“You may not want
me, but I will claim you,” he said and forced her jaw to open for his kiss.
“You can’t tease a wolf and expect him not to bite back.”
She tried to
assure herself that accepting his kiss didn’t mean she’d given in. He
overwhelmed her senses with his wild possessiveness. His lips slanted over
hers, his rough tongue swept with voracious hunger through her mouth, tasting
every angle and crevice until she was panting into him. Her nostrils flared,
couldn’t seem to drag enough air in to keep her from feeling lightheaded.
She’d prodded the
wolf, awakened the beast. Swan jerked against him, the sudden need to feel him
inside her strong and invading and completely alien to her. Her hands flexed,
her wrists aching with the hold of his hand pinning her to the bed. She longed
to move, to beg for something, anything to alleviate the tightness clenching
her lower belly.
She half expected
him to want to take her fast and hard. That he seemed to enjoy ravaging her
mouth stunned her. The thick erection nudging her tender lips made her
whimper.
One hand snaked
down her body, cupping a breast and pinching the chocolate dark nipple until it
was rock hard. He nipped her lips, making them sting.
“You will accept
me,” he said with sensual menace.
The drawl of his
fingers sliding down her chest, her waist, to her cleft left shivers of want
tracing over her skin. When his rough, calloused fingers parted her to tickle
her swollen cleft, she whimpered.
He whirled his
fingers around her small hole, collecting her juices over her center.
She should have
been disgusted, but the dark arousal flooding her body seemed to wipe all
thought of fleeing out of her mind.
“Are you a
virgin?” he asked suddenly, his voice heavy, rumbling with lust.
She looked at him,
her eyes wide and nervous. “No,” she finally whispered.
“Good,” he said,
and she felt the thick head of his cock push once more against her tight
passage.
Her entire body
seemed to clench with the impending threat of his forceful invasion. Her womb
wept, her channel trembled.
“For no innocent
could survive what I want from you this night,” he ground out, and then plunged
into her tight pussy. The slow torturous moves he’d been exacting on her body
ended with his sudden full slide to the deepest part of her body. The thin,
delicate flesh that marked the entrance to her vagina stretched around his
engorged length, feeling as though it would tear with the thickness of him.
The sound of her
breath heaving in her chest sounded loud and desperate in her ears. As he
moved back and forth, she felt her muscles jerk in reaction to his slow,
sensuous slide.
She bucked
against him and the restraint of his hand on hers. He released her, and she
clung to his shoulders, her nails digging in to his hard muscles. He grunted.
“What have you
done to me?” he said, his voice hoarse, ragged.
He filled her to
overflowing, so much so that she thought she would split in half. Pain burned
through her center, making her body weep with tense excitement.
He ground his
pubic bone against her clit as he buried himself inside her tight passage,
sparking a reaction in her core. He stilled a moment, breathing heavily,
leaving no doubt he possessed her body in totality, that she was his to do with
as he willed. He allowed her to adjust to the immense girth of his erection.
Pleasure and pain mingled as one.
With agonizing
slowness, he pulled his hardness out until the head teased her opening, then parted
the tender leaves and drove inside once more, gaining momentum with each stroke
until he pounded against her and moved her body forcefully against the bed.
Her clit throbbed with the blissful friction, sharp sensations of pleasure
ricocheting through her body. He jerked, his body tense as he enjoyed her
reaction to him, the grip of her muscles tightening and unclenching.
A savage growl
broke the stillness surrounding them, and then he was plunging and withdrawing
like a man possessed. The thick intrusion of him, that hard driving motion
made her skin crawl with lightning, lustful sensations. He stroked the walls
of her cunt until every nerve inside her tensed with anticipation. She was
insane with the need to reach something, something just beyond her reach that
she’d never experienced.
She felt it draw
closer, tighter, moving in on her with savage deliberation. Every muscle
tensed. Her heart pounded a rough tattoo. She called out his name as the
flooding sensation enveloped her fully.
She closed her
eyes against the intensity, screaming as pleasure bloomed and his strokes
reached a fever pitch. Vibrations shook her to the core, riveting her beneath
him, and she felt the hot wash of his own feverish release exploding through
her.
Her body wracked
with ecstasy that rippled through her like a crashing wave. Her channel milked
him, drawing out every drop of his essence, until he was gasping above her.
Swan arched her
back, her blood racing, her clit throbbing with each grinding movement. He
continued sucking her tongue, sliding his own against hers, cupping one breast
with his freehand. He pinched her nipple hard, broke from her mouth to bite
her ear. She gasped as the tremors increased. She locked her legs around his
hips, her mind shutting down to pure animal lust, until there was only the
tempo of his cock ramming into her passage.
The culmination
of her orgasm blinded her with its sudden intensity, slamming through her body
until she panted for air. She trembled, her inner muscles tightening and
jumping against his faltering erection as he continued pumping the last of his
release.
Breathing
heavily, he lay atop her, nuzzling her neck and lazily tracing her waist. Swan
pushed his shoulders, bucking against him to be free.
“Get off me,” she
gritted out.
He rose and held
her gaze steadily. He slid a finger along her jaw and she snapped at it with
her teeth. Grinning feral, he rolled off her and stood, stretching. Swan
grabbed a fur and covered herself with it, flashing him a look that should have
killed him on the spot.
“That is what
happens when you tempt the beast, my lady.”
“I hope you
enjoyed yourself,” she said, oozing sarcasm.
“I did, and so
did you. You cannot deny it.”
“You bastard.”
“You should never
start something you don’t intend to finish.” He gave her a heated look that
left her skin feeling singed, as if the fur was no barrier to his vision. Swan
glared at him. “I will send someone with garments. We leave within the hour.”
She started to
say she wanted none of his charity, but his second statement stopped her cold.
Surprised, she blurted out, “You’ll still help me?”
“I always
intended to.”
Rage surged
through her as his words sank in. How dare he! He had played her like a
complete fool, enticed her to behave so outrageously! Swan fumed inside,
unable to believe her lot in life. She’d gone through all that trouble for
nothing, nothing but humiliation. Her pride was stung. “You could have gotten
loose at any time, couldn’t you?” she demanded furiously.
He smiled at her
and strode from the room.
She wished she’d
had something to throw.
* * * *
Raphael summoned
Arion with the Flow. A current of thought known to beastmen, the Flow was
necessary to them for communicating when they shifted, for they could not talk
while they were in animal form. Though it did not work over vast distances, it
was invaluable to their way of life. Raphael used it now rather than wasting
precious time locating his second in command.
He was in the
great hall when Arion found him. Seated on the mantiam throne, he was staring
pensively into the darkness, troubled by his reaction to the human woman.
Never had he been so tempted to break old laws. And yet, he was disturbed to
find the urge within himself to do so, particularly since he was no youngster,
but a man full grown and aware of the consequences of doing so. His friend,
Blasien had done so--he’d nearly lost his woman because of it.
Arion bowed
deeply with respect and straightened. “I felt your call, my lord. What is it
you wish of me?”
Raphael stood and
descended the wide steps to stand beside Arion. They were of an equal height
and look, much as all the hunters were ... dark haired and animalistic, wild as
the humans would say. Arion, unlike the elders now gone, had supported his
rise as leader of the hunters. He trusted Arion as he would a brother. “The
pack is restless. The scent of new prey drives them mad with the blood lust.”
Their disquiet rippled through his mind. Violence and passion were easily
read, and the growing danger disturbed him.
Now that he’d had
the woman, he could easily understand their provocation. Her scent clung to
his skin, fueling his own lust. Already he hardened, thinking of driving into
her again. He’d taken her once, and still his appetite was unsated. If
anything, burying himself in her body only seemed to have magnified his desire
tenfold. Angrily, he pushed the madness back, tempered it with resolve. Even
to consider touching her again was beyond foolhardy. It was dangerous to both
of them.
Arion nodded.
“Yes. They cannot help but be so driven.” He paused, looked his lord and
master over as if weighing the wisdom of saying more. Finally, he said, “She
cannot stay, else she will be devoured alive. Their restraint is not as it
should be. I fear much blood will be spilled along our borders if e’er any
cross.”
Arion saw the
root of any problem, much as he, himself. Raphael clasped Arion’s shoulder. It
was more affection than hunters usually showed one another, but he and Arion
had shared much in the past. And he was leaving a heavy burden for Arion to
bear alone. Unfortunately, there was no alternative to the decision he had
made. “I know. I leave the pack to you until my return. I trust you, Arion.
Not merely as my second, but as a friend and brother.”
Arion nodded once
more, clasped Raphael’s arm in return. “It means much to me, old friend. I’ll
not fail you. I will await your return.”
Raphael dropped
his arm and walked down the centerway with Arion at his side. Avonleigh lay
just beyond the Northern border of Shadowmere. Although many leagues distant,
it was still a land easily reached without overwhelming hardship. The night
was young. However, they needed to begin their journey to Avonleigh soon if
they expected to cross any measurable distance in the darkness that remained.
He did not relish the trek or breaking the pact, but he’d made her a promise.
He would see her home. “I expect to return before the waning of the red moon.”
“That does not
give you much time.”
“No. And the
vampires have awakened.” He’d sensed their presence before. It explained the
unexpected bloodlust he had experienced during the
kharez
, and the
sudden unruliness of the hunters. Once the vampires had sought to rule their
creation, the hunters, but they had been gone many decades and the hunters had
adapted to freedom. Still, their ties to their creators were strong and
difficult to resist. He wondered how long it would take for the vampires to
find them. They had never recognized any law but their own--for that they
would be eradicated eventually.
Arion tensed
beside him, surprised at the news. “Ill portent. Will you not take guard?”
Taking his men
into human lands would only provoke a war. It was the last thing they needed
now. He liked not the thought of traveling Shadowmere with a woman so tempting
to predators, but he had little choice. He could not fight their own great
numbers and still protect her from outside forces. The woman had nearly been
killed by trusting his hunters before when he should not have. “No. If fate
chooses our deaths, so be it. But I will not knowingly bring trouble. The
bloodlust has risen with the rise of the vampires. I dare not trust our own
with her.”
CHAPTER FOUR
After he’d called
the hunters and announced that Arion would oversee the pack while he was away,
Raphael returned to Swan. Silently, he set the tray of food he bore on a table
just inside the door, watching her.
She sat looking
out the window, the glow of the moon limning her form. She’d not noticed his
return, and he stopped in the shadow of the doorway to study her. Dressed in
the loose flowing gown he’d appropriated, she appeared far lusher and exotic
and at the same time more innocent than he remembered. The deep red light
pouring through the window limned her dark face, highlighting her breasts that
caught his gaze even at the distance. Leisurely, he traced her profile with
his gaze, settling on her full lips--a tight mouth he ached to feel wrapped
around his engorged member. His groin tightened painfully at the thought, and
he angrily tempered the burgeoning lust.