Chapter 35
CHAPTER 35
C hristophe
My wolf howls at the dark sky once again as we race behind Ashley’s wolf, playfully nipping at her heels.
He lets out a chuff when she barks at him over her shoulder. Tingles of excitement race through my body. I’d forgotten how free my wolf felt during a good run. Years of suppressing my wolf’s natural instincts are the cause.
But I never would’ve realized how exquisite it feels to race behind my mate. Just the two of us, the waxing gibbous moon overhead, highlighted by the stars that dot the sky.
I race faster as the word echoes through both my and my wolf’s mind.
Mate.
Ours.
Mine.
It’s taken months for me to admit something I knew the moment I first heard her voice on the other side of that cold, hard, cement wall.
Ashley is my mate.
The one destined for me. For eternity.
My wolf lifts his head and howls again. Neither one of us gives a damn about the fact that the pack may hear me. My wolf howls at the injustice of it all. For my own stupidity that cost me my mate before we ever met her.
And my weakness that prevents me from ever even laying eyes on her before I’m sent back to another prison cell to live out the rest of my days.
Before I can fall too far into my pit of internal despair, Ashley’s wolf barks over her shoulder at me and then gestures with her head toward the left.
I follow her as she veers off the typical running path, into the forest. After a couple of minutes, we come to a cave entrance. I’ve known and heard a few members talk about caves in the mountains that surround us.
But I’ve never been to them myself.
I don’t hesitate to follow Ashley’s wolf though. She stops short when I bark just as she’s about to step inside. I stroll in front of her, slightly edging her away from the entrance so that I can look inside first—my wolf’s natural instinct to make sure everything is clear and safe for her before allowing her to enter.
It’s not even something I think about. It comes naturally, the need to protect her.
Ashley moves to my side, lowering her head to my neck, nuzzling it. Tremors of pleasure course through me. I know she’s telling me, without words, that it’s safe inside. Or that she’s gone into this cave before. Likely, with her sister.
Still, I take the time to make sure it’s clear before moving aside and allowing her to enter.
My eyes bulge when Ashley pauses and licks my face. A wolf version of a kiss.
An urge I’ve never felt before overcomes me, and before I can think about it, I’m shifting back into my human. Ashley’s wolf gasps behind me as I spin around to face her.
I watch her wolf’s eyes widen and she turns her head away. Yet, I move to her, dropping to one knee, and turn her wolf’s head to face me. I don’t know if what I’m doing will result in pain, but I need to look at her, at least like this. With my human eyes.
Thanks to a few holes in the cave’s roof that allow some light from the moon and stars to stream in, coupled with my wolf eyesight, I can see her dark brown eyes clearly.
There’s worry and fear in their depths.
She’s afraid for me. Even in our wolf form we still carry many of our human traits. Our eyes, being the most obvious. Most shifters’ eyes don’t change when we’re in our animal form.
“Stunning,” I whisper, still staring into the pools I could watch for eternity.
But will never get the chance.
Ashley’s wolf licks the inside of my wrist. Laughter bubbles up inside of my chest.
“Shift,” I say in a low but deep command I’ve never heard before in my tone.
Her eyebrows knit together.
“Shift. I need you.”
She nudges my chest with her nose. It confuses me for a moment, but she continues. I realize that she wants me to turn around.
Right.
I can’t look at her and I’m not wearing a blindfold. Rising to my feet, I turn away from her.
“Shift.”
Though she doesn’t make much of a sound, I can feel the moment she changes from her wolf to her human.
I start to turn around.
“Close your eyes,” she insists.
I seal my eyelids closed but turn to her, nonetheless. “I want to touch you,” I tell her while holding my arms out toward her.
She moves into my hold. My entire body warms from the moment I make contact with her soft skin. We’re both naked from having just shifted.
I drop to my knees again.
Ashley gasps. “Wh-What are you doing?” she asks with a tremor in her voice the moment I lay my hands against her ass.
“I told you. I need you.” I bring her body into me until my nose makes contact with what I assume to be her belly. The instant I do, a shiver courses through her body. My hands tighten on her ass cheeks until I’m squeezing her globes.
“Christophe.”
My name becomes a whispered plea on her lips.
I kiss her again until my mouth finds her belly button. I dip my tongue inside, swirling it around.
“Ohhh.” Ashley’s panting now.
I lower one hand from her ass to the back of her knee to lift it over my right shoulder.
“Christophe?” Confusion laces her tone. But her tone changes from confused to relieved satisfaction when she lets out an, “Ohhh,” the moment I run my tongue against her pussy lips.
“So sweet,” I murmur.
That’s not just rhetoric. She’s the sweetest taste I’ve ever had. The most enticing as well. I could spend all day here, with Ashley’s leg slung over my shoulder, my face between her legs, driving her higher and higher into her pleasure.
But it doesn’t take nearly that long for her body to start trembling in a way that tells me she’s on the verge of coming.
I double down on my efforts. A hunger that I’ve only heard about has overtaken me ever since I’ve met this woman. My mate.
My insatiable appetite to bring her pleasure, to hear her moan out my name while she comes on my face drives me almost to the point of madness.
Ashley soon lets out a scream that both of our wolves are proud of.
But I’m not done.
I need more.
Even with my better, higher self telling me it’s a terrible idea, that I need to pull back and go back to my damn house, I can’t.
“I need you,” I desperately tell her while lowering her leg back down.
Maybe, I secretly hope that she’ll turn me away. That she’ll have the good sense I lack in this moment, and Ashley will remind me that what we have is just an illusion. We’re not destined to be together for eternity. Not like Chael and Reese or Chance and Emery or the others.
Our love is forbidden seemingly by Mother Moon herself.
I silently hope Ashley reminds me of all of this. Or perhaps because I’m too much of a coward to stop this myself.
But Ashley does none of the above.
Instead, she drops her palm over my eyes at the same time she lowers her body to her knees, to get on my level. I know this the moment she leans into me and presses her soft breasts against my stomach.
“I need you too,” she whispers before nipping at my chin.
Any control I had up until now snaps. I wrap one arm around her waist and use the other to spread her leg and wrap it around my hip, opening her up to me.
I lay her body down on the floor of the cave, while my body hovers over her. My stiff cock bumps against her entrance. And instead of pulling back like I know I should, I grind my hips against her. While I don’t allow my cock to make entrance into her sweet channel, I allow the tip to tease and rub against her wetness.
“I’m going to move my hand,” Ashley pants out, “but you have to keep your eyes closed.”
“I will. Move your hand.” I’ll keep my eyes shut, as promised, but the removal of her hand feels like the removal of another barrier between us. One of the least cumbersome, no doubt, but it brings us closer together, even if I can’t look her in the eye while I enter her.
My lips find hers, and when she opens up her mouth for me, it feels like an offering. As if she’s granting me permission to take her. While I explore and kiss her, I don’t have the ability to tell her that I can’t take her because she’s already taken possession of everything I am, and everything I ever will be.
Pouring my thoughts into the kiss, I hope it somehow conveys how much she means to me.
I slide my hand down the thigh she has around my hip until I cup her ass cheek again. I pull back from the kiss in order to correctly position myself at her entrance.
Though I can’t look at her face, I can watch as I enter her for the first time.
“Watch me,” I tell her. “I want you to see the moment I make you completely mine.” My voice comes out in a growl.
“Are you watching?” I ask since I can’t look up to check for myself.
“Yes,” she pants. “Please, Christophe. Hurry. I don’t want to wait anymore.”
My body almost goes weak from the sound of her begging me. Instead, though, I make her wish come true. Our wish.
Slowly and deliberately, I push my hips forward, allowing my cock to make entrance into her awaiting core.
“Fuck,” I grunt from the way her pussy immediately starts gripping me. I do my best to hold back, but when Ashley squeezes her pussy muscles, wordlessly pleading for me to go deeper, I can’t hold back.
I fill her all of the way up. Until our pelvises brush against one another, skin to skin, not even air can come between our bodies.
With my eyes closed, I raise up to meet her lips again. “I’m not hurting you, am I?”
I feel her shake her head. “Never,” she answers against my lips before she kisses me with a desperation I’m intimately acquainted with.
I kiss her with as much anguish, if not more, while slowly pulling my hips back before pumping into her. I move with intention, fighting myself not to go too fast or too hard. She may have said that I’m not hurting her, but I refuse to give into the inner beast that’s telling me to drive into her like a madman.
That is, until my butterfly tells me …
“Please, I need more.”
A growl rips from my lips as I break away from the kiss and give into the animal inside of me. And I’m not referring to my wolf.
I mean the crazed, inner me, that forces me to pull almost all of the way out of her before driving back in with a force that shakes both of our bodies. Ashley lets out a scream that calls me to drive into her again and again with the same force.
“You’re so fucking wet and tight,” I tell her. “So fucking good.”
“You’re so big,” she groans out. “God, I love you.”
I don’t even know if she’s aware of what she’s just yelled out. But I am.
Burying my face into the crook of her neck, I bite the sensitive skin there all while continuing to make her mine.
If this is the only moment I get to have with her like this, then I’m determined to make it the best experience she’s ever had.
I move my hand to her clit, running my thumb over it while pumping into her. Her grip tightens around my cock. Her pants increase to a rapid pace, and her legs tighten around my hips.
All of a sudden, the darkness behind my eyes changes. No longer is there pure blackness. An array of colors appear. Just like the multicolor designs Ashley loves or a rainbow, a kaleidoscope of colors fills the space behind my eyelids.
In the midst of the kaleidoscope is a shadow. It’s small at first, but grows as it moves closer. It doesn’t take long to figure out it’s the shape of a woman. A woman with long, multicolored braids.
Lightness unlike any ever experienced infuses my entire body. My lips spread into a wide smile as she gets closer and closer. My heart hammers inside of my chest.
My gaze starts at her bare feet, taking in the perfect shape of her brightly painted toenails, moving up her slim legs to the jean cut shorts and the tie-dye half-shirt that shows off her belly button.
Her perfect oval chin, which I predict speaks to the shape of her face. But when I attempt to look at her face, there’s nothing there. The shadow has returned, thrusting me back into reality.
“Fuck,” I pant out as my body spasms and convulses from the orgasm passing through me. I’m coming harder than I ever have, deep inside of Ashley’s walls.
Ashley wraps her arms around my neck and dips her head into my neck. Her teeth sink into my shoulder as she comes. I know she’s coming because her pussy walls won’t stop milking me.
There’s no pain from her bite. Just an ever-present, all-encompassing satisfaction.
It feels like hours before we both stop orgasming and are able to catch our breaths.
“What. Was. That?” Ashley asks, her voice a mixture of awe and confusion.
“I think we just mate bonded,” I tell her without moving my lips, through our newly established bond.