Chapter l401

Chapter 0401

7

My b*dy moved on its own. Suddenly, I sprung into full action, grabbing Nicholas and pulling him closer. I put my mouth straight on his n*eck and started sucking in a mark. I didn’t know where her scent was but I had to remove it

now.

“Piper, ah…” Nicholas moaned. His fingers clenched where they sat at my waist.

When my mark was red enough, I placed another and another. All along the column of his n*eck.

Then I inhaled. Shit. That damned scent was still there.

I felt wild, like I was losing myself. A growl sounded from the back of my throat.

Nicholas finally seemed to notice. He removed his grip from my waist, to grip my hands instead. He pressed them down into the mat, then used that leverage to push himself upright, out of range of my eager mouth.

My growl was deeper, angrier. I needed to get my scent on him. I was desperate for it.

He still smelled like her.

“Piper, stop fighting me.” He was using his Alpha voice again. It was deep and low and shivered through me. I stilled at once. “Good.” The praise felt even better. He noticed that too. “Good girl.”

A soft whimper escaped the back of my throat.

“Piper, keep being a good girl for me and tell me what is going on.”

I licked my l*ps and tried to focus my thoughts. I still felt wild and scattered, but my Alpha mate was asking me a question and I could answer it.

“You smell like her…” I said. I didn’t recognize my own voice, it was so rough.

Nicholas blinked at me. “What? Who?”

“Bridget,” I spit out the name. “You are carrying her scent.

“I am…? Oh. She hugged me this morning.”

My growl became more prominent.

“”

“You spend so much time with her, that she has begun to scent you.”

“It’s not like that,” Nicholas said, though he seemed less sure now than he had a

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moment ago. Perhaps he was remembering an errant hug, or a stray touch that lingered too long at his wrist or throat.

“She means to claim you…”

“You’ve got the wrong idea,” Nicholas said. His

voice

firmer now. He looked

ly see

his honesty

me straight in my eyes, as if asking that I believe him. I there. “Bridget and I are just friends.”

I swallowed down my rising jealous enough to speak. “You have to admit that you would make a good match.” Tears rose in my eyes. I hated these new emotions, how strong they were, and how difficult they were to control.

“I don’t have to admit anything,” he said.

He leaned down and pressed his l*ps to the tears that shed from my eyes. Kiss after k*ss. Tear after tear.

“I’ve been neglecting you,” he said.

“No…” It felt so damned needy to suggest otherwise. Even if it was the truth.

“Be honest with me,” he said.

I sniffled. “I miss you.”

He k*ssed my l*ps then, a chaste little thing. “I’m so sorry, Piper. Please believe me when I tell you that you are the one I want the most.” 2

The most. God, that felt good to hear. I wanted to be the one he wanted most, but in the wake of that comfort and good feeling, came a wash of fresh sadness. I might have been the one Nicholas wanted the most, but we’d still never be together.

In the end, Bridget had the best chance at becoming Nicholas’s Luna. The royal family likely knew that. I wondered if her appearance was truly such a last minute stratagem and not something they had planned from the start.

Maybe this entire competition was a sham to make sure that Nicholas ended up with the person they really wanted.

“Piper. Don’t be sad.”

“Kiss me, Nick,” I said. “Kiss me like tomorrow will never come and we can stay just like this forever.”

“I can do you one better,” he said and lowered his l*ps down to my n*eck. He placed his l*ps to my throat and clasped them over the skin at my throat. Then he sucked.

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My whole b*dy shivered. I bucked up, into him.

As he pulled back, he licked at the angry mark he made, easing the pain.

“Let me scent you,” he said, like he needed permission.

Didn’t he know I had always been his? Ever since the Academy? Maybe even long before I met him.

“Please,” I said.

He squeezed my wrists. “Keep your hands here.”

I nodded.

Then he reached down, grabbed the hem of his shirt, and yanked it clean over his head. His chiseled chest was glistening with sweat. My mouth watered at the sight.

He tossed the shirt aside, then looked down at mine. He plucked at my tank top.

“I’m going to take this off of you. I want your hands right back where they were once it’s gone, got it?”

I nodded.

He gripped the sides of my shirt and slowly, gently, brought it up over my head. I leaned upwards to help him remove it. When it was gone, I laid right back down and returned my hands where they had been.

He tossed the shirt to the side.

He smiled devilishly as he slowly lowered himself back down to cover me. I was sweaty too. Our scents mixed pleasantly together, blending. I hummed in delight.

He lowered his l*ps to my n*eck again. “I don’t want to smell like anyone else but you.”

A growl erupted from the back of my throat, low and pleasant.

His chest was hard against my curves, but my sports bra was still between us. I squirmed a little. “I want this gone…”

“Your bra?”

I nodded.

He glanced at the door. When he looked back at me, a fire of possessiveness burned in his eyes. It felt so nice to not be alone with my feelings.

“Anyone could walk it,” he said.

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“You will cover me,” I said, so sure of his protectiveness. “You’ll keep me hidden and safe.”

My praise of him hit the same mark that his did with me. He growled low and deep, pleased.

His hands reached from the sides of my sports bra and he lifted it up, up over my head and cast it aside.

I was left exposed to him. He eagerly took his fill of the view and licked his l*ps.

“I want to scent you there, too,” he said.

“Then do it,” I said. I kept my arms above my head, but wriggled my shoulders to tease him.

He watched, slack–jawed, as my breasts shifted their weight.

Then, as if shocked back into life, he dipped his head and licked at my breast. He lapped wide circles around my n*pples, making me whimper and whine, before finally taking my n*pple into his mouth.

He suckled, then grazed his teeth gently over the tip.

When it was wet enough to satisfy him, he k*ssed down the valley of my breasts to lavish equal attention on my other n*pple.

God, it felt so good.

“Nick… ah… oh…”

He leaned up then, smiling at the mess he made of me.

“You are so beautiful,” he said.

“Kiss me,” I begged, so he did.

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