Page 2

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POE

“ W e’re going to need a what ?” Thorin asks, his voice pitching up and down as he shifts back into his human form. He’s completely stunned and enticingly nude.

“A bed,” I respond, shifting back into my naked human form.

“Why?”

“If this is anything like what happens in my family, we aren’t going to have a lot of control over our impulses for the next day or two, and this couch is going to get hella uncomfortable.”

“I have work to do,” he growls, still unable to fully control his vocal cords, his hands flaring out into sharp-nailed paws and then back to hands again.

“So do I,” I say, gesturing toward my shop. “Neither of us has much choice in the matter, I’m afraid.”

When I was younger, I loved hearing everyone’s fated mate stories. When I came of age, I was ready, wondering with every new encounter if that person was my mate. By last year, after ten years without a mate, I stopped hoping and tried to act like I was okay with being unmated. Instead of waiting for fate to arrive, I decided I would open my business and start living my life.

It’s been hard work, accepting myself as an unmated shifter and starting a new business, and I’m damned proud of myself for doing what I needed to do to make myself happy. Only, now that things are finally settling and I’m getting a handle on this reimagined life, a fucking wolf shows up and throws a wrench into everything.

None of this is as I thought it would be.

Taking a deep breath and ignoring the awful disappointment creeping around the edges, I grab my clothes and head toward the staircase. “Come on. My apartment is upstairs.”

“Um, what about your customers?” Thorin asks, pointing at the two cars that just pulled into the parking lot.

Fuck. It’s a good thing my family lives out of town.

Covering my bits with the wadded-up clothes, I flit out to the front and lock the door, turning the open sign to closed.

Miss Geraldine, a sweet owl shifter, frowns at the sign, then steps back when she spots my less-than-dressed state.

“I just mated, Miss Geraldine,” I explain through the glass. “Probably going to be a couple of days.”

“Oh, congratulations, honey! Enjoy!” she says, fluttering her hand at me before turning back to tell Mr. Harbinger about my situation. No doubt the entire Bee Cave shifter community will know by lunchtime.

I shake my head and turn to the back, giving my customers a spectacular view of my ass. Pushing through the beads, I can’t help but notice the wolf is still sitting on my couch, bare-assed and stunned.

“Come on,” I say, gesturing for him to stand up. “This is only going to get worse the longer we put it off.”

“The longer we put what off?” Thorin asks as he carefully lifts himself off the couch, then pulls his jeans up around his hips. He manages to avoid his painful-looking erection, letting it stand out from his pants like a beacon.

I use my wad of clothing to motion between our two extremely obvious situations.

“So, what? We have to have sex now?” he asks, sounding, frankly, a little put out. Even though our bond is new, I can sense his unease under all of the attitude.

Trying to keep a positive outlook, I put on a cheery grin. “We get to have sex now. Lots of it.”

He narrows his eyes, subconsciously stroking his swollen cock, either uncaring or unaware of the fact it’s leaking all over my pristine floors. “I have shit I have to do.”

“Better tell your bosses you won’t be coming in today.”

Shaking his head, he attempts—unsuccessfully—to zip up his jeans over his whole dick-and-balls situation . “No fucking way. This is ridiculous. I’m outta here. ”

I stand there, trying not to laugh as he changes tactics and pulls his shirt down over his humongous erection. He may have covered his cock, but his engorged sac still swings hilariously below the hem.

Wincing, he curses as he bends down to gather his shoes. He then attempts to smash through the beads, nearly garroting himself. Knowing exactly how this is about to go, I listen for his stomping footsteps. He gets as far as the counter and stops. His curses, which are interspersed with angry yips and groans, escalate in both imagination and volume.

“Problem?” I ask, sliding through the beads to find him half-shifted and banging on my beautiful counter.

Fuck. Wolfie’s balls are so fucking swollen it’s making me drool.

“Could you maybe not destroy my shop while you find a way to accept what’s happening here?”

“No!” he barks. “None of this is acceptable.” He bends over, hands on his knees. “And why is everything so fucking swollen?” he whines.

I spread my hands. “Because the universe thinks we’re meant to be together. Sorry, buddy. I’m in the same situation. Let’s go upstairs and get some relief. We can figure out the specifics later.”

He looks up from his bent position, his canines descending as he pulls back his lips into a snarl. “You don’t have to look so happy about this.”

I sigh. “You called it. I’m thrilled. An uninterested wolf shifter is everything I ever wanted in a fated mate,” I deadpan.

He straightens with a pained expression and starts walking toward me, his menacing look equal parts sexy and terrifying.

“Fine,” he says between gritted teeth as he pushes me back through the beads. “Take care of this.”

“ Fine ,” I snap back and fall to my knees, palming his gorgeous, overfilled nuts. “But if I didn’t fucking need your cock so bad right now, we’d be having a conversation about some fucking boundaries.”

Before he can think of a retort, I lick his dripping cock, then tilt my head back, letting out a satisfied, guttural croak. His fluid is literal perfection, ambrosia on my tongue. I need it like life, so I take him to the back of my throat, gagging on him, hurrying him along so I can swallow his divine cum.

Thing is, he’s just standing there, and I need… something. Energy, excitement. Participation, at the very least. I pull away and look up at him, giving him my best pouty lip.

“Fuck my mouth. I’m begging you.”

Instead of going for it, he stills his hips. I look up and find fear, so I sit back. “Too much?”

“I—” Words fail him, but the burning look in his eyes is easy enough to read. “Fine.”

Grabbing my head with both hands, he plunges his cock back into my mouth, his heavy balls bouncing against my chin. He doesn’t stop until my nose is buried in his pubes and my body is spasming from the tilt-a-whirl combination of gagging and needing him to go so much deeper.

I’ll never get enough.

Mercifully, he pulls back enough to give me oxygen, then forces his way back into my mouth, twitching his hips to fuck my throat as he stays buried. Our gazes meet and I start stroking my cock, needing this intensity like the air he’s currently denying me.

Swiftly, he pulls out again. “Fuck, I’m about to knot.”

I chirp, imagining my lips stretched around it.

He shakes his head. “Whatever you’re thinking—no. It could break your jaw.”

I pout in response. “But I’m thirsty.”

Ignoring my adorableness, he rumbles, “So… where’s this fucking bed you were telling me about?”

I point to the staircase leading up to my studio apartment. Curling his upper lip, he bends down and picks me up in a princess carry, then storms up the stairs like a knight taking a castle. The details of my apartment matter not—he beelines for the bed, practically throwing me on it.

“Where’s the lube?” he demands.

I point a shaky finger to the bedside table, then check my hair in the mirror. He circles the bed and pulls out the drawer so violently it breaks the track, spewing the contents onto the floor. I’d be mortified about the variety of prostate stimulators on display for Goddess and everybody, but he’s too busy pawing through them to get to the lube to pay attention.

He barks in triumph when he finds the good stuff, then throws it to the bed as he wrangles out of his clothes. “Hands and knees.”

I hurry to assume the position, my cock a quivering, leaking fountain of need while my hole and taint exquisitely contract and release in preparation. I’m about to come from the preparation alone.

Thorin crawls on the bed behind me and spreads my cheeks. “Jesus, why is your hole doing that?” he asks, slicking himself up. “It’s pulsing.”

“That’s what happens when a smaller shifter mates with a knotting shifter. My body is preparing for your massive cock,” I explain, entirely without irony.

“I don’t have a lot of control right now,” he growls, pressing two lubed fingers right at my entrance.

I look back, panting. “Neither do I. Look, I don’t need any more prep. Just fuck me before I peck your eyes out.”

“I could hurt you.”

“No, you won’t. Promise. Just… wreck me. Fuck me. Hard and fast.” When he’s not impaling me within two seconds, I widen my eyes at him and shout, “ Now !”

He takes a deep breath, then shoves his fat cockhead past my sensitive and greedy ring of muscle.

“Fucking yesss.”

I hiss and chortle as he rapidly bottoms out, then arch, nearly cracking my spine in half as I give into the deep, necessary pleasure. Before, anyone fucking me would have to aim for a specific spot, but now everything up there feels like a magic runway, and the thick ridge of his massive erection is making my eyes roll back in my head as it drags along every nerved-up inch.

“Oh, fuck ,” I shout, saliva dripping from my open mouth.

He stills. “Too much? ”

“Not enough,” I say, still drooling. “More, please.”

He pulls back, almost all the way out, then sinks back inside me like he owns the place, grunting and snarling.

“Yes, yes, yes ,” falls out of my mouth. “Mmf. Please. Harder.”

Gripping my hips, he gives me everything I need, pumping furiously, setting my nerves on edge.

“Fuck, the way your hole is gripping me… so tight,” he growls. “I’m going to fill you and knot you and then do it all over again.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” I chant, losing my grip on reality.

With one final body-shaking thrust, he buries himself in me, his body vibrating as he howls through his orgasm. I go over, too, unable to hold back a second longer. I come and come and come, leaving a pool of the good stuff on my fancy duvet.

Impossibly, he thickens even more. “Poe, I can’t stop the knot. Want me to pull out?”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I whine, pushing back against him. “Stretch me, Thorin. Please.”

He presses deep inside, bottoming out once more as the base of his cock swells, reigniting all of those happy places inside me. I moan as the delicious strain intensifies.

“Fuck, beautiful. Look at you all stretched around my knot,” he says, wonder in his tone.

I pull away, loving the tug, loving how fucking trapped I am on his cock right now.

“Ah, ah, ah. Poe, when you pull away like that… fuuuuck,” he says, as more heat fills me .

I squeeze and pull, extending his orgasm, living for how stuffed full of him I am. He reaches forward, grabbing my sensitive cock with his slicked fingers and palm. With the slightest tilt of his hips, he sends me into orbit all over again, adding to the growing lake of cum below me.

Slowly, he rolls us to the side, helping me to avoid the enormous wet spot. Grunting, he pulls up the edges of the duvet and slips it out from under us.

“Fuck, another.” I groan, grateful when he catches my release— oh, oh, oh, still going—on the soft material before tossing it to the floor.

He groans as well, and more of his cum fills me, swelling my belly.

“Making you come makes me come,” he says, yipping as he adjusts us on our sides.

I lean back against his broad chest, shimmying up against him, pleased as more heat blooms inside me. “As does any moving around at all, it seems.”

Grumbling, he takes my nipples in two half-shifted hands, twisting and scraping at them with sharp nails.

“Fuck, that’s good,” I whine, testing his knot.

More of his liquid heat blooms inside me as I arch into his devilish fingers.

“Ever come from nipple play alone?” he asks on another sharp twist.

I shake my head as more cum—pre or post, I couldn’t tell you—flows down my cock, dripping off my own swollen balls.

“No.” I hiss as his thumbnail grows to a sharp point against the sensitive skin .

He drops his hands to my stomach, lightly, carefully dragging his claws up the delicate skin, pleasure-pain-pleasure blooming along the scratches he leaves behind. Goose bumps flare down my arms as he continues his growly, pointed exploration of my flesh.

By the time he returns to my hard nipples, I’m right on the edge. Tucking his chin over my shoulder, he unleashes a long tongue, lapping at one nipple while plucking at the other. Cum squirts like a fountain from my cock, splatting all over my belly as heat washes through my insides yet again.

“Mm. Look at you. Too bad you can’t get pregnant. I’d make beautiful puppies with you,” he murmurs, his voice deep and sleepy as he nips at my neck while rubbing my belly.

Reaching for the duvet, he wipes me down with a clean corner, then wraps me up in his arms. Within seconds, he’s out, his hand cupping my balls as he remains buried inside me.

I yawn and nestle in for a nap, not minding for a second being stuck on his huge cock. I smile as my belly swells even more with the delicate movement.

Hm.

This might not be so bad after all.