Page 100 of Moon Claimed
All food. Typical.
Giving up, I rested my cheek against his chest. I just needed a little zap of energy after the last few days.
“And me?” he asked.
The wordcompostlingered on my lips, but if I insulted him, this contact would end, and I needed it. “Pine. Sweat. Musk. River water.”
He hummed and the pine and river water scents intertwined.
“Are you happy right now?” I murmured.
“Yes.”
Huh.“What does it mean when a scent pulses?” The description didn’t jive with my human notions, but it was the best way to describe Rhona’s sudden shift in scent during the head team meeting three days prior.
He pressed his nose into my hair, inhaling deeply. We were bodily pressed against each other now. “Shock, perhaps.”
Shockwould suit what happened. I was certain Rhona had realised in that moment that the head team weren’t at her beck and call.
“If something smells rotten, is it a lie?”
“No,” he answered, and I wrinkled my nose as his pine smell decayed.
Lie.
I shifted on the spot, worming closer. “I’ll take that as a yes. Are you the only person who has four smells? Apart from Rhona, everyone else I’ve sniffed only has one.”
Like Wade’s salted caramel or the animal who smelled like spice.
“Sometimes family members will have two—or even three scents if you’re very close. Lovers can have two after a while. To my knowledge, only mates share four.”
Interesting.
“Magic voodoo,” I murmured.
“The mating call drives my wolf and me through the meets, but it does not make me like you, nor makeyoulikeme. That’s why there are seven meets, so we can determine the other’s worthiness. Like an arranged marriage, respect is something that comes if both sides are willing. The mating call is simply nature telling us that we are compatible for producing children. Nature isn’t concerned with how wefeelabout doing that. Anything more, love and trust… respect… is up to us—if we should wish it.”
Then what was this feeling right now? I stiffened.
“An initial attraction to you and an undeniable drive to move through the seven meets is the only part triggered by the mating call,” he continued. “The rest is all me and all you.” Sascha’s hands moved. “My hands sit perfectly at the curve of your hips.” His breath hitched. “My hands nearly circle your waist.BreastsI’ll never stop paying homage to except for the rest of your body tearing at my attention.Fuck,if you were mine, I’d never get anything done.”
Warmth pooled between my legs, and my chest rose.
Now was the time to step away.
Sascha pulled me firm against his body.
I looked up.
“The slope of your neck when you submit,” he growled low, “the angle of your jaw when you don’t. Your lips, beautiful wolf. Made for kissing.”
Logically, I knew a waterfall was pouring in a torrent at our back, but I could only hear the beat of his heart and mine. I could only smell the new way our scents tangled together.
“Sascha—”
“Naturedoes not care about such things,” he said in a ragged voice. “Nature is not romantic. It is cold and clinical. None of what I’ve just described is necessary for the job that nature wants us to fulfil. My attraction grows of my own accord, as does my respect for your mind, and my awe of your heart.”
This was too much. “It’s pointless.”