Chapter 2 #2
"I can feel how close you are," he said, his voice dark with promise. "Give in to it. Give in to me."
I didn’t want to submit to him, but the dual sensation of his mouth and his fingers was too much. The dam broke, and pleasure crashed through me in waves that seemed to go on forever. I screamed his name, my body convulsing against the shadows that held me down.
He didn't relent, drawing out my climax until it bordered on pain, until tears streamed from my eyes and I was begging incoherently. Only then did he lift his head, his pale eyes meeting mine. His lips glistened with my arousal, and he made a show of licking them clean.
"Mine," he growled, the word resonating through the small cave.
The shadows finally loosened their grip, allowing me to collapse fully onto the furs. I rolled onto my front, pushing myself up onto my hands and knees to crawl away from him. When I heard his deep growl behind me, I knew I’d made a mistake.
His hands were on me in an instant.
His hand clamped around my throat from behind, fingers digging into my skin as he yanked me back against his chest. I gasped, feeling the solid wall of him behind me, his erection pressing hard against my backside through his leather pants.
"Running from me?" His voice was a dark whisper against my ear, his breath hot on my skin. "There's nowhere to go, Little Flame. No escape."
I struggled against his grip, but his hand only tightened, not enough to cut off my air but enough to remind me of his strength. His other hand slid around my waist, pulling me firmly against him.
"Please," I whispered, though I wasn't sure what I was begging for.
"Please what?" he growled, his teeth grazing my earlobe. "Please let you go?" His hand slid lower, fingers dipping between my thighs, finding me still slick from his earlier attentions. "Your body says otherwise."
I whimpered as his fingers stroked me, my body betraying me with each touch.
The hand around my throat loosened slightly, allowing me to turn my head.
His lips found mine in a bruising kiss that tasted of my own arousal.
I should have been disgusted, should have fought harder, but instead I found myself responding, my lips parting under the assault of his.
Despite everything, my body responded, wetness gathering in anticipation. I hated myself for it, for wanting this, for craving his touch even as my mind rebelled.
"Tell me you want this," he demanded, his hand still wrapped around my throat. "Tell me you want me."
I remained silent, unwilling to give him that satisfaction even as my body betrayed me, my hips pressing back against him of their own volition. His cock pushed between my legs, sliding against me in a delicious form of torture.
"Say it," he growled. “I won’t take you otherwise.”
"No," I choked out, though every inch of my treacherous body screamed otherwise. "I won't say it."
His laugh was dark velvet against my ear. "Stubborn little imperial." His hand released my throat, only to tangle in my hair, yanking my head back sharply. "Your pride will break before I do."
I gasped as he positioned himself, the blunt head of his cock pressing against my entrance. He held me there, suspended on the edge of penetration, waiting. The anticipation was maddening, my body trembling with need even as my mind fought against surrender.
"Last chance," he whispered, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. "Tell me you want this."
I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood, refusing to give him the satisfaction. In response, he pushed forward just enough to breach me, then stopped again. I couldn't suppress the moan that escaped me, my body clenching around him, hungry for more.
"Stubborn," he repeated, his voice strained with the effort of holding back. "But I can be patient."
He withdrew completely, and I nearly sobbed at the loss. “I want you,” I cried out, cursing myself as I did.
"Yes," he growled, and drove into me with one powerful thrust.
I cried out as he filled me completely, the sensation overwhelming. His hand returned to my throat, not squeezing but holding me in place as he began to move. Each thrust was deliberate, almost punishing in its intensity, driving me forward on the furs before pulling me back against him.
"This is what you've been needing," he said, his voice rough with exertion. "This is what the bond demands."
I couldn't deny it. My body sang with each thrust, pleasure building in waves that threatened to drown me. The mate bond between us pulsed with energy, feeding the connection, making each sensation more intense than it should have been.
"Every part of you should have been mine from the beginning," he said. "Every touch, every kiss, every sigh—mine. Tell me their names," he demanded suddenly, his pace never faltering. "The men who touched what was mine."
"No," I gasped, trying to focus through the haze of pleasure. "I won't—"
His hand tightened on my throat, cutting off my words. "Their names," he repeated, driving into me harder. "I want to know who I'm erasing from your memory."
When I remained silent, his other hand came down hard on my backside, the sharp sting making me yelp. "Their names," he demanded again.
"Why?" I managed to ask.
"So I can find them. Kill them. Make them suffer for touching what was mine.”
“No,” I forced out. “I won’t name them, Taveth.”
He growled, the sound vibrating through his chest against my back. "Then I'll make you forget them entirely."
His pace increased, each thrust harder and deeper than the last. My arms gave out, and I collapsed onto my forearms, my face pressed into the furs as he took me with a primal intensity that stole my breath.
"You're mine," he growled, punctuating each word with a brutal thrust. "Say it."
I fought against the words, against the surrender they represented. But with each powerful stroke, my resistance crumbled. The pleasure was too intense, the connection between us too powerful to deny.
"I'm yours," I whispered, the admission torn from me like a confession.
He rewarded me with a particularly deep thrust that made me cry out. "Louder."
"I'm yours!" I shouted, past caring about pride or dignity.
His pace increased, becoming almost punishing in its intensity. The hand at my throat moved to my hair, yanking my head back until my spine arched painfully. I was completely at his mercy, pinned between his body and the furs, taking everything he gave me.
"No one else will ever touch you," he vowed, his voice ragged with exertion and possession. "No one else will ever have you like this. I will break you."
I couldn't speak, couldn't think beyond the sensations overwhelming me. The pleasure built to an impossible peak, hovering just out of reach. I needed more, needed something I couldn't name.
Taveth reached around, his fingers finding my clit with unerring precision.
The dual stimulation was too much, and I shattered around him, my entire body convulsing as pleasure tore through me like wildfire.
I screamed his name, the sound echoing off the stone walls as my inner muscles clenched around him.
He growled in response, his rhythm faltering as my climax triggered his own.
With a final, brutal thrust, he buried himself deep inside me, his body shuddering against mine as he found his release.
He pulled me back against him, hand tightening around my throat and sank his teeth into the juncture of my neck and shoulder.
"No," I gasped, realizing what he'd done. "You can't—" But it was too late.
The pain was exquisite—sharp and burning as his teeth broke my skin.
The claiming mark. I screamed, not in agony but in something far more terrifying—completion.
The bond between us snapped into place with the finality of a lock clicking shut, a chain binding us together that felt both like imprisonment and liberation.
A rush of foreign emotions flooded my mind—his possessiveness, his triumph, his dark satisfaction at having claimed me. The line between us blurred, and for a moment, I couldn't tell where I ended, and he began.
"No!" I cried out, too late to stop what had already happened. I felt it immediately—the bond solidifying, strengthening, becoming permanent. My blood burned in my veins, every nerve ending alight with sensation. It was as if I could suddenly feel him in my mind, a presence both alien and familiar.
"What have you done?" I whispered, tears stinging my eyes.
He licked the wound, his tongue soothing the sting even as his arms tightened around me possessively. I could feel his satisfaction pulsing through our newly forged connection.
"Claimed what was always mine," he murmured against my skin, his voice rough with spent passion. "The bond is complete. Nothing can break it now. You were made for me, Little Flame. Now you will always be mine."