Page 30 of Heartless Wolf (Wolf Moon Rejected #1)
CHAPTER 30 - LIV
Dash sniffed my neck and growled, and my shewolf responded by rubbing against his thighs. “Fuck, Squeaky Mooncrack. I hope that name means what I think it does, because you know where we’re spending the day.”
I laughed and hit him for that. “Don’t start on me, smartass.”
“Oh, I’m starting, Squeaky.” Sunlight glinted on his dark brown hair, gray eyes, and golden skin. The man was irresistible in his simple jeans and shirt. He gripped my chin with his long fingers, lifting my face so our eyes locked. “I’ll call you what I want. Sexy bitch. Damn fine fox. Ball buster.”
I laughed at the last one, my throat adopting a huskier note than earlier thanks to my shewolf. “As long as I get to call you whatever I want. Secretive asshole.”
He didn’t let me get another one out, pinching my jaw, tilting my neck to take his kiss. “That’s enough from you.”
Our tongues swirled fiercely, trying to assert dominance. This would always happen between us. Two Alphas fighting for prime position. He let me have the win, dominating his mouth, his rough clasp on my hips showing he enjoyed me making the moves. My mate had moves. A talented tongue he knew how to use.
Dirty thoughts disintegrated with his next line. “You won’t regret this.”
I poked his chest. “Don’t give me reason to.”
He swallowed thickly and nodded, knowing if he fucked up, this was his final chance. “Death is the only thing keeping me from you.” He validated that promise, sweeping my hair from my shoulder, laying a solitary, gentle kiss on my neck, that coaxed my heart out from the shadows of the moon.
For several beats, I contemplated going back to his room. Later. Restless energy thudded in my veins, and my muscles bunched from lack of exercise, pleading to stretch my legs after being cooped up for three days. “I’m stiff and sore. I need out of my human skin to run.”
I marched off before he carried me caveman-style into his bedroom to do as he promised. Swift and light on his feet, he caught up easily, and hooked my waist with his arm, nuzzling me, nipping, licking, nibbling. Shivers trickled from my neck to my toes, inviting me to get lost in his affections and pick up where we left off last night.
Tonight, Father would station guards by my cabin to prevent Dash sneaking into my bed. After the last two nights, staying away from him was going to be difficult. Dash had his work cut out for him to restore trust with me and prove himself honorable to my father and his own.
Dash clasped my jaw possessively. “Just a brief one. Stay close.”
My shewolf howled her thanks to the moon. Me, I smiled, pleased he honored my request to make my own decisions. The plan of how to deal with Pack Malice would be the ultimate test of whether Dash respected making decisions together.
My mate let out a shrill whistle and his men amassed at the front door. “Get protection, we’re going for a run in the forest.”
The four men excused themselves to complete their Alpha’s command.
On the clubhouse’s porch, Dash crouched at my feet, tugging me out of my boots, socks, and jeans, groaning and kissing his way down my thighs to my knees. My shewolf trembled for more, my insides steaming worse than his bathroom during a shower.
Dash’s gaze trailed mine to the trees without a fence line hugging the back of the property, luring us into the national forest, shielding us from the outside world of humans. Where I intended to make him mine. “This place is perfect. I rented it so we can shift safely here and run wild.”
Beau emerged with Steele close behind him, packing holstered dark handgun in their palms, and the meaning of ‘get protection’ smacked me in the side of the head. Ash Lumbry taught his pack to carry weapons with them at all times, including those times dressed as their wolves.
Dash snarled a warning for them, our bond telling them not to look at his mate in my state of undress. Nudity came with the territory as shifters, but my body vibrated from his possessive, greedy threat. They collectively lowered their gazes and backed away, their wolves whining, eager as mine to get wild, free, roam the forest and exercise. My mate refused them access to the porch until he had me fully sheathed in my fur.
This lucky gal won an eyeful of beautiful naked bodies stripping, flexing with each motion, skin, bone, and muscle rippling as it shifted into their wolves. Steele waited until last, strapping gun holsters around their rear thighs, arming each wolf, and my stomach flipped.
Tucked to Dash’s side, I nuzzled his neck, basking under the scrutiny of five gorgeous wolves sizing me up. Dash’s smoky wolf matched his eyes. Steele’s wolf matched his name, Beau’s snowy pelt was in contrast to his dark gaze, Ryda’s sleek onyx, and Arden’s mottled grey with dark tipped ears and a wolfish grin to match his killer smile.
The five males rotated around me, giving me playful jaw bites, licking my muzzle, nudging my neck, rubbing their sides to mine, and heads and tails low in submission to my higher rank. Dash’s wolf allowed it under the pretense of our bonding ritual to gain their acceptance as their future female Alpha.
One yip from Dash’s beast ordered them to get into formation, two out front and at the rear, with Beau locking me on my right. Security flanking the leader and his mate in every direction. Unfamiliar with his territory, I followed their direction, sunlight and shadow cluing me on where we moved. Energy poured into my muscles as they contracted and expanded, throwing me into playful chasing, nipping, nudging, and circling each other.
Sunshine glowed in my chest and at my thumping paws, claws sinking into the dirt, nature crackling through my pads. New scents, sights, and sounds overloaded my senses as I committed the terrain to memory. Hester pack land consisted of a sparser, drier, russet forest cover, typical of valley topography. Lumbry lands were lush, green, moist, and permeated with delicious wet scents like moss, ferns, and sweet flowers.
Ryda and Arden nipped my heels as I strayed wide around a tree. Stay close. A good sign they considered me theirs to protect. Dash’s low growl warned them to back off, and they bowed their head, granting me space.
After the Lunar Ceremony, the bakery, being caged, and the tensions between Dash and me, all I wanted was freedom. I let loose and sprung right, barely avoiding clipping Beau’s rump. Everything was simpler in my wolf’s skin. No human rules. No threats. No goddamn arranged marriage. My shewolf barked at them to chase and play. Dash accepted my invitation, and we rolled on the ground, covering our coats in dirt, dried grass, and leaves.
Basking in his attention, my shewolf dared her mate, flying wide, sparking a growl not to test him. Repeating the move, I steered left, and he gave chase. I howled with delight, sprinting faster, determined to outrun him. Wild wolves loved to chase each other, wrestle, and tumble. I was game for it all. The game turned rough when Dash nipped at my heels, then my hind. Exhilaration spiked in my veins, addictive like a drug. I whimpered in pleasure when four soldiers completed a fan of pursuit.
Dash let out a thunderous growl, telling the males beneath him in rank to stay away from his female. Heads and tails low, they slowed, giving us privacy while staying within range to protect us.
Arousal assumed control of me, and I hightailed it through the scrub, low shrubs combing my sides, my breaths coming out in hot, heavy pants. Lithe paws gave chase and Dash whined to catch up. His wolf was bigger and not as agile as mine, and I skidded away from him, ducking under a log to hide and slowing my breath. Thunderous growls pursued fifty feet behind me. Dash didn’t like to be outsmarted.
My mate’s breath heaved as he sniffed, searching for my scent. “I’ll find you wherever you are, Squeaky Mooncrack.” Someone partially dropped his wolf skin to call for me. “I’m going to punish you for running away.”
Heat tore through my body like my fur caught on fire, and I lassoed my moan, trapping that bitch in my throat. I needed him to hunt me down. Wrestle, bite, and lick me, winning the honor of claiming me. I was an Alpha female who demanded conquering before he mounted me.
The rumbling of his throat got closer. “I’m not going to be gentle like I was last night.” The roll in his chest said he was all beast, and my body trembled with his promise.
My wolf panted her approval, and this time I lost control of my low groan.
“There you are.” Dash zoned in on my location and crashed toward me.
Burning hotter by the second, I slid out from beneath the log and showed my teeth, ready to wrestle. Silver melted across his dark eyes, his wolf behind the wheel. Dash’s agility surprised me, knocking me off balance, and we rolled along the ground, coming to a stop seconds later. Before I got the chance to right myself and continue our tangling, he shook off his fur and straddled me, leaning down to nip my neck as I squirmed beneath him, his already stiffening cock digging into my leg. I emulated him to lie naked beneath him, scratching at his arms.
He flipped me on my belly, his fingers wrapping around my throat, pinning me down, the way a male proclaimed me his to mate. “You let me catch you.”
“I wanted you to,” I panted, spreading my legs, showing him exactly what I wanted. What he earned. His right to claim.
He leaned down and ran the flat of his tongue along the side of my neck and I wriggled harder, loving every second of his dominance. “Have I won you, female?” The need in his voice fired the ache between my thighs.
Flames gusted across my entire body. Slick lubricated my pussy and dripped down my thighs. I needed to mate. His knot locked inside me. To fuck wild and rough if it was too dangerous for him to give me that.
I crooked my head to the side, exposing my neck, communicating my submission and desire for him to mount me. “Yes, you won me.”
He removed the gun strapped to his thigh, setting it down at arm’s length. Then he positioned me on all fours. We were going to do it just like our animals, brutal and uninhibited. Fucking howling down the forest for all his men to witness.
His posture rattled with arousal. “You’re not going to clobber me over the head with strange Hester mating practices?”
Laughter spluttered from me. “I assure you that’s not a Hester ritual.”
“Good to know.” He lifted my arm, stroking my Lunar tattoo on my wrist, the shooting stars over the wolf glowing silver in response to his heated touch. “I knew you were mine the moment I laid eyes on you. I didn’t need a fucking Lunar goddess to tell me that.”
I knew it too. Love at first sight. My heart locked in my chest, telling me he was the one to bond my soul. All these years later, we were close to that step.
He cupped my breast and squeezed. “Tell me no one has touched you.”
I remained silent, unable to lie to him. Some random dude at a bar stole that title. Then another. And another. Faceless, nameless, meaningless men I didn’t remember when only one man’s face burned in my soul.
“Fuck. You were mine.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “That’s my punishment for letting you go.” We both suffered. Not anymore.
Anticipation shivered through me at every touch. Scorching lips crashed to mine, sucking my plump lips, drinking down my taste like I contained the fountain of life. I tasted him back, sweet, rich, and spicy like his amber. I could kiss him all day and never tire of it.
Dash licked my lips, and I nipped back at his. “You taste and smell incredible.” His fingertips danced alone my flaming skin. “Freesia and honey. Moonlight and wilderness. My favorite scents.”
Moaning at his praise, my fingers tangled in his hair and combed it. I whined at the adoring way he palmed my ass, mapping out my curves like he planned a bike ride. At the fevered kisses he garnished my skin with. At his slow, meticulous pace, despite his earlier threat not to be gentle or the impatient howling of his men two hundred feet to the west.
I knew something was wrong when he stiffened, the pace of his palms exploring every inch of my spine slowing to a stop.
“I’m sorry, Liv, I can’t mate you yet.” Dash’s scorching tongue licked my neck to ease the cold burn in my soul. “I won’t put you in jeopardy. Ever. And I won’t fucking lose you again.”
Fuck the witch for cursing him. Blood and bitterness tasted at the back of my throat, craving her death, painful and slow for depriving me of the chance to mate at the Lunar Ceremony. Dark thoughts I shoved aside to stop them ruining my moment. Better late than never. Once she was gone—add TJ fucking Malice to that list—nothing stood between us, and we could bond as Lunar mates, Dash branding my soul, my body his. Marked with his silvery pink scar, no one would dare touch me knowing I belonged to him.
“I know.” I whimpered, and ground my ass into his hardness, desperate to connect on a physical level when our soul-level one dangled feet away. “For now, it’s enough to be yours.”
Dash’s frustrated growl gave way to a hungry, heated one. He sheathed his cock in the condom he stashed in his gun holster, and slid his length through my slick, swollen folds, turning up the heat in my core.
“Fuck, you’re dripping wet for me.” He cupped my ass hard, and I yelped at his possession. “Grind your pussy over me and make a mess of me so I glide in easier.” I did as he commanded, earning a pleased swipe along my side, my sin dancing in his flames. “That’s my good, girl.”
He wound my hair around his fist and tugged my head to the side. I groaned at his fiery kisses branding my skin with his scent the way he wanted to stamp me as his with his bite.
“You get no foreplay as punishment for running.” He enunciated each word with a crack of his palm on my ass. “Fuck. Your ass is beautiful with my red handprint on it. Just like from this angle on your hands and knees.”
Following through on his no foreplay discipline, my mate nudged his blunt head into my entrance, and I whimpered at the intrusion. He was a big boy. Much bigger than any of my previous one-night stands.
“Lunar goddess.” I bit my lip, biting back the burning sting of stretching to accommodate his girth.
He smacked my ass. “Spread your legs to take all of me.”
I inched my legs out wider, and he purred his appreciation.
Positioned on his knees behind me, he rasped, “Ready to squeak, Mooncrack?” I’d never live down that damn nickname.
My voice evaporated from his coarse grip and husky whisper, and I gargled a nonsensical response. His thickness speared me, and I bucked forward, clawing at the ground, screaming in a mixture of pleasure and pain as he rocked into me.
He pressed his chest to my back, his fingers brushing my neck, and hot breath steaming my ear. “Did I hurt you?”
I smiled, vibrating with starlight that he checked in with me. Everything he did for me since he exiled me from his life was to prevent me harm. Reservations crumbled like the rest of my walls. I trusted he wouldn’t hurt me. That he wouldn’t leave me afterward. That he would protect me like he promised. Relishing the extent to which he would go for me, I surrendered to him, earning a dark, hungry purr and his hand squeezing so hard my skin dimpled and flared with pain.
“Don’t stop,” I gritted out, and he picked up his pace, dotting devoted kisses along my shoulder blades.
His cock reached where no other had, hitting me in exactly the right spot. Canines nipped at my shoulder, dragging along my scorching flesh, and I moaned at the pleasure clashing with pain— a pain I sought by rocking back into him, meeting him strike for strike, thighs shaking. He grunted with satisfaction at my reaction, driving me into oblivion with every thrust. Hard but not ferocious. Untamed but not feral. Heaven. What I waited years for. Well worth the fucking wait.
Sounds of slapping flesh echoed through the forest, along with the horny whines of Dash’s men in the distance. Fuck. I never took myself for an exhibitionist, but I let them hear every moan, growing louder, spurring my mate’s enthusiasm to drive into me harder and faster. Fingers dented my hip flesh to the point of pain, and I loved how brutal he was with me.
“Yes, Mooncrack.” His timbre throbbed with the pleasure he gave me. “Tell them how good I fuck you. Let them know who you belong to.”
I obeyed his order to the point my hoarse voice cut off. My damn mate knew how to wring my pleasure from me, driving deeper, wilder. I let him know how good it felt, clawing at his hands to lock him to me, moaning, going out of my fucking mind with pleasure. The coiling tension in his legs and grip on me told me he hurtled closer to release with me, and when it hit, I screamed his name, rocketing to the damn moon. New stars and galaxies exploded to life. Adventures and possibilities. Rebellion and trouble. Everything I loved about him.
Spent, he collapsed atop my back, his body contracting with each heaved breath. “Fuck, Squeaky Mooncrack. If that was what fucking you is like, I can’t wait to mate you.”