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“You’re so big.”

His mouth quirked into a smug smile, then he lifted his hips, pushed down on hers, and filled her in one smooth glide, stretching her painfully. Tears popped into her eyes. Holy cow, he really was huge, and it had been a long, long time for her. So long since she’d trusted another man.

Though she’d never trusted one as much as she did her mate. Even though he’d taken her away from everything she knew. Even though he’d bound them together without explaining it first. Against all reason, she trusted him, and that made the temporary pain of their first joining ease away into nothing.

Zoran flicked his thumb along her clit and curled his upper body toward her, sucking her nipple into his mouth, his fangs sharp as he marked her again. Mia dug her fingernails into his shoulders and let her own instincts take over, rocking her hips against his, encouraging him to take from her, to lose his tenuous grasp on his control.

She wanted to know what that felt like, wanted to know the depths of his own wild heart so she could find the depths of hers.

Her first orgasm took her by surprise, shuddering through her so sharp and quick, she nearly screamed.

“Again,” Zoran growled as he rolled her onto her back, still seated deep within her.

His hips drew back and he thrust into her hard, his hips pistoning against hers in an unforgiving pace. Her limbs were so weak from her orgasm, she could barely hang on. She dug her fingernails into his back, arching her hips against his as her teeth scraped across his chest.

He uttered a string of untranslatable Xeruvian curses, but she got the gist. Her mate liked it when she marked him.

God, was she going to mark him tonight.

He stiffened above her on a low groan, and she felt his cock throb inside her, triggering another flutter from her pussy. Without a word, he withdrew and flipped her onto her stomach, pushed her knees under her, and stroked a possessive hand along her bottom.

The slap on her butt cheek took her by surprise. She buried her face in the bed linens, biting her lip to contain a plea for more.

Zoran rumbled out a low, pleased laugh, then his finger pushed into her core. “Your pretty little pussy looks good coated in my seed.”

She groaned into the sheets, already so hot for him again, her hips rocked back of their own accord.

“Worry not, lover,” he growled. “We have only just begun.”

Quickly he drove her to another orgasm, then buried himself inside her, pushing her higher and higher with every desperate thrust of his hips, until she shattered completely beneath him, and found peace in his furious drive to claim her.

Zoran loved her so thoroughly and for so long that Mia lost track of time. They fell into an exhausted sleep, only for him to rouse a short while later and drag her into his sensual spell again. He could’ve loved her for days, and she wouldn’t have known it. And wouldn’t have cared if he had.

She drifted slowly out of sleep, rising gently into the faint glow of the emerging day. Her arm flopped onto the empty space beside her, and her muscles protested the slightest movement. Not just the muscles in her thighs and core; all of them. Light pain of another kind flared in the bite marks he’d given her. She measured them one by one, smiling smugly with her eyes closed, wallowing in the afterglow of their lovemaking.

The bed shifted beside her, and a warm cloth stroked her throat. “Is the pain very great,pjora-la?”

Mia popped one eye open and squinted at Zoran. His eyes were hidden beneath lowered eyelids and his mouth had tightened into a grim slash. Scratches scored his chest and thighs where she’d clawed him in her desperation, and little bruises bloomed along his throat and chest where she’d dug her teeth into him, marking him the way he’d marked her.

She nearly purred with the satisfaction of it. If that jealous little witch Raelka could see Zoran now, she’d know once and for all who he belonged with. Not that she’d let another woman anywhere near him, Mia thought, grinning. What’s good for the goose and all that.

The cloth hit a particularly fresh bite, and Mia flinched.

Zoran’s hand paused and he lowered his head. “I must apologize, beloved, yet can find no words to express the depths of my sorrow.”

Mia shifted her head along the bed. “What have you done that needs an apology?”

“This.” He rose suddenly and stalked away, then turned around and walked right back, stopping at the edge of the bed. When he spoke again, a dark emotion strangled his voice. “What I have done to you is unforgiveable.”

She glanced down at her body, stifled a wince at the bruises and wounds decorating it, not to mention the dried semen. “Oh.”

“Oh?” he exclaimed. “Such is all you can say? Have I robbed you of words as well as your dignity? Your safety?” He dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead into her hand. “There is no excuse. Even in the midst of the mating frenzy, I should never have lost control.”

“Zoran.” When he didn’t move, she rolled cautiously onto her side, careful of stiff muscles. “My love, look at me. Please.”

He raised his head slowly, and in his eyes she saw a grief and agony so vast, it nearly broke her heart.

“I wanted you to lose control,” she confessed. “I wanted all of you last night, wanted you to have all of me. Do you understand what I’m saying, Zoran? I love you and I wanted to give you everything. I wanted you to be free so you could give me everything, too.”