Chapter 8 Julian
Julian
My wolf had gone quiet while our mate slept and stayed that way after she woke. I was stunned, horrified, at her story. Even more disgusted by my own actions and idiocy.
I’d never quite forgotten the girl who’d caught me sneaking out of Occidens all those years ago—caught me, grabbed me, her hand on my skin. On the place where the magic had burned and itched the most to get out in recent months.
Where her hand lay now, bringing the pain back with a vengeance, though I wouldn’t share that with her. Because from the hesitant, uncertain way that her mouth moved under my lips, this was her first kiss, or close to it. I needed to make it perfect.
I teased her soft lips with my tongue, startling her, and she parted them with a soft gasp.
I took advantage, dipping my tongue into her mouth gently, tasting her.
Her mouth was as sweet as the berries I’d fed her, and the heady perfume of her arousal had my cock throbbing.
I shifted, glad for the clothing I’d thrown on as she writhed in my arms. She moaned low, her fingers tangling in my hair as I stroked her back, down to the gentle curve of her ass.
Her skin was soft as silk under my hands, her glossy, dark hair tumbling around her shoulders and neck.
She kept her eyes open as we kissed, and every bit of wonder and pleasure she felt was reflected in them.
As if I were the marvel, not her. I would need to correct that assumption, worship her until she understood just how much of a miracle she was.
I pressed kisses to her cheeks and her hairline, breathing in her fresh, clean scent, taking in every shudder and breathy moan as I moved down her sensitive neck to her shoulders. There were spots that made her gasp, and I took note of each one, vowing to return to them later.
“Julian!” she gasped as I shifted lower, drawing shapes on her skin with my tongue, licking my way down to her breasts.
I lifted them up to my face, my thumb flicking lightly on the nipple of one, while I tasted the sweet, pebbled flesh of the other.
How did she taste of sunlight and raspberries, even there?
I groaned, wondering if her pussy would be as sweet, determined to find out.
Her limbs thrashed around me on the soft ground as she responded to my touches, nonsense syllables falling from her lips when I licked and nibbled my way lower, spreading her slender thighs with my hands and burying my nose in her mound. She went still, though.
“Too much?” I rasped, lifting my head to look at her shocked face. “You asked me to kiss you.”
“That’s…” She blinked, rolling her lips inward as she thought. “I suppose I did.” She let out a soft laugh. “It’s not… too much.”
I growled and turned back to the job at hand: making sure my mate never forgot this first time together.
“Julian!” she cried out again as I parted her soft curls, then licked a long stripe from her opening to the bundle of nerves at the top of her mound. She tried to close her thighs, but I held them open. I’d waited my whole life for this moment, for this woman.
“Let me worship you, my mate. Let me taste you.”
Her hesitation was only a few seconds, but felt like years. She whispered something that sounded like, “Just once.”
I buried my grin in her soft flesh. She could pretend I was only doing this once, but I knew I would taste her, bring her to orgasm with my tongue and fingers and cock a dozen times a night, and just as many each day, for the rest of our lives. If she would let me. If she would have me.
A small note of alarm sounded in my deepest thoughts. As long as she would be safe. I pushed the thought away, reveling in this moment.
She tasted of salt and springtime, her nectar fresh and crisp, like new clover.
She felt even softer under my tongue as I lapped up her juices, drinking in her soft cries as her legs began to shake in my firm hold.
She gripped my hair with one hand hard enough for it to sting, tugging at me as if she wanted me to stop, then forcing my face deeper into her, like she would suffocate me with her pleasure.
I welcomed death, if it came for me when I was buried between her thighs, while she moaned my name and felt nothing but bliss.
I’d had occasional lovers over the years, but it had been many years since I’d wanted to please a woman so desperately.
The only other time, in fact, had been before I’d fled Occidens, when an unmated older female had offered to teach me how to be a generous lover, and not merely a well-endowed one.
She’d given me lessons for two years before vanishing in the night with a group of her friends.
I’d never loved her, but I was grateful now that I knew what to do, how to bring my mate to her peak quickly and skillfully.
I slid two fingers around her opening, covering my fingertips thoroughly with her wetness.
Then I pressed one finger into her impossibly tight entrance and crooked it upward as I sucked a little harder at her clit.
When her breath caught, I growled around it, the vibrations thrumming against those sensitive nerves.
Her back arched, her legs tightening around my face.
“Julian, I’m…” She cried out as her climax washed over her.
She shook and shuddered, a long wail of ecstasy rising up to the night sky above.
I gentled her down from the peak, but didn’t stop lapping at her until she collapsed back onto the ground.
“Oh, Julian. I never… That was…” Her soft laughter felt like a hand squeezing my heart.
When she murmured, “Maybe we could do more than kiss,” the feeling grew stronger.
Except now it was my balls tightening, my cock aching as the urge to fuck her, to claim her, threatened to overwhelm me. I held myself still. “How much more?”
Another soft laugh. “How much would you like?”
All of it. All of her. Every atom of her being, every moment of her pleasure. I wanted nothing else in this world but to be as close to her as I could be, in whatever way she would allow.
My wolf was fully awake now, and he howled to consummate our bond. I ran my tongue up her slit once more, then shucked off my clothes. I’d almost lowered myself over her, when a soft, “Wait,” stopped me.
I froze in place.
She moved her hand from my shoulder to the ground, pressing herself up, a slight shadow of pain flickering across her moonlit features. “I want to… taste you.”
“Next time, love,” I half-begged. “You’re injured. We have all the time in the world.” I didn’t want to admit the truth: that if her lips went anywhere close to my cock, I would embarrass myself.
Her reply was immediate. “No. I want it all, tonight.”
For some reason, my wolf snarled. But then she was reaching for me, licking her lips as her hand glided down my abdomen, her fingers tracing the line of hair that led to my cock.
“Anything you want,” I promised. “You can have anything from me.”
I moved so I was kneeling in front of her, giving her access to my body.
Her hands were soft as petals blowing on my overheated skin, though the sensations were muted, blunted, when her fingertips passed over my tattoos.
I hated them even more now that I realized what they’d stolen from me.
But she traced them, not even needing to see them to follow the lines.
“They’re such powerful runes,” she whispered. “They’re a part of you. I can… almost feel the magic. It stings.”
It stings? Did it hurt her to touch me? I hissed and pulled back, but she moved quickly, leaning forward and capturing the tip of my cock in between her soft lips, her hand holding my hip firmly in place.
I’d read the story of Medusa long ago, how she turned men to stone with her gaze. Zinnia had frozen me in place every bit as surely, and for a long moment I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even blink, as she explored me with her mouth.
At first, her kisses on my cock were innocent, hesitant. Then her tongue darted out more confidently, tasting me, dipping into the slit in the head, drawing a warm circle around the sensitive end. She made a humming sound and swallowed when a small rush of my release hit her tongue.
“You taste good,” she whispered as she pulled away and stroked my length with one hand, then reached back and cupped my balls as well.
She had no shyness about exploring me, letting her fingers move where they would, from my ass to my erection, finally coming to rest around the base where I was thickest.
My only reply—the only sound I could make—was a whimper.
She giggled at the noise, then drew me more deeply into her hot mouth, sucking slightly.
The moon shone on her hair, picking out the gray filaments like the light was caressing her.
I ran one hand over the back of her head and let the long, silky strands move through my hands, trying to focus on anything but the intense pleasure her tongue was giving me.
Her head bobbed, her movements more confident by the second.
Before I was ready—and before she was, judging by her disappointed expression as she scowled up at me—I had to pull away. The stars overhead were reflected in her eyes, and I smiled. “Little star, you are so much more than I dared hope.”
A flash of surprise, then a flicker of pain, raced across those star-filled eyes. “Why do you call me that?”
“In my dreams, I never saw your face, but I saw your light. You shone like a falling star, always out of reach.” I ran my fingertips over her face, memorizing the shape of her features. “Let me make love to you.”
She hesitated for a long second, considering, before she lay back down. “Just once,” she agreed, with a mysterious smile. “Make it good, Sergeant.”
My wolf snarled again deep inside, and my voice was rough as I replied, “More than once, and more than good.” I moved so the tip of my cock was wedged between her legs.
She parted them a bit more, opening herself to me, her smile widening, her back arching slightly as I pressed forward, just the slightest amount.
I leaned over her, licking and nuzzling her taut nipple, then nipping at her neck where I would leave my mark…
A chill moved through me, that note of alarm louder now. Ida had hinted that Zinnia could help me. But if she couldn’t, and I claimed her, I could hurt her. I knew how close I was to my end. If I bound her to me, she would feel my pain. She might even die with me.
Fuck.
I couldn’t mark her tonight, not with my teeth. But I could claim her in every other way that counted.
I moved an inch forward, then back, snaking one hand between us to draw tight circles around her clit, bringing her close to her peak once more.
“You’re going to feel me inside you in the morning, little star,” I promised.
“You’re going to feel me dripping out of you, your thighs aching, your pussy empty and needing to be filled again and again.
There is no just once.” She thrust her hips toward me, sliding more of my cock into her, and I hissed with the need to fuck harder, though I knew she needed time.
“Your pussy is strangling my cock, mate. So tight it almost hurts.”
I moved a little deeper, and she let out a gasp. I held still, unsure if the noise had been one of pain or pleasure. But she murmured, “More, faster. Deeper, Julian. I need you—”
“You need to come again.” I circled my fingers gently, evenly, my fingertips sliding with ease around the bundle of nerves.
I didn’t move another inch until she began to shudder again, half-sobbing my name.
Begging me to fuck her. “You never have to beg me, love.” As soon as her thighs began to quiver again, I thrust deeper, still moving my fingertips until she screamed aloud.
“Yes!” She clenched around me, so tight it almost hurt, and I pressed hard and deep into her, the thickest part of me stretching her entrance, the narrow fit as close to heaven as anything I’d ever imagined.
She arched her back up, her cries turning into sobs of pleasure as she came again while I fucked her, relishing every second.
It was the most perfect moment of my life.
The scent of the crushed grass below us, and her own fresh scent blending with mine.
.. the sounds of our bodies moving together, as the nightjars called out around us and the wind blew through the canopy…
her salt and musk on my lips and the slightly metallic taste of my own blood as I bit my lip, fighting for control.
My teeth itched, the canines lengthening as my wolf surged to the fore, longing for his mate. Needing to claim her. I growled as I moved inside her, my wolf calling out to her as much as he could while we made love.
But her wolf was still silent. No, almost entirely imperceptible, like a wisp of a shadow across the moon, as she trembled in the throes of ecstasy once again.
I wasn’t sure if I was imagining its presence.
I closed my lips over my teeth, ignoring the blood they drew as I protected her from a painful bond.
My wolf snarled, and I lost control. But thank the moon, not entirely. I kept my wolf from rising to mark her, but the climax would not be stopped.
“My love,” I cried out. “Mate.” The sensations began at the base of my spine, radiating through every part of me as she lifted her hips and I filled her.
It was almost painful, as if I’d been waiting not minutes but decades for my peak.
Of course, I had been. Being with Zinnia was exactly what I’d been missing for almost half my life.
I folded her into my arms and held her, still inside her, as she shuddered. Why was she still shaking?
My wolf whimpered silently. Was she trembling with pleasure, or with something else?
“Was it…?” I wasn’t sure what I was asking. Slowly, on sharp, silent feet, the pain began to return, my own skin beginning to burn and itch once more.
I ignored it. I could live with my own pain as I had for years. I couldn’t bear the idea that she was hurting, not now. Not for a second.
“It was, Julian,” she whispered, her voice strained. “It was everything.” I held her as she began to cry, trying to believe her as she assured me she was just overcome with emotion.
It should have felt like bliss, like the beginning of something new and lovely. But as the moonlight faded and the night grew darker and her quiet sobbing never stopped, my heart filled with an emotion I’d almost never experienced, even in my decades as a warrior.
Fear.