THE RIPENING (Dark Side of the Moon Book 1) (12 page)

              Above all else, regardless of what happened the next day, what had happened in the past week, she'd had him for her entire life, and she had him now. That was nothing she could ever regret.

              The man holding her made a low sound of appreciation in the back of his throat as he pressed her even closer to his chest, his tongue stroking deftly over the line that separated her lips. With a low moan of acquiescence, Yuna admitted him inside, shuddering as he proceeded to thoroughly brand every part of her mouth with his flavor. Within moments, he was lowering her to the cool marble floor, his hands seeking the hem of her sweater.

              As he peeled the thick, rough cloth up and over her body, Yuna ran her hands through his thick auburn locks and down to curl into shoulders thick with repressed strength. When he tore his mouth from hers for the brief moment that it took to extricate her from her sweater, she made a soft sound of protest that was almost immediately silenced when he kissed her again.

              God, the man was like a drug. It took less than a minute for her to completely and totally lose herself in him, and Yuna knew that would have been the case with or without his mark. However, when her lover lowered his head to exhale hotly against the raw skin on her shoulder, the young woman gasped, her body jolting slightly at the sensation that lanced through her. When he kissed it, an almost delirious moan escaped her as her inner thighs immediately slicked with copious moisture. When he grazed the tips of elongated canines over it, tightening his jaw only enough to inflict the barest amount of pressure against the prone flesh, Yuna's vision momentarily whitened and she saw stars.

              “Oh... my God.” Her breathing ragged, the young woman clung to him as she fought for a breath. If this was what all the fuss over the mating mark was all about, she supposed she couldn't fault Luther's clan. It was certainly wreaking havoc with her human body. “What else does it do?”

              Her lover's dark chuckle vibrated over her skin, making her womb clench in want.

              “It connects us.” His mouth ghosted over her opposite shoulder and down her arm in a series of drugging kisses that only paused when his tongue flicked at the delicate skin of her wrist. “I'll always know where you are; if you're in pain, or lost. I'll feel when you're upset or angry... and I'll sense when you want me.”

              At that, Yuna laughed softly, the sound morphing into a gasp as Luther took a single finger into his mouth to toy with. “Constantly.”

              He smiled, releasing her digits to straighten. Reaching out, he took her hand in his to pull her to her bare feet a moment before lifting her into his arms. As his mouth took hers again, he backed her against the cold wall of her cell. Luther swallowed her brief hiss of discomfort at the temperature before his mouth left hers and he gazed down the length of her, from her bare breasts with their nipples peaked from the temperature down her stomach to the place where her thighs wrapped around his divinely narrow hips.

              “My Yuna. You're beautiful.”

              The warmth of his hands curled into her behind to hold her aloft as he nipped his way down her neck. The young woman let her head fall back as the sensation washed over her, sending a promising, sensual languor to assault her limbs. Her own hands found the hem of his sweater and hiked it up a broad back to feel the bare silkiness of his skin.

              When his mouth found the tip of her breast, she squirmed in delectation, her toes curling as he suckled her deliciously. While one hand continued to hold her in place, the other moved between them to search out the heat between her legs. Luther took her opposite nipple between his lips over he stroked over the dewy folds of her, driving Yuna insane with longing.

              His fingers ignited a desperate fire deep within her- one that always threatened when he was near. When they actually pressed past her entrance, burying themselves within her, the young woman's head fell back against the wall with an audible thump as she moaned headily. Each slide of his lithe digits against her inner walls made her thighs quiver and a soft sob escaped her as she begged him for more.

              God, her Luther. Only hers.

              When his gaze finally met hers again, she wasn't surprised to see yellow bleeding into icy blue. He raised his hand to suck his fingers clean of her essence, and Yuna's stomach clenched at the sight. “Mine,” he growled lowly as he ground his prominent erection against her. “Say it.”

              The young woman gasped, arching against him as her copious arousal colored the front of his pants. “Yours. Only yours.”

              She felt him fumble for a moment at the crux of his legs before the hot press of his arousal was suddenly bare against her. His eyes, deeply primal and yet somehow still the Luther that she'd always known, burned into her as he took her inch by inch.

              Yuna squirmed and undulated against him as he penetrated her, the feel of him cleaving her, pushing her to the edge of her limits. He continued to stare deeply into her eyes as he began a slow, agonizing rhythm, each thrust so deep she felt the tip of him kiss her womb. “This is what I am, Yuna.” His voice was deep, raspy; somewhere between animal and human. “This is what we are.”

              She cried out as his fingers found the bud of her pleasure between them. The pad of a claw-edged thumb slid against her and she trembled, reveling in the danger even as she knew he would never hurt her. “You are my mate,” Luther growled against her marked shoulder, sending pleasure thrumming through her. “Now and always.”

              Yuna's hips rocked against his hand almost deliriously as she clung to him, her sweat-slick form on the edge of relief.

              Part of her expected it when he bit her again, but what she didn't expect was the sudden and unbridled wave of ecstasy that took her with a force so intense it was almost violent. A scream was ripped from her at the height of her pleasure before Luther stifled it with a hand against her mouth, his own hips pumping erratically against hers until she felt the delicious burst of his seed within her.

              He held her like that, supported against the wall, for moments after until she finally came back to herself; and even when he let her stand, her legs almost buckled beneath her.

              She flushed slightly as he pulled her against him to prevent her falling, his grin one of pure masculine satisfaction. It only took a moment, however, for him to sober. As his mile faded, he knelt to retrieve her sweater before helping her fit it over her head.

              “Yuna, whatever happens tomorrow, know that I chose you, and I would, again, if given the opportunity.”

              The young woman smiled wanly. “It only took my being kidnapped by your family and the threat of imminent death for you to admit it, so I suppose you're not so different than other guys.”

The smile she attempted to draw from him didn't show. Luther only sighed pensively as he sank into a sitting position and pulled her into his lap to hold her close.

              Her body still humming from his loving, Yuna snuggled against him.

              Viola would be back soon... and mere hours later, she'd face the leaders of Luther's clan. She only hoped that whatever his mother knew would be enough to keep the experience from spiraling into chaos, blood, and conflict.

Part Four

              Luther's heart clenched at the way Yuna winced when she saw sunlight for the first time in a week.

              He'd left her scant hours ago but it felt like several lifetimes since he'd held her. This was due in no small part, he was sure, to the knowledge of what would happen to her if their meeting with the Elders went awry.

              He'd been present at dawn when the five stooped, cloaked figures had arrived in an old sedan. The future Alpha and the rest of the clan had stood in the crisp early morning air, greeting the Elders with the respect due those of their age and status. Even as he had murmured honorifics and titles that accompanied the greetings, his heart had been chilled by the cold distance present on each elderly face.

              All, that was, except for Dame Strauss.

              Though she might have come to them from Scotland, the land of origin, Adelheid Strauss was as German in face as she was in name. Hair still as dark as coals framed her lined face, and fathomless, intense cerulean eyes stared out of a face that was as wise as it was intimidating. When her gaze fell upon Luther, her reaction was drastically different than that of the other elders. Where they had cast him frigid looks of judgment, her expression had been instead intensely curious. For a moment he had been lost in the depths of her stare.

              It had been like falling into the deepest part of the ocean, having the breath stolen from your lungs and flailing wildly against currents far stronger than you would ever be.

              Dame Strauss was the last to pass him.

              When she finally stood before him, she reached out to take his hand, her gaze still pinning him to the spot. “So you're the one.”

              Though Luther knew for a fact that she was well over eighty, the voice with which she spoke was that of a much younger woman, untouched by time. “You've raised the seven hells boy.” Reaching upward, she shoved back the cuff of his shirt to expose a well-tanned wrist. When her bony fingers encircled it, he jerked. The surge of ancient power that slammed through him was breathtaking. “You're strong-willed, and clever. There is much in you that your brother lacked.” When she released him, the large man swayed slightly on his feet. “Perhaps it is enough.”

              With a last glance beyond Luther to the rest of the clan standing around him, Dame Strauss pulled her hood lower over her face before disappearing behind the crumbling manor.

              There could be no doubt about it. Unless they had her on their side, he and Yuna were sure to have lost this battle.

              So there he stood, watching the ugly looks his clan directed at her as Viola accompanied her from the lower levels. As Luther understood, she was to be given the chance to bathe and wear actual clothes before the Elders. His mouth twisted at the backhanded nature of the gesture. Certainly they didn't want to seem like barbarians, they had only called the most powerful of their kind here to ask permission to snuff a human.

              His mate's large green eyes briefly found his own and Luther was humbled by the calm he saw there. While he had always known that Yuna was an exceptionally strong woman, he would never have imagined the grace with which she'd handled the situation she was in. If that in itself wasn't a sign that she was meant for him, little else could be. As Viola ushered her up the steps and away, his mind filled with the memory of the feel of her against him-of the way she clung to him when he was inside her and accepted all of him - the danger and the pleasure.

              He couldn't let her be killed.

              “You've doomed her, brother.” Liam's tone cut through his consciousness like a knife and he gritted his teeth against the urge to give his brother a matching scar over his good eye. He'd been fighting with the younger Douglas all week.

              He wouldn't today.

              It was important that the Elders see him as calm, rational, and capable.

              Luther merely spared his brother a withering glance before his father spoke, drawing both of their attentions. “We'll convene in the study in an hour.” His gaze moved between his two sons, to his wife, and finally to rest on Yuna's retreating back. “I'm helping the elders settle as we speak.”

              Luther glanced around the room at all those assembled. His father, mother, Liam, Viola, Nita and her mate, Ryan, who were distant relations of his father's, as well as three of his cousins- all twice his age and with no real connection to him. His clan. Would it really have to end with him?

              He could only hope against hope that it didn't come to that.

              Though the week since they'd been holding Yuna had seemed to creep by at a snail’s pace, the last hour before they came before the Elders was gone in the blink of an eye. Before he knew it, the Douglases were crowded into Magnus' makeshift study. Only when they were seated around the perimeter of the room before the previously assembled Elders did Viola enter, leading Yuna behind her.

Luther fought raising hackles at the realization that Yuna had been bound again. At least, he capitulated, they had let her shower. Clad in a pair of loose blue jeans and a deep gray sweater, her hair freshly washed and face scrubbed, the young woman crossed the room until she reached its center, where Viola left her to take her seat. He read the emotions roving her face as she realized that they meant for her to stand and wished that he could catch her eye in a silent apology. Luther's father, however, had been strategic in seating Luther as far away from his mate as possible, in a position that made it impossible for her to look at him without the gesture being completely obvious.

              On top of that, he was between Liam and Nita, neither of whom, he was sure, would have qualms about restraining him if need be.

              “We're here,” everyone in the assembly fell silent at Baccus Rounds, a bare-headed ancient of almost ninety, began speaking, his voice thick with the accent of his homeland, “to help resolve a matter that this clan could not handle on its own. Even though the law,” he punctuated the word clearly, his graphite colored eyes hardening, “is quite clear what must be done.”

              “Indeed.” Next to him, his mate and fellow Elder Agatha agreed. Her gaze was hard on Yuna as she addressed all present. “I might ask how a human was so easily able to penetrate your clan in the first place.”

              Luther felt rather than actually witnessed Liam's hard glare at his back. Before the younger Douglas brother could speak, however, Magnus cut in, his tone apologetic.