Ruined Wolf: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Claimed by the Sea Wolves Series Book 2)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Iopened my eyes and whimpered. The nightmare hadn’t gone, I was still here, still down in the pitch-black darkness that, as an eight-year-old, had felt like it must have been the very entrance to hell itself. Everything was the same—the dank, damp smell of rotting seaweed, the jagged rocks under my body, and the cold bite of the heavy salt laden air around me. Even the painful thudding of my heart and the violent shaking of my body felt the same. I hardly dared glance sideways, because in my mind, I could already see the still, silent form of his body lying next to me.

The memory swarmed through my head, taking it captive so I could think of nothing else. I heard his voice above the cave, warm and cheery, with just a hint of worry and relief. As he’d roped up, he’d chatted away to me, assuring me that he’d be down to get me shortly, and that explorers tended to be a little more trained and a little more prepared than I had been for this particular adventure. I’d waited in the darkness, holding in the tears from finally being found.

The cave had been fairly intimidating in the afternoon sunlight, but when the water had rushed in, blocking my way out, it had turned terrifying. I’d had no way of knowing how far the water would come in and if I was going to drown. I’d scrambled as far back into the cave as I could, climbing the pile of scree and driftwood I’d found, trying to get as high as possible. The water had flooded in, completely concealing the entrance, but left a few square yards of rock and rubble for me to perch on. I’d sat there as darkness had fallen, praying the water wouldn’t rise anymore and begging the universe to send someone to save me. He’d come hours later. The dark hadn’t scared him.

I’d almost been afraid to see him, worried about the scolding I was going to get for going out without telling anyone and for missing dinner, but he’d said he didn’t care, and he was just glad I was safe. He’d be right down, he’d said. Just getting roped up. More words, but I didn’t catch them, and then he was calling down, telling me to get as far away from the opening as possible. I had moved away, carefully stepping down into the water until it had reached my knees, just to give him space to abseil down the opening above. A flurry of pebbles landed where I’d been sitting, and I moved back a little farther. My foot had slipped on a rock, and I’d stumbled, splashing a little.

My father had instantly stilled, calling down to see if I was okay. When I’d said I was, he’d continued, slipping his entire form into the chute’s opening of Devil’s Chimney. I remembered everything taking so long. I was so desperate to get out, to get home, and to have him wrap his arms around me and tell me I was safe, that everything took an age.

What had happened next seemed to be over in a heartbeat. In counselling, I’d heard that people often see traumatic events in slow motion, remembering every detail vividly. This was not how it was for me. One moment, my father was carefully abseiling down the chimney, and the next, there was a shout, a rattle of rocks and rope, and then the sickening crack as my father hit the rocks below, a couple of feet from where I was standing. A burst of noise, shouting, rocks rattling, his body hitting the ground, and then complete silence. His flashlight hit the ground and went out, rolling into the water with a splash. I could see his body clearly, his neck bent in a strange way, his face white, and his eyes staring blankly off into the distance.

Then he reached out and touched my hand, and I screamed...

“Lucas! Lucas, it’s me! Lucas, wake up!”

I blinked, staring into the darkness, and another pale face materialised out of it—smooth skin, pale hair, and golden eyes, and the touch on my hand wasn’t my father’s but hers.

I scrambled backwards away from her, my heart racing, my breath coming in short, shallow gasps as I tried to remember what the hell was going on.

“Lucas, breathe. Just breathe.”

I did, sucking in gasps of air and forcing myself to slow until a thread of reason returned to my mind. “Nova,” I whispered.

She nodded. “It’s me, Lucas. You’re okay. I’m here with you.”

“Here...” I looked around at the surrounding cave. A small amount of light filtered through the chimney, though I could tell it was fading fast, and no light came from the entrance. “We’re in the cave.”

“Yes, we are. I’m so sorry, Lucas.”

“Why are we in the cave?” I asked, my voice strained as I forced the words past my throat, which felt as though it was closing up inside.

She sighed. “I came here to try and find the location of the treasure. You found me here. We were going to leave, and you tripped and hit your head.”

“I was knocked out?” I asked, turning to look for the exit.

“No, not really. For a minute or two, maybe, but then you just pulled yourself up here and wouldn’t talk to me. You seemed completely zoned out, like you were somewhere else. I tried everything to get you to talk to me, to... wake up, but you wouldn’t.”

“The tide...” I murmured.

“It came in while I was trying to get you to come back to me.”

I turned back to look at her, her pale form like some angelic being in the light of the small torch she held. “You should have left. Now we’re both trapped here, and no one knows where we are.”

“I thought about it,” she admitted. “Especially when you pulled yourself up here, but I didn’t know how far the water would get and… I didn’t want to leave you alone down here.”

Alone down here, down in the cave, in the dark. Terror filled me, and I pulled my legs into my chest, curling up and gasping for breath as memories rushed back...

The outline of my father’s body, which was exactly where I was lying now, was so broken and still. I couldn’t bear it. I’d lost it, screaming for help, my voice echoing off the cave walls until my throat was raw and I couldn’t make a sound. There was no one to hear me. I’d pulled myself up tight, sitting next to my father as I rocked back and forth, sobbing helplessly. After some time, my tears ran dry, and there was more screaming, until the slightest sound caused me such agony I had to give up.

I had crawled forward, wrapped my fingers around my father’s, and found them cold. I’d touched him tentatively. He was cold, so very cold. It was freezing down here. I couldn’t let him get cold. Carefully, I’d unharnessed him, pulling the ropes away and throwing them into a dark corner. I’d tried to straighten him just enough for me to lie down next to him, pulling his arm over me. I was cold, but not as cold as him. I could warm him. I’d slipped my hands down his sleeves, rubbing them up and down his clammy skin, trying to create friction, then laid them on his face, desperately trying to warm him, because if he was warm, then he was alive and could get better. His wolf could heal him, and we’d wait to be rescued, and then someone would come and everything would be fine. We’d laugh, and he’d mess my hair up, and then we’d walk home in the sunshine.

Sunshine, I wanted sunshine back...

“Lucas! Please, please, don’t go again. Lucas!”

Those golden eyes were gazing into mine again, wet with tears.

I reached out, my hand shaking. “Nova, I can’t stay here, please... I need to get out.”

One tear fell, and I went to brush it away, but her skin was cold, so I snatched my hand back.

“No, no, no, no!” I moaned, pulling away from her. “Not cold, not cold... You’re warm, warm... Please, Nova, please be warm.”

“Lucas, it’s freezing down here, but I’m fine. We’re both fine. Come here...” She reached for me, but her hand was cold, and I sat up, wrapping my arms around my knees and rocking back and forth.

“Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, please no, no...” I couldn’t bear that cold, clammy feeling that meant darkness, pain, suffering, and guilt, oh so much so much guilt, that I couldn’t bear it.

“Lucas...” She pulled back, and I could see tears in her eyes. I wanted to reach out and pull her into my arms like Maverick or Asher would have—hell, as Jaxon would have—but I couldn’t. I couldn’t touch her, because I was so fucking broken, so fucking ruined. All I could see in my head was my father’s lifeless body, his eyes staring off into the distance, and the cold feeling of his skin as I tried to warm him.

“You’re cold, you’re dead,” I mumbled.

“I’m not dead, Lucas, I’m fine, I promise. Please.” She was crying now, but although I knew that, it didn’t quite register with me.

I shook my head and started rocking back and forth. “No, you’re cold and dead, and I can’t get you warm. I tried to get you warm, and I couldn’t. It’s my fault, it’s all my fault...”

I heard her suck in her breath, and then she was standing up and moving closer. “Lucas, I’m sorry. I’m not dead, and I’m not cold, not everywhere.” She reached down and grabbed my hand, dragging it to where she wanted. Somehow, she’d lowered her trousers, and when she pressed my fingers against her core, shock jolted through me. She pulled my fingers through her folds, and I moaned at the warmth I found there.

“You see?” she whispered, her cold hand over mine as she guided me. “I’m alive, and I’m warm here, Lucas. Warm me, love.”

I felt as though I was in a dream. Her hand slipped away, but I pursued that feeling, that molten core and the slick that coated my fingers. Even down here in the dark and the cold, she came alive for me, moaning as I slid my fingers inside that blessed heat.

“Warm...” I murmured. “So very warm.”

I tentatively reached out with my other hand, gripped her hip, and pulled her closer. I lowered my legs and bent forward until I could taste that sweet nectar between her legs, and she shuddered.

“Lucas, more, please...”

I obliged, sliding my fingers in and out as I sucked her clit. Her thighs were wet and warm, and as she fell apart on my tongue. I needed more.

I fumbled with my belt, and she kneeled down to help me, but it wasn’t fast enough.

I needed more, needed to be inside her, needed to feel her warmth all around me. She’d stepped out of her trousers, and I pulled her down, wrapping her legs around my waist and impaling her with one hard push down onto my cock. I groaned as I felt her take all of me, and she gasped.

My hands slid over her hips and thighs as she rode me, the friction and movement causing her blood to rush through her veins and warm her skin. She was so warm, so very warm. She moaned as she rocked back and forth against me, breathing hard. I had my arms by her sides, but I needed to touch her. I couldn’t bear to be without her. It was like I was addicted, and I needed another hit. I lifted my hands and gently trailed them up her sides, stroking over her thighs and waist. She gasped, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close.

My mouth closed over hers, matching our rhythm and breathing. Her fingers slipped into my hair, pulling me closer to her as she arched her body up, pressing against me.

It was perfect, so perfect, being inside her and feeling her heat. I thrust faster, pulling her down harder and harder, but it still wasn’t enough. I reached down, unzipped her jacket, and pushed the flaps aside. The T-shirt underneath posed more of a problem, and I wasn’t thinking straight. I simply grabbed the neckline and ripped it down the middle.

“Lucas!” she gasped, but I didn’t care. I tore away my own clothes, throwing them somewhere into the darkness, suddenly needing to feel every inch of her searing body against mine. I crushed her against my chest, feeling the coolness of her skin heat as our bodies rubbed together. Her pussy ground against me as she rode my cock hard, and her breath was hot on my face as she panted and moaned.

“Lucas... Lucas... I need… I can’t...”

“I know, love, I know. I can feel you, I can feel you around me, so warm and wet and perfect...” I ran my hands over every inch of her I could reach, looking into her eyes as I fucked her. She was close, and her head tipped back, so I grazed my teeth down her throat. She growled and looked down at me, laying her hands on my face to hold me steady in her gaze as I felt her drive down harder, as though she couldn’t get enough.

“Nova... Fuck...” I groaned, feeling that sweet pussy of hers tighten around me.

“You’re mine,” she said. “Don’t forget it, and don’t run from it. Mine. My body, my skin, my cock. All mine.”

“Yours, my sunshine,” I said as I ran my hands through her hair and pulled her face into my neck. I crushed her against me, feeling every inch of that human touch I had feared and craved for so very long. Like a dam broke inside me, I needed her everywhere. I needed her scent all over my skin and her slick coating me. She wrapped her arms around me, wanting to be as close to me as I was to her, and the searing heat of her body almost broke my mind.

“Lucas... Lucas, oh...” She fell apart in my arms, clinging to me as her breath came in small pants and moans, and I felt her body tremble as I held her close.

I knew I was fucked. No matter what she’d done, no matter what she ever did again, I was hers, body and soul. I came with a quiet shudder, the release racking my body having nothing and everything to do with the incredible woman in my arms. Sensation after sensation rushed through me, and emotions I’d suppressed for so long were swept away like the dawn of a new day. My knot swelled inside her, stretching her, tethering her to me, and I felt her shudder as she came apart again and again. I held her close as she shook, stroking her hair until it subsided, and then she collapsed against me. Tears ran down my face, and I pressed my lips to hers, knowing she would be able to taste the salt of them as I did.

“I love you, I love you...” I murmured between kisses. The climax finally faded, leaving just her and me in the darkness.

“I love you too, Lucas, more than anything.”

I pulled her head against my shoulder, not wanting to break contact with her. She was warm and alive in my arms.

“Lucas, I’m so tired,” she whispered, and I smiled, pressing my lips against her hair.

“Sleep, my sunshine. I’ll be here when you wake, and we’ll figure this out together.”

She didn’t answer, her breathing slow and measured, and I laid my head on the top of hers, feeling the thump of her heart against mine.