I am fucked.

So, so fucked.

I did exactly what I promised myself I wouldn't do. I claimed my mate. Not that the action has any meaning beyond my own satisfaction and hers. Part of me hoped that it would be bad, because then I might not crave it so much.

But it was glorious. She was soft and sweet and welcoming, and all I want is to wake her from where she's sleeping against me and request to do it at least one more time.

As if on cue, she stirs and props her chin up on my chest, then smiles sleepily at me, blinking. I chuckle and twirl a long strand of her hair around my finger, then smile back.

After a moment, she asks, "Werewolves can't conceive unless they're in heat, right?"

The question makes my heart clench. I want her to want to have children with me. It's my base instinct at the moment, despite how I'm resisting it. Logically, it's obviously not a good idea for a multitude of reasons, many of them having nothing to do with her being my mate.

"That's right," I confirm. "I would have been cautious if we had to worry about it."

She nods. "I assumed you would have told me if it was a concern. There weren't any descriptions of werewolves in heat in the books I read. Probably because most of the accounts seemed to be based on hearsay. A lot of it was obviously wrong. I knew that even before I met you. How can you tell?"

"If I was, you'd know," I tell her wryly. "It's like being... drunk with desire. That's the best way to describe it. You're aware of everything else that's going on around you, but you can only focus on the want."

"Does it happen a lot?"

"Not very often. It's only happened to me once. It happens more to werewolves who have found their mate."

Which could present its own problem later, but one thing at a time.

It's yet another reason on the long list of them that I should stick to my original plan and leave her somewhere relatively safe now that we're away from the immediate danger. Here would probably work. No one's noticed us or accosted us. And since I still have no intention of telling her what she is to me, moving on by myself is the ideal course of action. The longer we're together, the more risk there is that I'll break and tell her, or that she'll simply figure it out on her own.

Besides, our conversation downstairs made it very clear that she's not harboring feelings for me. I was convenient. Not in a bad way. But she's not in love, so there's no reason to tell her she's my mate. It will just drag her down.

If she knows, and she doesn't have feelings for me, she might feel guilty about it, and I don't want that. She has a choice, no matter what my body is telling me. Humans don't feel the pull the same way werewolves do, even magical ones.

She has to be comfortable letting me go, whether it happens today or later. I want her to be able to be happy when she's on her own.

Which brings me right back to the original problem. Today or later.

I'm trying to convince myself that it needs to be today when she leans up so our lips are almost touching and shyly wonders, "Can we do it again?"

I'm instantly hard at the suggestion. Not that I wasn't getting there anyway. But my cock clearly has an opinion that goes against my brain's. Not an unusual occurrence, necessarily.

"As many times as you'd like," I whisper, going with my cock for the moment.

I wrap my arms around her as she kisses me, getting ready to turn her over. But then she gets on top and straddles me. My cock twitches as it's nestled between her thick thighs and against her center.

I lean up, kissing her harder, holding her so her magnificent breasts are rubbing against me. Then I reach between us, holding my length steady as she sinks down on it, sighing happily.

I fold my arms behind my head, letting her take the lead and do what feels good for her. I grunt and reach down to squeeze her waist as she clamps down around me, breathing hard as she slumps against my chest.

She stays there for a moment, then peeks up at me. "You didn't," she states matter-of-factly.

I grin at her. "Didn't know if you wanted more than one."

She blushes and nods shyly. This time, I flip her over, pinning her beneath me and hitching her thighs up to nestle against my hips. I kiss her roughly, swallowing each gasp she makes as I start to thrust, going a little faster and harder this time now that I know she can handle it.

She comes again almost immediately. Her body really is made for me. I know exactly how to touch her to make her feel good. As I drive into her one more time and let myself go, the possessiveness washes over me again and I realize how much I loathe the idea of someone else getting the chance to make her feel like this.

My mind empties for a moment and I groan blissfully before rolling to the side, taking her with me so she can stay curled against my warmth. I smooth her hair back from her round cheeks as we both catch our breaths.

"You're going to be sore if we keep doing this," I point out.

Not that I want to stop, but I have to take care of her.

"I don't care," she murmurs.

She falls back to sleep right after saying that, though, and I'm grateful. I don't want to push her too far.

Of course, now I'm alone with my thoughts again, and that's a dangerous situation to be in.

I've been lonely for a long time, and finding her makes it worse. I don't want to think about being cold, just me and my horse on the road, huddled by a fire to make it through the night. Not while I'm full and clean and cozy with her draped across me.

I should leave in the morning. Sneak out and leave her a note, or just tell her that I'm continuing on my own. But now I want to preserve this moment, to keep it going for at least a few more days.

What makes it hardest is the fact that I have a perfect excuse to get her to stay. She needs protection because of her book. While no one has come after her yet, it hasn't been that long, and while I'm sure she was careful when she fled her teacher's home, magic reveals everything eventually.

She still doesn't have a good plan for figuring it out, like I told her initially, but I know now that it's the best plan she can currently make. She's not stringing me along. She's not lying. It means more time with her, because it could take her a while to figure the problem out.

And even if she doesn't want to have sex again after tonight, there would probably still be plenty of opportunities to sleep beside her, since I have to keep her warm.

I've already seen how close she came to being hurt when I abandoned her once. I shudder to think about what could happen if I really left and wasn't close enough to hear a second time.

I bend my head, bury my nose in her hair, and take a deep breath, drinking in her scent. It fills my nose and makes me instantly calm.

I can't deny my decision any longer.

She needs protection, and I can provide it, so I'm going to give it to her. At least for now, I'm not going to let her go.