I couldn't believe how easy it was to say that. My permission to Eric to mark me came out so naturally, no hesitation whatsoever. I truly meant it, my animal and my human half alike.

And all it had taken for me to make up my mind had been one night of tossing and turning by myself on the crappy couch. And Eric refusing to shower with me after our sexy Twister time. Darn, what a strong person I was... Not.

But the right answer on whether or not to link myself to Eric had been staring me in the face for days now. I had simply been too set in my ways to see it until last night.

I had focused entirely on what would happen if I said yes. Would he break my heart afterwards? Would he take away my hard-won freedom? What if I disappointed him by lusting after two other males? What if he resented me for not giving him cubs? When I had admitted to him yesterday that I couldn't have kids, he had said adoption was always possible, but what if he changed his mind?

Instead, I should have asked myself one single question: could I live with the consequences of saying no to Eric's mating mark?

Once I had asked myself that during my sleepless night, the answer to my dilemma had become crystal clear. Going back to my old life was unthinkable. It was exactly as Sebastian had said: once you met your fated mate, there was no turning back unless it was misery you were after.

I couldn't be by myself again once I had tasted what being with Eric was like. And it wasn't just the mind-blowing sex I was thinking about. It was... everything. I couldn't even put it into words. Being with Eric simply felt right. It was as if a piece of me had been missing and he had clicked right into that empty space.

Given how I couldn't get Dean and Sebastian off my mind, there were more pieces missing than I had realized. But my decision this morning wasn't about them, it was about me and Eric. I needed to take the steps one at a time. I guess that meant taking my guys one at a time.

Look at me, considering collecting men - Mother Nature would be proud.

Personally, right now I was proud of myself for giving Eric the green light, and doing it in a way that got him speechless.

"Eric?" I prompted when he kept staring up at my face.

Did he have trouble processing my proposal because I was lying naked on top of him? He was as hard as hell against my belly so maybe there was not enough blood left in his brain?

Or was he searching for the right words to say he didn't want to mark me anymore? Had I come on too strong with 'you'll be mine' and 'I want a life with you'?

Suddenly, I wasn't feeling so proud anymore. Doubt was beginning to creep in.

"Eric?" I tried again. I pushed my hair to the side, exposing my neck to his intense gaze for good measure. "You can mark me. I'm serious."

"No."

His reproachful tone made my breath hitch.

"You... You don't want me?"

His eyes went wide. "Of course I want you! I wasn't saying no to the marking!"

"You weren't?"

He cupped my cheek. "I want to make you mine so badly, Samantha, that I can hardly string together a coherent sentence. How could you think I would reject you?"

"Well..." I bit my lip.

Eric smiled. "I said no to the way you wanted me to mark you, you dummy. Do you consider me a savage beast to sink my teeth into you just like that? With no foreplay whatsoever?"

"Uhh... Isn't that how it is traditionally done?"

He shook his head in disbelief. Then he flipped us over until he was the one on top, him between my legs, his cock pressed against my pussy. "Let me show you how it is properly done."

He kissed me long and deep, as if he wanted to pour his feelings into that breathtaking touch of lips. But when he left my mouth to move down my neck, I stopped him. I needed to hear him say it.

"You want a life with me as your mate?"

He sighed and rested his forehead on mine. "Yes, lovely. I felt it deep inside the moment we touched for the first time – and not because it hurt badly when you fixed my broken nose."

I smiled at the memory. Had it been only a week ago? So many things had changed for me since then... Not for Eric, though, by the sound of it.

"Now that I have spent time with you," he continued, "I know it with every fiber of my being. For so long I have searched for my place in this world and now I have found it. With you."

Aww, the sweet man. He was going to make me cry.

"But enough with the cheese, lovely," he whispered, making fun of his own mating declaration when he saw my watery eyes. "I was thinking I should go for dessert?"

"Oh, yes." No crying from here onward. Only crying out Eric's name. He knew how to take me there every time.

This time around, he started with my breasts. He worshiped them with single-minded focus, making me gasp and moan under the lashing of his tongue. But he didn't linger for too long before he made his way to my dripping pussy. There, he lapped at me with such hunger that I couldn't keep my eyes off of him between my legs. That erotic sight by itself was enough to undo me. It was as if his ultimate goal wasn't to mark me as his but to make me come on his tongue like on our very first night together.

And come on his tongue I did. I might have also torn the sheets with my claws in the process.

"Eric..." I said on a sigh as he gave my inner thigh a long lick. "I need you... Bite me, fill me up, just... No more foreplay." My walls were clenching over nothing, it was torture.

"I'll bite you, lovely... Right here." He kissed the same spot on my inner thigh, a breath away from where I needed him to go with his cock.

"But... no one will see it there?" The neck was where one marked his fated mate so that everyone could see she was his.

"You will see it, Samantha." He began kissing his way back to my center as he spoke. "Every single day, without the need of a mirror."

"Oh..." That was darn clever.

"I will see it daily, too..." He licked my cleft and I squirmed in sweet agony. "Every time I go down on you."

"But... other males... won't know..."

"Dean and Sebastian will. If you let them mark you."

If I did, they would leave the mating mark on my neck for sure. For everyone to see. They were too territorial not to.

Eric had to know that. His choice of a different marking spot was ensuring my neck wouldn't look like I had been mauled by a grizzly bear.

"Darn, you're so thoughtfu–Ahh!" My back bowed when his mouth latched onto my clit at the same time as two of his fingers slid inside me. "Oh, hell, don't stop!"

"I won't. Not until my lady comes for me again."

He kept working me until I was a quivering mess on the verge of climaxing. And in that very moment when I was coming undone, he sank his elongated teeth in my flesh.

I barely felt the pain in my inner thigh, I was too busy seeing stars. And as the mating link clicked into place, like a shot of pure euphoria straight to the heart, one orgasm rolled into another.

In my mind, my tigress sprawled out on her back, paws up, tongue lolling, purring in bliss.

Before I could come down from my high, Eric covered me with his body and drove himself home.

We both groaned at the tight stretch. I dug my fingers in his butt cheeks to spur him on. With my walls rippling around his cock and him being on the verge of coming, it took him only several thrusts to reach his peak.

As his hot release filled me, I joined him in his ultimate pleasure.

Body, soul – we were linked on every level now. It felt as though there was this calming presence in my mind alongside my tigress, like black velvet surrounding me, keeping me warm and safe. It felt weird... and wonderful.

Eric, who had rolled next to me, pulled me against him and I happily turned his chest into my pillow. I took his scent in, mixed permanently with mine now that we were mated, and closed my eyes with a satisfied sigh.

Soon I was purring, and so was Eric.

Paradise.