Logan
Brie moves like the water, like a tree swaying in the wind, the most natural I’ve ever seen her. Her full, luscious curves are on achingly full display in the bikini she’s wearing, which does little to hide what… what I want to claim as mine. Her body, her mind, her soul…
Even after spending the majority of the afternoon and evening in my wolf form, thinking finally having the opportunity to shift would clear my head, it only made those feelings worse.
Feelings that tell me I’m making a mistake. Leaving her behind, choosing Emberfyll over her…. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done.
Sawyer sighs beside me, lifting his drink to his mouth. It’s rum, which I’m not a fan of but have been drinking since the boats pulled up to the dock, mostly against my will.
“She’s beautiful,” he says, nudging his shoulder against my arm.
“I know.” I wish she knew. I wish I could show her that, make her believe it somehow. Show her how much she’s worth, but… I’d be crossing the line we nearly crossed already knowing the consequences of our actions.
“You’re really gonna just… give her back to her family? Let her go?”
I’ve told Sawyer practically everything. I didn’t have a choice when I explained the Emberfyll situation to him and Alex, and they agreed to go. Brie won’t be coming with me. I can’t separate her from her family and just… take her away.
Doing that would hurt everyone I love back in Eastonia, not just her.
I watch Brie raise her hands in the air, moving her body with the music. She looks… incredible. Just… everything I’ve ever wanted, and I realize, in that moment, how little Emberfyll actually means to me if she’s not there.
I wrap my arms around my knees and watch her dance, watch the light of the bonfires paint her bare skin in gold, wanting my touch to be painting her skin instead.
Alex and Sawyer already know they can settle anywhere. The Deadlands would have room for them, and the two other packs in tow, to spread out and settle with enough land to expand their numbers. They could stay along the coast like they’re used to now. They could be happy there–secure and protected by Ryan as their Alpha King.
And I could… take Brie back to Silverhide. We could set up our life in the village with our family and be only a few days' travel away from Maeve in Moonrise, from her parents in Veiled Valley.
But I wouldn’t be an Alpha. Would I still be enough to marry a princess?
Because I could just… go home. Home to Eastonia, where I spent… the majority of my life, honestly.
If she’d be happy enough as a captain’s wife.
Brie turns so I can her face as she winds her hips to the music, and I… fold.
I rise, and Sawyer snorts a knowing laugh behind me as I stalk forward through the crowd of dancers. Brie looks up at me with those round, wide eyes full of flames. I don’t think. My brain goes blank, save for the undying need to just… be with her.
“Logan,” she breathes, blinking up at me.
“We’re going home to Eastonia,” I tell her without thinking through what I’m saying, what I’m offering… deciding in the moment. “You and I–are going home. As mates.”
Her mouth forms a perfect O. She takes a shallow breath, her hands pressing against my chest as she starts to shake her head. But I scoop her into my arms, throwing her over my shoulder and turning from the bonfires.
A few men hoot and holler at us as I march through the party, carrying my mate off the beach and into the trees where a small cabin rests nearby, overlooking the water, tucked into the shadows.
“Logan, we need to talk about this–”
“No,” I rasp, adjusting her weight while she tries to squirm out of my grasp.
I walk up the steps onto the porch, throwing the door open. It’s a single room with large windows overlooking the water, but the curtains are drawn, thank the Goddess. There’s a single door leading to a bathroom, but that’s it.
“Logan?” Brie whimpers, struggling to push herself upright, bracing her hands on my shoulders, but I deposit her on the dresser. She gasps, her chest rising and falling with a rough, shuddering breath, but we’re eye to eye now as I lean in, bracing my hands on either side of her thighs.
“We’re going home,” I assert sternly. “To Eastonia.”
“But–but you’ll never be happy, Logan. You’ll always be wondering about Emberfyll–”
“No,” I tell her, leaning in to brush the word over her lips. “Brie, I was wrong. I thought my parents left to give me a chance to go back one day, to rule again but… they just left. They ran away praying I’d never return. They died so I could have something better.”
“Something better?” she asks breathlessly, gasping as my teeth graze the tender skin of her neck.
“My mate,” I whisper, pulling back enough to look her in the eyes. “You.”
She scans my face before reaching up to caress my cheek. “Logan…”
“Will you have me, even though I’m not an Alpha? Even if I can’t give you a pack that can throw its support behind Maeve when she becomes queen?”
“Will you resent me for being the reason you’ll never be able to go back to Emberfyll?” she asks painfully, her eyes watering.
“Never,” I breathe, pressing my lips to her. “I’d never resent you, Brie. Goddess, you have to know–you have to know by now that this is just… we shouldn’t have rejected each other.”
“I know, Logan, I know–”
I kiss her again, deeply, my tongue swiping over hers. She moans, wrapping her arms around my neck and dragging me closer, leaning into the kiss when neither of us can breathe.
My hands travel to her thighs, wrenching them apart. My wolf takes over, and I let him, let everything go until it’s just me, her, and the choice we’re about to make that we can’t take back.
* * *
Brie
Logan’s hand moves between my thighs, his fingers pulling my bikini bottoms to the side. I arch my back, my head lolling against the wall while he strokes my clit with his thumb, two of his fingers gliding through the wetness pooling at my entrance before he presses them inside–roughly. I gasp out a breath, my heart skipping a beat before surging. Heat floods my body, turning every thought and feeling into a desperate kind of want.
Desire has a chokehold on my mind. Nothing else matters. Nothing we just talked about matters, not now, not with his fingers inside of me and my body reacting to his touch like waves being pulled out by a vicious tide.
I’m lost to him, and I know it. I’ll let him do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
“Goddess,” he breathes against my temple, gritting his teeth and nuzzling me as he works me with his fingers until my inner walls tighten around him in warning that I’m already close. I’m perched precariously on the edge of the dresser, and he’s standing between my knees, pressing his body to mine, each stroke of his fingers forcing whimpering moans from my lips.
“I want to finish what we started,” he rasps against my cheek before kissing me deeply.
“Please,” I whimper, losing control entirely as my body tightens, begging for release.
He nips my jawline, pressing kisses down my neck to my collarbone, where his teeth graze my skin. I can still hear the music outside. It sends a gentle hum of vibration through the cabin as the beach party rages on without us, everyone lost to music, dance, and copious amounts of rum.
I haven’t had a single drink, but I feel like I’m moving in a haze when he lifts me off the dresser and deposits me on the bed, pulling my bikini bottoms off and tossing them across the room.
He steps back to look at me, drinking me in. This time, I don’t shy away from his gaze. I let my legs fall apart while I reach behind me, untying my top, letting the thin fabric fall away from my breasts, and he… exhales sharply, his pupils blown wide, his face etched with so much longing it could bring tears to my eyes.
Tears of happiness. Thank the Goddess for giving me a man like him. A man that looks at me like I’m a meal, and he’s been starving for his entire life. No one has ever looked at me like Logan does–has, from the beginning.
He shoves his shorts down and steps toward the bed, his cock hard and proud as he fists it, his gaze dropping to my sex.
I’ve never done this before. My sex education came from Misty, Aviva, and Sarah–seeing as my mother's soft disposition made it nearly impossible to describe what this was supposed to be like, to feel like for me.
I know it’s going to hurt, but I want it to. I don’t want him to be gentle. I want him to show me what I’m capable of feeling. I want him in full control. I want him to force me to let go of the reins for once.
He must see that behind my eyes because he crawls on the bed, pressing my hips to the mattress, and kisses me so hard it steals my breath away.
He nudges my legs further apart, settling his hips against mine, his cock teasing my clit, swiping through the wetness, before he presses inside of me, and I feel the stretch of him….
“Ohhhh,” I whimper, closing my eyes as his mouth finds my neck. He rolls my nipples between his fingers as he pulls out slowly, like he’s savoring the feel of me, even if he’s barely inside.
“You feel so good,” he whispers breathlessly, pressing in again and not stopping until I whimper, raising my hips to meet his. He chuckles low and dark when I arch again, writhing beneath him. He’s teasing me, isn’t he?
“Are you enjoying this?” I ask hotly, my voice cracking with desperation as he slowly pulls out. “Teasing me?”
“Yes, I am,” he answers, his lips parting as he exhales. He slides his cock inside me, filling me and stretching me to the point of pain but hits the barrier and stops.
“Please,” I whimper as the pain fades to a kind of pleasure I’ve never felt but need to chase. “Please, Goddess, Logan, just–” I gasp, fighting back a scream as he pulls out roughly and thrusts hard, the headboard clapping against the wall behind us.
“Fuck,” he growls, lowering his forehead to mine and rolling his hips, grunting and groaning, refusing to hold back the sounds of his own ecstasy.
He holds me down as he thrusts inside of me again, and again, taking his time as I adjust to his size. He presses hard kisses to my neck, my breasts, sucking my nipples into his mouth and nibbling until I find it hard to catch my breath. My body is on fire. Every touch is both too much and too little. My skin is suddenly so sensitive, like a single swipe of his finger across my belly will make me come unglued, fraying at the seams.
I grip his neck, my other hand braced against his chest as he rolls into me in short, quick thrusts. My inner walls clench around him, and he slams a hand down beside me, curling his fingers into a fist. “Fuck, Brie. If you do that again, I’m going to knot in you.”
“I can’t help it,” I breathe, my voice coming out in a rasp as I moan the words, crying out when he presses into me so fully he fills me up to the brim and can’t go any further. I arch my hips toward him, giving him deeper access, and he groans my name, panting as he grabs my hips to hold me there before splaying my legs apart to absolutely devour me with his cock.
His fingers find my clit again, drawing quick, perfect circles. I start to tremble as tension builds in my thighs and lower belly. I lock my ankles behind his back, crying out his name incoherently as the word bleeds into moan and gasps.
It’s like a wave that ripples through my entire being. The tension breaks in a snap, and I’m flooded with tingling warmth. I spasm around his cock, my legs shaking as I grip his shoulders, my vision filling with stars.
He grunts, slowing his movements. I can feel him looking at me, watching me come. I open my eyes to slits as one of his hands slides up my belly, past my breasts, and clutches my throat. He’s breathing heavily as he starts to move again, sending new, fresh ripples of pleasure through my body. But he’s moving slowly, savoring the feel of me–of us where we’re joined, and the look on his face just…
“Mark me,” I whisper, unsure of whether he can hear, but the words settle between us, igniting a new fire behind his eyes, and I know, in the moment, he’s about to hurt me… in the best way.
“Oh, Brie. He closes his eyes and rolls his hips against mine. Logan lowers himself on top of me, balancing with one elbow on the mattress while his free hand gropes my breasts. He starts to tremble, his movements more erratic. He hits a spot so deep within me it sends me into spasms again as my pleasure skyrockets.
“I’m going to come again,” I whine, turning to face him, our noses brushing, but then I feel… pressure. Pressure that turns to an intense feeling of fullness that takes me off guard. I gasp in pain, my legs shaking as I try to pull away, but he presses his hand to my belly, forcing me back down.
I’ve heard about this. Knotting. It’s happening right now, and it hurts. I can’t–I can’t move.
“I know,” he whispers against my cheek. “Brie, it’s all right.” His hand moves down, his fingers reaching my clit and stroking gently, turning the pain to pleasure that feels totally new and just… overwhelming.
“Come for me,” he commands, his eyes on mine. “Come for me while I mark you.”
I suck in a breath as he thrusts as deep as he can go, trapping us there as the knot forms and binds us together, and then he spills himself into me, filling me with his warmth.
An orgasm builds and erupts. “Logan!” I scream, his name shattering on my tongue at the same moment he kisses down the slope of my left breast and bites down hard, hard enough to make me wince and whine.
But the effect is… immediate. The pain ceases, turning to ecstasy that washes through me, making me go slack. My hand curls around the back of his neck as I pant against the rim of his ear, closing my eyes as a strange sensation ripples through my chest–like little strings plucking into place, creating a song only we know.
A song we tried to forget. It’s been there this whole time, waiting for us to remember.
“Oh, my Goddess,” I whisper, nuzzling him as he holds me, his tongue sliding over the mark he left on my breast–his mark.
He rises, the tips of noses touching as he looks in the eyes. I gasp for breath, tracing his cheekbones with my fingertips before kissing him tenderly, a single tear falling down my cheek. I kiss his jaw, then his neck, my wolf taking over the moment my mouth reaches that tender patch of skin where his neck meets his shoulder.
“Right there,” he breathes, his hand cupping the back of my head. “I want it right there, where everyone can see it. Mark me, Brie. For the love of the Goddess, please.”
I bite down, claiming Logan as mine, whatever comes.