bear,” he said. “What is this?”

“It’s a ledger from when Atlas was Alpha. See?” I pointed to a date on the bank statement, it was from almost exactly ten years earlier, right in the midst of the theft.

“Okay,” he said. Erik went to button his shirt, and cursed softly when he remembered he tore all the buttons off.

I handed him a clean one from my desk drawer. Sometimes you have to be prepared.

“Okay, but... wait a minute. These withdrawals were made by the council. Why didn’t I know this before?”

“Obviously because someone was trying to hide their bad behavior. But here’s the other thing. Look who was on the council back then.” I ran my finger under a name – Jenga Cranston.

“You have to be kidding,” he said. “That old witchdoctor was on the town council? How did I not remember that?”

“You don’t pay much attention to things you aren’t interested in.” My answer was accompanied by a self-satisfied grin. “Looks like it wasn’t a human after all.”

“Son of a bitch.” Erik growled. “Call Duggan. And Jamie and the rest of them. Actually no,” he paused. “Not the rest of them. Just Duggan, Jamie and Clay. That’s enough senior members for a caucus. If any of them know this happened, I’ll kill them. Okay, I won’t actually kill them. But I’ll be really, really pissed.”

“So I guess this means you’re not resigning?”

Erik clenched his fists so tightly that his shoulders began to shake. “I think no, probably not. This might get rough, all right? If you’re uncomfortable with all this, you can leave town until—”

“Are you kidding?” I asked. “And miss all the fun? Go get cleaned up. Even if everyone knows about us, lipstick all over your neck might send the wrong message about how serious this meeting is. I’ll get on the phone.”

“Izzy?” Erik asked after he’d already turned and open the door. “One more thing.”

“What’s up?” I had the phone in my hand, and had pushed three of Duggan’s digits, but then put it back down and waited for him to finish.

“Thank you,” he said. “For everything. For your patience, and for doing all this investigation. You didn’t have to do this. It’s my responsibility to be the alpha, and you’re making my job too easy. I might lose my edge if you keep it up.”

“Get outta here,” I said with a grin. “I’m sure you’ll pay me back.” He laughed and ran his hand through his hair. “I’ll sure try,” he said.

“Hello? Duggan?” I said into the phone as Erik’s office door shut behind him. “Hi, it’s Isabel. I think you might need to come in a little early for that meeting. We’ve found some... interesting things.”