Page 19 of Tamed Wolf (Rejected Mates of the Shelter #4)

Blake, Now

I can read every damn emotion flying through this woman's mind, am sharing the sweet torment stemming from physical touch without me being buried inside her, and we’re having a moment, lying here wrapped up in each other as if nothing else matters. Right now, it doesn’t.

“I need your limits, love. Once I have those, I can really take care of you.” I know the fact that my knot inflated for her is huge, and I don't want to brush it under the rug, but after everything our dad told us earlier, it was more confirmation of the fact that she really is our second chance.

“We can sit here and answer questions,” I tell her, “or I can make the pain rising within you go away. I can tell by the way your eyebrows are getting closer and closer together that you're hurting. It hurts me to see you in pain. Please, Lark. Let me fix it for you.”

The heat radiating off of her is threatening to incinerate the both of us if we don’t quench it and give in to its demands. And yet, I can’t do anything she doesn't ask for explicitly. I will not give her the treatment she's used to.

“Give me everything, Blake,” she finally says, looking at me with so much trust that it nearly breaks my heart. “If that knot is somehow for me…”

“ If?” I nearly laugh. “See any other sexy ass wolves around here domesticating mine?”

She bites her lip at my comment, driving me even crazier. “Fine. Give me your knot, Blake.”

“Thank fuck,” I utter as I quickly lose all of my clothing.

My mouth is on hers in the next moment, sipping from her and branding her with my own heat, fighting against her and daring her to fight back.

Eventually I’m rewarded. Her ambitious creativity kicks up a notch and she tries to flip us, and if she's feeling confident to take control, then you damn well better believe I’m going to give her that power.

She holds herself just above me as if weighing the moment and making sure she really is allowed to do this, and then she throws all caution to the wind and sinks straight down on me. My whole body goes taut, my legs locking up at the incredible rush I get from her encasing me.

I punch up into her, making her throw her head back and moan, making sure she feels my inflated knot hit her opening. I'm not going to surprise her with it, she needs to know about everything. That's the only way she's ever going to feel confident with us.

She lets out a whine as she grinds herself down, trying to take me all the way in, furiously moving her hips, sweat pouring off of her.

I thought I had it good with our late mate the few times she let us touch her, the few times we tried to show her how good we could be for her, but there's no comparison. The way that Lark is scrambling onto any bit of skin she can reach on me, clawing me up as if she's trying to wear a really creepy skin suit, it’d be almost adorable if I wasn't buried to the knot in her body.

Her eyes flash open and she stares me down, her voice a low timbre as she grinds out, “Give me your knot,” in the most aggressive way I think she's capable of producing.

I'm helpless to give in, working myself up into her and pushing against her, stretching her, enjoying every damn bit of ground I gain. She’s fronting just as much effort, pushing herself down and swiveling her hips, trying to lodge me inside of her. But if she's never taken a knot before, it's going to be a little tricky.

The nerves running through my knot are going haywire, lighting up my spine and warning me that I'm about to blow my load, so I focus on the way her body looks on top of me, legs splayed wide, obscenely pulling me into it, and I give one last push before there's an audible pop and my pelvis is pressed against her at long last.

She's instantly screaming, orgasming and clamping down on me in waves, pulsing and bouncing, giving me an eyeful of her perfect breasts. Her nipples are begging for my mouth to take them into it, but I'm incapable of any sort of function other than just sitting here as she takes me now.

“ Oh fuck, Blake,” she cries out, head thrashing as her orgasm goes on and on. “Stop holding back,” she demands. “Give me what I want. Fill me up, make me doughy inside.”

I try to flip us, which takes way too much fucking effort in our current states and completely tugs on our connection in the most intense way but seeing her on her back for me is worth it. “You want my cum? Is that it?” She nods furiously, wrapping her legs around my back. “Ask and you shall receive.”

I stop trying to hold anything back, and I feel my canines elongating as I produce what little bit of movement I can when I’m stuck inside her like this, my knot pulsing as she keeps squeezing me.

I know this moment is important, that it's going to be branded in my entire body, and I'm good with that. I go still as I finally release in her, flooding the condom and wishing I was flooding her instead. I don't like the condom, but I'm glad that we decided to have them because if we can get a knot for her, then that means we can get her pregnant. We're not doing anything against her will.

We both still at the same time, aftershocks running rampant through both of us the whole time.

She's staring at me and I'm staring right back, wishing I could say all the creepy possessive shit I wanna tell her.

You’re mine, and I'm never letting you go.

I want to ride your pussy every day for the rest of my life and hear you screaming out every name in my pack.

I want to make a home with you and share my son with you, because I know you’re everything we’ve ever needed and that terrifies me but I’m so fucking excited about having you in my life that it doesn’t matter.

Let’s spend an entire day in bed just staring at each other.

I see you.

Okay, those last two might produce mixed results.

I can't do anything to jeopardize what she's giving us right now, so I tone down my thoughts and hope my feral wolf mentality doesn’t go rogue and slip into my conversation with her. “How are you feeling?” Her face is flushed and sweaty, absolutely gorgeous.

“I think... I think I'd be feeling a little better if we didn't need the condoms but thank you for having the forethought to use them. I know we didn't talk about that…”

“If it concerns your safety, we don't need to have a discussion. Consider it handled.”

She starts to cry so I turn us again and hold her, our bodies still joined. I know my knot is starting to go down, but being able to hold her like this, while I'm inside of her, is making me feel pretty damn important.

Beckett slides back onto the bed behind her, keeping her back warm as he starts to pepper kisses on her shoulder, giving her comfort while her body processes all the heavy emotions running through it.

“Thank you for coming to find me,” she eventually whispers. “I thought I was going to die in there. I didn't even care.”

Nothing we have planned for those fuckers is going to do enough damage to appease me, and so what if I'm daydreaming of ways to better torture them.

“You have to know we're always going come for you, Lark,” Beckett tells her. “We were giving you space after the date because you made it clear you wanted some. I’m just sorry that it took us so long to get you out of their grasp. We should have checked on you sooner, should have known they were slimy enough to weasel their way into the shelter and take you. You're never going back to them; do you hear us? Even if you don't want us, we'll get you somewhere safe. You never have to see them again. For any reason.”

“I don't see how that's possible,” she sniffles.

“You have a couple of options,” I say gruffly.

Her eyes fly open, and she grabs my shoulders. “Please tell me you didn't kill them.”

“Would it bother you if we did?” It’s a hypothetical question, but it still needs to be answered. I need her reaction.

She thinks about this, her face confused. “Them being dead… I don't think would bother me. Does that make me a horrible person? I think it would be knowing that they were dead because of me that would make me feel guilty. And I know that's messed up because they've effectively ruined my life, but I don't know how to turn that part of my brain off. They still fathered my child, even if they managed to turn him against me.

“I understand they’ve made their own choices, but I don’t know how to turn the part of my wolf off that still thinks they can change. That somewhere deep inside they care for me, and maybe I’ve misunderstood things.

“Then I circle back to knowing, without a doubt, how fucked up I am directly because of them, and I want to kill them myself. It’s too soon for me to make a decision about that. I don’t know how I feel about that option.

“But I believe you that you’d do it if I wanted you to. And I’m alarmed that that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Just a little,” she says pinching her fingers together in the cutest fucking way possible. Even if she’s talking about literal murder.

I bark out a laugh and send a prayer up to the goddess for fixing the past wrongs, for getting this woman into our life so we could connect like this and begin to really heal, to live up to the full potential our wolves need.

“They're alive for now,” Beckett says, making sure she understands that that's not promised for the future. “Ultimately, it's going be up to our dad, the alpha, to mete out the punishment. For now, he's letting them hang out completely ignored in a very controlled environment, but we’ll figure all that out later. Have you ever heard of a trauma bound mate?” He presses another kiss to the back of her shoulder, pulling her attention over to him.

Lark’s eyes narrow, daring him to spring something else on her. “Should I have?”

“It's rare,” he explains as I begin to carefully untangle her hair, gaining immense satisfaction from taking care of her in this simple way. “Dad told us about it, though. Basically, we were in the right place at the right time, in the right state of mind. All of us being essentially rejected helped, but that instant attraction we felt for you must have been returned, because there’s a bond between us.”

“And what bond is that?”

She’s playing hardball, refusing to take the facts in front of her and put them together. We’re going to have to make her understand though that what we’re doing with her isn’t a fleeting thing or a one-off. We’re building a future. “You felt my knot,” I tell her. “Tell me Lark, when is shifter male able to produce a knot?”

Her eyes light up and she starts to cry again, her lip trembling. “You mean I'm…”

She can't even get the words out, so I help her out. “I like to think the goddess is trying to atone for what we all had before. We can be your mates now, if you'll have us. But nothing needs to be decided right now. Why don't you rest?”

“Do you have a bath? I can't remember. My head still feels all foggy.”

Beckett hops up quickly. “I'll get it running for you. There should be food getting delivered any minute for us as well, and we're going to expect you to eat a good meal and get some rest while you're lucid enough. I don't know how this heat is going to function, if it's going act like a normal one or if it's going to be wonky because it's artificial, but will you please let us take care of you?”

Voice soft, her head tucked under mine, she nods. “I won't fight you. Thank you, both of you. Not that I don't love both of you being here with me, but is Brooks going to be back soon? Or is he too busy?”

Beckett nods his head towards me, telling me to field this question so he can get the bath going. I rotate her a tiny bit so she’s flush against me again, now that I don’t have to share her attention. “He's getting you some of your things from your room in the shelter,” I explain. “He wouldn't miss this for the world.”

She's barely conscious by the time the bath is ready, her body finally able to relax after we gave it a little bit of what it’s been forced to crave. I get in the bath with her and wash her up. Beckett comes in to wash her hair, then we get it combed and dried, working together to prop her up at the table long enough to get some protein and fluids into her body.

At that point though, sleep is going to be the best option for her, so we tuck her in and hold her, resting while we can, expecting her to wake us up as soon as the heat spikes again.