Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Noah
I race after Aster, following the trail of broken branches and her small, hurried footprints in the mud.
I don’t need to hear her. Wolves track by scent, and Aster’s is a sweet perfume laid out before me like a highway a mile wide. If I had to, I’d follow it forever.
Catch her! My wolf urges me. He’s enjoying the chase. He thinks this is wolf courtship, where she runs, and I chase.
Where there’s a juicy reward when I catch her.
I speed up, following the flash of white-blonde hair disappearing between the aspens. I catch up to her in no time.
She’s weak. It’s not a fair match.
I slow down, one part of me enjoying the fuck out of the flash of her long, bare legs under my flannel, the other part pissed that she might be cold. Or that she was so desperate, she thought she had to run without putting on shoes.
I could let her run and tire herself out, but then she stumbles and slips in the mud, and my protective instincts take over. I launch through the air to grab her, carrying us both off balance enough that we go crashing down into the mud.
I make sure I break her fall then roll to pin her beneath me. She thrashes, fighting me, even though it’s futile.
I pin her wrists to the soft earth beside her head. I don’t want to hurt her, but I am pissed that she ran. I thought we had a connection. We do have a connection–the visions.
Did I do something to spook her?
You held her prisoner, my wolf reminds me.
Well, yes. There’s that. But still. We had a vibe.
“Stop,” I command, and feel her body freeze in response to my dominance. I must’ve thrown alpha command into my voice.
I didn’t know I could do that.
We’re covered in mud, and I can smell iron, which means she’s bleeding. The scent makes my wolf howl.
I stare down at her–my lovely captive. Her blue eyes are wide and round. Mud coats one side of her cheek. I want to kiss her again.
Desperately.
She’s panting, her chest rising and falling quickly. Her hair–still wet from the shower–is now covered with wet leaves and dirt.
Kiss her, my wolf urges.
I can’t. She doesn’t want that. Plus, I promised I wouldn’t do it again.
Fuck. Her nipples peak the flannel of my shirt like she’s turned on.
Claim her.
Definitely not.
Except my hands don’t obey my mind. I grasp the edges of the flannel shirt and yank it open, sending the buttons flying in all directions.
Aster gasps.
I lower my head and suck one of her pert nipples like my life depends on it.
Her body softens, knees drawing up to cradle my hips.
I release her wrist to frame her breast with my fingers, squeezing lightly as I suck.
Her free hand doesn’t push me away. She clings to my shoulder with it at first, then burrows her fingers into the hair at the back of my head, as if urging me on.
My cock is rock hard. I want to devour her. She smells like nirvana. Tastes like divinity. Her soft, yielding body beneath mine sings like a choir of fucking angels.
I suction my lips to her nipple and tug until it releases from my lips with a pop.
Fuck. I want more.
My ability to stop left me at some point during the chase. My wolf thinks she’s mine now.
If she gives me any indication she doesn’t want this, I’ll stop, I promise myself. I may have to strangle my wolf, but I’ll do it.
I’m not the kind of male who forces himself on a female.
I’m not like the Adalwulf alphas.
I switch to the other breast, using more finesse this time as I lick a slow circle around her nipple, then flick it with my tongue before I suck it.
I feel the vibration of a sound from her, so I lift my head to gaze at her lips, but her eyes are closed, lips parted.
It must’ve been a moan.
My wolf loves that. He wants to make her moan all day.
But not out here in the mud.
I sit back, pulling the wrist I still have manacled to lift her easily over my shoulder, then I straighten. Her bare legs draped across my chest are almost too much for me. The scent of her arousal makes me hungry to taste that sweet honey.
I give her upturned ass a sharp slap then rub away the sting.
Her scent drugs me, lowering my inhibitions. Making me do crazy things I wouldn’t normally do with a female.
She’s gone still in my arms, but I can feel the tension in her body.
Her feet are scratched from running barefoot over the sharp rocks. She’s a wolf–she’ll heal fast, but I hate seeing her hurt.
“That was a mistake, Seeress. I told you not to run.”
I don’t sense the vibration of any sound against my back indicating an answer.
Back in the cabin, I take her straight into the bathroom to wash off the mud.
When I set her on her feet on the rug, she wobbles on her long, coltish legs.
The flannel shirt flaps open, buttons gone.
She tries to pull it closed, but I’m too quick for her, yanking it down her arms, so it falls at her feet.
Claim her.
Mate.
This gorgeous she-wolf is completely naked with me in a small room, and I don’t know if I can hold myself back.
Aster
Running was a mistake. I should’ve known I couldn’t escape him. It only irritated the man and excited his wolf.
Now his glittering gold gaze promises punishment.
Or a rough claiming–it’s hard to tell which.
I can’t tell whether I’m scared or thrilled.
Noah’s eyes glow with his wildness. His cock tents his jeans. I’m trapped in this small room with him–naked and weak and no match against his strength.
What is he going to do to me?
He grips my shoulders and turns me to face the sink countertop. I meet his golden gaze in the mirror. Mine looks startled. His, feral.
He presses between my shoulder blades, folding me forward until I brace my forearms on the cool marble.
Prowling closer, he positions himself beside my hip and strokes his large palm down my back to arrive at my ass. He squeezes me roughly then lifts his hand away and brings it down with a clap.
I get lightheaded. Dazed. Wet where I’ve never been wet before. It doesn’t hurt. Not at all. But my wolf is riled up.
Especially when he immediately rubs away the sting, massaging, and squeezing my ass before he delivers the next spank. I’m panting, breathing in short little gasps, awash in sensations. The steady thrum between my legs grows louder. I want him there.
No. No, I don’t. That would be crazy. Surrendering to this burning desire would mean I lose everything–my entire identity. My life’s training and dedication to become the honored Seeress.
It’s not possible. There’s no way.
Yet, still, I don’t move to stop him. I’m not sure I could if I tried, though he seems more in control than he was out in the mud. And even then, he didn’t claim me.
Noah peppers my ass with spanks–light ones interspersed with caresses. It sends all the blood rushing between my legs, and the scent of my arousal fills the room like a hedonistic perfume.
I imagine him kicking my legs wider, gripping my hips, and taking me roughly from behind.
My body revels in the idea. My mind rebels.
Noah clasps the back of my neck and uses it to lift me from my position and rotate my body to face him. His lips crash against mine with bruising intensity.
I open for the kiss, apparently as eager as he is. His tongue sweeps into my mouth. He sucks at my lips.
It’s…transcendent. The most honest interaction I’ve had with anyone in my life. It’s like all my defenses and self-protective measures have crumbled, laying my true essence bare. I’m raw and open and impossibly sensitive to every nuance of this man’s touch.
Still kissing me, Noah tugs me toward the shower, where he turns on the water then picks me up by the waist and lifts me inside under the spray.
I rinse the mud out of my hair and from my face and legs, acutely aware that Noah is stripping out of his clothes. In a moment, he will be naked. I will see everything.
I’ve seen naked men before–witnessing the Alpha Rites. I found them almost repulsive. Frightening. But right now…I can’t look away. Noah’s body is built of solid, chiseled muscle. He slides his jeans and boxers off, and I get a view of his powerful thighs and ass. And…oh my.
Oh…wow. His cock flies at full mast for me, thick and hard. My body instantly readies for him, the slick between my legs hot on my inner thighs.
Oh fate. I need to stop this.
The moment he steps into the shower, I dance out of it.
Surprisingly, he lets me go. I grab a towel and wrap it around myself, facing the shower, watching the spectacular show of Noah rinsing off the mud under the spray of water.
The ache of need between my legs extends upward, into my womb. My heart thuds against my breastbone.
I need to talk to him. To explain before anything happens.
“I can’t have sex.” I raise my voice to speak over the spray of water before I realize it doesn’t matter.
Noah turns the water off and faces me, his attention on my lips. I hand him a towel, which he thankfully wraps around his waist.
“I can’t have sex,” I repeat. “Or I lose my ability to see.”
He cocks his head, not understanding.
“My visions.” I point to my eyes. “I have to be a virgin.”
Noah considers me, standing there in his full male glory, droplets of water running down his cut muscles. I want to lick them off his body. I want to throw myself at him and beg him to finish what he started.
“You have to be a virgin,” he repeats.
I nod. A trembling has begun in the backs of my knees, born of temptation. Of fear that he’ll be angry or force himself on me. Borne of navigating this foreign landscape with a man I barely know.
Except he feels so familiar.
Mate, my wolf whispers.
“I can’t be your mate,” I blurt, panic setting in. The trembling in my knees grows stronger. I can barely stand.
Noah’s eyes, which had been flickering gold, blaze into a full fiery glow. His canines lengthen.
My pussy contracts, breath heaving with the instant recognition. He’s ready to mark me. The mention of the word mate brought on his instinct to claim me. To sink his teeth into my flesh and forever leave his scent embedded in my skin to show I’m his.
If I’d had any doubt before whether he was my mate, it evaporates now.
I back away, reaching out to clutch the bathroom counter to steady myself.
“You can’t have sex.” Noah ignores the mate part, even though he must know the truth now, too. “No orgasms or no penetration?”
I blink. Swallow. Goosebumps travel down my arms although I’m not sure what the Grandmothers are trying to tell me.
“No…penetration, I guess.”
In a flash, Noah moves, lunging for me.
I try to turn and twist away, but he catches me by the waist and lifts me from the floor. I kick, but all he does is sit me on the marble counter. My towel jostles loose, and I clutch the ends together.
Noah’s eyes still blaze. His teeth are long, dripping with the serum to mark me.
“Don’t mark me,” I whisper.
“I won’t mark you. I just want to taste you.” He holds my gaze. “Spread your knees, starlight.”
I realize he’s waiting for consent. He could pry my knees open himself, same as he lifted me. His physical mastery over me is unquestionable.
He lifts his hands–slowly–as if showing me he’s not a threat, and gently tugs open my towel.
The soft whimper that comes from my lips isn’t resistance. It’s more like surrender. Noah cradles my neck between his palms, then lightly strokes down, across my shoulders, to cup my breasts. He brushes the pads of his thumbs across my nipples.
My entire body is trembling now. The sensations are so intense I can barely contain them.
Noah starts to push me gently backward. I catch my weight on my hands, and when he keeps the pressure up, lower to my elbows. He looks down pointedly, to my knees, then lifts his gaze back to my face.
Another whimper escapes.
I slide my knees apart. He wants to taste me. I’m not even sure what that means.
Noah traces down my body, licking, kissing, and sucking his way from my breasts down my fluttering belly and around the soft silk of my mound. He trails kisses up my inner thigh before his tongue reaches my sopping core.
He starts with just a flick of the tip of his tongue.
My body violently jerks in response, the sensation making me cry out.
His tongue delves between my folds, tracing a tiny circle at the apex.
I let out a sobbing breath.
This I haven’t seen before. The Alpha Rites don’t involve female pleasure.
The female devotees are bound on their backs to the stone dais with vines.
The chosen alpha males move among them, rutting inside each one until every female holds the seed of every male.
It takes hours, and sometimes the males use the female’s mouths to ready themselves between she-wolves.
What I witnessed made me happy to forego sex.
But this? Fate, this is like picking up the chessboard of my life and dumping all the pieces. This pleasure is so intense, I’m going to combust into a burst of flames. No, rose petals. Because there’s no violence to this–only the most beautiful velvet-soft pleasure.
“More,” I find myself saying, even though he can’t hear me. I burrow the fingers of one hand into his hair and urge him on.
He lifts his face and smiles at me, his lips coated in my juices.
“More,” I say again.
“I heard you.” He’s still smiling. He taps his temple. “In my head. Your words projected into my head.” Wonder and celebration shine in his eyes, and I’m hit with the significance of his words.
I project my thoughts into his head without even trying.
That must be how he found me in the tower’s tunnel.
Mate, my wolf insists.
But I can’t focus on that problem because Noah returns his tongue between my legs. He’s more aggressive this time, laving me with his perfect tongue then using his thumbs to part my labia. He suctions his lips around my clit and pulls at the same time he strokes his thumb over my slick entrance.
“Please,” I beg. “Please, please, please.” I grip his head, my fingers winding into his hair and tugging. I need more.
I need it all.
No–not all, not…oh, fate. Oh fate.
I scream, my hips bucking against Noah’s mouth as he continues to suck hard on my clit. “Yes! Yes, please! Yes, yes, yes!” My internal muscles squeeze and pulse in a glorious release.
Oh fate, it feels so good. I’ve never experienced this kind of ecstasy.
Didn’t know it existed.
When the tremors finally quiet, I tug Noah’s head up and throw myself at him, winding my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. Clinging to him with a desperation I don’t understand.
Noah lifts me off the counter, his forearm propped under my butt, his other arm banded around my waist.
I’ve got you, Starshine, he projects the words into my mind.
I burst into tears.