Releasing one of her hands, Roland slid his fingers under Natasha's body and between her thighs. For a moment, he let his fingers dance around her core, feeling his cock as he slid in and out of her body.
"
Tasha
," Roland groaned her name, his forehead dropping to her shoulder as juices coated his hand and his fingers slid along his exposed shaft.
"Don't stop," Natasha pleaded, her body weeping with pleasure as his fingers drew her focus between her thighs.
Roland could feel her tightening beneath him, her body straining for release as she rose up to meet each of his thrusts. They were both covered in a fine sheen of sweat, her red hair wet at the temples, the rest tangled about her shoulders. Her pale skin was flushed a rosy red and gave off a sweet scent he would always associate with having her like this.
"Roland," Natasha whimpered, her body impossibly tight.
Roland nuzzled Natasha shoulder, licking to taste the tender skin as his fingers worked her clit.
"Oh god, Roland...harder" Natasha begged, her body arching into his thrust as her passage started to tighten around his cock.
Roland felt the first of his orgasm, the release tightening his balls as it rushed up his shaft, and wanted her with him when he came.
"Cum with me," he whispered, his fingers grasping her clit, pinching it as he sunk his teeth into her shoulder.
Natasha felt the twin bites of pain in the same instant Roland released himself into her body. White hot pleasure exploded against her womb, triggering her orgasm and causing her to cry out.
Roland felt Natasha's body clamp down hard on his cock, holding him deep within her as he spent himself. He couldn't stop moving, a low growl vibrating up from his chest as he continued to thrust between her thighs.
"Again," he ordered. He wanted to watch her go up and over once more. Releasing her clit, he braced his hands on either side of her head, lifting his upper body and driving his hips behind her.
Natasha whimpered once as Roland rode her. Hard and fast, he pounded between her legs until she shattered, her orgasm quick and potent.
Natasha collapsed beneath him, Roland rolling them onto their sides and curving his body behind her. They lay panting, the sweat quickly cooling their skin before drying in the warm room.
For once, Roland's wolf was quiet, having stopped fighting for release in that moment when Natasha achieved hers.
****
Roland stared at the back of Natasha's head, still sweaty from their coupling, her red hair curled around her shoulders. A small bead of sweat dripped from one particularly rebellious tendril, landing on her shoulder and sliding down her back.
He still wore his jeans, his fly open as he softened and slipped from her body. He felt her sigh, the soft sound pressing her back against his chest.
Roland buried his nose in the base of her neck. She smelled of him. Taking a deep breath, he inhaled their combined scent and felt something unlock inside him.
"My old alpha tried having me killed," he said, his voice sounding loud to his ears as she froze in his arms. "He hired a couple of humans to do the job, set me up so they found me alone."
He still remembered the smell of the alley where they'd found him, ripe with rotten garbage and the underlying scent of puke and urine.
Surprised, Natasha sucked in a breath and held it. This was what she had wanted, the story behind the male that captivated her. So, why was she suddenly filled with dread?
"I was young, just barely mature and arrogant enough to think I could take all four of them." Something had smelled off, but Roland had ignored his instincts, thinking that they were looking for some quick cash. "He'd fed them some story, told them I was dangerous and supplied them with some heavy duty animal tranquilizers."
They'd shot him full of that shit. Fast acting, it had dropped him to his knees. The last thing he'd remembered was the screech of tires and being tossed in the trunk of a car.
"They took me to an old abandoned steel mill, strung me up..." It had been nearing winter, the concrete freezing beneath his bare feet. "I can still remember the smell of cold iron and dead rats," he whispered.
They say scent is the strongest memory. Pressing his nose back to Natasha's hair, Roland longed to replace the smell of that far away place with the scent of her skin.
"My alpha had given them instructions, told them to dole out the doses to keep me docile. It also meant I was too doped up to shift." The real reason his alpha had given them the tranquilizers. "They were supposed to kill me, he didn't care how, just that I knew it was him."
"Why?" Natasha asked quietly, her voice barely reaching a whisper.
"There was a female - "
Natasha barked a laugh. "Isn't there always?"
Roland smiled, appreciating her attempted humor. "I had just reached my maturity and it was obvious to everyone that I was alpha. But I was young, not ready to make a challenge and my alpha knew that. We had a sort of truce for the time being. But there was Lacey, urging me to take my rightful place, to challenge our alpha and lead the pack."
Roland could still remember how beautiful she'd been, turning dark eyes and sensual lips to him. Too late, he'd realized her eyes had been hard, calculating. And her smile a red painted sneer.
"Our alpha decided it was only a matter of time before the rashness of youth combined with a beautiful woman would lead me to challenge him."
"He wasn't strong enough to defeat you." Natasha said. She'd sensed it in him, the strength of an alpha, and had wondered how he could live as beta. Now she knew.
No, Gary hadn't been strong enough. Roland had known that even then, which was why he'd been content to wait. He knew he had time and hadn't wanted the responsibility of leading the pack. He'd wanted the carefree life of youth.
"What happened?" Natasha asked.
"They sliced me open," Roland told her. The knife sinking into his skin had been thankfully sharp, the blade separating the skin, revealing the coppery scent of blood. "One of them used to work at the mill, he was just a grunt but he had the bright idea to try and melt down some metal shavings, empty cans - whatever they could find."
They'd laughed, high on adrenalin and other things as they'd tried unsuccessfully to fire up one of the machines, eventually giving up and going for a blow torch. Roland had slipped in and out of consciousness, his body desperately trying to shift as blood pooled at his feet.
"He'd told them how I'd beat my girlfriend, ruined her face so they started with mine."
Against him, Natasha shuddered.
"They poured molten metal..." Roland stumbled over the lump in his throat, closing his eyes when Natasha took his hand, silently holding it to her chest. "They poured it in the wounds..."
The smell of burning flesh and scalded blood had eclipsed the pain. Wanting to protect the others, he'd snapped the pack bond and left himself to suffer alone.
"I passed out," he admitted. Death, or what he'd thought was death, had been a sweet relief.
"I came to hours later." The mill was deserted, the only inhabitants the dark skeletons of machinery left behind when the plant closed. "I don't know how long I hung there, waiting for the humans to return, waiting to die."
The tranquilizer had started wearing off, unfortunately. The pain a living, breathing thing, threatening to consume him and rendering him useless.
"I still couldn't shift, not completely, but enough that I was able to slip out of the restraints." His body had hit the cement with the sickening thud of a rotten melon. "I found the humans, they'd figured I was as good as dead - any human would have been - and decided not to waste any more of the tranquilizers on a dead man."
All four of them lay dead from a drug overdose, their corpses contorted and twisted. He'd stumbled past their dead bodies, too weak to care what would happen when they were discovered, his blood all over the place.
"What happened to your alpha?" Natasha's voice was thick with unshed tears. Closing her eyes, she could picture all too easily the warehouse, dead humans and Roland, gravely injured but too strong to give up.
"Dead." Roland had returned to find Lacey and Gary mated. He'd killed the alpha, severing the male's new mate bond with Lacey. She'd been horrified, realizing she was too weak to survive the severing of the bond, she had pleaded for her life - but not that of her mate's.
"I wandered after that." Disfigured, he'd had nowhere to go.
"Why didn't you heal?" Natasha had seen the scars but time and shifting should have reversed the damage.
"By the time I was able to shift the metal had already fused with my skin," he told her. Even now he could still feel the cold weight pulling at his scars. "When my wolf finally surfaced, discovered what had happened...without the pack bond..."
"You went feral," Natasha supplied, their earlier conversation taking on new meaning.
"Not right away." Roland had wandered, moving from the city to the rural areas. "But, yeah, by the time Nafarius found me I was almost completely gone."
"How did he find you?" Natasha asked, Roland's hold on her waist easing as he moved from talking about his old alpha to his new one.
"I wandered into his territory. I had no idea there was a pack nearby," he said. "Otherwise I would have avoided the area. I hadn't seen another being, human or werewolf in...god, three years by that time." He'd been more wolf than male at that point, avoiding humans as any wild creature should.
"Nafarius realized there was a lone wolf in his territory and came out to kill me." Roland didn't remember much from their first meeting, just that he'd walked away alive. "I still don't know why he saved me."
Nafarius hadn't just refrained from killing Roland, he'd saved the male. Working to bring him back from the abyss.
"He saw something in you - " Natasha started.
Roland shook his head. "There wasn't anything to see, not back then." Not now.
Natasha didn't argue. Roland would only ever see himself one way. She didn't kid herself into thinking she could change that.
Natasha released his hand, her body slowly rotating in his arms until they lay face to face. He was backlit, the lantern behind him, and the scarred side of his face was pressed to the rug beneath them.
She looked him in the eyes, her eyes darting back and forth watching him. "You never kissed me."
Roland blinked. The female had a habit of saying the most unexpected things. "I don't kiss the females I - "
Roland snapped his teeth together so fast it was a wonder he didn't bite his own tongue. "Fuck," she supplied.
"I don't kiss," Roland corrected.
"I want to kiss you," Natasha admitted, her eyes dropping to his lips.
Roland didn't think she realized it when her tongue slipped out, wetting her lower lip before nipping at it with small, white teeth. Roland noticed, his cock stirring between them.
Natasha didn't wait for permission. Angling her head, she brushed her lips across his closed mouth. It wasn't much of a kiss, just enough to feel the fullness of his bottom lip, but her stomach fluttered in response.
Roland wrapped his arms around Natasha's waist and swept his tongue inside. Rolling onto his back, he pulled her on top of him, the cool weight of her hands resting lightly against his chest.
Natasha growled, heat rippling across the surface of her skin as Roland slipped inside, his tongue invading her mouth and filling it with his flavor.
The male could kiss.
Roland released her waist, sliding his hands up the curve of her back and into her hair. Holding her immobile, he eased back, taking his time to trace the lines of her lips before sweeping back inside for another taste.
Natasha opened for him, letting him explore as her hands slipped from his chest to the rug on either side of his head. At the same time, she spread her legs, pulling up her knees and pressing them to either side of his hips.
Roland felt Natasha slip from his arms as she sat back, straddling his hips and staring down at him with wide, bright eyes. Subconsciously, Roland turned the scarred side of his face away, giving her an angle that minimized her view of the damage.
"Don't," Natasha said, reaching down to cup his cheek and turning him to face. "You don't ever have to turn away from me."
"It's not a pretty sight," he said. She was still gloriously naked, her breasts full and ripe as the heat from her core pressed above his groin. Gripping her hips, he slid her backwards until she was pressed against the hard length of his shaft.
Natasha rose up on her knees, bracing her hands on his abs and opening the way for him to slide inside. He had told her the worst of it, reopening old wounds and exposing more than just his physical scars. The marks of her own betrayal were still fresh on her body rendering them kin of sorts.
Roland held Natasha's gaze as he nudged at her opening, everything about him fully exposed. She didn't look away, her eyes on his as she slid tight, wet heat down the length of him.
Natasha let her head fall back, her hair tickling at her ass as she moved herself up and down Roland's shaft. He was tense beneath her, his body straining and hard as he filled her.
Roland didn't like being on his back, the position too submissive to please his wolf. But watching Natasha ride him, gloriously naked, her breasts bouncing gently, was enough to have him fisting the rug and holding on to his animal.
This time, when Natasha felt Roland's wolf, she didn't reach for him. Letting her wolf rise, she shared the sensation of Roland filling her between her thighs with the wolf, her animal growling and rubbing herself against Natasha.