29. Nikolai
The soft, vulnerable sound of my name on her lips acts as a catalyst, snapping the final thread of my restraint.
I close the distance between us in a single, explosive stride.
Before she can even begin to deploy her vampire speed, I catch her by the waist and drag her forward, pulling her body to the edge of the mattress.
I drop to my knees on the bed, straddling her hips, my thighs locking her securely against the mattress so she can’t slide away from me.
“Nikolai, what the—”
I snake my hand beneath the headphones resting around her neck, my fingers brushing against her skin before my palm wraps firmly around her throat.
I don’t squeeze enough to cut off her air, but the grip is unyielding, pinning her head back against the pillows.
I lean down, sinking my weight over her until our lips are a mere breath away.
“What is Julian Vane to you?” I rasp, the words vibrating with the raw, jagged edge.
Casandra’s eyes widen, the pupils dilating in a sudden rush of shock. For a second, the fierce, unyielding girl who always spits venom in my face vanishes. She opens her mouth, her chest heaving against mine, a faint stutter escaping her lips before she forces the words out.
“W-we...” She swallows hard, her throat moving against my palm. “We are to marry. My parents arranged it. A long time ago.”
The word marry hits my chest like a physical blade, a fresh wave of blinding, suffocating rage igniting in my gut.
But looking down at her, seeing her beneath me, trapped in my hold, smelling only her scent without a single trace of him, the manic edge of my wolf begins to steady. She is here. With me. Not him.
“Over my dead fucking body,” I growl against her skin.
I don’t give her a chance to answer. I crash my lips onto hers, my palm tightening just enough around her neck to make her let out a sharp, breathless gasp into my mouth.
The kiss is a declaration of war—punishing, possessive, and entirely consuming.
I drink her in like a dying man, my tongue forcing its way past her teeth to claim every corner of her mouth, demanding her total submission to the bond.
And she gives it to me.
With a low, desperate whimper, her hands fly to my bare shoulders, her fingernails digging deep into my skin as she kisses me back with the exact same frantic, unhinged passion.
The heat in the room skyrockets. I break the kiss for a fraction of a second, just long enough to grab the headphones around her neck and rip them away, hurling them across the room where they shatter against the far wall.
I don’t care. My hands are already tearing at the straps of her dress, the fabric ripping beneath my fingers as I strip it down her body, exposing her pale, flawless skin to the cool air of the room.
I pull it over her hips, discarding it onto the floor, minimizing the distance between our skin until there is nothing left but the heat of my bare chest pressing down against her small, perfect breasts.
I kiss my way down her jaw, my lips tracing the frantic pulse point in her throat before sliding down the center of her chest. She arches into my mouth, her breath hitching as my hands slide down her stomach, parting her knees, pushing her thighs wide apart.
“Nikolai,” she gasps, her voice breaking as she tangles her fingers in my hair.
I slide down the bed, dropping between her legs, and bury my face between her thighs.
The moment my tongue makes contact with her center, she lets out a loud cry, her hips jerking off the mattress. I grip her hips hard, my thumbs digging into her skin to hold her still as I feast on her with a desperate, heavy hunger.
“You’re mine, Cassie,” I mutter against her wet skin, my voice dark and gravelly. “Not his. Fucking say it.”
“Yes—ah! Nikolai, please,” she sobs, her hands gripping the bedsheets as I use my tongue in long, deep, deliberate strokes, finding her hyper-sensitive bud and swirling against it until her breathing turns into a frantic, broken rhythm.
The bliss that floods my senses is absolute. It’s a soul-deep satisfaction that makes my wolf purr in absolute triumph. I love the taste of her, love the way she trembles under my mouth, love the way her inner muscles clamp down in anticipation.
“Good girl,” I growl, increasing the pressure, my fingers sliding inside her slick depth to stretch her, mimicking the friction of my tongue. “Take it for me. Let me feel you break.”
Her hips shudder violently, a loud, piercing moan tearing from her throat as her entire body goes rigid, her walls contracting in a powerful, rolling orgasm that bathes my fingers and lips in her heat.
I hold her through it, drinking in every drop of her release, feeling the absolute submission of her body in the wake of the climax.
I crawl back up her body, my chest slick with her moisture. But as I press myself against her, I notice the slight, subtle tightening of her shoulders, a momentary reluctance as she looks up at me with clouded, uncertain eyes.
I freeze, my hands framing her face. “Tell me if I’m hurting you,” I whisper, my voice suddenly soft, the fierce Alpha melting into the desperate mate who would rather die than cause her real pain.
She shakes her head quickly, her gaze locking onto mine with a raw, emotional intensity that makes my heart ache. “No. Just... don’t stop.”
The vulnerability in her eyes breaks whatever sanity I have left.
I kiss her deeply, pouring every ounce of the love and terror I feel into the meeting of our lips.
While her mind is consumed by the kiss, I reach down, quickly shedding my shorts and tossing them blindly onto the floor.
I position myself between her thighs, the tip of my length pressing against her soaked, aching entrance.
I drive inside her in one deep, unyielding thrust.
Casandra gasps against my mouth, her legs instantly wrapping around my waist, locking me tight inside her. The fit is so perfect it borders on agony. She is fucking tight, her hot, slick walls wrapping around me like a velvet glove, pulling me deeper than I thought possible.
“Fuuuck, Cassie,” I groan, my forehead resting against hers as I begin to move. I draw out until I’m almost clear, then plunge back in, driving home with a heavy, rhythmic force that makes the wooden headboard bang rhythmically against the wall.
“Nikolai... you’re too big... oh god,” she whimpers, her head tossing from side to side on the pillow, her fangs lengthening slightly as her vampire instincts flare under the intense pleasure.
“Look at me,” I command, my voice rough, dripping with dirty promise. “Look at who is inside you. Who owns this body?”
She opens her eyes, her gaze burning into mine, completely undone. “You,” she pants, her fingers clawing into the muscles of my back. “You, Nikolai. Only you.”
“Damn right,” I growl, my pace turning feral, fast and deep, chasing the friction that is burning away my control.
Every thrust is a rejection of the world, a rejection of her arrangement, a rejection of Julian Vane.
She is taking all of me, stretching around my size, her hips moving in perfect, desperate synchronization with mine.
The pressure in my groin builds into a towering, cataclysmic wave. I am about to come. The heat in my blood reaches a boiling point, and the primal urge to finalize the claim overrides everything else.
I shift my weight, leaning down until my chest is completely crushing hers, and lower my lips to the side of her neck. The soft, unblemished skin right at the junction of her shoulder calls to my wolf like a siren song.
“I’m marking you,” I growl against her skin, my voice raw with the impending release. “Right now. You’re going to wear my mark, Casandra.”
I open my jaws, my fangs extending to their absolute limit, aching to sink deep into her flesh and bind our souls permanently. My hips give one final, massive thrust, my release exploding inside her with a heat that makes me roar out loud.
But just as my teeth graze the surface of her skin, ready to pierce the flesh—
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
A blaring, high-pitched, electronic alarm blasts through the silence of the room, originating from her phone on the nightstand.
The sound is like a bucket of freezing water dumped directly over my head. My jaw snaps shut, missing her neck by a fraction of an inch. The sudden, jarring interruption shatters the primal trance entirely.
“Fuck!” I growl, burying my face in her shoulder, my chest heaving as I pulse inside her, the absolute frustration of the ruined moment making me curse low and bitter against her skin.
Beneath me, a faint, breathless vibration ripples through Casandra’s chest. I lift my head to find her chuckling, a soft, amused smile breaking through her flushed, post-coital expression.
“Perfect timing, huh?” she groans, reaching a pale arm out from under me to fumble blindly on the nightstand until her fingers wrap around the vibrating device. She brings the screen into view, her eyes scanning the glowing text.
The amusement instantly drains from her face, her features hardening into a serious mask. She looks up at me, her chest still rising and falling rapidly.
“It’s the academy alert,” she says quietly, her voice steady. “My group... we’ve just been called for the Survival Challenge.”
The mention of the challenge brings a dark shadow back over my features. I slowly pull out of her, the loss of her warmth an immediate ache, and lean over her, my hands planting on either side of her head.
I lean down and kiss her, hard and bruising, a reminder of what just happened between us.
“Good luck, baby. We’ll pick this up the exact second you get back,” I tell her, my voice dropping into a dangerous, unyielding promise as my eyes lock onto her bare neck. “And the next time I see you, you will be wearing my mark. Permanently.”
Casandra just grins, a flash of her usual, vengeful red sparking in her eyes, entirely unfazed by my possessive threat.
“We’ll see about that,” she murmurs.
I lean down and kiss her again, deeper this time, sealing the promise before the rest of the world can force us apart.