11. Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Kieran
Dawn’s light glows golden and bright as I open my eyes. My body aches but in only the best way. Wulfric’s heart beats in my ears, and his chest makes the perfect pillow, fuzzy, firm, and warm. His big arms cradle me to his body. His warm body, the furs draped over us, and the steam from the hot springs makes sweat break out across my skin. Despite the discomfort, I never want to leave his arms.
Memories of last night make my face heat and my cock thicken. What in the hell came over me? It was like a fire of lust was burning in me, and only Wulfric could quench the flames. What had he called it? Heat? I really could use a crash course in werewolf biology.
But I don’t regret last night. No matter how surprising it may have been, or embarrassing. How many times did I beg him to fuck me? Too many. But I saw a side of Wulfric that I never expected. I knew he had it in him to be patient, but his tenderness and passion took my breath away. I feel terrible that he paid so much attention to me without my returning the favor. With Mark, it was all him, all the time. But Wulfric worshipped me with his hands, his cock, his mouth.
He's still inside me, soft but very much there, though his knot’s gone down. The sensation of being knotted was strange for a few seconds, but as I adjusted, I loved how thick he was, lighting up all my nerve endings as my body stretched to fit him. Just remembering has my cock rock hard, ready for another go. Arching my hips, I wriggle on his cock, biting my lip when he starts to harden inside me.
Wulfric groans softly, his beautiful silver eyes opening. “Gods. Do you ever tire, little rabbit?” His calloused fingertips glide down my back and squeeze my ass, spreading me wide.
“Is being horny all the time a wolf thing?” I don’t remember being this insatiable for any guy before I became ulfhednar.
“No.” He flips us so I’m on my back, his big body blanketing mine and trapping my aching cock between our bodies. Grabbing the oil in the grass beside us, he coats his cock until he’s dripping with it. A big hand grips my throat, squeezing. “That’s you, being desperate for my cock,” Wulfric growls right into my ear and thrusts. His hips smack my ass, and my eyes roll back in bliss. A groan shivers from him before I swallow down his guttural growls of pleasure with my lips.
Slipping a hand between us, he grabs my cock in his fist and strokes. His palm is dry and calloused, but somehow his rough touch is the perfect sleeve for me to fuck into while he fucks me.
“Fuck.” I groan. “Damn it!”
Wulfric sucks a kiss into my neck. His hips falter. “Are you well?”
“No, no, fuck! What are you doing?” I squirm, trying to force his cock deeper inside me. “Don’t stop. Please. Don’t. I just—” I see stars as he hits that spot inside me.
He growls low when I clench around him. “Then what’s wrong? Tell me. I’ll make it better.”
“I just…” It’s hard for me to think with him pumping into me. Raising my hips, I meet his every thrust, crying out my pleasure to the open skies. “W-wanted to please you, too.” I was supposed to take the initiative this time, not assume a passive role again. “Tell me how.”
“This pleases me.” He pulls out, leaving me painfully empty until the head of his dick notches against my hole. “Watching you take my cock.” His eyes close, his teeth clenching as he pushes inside, a groan tearing from him.
Needing more, I raise my knees to my chest, biting my lip to stifle my whimpers as he fills me inch by inch.
“Those shameful sounds you make. How needy you are even after I made you spill your seed.” With a snap of his hips, he bottoms out inside me. We both cry out as his hips pound the backs of my thighs. “Being inside your perfect ass. Knowing I’m the reason you’re moaning for me. That’s what pleases me.”
“B-but… But I should—” Whatever I’m about to say is silenced when his lips crash down on mine. He plunders my mouth, nips and tugs my lip, sucks on my tongue.
“What you should do,” he snarls in my ear, “is be quiet and take every inch of my cock.” And though his words are crass, I understand. Wulfric’s devoted to my pleasure. And maybe it’s selfish, but after years of giving and never receiving, all I want is to let him take control and give me what I need.
So I stop worrying about what I think I should do. I let him pin my hands over my head and pound into me. My doubts crack and crumble and all hesitation disappears as I surrender myself to him.
“That’s it,” he says reverently, kissing my lips, my jaw, sucking on the bite he left on my neck. “That’s good. I’ve got you.”
The tenderness in his words makes my eyes sting. Every kiss and whispered word heals a piece of my heart I never knew was broken by years of never feeling good enough. In this moment, I’m enough. I don’t have to prove anything, not to Wulfric. I can just be, and it’s all he needs.
I cry out his name, spilling between us.
Wulfric moves through my climax, movements slowing as his knot locks inside me. With a snarl, he floods me with his release. He crumples to my chest and drops my wrists. I don’t waste a second throwing my arms around him, hauling him even closer to me as I shiver and shake, overwhelmed.
“You are mine,” he whispers, like he knows me from my soul to the depths of my mind. “Made for me. You will always be enough.”
“Are you sure it’s okay?”
Wulfric sighs around a mouthful of porridge. He brought us a couple bowls from the house, and we enjoy our breakfast in the hot spring. “Would you believe me if I told you that it’s no hardship to fuck you until we’re both mindless and spent?”
“Oh, I for sure believe that.” I run my fingers through the hair on his arms. I was never really into body hair, not until I saw Wulfric naked. He’s truly glorious, huge and muscular, chest covered in blond fuzz. So yummy. “I just… feel bad not reciprocating.”
“Don’t.” He reaches for a flagon of ale on the rim of the spring behind us and takes a sip, licking his lips to chase the taste. “You had to do enough to prove yourself to my pack. To me.”
A furrow appears between his brows and at the same time, a feeling stirs deep inside me. Guilt. But it’s not mine. Mating with Wulfric has given me the ability to sense his emotions. He really is nothing like I thought. He does feel things, quite deeply. Of course he’s not a machine, but he’s also not the barbarian I thought he was.
“I don’t often feel good enough.” The confession falls from his lips. He tenses beside me, like he didn’t mean to say that aloud. “I… wasn’t ready to become alpha. Not really. I knew since I was a lad that I would succeed my father in the role. But I always thought I’d have more time to prepare, to learn from my father.” He falls silent, his jaw working like he’s fighting with whether he should say anything more.
I can’t look away, mesmerized by the crack in his armor, by the shimmer of emotional vulnerability I’m seeing from him. I rub his arm. “Hey. You can tell me.”
He blows out a quiet breath, heavy with dozens of unspoken feelings. “Losing him… it happened fast. His body wasn’t even cold before all his duties and responsibilities were thrust upon me. Lives were put in my hands and I… I don’t know if any of the choices I made after his death were the right ones.” His throat works as he swallows, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
“What happened?” I ask, speaking quietly without even meaning to.
“Ulfheim has only been our home for a decade or so. Before that, we lived on the mainland. Some years ago, a group of Christian humans came to the shores of our village. We thought ourselves well hidden but somehow they’d found us. They called themselves missionaries, and they were led by a man named Thorald. He showed us miracles gifted to him by the power of his Christian god, offered us riches if we would convert. But nothing would convince my father to accept this new god.”
“Because that would mean giving up the power you get from Fenrir?”
“Aye. If they’d simply allowed us to keep our own gods as well as theirs, there might not have been an issue. But they’d made it clear we would have to surrender our ‘barbaric’ gods. My father refused to renounce our gods and told them in no uncertain terms to get out of his town and never return.” A shiver racks Wulfric’s body, and his eyes lose all focus as he stares off at the horizon. Like he’s trapped in the past.
“They were no missionaries, but hunters in disguise. They returned the next day and slaughtered my friends. Burned our village. Father and I beat them back to the shore, tried to make them retreat. Father fought them off as best he could, but—” Wulfric cuts himself off sharply. His trembling lips pinch into a thin line, and with his eyes bright with pain and fury, he stays silent for several long seconds.
The anguish he’s feeling courses through the bond between us, bringing a lump in my throat. “Why would they do something so cruel? Just because you’re shifters?”
Wulfric’s voice quakes with fury. “It’s… more complicated than that. When we were boys, Father rescued the lone survivor of a wolf attack. The lad called himself Soren, and as he’d been orphaned, Father raised him as one of us. Even made him ulfhednar when Soren asked to join the pack. He and Lyall became friends as boys and claimed each other as mates once they were grown.”
My breath hitches. “Soren didn’t… betray you, did he?”
Wulfric’s low growl is all the answer I need. “The hunters came for him. From what Lyall could tell me after… everything, Soren’s father had survived the attack and came to ‘rescue’ his son. We do not know how he was able to find us. Soren cozied up to us all those years for protection, only to betray us the second he knew his father was still alive.”
“I’m so sorry.” Before I can stop myself, I rub his arm. His fury and pain are eating me up inside. I’d do anything to make him feel better. “What happened to him? Soren, I mean?”
“Exile.” Wulfric snarls the word. “Death was too good for him. We stripped him of his furs. Used a branch of Yggdrasil to send him away into a whole other time. May he rot and wolves feast upon his festering innards.” He spits over his shoulder.
“That’s… yeah, that sounds like a good punishment.” Beneath the water, I squeeze his knee. If he feels my touch, he doesn’t react. He’s a thousand miles away, fighting painful old memories.
“I moved us to Ulfheim, thinking we’d be safe. And we are. For now. If my own brother doesn’t turn my people against me.” He looks so young in this moment. For as rugged and powerful as he is, he’s still only a young man, hardened and aged by loss and war.
Suddenly, he splashes warm water over his face, then gives his head a shake, scattering water from his beard.
I sputter. “Hey!”
Clearing his throat, he says, “What I meant to say is when I’m inside you, when I’ve made you cry out in pleasure and spill your seed, I feel like I’m enough. It’s not something I feel often. Of course, if you want to take control from time to time, that is fine. But I want to be the one in control of your pleasure. That is what pleases me, knowing I’ve satisfied you, more so than anything else.”
I tilt my head, pretending to give it a good, long think. “Okay. If you have to, I guess I can endure it.”
He chuckles when I elbow him, the sound deep and warm. Droplets run down his skin, trickling over the bite between his neck and shoulder. I did that. A pleased rumble rolls up from my chest, and I cover my mouth.
Wulfric grins. “What just pleased your wolf?”
“Um. Your bite mark. The one I gave you.” Reaching out, I run my thumb over the scar I left on his skin. “I got this big rush of satisfaction just now. Or my wolf did.”
Wulfric’s smile widens, showing a hint of fang. “Oh, aye? It pleases you, knowing you’ve marked me as yours?”
I fold my arms. “Make me sound like a possessive caveman…”
He leans in, runs his tongue along the curve of my neck, then bites down on my earlobe. “Be as possessive of me as you like, little rabbit. I want to be your first thought when you wake and the last before you close your eyes. When you look at another man, remember me and how I’ve pleased you and know no one’s cock will satisfy you like mine does. That mark on my flesh makes me yours now. All yours.”
Suddenly, he pulls away and clears his throat. “For now, anyway. I… Imagine you’ll want to return home soon now that the terms of our deal have been met.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sure.”
I can’t believe I completely forgot about our deal. We’ve helped each other. Our obligations to each other are over.
So why do I hate the idea of leaving?
“Well, I could stay. Just a while longer.”
His eyes widen, and something like hope lights up the bond between us. “Aye?”
I shrug. “Sure. There’s no rush.”
A smile teases the edge of his lips before he leans back in, cupping my cheek. “I’d like that, little rabbit. Very much.”
“Me, too…”
His mouth claims mine, damp from steam, sweet from mead. I tangle my fingers in his hair and kiss him with everything I have. Every time I think I’m all used up, I find I have more of myself to give to him. It’s frightening how easy it is to lose myself in his kisses, how familiar and comfortable I feel with this man despite how different he is.
Wulfric feels like home.
Home. When’s the last time I thought about returning? The realization stuns me.
I don’t want to leave. Not anymore now that we’ve bonded. Just the idea of leaving him makes me ache inside.
Is it possible Wulfric’s past can be my new present?