Lycan Prince's Fated Mate

18

Miranda glared at me like she wanted nothing more than to claw at me, but she didn't make a move to touch me.

“I will not forget this insult,” she said hotly before storming out.

Staring after her, I wished she had fought me a little bit more so that I would have had an excuse to myself for beating her to a pulp.

But that would have been as impulsive as it was foolish. The last thing I needed was to make an enemy of the possible future Lycan queen.

As though my day couldn't get any worse, when I returned home, Jordan was waiting for me.

“Ivie,” he said carefully. “I wanted us to talk.”

It would seem he’d realized something was off, although my actions hadn't been exactly regular.

I didn't mince words. “You lied to me.”

Jordan's face fell.

“You know,” he said softly. “I'm sorry. I just… I didn't want you to distance yourself from me. I really value your friendship, Ivie.”

A friendship that was based on a lie. I’d told Jordan everything about my past. Almost everything. The only thing I had ever lied about was Mason’s father being Eric instead of Dante.

I'd confided in him and all the while he’d been lying to me.

“You lied to me.” I repeated.

“Ivie.”

Jordan said, reaching out for me trying to close the distance between us, but I stepped away.

“Don’t touch me,” I said harshly. “I don't want anything to do with any Lycan royalty.”

Jordan paused, a silent plea in his chocolate-brown eyes.

“Ivie, I⁠—”

I turned away from him before my resolve could falter.

“Please leave, Jordan.”

I felt him hesitate behind me, but as always Jordan respected my demands.

“As you wish.”

Then he was gone, and I was all alone again.

CHAPTER 7

DANTE

I

vie was a vision in red, but the nightdress would look better on the floor.

Her lips parted, a small gasp leaving them as her body wound up tighter beneath me, her hands reaching for me but not actually touching me, her face flushed with desire and embarrassment.

The heady mix of her innocence and desire never failed to make me lose my head even when I should have known better.

I dropped another kiss down the slender column of her throat, my lips lingering over the pulse of her throat and my canines nipping at her throat as I fought the urge to mark her, to make her mine. Every time we were together, the urge to mark Ivie waxed stronger and stronger.

But my willpower was stronger, it had to be.

I lifted my lips up her nape to her jawline, unable to stop myself from stroking her pebbled n*****s through her thin, see-through nightdress.

Ivie shivered in my arms, her chest heaving slightly, her gaze dark with lust and her teeth biting on her lower lip as though to stop herself from moaning.

But all that did was make me so hard for her that I ached.

Tugging out her lower lip from between her lips with my thumb, I pushed my tongue between her lips and Ivie eagerly kissed me back, a small whimper escaping her.

She tasted sweet yet tart, she tasted like an addiction, each time I tried to pull back, I had to go back for one last hit.

I hiked up her dress, reaching between her thighs, her skin deliciously warm and⁠—

Ivie caught my hand before I could touch her, ending the kiss as she turned her face from mine before looking back at me with tears twinkling in her eyes.

“You drank again,” she said softly. “Must you be intoxicated before you can bring yourself to touch me?”

The break in her voice, the softness of her gaze and the little shiver running through her was nearly enough to shake my resolve.

She was good at pretending, my mate.

Some days I could almost believe she wanted me, not the power that came with being my mate.

I stroked Ivie's cheek and she leaned into my touch almost immediately, her protest quickly forgotten.

I thought of her question. She wasn't wrong. Every night of our conjugal visitation, I drank. I drank with hopes of numbing my mind so that I could do my duty.

But it was never enough. Being with Ivie always felt too much. Too real.

“And if I do?” I asked and she jolted away from my touch, her emerald-green eyes suddenly springing open, searching my face for something I didn't know.

“So, what if I need to be intoxicated to stomach touching you, Ivie?”

A barely smothered whimper left her lips and a single tear dropped out of the corner of her eye.

“Please excuse me,” Ivie said, wrapping her silk robe around herself as she stood up from the bed.

I reached out, grabbed her wrist and tugged her right back onto my lap where she belonged.

Ivie tried to stand up, but I just pulled her right back to me.

“Let go of me,” she said but her voice trembled as she spoke.

I didn't say anything. I placed my hands on her knees and spread her thighs apart.

I heard a soft gasp escape Ivie's lips as I ripped off her panties. She didn't struggle anymore, her fingernails digging into the sheets on both sides of us to steady herself.

I touched her once and her back arched, her ass grinding against my hard-on in an instinctive roll that nearly had me losing it at that moment.

I didn't though. Not yet.

Slowly, like I had all the time in the world, I circled her c**t. Another moan left Ivie's lips, her back pressed against my chest, her head leaning against my shoulder, her body going limp with desire as she gave in to me.

I circled her n****e with one hand, the other strumming her c**t. My fingers were slick with her arousal when I slid them inside Ivie. She tilted her hips up gyrating against my fingers silently urging me on.

Dipping my head slightly, I whispered into her ear.

“Does fighting me make you feel like a better person?”

Ivie froze in my arms before she shifted on my lap turning to face me. Her face was flushed and even though her green eyes were completely dilated, there remained a faint glimmer of confusion in them. As though her feigned innocence wasn't just an elaborate act to win me over as her true mate.

I didn't buy it though.

Using my grip on the back of her neck, I tugged her forward before slamming my lips on hers.

Ivie could have pushed me away if she wanted to, but she didn't. Her hands formed fists on my chest, but she kissed me back as hard as I did her.

I pressed my thumb back down on her c**t, my grip on her hair tightening, forcing her head back, ending our kiss so I could kiss my way down her neck. Ivie's fingernails dug into my chest, and soft harsh gasps left Ivie's lips in a cacophony of sounds that had me so hard that my shorts chafed.