The Bond
1416 Words
(Isla)
He was already inside when I found my voice.
The door was closed behind him. I must have shut it on instinct after seeing him on my porch.
Now Zayden stood in my living room, and the small space felt too small with him in it.
His hair was a mess, his shirt was wrinkled and his silver eyes were burning like he had been in a war with himself to get here.
“We need to talk,” he said in a rough low voice.
I immediately crossed my arms over my stomach. It was an old habit….one I had cultivated over the years to look smaller.
“About what? About how you looked at me tonight like I was a mistake?” I asked bitterly.
He flinched. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what? State facts?” I argued.
The bond yanked in my chest. It was hot and sharp……so sharp that it made me stagger half a step and gasp.
Zayden’s eyes widened. “You feel it too.”
“Always,” I whispered.
He exhaled and dragged a hand through his hair. “I tried to stay away. I told myself if I just didn’t come here, it would get easier.”
He took a step toward me and then another. His gaze dropped to my arms, still crossed over me, then back up to my face.
“It didn’t. Being away from you hurts Isla.”
Something in my chest cracked.
“The whole pack saw you tonight,” I said. “They saw….”
“I know what they saw.” He cut me off. “And I’ve hated myself for it since.”
He stopped in front of me. He was so close now. Close enough that I could feel the heat of him. The bond stopped aching and started humming.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For tonight. For letting them. For making you feel like you had to hide.”
No one in this pack had ever apologized to me.
The bond pulsed again, warm this time. Zayden’s hand came up slowly.
He didn’t touch my face first. He touched my arm. His big hand spanned over the curve of it, thumb brushing over skin that I had spent years trying to cover.
His eyes didn’t move away, they didn’t judge either instead, they held an intense expression.
“Can I touch you?” he asked quietly. “Really touch you?”
I nodded, trying to steady my breath.
His other hand came up and cupped my jaw. At the same time his first hand slid down, over the softness of my side, and settled at my waist. Not gripping but holding. Like he was grounding himself in me.
The moment he touched me, the last bit of ache in the bond vanished. Relief flooded through me so fast my knees went weak.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured. His eyes were on my mouth but his hands were sure on me. On all of me. “Do you know that?”
I shook my head. “No one’s ever—”
“Well they’re blind.” He whispered.
His mouth curved and then his lips crashed onto mine. The kiss wasn’t careful or pitiful, it was hungry. Like he had been starving and I was the only thing that could feed him.
A low sound came from him and his arms came around me, pulling me against him. I could feel all of him.
He was Solid but warm and he didn’t hold back. He pulled me in like he wanted every inch.
The bond flared like wild fire in my chest and I gasped into his mouth.
“Isla,” he breathed against my lips. “Can I stay?”
“Yes,” I said. “Stay.”
He didn’t need to ask me twice. He was my mate and I was going to bare myself open to him.
He lifted me and I tensed for half a second……..old instinct.
He felt it and his arms tightened around me as he buried his face in my neck.
“You’re perfect,” he said against my skin. “Let me show you.”
It was easy for him, like I weighed nothing. My legs wrapped around his waist and he carried me to my bedroom without breaking the kiss.
The bed dipped under us and he came down over me on his elbows, and for a second I was self-conscious.
His hand came up and smoothed over my stomach, slow and reverent.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t hide from me. Not here. Not ever.”
His mouth followed his hand as he kissed down my jaw, down my neck and lower. He was not rushing past the parts I hated instead, he lingered on them.
His hands mapped me. The curve of my waist. The softness of my thighs. The fullness of me that I had been taught to be ashamed of.
He treated it like it was precious.
Every touch echoed through the bond. I could feel his wolf in me……..it was big, steady, purring and he was rubbing against mine like mine was the best thing he had ever felt.
“Are you okay?” he asked between kisses.
“I’m okay,” I whispered. “Don’t stop.”
“I won’t.”
Our clothes came off and he didn’t look away from me, not once.
His silver eyes roamed over me in the lamplight and they were dark with want. Not despite my size but because of it.
“You’re perfect,” he said again, and this time his voice shook. “All of you. Do you hear me?”
I nodded, tears stinging.
He settled between my legs and paused. “Tell me if—”
“I want this,” I said. “I want you. All of you.”
He moved into me slow, and the bond exploded.
It wasn’t just bodies. It was our wolves, and our souls. His and mine tangled together finally.
I felt everything he felt. The wonder, the relief and the want.
He wanted me. Not in spite of my body but because it was mine.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
I did and the way he was looking at me.……like I was everything, like he couldn’t get close enough broke me open.
He moved with me. His hand threaded through my hair. His other hand stayed on me, on my hip, on my waist, holding me like I was something to cherish.
When I came apart it was with his name on my lips and his mouth swallowing the sound.
He followed right after, shuddering and burying his face in my neck.
“Mine,” he growled softly.
“Yours” my wolf answered.
For a long time we just breathed as we were tangled together.
His arm was locked around me, hand resting on my stomach like he belonged there.
“You feel right,” he said into my hair. “Like this.. So warm and soft. You feel right.”
I pressed my face to his chest. “I’ve never felt right before.”
“Get used to it,” he murmured, and pressed a kiss to my temple. “To me wanting you. To me touching you. To me not being able to keep my hands off you.”
He fell asleep first but I stayed awake, tracing patterns on his chest. Memorizing the weight of his arm across me. The way he held all of me like he never wanted to let go.
For 22 years I had been the girl the pack whispered about.
Tonight, I was the girl her mate couldn’t get enough of.
*********************************************
I woke to sunlight and warmth and an arm across my waist.
Zayden was still here and he was holding me. His hand was still resting on my stomach.
He stirred and his silver eyes opened. They were sleepy and when they found me they softened.
“Morning,” he said.
“Morning.” I replied shyly.
He pulled me closer and kissed my temple, then lower, to my cheek, to the corner of my mouth.
“You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay.”
His hand smoothed over me poessessively. Like he was reminding both of us that I was his.
And for the first time, I believed it.
He wanted me.
All of me.
- Writer
