Page 18

Chapter Seventeen

Talia

D rayton's hands grip my hips, guiding me in a rhythm against him that feels so much better than the chaotic and nonsensical movements I was doing. He kisses my neck as he moves me, nipping at the sensitive skin just below my ear. The tingling from before gets stronger, my body feeling flushed from head to toe in the most delicious way possible.

Grabbing the hem of my shirt with both hands, I pull back from Drayton and tear it off of me. My breasts are covered by a soft pink satin bra that pushes them up generously. I wasn't sure about the whole bra thing when Helen got me fitted for them, but seeing Drayton's eyes droop with lust as he stares at me right now, I've gotta say, they do their job well.

"Yours off," I mutter, my brain so foggy with how turned on I am.

"I need to touch you."

“You want to touch me?” At my nod, he smiles devilishly down at me.

“Where do you want to touch me?”

My eyes dart down to where the long hardness of his penis is pushing against me deliciously.

“Your penis.”

Drayton coughs out a laugh that he tries to cover up quickly.

He pushes it up into me, drawing out another moan from me.

“My cock, sweetheart?”

I nod again, playing around with the new word in my head.

“Say it,” he demands, tipping my face up to look at him.

“Say cock, sweetheart. I want to see the way your lips form that perfect O face when you do. I want to see what you would look like with my cock in that pretty little mouth.”

Liquid fire seeps into my blood and flushes me from head to toe.

Holy god, his mouth should come with a warning label.

“Cock.” I murmur slowly, staring into his beautiful blue eyes.

For good measure, I say it one more time and emphasize the hard cah sound at the end.

“ Cock ”

Drayton kisses me deeply, his tongue sweeping against my own as if he’s trying to steal the very breath from my lungs.

When he finally pulls away, we’re both struggling for air.

“Good girl,” he growls again, those words going straight between my legs.

Drayton's hands cup my ass, picking me up with him as he stands up with a devilish grin. He sets me on my feet, a little ways away from the couch. "Stand here for a minute. I want to make this more comfortable for us." He turns to where we just were, pulling the table towards me and then pulling the cushions off the couch. "This couch turns into a bed for when I'm busy and can't waste the time going back to my room."

Smiling at his thoughtfulness, I watch him eagerly as he pulls an entire bed out of a small couch. I've never seen something smaller convert into something so big before.

Under different circumstances, I would have been asking a hundred and one questions, but tonight, I'm too enthralled with where this is going.

Undoing the button of my jeans, I shimmy out of them, leaving myself in just my bra and a pair of lace and cotton, white panties. Since coming here and eating regular meals, I've started filling out more, my stomach softer instead of bloated and hard.

My ribs are now more hidden, my breasts heavier and sloped as they've grown. Even my skin has a much healthier glow to it, more golden and bright compared to the sickly, pale colour from living in a dungeon.

Drayton turns around, his eyes going wide before hooding over and slowly moving down my body. Prickles start all over my skin, raising bumps wherever his eyes roam.

"You are unbelievably gorgeous," he reverently murmurs, his breath catching in his throat. "Never in my life, did I think that I would be lucky enough to be blessed with a mate. Goddess only knows how I ended up with one as perfect as you."

A smile spreads across my face, my eyes dropping to look at the deep brown wood floors. I can hear him moving towards me, his steps slow and sure. Looking up at his approach, my breath catches in my throat at the intense look in his eyes. He uses one hand to effortlessly take off his grey t-shirt, exposing his large, muscular chest.

My eyes roam over his newly exposed skin, catching on multiple exquisite tattoos in an array of colours. Drayton pauses a few feet from me to unbutton his jeans, pushing them down his toned and tattooed legs. He has tight grey underwear that looks like small shorts still left on covering a very long and large, ah, package. The word penis, which is what the Croises taught me when they were getting me breeding ready, doesn't seem to encapsulate what's hidden in that thin fabric very well.

"You, ah," I rasp out, not recognizing my voice while it's clogged with so much arousal.

"Wow."

Closing my eyes in embarrassment, I feel my heart rate spike in my chest.

Drayton laughs softly, the sound so close I pop my eyes back open to see him right in front of me.

"You being speechless is the perfect compliment, Sweetheart. You don't ever need to feel embarrassed around me," Drayton assures me, his blue eyes twinkling in the soft office lighting. "There's nothing in the world that could make me look at you with anything but love."

Drayton cups my chin with his soft palm, tipping my head back and exposing my throat.

His other hand moves to my exposed skin, his fingers grazing over my pulse that's fluttering impossibly fast. He tilts his head, tracing the same path of his fingers with his mouth.

His teeth graze the sensitive skin where my neck meets my shoulder before biting down in the same spot. Electric tingles shoot straight from the bite mark down to my slick center. Drayton licks the bite mark softly causing a breathy moan to catch in my throat. He lifts his head, his lips slanting over mine and kissing me like I'm the air he's desperate to breathe.

My tongue tentatively caresses his, testing and tasting as I follow his lead. His hands slide under my thighs, lifting me up and placing my legs around his waist. I hook my ankles together, and clasp my arms around his neck, falling deeper into his kiss.

Drayton walks me backwards and lays me out on the bed. His hand moves up my side before cupping my breast. His other hand moves to the spot between my legs, his fingers slowly descending to where the tingles and aches are the worst. I gasp loudly when he touches me, his fingers circling a spot that makes my whole body come alive.

"You are so fucking wet, sweetheart. Do you like when I touch your clit like this?" he rasps, his eyes alight with arousal.

"Oh god, yes. Keep doing that," I moan, my eyes rolling back before closing at the intense pleasure rising in my body.

Drayton slips a finger through my wet center, his thumb taking over on my clit as he slides his index finger inside of me. The feeling of his finger inside of me is foreign, but oh so good. When he adds a second finger inside of me and starts moving them in tandem with his thumb, I see stars explode behind my eyelids.

Sounds fall from my lips, none of them make sense, but they sound like prayers to keep going and begging to stop all at once. The pleasure tearing through me is unlike anything I've ever known before and I don't know how much more I can take.

The pleasure hits a peak that has me crashing into waves and waves of unbelievable ecstasy. Drayton plays my body like his own personal instrument, drawing every ounce of pleasure out of me.

"You are so sexy when you cum. Holy fuck," Drayton groans, removing his fingers and shifting up on to the bed with me. "You can tell me to stop if you need me to."

"If there's more of that to come, please, Drayton, don't ever stop," I say, peering through half-closed eyes at my sexy as sin mate.

At my words, Drayton smirks and spreads my legs open to him, licking his lips as he does. "Next time, I'm going to taste that sweet, wet pussy of yours. I just need to be inside of you this time or I'm going to fucking explode. I need you wrapped around my cock, milking every fucking drop of cum out of me as I mark you from the inside out."

"Yes, do that." I nod eagerly, reaching for him and letting my knees drop as low as they can. "I need you, Drayton."

"Fuck, Talia. You're going to be my undoing," he groans, grabbing his length and rubbing it from my clit down. We both shiver at the contact, my insides clenching at the feeling. He lines himself up, thrusting forward slowly as he enters me.

Drayton fills me up inch by glorious inch, making me whimper in satisfaction. He pulls out slowly, his eyes never leaving mine as he picks up the tempo. A moan falls from his lips as he thrusts deep inside of me, his hands gripping my hips and guiding me along his length.

My body shakes with a new wave of pleasure as his cock slides in, hitting the same spot as his fingers but harder. I scream out in pleasure, unable to hold back the sound as a new orgasm builds up inside of me. This second one is so much more than the first, my body already alive from my first fall from this cliff.

"Talia," he moans my name, sending shivers down my spine and driving me higher up the cliff of pleasure. "You. Are. So. Fucking. Perfect."

Drayton gasps out each word in between thrusts, the sound of skin hitting skin separating every word. His breathing increases, his body slick with sweat as he pounds into me, driving us both higher and higher.

"You. Are. Mine," he growls, his eyes glowing as they catch mine. Our eyes connect as I fall over the edge, screaming his name with the intensity of my climax. "That's it, sweetheart. Fuck. Yes. Grip my cock just like that."

Drayton throws his head back as he follows me over the edge, his cock growing impossibly larger inside of me. It feels like it locks in place, hitting that magical spot in such a way that I cum all over again, this third orgasm knocking me into a new world. I can feel him pulsing inside of me, my pussy clenching with each pulse.

"My perfect fucking mate," Drayton moans, his cock softening enough for him to pull out. "Look at that sweet pussy dripping in my cum. Fuck, that's one of the hottest things I've ever seen. My essence is marking you from the inside out. Every part of you is mine."

"Just as you are mine," I murmur, my voice soft and tired. "I love you."

"I love you too, Talia." Drayton leans down to kiss me, his dark, damp hair falling in his eyes as he does. "Let's get you cleaned up a bit, then, if it's alright with you, I'd like to just hold you for a while."

Smiling at him, I nod my head and push his hair back with my hand. "That's more than okay."

Drayton moves off the bed for a minute, grabbing his shirt off the ground and lightly cleaning me up. He tosses it in the garbage bin beside his desk and turns off all lights except the small lamp on his desk. The room is cast in shadows, practically cocooning me to sleep. Dray slides into the bed behind me, snaking his arm around my waist and pulling my back flush with his front.

"Thank you for being my first," I murmur. My eyes are drooping closed, the exhaustion and contentment from our tumble in the sheets overwhelming me.

"Thank you for trusting me with your first," Drayton responds, nuzzling his face into my neck. "Get some sleep, love. I'm here to watch over you while you do."

"You need sleep, too."

Drayton chuckles into my hair, his breath tickling the back of my neck. "Me? Nah, I don't need sleep. Everyone knows a leader never sleeps."

There's humour in his voice, but also a touch of bitterness and contempt.

Shifting my position, I roll in his arms so I can see some of his face in the low ambient light.

His blue eyes are worn down and sad, the colour less vibrant than normal.

"You can talk to me, you know. I won't judge you," I whisper and place my hand over his heart. "The burden you're carrying is heavy. Let me, as your mate, take some of the weight. You don't have to carry it all by yourself."

Drayton closes his eyes for a minute, sniffling and wiping a stray tear that falls onto the pillow beneath his head. I take this as my cue to move in closer, tucking my head under his chin and holding him as tightly as I can while I wait for him to be ready to talk.

"Being alpha was something that I have been training for since I was young. When my father found out I carried the alpha gene, he tried so hard to figure out a way to pass it to Forrester instead." Drayton holds me close as he talks, his hands rubbing the skin on my lower back. "I didn't want the gene anymore than my father and stepmother wanted me to have it. It was just another target to add to my back."

There's a heavy silence that descends around us, the ticking of a clock the only sound outside of our breathing. My eyes start to close again, the heat from Dray's body and the darkness around us soothing me to sleep.

"When we realized there was no passing the gene to someone else, my father reluctantly started training me to take his place. I'm almost certain that if Forrester were in my place, the training wouldn't have been half as brutal as it was." My eyes pop back open, my heart breaking for my mate.

"I thought I would hate being an alpha. I didn't want any of the responsibility that came with it. It was too much."

Drayton takes a deep breath then continues. "The truth is, though, that I love being the alpha. I care so much about everyone in this pack, even the ones who don't care much for me. Watching the pack thrive and grow, the culture and history of who we are coming back to the pack. It's one of the most rewarding things in this world. It's just, it really does feel like a thankless, never–ending job, you know? There's always something to fix or someone to set straight. There's countless lives that depend on my leadership, and I don't know that I actually make the cut."

"But I think that's why you were chosen to carry the alpha gene. You were made for this position," I answer, sensing he needs reassurance in who he is.

"Leadership, devotion, kindness, and determination are huge parts of who you are. This pack has been poisoned by your stepmother, and in turn your father. It needs to heal now, and you are exactly the man to do that, if through nothing else except pure determination."

"Will you help me heal our pack?" Drayton asks after a long pause.

"It would be an honour," I answer with pride.

"The six of us will make our pack whole again."

"Thank you, Talia." Drayton kisses the top of my head before settling back down and letting out a long exhale.

"Talia?"

"Hmm?" I hum, barely still fighting off the exhaustion.

"Will you shift for me soon? I would really love to finally meet your peryton."

Smiling against his chest, I mumble a sound that's meant to be an agreement before the unconsciousness drags me under. My peryton leaps with joy at the prospect of finally being able to stretch her wings. I follow her into the Valley of the Goddess, trying desperately to work the anxiety that floods me at the thought of shifting. It's hard to let go of the fact that not too long ago, shifting would have been a death sentence for us.

I guess it's finally time to push through the fear and let out the most cherished part of myself. If I can trust them with myself, I can trust my mates with my peryton.