Chapter 14 - Patrick
She’s so tight around me that I have to hold still and take a breath to keep from coming right then and there.
Caelan’s teeth dig into my shoulder as she adjusts to my size, and the small pain grounds me enough to think past the overwhelming need to pound into her.
Her thighs squeeze my hips, ankles crossed at the base of my spine, and the mate bond roars through my veins like wildfire, demanding I claim her.
I tilt back and watch her face as I thrust forward again.
Her eyes flutter closed, and her lips part on a moan that I want to hear for the rest of my life.
She’s beautiful like this, flushed and wanting, and knowing that I’m the one making her feel this way sends a rush of satisfaction through my chest.
“More! I need more.” She’s practically begging, and Christ, I’ve never been more turned on in my entire fucking life.
I give her what she wants.
The pace I set is punishing and nothing like the sweet lovemaking I imagined all those nights on the cabin floor when I was trying not to think about her in the bed just feet away.
This is something wilder, something that answers the violence still in my blood from killing that damn Thornridge wolf who dared threaten what’s mine.
Each thrust bumps her back on the table’s surface, and she meets every one with a roll of her hips that makes me see stars.
“Fuck.” I hold onto her thighs so hard that there’s no way it’s not going to leave bruises. “You feel incredible.”
She snakes her hand around my neck and pulls me down for a kiss that’s more teeth than tenderness, biting my lower lip before soothing the sting with her tongue.
I groan into her mouth and hitch her legs higher, adjusting the angle so I can drive deeper with every stroke.
The sound she makes when I bottom out inside her is something I want burned into my memory forever.
“Right there,” she pleads. “God, don’t stop.”
I couldn’t stop now if my life depended on it.
The table creaks beneath us with every thrust, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder if it’s going to hold, but I don’t care enough to slow down.
All that matters is the woman in my arms and the way she’s coming apart, her moans growing louder and more desperate as I steer us both toward the edge.
I feel my knot starting to swell at the base of my cock, and I tell myself to slow down even though my instinct is to keep going. “Caelan. My knot—I need to know if you want me to pull out before—”
“Don’t you dare.” She tightens her legs around my waist and pulls me closer. “I want all of you.”
Without a second thought, I thrust into her harder, faster, chasing the release building at the base of my spine.
My knot swells with each stroke, stretching her open around me until the pressure becomes almost unbearable.
She gasps and throws her head back, and I watch her throat work as she struggles to breathe through the fullness.
“That’s it. Take all of me. You were made for this.”
My knot catches on her rim, and I grind forward one last time before it locks us together. The sensation of being buried inside her with no possibility of separation pushes me over the edge, and I come with a grunt while I spill everything I have into her welcoming heat.
Caelan follows me a moment later. Her inner walls flutter down around my knot before clamping down, which only serves to drag another wave of pleasure from my over-sensitized cock, and she sobs against my neck as the orgasm barrels into her.
I hold her through it, stroking her hair and mumbling nonsense I’m not sure either of us can hear over the pounding of our hearts.
We stay like that, tangled together on the table with my knot keeping us joined as her breathing slowly evens out against my throat, and I kiss her temple, her cheekbone, the corner of her mouth, any strip of skin I can reach in the moment.
She tastes like salt and satisfaction, and I want to memorize every detail of this moment in case it’s the only one I ever get.
The knot takes its time releasing, and I use the forced intimacy to touch her the way I’ve been wanting to since we arrived here.
I glide my fingertips down her spine and count the small freckles scattered across her shoulders.
She lets me explore without complaint, which I take as a victory all in its own.
When I finally slip free of her body, we both wince at the sudden emptiness. I ease back enough to look at her, taking in the flush still staining her cheeks and the drowsy satisfaction in her pale blue eyes.
I brush a strand of silver-blonde hair away from her face as I tell her, “Stay here. I’ll get something to clean us up.”
I find a clean cloth and dampen it with water from the basin before returning to where she’s still sitting on the edge of the table. The sight of my release leaking down her thighs makes something primal in me growl, but I push the feeling aside and concentrate on taking care of her instead.
I clean her gently, so different from the rough way I just took her, that she watches me with something like wonder in her expression. I wipe away the evidence of what we did before I toss the cloth aside and lift her into my arms.
She loops her arms around my neck and giggles. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to bed.” I carry her across the cabin to the narrow mattress that’s been hers alone for the past ten days. “You need to rest.”
I lay her down on the sheets and pull the blanket up over her body before climbing in beside her. She curls against my chest without prompting, fitting herself into my body like she was made to be there, and I wrap my arm around her waist to hold her close.
We lie in silence for a while, and I listen to the forest sounds that make their way through the broken window.
The cabin is a mess of shattered glass and overturned furniture, with blood still staining the floorboards where the Thornridge wolf died.
I know I should clean it up. The window needs to be boarded up, and the snares need to be reset.
Most of all, we need to figure out our next move now that my fears have been realized.
Instead, I hold Caelan and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist for just a little longer.
“I don’t know what this means,” Caelan whispers against my chest. “What we just did.”
“It doesn’t have to mean anything you don’t want it to mean.”
She peers up at me through those impossibly long lashes. “That’s not how mate bonds work, and we both know it. This thing between us isn’t going to go away just because I’m confused about my feelings.”
“No, it’s not. But confusion isn’t the same as rejection. You’re allowed to take time to figure out what you want.”
She blows out a frustrated breath and asks, “What if what I want keeps changing? One minute I’m furious with you for everything you did, and the next I’m kissing you like my life depends on it. I don’t understand myself anymore.”
“The curse suppressed your emotions for nineteen years. It makes sense that everything feels overwhelming now that you can actually experience what you’re feeling.
” I catch her hand and press a kiss to her palm.
“Give yourself grace, Caelan. You’re learning how to be a whole person for the first time.
That’s not something anyone masters overnight. ”
“I don’t know if I can forgive you. For the marriage, I mean. Even if I’m starting to understand why you did it.”
“You don’t have to forgive me tonight. You don’t have to forgive me ever, if that’s where you land. I made a choice that affected your entire life without giving you any say in it. Understanding my reasons doesn’t oblige you to absolve me of the consequences.”
“That’s very mature of you.”
I pull her closer and rest my chin on top of her head.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think. All those nights on the floor, watching you sleep in this bed.
I knew you’d never have chosen me if I’d given you the option.
I knew I was taking something from you that I had no right to take.
The only thing I could do was try to be worthy of what I stole. ”
When she doesn’t respond, I don’t push her. Instead, I hold her and breathe in the scent of her hair and try to commit this moment to memory.
I hate breaking the peace we’ve found, but practicality demands it. “We need to move. That was a Thornridge scout, and he didn’t find us by accident. They’ll send more wolves to search when he doesn’t report back.”
“I know,” she admits with a sigh. “How long do we have?”
“A few hours, maybe. Depends on how long it takes them to realize their scout isn’t coming back.” I run my hand up and down her spine in slow strokes as I add, “We should leave at first light. Head for Grayhide territory like we discussed.”
“So I’ll have to face my family, after all.”
I tip her chin up so I can look into her eyes. “Whatever happens when we get there, you won’t be alone. I meant what I said, Caelan. I will always come when you need me.”
“Even if they try to kill you?”
“I’d prefer to avoid that particular outcome if possible,” I admit with a chuckle.
She laughs, quiet and tired, and the sound loosens something in my chest that’s been wound tight since the moment I first saw her on the stage at that bar. This woman is my mate. Whatever else is uncertain between us, that truth remains constant.
“Get some sleep.” I pull the blanket higher around her shoulders. “I’ll keep watch.”
“You need rest, too.”
“I’ll rest when I know you’re safe. Sleep, Caelan. I’ve got you.”
She presses a kiss to my chest, right over my heart, and then closes her eyes. Her breathing evens out within minutes as exhaustion takes hold despite everything that’s happened.
I stay awake and listen to the sounds of the forest, taking note of every rustle and snap for signs of approaching danger.
My body aches from the fight and the sex, and my shoulder throbs where the scout’s teeth tore through muscle, but I ignore the discomfort.
Protecting Caelan matters more than my own pain.
Dawn comes slowly, and as it does, gray light seeps through the broken window to illuminate the destruction we left in our wake.
I ease out of bed without waking her and start gathering what supplies we can carry.
Food, water, and the few weapons I’ve managed to cobble together from what the cabin provided.
It’s not much, but it will have to be enough.