Chapter 10 Ashlyn #2
The blood.
The grunts…
“Grey, I need to know… I need to know how long it’s been. Please.” I can’t stop the tears from filling my eyes, terror taking hold of my throat and making it impossible to breathe. If it’s tonight—
“Eight days.” His words interrupt my thought, the response not making any sense. “We traveled well into the night after leaving the lair, almost to morning. Then you slept for two days. Cael visited our first evening in the cave, so eight days.”
I blink.
Then blink again.
“That…” That doesn’t make any sense.
The seventh night is when it all happens.
“You’re sure?” I ask, my voice a choke of sound due to my lack of air.
“Positive,” he says, then lifts his arm to show me his watch.
Which reveals a date.
The date honestly means nothing to me given that I rarely pay attention to calendars. I rely on visions and serendipitous occurrences to guide my concept of time.
But I can’t see anything.
Not anymore.
Eight days.
That’s impossible.
Only, maybe not.
We’re on an uncharted path now.
I…
I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t know how to see.
“Ashlyn.”
What am I going to do?
What happens next?
What if—
“Ashlyn,” Grey snarls, his wolf seizing hold of mine in a vice that forces me to look at him. “You’re safe. I’m here. And we’re going to figure this out together.”
More tears fill my eyes, my literal vision going blurry.
“The first thing you’re going to do, Omega, is breathe for me,” he tells me, his voice underlined with dominance.
It’s a dominance I can’t ignore.
A dominance that forces me to obey.
My lungs burn as I inhale, the pain echoing through my nerve endings and making me shake.
“Good girl,” he praises me. “Keep breathing.”
I do.
And that agony starts to subside.
“Now,” he says, a purr in his voice. “We’re going to get up and take a shower together because the generator is working and we have hot water.”
Okay, I think, unable to speak.
“Afterward, we’re going to eat,” he goes on. “And then, we’re going to talk this through.”
All of that sounds… scheduled.
Too scheduled.
I… I don’t really want to be scheduled.
I want to exist in the moment because I don’t know if it’s our last. I don’t know what happens next. I don’t know if we’re even going to survive.
It seems foolish to waste our final moments on showers and food and words.
Not when there’s so much we haven’t yet experienced together.
So I find myself shaking my head.
“No?” he asks.
“No,” I echo, the words more mouthed than anything else. Because my throat feels raw.
But I don’t care about that.
I care about this. I care about him. I care about us.
I force my head up off the pillows and press my lips to his, all while holding his gaze. It’s a challenge. A dare for him to stop me. A plea for him to take me.
His palm wraps around my throat, his thumb brushing my pulse as he gently pushes me back down.
I’m about to protest, to beg him to give me what I need.
But then he kisses me again.
This time with dominance.
Power.
Precision.
His tongue masters mine in a skillful dance that makes my thighs clench around his hips. This is a kiss of intent. A kiss of understanding. A kiss that grounds me in the present and forces me to ignore the future.
Yes, I think. Yes, this is what I need to survive whatever hell awaits us tomorrow.
I wrap my arms around his neck and cling to him, desiring his strength.
Our eyes are no longer open. Or, at least, mine are closed. It doesn’t matter. All I care about is his touch. The way he continues to hold my throat is an unspoken declaration of power.
I’m his.
My life is literally in the palm of his hand.
I trust him implicitly, my soul having been his for a very long time.
But he’s never truly been mine. Until now. Until this moment in time.
It might be fleeting. However, I’ll make sure it’s enough to satisfy my heart and mind for whatever nightmare awaits me.
“Ashlyn,” he murmurs against my mouth, his opposite hand grabbing my hip.
Only then do I realize I’ve been gyrating against him, bathing his cock in my slick while seeking friction for my core.
It was so natural.
So intrinsic.
Yet I’m not in heat. Not quite, anyway.
Which is also strange because I should be.
But I don’t want to think about what all of that means or why my estrus hasn’t arrived yet.
I really don’t care to think at all.
“Please don’t stop,” I say, repeating the words I thought I whispered in a dream. Except it was real. This is real. “Please give me this, Grey. A moment where we can be us. It’s… it’s all I’ve ever desired. For myself.”
The tears are back again and I hate this show of weakness.
However, if he knew the horrors in my mind, he would understand. He wouldn’t even hesitate.
“If I knot you, I’ll claim you.”
“Then claim me,” I tell him. “Make me yours, just as fate intends me to be.”
He shakes his head, but it isn’t in denial. I can see the wonder in his features. As well as his wolf.
He’s about to lose control.
Which is exactly what I want to feel. What I need to experience.
“Bite me, Alpha,” I tell him—the beast. Then I focus on the human side and clarify, “Claim me with your knot.”