Her reply twisted in the thread and tore out her heart, but Claire stood still, her face a mask, and spoke the hated truth, “I see my mate.”

“You are doing exceptionally well today,” the Alpha claimed, but still he did not move.

And Claire understood. Shepherd wanted her to initiate sex, he was pushing her boundaries, seeing how much she was willing to exchange for what she wanted.

She let out in a low whisper. “I can’t.”

“You can.” Shepherd was confident, nodding for her to try.

Already half-high, drugged in scent and the call, Claire knew in truth she wanted it. She wanted him to fuck her so hard that she forgot herself, that Claire disappeared. It had been her only respite since their deal had been struck, her only succor the distraction of sex. In a sick way she almost longed for a heat cycle, a mindless source of existence that shut off her thinking until all that mattered was physical gratification. But she could not allow herself such a thing if Shepherd didn’t force it or take it. It would make the act of mating something she could not bear.

Clenching her fists, she glanced to the side and shook her head belligerently. “I. Can’t.”

Another of those powerful growls, so loud it was almost a roar, and her pussy clenched, more of that damn slick spilling down her leg.

Shepherd persisted. “You can.”

She knew how very easy it could be, how falsely fulfilling his arms would feel—the decadence of fornicating with such a creature, to hear his whispered words at her ear… the culmination of the moment when her world burst apart and everything bad was forgotten. Had she not felt it a hundred times? But Shepherd had to inflict it, if she took that fateful step and admitted that she desired such a thing, it would ruin her.

Crumbling, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his chest, doing nothing more than pulling in deep breaths of what nature told her was hers, but what experience had taught her was far from the case. Lightly, her fingertips came to his torso, running upward, delicately tracing over his nipples in their journey to reach around his neck.

Claire froze. She could not sell herself for the sky or oblivion.

“What more do you want from me, Shepherd?” Frustrated, desperate, she whined, “Just fuck me already!”

She felt him bend to reach her ear, knew the press of scarred lips. “I want everything.”