Samantha wasn't ready yet to become my mate officially. My panther was shaking his tail in discontent at being thus rejected, but I understood her. I would give her pleasure without strings attached.

And that was what I did. She moaned and writhed on my cock, the sight mesmerizing. I alternated between pinching her nipples and taking them in my mouth as she moved up and down my length. I switched to thumbing her clit when I felt I was close to losing it, unwilling to climax before she did.

She cried out as she tipped over the precipice. Her channel rippled around me and I joined her in one explosive moment of pure bliss.

Someone roared but I didn't know which one of us – I had lost sense of my body. I had never come so hard.

"Ready for a healing nap now?" Samantha asked, her warm breath tickling my neck.

She had rested her forehead on my shoulder, both of us still trying to catch our breath.

"I've just been healed completely." I cupped her cheek and brought her mouth to mine.

It was supposed to be a gentle brush of my lips against hers, but her tongue slid against mine and she sucked on it. Just like that, my cock began swelling inside her tight sheath.

"Mmm... That was a quick recovery."

We both snickered at the double meaning. Then she bit my earlobe and I groaned, hot desire searing my veins.

"The bedroom," she whispered in my ear. "I need you on top."

I groaned again at the image her words sparked. "As my lady wishes."

My ribs barely hurt when I got up, Samantha in my arms, her legs wrapped around my waist.

"Boy you're strong... I want you to pin me down, Eric," she whispered as I carried her towards the bedroom. "Pin me under your strong, powerful body... Make me scream."

God help me, Samantha was going to have me undone before we had reached the bed.

Shifter stamina wasn't a myth, but could I perform twice in a row after what my body had been through?

When twenty minutes later I plopped on the bed next to a dazed Samantha, I knew the answer. I had made her climax twice before I had poured myself inside her. I had made her scream my name as well. But my greatest achievement was her whispered declaration, "Mine" as I was drifting to sleep.

On the next day, however, I woke up feeling edgy. My furry half wasn't satisfied with claiming his fated mate in the oldest way known to shifters: by filling her with his seed. He wanted more than her possessive declaration. He wanted her marked.

Apparently, even an Omega had his limits. I didn't know how long I could keep the panther at bay while I was close to Samantha. And I was close to her throughout the day. After last night, she wouldn't stop touching me every chance she got.

She pinched my buttocks playfully while we were making pancakes for brunch. She snuggled with me while we binge-watched an adventure series. She awarded me with a kiss when I beat her in Scrabble, and demanded a kiss out of me after she obliterated me in Monopoly. As could be expected, our game of Twister ended with us naked and sweaty on the floor.

I had to bite down on my lower lip to stop myself from marking Samantha in the heat of the moment. Her breasts pressed against my chest, her leg lifted over my hip to give me full access to her wet heat, her head thrown back in a cry of pleasure with her neck exposed... The temptation was nearly too great.

Afterwards I didn't need to tell her how I had nearly betrayed her trust - she saw my bloodied lip. When I refused her subsequent offer to shower together, she understood.

It was either keeping our hands off each other or sealing the mating bond. There could no in-between anymore.

That night Samantha didn't sleep next to me. She insisted I take the bed and she, the couch.

"You will sleep better on the bed," she said, but I didn't sleep at all.

One night of sleeping with Samantha's head on my chest, her scent filling my lungs with every breath, and her leg thrown over mine, and I could no longer imagine my nights without her. I lied awake all night, fighting against the panther's wishes to go to her in the living room. To take her in my arms. To make her mine.

The decision had to be hers. Anything else would ruin our relationship. I couldn't bear to lose her.

No mating mark means losing her, my panther insisted while I stared at the ceiling in the pale morning light.

What if my other half was right? What if Samantha got cold feet again and now that I had recovered, decided to leave town? Dean and Sebastian had left the choice to her so...

When she sneaked in the shower without saying good morning, I thought that was it. I was losing her already.

Turned out I had never been more wrong. Because once she exited the bathroom clad in a towel and saw I was awake, she smiled at me with mischief dancing in her eyes. Then she let the towel drop.

She walked slowly towards the bed, hips swaying seductively. I watched, hypnotized, how she climbed in on all fours, a tigress on the prowl.

Talk about an instant hard-on...

She tugged the sheet away from me and licked her lips at the sight of her effect on me. Her eyes shone amber as she took my whole naked body in.

"Lovely," I forced myself to speak before it was too late, "you should stop... If you don't... I'll mark you."

A tentative smile stretched her lips. Then she lay on top of me.

"Samantha?" I cupped her face and studied her eyes. Did she truly mean to let me–

"Yes, Eric." Her smile grew confident at my shocked reaction. "I want your mating mark."

God almighty... "You're absolutely sure? There will be no going back from this link between us, lovely. You'll be mine until death do us part."

"And you will be mine." She kissed me gently, contrary to the passion I could see burning in her amber gaze. "I'm done running, Eric. I've been afraid of getting hurt by another again for so long that I never realized at some point I began doing the hurting myself. Locking one's heart away is safer but in the long run it hurts you... and those who wish to be by your side."

She kissed me tenderly again. "I want you by my side, Eric, always. I want a life with you. If that is what you want, too... I'm yours for the marking."