Animal Instincts by Jenika Snow Page B

to get. “You’re mine, Danika.” His voice was distorted, his lion
not relenting in claiming her. “You will always be mine.” He continued to
thrust into her shallowly, sensing her climax still claiming her. He didn’t
want this to end, didn’t want to pull out of her sweet, wet, and warm pussy. “I
can’t promise I’ll always be easy to be with, but I’ll fucking try, Danika.
Goddammit, I’ll try anything for you.”
    She stared up at him with wide,
pleasure-filled eyes. “God, Damien … God.”
    The saccharine scent of her
increased desire filled his nostrils, and he closed his eyes and growled low in
his throat. He cupped the side of her face. “Just tell me you are with me,
baby.” Maybe this wasn’t the best time to talk about this, but his lion wanted
that assurance from her.
    She didn’t hesitate when she
said, “I’m yours, and I’m not going anywhere, Damien. I chose to be yours, and
I will always be yours.”
    His canines lengthened even
further, and his muscles grew thicker as his animal tried to take supremacy.
Leaning over her he first ran the tip of his nose up the length of her throat,
inhaling deeply and taking her delicious aroma into his body. He was hers as
much as she was his. He smelled himself on her, felt the mark he had given her
under his tongue, and he groaned.
    “You’re only mine, baby.” He had
never felt so uninhibited with a female, and knew that it would always be this
way with her. Always. Letting his teeth scrape along
her flesh, he felt her skin give beneath him and then tasted the tangy,
metallic flavor of her blood coat his tongue as he marked her for the second
time. He ran his tongue along the wounds he’d created, his mark, letting
his essence coast over the open area, further cementing the fact she was his.
When both of them were sated her gave her neck one last lick and pulled out of
her.
    Kissing her on the forehead
before he got off the bed, he headed into the bathroom, grabbed a warm, wet
washrag, and went back to her. Gently cleaning her between her legs, he noticed
she was already on the verge of sleep. After setting the rag aside Damien went
about the task of letting his hands glide over her smooth flesh. Damien didn’t
deny himself anything when it came to her, and so he leaned forward and started
running his tongue around the delicate bone of her ankle. She was pliant
beneath him, not fighting his urge to taste all of her. He continued his upward
path over her curved calf, over her knee, and continued onward until he was
moving his tongue over her thigh. He repeated the action to the other leg,
making sure to pay the same amount of attention to it as he did the other. He
licked a path over her hipbones, around her belly button, and continued over
her ribs and to her breasts. He sucked on her nipples for far longer than
necessary, but that was more because he liked the feel of her under his tongue.
Finally forcing himself to continue memorizing her
body with his mouth, he trailed his mouth up her throat and licked a path over
his mark on her.
    He gathered her into his arms and
sensed her slip into a deep sleep. “I’ll try, baby. I’ll try to be the mate you
need, and not the possessive meathead shifter that wants to kill anyone that so
much as talks to you.” It would be hard, but she was his life now, and would
always be until he stopped breathing. With that he wrapped his body around hers
in a protective embrace, and closed his eyes.

Epilogue
     
    Eighteen months later
     
    She
sat at the dinner table at her father’s house, not able to stop from smiling as
she listened to her dad and Damien argue about some small detail of a war story
two decades ago. They fought like brothers, like one of them was the one that
was right, and they would not relent until the other realized that.
    A
year and a half had passed since Damien had told her she was his mate and that
he had imprinted on her. In that time she had gotten a promotion at her job,
moved