With Ruth walking beside me, now lost in her own thoughts, we were almost back at the house.

By nature, I wasn't an emotional person, but I sure as fuck felt them raging inside me right now. It was a cyclone of wounded pride, pain, and rage.

Sage could have been hurt.

When she'd blurted out his name in our bedroom, I'd stomped away like some kind of toddler having a tantrum.

Sage deserved better.

Shaking my head, my hands curled into tight balls, wanting to kill something.

Sadly, the only other person I wanted dead—was already dead. Thanks to Ruth. Understanding her reasons didn't make it any easier to swallow though.

Ruth sighed out. "I know you're worried about Sage and the children."

She knew me too well sometimes. But the control I craved like the air I breathed into my corrupted fucking lungs was trying to slip through my fingers like grains of sand.

I didn't know enough about this fucker.

Ignoring the burn in my chest, I had to keep my shit together. "It's on me, yeah, that he got near her. Fucking laid a hand on her."

"I know it burns you, but you can't go doing anything reckless or stupid."

As much as it pissed me off. She was right.

We came up to the back door. "Now, forget about Elaine and Drago for a few hours and go be with your mate. She needs you."

Ruth patted my cheek with her cool hand, nodded once and then went inside the house.  I followed her inside, but took a quick detour to my study. I needed a drink before heading up and losing myself in Sage.

Pouring out a double, I perched my arse on the corner of my desk and knocked it back in one as I lifted a family picture that had only been taken a few weeks back.

But even staring into the perfect faces of my kids and Sage did nothing to dim the anger I felt toward that fucking bloodsucker.

My wolf growled too, and I felt his possessive rage course through my head and my blood.

He'd come to my home.

He'd touched my mate.

And now the fucker had somehow got inside her head to mess with me.

And that shit didn't fly with me.

Hate didn't seem enough of a word or a feeling for what I felt right now.

Hatred was easy. If I didn't like someone, I had a few constructive methods for remedying that. Whether the Council approved or not. I didn't give a shit about whatever plans they had for pasty-faced wanker.

This was only going to end one way. Because family came above all else.

Dropping my empty glass onto the table, I made my way upstairs, pausing at the fist-size hole in the wall. I shouldn't have left her like that, but I couldn't stay either. I had wanted to lash out, and I refused to take my frustration out on Sage. Ever.

Instead, I'd found another outlet. Elaine.

Wondering if I had time to get it fixed before Zander arrived, I had to roll my eyes as he would no doubt find it amusing.

Fuck it. I'd find a picture to cover it up for now.

At the top of the stairs, I didn't go straight to our bedroom. I went to check on the children. Setting eyes on them would slightly calm the blustering storm in my chest, and my wolf too.  And standing here, looking over the twins, fast asleep. Yeah, it helped, but an ache travelled across my chest.

I've always known there's pain in love.

Love. That wasn't something I'd ever given freely or came easy to me until I met Sage and she gave me a gift that nothing else compared to. My children.

I would go through hellfire for them.

Kissing their heads, and looking in on Ruben, I quietly made my way to our room.

Opening the door quietly, I walked in and saw her standing by the window, arms crossed and rubbing her arms.

I should go shower. I was bloody, hot and sweaty, but there was no way I could contain my wolf if I didn't sate both our needs.

And let's face it, I fucked her much dirtier that I was right now. Secretly, I think Sage liked it dirty and a little rough although she hid it well behind those electric blues and innocent smiles.

Her eyes hooked onto mine. "Hunter..." My jaw clenched at the sound of her voice. Torment. I heard it loud and clear and I hated that I'd helped put it there.

There was also a trace of a distinct scent as my nostrils flared at the intrusion. I knew that scent.

My wolf growled, but I kept him back.

I would fix it the only way I knew how. Evaporating the space between us, I took hold of her face, crashing my mouth down to hers without uttering a word. She kissed me back, just as eager and needy, parting her lips to give me access.

Wearing only a night-slip, my fingers found the delicate straps and eased them down her arms, trailing my fingers along her smooth skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake. She wasn't wearing anything underneath it and I stepped back just far enough to where I could get a good look at her. I'd seen her naked body a million times, but it still was never enough.

Fucking gorgeous.

I made my mind up.

I didn't want foreplay or have my dick sucked.

I'd spilled blood, some of which stained my skin, and all I wanted right now was to fuck.

Fuck what was mine.

My wolf howled, and my eyes darkened, changed, giving him a front row seat.

I grabbed the back of Sage's neck and her awareness of my plans flickers in her keen, blue eyes. I forcibly made her walk, lowering my mouth to her ear. "Get on the bed and spread your legs. I want to see every part of your pretty pussy."

A gasp and a shiver passed through her as I let her go.

She needed this too, just as much as me. Sage thought she'd let me down, disappointed me, when it was the complete opposite. Sage's strength at handling whatever shit was thrown her way was one of the things I admired most about her.

I watched her ass sway as she walked. Fucking perfection, right there.

Her hair quit just above those heart-shaped cheeks and accented them even more. She pulled herself up onto the silken duvet and did as I asked. Bracing her back against our large headboard, she parted her thighs, resting her hands by her sides.

Not even bothering with buttons, I ripped my shirt to shreds, and the rest didn't fare any better as I stalked toward my mate, cock bobbing with each step.

"You are fucking perfect. You know that, yeah?"

"Still?"

"Always. You're mine, Sage. Nothing ever touches that."

I pressed a knee into the bed.

"I'm gonna make up for what I did." Through our mate-bond, she knew what I was talking about upping and leaving her when she'd been confused and just as distressed as me.

"How?"

I'd changed my mind.

This wouldn't be a quick fuck.

Her arousal seeping through the air and into my lungs, calmed both me and the animal inside me and my head played out all kinds of things I wanted to do to her now. "I was thinking with my fingers, tongue, and cock." And maybe tomorrow a big fuck-off diamond ring.

"If that's your version of an apology for putting a hole in my wall." Her eyebrows lifted. "Then I'm definitely going to take it."

"Lie down, Sage." My voice was deep, almost a growl.

I moved over her, hovering above her like a dark apparition. My wolf's mantra of take her on repeat ramped up my need for her tenfold.

"You're gorgeous." I pressed a kiss to the side of her throat and then scraped my teeth along the delicate skin. "Even more so than the day I met you."

Sage would let me lead, submit to anything and everything because, above all else, she trusted me. Even so, I tried to control the urges as my hands roamed. Her body was my shrine, my place of worship and I gave homage to every curve, dip and freckle, kissing, licking, stroking and kneading... until I got to the apex where her thighs met.

"Hunter..."

I chuckled, sending a soft breath of warm air over her clit.

Moving up, I lifted her legs over my shoulders, repositioning my body so that my mouth was right where I wanted it. And the second my mouth sucked in her sweet clit, I fucking lost it.

Pushing my tongue inside her, swiping up, I bit into her bundle of nerves and then soothed it with my tongue.

Two fingers joined my tongue, plunging in and out. Knuckle deep, twisting and turning as I pulled them back out.

"Oui, oui, Hunter...Oh, oh..." She grabbed my hair, forcing my face deeper into her pussy.

My soft growls and her hums of appreciation had every part of me hard and heated. Strums of hunger throbbed inside me, and I was barely holding on by the thread.

"Come on my tongue, Sage. Give me what's mine. Let me taste you."

"Oh, oh. Mon Dieu!" Fisting my soft locks, I held nothing back, sucking, biting and curling two fingers deep inside, to find that sweet spot that would mean a change of sheets.

And when her whole body clenched and she almost strangled me with her legs tightening either side of my head, she did as I asked and fucking filled my mouth, and I drank it up like a pup sucking at his mama's tit.

Having my fill, I tugged my head back, and Sage loosened her grip and I was free. My fingers still stroked as she carried on, squirting all over the damn place.

Yep, still got it.

I grinned evilly as Sage thrashed against me, her hands grasping the headboard as if she could escape my torment of pleasure.

Wiping across my mouth with the back of my hand. "I need to make you do that three times a week, minimum." My other hand reached between her shaking legs and pressed on her sensitive button, rolling it until another wave of pleasure had her whimpering beneath me and her eyes rolling back.

I leaned in to capture her mouth, my kiss carnal and hungry, and Sage chased my tongue, sucking to savour every bit of her and me.

But it wasn't enough.

Pulling myself free I grabbed hold of her hips, flipped her onto her knees and curled my hand around the back of her neck, forcing Sage to arch her back. With my other hand I stroked over my dick, not that he needed the attention but lining myself up I thrust inside her without warning.

Sage tensed and cried out from the feel of me stretching and filling her up. And just coming would make it even more sensitive as she gripped my dick like a vise.

"Oui, Hunter. More."

What my mate wants, my mate fucking gets.

"Who do you belong to, Sage?"

I set a gruelling pace, riding her body like I needed to re-claim every inch of her all over again. The sound of skin on skin and her uninhibited moans filled our bedroom.

"You. You Hunter. Always."

I squeezed her neck, forcing her head back. "Mine." I growled as Sage shook as I gripped onto her hips and moved my hand up to knot in her thick hair as I carried on raining down thrust after thrust from behind.

My muscles flexed, sweat oiled my skin and my voice hoarse, repeated Mine over and fucking over.

Angling her head to twist around, I pulled her into me, her back against my damp chest and I kissed her hard, forcing her back to arch further and my dick to go deeper.

I bit down on her tongue and then moved to her throat and my wolf got his way as I bit down until blood filled my mouth.

Never once did she try to stop or pull away, her moans feeding my demands on her body.

"Hunter," she screamed out, and I felt her relief as she shook with her second climax.

"I know, baby," I breathed roughly, as her hand moved back to dig her nails into my thighs, breaking the skin as she begged for more.

Gasping, I shoved her down, holding her head against the duvet, fucking her, so she would feel me for days as she fisted the bedding. And unable to hold it any longer and almost in utter bliss, my head tilted back, neck muscles bunched as my balls exploded and flooded my dick to mark my mate.

Sage was a boneless mess as I slowed and loosened my grip and we both collapsed onto the bed and I pulled her against me.

Breathing heavily, our heartbeats beating the same pattern, I breathed her in. "I love you, Sage."

"I know mon coeur, just as mine belongs to you"

My heart... fuck, I wasn't even sure if my heart was actually my heart.

She felt my mood and turned around to face me.

"I wasn't too rough?" I asked.

"Non. It was what we both needed." Her eyes dropped, and I lifted my hand to tilt her chin her so she had no choice but to look at me.

"Him coming here wasn't your fault."

"I'm sorry..." her eyes filled up and spilled over.

"Hey." I swiped at the first tear and sucked it into my mouth. "Please don't cry, baby."

Sage's thoughts and feelings flowed freely. I only wished I could do the same for her.

"He wants something, Hunter, and he won't hesitate to use me and maybe the children to get it."

"I know. But let's talk about later, yeah?"

I swiped another tear, and she held my stare for a while before answering. "Oui."

I moved to lie flat on my back and tugged her closer as she slipped under my arm and rested her head and hand across my chest.

"He won't get near you again. Or the kids." I would make damn sure of it.

She lay there quietly in my arms and I smiled. Sage must have felt it as her head lifted and tilted up to see what had me smiling.

"Care to share that smile?"

"Well, you said earlier," correcting myself, "or rather, yesterday. That you wanted another baby?" I wiggled my eyebrows and a lopsided grin erupted. "And my boys never let me down."

Sage smiled. That smile that never failed to squeeze the muscle in my chest, hard, and make me want to cut off my balls and hand them over.

"Don't get too cocky, first time for everything Mr Stone," she teased and rested her head back on my chest and my eyes fell closed as the sun made its morning announcement laying the foundation for a new day.

And Pfft. Cocky was my middle name.

But right now, I was sated and a hell-of-a-lot-calmer and I would worry about the shit rolling down hill in a few hours time as I just enjoyed being with my mate.