Chapter 7
Asher couldn't breathe.
Not just from the weight pinning him to the forest floor, though Gabriel was heavy—all hard muscle and relentless strength—but from the sheer impossibility of what was happening.
Gabriel Stone, the man who'd haunted Asher's most shameful fantasies since he turned eighteen, was naked above him, amber eyes wild with something that definitely wasn't human.
Werewolf . The word kept circling in his brain, refusing to compute. But those elongated canines catching the moonlight were pretty fucking convincing.
Gabriel's face pressed against Asher's neck, inhaling deeply like he was trying to memorize the scent. The gesture was so animal, so unlike the controlled man Asher had known, that it sent his thoughts spiraling.
"Mine," Gabriel growled against his throat, the word barely human. "Mark you. Make you smell..."
The sentence dissolved into action as Gabriel's mouth found Asher's neck, and holy fuck, his teeth weren't just scraping anymore?—
Gabriel bit down. Hard.
Not a playful nip, not even a regular bite, but something that felt like Gabriel was trying to crawl inside him through his throat. The pain was immediate and electric, shooting straight to Asher's cock in a way that made no fucking sense.
His hands flew up to tangle in Gabriel's hair, not to push him away but to hold him there, fingers clenching desperately as his whole body arched up against Gabriel's weight.
His vision whited out for a second, and he might have screamed—he wasn't sure, couldn't hear anything over the roaring in his ears.
And then it shifted, the sharp agony turning strangely sweet, flooding him with a hazy, weightless rush. Endorphins, probably , his brain supplied weakly, but it felt like he was floating while Gabriel anchored him in place with teeth and heat.
When Gabriel finally released him, Asher was shaking.
Gabriel's tongue immediately soothed over the mark, lapping at it with careful attention, and the gentleness after the violence made Asher whimper.
Gabriel kept at it, tongue working over the bite again and again like he was sealing something in, and each pass sent aftershocks through Asher's oversensitive system.
"Mine," Gabriel murmured against the mark, pressing one more gentle kiss to the throbbing imprint of his teeth. Asher could feel it pulsing in time with his heartbeat, could feel how it would bruise dark and unmistakable. Whatever that was, whatever he’d just let Gabriel do, Asher knew he'd be feeling it for days. Maybe longer.
This was so fucked up. Gabriel wasn't in control. Wasn't choosing this. And here Asher was, getting hard from it, letting it happen.
What kind of person did that make him?
The kind who'd spent three years selling himself to anyone who'd pay, apparently. The kind who was so desperate for Gabriel's attention that he'd take it even like this, when Gabriel couldn't really consent to giving it.
Gabriel's mouth moved lower, tongue tracing patterns across Asher's chest that felt like ownership. Each bite, each mark bloomed dark on pale skin. His hands were everywhere—gripping, stroking, mapping Asher's body with desperate efficiency.
"Need," Gabriel muttered, the word torn from somewhere deeper than thought. "Moon's so... can't..."
The broken phrases confirmed what Asher now already knew. This was just that mating run thing, the full moon driving Gabriel to claim the nearest available body. And Asher—pathetic, needy Asher—just happened to be here.
Wrong place, wrong time.
Or right time, if you were a selfish asshole willing to take advantage of someone not in control.
Which apparently he was.
Gabriel worked his way down Asher's body with single-minded focus, mouth and teeth claiming every inch of skin.
When he reached Asher's hip bone, he bit down harder, sucking a mark that would be dark purple by morning.
The pain-pleasure of it made Asher's cock throb, already fully hard despite his shame.
Gabriel shifted to continue his path downward, stretching out beside him, his body a long line of muscle and power in Asher's peripheral vision. Close enough to touch. Close enough that when Asher turned his head, Gabriel's cock was right there—thick and hard and perfect, just inches from his face.
Asher couldn't look away.
Panic fluttered in his chest like a trapped bird.
This was too much, too close to every desperate fantasy he'd harbored.
Gabriel was big, bigger than anyone Asher had been with, the head already glistening with precome in the moonlight.
The sight made Asher's mouth water despite himself, despite the voice screaming that this was wrong, that Gabriel couldn't want this, that tomorrow would bring nothing but regret.
His hands dug into the forest floor, dirt caking under his nails as he fought the urge to lean forward those few crucial inches. He couldn't. Shouldn't. Gabriel wasn't choosing this—the moon was making him crazy, making him need release. Any warm body would do.
Gabriel's teeth found the sensitive skin of Asher's inner thigh, and the sharp sensation made him gasp.
Another mark, another claim that Gabriel wouldn't remember making.
Asher's whole body trembled with the effort of staying still, of not taking what was right there, so close he could feel the heat radiating from Gabriel's skin.
He watched, transfixed, as Gabriel's cock twitched, a bead of pearl-white precome rolling down the shaft.
Another bite, harder this time, closer to where Asher desperately wanted Gabriel's mouth to go. The pain-pleasure of it shattered his last defenses.
If Gabriel was going to hate himself tomorrow anyway, if this was already unforgivable…
Before he could second-guess himself again, Asher leaned forward and took Gabriel into his mouth.
The taste exploded across his tongue—salt and musk and something wild and inhuman. Gabriel's entire body went rigid, a sound tearing from his throat that was more howl than moan. His hips jerked forward involuntarily, pushing deeper into Asher's mouth.
"Fuck—" Gabriel managed, the word barely human. His hands found Asher's hair, gripping tight as his body shuddered. “Asher… your mouth..."
For a moment, Gabriel seemed lost in the sensation, frozen except for the trembling in his thighs, the way his cock pulsed against Asher's tongue.
The moonlight caught his face—eyes squeezed shut, jaw slack with pleasure, looking wrecked in a way Asher had never imagined the composed Gabriel Stone could look.
It was intoxicating, knowing he'd done that. Knowing he'd reduced Gabriel to this.
Even if Gabriel was only reacting to the moon, not to Asher specifically. Even if any mouth would have done the job.
Stop thinking and just take what you can get, Asher told himself, adjusting his angle to take Gabriel deeper. You've done worse for less.
Gabriel groaned, hips starting to move in small, aborted thrusts like he was trying to hold back but couldn't quite manage it.
The sounds he was making—broken, desperate, barely human—went straight to Asher's neglected cock.
Even lost to the moon, Gabriel was trying not to hurt him, trying to maintain some control.
The consideration in that small restraint made Asher's chest ache with something he didn't want to name.
Then, as if some barrier in him had finally broken, Gabriel's mouth found Asher's cock, swallowing him down in one smooth motion that made Asher cry out.
The position was awkward, desperate, perfect.
Gabriel's mouth was hot and demanding around him, all technique abandoned in favor of pure hunger.
But somehow that made it better—this wasn't the practiced skill of someone who'd done this before.
This was raw need, primal want, Gabriel taking what the moon demanded he take.
Gabriel wasn't staying still: his hips moved in increasingly urgent thrusts, fucking into Asher's mouth with a rhythm that spoke of pure need. Not cruel about it, not forcing, but insistent in a way that made Asher feel used in the best possible way.
Like he was necessary. Like Gabriel needed this—needed him—to survive the night.
He doesn't need you, Asher reminded himself, relaxing his throat to take him deeper. You’re just a convenient hole. Wrong place, wrong time.
But God, the way Gabriel looked in the moonlight—all that controlled power finally unleashed, silver hair wild, muscles shifting under skin that gleamed with sweat. Beautiful and dangerous and everything Asher had never dared dream he could have.
This was wrong. So fucking wrong. He was taking advantage of Gabriel in an altered state, getting his rocks off with someone who'd probably be disgusted when he realized what happened. Add it to the list of ways Asher had disappointed everyone who'd ever given a damn about him.
But he couldn't stop. Not with Gabriel making those sounds around his cock, not with the taste of him flooding his senses, not with the moonlight making everything feel like a fever dream he'd wake up from anyway.
Gabriel's hands gripped Asher's thighs hard enough to leave fingerprints, spreading him wider, taking him deeper.
No hesitation, no careful build-up, just pure hunger like he was trying to consume Asher whole.
All while his hips maintained that rhythm, rutting into Asher's mouth with increasing urgency.
The dual sensation was overwhelming—being taken from both ends, used and using in equal measure.
Asher's jaw ached from the stretch, throat raw from Gabriel's thrusts, but he couldn't bring himself to pull away.
Not when Gabriel was making those sounds, not when his whole body was humming with need.
This is what you wanted, Asher thought with bitter satisfaction. To be useful to him. To matter, even if it's just as a warm body during a mating run.
Pleasure built at the base of Asher's spine faster than he expected.
Gabriel's mouth was relentless, tongue doing something that made Asher see stars.
He tried to warn him, pulling at his hair, but Gabriel just growled—actually growled, the vibration traveling through Asher's cock—and sucked harder.
That possessive sound, that refusal to let go, shattered Asher's control. He was coming with a muffled cry, spilling across Gabriel's tongue while his whole body shook.
Gabriel didn't stop. Didn't even slow down. He swallowed everything and kept going, licking Asher through the aftershocks and beyond, until sensitivity bordered on pain. His hips never stopped moving, fucking into Asher's mouth with desperate, irregular thrusts.
Asher whimpered around him, overwhelmed, oversensitive, but Gabriel's hands just shifted to his thighs, pushing them wider. His mouth moved from Asher’s spent cock to his hole with the same feral abandon, making Asher gasp.
Too much, Asher's brain screamed, tears pricking at his eyes from the overstimulation.
But there was something darkly satisfying about it too—about being pushed past his limits, about Gabriel taking what he needed without apology.
Like Asher was something worth being greedy about, even if it was just the moon talking.
The mix of pain and too-much-pleasure had Asher writhing, but he kept his mouth open, let Gabriel use him, because this was what he'd chosen. This was the price of having Gabriel, even for one night—total surrender, complete consumption.
Gabriel's thrusts became erratic, his whole body tensing. The sounds he was making vibrated through Asher's oversensitive body—desperate, broken, barely human. Beautiful in their rawness, in their complete lack of Gabriel's usual control.
Then he was coming with a sound that echoed through the trees, pulsing into Asher's mouth while his teeth sank into Asher's thigh hard enough that Asher wondered if he'd broken skin.
Asher swallowed it all, the taste wild and intense, nothing like the mechanical encounters he was used to. This was Gabriel, raw and undiluted, and Asher knew with crushing certainty that nothing would ever compare. He'd spend the rest of his life chasing this feeling and coming up short.
They collapsed in the pine needles for barely a heartbeat, both panting. Asher's jaw ached, his throat was raw, his hole was slick with spit, and he could feel bruises blooming across his thighs. Evidence of what they'd done. What he'd let happen.
"Fuck," Asher breathed, trying to catch his breath, trying to process?—
Strong hands gripped Asher's hips, flipping him over onto his stomach with effortless strength. Asher barely had time to get his hands under himself before Gabriel was covering him, all that naked skin and barely-leashed power pressing him into the forest floor.
"Mine," Gabriel growled, and then he was pressing inside.