Selene’s POV
Luna is flat in her back, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she exposes her belly to Bastien, but I notch my chin up defiantly. “I don’t belong to anyone.”
Bastien cuts his eyes to me with a cocky grin, as if he knows exactly how severely Luna and I are currently disagreeing. “We’re mates.” I snarl at the word and he chuckles indulgently, heat traveling from the tips of his fingers straight to my core, “I belong to you, and you belong to me.”
“You had the chance to claim me as your mate Bastien, you had a thousand chances and you never took one.” I’m not even going to bother arguing his logic. “It’s too late to change your mind now.”
“I’m not changing anything, little wolf.” Hunger sparks in his silver eyes as he watches me pace. “I couldn’t claim you in good conscience when you didn’t have a wolf, no matter how badly I wanted to.”
I feel like ripping my hair out. I cannot believe he is twisting the past this way. “And how can your conscience possibly abide this?” I delve, “Erasing the past because you woke up one day and decided you wanted things to be different?”
“I thought you were dead.” Any humor Bastien may have been entertaining in my defiance is gone. He barely keeps his furious voice quiet enough to avoid disturbing my sleeping pup. “I spent three and a half years in misery, wishing I could turn back the clocks and change what happened. I replayed that night over and over in my head, trying to figure out how I could have saved you, torturing myself with my own shortcomings.”
“Do you expect me to feel sorry for you?” I scoff. “It was your own fault, Bastien.” Luna whines as I throw the contemptible words in his face. “I never would have been at the cabin if you hadn’t treated me so terribly. Arabella never would have gone to such an extreme if you hadn’t led her on.” I gesture to the apartment where we now sit. “I never would have come here if I thought for one moment that you would take my side. I wouldn’t have needed Drake if you’d been there for me.”
“I don’t need you to tell me what a failure I was as a husband.” Bastien vows, “I know everything that happened was my fault. I know how badly I hurt you, but I was trying to protect you the best way I knew how.” He continues passionately, “I realize I can’t ever make up for it. But I’m going to try, Selene – No matter how long it takes
“If you want to right your wrongs, you can start by complying with my wishes and getting out of my damned house.” I complain, anxiously peering over his bulky arm to check on Lila.
“That’s one wish I have no intention of granting.” The Alpha pronounces pointedly. “I’m not letting you out of my sight ever again, Selene.”
My lip curls in contempt. “You haven’t changed.” I assess harshly, “Do you even hear yourself? You’re only going to fix the things you choose, not the ones I want?”
“I’m going to fix everything I can.” Bastien amends fiercely, “But I’m not letting you go – either of you.”
I straighten up slowly, squaring my shoulders and crossing my arms over my chest. You see, Luna. I snap, you see the kind of man our mate is?
Mmm, powerful. She coos.
No, I correct her, thoroughly incensed. Impossible.
I’m so busy glowering at my mate, I don’t catch the sudden shift in his own mood. One moment he’s comfortably reclining on the sofa, snuggling my daughter and contemplating our past, the next he’s offering me a wolfish grin as his eyes travel the length of my body. “I can smell her, you know?”
My eyes roll into the back of my head, though my nerves fray slightly – does he mean he can smell himself in Lila. “Obviously you can smell her, Bastien, you’re holding her.”
“No, baby.” He purrs, “Not Lila. Your wolf.”
Oooh, Luna moans happily, I can smell his wolf too. Tell him, tell him how delicious–
Traitor. I cut her off, “So what?”
“So it’s not going to be long before being near your mate sends you into heat.” He doesn’t move from the sofa, exuding pure dominance from his supine position. “She’s already close. I’m guessing you haven’t experienced this with Drake yet, since she hadn’t come out to play until last night.”
I arch one sculpted brow, striding forward to loom above him with a perfectly smug, and perfectly false, smirk on my face. “Think again.” I lie silkily, “it would turn your hair gray to know the heats Drake and I have enjoyed together.”
Bastien’s expression tightens, and he rises to his full, considerable height, arranging Lila carefully in the couch cushions before closing the distance between our tense bodies. “Even so,” He taunts, twirling a thick lock of my dark hair around his nimble fingers, “I wonder who she’ll choose when the next one hits.”
I flatten my palm to his chest, demanding at least a foot of space between our bodies. “She knew where to find you for all the previous ones.” I goad, “she still picked Drake.” Dark clouds roll over my mate’s countenance, and I dig the blade deeper. “That’s how chosen mates work, Bastien. You ruined your chances with me, so I found someone better.” I announce, baring my pearly white teeth. “My wolf might be attracted to you out of instinct, but you’re not the one she wants. Not when there’s such a better option within reach.”
“If Drake’s so much better for you,” Bastien prompts darkly, “if he’s the mate you chose, then where is he?” His blond head nods towards the photo frames and around the empty flat. “You didn’t hide behind him, you ran away because you knew he couldn’t keep me away.” He evaluates, “You haven’t given him the role of Lila’s Father, you’ve taken on both jobs yourself.”
“Because It’s not all about brute strength to me.” I counter hotly, ”That’s what you Alpha’s don’t understand. Not all she-wolves look for empty threats and hyper-masculine posturing in a mate.” Gradually shifting so that my body is between Bastien and my pup, I clamp my hands on my hips. “I wanted a mate who would respect my wishes and take my feelings into consideration, not bulldoze me with what he thought is best.” I assert.“So that’s what I found once I was finally free of you.”
Bastien’s eyes narrow to slits, some undecipherable emotion flashing in their depth a moment before he lashes out. “You never were a good liar.”
My mate’s mouth crashes down onto mine before I can even think of a response, stealing the breath from my lungs and sending butterflies crashing through my stomach. My body reacts the only way I know how, and I immediately tilt my head back, offering up my lips to Bastien’s conquest and wrapping my arms around his neck.
Yes, yes, yes. Luna chants, even as I moan, No, no, no.
A ravenous rumble rolls through Bastien’s chest, and I realize this kiss is unlike any we’ve shared before. It’s different with our wolves. The kiss is absolutely earth shattering and life changing – yet feels perfectly, inherently, right.
My knees turn to jelly, giving out before his arms can come around me completely. In the end Bastien hitches my body up against his, anchoring me with his weight even as he bends me backwards to tease every last inch of exposed skin with his teeth, lips, and tongue.
I gasp and moan, completely losing myself to the sensations as I writhe against his hard body, throwing myself into the embrace with absolute abandon. I return his affection every way I can manage, kissing, stroking and nibbling my mate with alarming urgency.
I can feel Bastien’s possessive lust, joy and self-satisfaction through our bond, just as i’m sure he can sense my desire, confusion and elation to be back in his arms. In my conscious mind I know I’m damaging my cover story about Drake and life in Eros, but my conscious mind is not in control right now – far from it.
My entire existence has distilled to the single spark of light cementing our mate bond, the desperate need to join the divided halves of our shared soul. Goddess help me, but I do love this man in my heart, no matter how much I hate him in my head.
Bastien buries one large hand in my hair, tugging my head back to expose the long column of my throat to his roving mouth. He works over my sensitized skin, drawing whimpers and moans from my lips as he kisses and teases his way down to the tender joint where my neck and shoulder meet.
His tongue dances over the pulsepoint pounding at its center, the thick arteries where our lifeblood flows strongest and wolves inflict their mating bite. I feel his fangs graze the papery flesh just before understanding hits, and I push him away just in time.
Throwing my full weight into pushing Bastien away, I stare at him with wide, horrified eyes. His chest rises and falls rapidly with his heavy, panting breaths, and his dripping fangs remain on full display beneath his glowing eyes. “You were about to mark me!”
