Page 17

MALIK

I came. In my pants.

I came in my pants.

I might not have been experienced when it came to physical relationships, but I knew enough. Prematurely spilling into your jeans wasn’t something to take pride in. That wasn’t what made me flee, though.

After those first bolts of pleasure shot through the base of my spine, my body didn’t… calm.

It happened in tandem with my release. There was absolute, blinding ecstasy as my cock rubbed mercilessly against Aria’s center through our clothing, but the blood pumping through my erection did not ease. It gathered at the base, swelling, swelling, swelling…

It was a feat of anatomy I’d never experienced before when I chased relief with my own fist. A strange bulb at the base of my penis that throbbed and pulsed for nearly half an hour before it began to recede.

In that time, I stood in the shower, hunched over with cold water blasting my back, and any contact with my painfully erect cock caused more white seed to shoot from my tip.

It was called knotting, I knew. I’d heard stories—legends, really—about the natural phenomenon.

It occurred only in alphas who were coupling with their fated mates.

A gland at the base of their penis would swell with blood seconds before release, and, at the same time, the female’s internal walls were supposed to clamp down.

Theoretically, the anatomical changes would lock the couple in position for near-on thirty minutes, drastically improving chances of impregnation.

As my knot retreated and I regained control over my body, humiliation washed over me. It’d happened after rubbing against Aria, fully-clothed, for less than five minutes…

By the time I returned to the bedroom, she’d dressed in one of my t-shirts and pulled the sheets up to her neck, her body still. I couldn’t tell from her breathing whether she was truly sleeping, so I merely crawled into bed beside her and willed the darkness to take me.

Now, days later, I’d scarcely had time to see Aria, let alone sit down with her long enough to explain on a pad of paper why I fled.

Roman kept me busy, preparing for next quarter’s patrol through the territory. It was a tedious, long journey that ensured every subset of the Intonat Nocte Pack paid their taxes and remained loyal to Roman. My brother sent me because my appearance tended to dissuade any dissonance.

All of my preparations, however, came to a halt on the night of the full moon.

Even if I’d wanted to continue working, the moon’s pull wreaked havoc on my body and mind, rendering me angry and hot and dangerously distracted. Most full moons, Estelle offered me a tonic to ease the edge and I’d shut myself away. It was safer for everyone—myself included.

Tonight, I returned to the center of our territory from a guard shift as dusk broke, fully intent on returning to my cottage before the night’s festivities were underway.

Aria, I knew, planned on spending the evening with Estelle in the clinic, helping to patch up the injured and delivering tonics that would protect unmated pairings from conceiving.

As I emerged from the dense forest, it became apparent that the celebration began early this year.

Shifters—male and female, beast and human—congregated in the expansive clearing at the front of the pack house.

Many ate and drank, laughing and conversing with one another over picnic blankets.

Others had already abandoned all attempts at civility, their massive wolves rutting and skirmishing with no care for their surroundings.

I huffed, water vapor puffing from my wolf’s snout, and turned my gaze to the rising moon. The hair on the scruff of my neck bristled, and my blood warmed in an instant. I shuddered, opting to shift back into my human form before the moon’s influence dug its claws into me.

My bones popped, fur morphing into skin. Soon, I stood on my feet, naked and painfully aware of my semi-erect cock jutting out from my groin—an unfortunate consequence of the full moon, at least until I got Estelle’s tonic in my veins.

I started toward the outbuilding where I’d left my clothing in a stall, but a familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Brother!” Roman shouted, his voice filled with an unnatural dose of joy.

My eyes snapped up, landing on my brother across the clearing. Unsurprisingly, he lounged naked on a crimson rug that must’ve been a few centuries old. A female, I recognized her as one of the caretakers of the pack’s pups, sat atop his hips, equally bare.

She rocked back and forth on his groin, taking him deep and rubbing herself against his pubic bone, sweat dripping down her glowing dark skin.

Her head tilted back, eyes cast toward the moon.

Her breasts bounced with her movements, and my mind automatically conjured memories of Aria beneath me, her rosy, swollen nipples in my mouth…

Blood rushed to my cock.

While the woman worked, Roman’s eyes remained on me. He propped himself up on an elbow, and a genuine smile played on his lips. He must’ve been drunk.

“Come here, brother!” he called, his voice a strange mix of a request and an order. “I need to speak to you.”

I frowned. Speaking to Roman while he fucked a woman was among the last things I wanted to do, especially when alcohol and nature alike warped his mind. Even so, I ground my teeth and approached the pair like a compliant servant.

The female—Callie, if I remembered correctly—watched me with half-lidded eyes, her lips parted as she gasped for breath. She never ceased riding Roman’s cock, though her gaze drank me in, and I made a conscious effort to avoid meeting it.

What? I demanded to Roman through our mind-link.

Roman’s smile grew, and he sat up a bit taller on the rug. Red marks lined his chest and neck, and I inhaled to find the scents of several females covering his body. Callie wasn’t his first of the night, nor would she be his last.

“No need to be rude,” he chided, though his words lacked their usual malice. “I only wanted to ask where Aria is this evening. I was surprised to see you alone.”

You were the one to assign me to patrol this evening, I reminded him. Callie began whimpering, her rocking becoming fervent and over exaggerated. I was about to head home .

“Oh, yes.” Roman frowned, as if he’d forgotten his own orders. “I suppose I cannot temp you to bring beautiful Aria out to join us?”

I rubbed at the back of my neck, heat rising to my cheeks as Callie rode out her orgasm. Aria is working at the clinic tonight.

Roman hummed, pushing Callie off of him. She fell into a lump of sensual curves and glowing skin on the rug, sated.

“That’s too bad...” Roman drawled, then his eyes flickered to my groin and a devious grin pulled on his lips. He nodded toward my erection, which had shamefully grown to its full length in the span of a few minutes. “It looks like you’d prefer it if she was here.”

Is that all you wanted to discuss? I demanded, the words clipped.

“Of course, I’d offer you Callie,” Roman waved a dismissive hand at the female behind him. “But I’ve heard that once you’ve fucked your fated mate, no other cunt can compare.”

I stiffened. Aria and I hadn’t consummated our bond, but the thought of mounting another female still caused nausea to roil through me. I didn’t want another, even though my damned erection pulsed in response.

Roman caught the movement, and that wicked grin grew.

“Or, perhaps I’m wrong… Is it true that you’ve still yet to claim your mate, brother?

I always figured you’d remained celibate as a matter of principle.

” He chuckled, as if genuinely amused by the situation.

“Now that you’ve found your mate and failed to fuck her, I’m beginning to think that you don’t know how! ”

Flames licked up my neck, clouding my cheeks in red humiliation. His words, however cruel, weren’t so far away from the truth. Hot shame poured over me like a vat of oil, and I prepared to turn on my heel to stalk away, finished with the conversation.

But Callie, who’d seemingly recovered from her climax, swatted at Roman’s shoulder and sent him a pointed glare .

“Don’t laugh,” she hissed, then turned her attention back toward me.

She pushed to her feet and brushed a braid over her shoulder. Her smooth, long legs unfolded beneath her as she stepped over Roman’s horizontal form and closed the distance between us.

“Maybe he just wants a bit of practice,” she purred, lust pooling in her dark brown eyes. The scent of her arousal consumed me, leaking from her glistening sex, and my heart began to thunder in my chest.

I shook my head. No.

Callie only smiled, slowing her approach but not ending it. Are you sure? Her voice, low and husky, echoed in my ear. I could help you… No one would have to know.

Shifting a step backward, dread curled low in my gut. Because, no matter how much my heart and mind screamed no, my traitorous body was at the mercy of the full moon, and the self-control that I prided myself on felt dangerously close to snapping.

Roman laughed, though I barely heard it over the pounding between my ears. “Oh, come on, brother. I’m sure Aria will appreciate it if you have a bit of experience.” He winked. “You wouldn’t want to fumble around like a damned fool and risk disappointing her, would you?”

No, I certainly didn’t want to disappoint Aria…

To be honest, I’ve always had a bit of a crush on you, Malik, Callie cooed in my mind, coming to a stop directly in front of me. Her breasts almost brushed against my chest. I think a lot of females do…

Alarm bells blared in my head. My breath came in ragged pants.

I have a mate, I countered, shaking my head to clear away the fog. I took another step back, but Callie followed me. I wasn’t sure if my words even reached her, or if she’d heard me and chose to ignore my refusal.

Her hand bridged the space between us, and my stomach clenched when her fingers hovered centimeters from my erection. I prepared to swat her away, the only warning she would receive before I made a dangerous show of my refusal.

Then I heard it. That soft, beautiful voice that had quickly become my favorite sound in the world. Thick with heartache and betrayal.

“M-Malik?”