Chapter 6
The sly smirk on Cyderial’s face each time I began to fidget was a clear sign he was quite proud of his work. Managing a belly while trying to just sit comfortably was unusual to the extreme. The ramrod spine and perfect posture required at the academy was impossible like this. I had to lounge, make myself vulnerable in order to sink into the plush chair Cyderial prepared for me. Such indolent behavior went against an entire life trained for vigilance. Made me anxious as the male fluffed pillows and placed them to support the unnatural arch in my back. It was all the stranger when a blanket so soft I could not begin to imagine what it was made of was laid over my lap.
In my hands, a fresh magazine full of forbidden female things Cyderial offered, if only I might sit in his company while he read.
Of course, I snatched it out of his fingers and clutched it to my chest like he might take it away.
Reading it? Every minute felt like sin.
“Enjoying your magazine?”
Yes!I read it cover-to-cover twice. Now, I was analyzing each photo, sucking up every modern style I might want to try later. But my answer was reserved. “I like it.”
“You seem agitated.” Yet he said it with a knowing smile.
I couldn’t help it. It was the luxury, the strangeness of nonsexual intimacy with someone I didn’t trust. But mostly, it was the plug. Hours passed since breakfast, and I was still very swollen, my stomach bulbous, and I was nervous that it was not fading as it seemed it should.
The plug had not budged—even if I bore down to the point my body reacted in a disturbing way.
He said he”d take me out when it was dark. Darkness was soon to arrive.
Despite the disaster of yesterday, I did want to see the hybrid corner of the city, see if any of my older sisters from the academy might be there. Get out of Cyderial’s house and away from his overly attentive gaze.
The rotten bastard used one of his secret techniques, no doubt, to keep my insides saturated. Going so far as to lovingly give my stomach a caress every time he was near enough to touch.
Though the protuberance deflated somewhat over the hours, it was still very much there. Which meant I was stuck inside until it released.
I had no way of knowing what the signs of such a thing might be. Wanting it to happen in privacy, fretting about the impending mess, aware Cyderial knew why I was flustered, I fought for patience.
Which produced nothing.
Nothing but hours in which to consider every last thought that flitted through my head as I tried not to flutter around the plug—the argument over breakfast, my ignorant academy sisters I could advocate for if…
If I sold my soul.
Failing to do what I could to improve their lives would make me the worst sort of traitor. Thinking of Maeve, knowing General Thayer lurked in the shadows to snatch her up.
My friend who risked everything so I could have the fog and so she could have her career….
An overwhelming need to scowl at the man who put me in such a position left my eyes narrowed as I drank him down. Near enough I could touch him if I wished to, he sat in a matching chair, reading another one of those handwritten journals—full of God only knew what kind of hybrid sex secrets—and pretending he didn’t notice my angry regard.
How domestic we had become in so short a time.
Brow smooth, stern mouth relaxed, he lounged and sipped from a large tumbler of some sort of herbal infusion. Considering the amount of fluid he stuffed in my guts, I surmised males must have a need to hydrate constantly.
I did not so much as crave a sip of water. There was enough liquid sloshing in my belly that I might be able to go for days without a drink.
“Cyderial?”
Setting his book to the side, soft smile in place, he gave me his full attention. “Yes, my love?”
Disinterested in wasting my time, concerned what I might say could lead to a preventable argument, I almost shut my mouth and went back to my magazine. Could I trust this male to have a useful conversation with me, one purely for my benefit, where he could leave his agenda aside?
Doubtful.
Worrying my lip, my eyes found the rug, and I wondered if I should just abandon an attempt at conversation.
Yet, he gently offered, “You can talk to me, Lorieyn.”
“That’s exactly the thing.” Gaze darting back to his face, I confessed, “I don’t know if I can. If I share with you my private thoughts, chances are you will use them against me to get something you want.”
“I see.” Closing his book, he set it aside and turned to face me fully. “Might it be easier if I am direct and tell you what I want first? That way we can get my agenda out of the way and won’t need to anticipate potential manipulation should my arguments lead toward my goal.”
He was too ridiculous for me to resist a long-suffering sigh. “So instead of manipulation, it will be a straightforward attack.”
Yet, I wasn’t exactly averse to the idea.
Growing grin genuine, he lowered his chin.
Maybe I was a little bit intrigued. “What is it you want now, General Cyderial?”
“I want to show you off.” Pouring himself from his chair in a graceful movement, he fell to his knees at my feet. All arrogance and dark play, stroking hands found my thighs, the man easing ever closer.“I’ve never been humble with my accomplishments. And you, my dear, were an epic undertaking, full of contemptible opponents and a decade of close calls. Considering how popular you have been over the years, there is a very real chance one of my esteemed brothers might have heard your song, had they ever been granted the opportunity to meet you… but I got to you first and kept you close. I got you best. And I got you with all the love in my cold, dead hearts.”
Narrowing my eyes at his petty games and seductive strokes, I pulled a face. “You got the cold, dead hearts part right.”
Hands to my belly, he leaned over the bump between us to whisper, “I know why you’ve been fidgeting. Let me take you out, like this. Full of me and beautiful. Hybrid sectors of the city expect females to be well-tended by their mates.”
There was no way I was risking a plug coming out in public. Shaking my head, I refused him. “Are you also going to demand I parade around naked so all the other old men can judge your prize as well? No!”
“Never,” he swore solemnly, purring as he pressed closer. “This is mine. And, darling, you have not considered something vital to your cause. When the unmated males grow green with envy to see my spirited mate content, you might suggest they too prepare for their future mates with focused research. Don’t assume that years of deep study is the norm for most hybrid males. I chose to engage my time in investigating how best to please you, because I loved you before you were born. Would that not be an asset to women?” Kneading fingers slipped behind me to massage where my spine ached from accommodating my new shape. Grumbly, he rubbed his mouth over mine. “Does it not feel good to be pampered and adored?”
How the man could form simple words and make them sound so dirty baffled me to no end. They also did other things to me that were not helping my stance at the moment.
Hands to my knees, a long stroke upward settled them to warm my hips. Pulling me closer to the edge of the chair, he murmured, “I’ll make you an offer. Allow me to remove this plug, make love to you until you scream, and knot you fresh.” Wicked, he grinned. “You can have confidence that a fresh plug will not budge until at least the morning, and I get to enjoy you at your most beautiful when I introduce you to my friends.”
Gasping, breathless with his touch, I said, “This is beautiful to you?”
My body was distorted, the way I moved awkward. It didn’t feel very graceful or pretty. It felt cumbersome and sexually suggestive. Private.
“Extremely beautiful. Someday, our child will grow here.” Cupping my stomach, he stared lovingly at the bulge, going so far as to place a kiss on my belly. “What a wonderful thing it will be to hold our baby.”
Exactly the wrong thing to say.
Grabbing a handful of his hair, I pulled his lips from my belly, so the intrusive man might look me dead in the eye as I snarled. “I need you to understand, Cyderial, I will not give the academy any children. Do not confuse my love of littles with a desire to breed my own. This is not something you can manipulate me into doing. I refuse.”
Undaunted, rattling encouragement at my violence, Cyderial untangled my fingers, pressing a kiss to my palm, as he said, “Our world might be very different in a few centuries, and I am a patient man. You and I can build the future we want for our unborn children, together.”
How strange it was to think of the world in centuries, when I had lived for only twenty-two years.
Pressing my hand to his cheek, he leaned into my touch. “Until you are ready, we can enjoy the thought of our future children, my darling. There is nothing wrong in that.”
This was not the conversation I anticipated. True, he shared what he wished for, and then he dominated all exchanges. Yet we oddly circled back to what I wanted to discuss. Sex. “So long as you don’t try to coerce me, admitting that you want a baby in time seems natural. I don’t have to agree.”
Teasing, he stole a kiss. “Babies. I want many.”
“Slow down.” I had firsthand knowledge that the man was not exactly good with children. In fact, he terrified them. “I don’t know a single child who likes you.”
“But you know many children who are alive because of my efforts. Hybrid children have a sixteen percent greater chance of making it to graduation under my protocol. Right now, my job is to keep them breathing, not make them like me.” More tender touches moved over my body, his fixed gaze molten. “I know it must be difficult for you to separate my duties from my character, but I will be a good father.”
“By reading journals about it?” I wasn’t trying to be cruel; it was an honest question.
“Few hybrids have had the example of good parents to emulate. Study is all we have, so yes, I will continue to extensively study child rearing.”
“Continue?” I sure as hell hadn’t seen signs of paternal behavior in the academy.
“Most of my reading involved how to care for a gestating mother, how to see to her needs. I will admit my focus was solely on how to care for you. But I did learn how to deliver a baby and what immediate care might need to be administered.”
I had no idea what to say to that, his level of obsession unsettling.
Leaning back on his heels, he began massaging my thighs once again. “Now you know what I want. To take you out, belly full, and show you off. And to breed you,” he purred, “when you are ready.”
The concept was absurd. The majority of my life since I was stolen from the academy, in fact, was absurd. “Which brings me back to the point that you want me to introduce myself to old men who have chosen to keep females ignorant of their bodies, with my belly sloshing around every time I move?”
Open carnal delight at the idea left him closing his eyes as if imagining it. “My beloved, this may seem like an unusual request, considering how new this is to you, but in hybrid-zoned sections of the city, we don’t have to pretend to be human. You are exactly as a well-cared-for mate should be. You are safe from your heat, you will be beautifully dressed, and I shall feed you wonderful things and promise to entertain you.”
“And if I refuse?”
“I will be sad, and you will have to watch me pout all night.” Hands traveled down my thigh and ran over my leg to capture one foot. An unexpected moan left my lips when his thumbs dug into my arch. “But, it will be expected for you to be plugged, especially by a virile and eager new mate. Your shyness about showing the world how well I love you is unnecessary. Lead me around by the nose, but do it with a belly full of my sperm sloshing around every time you move.”
Eyebrow cocked, I asked, “You would still take me out if I said no to the plug?”
“I would still take you out.”
“How come I never saw female instructors at the academy”—I gestured at my belly—“like this?”
Cyderial had an easy response. “It is forbidden for female soldiers to be plugged while on duty. It disrupts your center of gravity and hinders fighting abilities.”
Yes, it would’ve. My alignment was off-center. If I swung a razor-sharp sword incorrectly, I could’ve seriously hurt myself. “Of course.”
Hands working magic on my foot, the general said, “I don’t want you to think you are unsafe. You are with your mate and will be surrounded by lethal hybrid males who would never allow one of our females to come to harm in their care. I agree it is inappropriate to be around humans this way; they will sexualize you and make comments that could drive me to violence. But hybrids do not covet another’s female. Unmated males only long for one woman’s song. They long for companionship. No male will think anything untoward about you. Only pride to see another well-cared-for female we can collectively adore and a healthy jealousy that they have not found their mate yet. As I have mentioned, you could use that jealousy to further your cause. Many will want to speak to you, simply because you look happy.”
Who said I was happy?
Digesting my expression, Cyderial said, “I know it hurt you a great deal our first time, but it would have hurt you a lot more if I had not diligently prepared myself to show restraint. Once your opening was complete, even when you were scared and fighting me, I didn’t cause you further pain. Some males shove in quickly and force a knot. Females heal at a rapid rate, but damage in that scenario is inevitable. Those mates do not come out of their nest for some months.”
Disgusted, I curled my toes against his grip. “That’s…. Why wouldn’t males want to prevent that?”
Ankle caught, he began to knead tender muscles, holding my eyes as he said, “Ask yourself this. Do you think Thayer will be cautious with Maeve? I recall what he said. He had zero restraint once he perceived her song. The man had his hand up her skirt in a public bar, trying to tease her open, where a roomful of excited men might watch. She would have been knotted while still suffering so he could stake his claim before another suitor might challenge him. But you could teach him to do better.”
My blood ran cold at the thought. “Why aren’t the males teaching this to one another? Why is this my job?”
“I will write my journal for the collective, but I cannot force anyone to seek it out.” More than happy to challenge me, he grew serious. “And before you suggest males receive sex education as well, that is a hard no. If we taught them how to seduce their prey, we would have greater problems on our hands at the academy. Boys need firm restraint, or the young, unmated girls will not be safe.”
“Is that what you will write your journal on? Ten years of restraint?” Considering how insane it had driven him, his depiction of that era might be something even I would want to read.
Nodding in agreement, he said, “I’m sure there will also be a chapter or two on how much you love it when I lick your cunt.”
Face flaming, I jerked my foot in an attempt to pull it from his grip. “Don’t you dare!”
Chuckling, he gave me an impudent grin. “I also must mention how sensitive you are in that sweet spot behind your ear. One kiss there and you spill slick.”
Flush and annoyingly aroused, I ground my teeth. “Please keep private things private.”
“If all the men kept what we learned private, I wouldn’t have known how to twist my tongue inside you while flicking your?—”
“Enough!”
God, he was enjoying this too much! Laughing, really laughing, Cyderial was a different person completely. “You are so cute when you blush.”
Fine, I was extremely modest and always had been. That was not a bad thing. Clearing my throat, I smoothed my robe and said, “Can we get back to the topic at hand?”
“I don’t imagine I will have the restraint to keep my hands off of you for at least a hundred years, and there are so many things I cannot wait to do to you. All of them, I read in journals,” he purred while playfully hooking my leg around his hip.
It would be a lie to pretend I didn’t desire to know what was in those journals he’d been reading… but there were more important topics weighing on me. “You told me what you wanted. Now I’m asking you to listen to what I have to say.”
“Of course.” Immediately, he pulled away, resuming an innocent foot rub and giving me his attention. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”
Way too much was weighing on my thoughts. A perfect mindstorm of what-ifs and confusion. “There wasn’t a day at the academy that I was happy. To be honest, I can”t even imagine what consistent safety and happiness would feel like. There were moments when we all found joy, but they were very rare and almost always tied to breaking a rule that could see us killed. Such as sewing my dress in the dark.” Assured by his focus, I admitted, “Or playing with my stolen rock. You took me from deprivation and thrust me into this.” I gestured at the grandness of his room and all the glittering things within it.
He said nothing. Cyderial said… nothing. Biding his time, no doubt, and already formulating his response.
“One day, I was with a loving mother. The next, I was forced to kill a young vorec with a stick.” Trying and failing to brace against the chair, wishing I could be farther from him while also pressing softer parts of my body against him, I confessed, “We all quickly learn adults are not to be trusted. Mothers hand us over. Instructors exist to punish. All our guidance came from other children. Comfort was only offered by those who suffered with you. The academy is a lonely, terrible place for a kid. You want me to take a position within the academy, tempting me with the chance to make positive changes for my suffering sisters… by harming the youngest in the group. But I don’t trust you. The children, even though they know me, will not trust me. And I hated it there.”
I hated it, and the thought broke my hearts.
Softly, he said, “I know you did.”
And I would have no power to enact change. “Established instructors will have no reason to follow my suggestions. I am young, and my only credibility is that a general heard my song and I now belong to him.” And that was a hard fact.
He disagreed. “You might be surprised to find that not every instructor fell for your act. Some expect great things from you. You will not be unsupported, though it will be an uphill struggle with others. Altering the culture within the academy may take years. Your greatest adversary will be the constant threat of humans enacting an eradication protocol. They do not want happy hybrid children living joyfully in their city. They want trained slaves brainwashed into dying so they can live.”
That could not be completely true. “Before you took over, things were not as horrible. We were given an hour of playtime in the courtyard. Family visits were something to look forward to. Boys and girls intermingled, and?—”
“No.”
There he was, the imperious general I hated, and not the softer Cyderial I was learning could be kind.
But I had been raised to fight for every last scrap I had been given. And then I made those scraps into a beautiful dress. Pulling my foot from his hand, I leaned down, so we were eye-to-eye. “Why?”
Taking my chin between his forefinger and thumb, more than happy to meet my glare, he said, “The courtyard, I can consider. Family visits, absolutely not. Little hybrid girls have gone missing on those outings to visit their mothers, regardless of armed guards. Some were taken by suitors, but the majority we recovered were taken by humans. Many children have never been found. Human males consider our kind exotic and desire us for taboo sexual pleasure. So yes, I prevented you from going into the city when you were too little to defend yourself. We can debate the finer details if you like, but I do not regret a single decision I made in the keeping of my vulnerable mate. And I will not allow other little girls to come to harm if I can prevent it.”
I would not let myself understand what he said, but my lip shook. “Why would they take little girls?”
His eyes shone, the man urging, “Please do not make me explain that to you. Just know it is a horrible thing.”
When he looked at me with such compassion, I felt foolishly idealistic. Na?ve and stupid. I didn’t like being pitied, even less than I liked being ignorant through no fault of my own. “What… What if the mothers come to them?”
The backs of his fingers traced down the tender flesh of my throat, my collarbones explored. “Do you think they actually will? Women who raised themselves up by sacrificing a child on the altar of the academy? Trudging down to the lower reaches where the fog is still thick and the streets are unclean? How many broken hearts will that lead to when Mommy doesn’t show up? I would rather they hate me and have hope, than know how ugly the human world is when they are still so young.”
“You’re assuming every mother is bad.”
He could make his cruelty sound so reasonable. “My beloved Lorieyn, I am sorry your mother will never deserve you. But is it not better that you learned the hard truth as an adult with your mate there to ground you, and not when you were little, scared, and alone? I have the data to support my stance, and it does not favor your wonderful idealism. Humans are self-centered, self-indulgent, and self-destructive creatures. There is a reason their planet is uninhabitable. Imagine what they would have done to this one, if not for the fog and the vorec.”
Morning and night at the academy, I had been ordered to recite a pledge to protect humans. I had been taught their appreciation for our sacrifice was sacred. I had been lied to so I wouldn’t put myself in danger. A slave, he said, who would die for humans without question. “If the children can’t have mothers, then they should have mentors who can be there for them in the same way. Nice adults who will cuddle them when they get back from a hard day of being repeatedly beaten. Who will listen to them when they feel unheard? Who can advocate for them when instructors come down too hard? Better yet, when the humans give them up, why don’t we hybrids take them and raise them and teach them at home? Don’t try to tell me that a five-year-old has to have her bones repeatedly broken in a boot camp just to learn how to hold a sword. Pinky fingers mend in an hour, but it fucking hurts and is unnecessary.”
Cyderial made his point again. “You could set a positive example teaching basic swordsmanship to the youngest.”
That served his expectations but not mine. Impassioned to take him on, I argued, “You are a general and can assign me to the academy, but let’s not pretend you would do so to benefit the children. You want me away from the city and under your thumb. Away from the fog.”
As if he were the epitome of reason, he said, “The academy is the safest place on this planet for you. That is nonnegotiable. I am your mate and your general, and you will do as I command in this. Rule me as you will in all other ways. When we are alone, I am your slave. You will find I am open to considering your ideas. But you will also find that age and experience have offered me perspective you cannot ignore.”
My ultimate goal was not unreasonable. “I want the children to be able to feel safe. Let them play. Ease up on the rules about contraband. Keep boys and girls together, at least until a reasonable age. Explain to them why they are being separated; you don’t have to give details. Children are smart enough to understand adults know best when you treat them with respect. No more public executions.” As if I had any power to force his hand, I blurted out, “If you execute another child, I will run away and suffer heat until I die.”
Rising to his feet, towering over me, Cyderial glared down with every ounce of menace he might possess. “Do not threaten me, Lorieyn. Not with that.”
“All I am asking is that you no longer murder children. I will stay with you forever, if you promise me another recruit will not be hanged.” I would even get on my knees and suck his cock dry if that’s what it took.
So I did, slipping from the chair, hands to his thighs. I looked up and begged with my eyes.
He was not moved. “You will stay with me regardless.”
My hand went to the drawstring of those pants, making quick work of the knot.
“Stop.” He caught my fumbling fingers, pressing my wrists together to hold my touch away from his pulsating dick.
Flushed and struggling against his grip, I snarled, “Why? What point is there in being mated to my enemy, if I cannot leverage my position to help little kids?”
“I’m not your enemy, Lorieyn.”
His grasp assured I stayed on my knees before him, staring up, beseeching Cyderial for an answer. “On many levels, you are! I will admit there may be more to you than our ten-year history, but it will not vanish just because you want it to. It’s been a handful of very confusing days full of warnings and ugly examples. My mother doesn’t love me. Humans consider me a slave. Nothing in the city is safe. Children have to suffer.” Growing upset, I demanded an answer. “Why? Why is all of it this way?”
My wrists were parted, each of my hands caught and held. Dark, fearsome, he said, “Think hard before you answer. Do you want me to start a war for you? These things you demand can only be provided if humans are removed from power.”
He wasn’t joking.
Shaking my head, frightened, I surrendered. “You know I’m not equipped to answer that. I know nothing about this world except what you have deigned to teach me! And let’s be honest—over the years, you haven’t proved to be a reliable source. You ask me to trust you, when the life you’ve made me live has been a lie!”
“Remember this. And should the day come that you want the president’s head on a platter, I will give it to you, so long as you understand the consequences. And when it is done, you will give me a home and fill it with children who will never have to go to an academy.”
This was more than longing. Cyderial wanted me to unleash him on the city. He wanted me to have all the things I begged for. As my mate, he would give them to me… at the price of many lives.
Human and hybrid.
That was not a power I was comfortable wielding.
“If you can be patient, young one, everything you desire, you will have in time. But I cannot give it to you now, not without blood running in the streets.” Raising me from the floor, Cyderial signaled that the conversation was at an end. “Tomorrow, you will come with me to the academy. We will walk through your ideas, and I will be open to reasonable negotiations should there be room and safety at such concessions. That does not mean you will have your way in most things. Change will happen more slowly than you would prefer, and we will argue a great deal about it over the years; I am sure. Advocate—the children need you, but understand humans will kill them all if recruits cannot serve. They will kill them if they grow complacent and their test scores are too low. They will kill them for unexpected deformities. They will kill them for speaking out. They will kill them for sport. It is our duty to ensure they can survive.”
I wasn’t built for the responsibility he would thrust upon me. “And so our own kind beats the spirit right out of its children.”
Taking my chin between his forefinger and thumb, soothing in tone, he asked, “Do you think we don’t love them too? Your instructors are not monsters. They have seen humans cull entire generations of our kind. Humans in power write off such massacres as genetic sequencing errors. They do not mourn them. We are desperate to keep our children alive. One broken pinky finger might hurt, but it sure as hell will ensure the child pays attention in their next class.”
I had never heard of any such mass murder of hybrids; such a secret had never been whispered in the academy halls. “How can we tolerate this?”
Sadness was in his voice. “Maybe now you are starting to understand why I kept you so close and drove you so hard.”
“You’re trying to distract me with horrors so I shift my anger from hybrid males to humans. But our own kind enacts violence against my sisters.” Hybrid males were my adversaries when it came to their control over unmated females. “Give me something to show you mean what you say. Teach the older girls just what will happen to them once they put their names on the list. That has nothing to do with the humans at all.”
A glitter came to his verdant green eyes. “Tonight, you can wage your war on the scrupulous generals. Tomorrow, you can face off against the academy hierarchy. But right now, I want you to know I have heard you, and I ask you to give this a chance.”
I had never been particularly patient, but I was naturally tenacious. “You think I should sacrifice my ideals, because you took from me without asking? What did you have to lose in order to claim my song?”
“In order to deserve you and keep you safe,” he said with no preamble or shame, “I had to willingly execute failed recruits. I have murdered those you were fond of. Unfailingly devoted myself to a position that built animosity between us. Signed off on your torture. I made you hate me. But you are alive, and you are mine.”
Closing my eyes to him, hearing the blood rush in my ears, I let out a shaky breath. “You took it further than that.”
Sighing, he said, “You have no idea.”
“You know I am terrified of you.” Even if we did share some unexpectedly easy moments. Even if I did feel sexual excitement when he poured his attention upon me.
It was that arousal his strategy relied upon—the distraction of pleasure.
His hands going to the sash holding my robe together, my body was unwrapped. Right there, without my permission.
Right there, as I shook from the injustice of it all.
Velvet was pulled from my shoulders, bare skin left for his hungry gaze. “The fog would have killed you. Even now, as we speak, dangerous humans meet to find ways to steal you from my care. Imagine what they might do to you should they succeed. You wish to be angry that I hold you above all others, that I would keep you safe? Then hate me. Hate me forever, if you must. It will never stop me from loving you.”
Lips fell upon mine, the conversation over as he gave me another avenue to vent my frustrations through.
I clawed, scratched, and fought, grateful he forced me to the bed. Crying out when his cock broke my seal as he mounted me from behind. As if possessed by demons, he rode me hard, a rough beast with no care should I be scandalized. And in the violence that followed, Cyderial showed me just how fun it could be to make a mess of the sheets.
I bore his weight and found myself mewling noises that should have shamed me down to my bones, weeping with the rightness of it when he fisted my hair and whispered dark promises at my ear.
He swore to me he would give me anything I wanted, if only I would let him own me.
Promised me any future I might desire, if only I would surrender.
Roared that I belonged to him—sending chills down my spine and frightening me so deeply I came, clamped tight around his thrashing cock.
A knot swelled huge inside me. There was no question he was going to make me as fat as he could. That he would dress me up, show me off, let the world know just how hard he fucked his young mate.
Distending more with each gush, I found myself arching back so his wriggling cock might drive deeper into my body.
While I was being filled, he pleasured me with his fingers, with his tongue at the shell of my ear. He made threats I was too drunk on pleasure to understand.
Beyond exhausted by the time we both lay panting in the tangle of sheets, my belly was once again fully distended, his knot set deep, his cock unwilling to be moved from its warm home.
His every heartbeat, I could feel within me, as that thing of his pet me from the inside.
He’d frightened me, and he knew it.
By all the satisfied male groans and possessive strokes, he very much enjoyed his victory.
My back held firmly to his chest, his arm possessively wrapped around my middle, he palmed my breast, rolling my nipple between his fingers.
“Stop.” I could not take another moment of pleasure, my nervous system already sparking from his corruption.
A menacing laugh matched his rough bite on my shoulder. “No.”
I dug my talons deep into his forearm, drawing blood and tearing muscle, and I swear—I swear—he climaxed, again, at that very moment.
And then he rubbed his blood into my skin, painting me inside and out, promising to make me love him.