Page 40

Aurora let out a long exhale, stretching in place before rising. It’d been a spectacular night so far. The moons were bright enough to illuminate the field, and she’d enjoyed a delicious picnic while listening to swishing grasses and chirping insects. All while bathing naked in the charged moonlight.

Trills from behind her caught her attention, and curiosity bloomed. Brushing off bits of dirt from her robe, she slipped it on along with some soft shoes and wandered into the forest.

Though she loved the bright expanse of the field, there was something magical about this place. Shafts of moonlight broke through the canopy and shone spotlights on night-blooming flowers. The hum of insects was stronger here too—chirps, buzzes, and clicks all creating a soothing cacophony.

It was warmer, even. The fading heat clung to the dense foliage, creating a heated cocoon. A spot on an enormous, twisted tree trunk fell into a beam of light, and Aurora squinted at the creature crawling a path up its bark.

A sictiana caterpillar? No. She tipped her head and moved toward the tree to get a closer look.

The light went dark, then relit. Aurora froze.

Adrenaline screeched into her veins. Had something passed through the beam of light? She whirled around.

Heart hammering in her ears, she scanned the forest and pulled her robe tighter. Rhaego?

“Hello?” she called out into the darkness. If she wasn’t so scared she would have let her eyes shut in embarrassment. She’d always berated characters in scary movies for doing that. If Rhaego were here, he would’ve made himself known.

No noise drifted to her. No movement caught her eye.

It was probably just a bird or bat swooping by.

The idea calmed her, and she turned to head back toward the field.

The sound of a snapping branch echoed between the trees, and her adrenaline had heard all it needed to hear. She fled.

Legs pumping and mind racing, she ran and ran until a reasonable voice inside broke through. She skidded into a dense overgrown area, hoping to disappear into the shadows. Hidden halfway behind a large tree, she begged her heart to stop pounding so loudly.

She held her breath, straining her ears for any hint of sound. Nothing.

See? You’re just being jumpy. You’re just…just…

Goose bumps lifted across her skin. There was no sound. None.

No chirping. No buzzing. No clicking.

The world had gone silent.

Aurora covered her nose and mouth, trying to smother her sharp breaths. What the fuck?

She squinted into the forest, clutching the trunk of the tree next to her for support. Ice crept under her skin, numbing her nerve endings.

Movement to her right made her flinch, and she slunk further into the shadows. Her knees nearly buckled with relief when she realized it was a sictiana fluttering between leaves. Some of the warmth returned to her body as her panic settled.

The sictiana flitted toward her, disappearing over her shoulder into the depths of the forest. Another moment passed and she caught sight of another sictiana. It, too, fluttered just ahead, stopped, then seemed to change course, darting behind her.

Dread skittered across her skin like a nest of spiders.

A third and fourth sictiana followed the path of the others. Aurora began to shake, feet frozen.

There was no need to muffle her breaths anymore. She had no breath left.

The warmth she’d been feeling didn’t drain as her horror mounted. Because it wasn’t coming from her. It was coming from something else. Someone else.

The hair on her neck lifted, awareness of someone at her back slamming through her.

Run. RUN! Trembling, she remained frozen.

An unmistakable puff of hot breath bloomed across her scapulae. With a shriek, she took off like a shot. This time, the sound of pursuit hit her ears.

She knew she shouldn’t turn while running but couldn’t help it.

Rhaego?

Enormous and red, her savior flashed in and out of sight as he appeared and disappeared within beams of moonlight and shadow.

The edge of the forest and the field beyond appeared, and she scrambled toward it on instinct, as though bringing Rhaego into the light would help rattle him. She stumbled into the clearing and faced the forest’s edge while continuing to quickly back away.

Like some kind of primordial deity, Rhaego emerged from the darkness. The gravity of him was staggering. Power and hunger poured off bunched muscle, making the world around him look fuzzy in comparison.

He was half-naked, hair wild and windswept. A breeze blew the messy waves out of his face.

His eyes…his eyes were black except for a red ring of fire blazing in their centers.

“Shit,” she breathed, belly somersaulting in joy and panic. Recognition?

Her gaze flicked to his hands. No marks.

He took one predatory step toward her, his head and shoulders tipping in her direction like a bull ready to charge.

“Double shit.”

She stumbled back a step, then another. With lifted hands she implored her mind to catch the fuck up and tell her what to do. She licked her lips, trying to gather courage and smother the instinctual fear clawing up her throat—difficult to do as he prowled closer.

This is what I wanted, remember? she told herself shakily.

Terrifying as it was, this was Rhaego’s nature. This was what he’d been trying so hard to warn her about. She needed to find a way to get them both through this if only to prove she could handle this side of him. That she wanted this side of him.

But holy hell… How? Fever-stricken, going through heat, and feeling whatever it was that happened when recognition occurred—it must be a nightmare trifecta for a man who valued control.

He lunged, fangs flashing in a grin when she rushed back, nearly tripping over her slip-on shoes but catching herself.

“Rhaego?” she called. How gone was his mind?

His grin broke wider a split second before he pounced, barreling toward her at an ungodly speed. Aurora spun and ran. She knew she couldn’t run forever; she just needed a damn minute to think past the roaring heartbeat in her ears.

Somehow he overtook her, sliding to a crouched halt not six feet in front of her face. She screamed and twisted in the opposite direction but tripped and sprawled face down in the grass.

She remembered all she’d learned about a Tuvastan woman’s heat at the luncheon, flipping onto her back to keep him in sight. Relax . She forced her body to go limp and pliant as he stalked closer.

He stepped above her, feet planting on either side of her legs. Then he lowered, trapping her hips beneath his spread thighs. Slowly, he brought his hands to rest by her shoulders and loomed above her, blotting out the bright light of the moons. Her breath trembled as the heat and smell of him seeped into her skin.

Her fingers curled into the grass. She shut her eyes, waiting breathlessly. A low slow growl rumbled from above a moment before he scratched along the crisscrossed neckline of her robe. With one sharp claw, he traced a line through the seam of her robe that parted the fabric. His claw drew a path between her breasts, over her ribs and belly, and down the curls of her mound, pulling through the robe’s loose belt until the fabric slipped open and pooled at her sides.

The cool air hit her skin, her nipples, her pussy, and she shivered.

“All mine,” he growled to himself, voice thick and rough. His musk built in the air until it was so thick she could chew it. Her mouth watered.

Licking her lips, Aurora opened her eyes and found him kneeling above her, staring brazenly at every inch of her body like a predator savoring the sight of their catch before digging in. Rhaego’s hand moved to the stays of his trousers, and he sliced through them. With the way his shaft strained against the fabric, they wouldn’t have held for long anyway.

His cock sprang free, and a whimper caught in her throat. Too big . She needed to slow this down.

Inch by inch, she lifted to her elbows, then her palms, heart beating in her throat. The silky fabric of her robe slipped down her triceps like water, making her shiver. Rhaego watched her movements transfixed, yet his rumbling growl told her he was poised to pounce at any moment.

She reached for his face. “All yours,” she agreed in a tremulous whisper. Just let it not hurt too bad, she silently begged.

Purr competing with his growl, he lowered his face to her outstretched palm. His fist locked around her forearm, and he licked a blazing path from her delicate blue wrist veins to the tip of her middle finger. The act was enough to pummel the last of her trepidation to dust.

Ferocity overtook her. She wriggled, trying to drag her legs out from between his bent knees so she could rise and kiss him. But he must have thought she was trying to get away because he snarled and pinned her to the ground. Fist securing her wrists in place above her head, he dragged his tongue across her throat, then lower. He sunk his face into the soft flesh of her tits, rubbing his mark into them and groaning. His claws scraped against her tender skin as he took one of her breasts in his massive hand and squeezed.

She moaned, arching her back to give him better access. Her pulse was soaring now, thighs squeezing together to relieve some of the pressure building in her clit. He flipped her to her belly without warning, keeping his hand under her waist and hauling her up to her knees until her ass was in the air. Small sticks and rough grass scratched across her tender breasts and belly as he dragged her backward through the dirt. Without giving her a moment to comprehend his intent, his tongue came down on her, hard and hot. She yelped in surprise.

He licked a scalding, vulgar path from the curls above her clit, across her sex, and up all the way through the cleft of her ass as though taking a long lick of an ice-cream cone. By the time his teeth sank gently into the fat of her ass, she’d been rendered boneless.

“I’ve caught you, little mate.” The words dripped off him in a guttural rumbling voice more animalistic than not. Liquid arousal gushed through her core.

His tongue dragged against her sex a second time, but he seemed frustrated by the angle. He growled out a sound of frustration, then gripped her around the hips and hoisted her off the ground until she dangled upside down on his chest, the tops of her thighs resting on his shoulders. The rough scratch of his chest hair teased her sensitive belly as he dragged her further up his chest like he was lifting a delicious brew to his mouth.

He hefted her, and she went weightless for a moment with a gasp. But then both of his thick biceps wrapped around her waist, catching her in a tight bear hug. Gravity and his iron grip caused her plump ass to spill over his forearms and she knew she wasn’t going anywhere. He let out a sigh of satisfaction at the new obscene angle and buried his tongue in her core.

She’d been grappling to get her hair out of her face, but when he released a groan of satisfaction and his purr rumbled to life, all thought blinked out.

He relaxed back on his heels, an addict finally getting a hit of the drug he’d craved all day. Rhaego held her aloft like he were squeezing his favorite pillow to his chest. Aurora could do little more than moan and wriggle as he feasted on her.

And that’s what it was—a feast.

He didn’t circle her clit in rhythmic patterns, controlled and determined as he had before. He devoured like a man starved. Aurora dug the heels of her palms into his thighs for leverage and lifted her head to keep the blood from rushing to it, but with each probing pass of his lips, fangs, tongue, her arms threatened to give out.

Rhaego licked and sucked and invaded every morsel before him, forcing a burgeoning climax to tug at her belly. She’d never come like this before, from this kind of glorious onslaught. But the vibration of his purr running through his tongue and chin were so strong that a sudden violent orgasm crashed through her without warning.

She cried out against his abs, back arching and nails digging into the fabric of his trousers. He didn’t stop.

He was so tall that although she was upside down, breasts smashed against his chest, his dick was still too far away for her to reciprocate with her mouth. She took him in hand instead, squeezing as another rough orgasm built on the heels of the first.

Rhaego cursed, behaving as if her hand had shocked him.

He shrugged her thighs off his shoulders, and the world whirled before her eyes as he let her hips drop. She blinked, finding herself upright, back pressed against his front, his cock jutting proud and stiff from under her parted thighs. He wrapped an arm across her chest, pinning her elbows to her sides. “I knew you were mine,” he groaned as he dragged his tongue up the column of her nape and swirled it around her ear. He lowered her until her pussy settled on the length of his shaft.

“I am,” she gasped, eyes riveted to the sight of his cock slipping between the lips of her pussy as he rocked along her sex, not pressing inside just yet.

He gripped her chin in his rough fingers and twisted her head up until she peered at him over her shoulder. His eerie gaze dipped to her mouth as his head craned forward. His lips met hers in a toe-curling kiss.

Purr seeping into her from every angle, Rhaego let his hungry tongue explore her mouth, making her breaths stutter. She almost didn’t notice him shifting her weight until the slick head of his cock pressed against her entrance. He pushed himself inside, splitting her lips and stretching her core until she broke away with a yelp of pain. Her channel contracted, trying to expel him.

He can’t fit, her mind yelled in a panic. Bent knees lying atop his spread thighs, she scrambled upward, trying to lift off him. He snarled in her ear, his heavy arm clamped across her tits, squeezing. “Be still, little doe. Breathe,” he growled against her ear, sending a shiver through her. “You’re mine tonight. You were made to take my cock.”

Aurora moaned. How could those words sound so dirty yet so romantic at the same time? How could her insides be fluttering with giddy pleasure at the thought of being Rhaego’s mate all while he was trying to squeeze a damn baseball bat inside her?

Breathe. She closed her eyes. Breathe, she chanted. Calm down.

Rhaego’s free hand slipped behind her ass, between their bodies. She tried to arch forward to give him access. His cock impaled her a little deeper, and she hissed. Emerging from between them, his hand glistened. Oily musk coated it, and she let out a happy sob at the sight of the lubricant.

Retracting his claws, he split his fingers into a vee and traced them over the stretched skin of her core, coating her pussy and his shaft. Her skin began to warm and tingle, and she sucked in an awed breath.

He coated her nipples next, pinching and twirling the stiff peaks between his fingers until they buzzed. Aurora moaned as his big hand kneaded her breasts, breath catching whenever he ran his rough thumb over her nipple and bit her shoulder.

She’d no sooner forgotten the burn at her entrance than he dragged her down, feeding another inch of his cock into her while revving his purr.

An alarm screaming that he was just too big blared inside her, but as his tongue circled her ear, fangs dragging along her lobe, those alarms were silenced. She noticed something strange about the vibration of his purr and realized he was shaking, the bulging muscles of his abs and pecs quaking behind her as though he were trembling with the effort it took to keep from wrenching her onto his cock.

A surprising flood of heat raced to her sex as she noted this. He was trying so hard to make sure she was okay, even now when his body and mind raged at him to bow under the weight of primal urges.

It made her feel guilty and sparked a feverish determination inside her. If she was his mate, fated by the Goddess, then she could take him. The knowledge worked with his tingling musk to numb her pain.

“More,” she moaned, head tipping back, brows curled in desperation. He gazed down at her, inky black eyes glazed and jaw clenched in pain.

She stretched back and licked the rigid muscles of his strained neck just under his strong jaw. He groaned. His chest at her back expanded with rapid breaths, and his arm around her squeezed tighter.

“More,” she begged again, pressing kisses to his sweat-beaded Adam’s apple until her neck cramped from the odd angle.

Bound to his chest as she was, she could only writhe when he released a ragged growl and dragged her down, this time impaling himself halfway. Aurora bit her cheek, eyes stinging.

The head of his cock rubbed against her inner walls as he heaved in breaths, and she finally felt a glimpse of the ecstasy awaiting her. She blinked through the sting of pleasure and pain.

“So tight,” he growled into her hair, bringing his free hand around to rub her clit. His fingers rattled with his purr, making her lids flutter and her mouth fall open in a moan. She rocked her hips into his touch, a coil tightening in her belly.

Rhaego kept driving his cock deeper as he worked her into a frenzy. Resonant moans broke from somewhere deep in his chest, making his breath rattle out of him. It was the hottest sound she’d ever heard. Her eyes rolled back as his fingers worked her clit in just the right way.

“Stretch for me like a good little mate,” he rasped through clenched teeth. His mouth pressed against her ear, his lips pulled back and fangs bared. “I’m going to make your cunt into a mold. Every vein of my cock will be imprinted inside you.”

The words hit her like a train, and she came. Hard.

Searing pain and throbbing pleasure crashed through her as he wrenched her down till he was buried to the hilt. Her thighs quivered around his, head falling forward. They gasped in heavy breaths, sweat slicked skin slipping against each other.

Aurora had never been so full before. She had to tip her hips up to get a good view past her tits and belly, but when she did, the sight of their connected bodies made her whimper.

Every little bit of her pussy connected with his cock so snugly she could feel the strong thrum of his hammering pulse through her stretched walls.

They shouldn’t work, but Goddess they did. Craning her head back, she kissed his neck again. His face angled toward her, so she kissed up his jaw, then ran her tongue across the seam of his lips.

Something changed in Rhaego’s energy. A building growl emerged with each breath, and his muscles started bulging. His binding arm slipped down her body until it wrapped across her hips.

He met her kiss with a languorous sweep of his tongue that sent stars dancing across her vision, then he broke away. His claws scraped against her shoulders, dragging her sweaty hair off her skin before his palm lifted to her nape. With his hold on her neck, he slowly guided her forward until she was on her knees in the dirt before him, face and shoulders flattened to the ground and ass held high.

Aurora licked her lips, mouth going dry. He forced his knees wider until the fabric of his pants ripped in two. She knew what this was. He’d been holding back. But now…

Rhaego was about to fuck her the way he wanted. Her heart picked up speed, and a wave of adrenaline spiked, making her twitchy.

She kept still, tipping her cheek into the ground so she could watch him over her shoulder. His black gaze darkened as their eyes met, and the red ring of fever blazed. Shaft still buried deep, he purred, seeming to reward her for her obedience. Her hands curled into the grass, lips parting.

For the first time, he slipped his cock out of her just a fraction, then rocked back in. Her eyes crossed at the sensation. It must have felt just as mind-boggling to him because he released the most visceral moan she’d ever heard.

The sound skittered up each vertebrae of her spine and inflated her ego. Even pinned to the ground and immobile as she was, her pussy had wrung that noise from him. Her body.

He belonged to her now. A possessive thrill ran through her.

Rhaego’s finger curled around her shoulder as he pumped inside her again and again, picking up speed each time until a growl tore through his chest and she felt the sharp cut of his claws bite into her skin. His hips began to piston.

The world around her dimmed; the only thing grounding her to this reality was the feel of his cock filling her. The slap of his thighs against her ass was strong enough to rattle her teeth, but his grip on her shoulder ensured she didn’t lurch forward. A warm, tingly liquid dripped down across her swollen lips and clit, sending an electric buzz through her. His musk.

Aurora pulled one hand out of the dirt and reached behind her head to grip his wrist, wanting to touch him however she could. She was rewarded with a strong bone-jarring purr.

Her back bowed as an orgasm built. Vanishing from her shoulder, his claws burrowed into her hair. With her scalp stinging from his punishing hold, he pulled her head back until she lifted to her elbows and gazed upside down into his blazing eyes.

She came with a scream. The bright moons blurred as waves of rapture rolled through her. Her body went limp in his arms, and she could only moan and pant as the unrelenting pounding of his hips continued.

Rhaego’s eyes slipped shut as his rhythm grew erratic, cock swelling even larger inside her. His groan turned desperate and loud.

His hips fell upon her then, his big body stretching across her back so he could grind himself deeper inside her. He was so tall that his elbow came down in the grass far above her head and his massive chest hovered above her cheek. Rhaego released her hair, and his claws dug into her soft hip as he rammed into her.

The weight of him forced Aurora’s upper body back to the ground, and she gripped handfuls of grass, eyes glazing. His moans cracked and broke in hungry whines and low snarls as he grappled to keep hold of her sweat-slicked skin and bury himself deeper and deeper though there was nowhere else to go.

Piles of dirt formed above her throbbing knees as his powerful body pushed her into the ground, grinding against her ass every time he plunged into her. A distant part of her felt guilty for not being a more active participant, but she was so overwhelmed by the feel of him, the smell of him, the sensation of being lovingly railed by her demon, that she could only float along in sweaty, high bliss.

Her burning knees sank deeper into the dirt and her eyes rolled. He could fuck her into a shallow grave, and she’d die happy.

His cock hit a place inside she hadn’t known existed, and her mouth parted in silent awe. “I’m…I’m gonna come again,” she whispered weakly into the dirt. Muscles too shot to do much more than twitch, this climax hit her deep and slow.

She released a drawn-out, throaty cry, ripping strong grass out of the earth by the root as her fists shook. Rhaego bellowed, his hips jerking as though her core was clenching so tightly he was locked in place. He drove against her until her knees finally gave out and she fell forward onto her belly.

His head dropped to his forearm as he came, cock pulsing inside her. His hips rolled, shaft driving deeper like he were forcing his cum through her cervix. And maybe he was. She had no idea what space was left, if she was honest.

Rhaego glanced down from where he was braced above her, and she weakly reached toward him. Lids drooping.

A dark chuckle had her blinking her eyes open again. His fangs flashed in a wicked grin. He lifted, dragging his cock out of her, then rolled her onto her back and loomed above, his wide shoulders casting her in shadow.

“The heat has only begun.” The crimson fever in his eyes pulsed brighter. “Beg the Goddess for strength, little doe.”

His mouth dropped between her breasts, and she gasped. As his tongue and fangs toyed with her nipples, she stared up, wide-eyed, at the two bright moons and indeed begged for strength.