Page 27 of Wild

He held up his hands. “We figured that out, that’s for damn sure. It’s not me you have to win over.”

“Boyd,” I murmured, realizing I was in trouble with him. I scratched the back of my neck, thinking of the bro code about dating sisters. Or fucking them.

I was so sated, my muscles so lax from having my balls drained, not once, but twice. I was at my most easygoing. If Boyd wanted to punch me in the face, now was the time to do it. Because I wasn’t just fucking Marina into unconsciousness. Well, I was, but not just to empty my balls. She was my mate, and he was going to have to get used to the idea. Double time.

“You fucked his almost sister-in-law.” Rob crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. Clearly, we were thinking along the same lines.

“I fucked my mate, who just happens to be his almost sister-in-law,” I clarified. “You’d have done the same.”

He dipped his head once in agreement.

“I’ll talk to him.”

“No need. He’s coming.”

I heard his footsteps a split second after Rob.

Boyd came into the office, shutting the door behind him. Then he punched me in the gut. Twice.Hard.

I let him. I probably could’ve taken him, given him a solid run. We were equally matched strength-wise, but I had ten years of training in hand-to-hand combat, and his best skill was staying on a crazy bull. Still, I figured I deserved it. My gut clenched in agony now, but shifters healed almost immediately, so a punch between brothers was easily taken.

“You know how old that girl is, Colton?” he asked on a snarl.

I coughed a little because he’d knocked the wind out of me. “Twenty-one.”

“That’s right.” Boyd put his hands on his hips and nodded, his hat dipping in time with his head. “Twenty-one and still in fucking college. I don’t know what the fuck you’re thinking, but—”

“I’m thinking she’s my mate,” I countered. “No, not thinking. Iknowshe’s my mate.”

He stared at me, wide eyed, then took off his hat and scratched his head. “Fuck.” He spat the curse in a short, punctuated syllable as he swung around to face away from me and stare up at the ceiling. “Fate’s a fucking whore, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know, you seem pretty fucking happy with the mate she sent you,” I countered, finally able to stand upright again. I rubbed my stomach. “It wasn’t all that long ago you found Audrey. You remember this feeling. Like a sucker punch to the gut.”

Yeah, that had double meaning, and he glared at me. Then his face softened for a moment, as if just thinking about Audrey could change his entire mood. Shaking his head, he pointed a stern finger at me, like he was suddenly the oldest brother and not the sorry pest who ran around here sulking for years on end because he wasn’t old enough to shift and run with us yet.

“She’s not ready for you,” he warned. “Jesus, you kill people for a living, and she’s just a coed.”

I ground my molars. I might actually have agreed with Boyd, but I sure as fuck didn’t like anyone telling me to back off my own mate. “I know,” I growled. “I told her as much. She’s young. I’m a jaded military man. What makes you the fucking expert on my mate?” I shot back.

“I know she’s still in college and practically a virgin. Or at least she was before you got a hold of her.” Boyd’s sourness stirred shame in my chest. “I had to drag Audrey from the house, so we didn’t have to listen to you two.”

Had I just corrupted an innocent? She definitely hadn’t been a virgin last night. The way she’d acted, it was as if she’d let her inner wild girl out instead of being experienced. I’d guided her to come from a man’s touch, and she’d let me. Hell, she submitted so fucking beautifully.

The vision of Marina tied up in my bed upstairs, her pink center weeping for my cock, her sweet lips begging me for release, rose up in my mind. My cock rose, too.

No, she’d wanted it. But that didn’t mean she wanted me. As in for keeps.

Once a wolf mated, it was for life. There was no such thing as divorce. A female could leave her mate, but if he’d marked her, he’d never let her go. He’d be compelled to follow her to all ends of the Earth and watch over her. Ensure she was protected, provided for, and kept safe. He might be restrained enough to keep a distance, maybe even ignore it if she took another lover, but he’d never let go. It would be a biological impossibility.

“She’s mymate,” I growled through clenched teeth. Those three words should’ve been enough to convince any shifter male she belonged to me. Whether the timing sucked right now or not. “She was standing in the middle of a fucking storm watching the creek flood over the road. I thought she might do something stupid and cross.”

“Instead she did you.” Rob’s lips twitched as he said it.

Boyd spun around and growled at him.

Grinning, I added, “I knew the second I breathed her in.”

That’s what sealed the deal. Boyd knew what it was like. I knew he did. He couldn’t argue with his wolf, and neither could I.