Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44845 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44845 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Her panting increased, telling him she was growing close. He was also close. He needed to watch her and make sure she didn’t topple over when she came. She was unsteady on her knees. It had to be a challenge to hold herself upright like this while she masturbated.
When she gasped and stiffened, he knew she was there. He grabbed her shoulder with one hand as the waves of her release made her body shake violently. With his other hand, he joined her, allowing himself to reach his own peak. He stood close enough to her that his release shot onto her tummy and ran down her thighs. Fuck, it was heady.
For long seconds, they stared at each other, breathing heavily, smiling broadly, and soaking up the euphoria.
“Nobody told me,” she murmured.
“No one in the valley could have, Baby girl. They don’t know how strong the bond is between an Alpha Protector and his mate. No one in the valley experiences a connection this strong.”
“That’s kind of sad.”
He chuckled. “It is, but they don’t know. Ignorance is bliss. They couldn’t grasp it even if you tried to explain it, so there is no harm. Hell, even among the other Alphas, I couldn’t understand until it happened to me. I’m forty-five years old, and I’ve been around mated couples all my life. I never comprehended what would happen to me.”
“So my sister has a bond like this?”
“Yes.”
“Will you tell me how you found out I would be your mate?”
“The Alpha Protectors are kind of careful about revealing too much information about who we are mated to simply because the twenty-year wait is hard enough without adding too many details. Sometimes an Alpha knows a few details. My friend Arion watched his mate from afar most of her life. He liked to keep tabs on her when she was on the playground at school. Not all of us can do that without losing our minds. I did not know that much about you, but I knew when you were born and when I would claim you.”
Khloe smiled as she reached out a hand and stroked her fingertips over the scars on his chest.
“Ironically, I found out specifically who you were the day I got those claw marks.”
Khloe gasped and jerked her gaze up to his. “What happened?”
“We’ve had some issues with rogue bears for a few years. There was a battle that day nearly a year ago, a few weeks after your sister arrived. After I was injured, my friends were harassing me about what my mate would think of my scars. I joked that I would surely be fully healed in a year. Leah overheard and gasped. She realized the mate in question would be you. Though it’s not customary for Alphas to discuss their future mates with anyone, let alone another Alpha’s new mate, the flood gates opened, and I’m not ashamed to admit I have grilled Leah many times over the past year so I would be more prepared for you.”
A slow smile spread across her face. “That’s why you got me a piano.”
“Yes, Baby girl. And I can’t wait to hear you play.”
Her cheeks turned pink. “I always worried my mate might not indulge my musical interests.”
Felix set his hands on her hips and pulled her closer so their bodies touched, his come smearing on his stomach. “I will have many rules, Little one. Some of them you will not like, but they are for your safety and my sanity. Other than that, you are free to spend as much time as you want with your music. I look forward to our home filling with your talented singing and playing.”
She stared at him, grinning wider.
He kissed her nose. “Let’s get in the bath. I’ve covered you in my essence. After we clean up, I’ll take your temperature again, and you can take another bottle.”
She leaned her entire body against him, pressing her breasts against his chest. “My mother said I would eventually fall in love with you. I think I already have.”
No sweeter words had ever been spoken.
Felix kissed his pretty mate and then leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m head over heels in love with you already, too, Little one.”
Chapter Ten
Khloe felt like her skin was going to split open. The bath had been nice. She’d endured another thermometer in her bottom. She’d also taken a bottle without argument because she’d been starving and so thirsty. But now her skin was crawling.
Daddy was holding her in his arms on the couch, but she shoved against him and whined, “Stop touching me. It hurts.”
He kissed her temple and leaned over to lower her to her feet on the floor. “It’s time, Little one.”
She shuddered. She was naked, partly because they hadn’t bothered to put clothes on after the last time they’d had sex—that time with her sitting on the bathroom counter and him thrusting into her with his hands on her hips. In addition, Khloe was burning up. She felt like she had a high fever.