Chapter 23: Mate Claim

Dane walked out of Grimjaw's gate barefoot, with the chain gone from his wrists and nothing left in his hands.

Four hundred wolves watched him go.

Nobody said his name, and the gate swung shut behind him.

I stood on the steps with my shoulder stitched and my father's ring on my finger, and I let myself breathe.

It was over.

By the time the torches were put out, the pack had gone to bed, and the courtyard was quiet for the first time in a year.

Bree's cage was gone from the middle of the dirt.

Somebody had dragged it out behind the north wall to be melted.

I climbed to the top floor and did not turn left into my father's room.

I walked down the east hall instead, to the last door, and knocked.

"Come in," Jonah said.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed in his jeans, without a shirt, with a clean dressing on his arm.

He looked up, and everything on his face went quiet.

"Ivy."

"You said you'd ask," I said.

"I did."

"Then ask."

He stood, slowly.

"May I touch you?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Everywhere," I said. "I decided."

He crossed the room in two strides.

His hands framed my face, and he kissed me slowly, in no hurry at all.

I dragged him down onto the bed by his belt.

He undid every button of my shirt with shaking fingers and stopped at the dressing on my shoulder.

"It's fine," I said. "Don't stop."

"I'll be careful."

"Don't be careful."

He laughed, a low surprised sound, and pushed the cloth off my shoulders.

He kissed his way down my collarbone, my ribs, my stomach, with his mouth open and slow.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Caged No More: The True Heir's Wrath from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.