Chapter 13
Lore
Wildfire had the sweetest ass.
I stood with my arms crossed over my chest, watching her backside wiggle as she darted down a leaf-strewn path.
She shot a look over her shoulder. “Maybe I won’t make it easy for you to catch me. Maybe I will.”
“You’re going to be soaked for me when I do and rest assured, I will catch you.”
Light bled through the canopy overhead, speckling the ground as she darted through the woods, her laughter a wild song urging me to bolt after her this instant. But it would be more fun if she thought she stood a chance of getting away.
She'd barely disappeared from view, though I could still hear her, before I took off after her. I barely felt the moss and leaves underfoot; all I could feel was the thundering hunger in my chest. Part lust. Part love. All desperate need.
She was faster than I expected, weaving through the trees, her laughter daring me onward. My muscles coiled tighter with every stride. I ached to catch her, drag her down, taste her skin between my teeth. She'd fight for a few precious seconds before surrendering completely.
She darted left. I veered after her, my lungs aflame, my heart bellowing. Every flash of her bare back and legs ratcheted my need higher until I could barely see straight.
I was so aroused I throbbed, need syncing with the pounding of my heart, the pounding of my feral craving.
I narrowed the distance between us, then slowed my pace, letting her think she might actually get away. Not that she truly wanted to. My mate would howl out her pleasure when I caught her and drove myself deep inside.
She threw a wicked, taunting smile my way that lit sparks inside me.
My whole body snapped tighter, my muscles locking into desperate, maddening pursuit.
There was no one more beautiful than my mate, all the way to her soul.
She was wild, free, and entirely mine, from the barest glimpse of her breasts bouncing with each loping stride, to the sweet curve of her hips disappearing behind a gnarled oak.
I growled low in my throat, an animalistic sound, and her answering burst of laughter splintered the air between us.
I pushed harder.
Branches smacked at my arms, but I barely felt them. All my attention tunneled down to her and the scent of her growing arousal, the way her feet barely kissed the ground before flying again. I could almost taste the heat of her on my tongue, salt and sweetness and pure, endless temptation.
She slipped between two trees ahead, the movement flashing another promise of bare skin, and a groan snarled up my throat.
I needed her. Needed to catch her, pin her, brand her with my teeth until she gasped and fought and begged for more.
It was a hunger beyond rational thought, older and deeper than anything civil.
Something primal had clawed its way out of my bones.
She wanted me too. She might tease and run, but the slick heat perfuming the air told the true story. That thought made me bare my teeth in a savage grin, and I dug in, picking up my pace.
Every footfall crashed harder on the earth. My breath came in long, ragged pulls. Sweat trickled down my spine, but I didn't slow. I couldn't. She called to something savage inside me, something that recognized her laugh, her scent, her spirit as the other half of my own.
I glimpsed her ahead, a flash of pale shoulder, a toss of sunset hair, and the sight almost buckled my knees. She was laughing still, but it was breathless now, tinged with something hotter. She knew I was getting closer, knew I’d soon stake my claim on her flesh.
I growled her name, and she let out a yelp of excitement before pushing herself faster. She was perfect.
I was so hard it hurt, the throb of it syncing with the pounding of my heart, the pounding of my feral craving.
I wanted to push her against a tree, tear her down to the mossy ground, strip every last sound from her throat until the whole forest knew who she belonged to.
Until there was no space between us, no air, no thought, just sweat and teeth and frantic, clumsy, devastating love.
I broke into a sprint, reckless now, ignoring the branches scoring my skin and the roots trying to snag my feet. She zigzagged through a cluster of thin saplings, and I anticipated her move and cut across the gap.
Closer. So close I could almost reach out and snatch at her hair and bring her back against me where she belonged.
The sound she made, half gasp, half laugh, made me stumble. If she only knew how close she was to being devoured.
I let out another growl, promising her everything. My strength. My teeth. My endless, aching love.
My wildfire ran harder, a siren pulling me deeper into the woods.
I lunged, my fingers sliding across her waist. She shrieked, more laughter than fear, thrashing as I tackled her to the mossy earth and rolled her onto her belly. Utterly feral, utterly mine.
I pinned her wrists above her head, straddling her thighs as she bucked beneath me.
My wildfire, my mate, my everything.
The light in her eyes when she looked over her shoulder at me, that spark of heat and unbridled lust, drove me on. I pressed my chest against her back and buried my face in the curve of her neck, breathing her in until my whole world narrowed to the frantic thrum of her heart.
Her pulse skittered wildly as I dragged my mouth along her neck, tasting the sweet essence of her skin, the fevered hum of her blood.
She arched her spine, pushing her sweet ass up against my hips.
Moving it against my cock. I breathed into her ear, grinding my cock between her pinched thighs, letting her feel exactly what she did to me.
“You think you can outrun me, Wildfire?” I rasped, my voice more animal than man. “You think you can tease me and not pay the price?”
She whimpered, the sound so raw with need it painted the air between us.
She strained against my grip, testing me, daring me, and fates help me, I loved her all the more for it.
I tightened my hold on her wrists, forcing them higher, stretching her body beneath mine until every bit of her trembled with the effort to resist.
“You’re mine,” I growled in her ear, rocking my hips against her again, nudging the head of my stiff cock through her saturated folds. “I'm going to mark every inch of you, fill you so deep you'll feel me for days. And you're going to scream my name when I do.”
“Stop talking and prove it.” She pushed back against me, the roll of her hips demanding everything I had.
My restraint shredded.
With a snarl, I shifted my grip to her hips, tugging her up. She curled her spine and presented herself so nicely.
“Good girl,” I rasped, taking a long, hungry moment to devour the sight of her with her wild hair tangled around her flushed face. Her thighs quivering with anticipation, slick and glistening between them where she needed me most.
I ran a hand up her spine, and goosebumps erupted across her skin. My wildfire would never back down from a challenge, especially not one from me.
With a jerk of my hips, I buried my length inside her. She moaned and pressed back against me.
Then I started moving, pulling out and driving back inside her while her inner walls sucked me like the good girl she was.
Because I’d captured her and she was grunting and moaning beneath me, I pushed hard, pushing into her over and over. Pounding into her.
Leaning forward, I stroked her clit with one hand while nibbling across the delicate juncture of her shoulder. When I bit down, she gasped, her body bowing into me, a silent plea for more. I sunk my teeth in even as I pummeled her with my cock and circled her clit, and her guttural groan rang out.
She cried my name, the sound broken and flawless, and it shattered whatever scrap of sanity I still clung to.
I wanted to destroy her, to make her forget her own name. To forget everything but me and what I could do to her body. Just as much, I wanted her to feel how desperately, how irrevocably she was loved.
With a slow, brutal roll of my hips, I drove inside her, sinking deeper and deeper until we were joined in a way that left no air, no distance, no space for anything else.
She moaned, and I released her flesh, taking so much joy in the red mark I left behind, the hint of blood I’d drawn from deep inside her.
The world around us disappeared. There was nothing but the molten heat of her passage clenching around me, pulling me in, binding us tighter.
Moving faster, I whispered her name, a prayer, a vow, a confession, and she answered with every push back of her hips, every broken cry, every beat of her wild, untamed heart.
With a growl, she rolled underneath me, pulling my cock from her sweet heat with a flash of teeth and feral eyes.
With a sly grin, she shoved my chest as her legs twisted around mine, sending me sideways, sprawling me onto my back.
The mossy earth bit into my ass, but I barely felt it.
I was too stunned, too fucking turned on by the fierce gleam in her eyes.
She’d survived everything, and here she was, wild and victorious and choosing me again. Not because she had to, but because she wanted to.
She straddled me fast, her thighs clamping around my hips, with a tight grip on my shoulders and her slick heat sliding along the length of my cock.
My wildfire, in all her savage glory, had turned this around and was claiming me right back.
“Mine,” she growled, her voice rough, her nails raking down my chest to my abs in a stinging, glorious path. I bared my throat, offering it to her the way instinct demanded, the way destiny insisted.
Her hips rolled over me, teasing, tormenting, coating my length with her wetness but not yet taking me inside. She grinned, wicked and rebellious. I fisted my hands in the moss to keep from flipping her over and pounding into her like the savage beast she’d turned me into.
“You want inside my pussy, Lore?” she purred, her voice a sinful promise. “Beg.”
A rough, broken sound tore out of me.
“Wildfire,” I rasped, my body trembling, straining up toward her. “Take me. Mark me as yours.”
She rewarded me with a thrust of her hips, spearing herself down onto my cock in one stroke. We both cried out, raw, jagged sounds ripping from our throats. I grabbed her hips, urging her on as she began to ride me.
Every slam of her hips against mine was frantic and made of teeth and claws and soul-deep need.
She threw her head back, her hair whipping around her shoulders, her breasts bouncing with every furious movement.
I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t fucking breathe.
She was everything. My queen. My mate. My world.
When she leaned forward, bracing her hands on my chest, I knew what was coming. I felt the shift in her energy, the sharpening of her focus.
I tipped my head back, offering myself again, a low rumble vibrating up from my chest.
Her eyes locked with mine, a searing, molten connection, and then she struck, her teeth sinking into the curve of my neck, right over my pounding pulse.
I roared, the world fracturing around me. Pain lanced through me, sharp and absolute, but it was swallowed by an overwhelming rush of heat, of belonging, of power snapping into place like a final, fated lock sliding home.
Our bond didn't just ignite, it erupted. Longing and salvation crashed through me, light breaking through centuries of darkness. Every wall I'd built, every scar I'd carried, dissolved in the face of this consuming connection.
It had always been her. The reason I’d lived. The reason I’d burn.
Our souls collided, fused, slammed together in a storm of sensation so pure it stripped me bare. I felt her everywhere. In my blood, in my bones, in the aching, frantic beat of my heart.
And through it all, she kept riding me, her body claiming mine as surely as her teeth had, her sweet, hot sheath clenching around me like a fist.
I thrust up into her, matching her rhythm, desperate to drive us both over the edge. I needed to come inside her, needed to fill her, to seal the bond with every part of me.
“Wildfire,” I choked out, rolling her nipple. Stroking her clit. “You’re going to come with me. Now.”
Her mouth left my throat, and she threw her head back with a hoarse cry, her body clenching and trembling above mine. The sight of her coming and the feel of it snapped the last of my control.
With a roar that must’ve shook the trees, I exploded inside her, pumping my release into her greedy, amazing body, binding us in every way a male could fuse with his mate.
She shattered me. I didn’t care if she ever put me back together again.
She collapsed on top of me, panting, shaking, her heartbeat pounding against mine.
I held her, my arms tight around her trembling form, the bond between us thrumming like a second heartbeat.
Mine, I whispered in her mind.
Yours forever, was her reply.
The words echoed between us, through us, binding us in ways that went deeper than flesh and was stronger than magic.
We lay in the forest as our heartbeats slowed, as the world settled around us, as the reality of what we'd forged settled into our bones.
Whatever came next—disguises, courts, talismans—we'd face it as one.
Truly, completely one.