Page 9 of Up from the Earth (Equinox Seasons Duet #1)

Eight

When Voices Call Your Name In The Woods, Run.

S ince I was young, I’d dreamed of running. That was evidently far from over. Turning on my heel, I sprinted into the darkness beyond the banquet table. As I reached its edge, it was like pushing through an invisible boundary, my ears ringing as the echo cried out once more.

I could feel the breath of The Wolf right behind me, hearing its massive steps pounding against the stone floor.

Run, Cerri. Run.

Zipping this way and that through the shadows, I found myself rushing down endless corridors in the castle. They twisted and turned, and several branches came off them, leading to further infinite distances. Black, wrought-iron scenes were depicted in enormous stained-glass windows that flanked either side of the never-ending halls.

Little bloom. No matter how you run. I will catch you.

I felt the promise in those words, the destiny of them. As much as my heart leaped into my throat for the fear, there was so much exhilaration surging behind it, a dark, primal ecstasy at being the prey to this predator. Was it wrong of me to love this so much?

A deep, rumbling growl cut through the melodic drones that always filled the castle. It rattled my bones, lancing through me and landing straight in my core. My body hummed, a tingling mess of sensation pooling between my legs and in my chest.

I had dreamed of this. I had…wanted this—for so long that it felt impossible.

And still, I was not certain that this enormous, terrible wolf would not simply devour me the moment he caught me, sink his teeth into my flesh, and gobble me up whole. Surely, I was losing my mind to think that this would play out any other way. This was a beast, a hunter, and I was just a silly girl in over my head.

“Yes, little bloom. I could tear you apart if I wanted.” The Wolf’s words roared through my mind. “Shall I? Shall I rend your little body and feast on you? Should I know you down to your core, to the marrow of your bones?”

Panic radiated through my chest, nearly choking me. I sprinted with everything I had, seeking desperately to gain a lead, though I knew that was impossible.

“And where would you go, little bloom? I know every inch of this castle. I control it. Where would you find your mother’s sweet cottage in a realm of my control?”

Running, running, running. It was all I could do, the ache in my feet and lungs burning brighter with every second. I could not make this. I would not survive.

“You have strayed off the path, little bloom. Do you pretend to tell me now that it was not what you wished?”

My steps faltered, and I careened into a wall, impacting it hard. Shoving myself off, I tore down another hallway, this one appearing to double back.

As my heart throbbed in my throat, I heard those words again in my mind.

“Did you really think the path was where you belonged?”

I slowed and slowed further. No. I did not think the path was where I ought to remain. I was scolded more times than I could count for leaving it. That very first time when I’d lost my ring. I knew that I was going to leave the path. I had not admitted it. But of course, I knew.

The warnings had been there, and I had been given a choice: to remain on the path in safety and innocence. But I had stepped off and not looked back.

I had chosen this all those years ago. I had chosen to embrace the danger for the thrill that lay beyond. And I had come all this way. I had survived then, and I survived the lake. I would not perish now.

Shadows draped across the hallway ahead of me, outlining the shape of numerous fangs. He was so close.

“You are so close, little bloom. So close to truly being free. But you must say it. You must embrace the darkness that awaits you.”

Only darkness was visible before me, the shadow cast by The Wolf blanketing the hallway where I could keep running. But I’d stopped now. I wasn’t running at all. And…I wasn’t going to.

Spinning around, I looked up, up, up at the massive creature. Those shadow fangs draped over my face again, and I felt his breath even as that gaping maw stood several feet above the ground. Warm and heady, washing over me with a magic all its own.

“I will not run. I…” Sucking the warmed air into my lungs, I felt the spirit of The Wolf begin to mingle with my own. “...will know you, Wolf. Reveal yourself to me.”

A menacing, alluring growl rumbled out of the beast. Then, as if it was liquid fitting into a container, the impossible magnitude of The Wolf condensed down. He distilled his essence of darkness and primal sorcery down into a form more comprehensible. The Beast King in this wild form stood before me now at a level nearly equal to my eyes.

Still, he was larger than a typical wolf—much larger. And in the depths of his yellow eyes, I could see the mind animating the body. The Beast King was contained in that shape. The Beast King was each shape that I’d encountered and more, and as the truth settled over me—the truth I knew The Wolf was waiting for me to confess aloud—I was left with the fact that I did indeed feel a connection to them.

It was profound, massive, unending. This was the sliver of my soul that had always been out of place. This was the creature that would fulfill me in ways I’d only dreamed of, and I was ready for it to begin.

Now.

“What do you want, Cerri, my little bloom? Tell me what you truly desire.”

My heart still beat furiously, my lungs still struggling to get in enough air. But I knew what I wanted, and I would not be denied. Dropping my chin to ready myself, I settled into my bones and then met the eye of The Wolf.

“Catch me,” a smirk lifted the corner of my mouth, “my wolf.”

I turned and ran, my smile stretching wider with every rush forward. The Wolf was hot on my heels, and an exhilarating terror gripped me. I trusted in this being without any real cause except my own intuition.

However, I was rarely wrong, and this felt too good to be anything else but destiny.

Zigzagging, ducking around sharp corners of the halls, I did everything I could to make my Wolf have to work for his prize, and he did. The hungry growl grew louder and louder until it was right on top of me. Then, in a whoosh of midnight black followed by vibrant color, The Wolf leaped up and over me, blocking my path. With him had come the forest. It was everywhere; the verdant shades of green and the dappled sunlight of a late afternoon were all I could see.

This was where I belonged. This was my home—the Forest at the Edge of the World.

Distracted by the beauty, by the wholeness I felt, The Wolf was able to rush me, flinging me around and nudging me to the ground with his massive muzzle. My belly was pinned to the earth, and I squeezed fistfuls of moss and dirt as I craned back over my shoulder to get a glimpse of him.

His black fur took up the space behind me, blocking out the scenery. But I was all too happy to be looking at my Wolf. My savage, dark Wolf .

“Savage…dark…and so very hungry for my sweet, innocent little bloom.”

Shudders racked my body, and I arched my hips up as The Wolf dragged his nose over my back and legs, scenting me. He buried it between my thighs, nuzzling against my seam as he growled low. My body surged, clenching and warming and wetting.

“That’s it, little bloom. You’re going to take your mate in whatever way I demand. For I have caught you, and I intend to keep you.”

All I could do was moan as he nudged against my sensitive skin. I quickly realized that he was shoving the skirt of my dress up over my hips, the cold of his nose touching my overheated flesh. It was a shock against me when his slick, cool flesh landed squarely on my slit. There was no preamble or hesitation, none of the trepidation or resistance I might expect from anyone else at being so close to my intimate parts with their face.

“What would I have to be shy about, little bloom? I want your taste on my tongue for always. I want that delicious scent of your cunt clinging to me at every turn.”

I reeled. It was so much that my head was genuinely spinning. Embarrassment drilled through me as roughly as the arousal that made me drip. As if sensing it, an enormous tongue licked up my seam, parting my folds and dipping inside. It scooped through me, collecting my nectar, and I moaned—hard.

“Mmmmm,” The Wolf growled. “Like the earthly wonder of spring. Give me more. Give me it all.”

More and more assaults of his tongue split my seam in languid strokes that set my nerves ablaze. I writhed beneath my Wolf, clawing at the ground as the sensations overpowered me. It was too much. It wasn’t enough, and hot tears dripped from me into the earth below me as he devoured me so thoroughly.

“Ugh!” I cried out, arching all the more as The Wolf’s tongue drove inside me. Thick and soft and wet, it filled me profoundly, testing my limits.

“Limits I will break, little bloom. You will be made ready for my cock, and I will rut you until you are overflowing with my spend.”

He licked and thrust and swirled; the tiny bud at the tip of my seam throbbed with each furious heartbeat. I was so close to breaking apart all over his tongue. The Wolf’s fangs teased my skin, the sharp points grazing over my swollen skin as well as the inside of my thighs.

Little pinpricks, little lightning bolts of sensation, grew and grew with each moment that my Wolf savagely enjoyed me. As I tried to shift, needing something I couldn’t name, a vast paw found the center of my back and pushed me down, claws digging in.

Behind the darkness of my closed eyes, explosions set off as the pain mingled with the pleasure, and I careened off the edge of existing, shattering as my body convulsed around my Wolf’s tongue. It lapped up the flood of juices that burst from me, a ripe fruit gripped with a firm hand.

“Ahh!” My delirious scream echoed through the trees.

Chaos began to back off, but before I could even collect a full breath, clawed hands tore the dress from me before gripping my biceps and holding me down to the earth. Shock reverberated through me, and I forced myself to look back over my shoulder. The Wolf had changed again, his body more humanoid, if still wolven and massive and…unclothed.

My eyes dropped to his waist as The Wolf stood ready behind me. Panic choked me as I admired his enormous erection. He would destroy me, though that could very well be the point. Flaring red skin wrapped around a thick shaft, pulsing with vascular vines. At the base, a swollen ring of flesh throbbed, almost resembling a knot of rope.

“Put your ass up, little bloom.” He dug his claws in when I didn’t move, too caught up in what I was seeing. “Up.”

I yelped, rocking my hips up and back as quickly as I could. Before another word or moan could escape me—the dulcet chirp of birds singing through the forest—The Wolf drove himself inside me, sinking all the way up to that warm ring of flesh at his base. I screamed, the stretch indescribably intense. My walls clamped down around him, and I raked my fingers through the earth until I left tracks.

The fullness was all I could experience, the world dropping away. I squirmed against the overwhelming delirium following his strike, unable to keep myself still.

“Don’t worry, pretty girl. I have the perfect way to keep my mate right where I want her.”

He craned over me, his impressive height easily getting his nose into the messy tumble of my hair. Nuzzling in, he licked across my neck, his length sinking deep enough to make me whimper. Then his breath was over my skin, the points of his fangs just beginning to press into my flesh.

“Mine.”

The Wolf bit down, clamping onto my neck and holding me in place as he indeed rutted into me with primal abandon. Bright, hot pain licked through my throat, making my walls clamp down around his shaft. How I contained him was a damned miracle, and yet, all of this could be described as such. He’d found me, caught me, and claimed me.

And it all felt like the firm hand of fate guiding me in the correct direction.

My furious heartbeat flooded his mouth with my blood, and the world blurred and spun around me. Just as I thought I might actually faint, despite the tremendous waves of arousal that roared through me, The Wolf released his hold, licking over the wound. Pain still rang fresh in my neck, but I was somehow aware of the healing taking place.

Moreover, the way it felt to have his fangs inside me as his cock drove home had fueled my pleasure into a realm entirely unfamiliar. The lick over the wound ignited sparks through my nerves, exciting overstimulated senses to pool together with the lust swelling in my womb.

“Oh…gods…” My words spilled from my lips like a confession, like a prayer for more.

“Yes, little bloom. You will take it all. You will take my seed and grow ripe. You will be the Mother of Spring.”

Fear tickled at the back of my mind, the thoughts of futures and consequences ahead of me. But the rest of my being shoved it away. I wanted my Wolf to claim me completely. I wanted to be his —completely.

“Let me feel you break, little bloom. Let me hear your cries reach the moon.”

He squeezed my hips, thrusting harder and harder, so much more than a mortal might be capable of. I took it all—with no choice but also no desire for anything else. My entire being was the ratcheted pleasure of his claim, the assault of his cock demanding everything I had to offer and more.

And The Wolf was granted his wish, my frenzied scream bursting from my lungs as my body tipped over the edge and shattered into stars.

My walls clamped down around his shaft, pulsing. I sunk down onto his cock, mindlessly searching out more of my Wolf. The heat of his knotted base found my skin—soothing and igniting at once. Sensing my need, The Wolf adjusted his stance, his knees shifting closer to me as he grabbed my hips roughly. I relinquished any control I might have held on to—relishing in how it felt to truly give myself over—and in one swift thrust, my Wolf rutted up into me, his knot forcing its way inside.

“Fuck!”

The stretch before had been intense. This was…I seized up, locked onto his thick erection. My Wolf held me still, craning me up so that my back crashed against his front. He could not sink deeper, his blunt head nudging against my cervix.

Endless cries were torn from me with each furious thrust. He thickened all the more inside me, and my entire being was alight with overwhelming sensation. Euphoria, torture, bliss, destruction, it was all of that and more.

“That’s so good, little bloom.” The Wolf grunted low, his cock kicking inside me. “I’m going to breed you, perfect little whore. I’m going to fill you up with so much of my spend that it seeps down your thighs.”

My balance was awful, but The Wolf’s hand wrapped around my biceps, keeping me in place.

“Those pretty thighs stained red with your relinquished innocence.” His fangs found my neck once more, clamping down. “My beautiful mate. Mine, mine, mine.”

Blistering warmth filled me as The Wolf climaxed, flooding me with ropes of his seed. It drove me over another cliff of release, my body milking him for every last drop. We were one—The Wolf’s essence in me and mine in him.

Perfect chaos. Divine pleasure.

And I knew…this was only the beginning.