There was more lip twitching, but he just shook his head. “To answer your eloquent question from before, yes, this shit is very real between us. My beast has claimed you. I have claimed you. You belong to me, Sunshine.”

“Until such a time you say I don’t.”

We’d played this game before.

Shadow’s biceps tensed on either side of my head, and when he lowered himself down, my breath caught in anticipation. “No, Mera,” he murmured. “There’s no such out available to you any longer. You’re mine. End of story or end of life.”

I swallowed hard. “My life?”

His lips were almost on mine. “No. The life of anyone who attempts to take you from me.”

Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Both of us were about to find out if sexy words spoken in a rumble of Scottish brogue was enough to bring a shifter to orgasm, because damn.

He kissed me, and I gave him every part of myself, holding nothing back. There were no more barriers between us, no protections around my heart, no cynicism about this being a short-term thing that I could walk away from.

I’d been kidding myself from the start. There was no walking away from Shadow.

Only death would tear us apart, and we were ready to fight it every step of the way.

25

Despite the major emotional breakthrough I’d just had with Shadow, there was no time for us to remain wrapped in each other. Sam might only be a very new friend, but she was already important to me. We’d bonded over a huge experience, and it was cruel to allow her to worry.

Of course, there was the small problem of leaving the lair in my current state. “You’re some sort of sperm overachiever,” I said to Shadow, staring down at the mess that was the bed and me. “I mean, fuck, dude, at some point, it’s just overkill. In all the books I’ve read, they rarely mention the aftermath of fucking a virile alpha male—”

The rest of my sentence was cut off as he hauled me over his shoulder in one swift move, shutting me up quite effectively with a firm smack on my ass. “If you don’t want to experience more of my virility, Sunshine, you better shut up now.”

I mean… which way did I want to go here?

Dammit. Sam was lucky I liked her.

Shadow cleaned the bed with his powers, energy racing over the surface, removing all evidence of our sex session, but he didn’t do the same for us; instead, we walked into his shower. He then proceeded to wash me all over, very, very thoroughly. By the time I was done, I’d forgotten my own name, let alone my friend’s, but Shadow got us back on track.