Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 23597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
“I know,” I gasped right before he plunged his tongue into my eager mouth. “But my human side needed this, Kas.”
He hummed in approval, his erection massive as it all but burst through the zipper of his jeans and pressed against my soaking pussy.
He had his mouth at my neck, and the sound of him scenting me had me closing my eyes and letting my head fall back on my neck slightly. I closed my eyes and let that warm hum he evoked in me travel through my whole body.
“God,” he groaned, and I melted into him even more. I wanted us to be one at that moment. I wanted to just crawl into his skin and live there. “Knowing I’m the one who got you pregnant, knowing I put my baby in you, makes me positively fucking primal.”
I moaned softly as he ran his roughened tongue along my throat. “You’re already fucking primal,” I teased, but the words were heated, aroused.
“Only for you, for my mate.” He ran the tip of his nose up and down my throat in the way I loved. “My mate is carrying my baby.”
I felt his erection against me, knew that although he was always turned on for me, always ready and needing me like a fiend, he was aroused right now because of the primitive, basic fact that he’d gotten his mate with child.
He pulled back and planted a deep, long kiss right on my lips. “I love you so much,” I whispered and groaned, so unbelievably happy I was crying and hadn’t even realized until I felt the saltiness of the tear slide into the corner of my mouth. “A baby, Kas.”
He hummed in approval and kissed me harder, with more passion. He was fierce for me. And surprising the hell out of me, he put me down and dropped to his haunches before me, pushed my shirt off, and planted a gentle kiss on my exposed belly.
I sifted my hands through his soft, short hair, tugging gently at the strands as he kissed my belly over and over, as he whispered gruff endearments against my flesh. When he stood, he immediately wrapped me in his arms again as if he couldn't bear to be apart from me, as if it was painful not to be touching.
“If you thought I was protective before, you haven’t seen anything yet, mate.”
A shiver passed through me, because I heard the sheer determination in those words, in his voice.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” I admitted honestly then dragged my lips to the shell of his ear, and whispered, “now take your mate to bed and show her how happy you really are.”
And with that, he gave a very bear growl, scooped me up into his strong, muscular arms, and carried me to our bed, where he showed me his happiness all night long.
Epilogue Two
Penny
Eight months later
I was going to be a mother any day now, a mother to a half-polar bear, half-Iberian lynx shifter. Or maybe the baby would take after Kasias and be a full bear. Maybe the baby would be a full lynx. God, I was so excited I could hardly contain all the emotion churning inside me.
If I thought Kasias was a primal, possessive, territorial mate before the pregnancy, he was full-on insane, obsessed, and protective now. Even if someone glanced in my direction, Kas growled, snapped, told them to “fuck off.” I’d never thought I’d enjoy a growly, alpha male by my side, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit how loved he made me feel, how wanted and like I was the only female to ever grace his world.
I exhaled and stretched my toes, yelping as I got a cramp in my leg. I was tired, swollen, and ready to shift again so I could run free. My lynx was scratching to be released, but seeing as a pregnant shifter couldn’t turn into their animal while with child, I’d been stuck as a human for nine months now. Not that I didn’t love every second of carrying this baby, but I was getting antsy.
I held a hand to my swollen belly and felt the baby kick. I couldn’t help but smile. I may not be acting like myself, or even look like myself right now, not with my big belly, my swollen feet, my hormones raging through my body, which made me extra bitchy, or the fact that I was eating everything in sight and not giving a shit what anyone thought. I had never felt more beautiful than I did carrying Kasias’s baby, and the fact that my male told me every single time he saw me how hot I was, reinforced that he liked exactly what he saw.
I heard Kasias’s truck pulling up the long, winding driveway, and my heart kicked into overdrive as it always did. I could hear the tires of the vehicle crunching over the gravel, heard the fainter wheels of the trailer he pulled behind the truck.