The Stargazer's Alpha

Ch. 18: Wolf's Logic

I didn't want the kiss to end. I had never kissed a man before, so I didn't know for sure if kissing my fated Alpha was any different from just kissing a man.

It plunged me into the deep end.

I felt the tingling of my skin and the vibrations through my core; the pulls, the flips, the wetness between my legs, and the weakness in my knees in a visceral way.

It was a dream-like sensation of everything feeling right in the world. I floated so far above the Earth as Blake kissed me that it cleansed me of all grief, all frustrations, all anxieties. Rose-gold clouds, the kind that gather at sunrise to usher in a bright sunny day, lifted me up. They carried me.

"I want this kiss to last forever," I whispered against Blake's lips.

As soon as we broke contact, the gray webs of reality fingered in.

Blake wasn't mine.

I was a stray who couldn't shift, with a fresh Omega Mark.

He was a powerful Alpha with many enemies, including a backstabbing Beta.

Blake belonged with a Luna.

A long sigh rattled me head to toe, chilling me. "Only...I don't know if it's possible."

Blake blinked. He wore a vulnerable expression of someone blind who could now see.

"We..." He cleared his throat to get rid of the hoarseness. "Let's work on it. Untie me—"

A mischievous smile curved my lips. "What's the rush, Blake? It took so long to get you chained. I need a better payback for my efforts."

His eyes locked on mine. "Untie me, so I can walk you down the werewolf trails in the mountains. Now that we have taken the edge off, we can do it."

I grab for the keys. I had, evidently, dropped them on the floor while kissing Blake. I didn't remember my fingers releasing the metal ring, nor the sound it made, nor anything else related to the keys.

Dammit, I was too immersed into our kiss to pay attention to the little things like Blake's shackles. But while I gathered the keys, the spell thinned out.

I realized then that Blake had just commanded me to move things along. Talk about being single-minded! He expected obedience from me too. Was he really as different from Harold as I had imagined before we'd kissed?

I straightened slowly and jingled the keys in front of his nose. "Ask me nicely, and don't use your Alpha voice, lover."

"Sorry, I...I forgot myself." He bit his lip till it bled where the canine cut in. "Celeste, please, unchain me."

I jingled the keys again. "What are you sorry for?"

"Trying to expedite things by bending you to my will." He looked directly into my eyes. "It was wrong. I keep forgetting you are my Omega, and I need to learn to go slow...I'm not great with it. The relationships. She-wolves.."

"You treated Scarlett with plenty of patience." I couldn't keep a sour note from my voice when I spoke of that ah...she-wolf.

"Right," he said. "Because she doesn't confuse my every instinct with one smile. Because I'm not terrified to lose my control around her when it's Solstice. Or when your scent is the only one I could smell."

I very nearly dropped the keys again. "Really?"

"Yes. From the moment you bounded on the road, huffing and puffing about the job interview...I can't think straight around you. I have to plan ahead before I see you. Consider what time of day and Lunar cycle it is; if the windows can be opened, if needed; if we will be alone! "