The Dark Side of the Moon

F O R T Y - T H R E E

He smiles and kisses the tip of my nose. 

"Relax, love. I can't hear your thoughts if that's what you're freaking out about. I can only get a sense of your emotions, therefore, I knew you were getting turned on. I can help you out, little mate." He grips my hips and grinds his body into mine. When I feel something long and hard pressing into my stomach, my cheeks light on fire and I stutter out something incoherent. All my focus is on the feeling of him against me.

Apparently he loves to tease me, because he only laughs and then flips my hair over my shoulder to view my mark. His once joking demeanor instantly shifts to concern.

"Does it still hurt? I tried to make it as painless as possible, but there was no way to avoid it." His thumb lightly traces the area and I shiver in response. Nope, nothing feels wrong about that. It's strange how accurate Cooper described the sensation to me.

"It doesn't hurt at all. Is there a big scar?" I ask in a small voice. I'm almost afraid to hear the answer. What if it looks like he took a huge chomp out of my neck? I don't want to have any noticeable marks on me for the rest of the world to see.

"Go check in the mirror." He nods his head in the direction of the bathroom, and I motion to my sheet-covered body and stare at Grayson until he understands my predicament.

He rolls his eyes and puts a pillow over his face. 

"I've seen it all before," he mumbles into the pillow, his voice becoming extremely muffled.

I quickly search his drawers for something to wear. I almost do a double-take when I see he has female clothes in his drawers- all in my size. I'm not sure whether to feel guilty or grateful for the fact that he spent more money on me, so while I'm figuring it out I slide on a new pair of underwear, a bra, and a pair of jeans and a cute lavender crop sweater. The clothes fit perfectly.

Once I'm dressed, I tell Grayson he can look, thank him with a hug for the clothes even though he didn't have to buy me anything, and then walk into the bathroom to face the mirror. Tilting my head to the side, I trace a finger over the light silver mark on my neck. It's completely healed from last night. It looks like the scar has been there for ages instead of a single night, and the bite itself takes up a large portion of my shoulder and neck area. 

The mark is so light that nobody would even notice it unless they looked hard enough, so that's a relief. Just the thought that other werewolves will know I'm claimed by Gray is secretly thrilling. He has officially claimed me as his, and he's stuck with me now. 

I don't think it has really sunken in yet that we'll be together forever. Forever seems like such a long time, and in human relationships it's really hard to promise forever to one another. There's marriage, but a piece of paper can change that. We're connected now- we can feel each other's feelings and emotions. That's powerful.

Gray comes up behind me and hugs my body to his as we both admire the mark and what it stands for. I subconsciously lean back into his strong body which is unfortunately covered in a shirt and sweats now. He stands at least a foot taller than me, my head only reaching his chest. 

"Did you unhinge your jaw like an anaconda?" I joke, tracing over the large bite mark on my neck. It's so large that I can't imagine how he could have even done that. I guess when his canines came out he was partially shifted and could extend his jaw more.

"Sorry about that," he says with a nervous smile. He rubs the back of his neck, something I've noticed he does when he's uncomfortable or nervous. "The size of the bite indicates how powerful a werewolf is. The larger the bite, the larger the wolf. I'm an Alpha, so it's pretty big."