Page 23 of Marked

And yet, I couldn’t look away. I should have been afraid. I should have been horrified. But instead, my body was thrumming with something else entirely. Something dark. Something hungry .

“We made a critical mistake by taking the two of you, instead of just the female. I see that now,” Attitude said, his voice shaking with fear.

Alaric stood amidst the carnage, his black fur slick with blood, his chest heaving with each heavy breath.

Then, as if some invisible force pulled him from the depths of his beast, his form began to change.

The shift was smoother this time, less violent than before, though no less unnatural.

His massive frame shrank, fur receding like ink seeping into his skin, claws retracting, bones grinding and reshaping with wet, nauseating pops.

His snout shortened, his fangs dulling back into human teeth, though the raw, predatory edge in his expression remained.

In mere moments, the beast was gone, and in its place stood Alaric—the man.

His muscles were still coiled with tension, his broad chest slick with sweat and streaks of black alien blood.

His icy blue eyes locked onto mine, unblinking, hungry.

He was breathing hard, his body trembling slightly from the aftershocks of the shift, but there was nothing weak about him.

If anything, he looked more dangerous now, standing naked amidst the wreckage, his gaze burning through me like a brand.

For a second, time stopped, and then he turned back to Attitude.

“She’s mine. You don’t have the privilege of making her orgasm. That right belongs to me. Her mate,” Alaric snarled.

Attitude didn’t say a word, his terror written all over his face.

“Interfering in the Lupenii marking process was your first mistake. What could you possibly hope to accomplish by taking my mate?” Alaric growled.

Attitude held up his hands defensively as he rushed to explain himself.

“The serum collected from a female Lupenii in heat is a critical component of a very rare and very expensive vaccine that cures infertility in Ghengrill females. We’ve been unable to replicate it in the lab so the only way we can produce it is by taking it from the females themselves,” Attitude answered, only this time there wasn’t any sort of arrogance in his voice.

He sounded scared, and I suddenly didn’t want Alaric to kill him.

“Alaric, he was kind to me. This one didn’t hurt me. He didn’t want to, not like the others,” I called out, desperate to stop his death before it was too late.

“He put his eyes and his hands on you, my little mate,” Alaric snarled.

“He doesn’t deserve to die for it,” I said softly, my voice shaking with emotion. I didn’t know where it was coming from, but Attitude not dying was suddenly very important to me.

“You’ve got a strong heart, little one,” Alaric finally answered. I could see him visibly pull back his anger as he turned back to Attitude at last.

“My mate would like me to show you mercy, and I will grant her request, but in doing so, I want you to take a message to your people. Your kind will stop hunting Lupenii mates in heat. If the Ghengrills don’t stop, I will return and kill every last one of you. And I won’t be alone,” Alaric growled.

Attitude nodded his head. He looked terrified. He probably would have agreed to whatever Alaric would have demanded, no matter what it was, in order to survive this encounter.

“Release her,” Alaric ordered next.

Attitude quickly walked over to me on very shaky legs and pressed his palm against the plate at my back.

“Thank you, female human,” Attitude whispered, and I nodded gently.

The electrical force that held my limbs captive crackled and faded away. Alaric was there to catch me and helped me to climb out of the alien contraption. The feeling of his hands on my body was heavenly, and I sighed happily with contentment.

He purred and my core cramped hard at the sound. Liquid heat poured onto my thighs, slick and wet. Alaric ran a single finger up my inner thigh, finding me more than ready for him. He growled possessively, and I couldn’t help myself as a single moan escaped my lips.

“I had planned to take you off this godforsaken planet before I took care of you, but you’re making this very difficult for me,” Alaric murmured, and I trembled in his arms. He turned toward Attitude and rolled his lip.

“You. Into the scanner. I don’t want you interfering in what is about to happen. ”

The Ghengrill didn’t even hesitate. Once he was in position, Alaric mimicked his movements, and the electrical force returned, only this time it held Attitude prisoner instead of me.

Alaric ensured that the Ghengrill wasn’t going anywhere and then he lifted me up from the floor.

He wasted no time in clearing a nearby metal table with a single swipe of his arm.

“The scent of your heat is intoxicating, my little human. I can’t ignore it for a moment longer,” he murmured softly, his voice dark and dangerously seductive.

“Please,” I begged.

“Your body is ready for my knot. This is going to hurt, but you’re going to take it.

You’re going to take all of me. Again and again until I’m sure that my seed has rooted in your womb.

Every inch of you is mine, little mate, and now I’m going to breed you hard,” he demanded, and my pussy clenched hard with excitement.

It should anger me to be talked to like that, but it didn’t. Instead, it only seemed to arouse me further and made me want him even more. I found myself craving his seed inside me. I wanted to carry his child. Most of all though, right now I just wanted his cock.

“Please fuck me,” I pleaded. Every single nerve in my body was calling for him.

“It pleases me that you’ve accepted my mark, little one. Now I’m going to reward you for it,” he purred, and I shivered with need.

“Please, Alaric! I want you,” I whispered, my voice shaking with arousal.

He growled, his eyes raking up and down my naked body. His fingers slid up my leg until they rested against my pussy, and I trembled with desire.

“I’m going to fuck this needy little pussy first. Then I’m going to take your mouth.

Then I’m going to use your tight little ass.

By the time I’m through with you, every one of your holes is going to be sore and full of my seed,” he said as he dragged a finger through the wet folds of my pussy.

His fingertip grazed over my clit and a shudder of delicious pleasure jolted through me like a bolt of lightning.

He teased me, circling around the desperate little bud over and over until I cried out with desperation.

“Would you like to come for me?” he asked, just as his finger stopped moving entirely. My clit throbbed hard against it as if my body was actively protesting against his decision to stop stroking it.

“Yes. God! Please let me come for you,” I begged, trying to grind my hips against his finger and gratify myself, but he knowingly moved it away from me. My entire focus centered on my needy clit, and I whined softly at being thwarted so easily.

“Bad girl. Your pleasure is no longer yours to take. It’s mine to give,” he answered.

My body was on fire. I could feel the heat rolling off me in waves.

“I need you,” I begged.

His ensuing grin should have scared me, but my core seized tight with rampant arousal. I felt a rush of wetness between my thighs, and I knew I was even more soaked than I had been before. He reached down and fisted his dick in his hand, stroking it, once, then twice, and my mouth watered.

The size of his cock was so much larger than before.

I stared down at it with a feral hunger, and my hips unconsciously rose toward it.

I wanted it to take me hard. Everything about him reminded me of a wild beast, but my body was demanding all of it.

Every last massive inch of him. Inside me. Reminding me that I was his.

“Are you ready for me?” he asked, his voice dark and dangerous.

“Yes. Please,” I pleaded again.

“Good,” he answered.

He slid his cock up and down my pussy, causing me to shudder with utter bliss. I bit my lip and curled my arms around the back of his shoulders, waiting for him to take me.

And he did. He took me extraordinarily hard.

He pistoned his hips forward, and his cock slammed into my entrance with desperate fervor so roughly that I screamed.

The size and length of his shaft took my breath away.

I’d been craving him for so long that my body shuddered.

It hurt as my body tried to cope with his massive cock.

There was no way I could have prepared to take his entire length, but I did.

It hurt, but I liked how it felt, how his cock stretched my body wide for him.

Pain and pleasure warred within me, a brutal intoxicating mixture that left me crying out as I pressed myself up against him.

The first time he had fucked me had been rough and hard.

This time, he was savage. There wasn’t even an ounce of gentleness in the way he took me now.

His hips jerked back and forth, forcing the entire length of his cock in and out of my pussy with ruthless force.

I screamed. I cried, but he was giving me exactly what I wanted and well and truly needed.

My pussy clamped down hard around his cock, and I arched my back in order to take him more deeply. Intense pleasure raced through me, and the orgasm that I had been denied for so long raged forth.

The barrier that had kept me from coming by myself fell away. I was no longer held captive by that terrible wall. I was free to come for my mate.

“Please,” I moaned.

“Come for me, little Lupenii. Come for me all over my cock,” he demanded.

I came so hard that I saw stars.