Leaning forward, Nick licked the crook of her neck. “I’m going to mark you right here.” He sucked at the spot. “Here, where everyone can see it, so that everyone knows you’re mine, that you belong to me. So everyone knows this pu**y belongs to me, and only I can have it. Do you understand that? Only I can have you. Say it.”

Shaya swallowed hard at the authority pouring from him, heating her entire body. Her wolf was melting from it. “Only you can have me.”

“That’s right. Very good.” He rewardingly cupped her breast with the right amount of pressure, knowing what she liked. “No one else will ever be inside you. And if anyone even tries to touch what’s mine, I’ll strangle them with their own spleen.” And then he was powering into her at a frantic pace, staring into her glazed eyes, not letting her look away. She clawed at his back as if trying to anchor herself, tearing into his T-shirt and branding him at the same time. Her legs squeezed him so tight that her heels dug into his ass, which only speared him on. When he felt her inner muscles begin to flutter around him, he snapped, “Fight it.”

Shaya whined. “I can’t.”

“But you will.”

Before Shaya knew it, he’d jerked her away from the wall, withdrawn from her, lowered her to her feet, and then spun her around. Suddenly she found herself facing the small table of the dinette.

Nick sucked on her earlobe. “Bend over.”

If anyone else had spoken to her with that amount of authority, with such expectation of her total and utter submission, she would have scoffed at their order and slapped them. But not with Nick. Never with Nick. He’d earned her submission on every level. She knew she could never have given up this depth of control to anyone but him, could never have been this comfortable with anyone else, or felt this safe with anyone else.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Shay.”

Shivering at the dominant growl, she obediently bent over and gripped the table. The cool of the wood against her br**sts made her gasp. When a hand abruptly came down hard on her ass, she jumped.

“That was for ignoring me when I told you to fight your orgasm, trying to escape your punishment.” Again he spanked her ass. “That was for almost taking my head off with a baseball bat—oh no, baby, I haven’t forgotten about that.” He made the third spank extra hard. “And that was for going on a date with the web designer and almost tearing my heart out of my f**king chest.” He lightly massaged the prints he’d left on her ass, blowing on them. Then he drove one finger inside her and swirled it around, loving the look of her bent over, submitting to him and finally fully accepting that she was his. “Christ, you’re so wet.”

Withdrawing his finger, he ran it to her puckered hole and circled it teasingly. “This is another place I’ll be claiming soon, baby.” They had been slowly getting her ready for it. “Very, very soon. But right now, I have other plans.” He knotted a hand in her hair, snatched her head back, and buried himself inside her in one long, smooth stroke. They both groaned. Her pu**y clamped down on him, tight as a fist and so f**king hot and wet. Folding over her, he spoke into her ear. “Remember: Don’t come yet.”

As he suddenly began pounding into her, bliss tinged with relief rocketed through Shaya. Finally he was taking her. It was wilder than the other times he’d been inside her—more intense, more uninhibited, more everything. His pace was literally feverish as he f**ked in and out of her. With him blanketing her body and pinning her in place, all she could do was take it. The feel of the denim of his jeans rubbing against the sensitive skin of her ass heightened the other sensations. The tension inside her kept building and building, making it more and more difficult to hold back her orgasm.

“Are you ready for me to claim you?” She nodded, releasing a broken moan of assent. Nick’s voice was almost harsh as he continued. “You know what it’ll mean, Shay, don’t you? I won’t let you go. Not ever. Not for anything or anyone. There’ll be no more holding back from me—I won’t stand for that. I want everything that you are, everything you can give. Can you handle that?”

Shaya gave him a sideways glance. “Only if I get the same.”

Nick grinned. There was that sassiness he loved. “That’s my girl.”

As he licked the crook of her neck, Shaya’s entire body tingled in anticipation. Her claws shot out, making deep grooves in the cherry wood table.

“Shall I let you come now?” When she began to sob, Nick frantically slammed in and out of her, wrenching loud cries from her. “That’s it, baby, let me hear you. You know how much I love hearing those noises you make.” He slid his free hand around her body, finding her clit and circling it with his finger. “Come. Now.” She did; her pu**y clutched and rippled around him as she screamed his name, making him explode inside her. It was right then that he bit down hard and deep at the crook of her neck, sucking hard and licking so that there was no mistaking what that mark was to her or to anyone else: the ultimate irrevocable brand, a claiming.

A zing bowed Shaya’s back as a sharp pain lanced through her head, but it was quickly gone and replaced with warmth, and calm, and a sense of “home.” She’d never felt so safe, so sheltered, so utterly complete—and maybe that meant so much more to her because she had felt so broken her entire life. Not now. The cold loneliness was gone—she could feel him inside her and surrounding her. There was only her bond with Nick, and it was much stronger than she would have expected. Not totally complete, but it was by no means weak. Maybe it was because they had both wanted this for so long, or maybe it was because the claiming had been a total surrender on both parts. She didn’t know, and she was too content and at peace to ponder much over it. She wondered if this was what it felt like to be high.

Drawn to the mark on her neck like it was all that existed, Nick licked it again and again, filled with self-satisfaction and elatedness and a sense of completeness. He could feel what Shaya was feeling—it was the same things that he himself was feeling. His wolf felt at peace for the first time. Oh, he’d always be moody and remote in many ways, but he no longer found the world so bleak. How could he when Shaya’s warmth was filling the empty spaces inside him?

A dark voice whispered in Nick’s mind, reminding him of why he’d been fighting this, but Nick wouldn’t let fear creep in and f**k with this. He’d do what Shaya said, he’d battle this with everything he had. And now he had the biggest incentive possible—his mate’s happiness depended on him winning that battle.