Page 8 of Forsaking His Mate (The Wolves of Black Mountain #1)

Chapter 8

Tessa

H e’s kissing me so possessively it makes my toes curl. I’m aware of every inch of his naked body as it presses against me.

I’m no stranger to nudity. My pack was often naked around me after shifting, but this is different. He’s my mate, and his chest is also smeared with blood from his own injuries.

I am alight with need and my pussy is empty, wanting to be filled with him. We break apart for a moment so he can pull my camisole over my head. I’m not wearing a bra so he takes one of my breasts in his hand, lifting it slightly so he can wrap his mouth around my nipple. I arch my back as far as I can with the wall behind me, pushing deeper against his tongue. Every swipe over my nipple makes me whimper.

He sucks them until my pussy throbs. I imagine his thick cock spreading me, sliding inside me, and finally filling me the way only he can.

“Abel…” I gasp his name as he lifts his head. His eyes meet mine and I don’t see any humanity in them. Th is is all animal and his desires are driving him as much as they are driving me.

He rips my shorts off, throwing them aside and leaving me bare to him, ready for his fingers to slip between my folds. I widen my legs to give him room as he circles my clit with his thumb. He finds a rhythm that takes my breath away, and I grip his shoulders hard as he hooks his fingers so deep inside me I groan.

It’s not enough to satiate my ache, but it’s a start. My wolf howls, and I can feel her pleasure—we’re with our mate and he’s finally accepting us.

I run my hands over his body as I grind on his fingers. I can feel my orgasm building deep inside me, my walls contracting as he circles my clit harder. When I come, my legs nearly give out. His strong hands hold me up as my orgasm tears through my body until I’m seeing stars with the intensity of it.

“Was that enough, little tau?” he asks me.

It wasn’t. It isn’t. I need more. I feel empty as he pulls his fingers free from my body. “I need you to fuck me,” I demand.

He nuzzles against the side of my neck.

“This is wrong,” he says, “but I can’t stop. Now that I’ve tasted you, I need more.”

“It’s not wrong. We’re fated to be together.”

“I can’t be yours,” he warns, even as he keeps kissing my neck.

“Why?”

“Because I’m a monster.”

I don’t know what that means, but my thoughts scatter as his cock nudges at my entrance. He lifts one of my legs, creating more space for him between my thighs.

“I’ve never done this before,” I quickly admit before he can shove inside me.

He’s feral as he grips the back of my neck. “Do you have any idea how much that pleases me?”

I roll my eyes. Of course, he’s happy no one has touched what’s his before him. Wolves are such possessive assholes.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

Then he’s inside me. I gasp as my pussy stretches around his thick shaft. There’s a bite of pain as he pushes through my barrier, but he keeps moving inside me and that rhythm makes the pain fold into something else after a few strokes.

Pleasure.

He holds his nose against my throat as he fucks me with languid strokes. I grip him so tight I must leave marks on his skin. I don’t care. He doesn’t seem to either.

Abel rotates his hips, driving deeper into me. I’m so full with him I feel pinned to the wall behind me.

Chest pressed against my breasts, he grips my hips, dragging me closer. I can feel him trembling, and I wonder if he can feel me doing the same.

“Yes,” he hisses, his fingers wrapping around my throat as he pounds into me. As I meet his eyes, I see his pupils are blown wide, only a small ring of color around the black.

Abel growls, his chest rumbling, and his heated strokes set my body alight again. His teeth elongate, becoming fangs and I feel his teeth against my neck before he breaks the skin. I whimper, not from pain, but from the rush of pleasure that goes through me as he marks me as his. Something warm trickles down my throat .

Blood.

The coppery tang of it fills the air, even though it is only a small amount. Elation rolls through me as he forcefully thrusts deeper inside me. I feel so full of him like this, pinned in place by his thick cock, and I shiver, knowing he can get even bigger. During my heat cycle, Abel’s dick will swell and knot inside me to ensure pregnancy. The females in my old pack told me this, even though none of us were sure I would be able to mate.

I hope I will get to experience this. Simply thinking about it makes my pussy contract, and I squeeze my eyes shut as I go over the edge.

A moment later, his hips stutter as he spills inside me, my pussy milking every last drop from him. He stays locked inside me, his cock plugging my pussy as his forehead rests against mine.

Dizziness washes over me and something slams through my mind. I gasp, ducking my head as it ripples through the rest of my body like an electric current.

Our scents mix and my wolf calls to his. She wants to shift. I want that too, but instead, she lifts her head and howls.

I can sense his wolf, and he’s howling back.

It is as if I am made whole. He slides into my mind easily, filling a little spot at the back as the mating bond fully snaps into place.

As soon as it does, I realize something is deeply wrong. His grip on my neck is tightening, but his emotions are starting to come through the bond. They’re fuzzy at first and then they solidify into something tangible.

Anger.

His fingers squeeze my throat so hard I can’t breathe. I claw at his grip, my mind spiraling into panic as he holds me in place. He’s a full-blooded shifter, stronger than I am and right now, his mind is focused on one thing only—hurting me.

“Abel!” I choke out his name, fighting with everything I have. I can’t get air past his hold and spots are starting to dance across my vision.

His eyes lift and the feral look in them scares me to death. I’m not looking at Abel. I don’t recognize anything about the man staring back at me. Spittle collects at the corner of his mouth as he pushes me harder against the wall, my spine pressed against the wood. He glares at me from under his lids as he continues to squeeze the life out of me.

He’s going to kill me.

I have no idea how the mating bond works, but I know from others in my old pack that it can be used to communicate. I try to beg him in my mind to let me go, but he doesn’t. My wolf whines, but I’m focused on saving my life.

Abel, stop! I repeat in my mind, pushing it out toward his.

He doesn’t. I don’t know if he can hear me, but I’m starting to feel heavy-eyed and dizzy.

I reach for the only other thing that can save me. My magic.

I try to access it, but nothing happens.

Shit.

I try again, but what we did in the woods took a lot of my strength. I can sense a small tingle of my magic lingering and I try to focus on it. I’m weakening, but with the last of my strength, I push it out from my center.

I think it’s not going to work, but then it erupts from my body like a wave of power, shoving Abel back as if he’s been hit by a truck. He stumbles and sprawls onto the floor. I don’t stop to see if he’s okay. I run.

Slamming through the front door of the cabin, I sprint across the grass toward the main house. The lights are on and I can see Hester moving around in the kitchen.

My chest heaves, my lungs burning as if acid has been poured into them. What the hell is wrong with Abel? Even when he rejected me, I never felt such rage from him. He wanted to kill me. He would have done it if I hadn’t used my magic.

My legs are shaky as I run, but I keep going, knowing if I stop, I’ll not get back up. I scent him before I hear him coming after me. I can sense the rage coming down the bond and my fear is through the roof.

Something snags my foot and I go down heavily. My knees scrape through the dirt, my palms too as he drags me toward him. I scream even as I kick out, trying to stop him. I scream over and over, fighting for my life as he climbs on top of me.

“Abel, stop!” I scream. “This isn’t you!”

He grabs my face, his grip bruising. I reach down the bond, trying to soothe him, trying to calm him. I consider using magic to stop him somehow, but instinct tells me the bond is the only way to calm him.

His grip loosens a little. “I’m your mate. You don’t want to hurt me.” I repeat this over and over.

At first he doesn’t seem to listen. Then he slows, his head tilting to the side. The anger within him starts to subside. “That’s it,” I say. “Get off me.”

He tilts his head and to my astonishment climbs off me. I push more calming thoughts down the bond.

“What’s going on?” Hester yells from behind us, standing there with Apryle and Roux. They must have heard my screams.

Abel bares his teeth, snarling and growling before he launches at the girls. Hester speaks rapidly under her breath and flicks her hand out. As soon as she does, Abel drops bonelessly to the ground, his eyes rolling back in his head.

“Are you alright?” Roux asks, coming to help me off the ground. I’m covered in dirt and I’m aware I’m naked, but I don’t care about that.

My mate tried to end me and I want to know why.

“He just lost it. He tried to kill me.” I straighten, my hand going to my bruised throat.

“You had sex,” Hester says. She can no doubt smell our mixed scents and see the mark on my neck from where he bit me. “The mating bond?”

“It’s there, but all I’m getting from him is intense rage.”

I ignore how shaky I feel, focusing on Abel’s downed body. He hasn’t stirred.

Hester purses her lips and I feel she knows what is happening, but doesn’t want to tell me. “Hester, he’s my mate. If there’s something going on, I need to know.”

She blows out a breath. “He has moon sickness.”

“Moon what?”

The three of them exchange glances, but I’ve never heard of it. “There is a condition among some wolves that… changes them. It usually happens during the full moon, but I guess your mating bond snapping into place must have triggered it. It heightens the more animalistic tendencies wolf shifters have—namely anger.” She glances down at him. “Help me get him in the garage. We need to secure him before he comes around.”

He’s heavy, and it’s going to be a struggle to carry him there, so each of us grabs a limb. Once we get the door open and Hester flicks the light on, I can see a table in the middle of the room, bolted to the floor, with thick cuffs hanging from each corner. I glance at Hester.

What the hell is this?

We lift him onto the table and Hester orders us to secure his wrists and ankles. Reluctantly, I fasten the cuff around his wrist before stepping back. He hasn’t woken yet and I can sense nothing through the bond.

“Start explaining,” I say to Hester.

“It’s not my place.”

“I just nearly lost my life at the hands of my mate.”

The discomfort that ripples across her face puts me instantly on guard. “Moon sickness can turn a wolf completely feral. Abel was running when I found him, scared and ready to end his life to stop this curse.”

My heart skips several beats at the thought of Abel killing himself before I even had the chance to meet him. I rub at the pain blossoming in my chest. “And that’s why he doesn’t want to mate with me? Because he’s worried about turning feral?”

Hester looks like she doesn’t want to say anything, but she eventually speaks. “Abel left his pack because he was worried he was going to turn into his dad.”

“What happened to him?”

“That's not my story to tell; it's his. I offered him a place here. I didn’t know tau wolves could mate the same way as full-blooded wolves. I thought he would be safe from that here.”

Then I turned up and flipped that on its head.

“Every month, I tie him down and I use magic to control his wolf. It isn’t perfect, but it’s enough to hold the rage at bay.”

“I stopped him. I spoke to him through the bond. ”

Hester’s gaze snaps to me. “What?”

“He was on top of me, and I used the bond to speak to him. He was getting off me when you put him out.”

She shakes her head. “It’s not possible. Moon sickness can’t be controlled, even by a mate.”

“Well, I did.”

Hester frowns. “I’ve never heard of that happening. Maybe your magic helps with your bond somehow.”

Abel thrashes suddenly and snarls, snapping his teeth together. We all jump back.

“You think you can control this?” Hester asks, curiosity in her words.

I close my eyes and reach down the bond. I speak softly to him, telling him I’m his and that he’s mine. At first, nothing happens. He tugs against his bindings, his expression terrifying.

It’s okay, I tell him. I’m here.

His thrashing slows, and his eyes soften a little.

“How are you doing this?” Hester demands.

“I don’t know,” I admit, but I can feel him calming through the bond.

His gaze remains locked on me as I continue to soothe him.

“This shouldn’t be possible, Tessa,” Hester says.

I don’t care what the reason is. I only care that I’m helping him.

“I don’t think that’s true any longer,” Roux says in a soft whisper.

I ignore everyone and focus only on Abel and our connection. I keep soothing him, reassuring him, and piece by piece, I feel and sense him coming back to me.

His pupils return to normal size and he blinks rapidly before his eyes meet mine. “Tessa.”

“I’m here,” I tell him as he lifts his restrained wrists.

“What… what happened?”

“The mating bond triggered your moon sickness,” Hester says.

His eyes flare and I see the fear in them as he snaps his attention back to me. “Did I hurt you?” He scans every inch of my naked body, looking for injuries. I have bruises, I’m sure, on my throat, but I don’t care about them. I just want him to be okay.

“This is why you rejected me?” I ask, ignoring his question.

His nose wrinkles. “How could I be your mate when this monster exists beneath the surface? Just mating you made me lose control.” His eyes linger on my neck where he marked me with the claiming bite before he tears his gaze away.

“But Tessa handled you better than my magic ever could. She brought you out of it,” Hester says.

I see the confusion in his face even as I feel it down the bond. “She did?”

“Our connection helped me calm you. I think with practice I could do it every time,” I say.

He shakes his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

I move to him and cup his face with my hands. “I know you want to protect me from you, but it’s not you I need protecting from, Abel. You’re my mate. Fate wouldn’t have put us together if we weren’t made for each other. I was meant to mate you to help you with this.”

I bend down and kiss him softly, my mouth searching. I don’t know how it’s possible but he tastes so much sweeter now that our mate bond is in place.

“No more pushing me away.”

“The moon sickness will come every month, Tessa. I can’t control it. ”

“No, but we’ll work through it together.”

“What about incidents like tonight? I had no idea mating would trigger it.”

I shrug. “We’ll deal with that, too. We’re meant to be together and I’m not letting you reject me again, understand?”

His eyes lower and pain burns through my chest. “I can’t risk you.”

My hand flies up to my neck. “But you marked me. If you reject me now, I’ll fade away. I’ll never be the same.”

He can’t meet my eyes and I feel agonizing pain work through my body for the second time. This time it’s even worse, the mating bond heightening my feelings.

He winces and closes his eyes. “I’m sorry, Tessa.”

I blink at the tears that are blinding, turn on my heel, and run away.