And the taste of her.

  He slid his tongue across her clit, and Morgan made a sound like she almost came right there.

  “Fuck, so hot,” he muttered, unable to help himself as he sucked on her precious little nub, making her hands clutch the comforter beneath them tightly.

  But he didn’t stop. Just kept alternating between light little kisses and thorough, arduous licks intended to torture Morgan all the way to the edge of her release and keep her there as long as possible.

  “Say you’re my mate,” Diesel growled, feeling Morgan teetering between coming or not. Possessiveness roared inside him along with the need to have her so completely to himself he could lock her up in a basement and never want her to go outside, as unreasonable as it sounded.

  “I’m your mate,” Morgan said, sounding hungry and desperate.

  He kissed her clit, enough to make her hips shiver but not enough to send her past the edge.

  “Again. Say you’re mine.”

  “I’m all yours, Diesel. I’m your mate. You’re my everything.” And when Diesel looked up at his mate from his place between her legs, the raw, unforgettable honesty and want he saw in her gaze nearly bowled him over.

  Morgan opened her mouth again as if to insist on something. But, satisfied, Diesel beat her to it, and he covered her clit with his tongue and mouth, not stopping until she was screaming again in release.

  It was a particularly long one, and Diesel just kept her legs supported as he took in the sight of Morgan coming so hard she rolled onto her side when she was done, gasping for breath.

  “Holy shit—I mean, crap. Will you always be this overwhelming?” she asked with a mischievous grin.

  Then Diesel tore his own pants and underwear off and joined her on the bed, lying beside her and nuzzling against her. “If I said yes and that I’m going to be even more overwhelming than I’ve already been, would that be a deal-breaker?”

  She looked over her shoulder as he spooned her from behind and smiled so widely it took him off guard. “Sounds like more of a deal-maker to me.”

  “Good.” At that, he pulled Morgan into his chest, not done with her yet but enjoying this position for a moment where he could wrap his arms around her and just hold her tight. “Need a second to catch your breath?”

  She turned around in his arms so they were facing each other, though she seemed so much smaller next to him like this. “Oh no, you started this. You have to finish it,” she said playfully, poking him in the chest.

  He reached around her and squeezed her ass, pulling their bodies tight together, and she gasped as his cock pressed into her softness. “Not until you’ve screamed my name so many times you forget every other word you’ve ever learned.”

  “Unlikely, but that sounds—oh, Diesel!” He put his thigh between her legs and shifted their positions so he was on top of her once more.

  And when he spread her legs and positioned himself at her entrance, his entire body went tight, excited to join his mate on a lifelong adventure that had been solo for both of them for far too long.

  Morgan curved her hips and pressed forward a bit, meeting him as he thrust into her with a long, slick motion.

  Even buried all the way, the fit between them was so tight as to almost be unbearable. But only almost.

  “I can’t even think properly when you… ah,” she moaned as he moved a little.

  He leaned into her ear, whispering. “Then don’t think. Just try to hold on.”

  Then he pulled his hips away from her and thrust back in, and Morgan gasped again as skin slid across skin in that inimitable way only people in love can really define.

  Only this time, he wrapped one arm behind her back to clutch her tight while the other grabbed Morgan’s ass, holding her hips up so he could move for them both.

  Morgan’s hands digging into the skin on his back only told him what he already knew: that she loved it. And as she continued to gasp and moan, Diesel just kept pumping into her, angling his hips so he could hit the spot inside her that made her just lose it with pleasure.

  He went slow at first, then faster. And when she came once, Diesel had to literally hold his breath, the arousal he felt from feeling his mate come beneath him while still being inside almost too powerful to hold back.

  “Diesel. Diesel,” she said with nearly breathless words as the orgasm abated. Then she just wrapped her arms around him even tighter, their hips and chests glistening and sticky from lovemaking, and held on.

  And in the back of his mind, his basilisk roared again and again, the monster in him not yet happy until she was officially—and completely—mated to him.

  “Let’s come together on this last one,” Diesel said.

  She nodded resolutely.

  The next few minutes became a haze of sex and motion as Diesel lost himself in pleasuring his mate. All around, Morgan’s scent of honeysuckle flowers and fresh mountain springs filled the air, enlivening his senses past any point he’d ever thought possible.

  With each thrust, with each withdrawal, he could feel Morgan getting closer and closer. Until, after making it last as long as they both could handle, Diesel buried himself inside his mate one last time, all the way in.

  She went rigid beneath him, her eyes rolling back even as her mouth hung open yet utterly silent. No sassy comebacks, no retorts.

  Just the feeling of gravity disappearing. Right before the free-fall.

  Then Morgan came, screaming Diesel’s name over and over and pulling Diesel’s release out of him instantly.

  His hips jerked, and his entire body felt like it was exploding from the inside out. And for a minute, everything inside him went hot like it was on fire.

  And with it, a magical feeling in the air like their souls were joined in some deep, primal way.

  Neither of them seemed to notice something was up until both of their orgasms had begun to abate. When Diesel opened his eyes, the tattoos across his entire body were glowing red as if lit from the inside out.

  Morgan, who’d just been sighing happily, went wide-eyed with wonder. And when she reached forward and touched the tattoos on his chest, the red-orange there shifted to blue.

  Then, as quickly as it had all happened, the tattoos went back to their normal black color.

  He’d heard about basilisk tattoos doing that from Gunnar but had never seen it himself.

  “Diesel, your eyes are red,” Morgan said, marveling up at him.

  His heart was racing. He and Morgan were mates.

  Satisfied, the monster inside him abated, and he felt his nerves calm.

  “Wait, they’re blue again. How did they…?” She trailed off.

  But Diesel ignored those things and instead pulled Morgan in tight to him, and she relaxed in his arms with a happy sound.

  “More important, how do you feel?” Diesel asked. They could figure out all the eye-color-changing shit later.

  Right now, he just wanted to enjoy being with his mate.

  “Alive. So happy.” Diesel felt Morgan’s hand on his cheek, and he looked down at her again. “Excited for the future.”

  “Me too. I love you, Morgan.”

  “And I love you t—” The last part of her sentence was cut off as Diesel kissed her again, long and hard, the emotions of their journey and the stress and worry of their hardships drifting away for the moment.

  There would certainly be hard times in the future, in some way or another. No life was perfect.

  But life with Morgan, with his new family, was certainly going to be the closest thing to perfection he could imagine.

  Then, with much hesitation, Diesel pulled out of Morgan and went to the bathroom to clean up. When he returned, Morgan was checking something on her phone, and she set it aside, a mischievous grin on her lips.

  “April texted me saying Grace wanted to show them the bookstore while they’re in town. The place she gets all her favorite books from.”

  “How long will they be?” Diesel asked, already feeling his body thrum with excitement at the implications.

  She shrugged, setting aside the phone and lying sexily on her side, enticing him with her softness and making him instantly hard again.

  “They’ll be at least an hour in there. Maybe more.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him, and he was already thinking of all the wicked things he wanted to do to her now that they were mated.

  More things than they could fit into an afternoon, for sure. But no better time to start than the present.

  “I can think of something to keep my mate busy in the meantime,” Diesel said with a growl as he strode up to the bed, looming over her in a threatening but playful posture.

  She giggled. “Oh no, trapped in my room with a primal monster. What will I do?”

  Diesel jumped on the bed, shaking it as he pinned her down, making her groan as he kissed her neck harshly. “You’ll just have to get used to being loved by a monster like me.”

  Her gaze flitted to his, then to the place where he kept her held down. “I’m already used to that. You’ll just have to square with the fact I’ll be right here loving you right back, Diesel.”

  “Deal.”

  And at that, he set about pleasuring her again until she was screaming his name once more.

  Epilogue

  Morgan stepped down the ladder, holding the large for sale sign that had hung above the store for the last couple of weeks.

  Fall was nearly gone now, with the trees lining the streets swaying in the cool, afternoon breeze. And as they moved, the last remnants of their leaves tumbled lazily to the ground.

  Once she got down, Diesel stepped up, taking the sign from her.

  Gosh, he looks good.

  He was wearing a blue flannel that set off the brightness of his eyes and dark-wash jeans that made his legs look absolutely massive.

  “Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? Sell the place?” he asked, eyeing her with concern.

  Morgan put her hands on her hips and nodded, her smile calm. “Yeah, it’s time.”

  Ever since they had mated, everything had been going perfectly. Grace seemed to be happier than ever, and Morgan couldn’t help thinking that life just couldn’t get any better.

  It was too amazing to tell.

  After talking it through extensively with Diesel, Morgan had decided to sell Samson & Seward’s to a young couple who had moved from a nearby state who, surprisingly (or perhaps in a stroke of fate), reminded her of a younger Morgan and Adam.

  She’d realized that part of the reason she couldn’t move on from the past was because this store had always been his dream, their dream.

  Now this place could become someone else’s dream.

  That was fine with Morgan. After all, she had a new dream: to forge a new life with Grace and Diesel, wherever that would take them.

  They’d already packed everything away for the move. And earlier today, she had tucked the old leather-bound photo album into the bottom of her suitcase.

  That had been the very last thing to go.

  Now, whenever she looked at it, it would serve as a memento of the time that she and Adam shared, the adventures they went on, and it would remind her of the step she had made in finding Diesel and wanting to be with him. That she couldn’t bury the past any more than she could control the future.

  That time was precious, more so when it was spent with the ones you loved.

  And Diesel seemed to be fine with that. Heck, he’d done almost all the packing for their little family.

  He set the sign on the ground and hugged her from behind, holding her close.

  Morgan put a hand up to his cheek, enjoying the warmth of his solid, muscled body next to her.

  They stayed that way for a second, looking up at the storefront.

  “What about Grace?” Diesel asked finally, turning her to face him.

  Morgan nodded. “She’ll be fine. The teachers say that she’s well ahead for her age, that she could even skip a grade if she wanted to. While we’re traveling with you, we’ll homeschool her until we can find a permanent place to settle down.”

  He considered it for a second. “Sounds like a lot for a ten-year-old.”

  “Are you kidding? When I asked her how she would feel about it, she was over the moon. I’m guessing because it would give her more chances to interrogate you and Reno and the others about shifters.”

  Diesel laughed. “You’re probably right. Speaking of, where is she?”

  “Here,” Grace exclaimed as she walked out the door, lugging a miniature black suitcase.

  Morgan leaned down to more fully zip up Grace’s backpack, which was bursting to the brim with books, as always.

  “You ready to go?” Morgan asked.

  Grace nodded, then frowned slightly and turned around to face the store. “Are we going to be coming back anytime soon?”

  Morgan glanced at Diesel, who stared back thoughtfully.

  “Maybe, but probably not for a while. What’s important is that we’ll all be together,” Morgan said, taking her hands and interlocking them with Grace and Diesel.

  “And I won’t have to go to school anymore,” Grace added brightly.

  Morgan laughed. “Maybe not for a bit, but you still have things to learn.”

  “That’s fine as long as I get to learn more about shifters too.” With that, Grace nodded happily and walked around to the side of the car and hopped in. Once she’d sat down and was totally absorbed in a book, Morgan turned back to gaze at the store once again.

  The faded lettering, the stickers on the glass storefront, all of it was so familiar. And now that it was finally time to leave, she found herself hesitating.

  All those memories… left behind.

  As if sensing her trepidation, Diesel came up and put an arm around Morgan. “It’s hard to let things go sometimes. I get that. But it isn’t the end of anything, just the beginning of something new. And nothing important ever really gets left behind,” he said, pulling her in tight.

  She turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”

  He tapped a finger to his considerable chest. “Because it’s all there, in your heart. Thoughts, memories, feelings. You fought for those dreams and hopes for a long time, kept them alive. And from now on, I’ll be here to make sure your heart always stays safe. And whenever you feel sad, I’ll wipe away your tears.”

  Morgan smiled, grateful and reassured that they weren’t leaving anything behind. Rather, they were starting a new, wonderful chapter.

  She took one last look, then turned away. He held the car door open for her as she got in. Then he hopped in the other side.

  Wendell yowled his displeasure from his cat carrier, which had been placed carefully in the back with Grace.

  They were driving to stay with Gunnar and April and the rest of the group who had been staying a ways off in the next town over.

  When they finally got there, Morgan stepped out and gasped.

  The place was huge.

  It was a large, Southern-style mansion centered in a sunlit grove of trees with a long oak porch and several floors. She would have guessed that it was several decades old, but it was hard to say, as the place seemed extremely renovated.

  The house had a completely new coat of white paint and lacquer, and a porch swing hung idly off to the side, moving gently against the afternoon breeze.

  “I guess this is why you said we didn’t have to worry about money or anything,” she said as Diesel stepped around the car and took her hand.

  Diesel smirked. “Nope, we’re all set. And if I had my way, you wouldn’t have to worry about anything ever again.”

  She blushed at that, and Grace stepped out, holding Wendell’s carrier, owl eyes huge against her glasses.

  “Whoa, do all basilisks live in places this giant?” she asked.

  “Just the ones I know of.”

  When they stepped up the porch and inside, April and Gunnar were the first ones to greet them.

  “Welcome. How was the drive?” April asked.

  “It was great. Thanks for asking,” Morgan said. She took a second to look around. The place was even more ornate on the inside. Where she would have expected the floor to be worn, it was shiny and made of clean, solid hardwood.

  She looked into the family room where Ajax sat on a couch, watching a movie.

  Gunnar and Diesel clasped arms. “I’m happy for you. Now that you’re back, we can have a basilisk beatdown before we ship out.”

  “Basilisk beatdown?” Morgan asked, confused.

  “Don’t worry about them,” Dani said, drying her hands on a towel as she and Reno stepped out of the kitchen. “Just a night where they fight a little to blow off some steam.”

  “I wanna see that! Do you shift?” Grace blurted out.

  Diesel shook his head. “No shifting.”

  Grace looked disappointed at that.

  Meanwhile, Diesel looked over at Ajax and cocked an eyebrow. “You interested?”

  “Not even remotely,” Ajax called back, his tone beyond bored.

  Reno frowned. “He’s been like that for a few days. Usually keeps to himself, but it seems like he’s extra secretive lately.”

  “He needs a mate,” Gunnar said, shaking his head.

  Ajax was not amused. “I can hear you!”

  Everyone laughed at that, and then Reno gestured up the stairs. “Lunch will be ready in a while. If you guys would like to get settled, your room is upstairs.”

  “Sounds good,” Morgan said.

  April leaned down to Grace, who was still eyeing the room curiously. “Would you like to show me some of your books while Diesel and your mom get settled in?”

  “Really? You mean it?” Grace asked.

  Dani stepped forward. “I’d like to see them as well, if that’s okay.” She nodded up at Morgan, almost as if giving them the go-ahead signal.

  Morgan smiled back. It was so foreign being around such kind, wonderful people. People she could trust her daughter with.

  Once at the top of the stairs, they stopped for a second, staring down the hall.

  “Do you know which room is yours?” she asked.

  Diesel shrugged. “Not sure. I haven’t been living here.” He paused. “I mean, I moved my stuff here, but I was keeping watch at the Crater so much, I don’t know if they moved it around while renovating.”