Page 78 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

SAPHIRA

T he hunger spiralling through me was stronger than it had ever been, blazing in my veins like an inferno that would burn me to ashes if I didn’t quell it.

I stared up at Kaeleron, my breaths coming faster as I still tasted him on my tongue, as he gazed down at me, his silver eyes dark with need and wicked promises.

I tugged at the sides of my robe at my chest. The need to pounce on him, to bring him to his knees and dominate him flooded me, and my skin felt too tight. Too hot. I was going to die if I didn’t get what I needed, if I didn’t push him into surrendering this time and giving me what I wanted.

I was sure of it.

But I was no longer embarrassed about this hunger burning within me, threatening to rip control from me at any moment. I was no longer afraid to reach out and take what I wanted, and my growl was demanding as I came to my feet, loud in the quiet cottage.

Kael seemed to know what I needed, and that I needed more this time, that our moments together hadn’t been enough to break my heat.

The taste of his seed had only cranked up the hunger, revealing what I needed, and now I felt as if I was treading a fine line, in danger of losing control entirely if I didn’t get it.

The feel of his hard length throbbing in my mouth had rendered me near mindless with an ache to feel it between my thighs, filling me.

I needed more from him.

All of him.

The moment his hands came down on my arms, I was lost, my control shredded. The hunt for pleasure overwhelmed me faster this time, owning me, making me wild with a need to chase it, to release the insane pressure that had been building inside me the last few weeks.

I clawed at my robe, desperate to escape my burning body.

And then I was on my back on the rug, my hands pinned above my head, the weight of Kaeleron between my hips delicious and maddening.

He was so close. Within reach. Body pressing mine into the sable fur.

Breath mingling with mine. The heat in his silver eyes scorched me, melting the chains holding me back.

I craned my neck to kiss him.

He moved his head back, just beyond my reach.

When the back of my skull hit the furs again, he moved back to where he had been, hovering tantalisingly within reach. So I tried again, and again he evaded me.

I growled at him.

His eyes shimmered with amusement that touched his lips as he husked in a whiskey-rich voice, “So demanding.”

Heat flashed across my cheeks, because my growl had been a demand. An order to take me, to fuck me hard and make me feel every inch of him, just as my heat and my wolf side craved.

I wanted him to dominate me, to show me his strength, to use all of it on me.

I wanted him to break me.

He hovered above me, weight braced on his knees and his hands where he gripped my wrists, pinning me in place. Delicious. But I needed more.

I lifted my hips and shamelessly rubbed against him. Needy. A little afraid he might reject me again. That dark thought was quick to come and go, burned away as he shifted his weight and gripped my wrists in one big hand, and slipped the other between us.

Delving between my aching thighs.

I practically howled as he stroked his fingers across my mound.

“Tell me what you need, little lamb.” He chuckled when I growled at him for using that mocking name and murmured, “Little wolf.”

I arched my hips into his hand.

His gaze grew hooded as he held me in place and parted my thighs with his knees, bracing them apart as his fingers delved between my petals.

I didn’t hold back my moan as he stroked and teased my clit, as he feathered his fingers lower to caress my slick opening, the look on his face one of pure pleasure as he found me wet.

So wet. So ready for him.

I groaned as he eased two fingers into me, filling me and stroking me deep. He rubbed my clit with his thumb as he worked me to a frenzy with his fingers, my pulse shooting higher as pleasure built within me, as I strained for release.

“Make me come,” I whispered, my brow furrowing as I tilted my head back, as I held his gaze, not embarrassed by the intense way he watched my face as he pleasured me. I sank my teeth into my lower lip and arched my back, thrusting my breasts towards him. “Please.”

“Never have to beg me, little wolf,” he murmured and plunged deeper, taking me harder with his fingers, a frantic rhythm that pushed me closer to the edge.

I reached for it, each thrust of his fingers and stroke of his thumb ripping a moan from me that grew louder and louder as my body tightened like a bow string, in danger of breaking.

I threw my head back and screamed as release hit me, as pleasure rocked me and my thighs trembled against him, my breaths scouring my lungs as warmth spread through me.

And as I came down from it, sinking slowly into the fur, Kaeleron continued to stare into my eyes.

He pulled his fingers free of me, brought them up to his face and held my gaze as he wrapped his lips around them, as he sucked my essence from them.

“Oh gods,” I breathed, unsure I had ever seen anything as hot as that, my arousal soaring again as he licked every drop of my juices from them, his gaze dark and hooded, pleasure shining in it as he tasted me.

“Delicious. Always so delicious,” he husked. “Tell me what you want, Saphira.”

I swallowed my nerves. “You know what I want. What I need. You .”

He didn’t take his eyes from mine as he lowered his hand, bracing it against the fur between my ribs and my arm, holding his weight off me. “Your mating heat means you want just any male.”

And I realised that wasn’t true.

It might have been the first time the frenzy had hit me, and maybe even the second, but this time, I had wanted him the moment he had appeared on my doorstep.

That want had only increased when I had tended to his wounds, and was the reason I had ended up on my knees before him, his cock in my mouth.

Before I could tell him any of that, he growled, flashing wicked fangs, the skin around his eyes as black as night.

“I will not find you another male,” he snarled with a possessive light in his eyes, one that made him look as mad as I felt, but drew me to him, making me want to fold him in my arms and kiss him to show him that I wanted only him.

“I am the only one who gets to touch you—to see you like this. If anyone else touches you, I will carve them to pieces… slowly… because you are mine .”

That was incredibly hot. Incredibly possessive.

My primal instincts responded strongly to how demanding he was as he hovered above me, his thighs nestled between mine, his expression dark and commanding.

I wanted to cajole him and push him into showing me just how possessive he was and just how fierce he could be.

It was the heat speaking, my wolf side wanting to be dominated right now and have the strongest male mate with me.

But maybe it wasn’t.

Maybe all of me liked the idea of him taking me hard, staking a claim on me.

I wasn’t scared to say the words that fell from my lips.

“You’re the only one I want to touch me—to see me like this.”

His mouth was on mine before I knew what had hit me and I moaned as he plundered it with his tongue, his kiss fierce and demanding, a potent drug that I was immediately addicted to as I clawed at his shoulders, pulling him closer, unable to get enough of him.

He groaned in response and angled his head, taking me deeper, harder, our tongues clashing as his taste flooded me, mingled with my own.

His hands found my robe and he tore it open, ripping a gasp from me as cool air washed over my bare breasts, and then he covered one with his hand and one with his mouth.

I groaned and arched into him, shooting stars of pleasure cascading from the points he teased as I rolled my hips into his stomach.

My hands came down on his head, fingers threading into his hair, and I gripped it hard, yanking him back up to me and kissing him this time.

He seized my wrists and shoved my arms above my head again, and I howled in response to his strength as he pinned me, as he wrenched command from me.

He joined my wrists beneath his right hand and delved his left between my thighs again, stroking me, his gaze like pure fire as his cock kicked against my thigh, making me aware of it.

Deeply aware.

I wanted that inside me.

“So wet,” he purred. “Thinking of my cock?”

I nodded and licked my lips.

He pulled my robe open all the way and I looked between us, groaning as I stared at his shaft, so thick and long. I needed that. I couldn’t stop my hips from rolling, from riding his fingers as he teased me towards another climax, one I wanted to feel around his shaft rather than his fingers.

I growled at it.

He chuckled and shoved his fingers deeper, ripping a gasp from me as he stretched me on the way out, and then repeated the process.

Readying me, I realised, and grew even more restless as it hit me we were really going to do this.

My body writhed beneath his touch, his gaze, my focus rooted on the object of my desire—my need.

I growled again, demanding he go faster, take me now.

I was ready.

So ready.

In a flash, he was above me, gaze colliding with mine, his weight pressing me into the fur and containing me.

I stilled, obeying that command in his eyes, submitting to his strength as he shoved my thighs apart, as he pushed at his leathers. I lifted my feet and caught them with my toes, shoving them down for him, too eager to wait.

A gasp burst from my lips as his blunt head met my clit and he teased me with it, as he stroked himself lower, making my breath hitch with anticipation.

And then pressed against my core.

“Kaeleron.” What had meant to sound demanding came out as a breathy whisper as I urged him to take me, to give me what I needed.

He inched forwards, his face strained as he released my wrists and braced his weight on his arms, and I bit my lip as he stretched me, slowly filling me, the pleasure of it so intense I thought I might come just from him entering me.

Not yet. I didn’t want to come yet. I wanted to feel him inside me, wanted to feel every inch of him claiming me, and wanted him to come with me.

“Breathe, little wolf,” he murmured, sounding as strained as he looked.

I hadn’t realised I had been holding my breath.

I let it out in a great rush as he stilled inside me, so deep it hurt, and then gasped as my body flexed around his, a greedy little thing I had no control over.

Gods, he felt good inside me.

He felt even better as he began moving, stroking me deeply but slowly, every muscle on his body tense as I placed my arms between his ribs and his arms and curled my hands over his shoulders, clinging to him as the pain became pleasure that rippled through me with each thrust of his body into mine.

Oh gods.

I moaned against his lips and he kissed me, swallowing a gasp as he grasped my hip in his left hand and lifted it, and drove deeper into me.

Heat and need coiled together inside me, pleasure building until I felt as tense as he was, straining for another reason as I rolled my hips against him as much as I could. My primal instincts howled for more, hungry for him to show me his strength.

It needed more than this gentle coupling.

It needed it wild and fierce, a display of dominance and strength.

I met his gaze as he pulled back, his gaze searing mine, a questioning look in it.

“Harder,” I uttered. “Mate me.”

I thought he wouldn’t understand, that he would make me spell it out, but then he pulled out of me and flipped me onto my front, and hauled my hips up, forcing me onto my knees. Before I could catch up, he rammed into me from behind, thrusting deep and fast, filling me in a blinding flash.

His hand twisted in my hair, pulling my head back, and then shifted lower. He claimed hold of my nape, holding me in place as he took me. I angled my head, looking back at him as best as I could as I moaned, rocking forwards with each punishing plunge of his cock.

Oh my gods.

I had never seen anything so delicious.

So perfect.

Kaeleron was on one knee, his other foot planted beside me, his hand gripping my nape while the other held my hips, holding me in place for his pleasure.

His handsome face was dark as he took me, a sneer on his lips as he worked his hips, each flex of them making his corded muscles dance in a powerful symphony.

I moaned and pressed back against him, the need he ignited in me twisting into a demanding thing within me, making me push him. He gripped me harder, his strokes growing longer, making me feel all of him as he held my nape, as he uttered my name.

“More,” I whispered on a moan.

He shoved me down against the fur, spreading my thighs with his knees, holding them off the rug as he fucked me harder, taking me out of my mind and making me rumble with a low growl of satisfaction. Close. I growled and groaned, tried to move but he wouldn’t let me.

Short claws pressed into my nape to pin me.

And my entire body exploded into a shower of stars.

I howled his name as he pressed deep into my quivering body and spilled, hot seed scalding my core with each deep, short shove of his cock as he grunted in time with each one.

Darkness encroached as blissful coolness followed the heat wave, as I sank into the fur and savoured the feel of his climax and my own.

I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, intimately entwined, his body coming to rest on top of mine, his breath skating across my damp back and his claws still pressed into my skin.

I mourned the loss of him when he pulled out and left me, and shivered as he gently washed me between my thighs.

“I should not have been so rough with you, little one,” he murmured.

“I wanted you rougher,” I admitted, not scared to voice that, not if it would ease his mind that I had wanted him to be rough with me, had needed it to break my mating heat.

But maybe next time, we could do it gentle and slow.

His low chuckle warmed my limp limbs and I smiled lazily at him as he lifted me in his arms, turning me towards him, and carried me to the bed.

He stepped up onto it, kicked the covers out of the way, and set me down on it, and then he did the most delicious thing yet as sleep overcame me.

He stretched out beside me and pulled me into his arms, tucking me close to his chest.

And stole another piece of my heart.