Chapter Sixty-Six

“What’s going to happen to me, if…” she trailed off, her voice catching as her mind wandered towards all the unspoken things that could befall her, if her mate wasn’t around when she went into heat.

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he replied, pulling back, so that he could smooth back the hair that had fallen over her forehead, obscuring her face. “Shivani will be there to protect you, until I come for you. And make no mistake, I will come for you. You are my mate, and nothing is going to keep me away from you. For now, I just need to keep you safe, and to do that, I need you to be off this Pack’s territory, until I can wrestle back control.

“I don’t want you to be in harm’s way, or be collateral damage for my fight with my father.”

“What fight?” she queried, pulling her face from his hand, and rising to her feet, an alarmed look on her face, as she paced the length of the living room. “No one mentioned a fight. If you are going to fight him, I want to be here, I can’t just leave! I need to…”

“Saffron,” he called out softly, rising to his feet as well, and grabbing her hand, effectively cutting off her tirade, and pacing. “This fight… I cannot be distracted. My father will use every leverage he can find against me, to stop me from challenging him. And if I want to keep you safe from him, I need to go through with the challenge.”

She let out a sigh of defeat, before scrubbing a hand over her face.

“I don’t like it,” she shook her head, her eyes pleading with him to reconsider. “I don’t want to be separated from you.”

“I don’t like it either,” he replied, his tone remorseful, as he cupped her cheek. “But, it is something I need to do, for the greater good.”

“With great power comes responsibilities,” she uttered under her breath, attempting to smile but failing miserably.

“Yeah,” he nodded, his thumb brushing over the edge of her bottom lip. “That.”

For a moment, neither of them said anything. They just stood there, in the middle of his living room, Ryder holding her, while she got lost in her thoughts, his thumb absentmindedly running slow circles over her lip, as he too got lost in his thoughts.

And the moment her breathing changed, Ryder felt it, his thoughts scattering, until all he could focus on, was her.

The slight hitch of her breath, the increase in the thrum of her heart, and the flutter of the pulse in her neck, he felt it all.

His eyes flicked down to her lips, his heartbeat picking up, as his body reacted to the changes in hers.

He felt her stiffen against him, making him draw back a bit, a frown on his face, as he scrutinized her face, for the source of the change in her.

All he saw though, was the interest clear in her eyes, and the hint of her arousal permeating the air.

He came undone in that moment. There was no stopping what happened next.

A growl escaped his lips, before they came crashing on hers, eliciting a gasp of surprise and pleasure from her.

The sound of a horn blaring startled Saffron into jumping away from Ryder, her breathing ragged, as she stared around the living room, her expression one of alarm and confusion.

“It’s time to go,” he uttered, regret at the fact that this might very well be the last moment they saw each other, crashing into him, like a four-wheeler truck.

Saffron’s lips parted, like she was about to say something, but she clamped her lips shut, swallowing down her words. She stared at him for only a brief moment, before she closed the distance between them once again, and fisted his shirt, rising on her toes so she could lock her lips with his.

Ryder angled his head lower, their kiss deepening, as he explored her mouth with his tongue.

A soft moan escaped her lips, the sound getting swallowed by him, as he grabbed her by the back of her thighs, and hoisted her up against him.

Her legs wrapped around his waist automatically, her arms curling around his neck, one of her hands going up, until her fingers were buried in his hair.

He strode forward with her, until her back hit the wall that separated his living room from his kitchen, the connection between them never once broken.

Her center pressed against his, the heat of it permeating through the barrier that separated their groins from each other, making both him and his wolf crazy, as he pushed back into her in return.

She let out a growl that was distinctly animalistic, which drove him even more wild.

He broke away from her lips, before he grazed down her neck with his lips, feeling the beat of her heart beneath his tongue.

Saffron threw her head backward, her breath heavy, as she tilted her head to give him better access to her neck.

Ryder kissed and nibbled up the column of her throat, eliciting a loud moan from her, before his lips found hers once again, swallowing the sounds she made.

One of his hands skimmed up her thigh, his thumb brushing over the hem of her shirt before he reached underneath it, meeting her naked skin.

The heat of her skin spread through his palms, making him sigh against her lips, as his hand traveled up her waist, skimming over her ribs, until he reached the line of her bra.

He stopped just shy of touching her there, as another horn blared, this time louder and more urgent than the first.

He pulled back a bit, their breaths both ragged, their cravings left unsatisfied.

“Until next time?” she smiled, pushing a hand through his hair, before cupping his chin, mimicking the move he had made on her dozens of times since they had met.

“Yeah,” he nodded, a smile touching his lips too, as he tilted his head forward, touching it to hers, before he closed his eyes as he tried to suppress what his body wanted.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked, in an attempt to shut down the voice of his wolf, telling him to complete the bond.

“Yeah,” she nodded, forcing down the nerves that were threatening to choke her.

He dipped his head lower, brushing a quick kiss over her lips, before he straightened, and pulled her towards the front door of his cabin.

This was it, she thought as she set her foot out of the cabin.