28
Hannah
“Come on, Kaitlyn! You’re the slowest runner I’ve ever met!”
I can’t believe the laughter and female comradery as we run.
Vera has a route scouted and flies ahead.
Patricika clears a path to make the trek easier for Kaitlyn and me.
My role? Hold space between slow Kaitlyn and the speedy pair, so we don’t get lost.
“You know,”
Kaitlyn gasps between pants and huffs.
I walk beside her as she catches her breath.
“You don’t have to wait for me—unless you want to see Serik and I fuck.”
“Not in the slightest—”
“Then run ahead! My advice is to find a soft place with room for others to watch.”
She groans as she stretches a stitch in her side.
“Oh, I forgot about the watchers part…”
“It’s not as bad as you think—at least it wasn’t for me,”
Kaitlyn replies with a slap to my back.
“Serik’s so great at mastering my body, I hardly noticed who was there.
All I know is enough people showed support to make Serik happy.
Mission accomplished.”
“Right.”
Anxiety burns in my stomach and threatens to bring up the granola bar I ate on the flight.
When we catch up to Patricika and Vera, they lead us to a clearing with spindly birch trees on our side and soft bryophytes on the other.
Imagining Gleb and me rolling around in the pink and purple flowers makes it seem like a fairytale…until I zoom out to where his friends and family are watching us.
“Don’t be nervous,”
Vera says with a rub to my shoulder.
“Let Gleb take the lead and focus on him.
We’ve all been through it and none of the unmated males are here to challenge Gleb or steal you from him.
My first chase with Artyom was tough because Patricika, Manya, and I were the three females for a dozen celibate males,”
she scampers off in a chorus of giggles.
Oh, wow, she is climbing that fir tree.
Are they going to do it in a tree? Hey, wait, where did Kaitlyn and Patricika go? How did I end up alone when I started in the center of the pack? I strain to hear them, but the whistling wind is my only companion.
What am I supposed to do now? Run? I jog a few paces, but my heart isn’t in it.
“Is that how you run for your mate?”
Gleb’s rumbling voice prickles my skin.
I speed up to please him.
Leaping over ditches and sliding over icy patches, I race through the bryophytes.
No flower is safe from my trampling feet as I plow east.
Gleb’s shadow looms over my shoulder. His breath fans the top of my head, to be brushed aside by my swinging hair. Oh, how I wish I had worn my hair up to feel him! I give into my urges and shed my heavy coat. My shirt launches over my shoulder to hit him in the chest. Oh, the feral expression on his face is delicious.
“Run, svet kamina ! Run so your mate can catch you,”
he growls at my back.
“I can’t run any faster—”
“Do you want to be caught, my firelight?”
“Desperately,”
I say as I’m lifted off my feet.
I grab at Gleb with greedy fingers.
A moan escapes my lips as they dig into his lush fur.
Did I tilt my head in submission because his fangs graze the tender spot between my neck and shoulder? He nips my jaw before claiming my mouth in a toe-curling kiss. Our tongues dance and duel like fated partners.
“Take me,”
I whisper against his lips.
“If I claim you, you can’t leave me again.
Your life with me must be your only life,”
he says, pulling away so I can look into his eyes.
I wrap my legs around his waist to lock us together, but he waits for me to say the words.
“I gave up my human life and set up everything Kaitlyn told me to,”
I reply, holding his cold cheeks in my hands.
“I’m ready to start a family with you.
Here, in the Arctic with the Chuchunya, is where I want to be.”
“I hope you brought plenty of clothes.”
“And set up a way to get more in the niibin season when we’re on the southern grounds,”
I reply with vigorous nods.
The implication that he’s about to rip my clothes from my body heats my core ten degrees.
I go from anxious to needy in seconds.
It takes a few wiggles, but I manage to get out of my sports bra without falling out of Gleb’s arms—not that he’d ever let me hit the ground.
“Oh, svet kamina, you’re more beautiful than I remember.”
My legs slide up his sides as he lifts my breasts to his face.
I moan as the hot cavern of his mouth engulfs my sensitized nipple.
As my breasts have enlarged with pregnancy, I’ve fantasized about him latching onto them.
To see my dreams come to life floods my vagina with arousal .
“I missed you.
I want you.
I love you.”
Senseless words and pretty promises fall from my lips as I rain kisses on the top of his head.
I’d love to take control and force him to the ground, plunging him inside me to extinguish the burn.
But I’m helpless as he uses me for his pleasure.
Even rubbing my core against his pectoral muscles doesn’t create the friction I need and makes my desire for him blaze hotter.
“Can I play more games with you, darling?”
His voice is dark and sinful, like hot chocolate.
“Or do you need my seed so soon?”
“N-n-need,”
I stammer as I rock and gyrate with reckless abandon.
Why did I wear insulated leggings?
“Poor firelight.
You’re burning out of control, aren’t you?”
When my answer is a whimper, he lowers me to the ground.
The mossy plants cushion my back, but their snowy leaves dampen my hair.
I claw at my waistband while he smiles down at me.
When I’ve loosened them from my hips, he shocks me by sliding his fingers into the fabric.
I freeze as he tests my wetness.
He purrs.
Oh hell.
With a flick of my clit with his thumb, I gush over his hand.
“Are you ready for me?”
I’m speared by one digit and then two.
“Uh, huh.”
Without shame, I rock against him to chase my orgasm.
Love shines in his eyes as he watches me.
“Take what you need,”
he whispers.
“I was made to make you happy.”
My hips snap.
Slush splashes around us.
He pulls off my sneakers and strips off my socks.
The frigid air hits my toes, confusing my feverish body. When he sucks my big toe into his mouth, a storm builds inside me. I can’t take much more. His elongated tongue snakes down my foot to tickle the knot on my ankle. He’s alien, but as familiar as the missing half of my soul.
“I love every inch of you and will spend the rest of my life worshiping each moment we have together.”
His pretty words unleash the cycle inside me.
The orgasm tears me apart.
My vision goes white.
My pelvis clamps down on his fingers with a promise never to let him go. I convulse with aftershocks. He’s mine and I’ve changed into the mate he needs. I can do this.
For him.
Words of love and devotion die on my tongue as he flips my boneless body over.
I’m a heartbeat from faceplanting in the mud before his hand catches my chin.
I smell myself on his fingers as he positions me on my hands and knees.
My fingers twist into the mossy plants and sink into the earth to ground me .
“Stay still,”
he whispers in my ear.
I shiver in response, earning myself a light swat on my behind.
I squeak as he rips my leggings along the seam.
My legs are covered but my most delicate parts are exposed to the elements.
Cold air rushes over my damp tissues, giving me the shivers.
His swat lands on my naked flesh this time, warming me with its sting.
“Stay still until I take what’s mine,”
he growls.
The words are hardly intelligible through the husky rumble.
He runs his tip through my arousal to lubricate himself.
I breathe deeply to prepare for the stretch.
It’s been a few weeks.
I’m not as stretched out as I was when I left.
My body will remember, right? No, don’t think like that.
Stay calm.
Breathe.
The more anxious I become, the tighter I will be.
My heart pounds like a jackhammer in my chest as I yell at myself to stay calm.
He’s as wide as I remember, but this time I welcome the burn.
Resistance is there, but my body rapidly changes to accommodate him.
He grunts and growls as he holds onto his control, and I’m forever grateful.
He pushes for what seems like forever.
Then we fit.
My moan is more of a sigh of relief.
He shuffles on his knees, and I’m lifted off mine.
His fingers dig into my hips as he holds me where I’m at the best angle.
I hang suspended in the air with arms and legs dangling as he uses me.
There’s nothing for me to do except focus on the friction and pounding inside me.
He lowers me slightly, so he hits that spot with each thrust.
My orgasm coils tighter and tighter.
I scream when it barrels through me.
The spasms crunch down on him in agonizing contractions as his knot inflates.
His thrusts become small jerks as he fills me with seed.
I’m still twitching as he rolls into a seated position and arranges me on his lap.
Impaled on his cock and topless, I’m face-to-face with my new family.
I don’t know whether to salute them…or hide my beet-red face.
They place a fist over their hearts, which Gleb mimics.
I go for covering my breasts instead.
“Welcome home, svet kamina ,”
he whispers.
“Thank you for including me.”
“Life isn’t complete without you.”
It’s been months since anyone has seen Sveta.
She disappeared from Kaitlyn and Serik’s mating chase.
What made that chase different from the others?
Why did she abandon the plan to hide with her sister Tatiana until the end of the chase?
Find out in Holding My Chuchunya, the sixth and final book of the Snuggling Under Snow Drifts Series.
Sveta
It’s easier to hide from the mating chase than to choose between my father’s wishes and the male I love.
Because of my chosen’s hatred for the Chuchunya and my father’s obsession with mating me to the future leader of the clan, I’ve never had a private conversation with my future mate.
I can’t help the tears that fall as I run each year, because my heart breaks every time my dushevnayasvyaz chases someone else.
He chases them to start fights with the other males—not because he finds any Chuchunya or human attractive.
I’ve heard it in his prayers at night…he wants one of my clan brothers to end his miserable life.
If only he chased me, I’d do whatever it takes to keep him happy.
Certainly mating me is better than an early death.
So, when he earned a near-fatal wound at the last mating chase, I took him.
He’s mine and once I’ve convinced him, we will confront my father…the leader of the Chuchunya.
Maybe if we can convince Timor that our love has nothing to do with clan leadership succession, he will believe my dushevnayasvyaz is a Bigfoot…