Chapter 278
ELENA
I had never been this forward in my entire life.
Not even close.
Not the time I kissed a boy in a thunderstorm at seventeen. Not the time I slipped my number to the visiting Alpha’s Beta just to see if Mason would have a meltdown. Not even the time I told Logan, with full eye contact, that I didn’t love him.
This? This was something else entirely.
This was reckless.
This was borderline feral.
And it was all for Derek.
Something about him stripped away the filters, the hesitation, the caution I usually wore like armor. Around him, I didn’t just want I needed. With a kind of clarity that left no room for shame. No breath for denial.
Just need, coiled hot and low in my belly, burning hotter every time he looked at me like I was both salvation and sin.
One second we were cruising down the road in his ridiculously sleek car–the kind that purred like a wildcat and smelled like leather and heat and power–and the next, I was leaning over the console like a woman possessed, unbuckling my seatbelt with one hand and sliding the other straight into his lap.
I didn’t think. I acted.
My fingers closed around him through his pants, and even through the layers I could feel how hard he was. How ready. My mouth went dry. My pulse thundered.
He damn near drove us into a brick wall.
His hand jerked off the wheel. The car swerved violently. Tires squealed against the pavement. I felt the weight of inertia shift beneath us, the force pressing me into the door as he yanked the car into another lane.
A horn screamed beside us. I heard the car in the opposite lane lay into it–one long, furious blast.
“Shit,” Derek hissed, voice wrecked. His breath hitched as I squeezed him again, firmer this time, bold and unblinking. “Elena
“Don’t,” I said, my voice low and dark with hunger. “Don’t you dare pretend this isn’t real.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. The way his body responded was answer enough.
Because I knew. I knew what this was.
It was more than attraction. More than chemistry. More than whatever existed between us, whatever gaps lingered in the corners of my mind.
It was heat. Hunger. The way my wolf, Nox, howled every time Derek came near. The way my pulse found his even across a crowded room. The way every cell in my body seemed to vibrate at the same frequency as his.
It was fate.
He swerved again, barely missing a bumper. The tires howled in protest as he cut a hard right, pulling us off the main road and into a narrow alleyway that looked like it hadn’t seen a streetlight in a decade.
Then he slammed the gear into park, practically yanking the brake up, and the car jolted to a stop.
The engine was still humming, but we weren’t going anywhere.
Chapter 278
+25 BONUS.
He turned toward me.
Eyes burning.
Chest rising and falling in shallow, ragged pulls.
He didn’t say a word.
He just grabbed my face–rough, reverent, desperate–and kissedne like he’d been starving.
The kiss was pure voltage. It wasn’t tentative or searching. It was a wildfire, licking up my spine, seizing my breath. I gasped into it. Clutched his collar. Dragged him closer.
And then I was on him–seatbelt flung aside, knees braced on either side of his lap, dress bunched at my thighs. Straddling him. Possessing him.
Maybe I was made for this. For him.
His hands were everywhere. Splayed across my thighs. Sliding up my back. Fisting the fabric at my hips. One hand tangled in my hair as he groaned into my mouth like the taste of me was undoing him.
His mouth found the curve of my throat. The edge of my jaw. The hollow just beneath my ear that made my hips stutter forward when he kissed it.
My dress kept riding up. His pants strained. I could feel him–hard and hot and pulsing through the fabric–and it was too much. Not enough. Everything.
“Tell me,” I whispered, breath ragged as my lips brushed his ear. “I want you to say it.”
He blinked up at me, dazed, lips parted and glistening.
“Say it,” I repeated, grinding down against him. “Tell me what we are.”
Still, he didn’t speak.
So I gave him no room to pretend.
I reached down and unzipped his pants.
His breath hitched. His hands stilled for a moment–stunned–but he didn’t stop me.
I shifted. Pulled my panties aside, breath shaking as I poised myself over him.
And then I sank down onto him in one smooth, desperate motion.
There was no hesitation. No teasing.
Just need.
He hissed like I’d lit him on fire, every muscle in his body going taut beneath me.
His head dropped back against the seat, jaw clenched, neck arched, chest heaving.
And I felt it–the moment he gave in. The moment he stopped trying to hold on to reason, to restraint. The moment he let go.
“Say it,” I murmured, hips rolling, slow and demanding. “Tell me what I am to you.”
His hands gripped my waist like I was the only thing keeping him grounded.
“Yours,” he said, hoarse and wrecked. “I’m yours.”
A thrill went through me like lightning.
I smiled, teeth bared, wild and triumphant.
2/4
Chapter 278
+25 BONUS
“Are we mates?” I asked, one hand hooking into his cheek, forcing his eyes to stay on mine as I moved on him with slow, punishing rhythm.
His jaw twitched.
“Yes,” he rasped.
I pressed further, my voice low and curling like smoke.
“Or are we mated?”
He groaned, the sound raw and guttural, head falling back against the headrest.
His seatbelt was still clipped in, locking his broad chest into place. And I was riding him like a cowboy on a bull, hips snapping, thighs burning, and he was barely keeping himself from unraveling.
“We’re mated,” he said, breathless, eyes blown wide.
My heart thudded. My body trembled.
“Fated?” I asked.
It was a whisper. A dare. A plea.
He gave a broken sound. Half a growl, half a gasp. His hands scrambled up my spine, burying themselves in my hair, dragging me down so our foreheads touched.
“Fated,” he whispered. “We’re fated mates.”
I shuddered.
“Yes,” I whispered, tears burning hot in my throat. “Say it again.”
He looked at me like he’d never seen anything more sacred.
And then he said everything.
Everything I’d been aching to hear. Everything I didn’t even know needed until this very moment.
What I was to him. What he was to me.
What we were.
Mate. Partner. Future. Forever.
The words were raw and reverent. A confession. A vow.
And when we came, it wasn’t just physical.
It was cosmic.
Like something ancient had snapped into place. Like we’d been broken in two and were finally, finally whole.
We clung to each other as we rode the wave, mouths crashing together in a kiss that was more than heat–it was home.
And when I looked into his eyes afterward, I didn’t see a stranger.
I saw the other half of my soul.
Fated.
Finally.
Ours.
