Goddess, I love you, Kenzie. How could I ever be without you?

Moonlight bathed her face in radiance. Her breasts moved with their rhythm, her breath quickening to gasps of delight. Bowman didn’t dampen his groans and the growling laughter in his throat. This was a mating ceremony night, when Shifters gave in to their carnal desires, answering that most basic instinct—to mate, to make cubs.

The Goddess be blessed for making this instinct pure joy.

Bowman held her. “Kenzie, love . . .”

Kenzie answered with wordless cries, their love ringing through the woods. Nothing mattered in the world—not the Collar that gleamed on Kenzie’s throat, not the threats outside Shiftertown, not even the problem of the mate bond.

Only this mattered, joining with Kenzie, loving her, being one with her. And at the same remaining two, because no way could one single being feel This. Damn. Good.

He was coming. Bowman heard words leave his mouth. “You’re beautiful, Kenz. You’ve got the finest ass, the hottest . . .” More phrases, from poetic to filthy came in time with his thrusts. She was hot and slick, and embraced him with her whole body. “I want to be inside you, and never . . . come . . . out.”

Kenzie’s hips rocked with his, her strong arms steadying herself and, at the same time, him. She was Bowman’s anchor, his reality. His necessity.

He loved her, and the hell he’d ever let her go to some asshole who claimed he had a mate bond with her. Screw the fucking mate bond.

Bowman’s cries turned to howls. Kenzie’s joined his. Their wolves, buried deep within them, rejoiced in the moonlight, for this mating, this joining of bodies and twining of souls.

Bowman found himself on the ground, still inside Kenzie, tears stinging his eyes. Kenzie’s face was wet too, but her smile was wide.

She put up her hand and wiped a tear from Bowman’s cheek, then they collapsed together into the soft pine needles with warm kisses and touches, murmuring things to each other that weren’t really words at all.

* * *

Bowman often left Kenzie directly after loving, especially when they shared an intense coupling. She lay quietly under him now as he stilled, and braced herself for him heaving to his feet and walking away.

She was surprised, then, when Bowman remained on top of her, gently kissing her neck, licking where he’d bitten her. Kenzie didn’t want to move much, in case it reminded him to go, but she couldn’t help running her fingers through his short hair, liking the silken buzz of it.

Dappled light touched Bowman’s shoulders, brushing the sculpted beauty of his back, his legs, the rise of his buttocks. Kenzie thought she could lie here under him forever, his strength surrounding her.

He raised his head and kissed the tip of her nose, then her lips, with slow tenderness. The sweet kiss led to something deeper, going on for some time.

Bowman lifted his head. His eyes were the same color as the moonlight, his Collar a black streak against his sun-kissed throat.

“We’re good together,” he said in a soft voice. “You and me.”

Beyond the darkness, Shiftertown was lit up, music blaring, Shifters yelling and carrying on. Kenzie couldn’t see them from where she lay, but she could definitely hear them. Probably half the county could.

“Yeah,” Kenzie answered, smiling up at Bowman. “We are.”

She touched his face, feeling the burn of whiskers, and traced his lips. Bowman caught her fingers with his teeth. He drew her forefinger all the way into his mouth, working it the same way he would her nipple. He did so for a time, until Kenzie moved beneath him, fires stirring like the leaping flames of the bonfires.

“The Goddess made us for each other,” he said when he released her finger, licking it one more time. “I knew when I first saw you. I looked past all those scared Shifters, and you were standing there, straight up and take-no-shit, helping the cubs, getting in the face of the human guards who tried to mess with you. I never wanted to look away.”

“I couldn’t look away from you either.” Kenzie sent him a grin. “But we had to, or we’d still be there.”

“When I knew I had to take a mate, there was no question who it would be.”

Kenzie drew her hand through his hair again. She knew he’d come to her to keep Uncle Cristian off his back, but Cristian had other nieces. Bowman could have made a different choice.

“I’m glad you picked me,” Kenzie said softly.

Bowman started to laugh. The sound was warm, low, and made her shiver. “Seriously, Kenz, if I’d tried to mate-claim anyone else, you’d have come after me and killed me.”

“Possibly.” True, Kenzie had never bothered to hide her interest in Bowman. She hadn’t chased him, but when she’d seen him around Shiftertown, or at the roadhouse, she’d made sure he looked at her. She’d flirted, swayed her hips, contrived to be wearing the tightest clothes she could when she knew he’d be at the bar. When she’d danced with other men—human or Shifter—she’d look over at Bowman and give him a challenging look.

Bowman’s laugh went low, as though he remembered the same things. “No ‘possibly’ about it. You drove me frigging crazy. I remember once, you mooned me in the roadhouse parking lot. I thought I was going to die. If we’d have been alone, I’d have grabbed you and taken you right there.”

“Yeah?” Kenzie slanted him a smile. “I remember you shaking your head and walking away with Cade and Jamie.”