Dominic loved him. Not for what he could do. Not for something he could become.
The wolf wanted something real.
At the time, he hadn’t understood what that meant, but he thought he got it now. Especially because he had never felt more real than when he was with Dominic.
He didn’t have to perform. He didn’t have to guard himself. He didn’t have to make himself smaller to fit into someone else’s box.
With Dominic, all he needed to be was…himself.
“Real,” he whispered. “You. Me.”
“This,” Dominic growled back, taking Sammy’s hand and cradling it over his heart. “Us. This is real. And not because fate or the universe willed it. It’s real because we chose it.”
Sammy’s breath hitched, and the threat of tears stung his eyes, but he didn’t look away. In his mate’s gaze, he saw not only the truth, but a future he hadn’t dared to hope for. In those shining copper depths, he found acceptance and a sense of belonging he had never imagined could be his.
“I choose you,” Dominic told him, sincerity ringing through every syllable.
They weren’t just pretty words either. He had proven them with action over and over again. He had made the choice to helphim. To bring him to La Madriguera. To believe him, protect him, and trust him, even when he’d had every reason not to.
“And I choose you.” He offered a shaky smile, his eyes brimming with moisture now. “I will always choose you.”
A quiet growl was his only warning before Dominic dragged him into another scorching kiss. Their mouths crashed together, hard and hungry. Hands grasped, pawed, pulling at flesh and rending clothes in their urgency.
Gripping the back of his thighs, Dominic lifted him from the floor and spun him away from the wall, their mouths still fused together as he carried him to the bed. There, he knelt, one knee on the end of the mattress, as he lowered Sammy into a nest of blankets in shades of deep green.
He followed him down, breaking the kiss to trail his lips down Sammy’s neck and chest. He scraped blunt teeth over his skin, then soothed with a swirl of his tongue, every nip sending jolts straight to Sammy’s aching cock.
What few clothes remained vanished, and the bedside lamps surged to life. Across the room, the last golden beams from the dying day spilled through the window and across the bed. It bathed Dominic’s face in its warm glow and glinted off skin that undulated with rippling muscles.
Amber light flared in his eyes, burning like fire, and his cheekbones sharpened into hard ridges. His chest expanded, hips widened, and his thighs thickened like tree trunks, forcing Sammy’s legs farther apart as he fell into the cradle of his hips.
The changes that came over him were more intense this time, a reminder of the raw power he contained, of the beast that prowled beneath the man. Yet there was a terrifying beauty about him that made Sammy’s pulse flutter and his cock throb.
He hissed in a breath through his teeth when a sharp fang raked over his nipple. Then Dominic sucked the bud between hislips and tugged roughly, drawing a tight moan from his throat and sending sparks dancing through his veins.
Tangling his fingers in his mate’s hair, Sammy bowed up from the bed and arched into him. He rolled his hips, grinding their erections together, desperation making him bolder. His entrance spasmed in anticipation, his body empty and aching, but he had no practice when it came to asking for what he wanted.
“Dom, please,” he panted.
“So polite,” the wolf teased before lapping at his nipple again. “What do you want,colibrí?Tell me, and I’ll give it to you.”
“You,” he tried, hoping his mate would understand.
“You have me.”
He shook his head, his hair whipping across the blankets. “More.”
“More what? More of this?” Dominic rolled his other nipple between his fingers with enough pressure to send a flash of heat straight to Sammy’s groin. “Or this?” He rocked into him, rubbing their cocks together. “Or do you want more of this?”
Rising over him, he gripped Sammy’s jaw and slanted their mouths together with a possessive growl. Dominic licked inside his mouth, tracing every hidden contour until Sammy was breathless and half mad with need.
“Or is this what you wanted?” Sitting up, he pushed Sammy’s knees back to his chest and skimmed a slick finger down his crease, entering him with just the tip.
Sammy groaned, the sound strangled and filled with both frustration and demand. But Dominic didn’t continue to tease.
He pushed deeper, filling and stretching him. He pumped his hand slowly, almost lazily, and no amount of pleading or writhing from Sammy would hurry him.
“Oh, fuck,” he gasped, his eyes rolling back in his head when his mate inserted a second finger and plunged into him.