Page 7

I t’s official.

Sanity has left the building as I stand on my porch kissing the new stranger like we’ve been practicing this for an eternity. Like we’ve always belonged together this way.

Jonah kisses like it’s the most important thing in the world, like he’s desperate to make the connection last longer. Cupping my face, his thumb strokes my cheek as he offers me everything on a plate. He didn’t force or push, like other alphas do. He asked. He waited. He was too fucking nice and good for me, but I can’t end the kiss. I want more. Want him.

My body feels like it’s burning from the inside, the need and desire painful as I claw at his back, holding him tighter to me, bathing myself in his pheromones. Practically melting into him, I chase more of the incredible scent that clings to his skin. Wood smoke and moss. He smells like the forest. Like home.

As he kisses me deeper, there are sweeter notes and I pick up hints of wildflower, the kind you find up on the mountain tops at the height of summer. Could he be more perfect?

Reluctant to break our connection, I try to shove my keys into the door without looking while Jonah chuckles against my lips.

“Let me,” he murmurs as he kisses along my jawline and down my neck. At the same time, he takes the keys from me and slides them into the lock effortlessly, turning it until it clicks. With my hands now free, I wrap them up around his neck even though I have to go on to my toes a little. Tall alphas are the best.

Letting out an embarrassing whining noise, I throw my head back as his teeth graze over my scent gland and he nips me gently. He was going to make me come before we ever got over the threshold at this rate.

Stepping inside, he drops his bag to the floor and a loud clattering as something falls from my pockets. I don’t care. I can deal with whatever it is later.

He reaches for the hem of my shirt, but I place a hand over his, holding him in place as I shake my head. I bore the marks of my time at The Warren on my skin, like a map of my life, and I rarely let anyone read it. How could I? They were tales of a different life.

“Don’t.” My words are quiet, but I know he hears me because he lets his hand drop and instead, he leans in and kisses me again.

“Love, let me see.” The words are like pleas, soft and gentle. The way he says love sends a pleasurable sensation through me, like someone stroking up my spine. My chest aches. The skin throbbing and itching at just the thought of his gray eyes landing on the marks that are etched into my flesh.

The Husk treated children like cattle. Like they were belongings, created only for the benefit of The Warren. And how do you keep track of your livestock and ensure it is returned if it runs away? By branding it. By making sure it’s plain for everyone to see your place in the hierarchy.

“I can’t.”

Jonah places a tender kiss on my forehead. “I think you’re beautiful, no matter what.”

How was the man real? The bear shifter last summer had told me it was fine, but then repeatedly tried to pry my clothes from me. I hadn’t been suffering with my heat episodes as badly as this, so he’d just pissed me off to the point that I’d left once I’d gotten what I needed from him, leaving him hanging.

Jonah kisses my brow and then my cheekbones before claiming my mouth again. His hands have returned to my face, eager for skin-to-skin contact with whatever he can touch.

Wrapping a hand around my throat, he uses it to tilt my face upwards and deepen our embrace. His pheromones surround me, wrapping around me like a cocoon. They give me a strange sort of clarity, but it’s like tunnel vision, where all I can see is him. All I want is him.

Reaching for the hem of his T-shirt, I yank it over his head, frantically trying to push away all the barriers between us so that he’s exposed to me. I need to touch him. Need my hands and mouth on his body before I combust. He chuckles as he kicks his shoes off and I do the same before we’re kissing again, like magnets clinging together.

Without breaking the kiss, he lifts me, his strong arms coming up under my thighs as I wrap my legs around his waist. The downstairs of my cabin is open plan, so once you’re through the front door you can choose to go left towards the lounge area, or right towards the kitchen.

Jonah doesn’t hesitate as he moves us into the kitchen, placing me down on the kitchen worktop. I keep him locked to me. Not willing for there to be any space between us yet as my hands explore the broad muscles on his shoulders and his back, roaming whatever he’ll let me.

Every now and again he makes a soft snarling noise, and it makes my cock jerk. I love it when a partner's animal side can no longer be contained. It’s a sign of how much they want me. Jonah’s hand rubs me over my jeans, pinching my tip through the fabric, drawing a long moan from me.

“Can’t wait to feel you beneath me,” he grunts, giving my dick another squeeze before kissing me like a desperate man.

The heat has fully taken over now, my common sense shredded into ribbons that do nothing more than flap in the breeze as I practically launch myself at him. Stumbling backwards, we move from my kitchen to the lounge.

Dropping onto the couch, with me on his lap, Jonah respectfully keeps his hand on my hips, fingers biting into my skin like he’s trying to merge with me. Grinding over his hard cock makes my body tremble. He feels huge.

And suddenly it’s like a flame has sucked all the oxygen out as my head goes fuzzy and everything turns to pure need. Want. Want. Want. I need his knot. His alpha cum painting my insides like a Pollock masterpiece.

He can fill this horrible void and stop the hurt.

He can make it better.

Want. Want. Want.

I feel like I might die, if he isn’t inside me soon. Reaching between us, I tug at the waistband of his pants impatiently, but he brushes me away.

“Behave, Blue.” Reaching up, he wraps a hand around my throat and squeezes, “Be a good boy and I’ll give you what you need.”

With his fingers pressed into my scent glands, he scent marks me, letting his pheromones absorb into my skin. It’s the sweetest headrush, as everything seems to slow down and I feel like I’m floating. Has heat sex always felt like this, or was it just Jonah?

All the nerves in my body feel overstimulated, like my skin has been peeled away and I’m nothing but a bundle of fibers all seeking connection.

“Let me take care of you,” Jonah’s words sink into my skin as he bites my neck, marking me like I’m his.

My hips roll, and I grind my cock over his, making both of us moan. Our breaths intermingle as we pant. Why isn’t he as desperate as me? How was he still in control? It wasn’t enough. Want. Need. Breed.

Dipping his hand inside my jeans finally, he pulls out my dripping cock. I’d been leaking pre-cum since the heat had started to hit, back in the hotel room. I was a dripping mess of aching need.

“Goddess, you’re beautiful.” He murmurs while brushing his fingers up my shaft, sending a shiver up my spine. Want.

I never usually liked all the small talk or awkward sex conversations, but with him, it was like the words stroked me from the inside, overwhelming me, in combination with his physical touch. Need.

If I thought Jonah was here to save me, to stop the ache, I was wrong. He was drowning me, pushing me further under until the pain and pleasure became one. Until my body was a blaze, and the only thing I could see was him. Breed.

Finally wrapping one of his large hands around my throbbing dick, he gives me a slow leisurely tug and we both watch as a fresh dribble of pre-cum beads on my flushed tip before rolling lazily down over the mushroomed head, moving down until it makes my balls sticky. It feels obscene. Filthy. I shudder, my balls tightening. Was I going to come from this? Fuckkkkk.

My hole clenches, slick leaking out of me while Jonah presses his nail against my slit gently. Fuck. Fuck, he was going to ruin me and we hadn’t even started. I run my hands down his chest, bearing my fingers in the patch of fuzz he has between his pecks. How did he have a body like this?

With a cruel chuckle, he grazes his teeth over my scent gland, giving my cock another pump with his fist, squeezing tighter.

Claim me , my omega whines, making me blink. For all the times I’d been consumed by my heat episodes, I’d never once wanted someone to claim me as their mate. There’s no time to linger on that errant thought, because his fist moves faster, making wet sounds that echo around my cabin. Schlick, schlick, schlick.

My hands tremble as I lean back, holding onto his thighs to steady myself, rolling my hips so that my hole is pressed against his erection. With one hand, I lift the edge of my T-shirt, just above my hips, and we both watch mesmerized as my muscles contract, tightening and releasing as he jerks me off.

He leans in and steals another kiss, his tongue dipping inside my mouth as my orgasm builds in the base of my spine. “Perfect, like you were made for me.”

Do I have a praise kink? I think I might as I spill, creamy jets of cum covering us both. He wrings out the last pathetic spurts before bringing his hand to his lips and licking off the remnants of my climax. This alpha was going to be the death of me.

“You taste so good, love.” How is this man real and not some figment of my horny, heat addled brain?

Letting my T-shirt fall back down, I nuzzle into him, licking up the side of his neck and tasting the salty musk on his skin. Mine , something whispers in the back of my mind, but I ignore it. He’s mine right now, but it can’t be more than that.

His hands are on my thighs as he teases me with gentle touches. A bead of sweat rolls down my back, and I recognize the growing feeling in the pit of my stomach. The orgasm might have bought me some extra time, some extra clarity, but it was just an ebb in the tsunami of my heat. Already my cock is filling again, sensitive and swollen with need.

“My Insatiable, greedy, love. What are we going to do with you?” Pressing his lips to my forehead, Jonah chuckles before helping me to my feet.

I tear off my socks in a rush before he peels my jeans the rest of the way down my legs and tosses them somewhere. I don’t really care where in this moment. He could’ve set them on fire and waved them around like a flag, and I probably wouldn’t have noticed because all my attention was focused on the bulge in his sweatpants.

I needed that cock in me. Now. Whining, I grab his wrist and pull him off the sofa. “Now please. I need you to fuck me. Now.”

Jonah almost trips as he tries to kick off his own shoes, but I’m dragging him towards the stairs, impatient. He can keep his shoes on as long as his dick is in my ass in the next five minutes.

“Woah, slow down, babe.” He tugs me back for another sloppy kiss, biting my lip and sucking on my tongue before turning us back towards the stairs and landing a playful spank on my ass. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yes, you are. Bedroom. Now.” Remembering my manners, I add a late, “Please.”

“You know, the more you rush me the longer I’m going to drag this out, darlin’.”

If he keeps sprinkling these endearments like confetti, I’m going to have to handcuff him to my bed and keep him with me forever to shower me with compliments because it’s doing something to me. It’s making me want to nest with him, burrow inside his skin and stay with him forever—and that’s a dangerous thought to have, however fleeting it may be.

Linking my hand with his, I try to rush us up the stairs, but he resists, making us walk. Pouting, I slow down with a grumble, murmuring ‘move faster’ under my breath.

When we reach the top of the stairs, I think his patience with my bitching has finally run out because he pushes me forward and I land on my elbows. It isn’t until I feel his warm hands moving up my thighs that I realize it was intentional.

“Fuck,” he exhales, spreading my cheeks to expose my slick hole. The cool air makes me twitch and I can feel the slick running down my thighs, as my pheromones thicken in the air. Ever so lightly, he brushes his thumb over the tight ring of muscle and I can feel my body flutter and tense.

“You smell delicious.” Leaning in, he licks a stripe up my crease. He laves my skin, licking up everything he can get his mouth on like he can’t bear to waste a single drop. Some people like to compare omega slick to ambrosia. They believe that the pheromones in it make it a potent aphrodisiac. Jonah is clearly one of those people as he buries his face between my cheeks, lapping at the stickiness.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckkkkkkkkkk. Growling into the hallway carpet, I claw at the woven tuft like it’s the only thing tethering me to this earth as he drives me wild.

Reaching behind me, I grab a handful of his hair, holding him in place as he pushes his tongue inside. If I didn’t want his knot so badly, I would make him do this all night.

He isn’t playing fair when he pushes a finger in alongside his tongue, fucking in and out of me with wet slurping noises. Slowly, he adds a second finger before scissoring them gently, twisting them in and out while he licks around my rim, lapping up the slick now gushing out of my hole. I don’t think I’ve ever been this soaked in my life. Put a sign on my ass—I may as well be a Slip ‘N Slide.

Just as I’m on the precipice of coming, my cock rubbing up against the steps below me, he sinks his teeth into my ass cheek. The pain snatches me back from the edge, only partially soothed as he licks over the sore skin. The fucker chuckles as he places light kisses over the mark he’s no doubt left behind.

“Don’t worry,” he reassures me, placing a kiss at the base of my spine. “I’ll get you there.”

Looking back over my shoulder, frustrated, I scowl, which only makes him grin wider. “You make an awful lot of promises considering your dick isn’t in my ass yet.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He isn’t and we both know it. “Am I not up to your standards?”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to lie to him, and tell him I’ve had better, but it’s like he can read my thoughts because the look he gives me tells me he knows I’d be lying.

Without warning, he curls his fingers, brushing against my prostate as he fucks in and out of my hole, making me lurch forward with a grunt.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I try to glare at him, but he just smirks. “Are you going to come for me again?”

“Make me,” I grit through my teeth as he raises a brow.

“My pleasure.”

I should know better than to bait him, as it only takes a little more pressure and a few starving licks before I’m coming with a cry for the second time that night, making a mess all over the staircase. As I’m panting into the carpet, sweaty and flushed, I barely notice Jonah moving my hips. When he drives inside my ass with one powerful thrust, impaling me on his fat alpha cock, I notice that.

A keening noise is ripped from my throat, as he buries himself in me to the hilt.

“Shhhhh, good boy. You can take it,” he soothes, leaning down to cover my body as he strokes my hair and kisses my shoulder.

“You’re so tight,” he says, his words ragged and breathy.

Almost painfully slow, he undulates his hips, never quite pulling out of me, but not pushing in deep enough either. It’s like he just wants to live inside me, torturing me until I’m out of my mind with need.

After a few minutes of this, I’m sobbing, begging for more, but he ignores my pleas to plant tender kisses anywhere he can reach.

I thought he was going to knot me on the stairs. In fact, I was convinced of it. It turns out I was very wrong.

In a dangerous move, he leans back and hooks his arms under my thighs, lifting me as if I weigh nothing. I know that I’m smaller than him, less muscular with a runner’s body, but I’m not exactly a bag of feathers either.

Sliding my arms around his, I tried to hold on to him tight. I’m afraid that he might drop me and I’ll go tumbling down the stairs when all I want was to be fucked until I could no longer remember my name.

Carefully, he takes the next step up, the motion jostling me on his cock, which is still buried inside my body. And again. There are two more steps to go and already my cock is trying to rally.

With the next step, he drops me down a little harder, and a spurt of precum shoots from my half hard dick.

“You’re a sadist,” I hiss, wrapping my arm around his neck, trying to get a better grip.

I swear I can feel that smarmy grin of his against the back of my neck, and with the final step he drops me but thrusts up at the same time, making me yelp.

Without ever leaving my body, he carries me into the bedroom and very carefully climbs onto the bed, positioning me so that I’m on my hands and knees.

“You might want to grab onto the headboard, love,” he warns, and I’ve barely touched it before he’s thrusting into me with low, rough grunts. Jonah fucks like he’s running out of time and it will never be enough. I love it.

With one hand on the back of my neck, the other on my hip, he ruts into me like a wild animal, crooning something under his breath. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I pick out the occasional word murmured like a prayer, ‘perfect’ and ‘tight’ catching in my ears.

“I need you to knot me.” I beg, with panting gasps as I jack my cock. The sounds of skin slapping against skin and slick wetness are drowning out every thought in my head. “Please. I can’t take it anymore.”

Jonah pounds into me relentlessly, my body already rung out but still so desperate for more. I want everything he can give me. I need his knot. Breed me.

“Fuck, I’m gonna come.”

I don’t need him to tell me. I can feel it.

A warm heat floods my body before there’s a stretch. It starts as a delicious pressure that grows and swells until I’m not sure I can take it anymore. His knot presses against my prostate, forcing another pathetic orgasm from my body as if I haven’t already just come several times.

“This is only the first knot, darlin’. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

“Promises, promises.”

Rolling us on to our sides, Jonah holds me tight, rocking slowly as he teases his knot against my prostate until there’s nothing left but tears and silent begging. If I have to die, please Goddess, let it be impaled on this man’s knot.

*****

T he shrill ringing of my phone filters through my sleep-soaked brain. Opening my eyes is like trying to unglue your fingers after a crafting session. There’s a reprieve when the noise stops, but it’s only brief before it starts again. With a groan and more effort than it should be, I push myself over onto my back and stare at my ceiling.

Something is wrong.

No, not wrong.

Different.

Stretching out my sheets wrapped around my legs, before I rub my eyes. Shit. I slept with Jonah. New to town Jonah. Handsome Jonah with the copper-colored hair. How could I let that happen?

I blush, thinking about the way he’d been so reverent with every touch, every whispered word against my skin. He’d respected my boundaries with my T-shirt, but then fucked me like I was his own personal cock-sleeve. There was praise and pounding, cum and tears. It was a heat episode I won't be forgetting anytime soon. In fact, it was my new spank bank material because that shit was better than porn. Was this what people meant when they said find yourself a man who can do both?

The annoying ringing starts again, and I realize it's my phone and the ringtone I have set for Tawny. Scrambling out of the bed, I hunt around the room, moving slowly, my muscles still tender but can’t see anything. T never called unless it was an emergency. He always messaged, and then I would call him from my vault. Our friendship is built upon a foundation of paranoia.

Pulling on a pair of shorts, I follow the noise, which is quieter than I thought, indicating that I’ve left it downstairs somewhere in the living room. Or perhaps the kitchen. Or on whatever surface we’ve been making out on last night.

Oh, my Goddess.

I’d hooked up with Jonah Smith. With a quiet groan, I bury my face in my hands before taking a deep breath. The reality was still soaking into my post-heat haze brain.

When I somewhat have my shit together, I head down the stairs. He’s sitting in my lounge, looking perfectly at home. He glances up and gives me a soft smile as I reach the bottom step.

Jonah looks like he belongs in my cabin. My blanket is draped over his legs as he’s made himself comfortable with a book and a mug of steaming coffee. The porch doors are open, and the sun is streaming into the space, despite the chill in the air.

“Hey.” I say quietly, oddly shy with him curled up on my couch like I’m the guest in the cabin.

“Hey.” The corner of his mouth lifts, and his eyes have a mischievous glint as we look at one another like we’ve just shared a huge secret. Which we kinda have. “I was trying to let you get more sleep but your phone...”

“Thanks.” He hands it to me, and our fingers brush. A small awkward silence fills the space. “Do you want to—”

I don’t know what I’m going to say.

Grab breakfast?

Talk about how insane last night was?

Repeat it all over again?

Marry me and live in this cabin with me forever?

My phone interrupts all of those things, and Jonah chuckles. “We’ll talk later. I’m not going anywhere.”

He looks so certain when he says that, as if whatever this was between us was already a forgone thing. It should rankle me, but instead I feel comforted. Like I can count on him. I know it’s crazy. Maybe it’s some lingering effect of the heat?

“Great.” I nod, trying to ignore the device in my hand. “Great.”

What the fuck was I? Tony the Tiger? I should be banned from using the word great.

Heading into the kitchen area, I watch Jonah go back to reading his book–my book–and sipping his coffee. Watching him felt like a decadent treat. Almost like a fetish I could easily develop. Is this what the others meant when they said they’d seen Jonah always watching me? Because if that’s the case, I could get on board with it.

Leaning against my counter, so I can keep an eye on him, I press the green icon.

“Blue, baby.” Tawny sounds way too energetic for this time of the day. Rubbing my temple, I squeeze my eyes shut and realize that the headache starting to thud at the base of my skull is likely due to the lack of food or water. The tapping noise from his keyboard is an ever-present soundtrack to our conversations. “So, I have two pieces of news and I don’t think you’ll like either of them.”

Glancing over at the clock on my oven, I see that it’s almost lunchtime. Crap, where has all that time gone? What day was it? Looking at my phone, I see that it’s Thursday. We’d been fucking since the early hours of Sunday. The heat peak lasted longer than they normally do for me. Four days spent fucking. How was I even in one piece? Did I need to make an appointment with a doctor? We hadn’t used protection...What if? No.

“Well, the first is about Tuesday. That mad cunt cat is in Aurora.”

I blink twice, the words not quite sinking in. “What? Why’s he here?”

“Well...” Tawny sounds a little guilty, and I hear the tapping keyboard keys stop. “I may have told him the second bit of news first, and he insisted on rushing right over there. “Personally, I think he was just looking for an excuse to come to your home.”

We didn’t do home visits. It wasn’t safe for us to be seen together, since we were all running from one thing or another. Biting the inside of my cheek, I lift my eyes to the ceiling, my stomach clenched as I start running through the worst-case scenarios. Was it The Husk? Was I going to have to move again?

“What's the second piece of news?”

“It’s about that handsome piece of man meat you’ve been eyeing up.” Jonah? The same Jonah who was watching me now with a curious gaze? Was I emitting anxious pheromones?

“I’m vegetarian.” Rolling my eyes, I click my tongue at him.

“Fine, that tasty tofu snack! I’ve seen his picture. Your delicious not-so-little ginger-snap!” Tawny snorts, laughing at himself. “Is that better, my hormonal little hare?”

“T...” What had he found out about Jonah?

“Well, here’s the thing...”