Page 48 of A Malicious Menagerie (Fangs & Fables #1)

Depositing a liberal amount of soap into my palm, I start at his neck, running my fingers under his jawline and along the steady throb of his jugular under the mass of scar tissue that makes my heart squeeze with sympathy.

Still, a wave of happiness washes away the pain like tropical waves pulling flotsam out to sea after a storm.

After everything—all the fear and abuse and hopelessness—he’s finally free.

And he might have literally killed for me, but I’m surprised at the level of resolve I feel to keep him safe and out of Mathis’s clutches.

I move to his shoulders next, my palms measuring the breadth of them before tracing my thumbs over the firm sweeps of his collarbones.

I linger at the expanse of his chest, cleaning away the leftover flecks and smears of blood before simply luxuriating in the solid swells of his pecs and the smattering of dark hair that narrows down to a thin line bisecting his abdomen.

My fingertips tingle where they meet his hot skin, and my chest aches with something like relief at being able to touch him the way I’ve been craving for weeks. Finally, I have him all to myself.

He rumbles contentedly when I skim my nails along his ridged abdomen.

The sound cuts off with a grunt when I wrap my fingers carefully around his cock, my fingers not quite meeting around his girth.

As I stroke up and down his length, trialing different pressures and speeds to figure out what he likes, I watch his face closely for clues.

It doesn’t take long for his eyes to flicker closed, and a moment later, his hand shoots out, slapping against the slick tiles.

His fingers curl against the surface as if he needs to hold himself up, and that’s a heady, powerful feeling.

My lips curling, I redouble my efforts, and I squeak in surprise when he grabs my ass with his free hand, his fingertips gripping tightly but not hard enough to hurt.

“Fuck, Anna,” he grunts as I tighten my grip just a bit. “That’s so good.”

“Want it to feel even better?” I ask slyly.

“I don’t know how—” He cuts off as I carefully drop to my knees. “Anna, you don’t have to—”

His words are interrupted by a groan as I trace that sexy indent along one hip with my tongue. “I want to,” I murmur. “I’ve thought about doing this so many times.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “Have you?”

I roll my eyes. “What do you think I was picturing every time I saw you naked?”

Still, up close and personal with his massive dick, I’ll admit: I’m a bit daunted. In addition to stretching beyond the limits of my grip, he’s as hard as the iron bars that used to cage him.

“You don’t have to—”

“Hush,” I tell him again, saving us both from his misplaced chivalry.

Who knew my usually flirty, self-assured wolf was such a worrywart?

I take a deep breath before leaning in to press a kiss to the smooth head.

He tastes of salt and warm musk, and I part my lips to take him into my mouth, wanting more.

The string of curses that burst out of Chase would make me laugh if my mouth weren’t otherwise occupied.

He’s too big to take all of him, but I use my hands to make up the difference.

When he threads his fingers through my hair and begins to gently guide my movements, I can’t help but moan against his length.

“Shit,” he grits out, pulling away. “Fuck. If you keep that up, this’ll be over before it starts.”

“Hair trigger?” I ask innocently as I accept his hand up.

He smirks. “Take pity on me. It’s just been me and my hand for nearly two years, and I’m about to be inside my mate for the first time. A wolf can only take so much.”

“That’s okay,” I tease. “There’s always next time.”

“And every day for the rest of our lives, if I have my way,” Chase growls, caging me against the wall until his solid chest is all I can see.

Suddenly, I can picture it so clearly in my mind: our whole future wide open in front of us. Endless days of teasing each other and making love. Maybe it’ll be a snowier future than I once pictured for myself, but that just means more time spent tangled up in blankets and sharing body heat.

“Do you want this, Anna?” Chase asks, snapping me out of my reverie.

“More than anything,” I reply, looping my arms around his neck, and I mean all of it—every spoken and unspoken promise we’ve made for our lifetime together.

His hands skim along my flanks before curving around the backs of my thighs and hoisting me up.

I wrap my legs around his hips, shivering with pleasure at the contrast of his scorching skin against my front and the cool shower tiles at my back.

We’re pressed together as close as we can be, my breasts crushed to his chest and damp bellies moving against each other with every inhale, but I’m aching with how badly I want him inside me.

I lean up to kiss his chin and then his lips, reassuring him with my touch how badly I want this.

My fingernails dig into Chase’s shoulders as the broad head of his cock nudges inside me, the stretch foreign after so long.

“Relax,” Chase murmurs, kissing me softly, and I force myself to take a deep breath and do as he says.

It helps that he keeps kissing me as he leisurely rolls his hips to press into me one thick inch at a time.

Gravity helps, and slowly, inexorably, my body welcomes him, the stretch feeling both perfect and like too much all at once.

We let out matching sighs of relief when my hips meet his, and I didn’t realize that I’d closed my eyes until Chase murmurs, “Anna.” Blinking away droplets of water, I meet his amber gaze, and he quirks a smile. “There you are. You okay?”

“So okay,” I promise, and to prove it, I use the wall at my back as leverage to undulate against him.

We both gasp at the sensation of his rigid length moving within me, the perfect friction sending all my nerves on high alert.

“Again,” I demand breathlessly, and he grins wolfishly before complying.

The sounds of our heavy pants mingle with the steam filling the room as we grind and shudder against one another, hands gripping feverishly to whatever flesh we can reach.

I kiss him furiously, my lips parting for his tongue, needing to take as much of him into me as I can.

When the pleasure gets to be too much, too distracting to keep our lips melded, we pull away just enough to share air, the warm puffs of his breath tingling over my swollen lips.

I watch through half-lidded eyes as Chase’s gaze grows hazy, his exhales becoming rasping and ragged until they roll into a continuous growl.

Tightening his grip on my ass with one hand, he leans his other forearm on the wall beside my head, leaning more of his weight against me until my ribs struggle to expand with a full breath.

Still, I tighten my legs around his hips, drawing him closer, because I love it.

Love being crushed so close that I don’t know where I end and he begins.

Love the burn in my thighs as his hips wedge them wide to receive his bruising thrusts.

Love his low, animalistic grunts as he pounds harder and harder into me until the sounds of our bodies colliding are almost violent in their intensity.

It’s so good, so good , and the pleasure radiates in warm, rippling waves from where his cock stretches my pussy through my tense, clenching lower belly and out toward my fingertips and toes.

My neck arches, every muscle tightening like a rubber band pulled taut, and Chase’s growl chokes off into a snarl.

Minuscule pinpricks of pain bloom from his iron grip on my ass, but it takes feeling his fangs scraping along the muscle between my neck and shoulder to realize that he’s losing control of his shift.

When his fangs pierce my skin just enough to sting, the shot of adrenaline that rockets through my system becomes the final push that sends me careening into bliss.

“Chase!” I wail as my entire body stiffens like I’ve been struck by lightning.

My blunt human fingernails might have nothing on his claws, but as I rake them down his shoulders, some distant wisp of thought worries—or maybe hopes—that I’ll leave a mark.

My pussy clenches mercilessly around his unyielding length until he struggles to continue his relentless drive between my thighs, but he persists with another snarl against my throbbing shoulder.

A moment later, he relinquishes his bite with a choked groan before wedging himself as deep as he can get.

I whimper at the sensation of his shaft swelling even larger before he comes inside of me with a grunt, his jaw tense and eyes squeezed shut in an expression somewhere between agony and ecstasy.

The sensation of liquid heat deep in my center prolongs my climax, my body finally softening to leisurely milk his cock and the sensation for a long, decadent moment that both feels like an eternity and not nearly long enough.

“Anna,” Chase rumbles as his heavy frame relaxes against me, his face pressed to my neck as he rocks his hips unhurriedly against mine.

“I know,” I tell him, kissing his cheek as I fight to catch my breath.

Chase tilts his head down and stiffens against me. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I ask muzzily, happy to float in post-orgasm bliss for as long as possible.

He leans back just a little, and I grumble at the loss of even a small fraction of his warmth.

The water heater is good, but not that good, and the temperature is trending toward lukewarm.

He pulls his arm from where it was propped against the tile and brushes his fingertips lightly over my shoulder, rekindling the ache there. “For biting you.”

“Oh,” I reply, twisting my neck to peer down at the four small, round punctures in my skin.

They’re tiny, though with my fair skin, they’re already starting to bloom with purples and blues that will be full bruises within a few hours.

Blood trickles in small rivulets from each puncture down my chest before fading to pink where it mixes with the water from the shower.

“It barely hurts,” I promise him, not liking the guilt in his expression.

“Besides…” I blush, which, after everything we just did, seems ridiculous. “I liked it. ”

His gives me a skeptical look. “You did?”

I snort in amusement, my blush deepening. “You couldn’t tell from my earth-shattering orgasm?”

He grins, relieved. “Touché. But will you be mad if I say that I like marking you?”

“Depends. Is this a werewolf thing, or a possessive man thing?”

“Why can’t it be both?” he asks teasingly.

“But it’s definitely a werewolf thing. You have your rings, we have our scars.

” I blanch at the thought of having to bite him to seal our relationship, and he chuckles.

“You look terrified. Don’t worry, I think I’m scarred enough for a lifetime. But I am fully expecting a ring.”

I breathe a relieved sigh. “That, I can do.”

When Chase carefully pulls out of me and helps me to my feet, I feel shaky as a newborn fawn.

Still, I freeze when I feel the unfamiliar sensation of his wet heat sliding down my inner thighs.

“We didn’t use a condom,” I point out, peeking up at him warily.

Most guys would be running for the hills at the thought of an unplanned pregnancy.

Hell, the thought kind of makes me want to run away from my own uterus.

“Don’t worry about it,” Chase replies dismissively, a satisfied half-grin pulling at one side of his lips when he notes where my attention has gone. “I’m clean, and you can’t get pregnant right now.”

I shoot him a bemused look. “What does that mean?”

He shoots me an equally bemused look back. “It means you were in heat last week, but you’re not now.”

I blink at him slowly as my hot blush rekindles. “Humans don’t go into heat.”

He grimaces. “Alright, you were ovulating last week.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can smell it,” he replies slowly, as if we’re speaking different languages and he’s trying to find the translation. “Do humans not know when they’re fertile?”

My mind is blown by the information that Chase has just been casually aware of my menstrual cycle since we met. “Not so much. Not without a lot of monitoring, and even then, it’s a bit of a guess. Accidental pregnancies are pretty common in humans.”

He looks shocked by this bit of human trivia, but then, he grins. “Perks of being with a werewolf, I guess.”

“I guess,” I agree, returning his smile.

Suddenly, he looks thoughtful. “Do you want pups?”

Oh, boy. Suddenly, it’s becoming clear to me that there are going to be a few cultural hurdles for us to clear. “When the time is right, sure.” I eye him warily, knowing this is the type of question that can make or break a relationship. “Do you?”

Thankfully, Chase is pleased by my answer. “Definitely. I’m thinking five.”

I gape at him before narrowing my eyes. “And are you carrying any of these babies? Let’s try two.”

“Three?”

“Done.”

We share a sappy grin before Chase gently presses a hand to my lower back to draw me into his body. “Come here.”

My blush feels like it’s become a permanent fixture as Chase carefully runs his hand over my inner thighs and between my legs, gently cleaning away the evidence of our coupling.

When his fingers brush over my overstimulated clit, my hips involuntarily twitch toward him, and he shoots me a lupine grin. “Really?”

“Hush.” I let my eyes slide closed as he teases circles around the sensitive bundle of nerves, and I gasp when I feel him lean down to lick a path from my peaked nipple along the upper curve of my breast and up my chest until he reaches his bite, the dull ache reverberating in my pussy like it already equates that sharp sting with a mind-blowing orgasm.

Pavlov’s pussy, I think wryly. Still… “Chase, as much as I want to…” I huff out a sigh.

“We have to figure out how to save Nan before Mathis’s henchmen can catch up with us. ”

Chase mimics my sigh before pulling his hand away with one last gentle pet. “Reality’s a bitch.”

“That she is.” Opening my eyes, I lean up to kiss him once more before bending over to turn off the quickly cooling water. “Alright. Now to pick up Nan and get the hell out of Dodge.”