Anna arched her eyebrows.
"Apart from wanting to kill you?"
Maxwell began to approach her slowly.
"Is that what you feel like doing when you look at me?" He asked, his voice hoarse and his gaze dark.
"Do you have a better suggestion?" Anna replied, biting her lower lip, desire burning in her eyes.
"I think you might feel like getting to know my full potential in bed. You still don't know what I'm capable of."
"Sleeping more than twenty-four hours is not what I consider 'potential in bed'."
Maxwell smiled, and stopped inches away from her.
"I wasn't thinking about sleeping, but I did think about spending that amount of time penetrating you."
Anna felt her body respond to those words as if he had given her a very intimate caress.
"I want news, Maxwell. You've already spent three days penetrating me... Twenty-four hours, that's less."
Maxwell took her in his arms and Anna crossed her legs around his waist.
"You were a human, Anna. I needed three days to get my fill, but as a vampire, I don't need to be too careful. Are you sure this is what you want?"
"Shut up and kiss me, Max!"
Maxwell took Anna to bed and made her understand that he wasn't lying. Even as a vampire, she found it hard to endure the twenty-four hours. Maxwell didn't spare her, and finally, she felt sated.
Jasmine took the children home. They didn't need to hear all that moaning coming from their parents' bedroom.
Suzy traveled to Adam's house. She didn't say, but Jasmine knew the reason for her urgency, even though she knew her son wasn't home. She wanted to prepare the traditional engagement reception for her future daughter-in-law. And Jasmine thought it best not to warn Anna about this, because Maxwell probably knew it would happen. And maybe that's what he'd been waiting for all along. That Luna would come to meet her Alpha.
...
Anna got out of bed, her whole body aching, and climbed into the bath. Maxwell soon joined her.
"Max! We have small, innocent children! Couldn't you have controlled yourself and released me before twenty-four hours? They must be traumatized. Is that what you do to Camille? Is that what Tayme saw?"
Maxwell got into the bath next to her and poured foam on Anna's face.
"Camille? Oh, Anna. You never want to know what's done to Camille. But the answer to your question is no. That's not what Tayme witnessed, because I needed Camille to fall in love with me in order to follow me."
"Can't you manipulate her desires?"
"Yes, I can. But that doesn't satisfy any man, Anna. Besides, I need to maintain a very expensive concentration to manipulate a person. A human. With supernaturals it's much easier. And as for stopping before... Anna, you were begging me until the last minute not to stop!"
"You should have more self-control than I do, because this shouldn't be news to you. Pleasure is something I still don't have the strength to give up..."
"Do you think that happens to me, to other women? Anna, this has never happened before. I've never felt so much pleasure in my life. I didn't know that when we fuck the person we love, without limitations, creativity, pleasure, desire, sensations are amplified... I wasn't prepared for that either."
"So, was it your first time?" Anna said, hugging him.
"Yes, it was..."
"My whole body is aching..."
"Tomorrow, you and the kids are going to start weight training and do some wrestling. You're very rusty, Anna. You'll need strength to... do it again."
Anna smiled.
"I just want to sleep now..."
She leaned against Maxwell's bare chest and actually fell asleep. Maxwell picked her up in his arms, carried her to bed, dried her off and threw a sheet under her body to cover her nakedness. Then he put on his clothes and left. The children were playing in the garden, along with Jasmine and Maxwell went to his office and as soon as he had locked himself in, he called Adam.
"Can you call Ian today? Or are you too busy?"
"Max... I will, yes. I'm looking forward to seeing him again."
"But..."
"But I'm not at home."
Maxwell detected the happiness in Adam's voice. This was something he had never heard before.
"Where are you?"
"Brother... I got engaged."
Maxwell's eyes widened.
"You what?"
"The bride's family is preparing a seven-day celebration, and then I'm supposed to do the same back home."
"But wasn't that too hasty? Adam! You're sensitive, needy and..."
"Max! It's Luna."
Maxwell kept quiet. He knew there was the perfect woman for his brother and that one day he would find her. But he didn't know how Anna would react to the news.
"You left Ireland and went to..."
"Alaska."
Maxwell sat down with his cell phone in his hand. He was still absent-mindedly thinking about what the situation might entail, since no one knew what could be expected from a union between the Alpha and his Luna.
"Are you staying in the pack for seven days?"
"No. I've put Mycon before my business. I'm staying here for six months."
Maxwell waited for him to explain further, but he remained silent and thought it best not to insist. When he was ready, he would tell him the reason for it all.
"I wish you every happiness, Adam."
"I hope you prepare a better speech than that, because you're going to be my best man."
Maxwell turned pale.
"Adam, I don't think that's such a good idea..."
"Of course, my wedding invitation extends only to you and the children."
Maxwell breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have to talk to Anna about it.
"Are you going to annul your first marriage?" He had to ask, and he hated the silence on the other end.
"I'm not human, Max. I don't have to follow their rules. I don't have to get married in a registry office."
"I understand... Forgive me, but I'm stunned by this news. You've always said that you would never marry a woman wearing a dress that looks like a party cake..."
"And I won't. White dress is not in the traditions of werewolves."
"E... Tell me about Luna."
"She's extremely beautiful, seductive and arrogant. She's also very rebellious. She doesn't know I'm here yet."
"So how do you know she'll agree to marry you?"
"It's the parents who decide these things, Max. She has no choice."
"That seems... Cruel.