Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
Molten fury blazed through Sevik’s veins. It suffused him, consumed him, and flooded his muscles with raw, wrathful strength.
He touched my mate.
My mate.
Mine.
His every instinct demanded he attack. His claws yearned to shred flesh, his skin craved the splash of warm blood, and his ears longed for the music of desperate pleas and agonized screams.
The male human reeked of sourness—sweat, alcohol, and fear.
He needed to die.
Sevik would tear the male apart and piss on the pieces.
Everything in him thrashed, snarled, and roared at his stillness. Why wasn’t this male dead? Why wasn’t Sevik bathed up to his elbows in blood?
The reason the male needed to die was the same reason he was still sucking air into that soft, hairy face.
Mina.
Sevik felt her touch. He felt her warmth, wholly distinct from the firestorm raging within. Her quick, ragged breaths teased his chest through the opening of his shirt, and her gaze weighed upon him.
Ornyr valaas duun , she was so fucking beautiful, but he hated seeing fear in those big, dark eyes. It made his rage flare and his instincts more volatile. Made him want to kill this male with more savagery than this world had ever seen.
Tremors rippled through Sevik’s limbs as he strained to resist that urge, as his mind clawed at the words Mina had just said, struggling to hold onto her plea, to respect it. To honor her wishes despite this rage.
Please don’t.
He’s not worth it.
I want to go home.
Sevik’s hand tightened on the man’s wrist, which he held firm against the man’s chest. A pained gasp escaped the human as Sevik’s claws pressed into his flesh through his long sleeve shirt.
This male had disrespected Mina. He’d frightened her, touched her, hurt her.
Any one of those things was enough to warrant death. All three?
One death was not fucking enough.
“Please.” Mina’s voice, a nearly broken whisper, drew Sevik’s focus back to her.
His next inhalation was laden with her scent. It eased the heat in him like a cool breeze, and he suddenly understood the fear in her eyes.
It wasn’t fear of this man, not anymore. Nor was it fear of Sevik or what he was about to do. No, this was something different, something he’d never encountered.
This was selfless. She was afraid for him.
Clarity pierced the fiery haze in Sevik’s mind.
They were in a bar filled with witnesses, and everyone was staring. Chief Harrigan would have testimony from at least twenty people describing how Sevik had beaten this man to death.
He released a harsh breath through his fangs and lifted his gaze to the male’s. Voice low and venomous, he grated, “You even look in her direction again, and your last meal will be your own fucking cock.”
Sevik carefully shifted Mina aside before thrusting the male away. The man cried out as he fought for balance with frantic, stumbling steps that carried him across the room. A few of the patrons at the bar scrambled off their seats and out of the way just before the bearded human crashed into the counter, knocking over the now empty stools along with several glasses and bottles. The sounds of objects falling were thunderous.
Angela appeared beside them and reached out toward Mina. Sevik moved to shield his mate, a low growl building in his chest. The woman quickly withdrew her hand, but Sevik saw the concern and understanding in her eyes as she looked at Mina.
Angela’s voice was just loud enough for Sevik to hear over the music when she spoke. “You guys go on. I’ll take care of your bill.”
“Thank you,” Mina said.
“Can’t have this kind of shit going on in here,” said the older male human behind the bar, his eyebrows set in anger as he stared at Sevik.
Fighting back a surge of fury and resentment, Sevik turned toward the man.
When a male twice Mina’s size had grabbed her, no one in the bar had spoken a fucking word. Not a single whisper of protest, not a single person coming forward to defend her until Sevik stepped in himself. It’d been no different when Sevik had been poised to kill the bearded man—not one word until Mina, the very female the man had accosted, stepped in to save his life. They were all going to stand and fucking watch.
But now that the immediate threat had passed, they had something to say?
After what Mina had told him about the people of this town, could Sevik have expected anything different?
The song on the music machine changed to something upbeat. A gravelly-voiced man sang about shaking things up.
Mina stepped forward to face the bartender, but Sevik banded an arm around her waist, pulling her back against him.
Pointing at the bearded male, Mina raised her voice, clear and cold, over the music. “That guy harassed and grabbed me. Was that part okay? Was it just a problem when someone stood up for me?”
Many of the onlookers, including the man behind the bar, averted their gazes, some with their faces visibly reddening.
Neither their shame nor their silence assuaged Sevik’s fury. He gritted his teeth, and his claws dug painfully into his palms. The inferno at his core could not be contained for long. All the energy in his limbs would demand action, and he would not be able to resist. Already, it was making his skin itch, making his bones pulse with maddening heat.
Mina had been right. It was time to go.
Now .
Before he did something that would destroy any chance he and Mina had at a life together.
Sevik stalked toward the exit and snatched Mina’s coat off its hook. He swept it over her shoulders, shoved the door open, and took her by the hand to lead her out into the brisk night air. The cold only made the fire inside him seem all the hotter in contrast.
He stormed along the sidewalk, heading toward Mina’s building.
Aggaan sin thar , those humans should’ve been grateful his mate had such a kind, tender heart, because he would have carved all theirs out and laid them at her feet.
Mina gave his hand a tug. “Sevik? Could you…slow down? Just a little?”
Halting abruptly, he spun to face her. She walked into his arms, and he lifted her off her feet, drawing her against his chest. Her arms and legs wrapped around him, and he planted a hand on her ass, preventing her skirt from riding any higher.
The tip of his middle finger encountered the hot, slick flesh of her pussy. Mina’s breath hitched, and her hold tightened as she whispered his name against his ear.
No underwear. No fucking underwear.
He felt the heat from her cunt through the fabric of his shirt. Radiating into him, fucking taunting him, pouring fresh fuel into the blaze at his core.
His fury twisted and reformed, shaping all that fire into a consuming, undeniable need that had his cocks instantly straining for freedom from his slit.
“Fuck,” Sevik grated through his teeth.
He turned and ran, sliding his hand lower so the pad of his finger rubbed against Mina’s folds and teased her entrance with every slam of his boots on the concrete.
By the time they reached her home, she was panting and whimpering, moving urgently against his hand. Her fragrance was suffused with the perfume of her arousal, and it was all he could smell, filling his mind with a lustful fog, making his heart pound harder and faster, making his blood flow hotter and thicker.
It took tremendous willpower to avoid breaking down the door. He forced his hand into his pocket, took out the key she’d given him, and unlocked the door. He slammed it shut the instant they were inside.
His holoshroud melted away. He kicked his boots off, pulled her coat away from her shoulders, and tugged off her footwear as he walked to the stairs, not caring where any of it fell. When his hand returned to her ass, it found bare skin. Her skirt had ridden up with their movements. It took everything inside him to keep from rutting her right there on the stairs. His clothing was abrasive against his skin, restrictive, keeping it from touching Mina’s, and heat was consuming him from the tips of his toes to the points of his horns.
She kissed his neck and flicked her tongue over his earlobe an instant before she nipped it with her teeth.
He growled and slapped his hand back down on her ass as he carried her upstairs.
“Sevik!” she gasped, her thighs tightening around his waist.
Fuck, he needed to be inside her. Needed to claim her.
Sevik flung open the door to her apartment and brought her in. He kicked it closed; before it had even finished its journey, he had his mate against the wall.
He caught her mouth in a hungry, bruising kiss, lifting a hand to cup the nape of her neck and keep her head angled just how he wanted. She returned the kiss with equal fervor, her hands delving into his hair and catching fistfuls of it.
When his tongue demanded entry, she offered no resistance, allowing him to explore her mouth and declare his ownership of every bit of it. His groin pulsed with that deep, needful ache. Mingled with her taste was that of his venom, adding to her sweetness, enhancing his desire.
Bracing a thigh under Mina’s ass to keep her in place, he slid his lower hand between their bodies. Her wet, dripping cunt radiated maddening heat, and he slipped his fingers between her folds, gathering her slick before stroking her swollen clit.
Mina whimpered. Sevik swallowed the sound, finding it just as delectable as the rest of her. She ground against his palm, riding his finger with uninhibited passion, her whimpers turning into panting moans.
“Did you enjoy taunting me?” Sevik rasped against her mouth before pressing his forehead to hers. “Did you enjoy teasing me?”
She opened her eyes with a strained, whispered, “Yes.”
Staring into her eyes, he stroked her clit in a frantic rhythm until she released a strangled cry and came undone in his arms. Her clit thrummed, and essence spilled from her, coating his hand; he reveled in it all.
He slanted his mouth over hers, kissing her hard, relishing her muffled sounds of pleasure. When he broke the kiss, he said, “Game’s over, val’syra .”
Sevik carried her to the bedroom, dipping his head so he could graze his fangs over the mark he’d left on her shoulder. She shivered.
Setting her down on the floor at the foot of the bed, he took a step back. Mina moved as though to reach for him.
“Stay there,” he commanded.
She lowered her arms. Her lips were red from his kisses, her cheeks were flushed, her dress was hiked up around her hips, and her inner thighs were wet with her slick. She looked sexy as fuck.
Sevik raised his hands to his shirt and began unbuttoning it. “Strip.”
The speed with which Mina grasped the bottom of her dress and pulled it off over her head made Sevik’s lips curl into a grin.
Eager little thing.
She tossed the dress aside and reached for one of her leg warmers.
“No.” Tugging open his shirt, Sevik shrugged it off. “Leave those.”
“Yes, sir,” Mina said with a smile. Keeping her eyes on him, she sat on the bed and scooted back until she reached its center, propping herself up with her hands behind her.
Sevik unbuttoned his jeans and shoved them down his hips so quickly it was a wonder he didn’t tear them. His cocks extruded fully, no longer confined by the restrictive garment, and he groaned, wrapping the fingers of one hand around them.
Mina’s eyes dipped down his body, and her lips parted with a shuddering exhalation. “I want you.”
“And I need you.” Sevik crawled onto the bed. “All of you, Mina.”
She met his gaze. The spark in her eyes told him she understood what he meant.
Mina sat up and tucked a lock of his hair behind his ear before caressing his cheek. “I’m yours, in any way you need me. In every way.”
Sevik caught her hand as she withdrew it and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm, his eyes never leaving hers. “As I am yours.” He lightly raked his fangs along her finger, flicked his tongue over her fingertip, and released her. “Turn over.”
She got onto her hands and knees, thighs parted.
Sevik stared at her backside—at her cunt, swollen and slick with her arousal, and the hole above it, which he’d toyed with but had not yet taken.
Until now. Now, there would be no part of her left unclaimed.
He moved closer, settling his hands on her hips. He smoothed a palm over the rounded globe of her ass before raising it and bringing it back down with a sharp crack. Mina gasped, flinching, but she didn’t withdraw.
“Again,” she said softly.
Sevik chuckled as he soothed where he’d struck her. His cocks were so hard they fucking hurt, pulsing with lust, so close to what they wanted. But he couldn’t resist this opportunity. Raising his palm, he brought it down on her other cheek.
She cried out, and her fingers curled into the bedding. “Again.”
His sweet little mate wasn’t quite as innocent as she’d once seemed.
This time, he spanked her in quick succession, back and forth, back and forth, snaking an arm around her waist and flattening his hand on her belly when her trembling limbs nearly gave out beneath her.
When he stopped, she was writhing and undulating, voicing a mix of cries and pleas. Bright red handprints stood out on her pale skin. He lightly trailed his fingers over her flesh and dragged them through her cunt.
Sevik groaned. “You’re so fucking wet, Mina.” He carefully slipped a finger inside her. Her inner walls clamped down on it. “Your pussy is so needy.”
“Yes,” she rasped, pushing back against his finger, making it sink deeper. “Oh God. Please, Sevik.”
As he slowly withdrew his finger, her cunt squeezed, attempting to draw him back in, and his cocks twitched. He couldn’t wait to feel her body clutching them. Sevik slipped his finger through her folds, moved it up to her ass, and circled her rosette, smearing her essence over it.
Vazk , the pressure built up within him was already beyond what he could handle. The slightest touch from her might’ve sent him over the edge, triggering an explosion well before he was ready. He couldn’t allow this to end too soon, wouldn’t allow it to.
He wrapped his hand around his upper cock and stroked it, gathering as much of his oil as he could. Returning that hand to her ass, he rubbed the natural lubricant over her rosette, teasing it and dipping his finger in and out shallowly, going just a little deeper each time.
“Sevik,” Mina breathed, rocking against his finger as she looked at him over her shoulder. “I need you inside me. Now.”
“And I need to feel you.”
Placing a hand between her shoulders, Sevik pushed her down so only her ass was in the air. She turned her face to rest on her cheek, planted her hands on either side of her head, and clutched the bedding. With one hand on her hip, Sevik grasped his lower cock and brought it to her cunt. The head slipped into her with ease.
Mina moaned, closing her eyes as she pushed back, attempting to take more of him.
Gritting his teeth, Sevik tightened his hold on her hip, halting her. “Not yet.”
“But—”
“Not. Yet.”
Her heat beckoned him to thrust deeper, but he resisted the urge. Taking hold of his upper cock, he notched the tip to her rosette, and with a flex of his hips, breached the tight hole. Mina gasped, her anus clutching him.
Sevik slapped her ass. She cried out.
“Do not resist me, Mina,” he said, rubbing the spot he’d struck.
“I’m not. I swear I’m not,” Mina rasped. She wriggled her hips. “More.”
Gripping both of her ass cheeks, he parted them and looked down at his cocks, which glistened with oils, looked down at the place he and Mina were connected. He pushed deeper, watching as her rosette stretched to take him ridge by ridge. She whimpered and panted.
“Good girl. That’s it, my wife,” he rumbled, barely keeping a tremor from his voice as her holes squeezed his shafts hungrily. “You’re doing so well.”
He eased back and pushed forward, again and again, and her body took him deeper and deeper.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Mina. Just look at how you’re taking your mate inside you.”
Mina moaned and bore back against him, pushing him farther in.
It was all the sign he needed. With a quick thrust, he sheathed both cocks completely inside Mina, pressing his slit flush against her.
She gasped.
“Fuck,” he growled, curling his fingers and digging his claws into her flesh. “You feel so fucking good, val’syra . So fucking good .”
“I feel you. All of you. I feel so full, but I…I…” Her cunt and ass clenched as she undulated her hips. “Oh God, Sevik, I need more.”
A ragged exhalation escaped Sevik as her movements jolted him with pleasure, but he held her in place. This moment went beyond the feel of her body enveloping him so completely, beyond the heat, the friction.
Finally, he was inside his mate fully, connected to her fully. And it was fucking perfect.
She was perfect.
Sevik breathed in her scent, filling his lungs with it, with her, and slowly drew his hips back. When he pushed in, she cried out and he groaned. But he didn’t stop. He pumped in and out, gradually faster, gradually deeper, and the blood flowed hotter and hotter through his veins, the pressure built higher and higher in his cocks.
Each time he pulled back, her body clutched at him, desperate to draw him in again. But he was in control. He set the pace. He continued quickening his thrusts, pushing ever harder, until each was punctuated by the slap of his thighs against hers.
“Don’t stop,” she rasped between her breathy cries. She turned her face down and clutched the bedding tighter. “Please don’t stop.”
He bared his fangs in a snarl. Each thrust was more powerful than the last, driving him even deeper. Her cunt was so wet it was weeping around his cock, and her essence combined with his oils to ease the glide of flesh on flesh. Ragged breaths clawed their way in and out of his chest, but he did not slow, did not relent.
Mina whimpered and moaned, her sounds escalating as she writhed and scratched at the bed. His thrusts were merciless; he wanted to consume her as wholly as she consumed him.
“That’s it, val’syra . Let me hear you. Let me hear you sing as you come around my cocks.”
“Sevik, I…I can’t…”
“You can.”
“It’s too much, it’s, it’s…”
“Come for me, Mina!”
“Oh, God! Sevik! ”
Her body locked up, and her pussy and ass clamped around his cocks. Her cunt convulsed, its walls fluttering, and threatened to push him out, but he was unrelenting. He slammed into her harder, snapped his hips faster.
And she sang.
“You’re so fucking beautiful. And all fucking mine.” The pleasure in his core coiled tight, and his cocks expanded despite the viselike grip of her body. It was too much to withstand, too much to contain. “My mate, my wife, my Mina.”
Sevik surged forward one more time, burying himself deep inside her. Fire blasted through him, a supernova of ecstasy that raced along every nerve, leaving no part of him unaffected. His every muscle flexed, and all he could do was hold on to his mate as he growled and flooded her with seed.
Giving into the euphoria, Sevik curled over Mina, catching himself on an arm. He banded the other around her middle, holding her close as a second wave swept through him, followed by another, and another. His body twitched and spasmed with every release from his cocks, prolonging the pleasure quaking through them.
When that pleasure faded, leaving only languorous contentment, Sevik nuzzled her neck. Their heavy, rasping breaths mingled, and their hearts pounded in unison. Her scent and heat were indistinguishable from his, and their bodies remained blissfully connected.
Never in his life had he felt so…complete.
“Mina.” He kissed her shoulder, kissed her neck, kissed the scar where he’d marked her.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Sevik froze. For a moment, he wondered if he’d imagined those soft words.
“I-I’m not just saying that in the heat of the moment,” she said. “After we’ve… After…”
As loath as he was to do so, Sevik carefully withdrew from her body and flipped her onto her back. He lowered himself over her, hips between her thighs, and his hair fell onto her chest, covering her breasts.
Catching her jaw, he forced her eyes to his. “What did you say?”
She searched his gaze as she wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “That I love you.”
Sevik closed his eyes. “Again.”
“I love you.” She slipped her hands up his chest and into his hair. “I love you, Sevik.”
It felt like she’d reached right into his chest and taken hold of his heart. Everything in him was hot and tight, and he felt so full. Too many emotions swirled within him, too many for any one person to hold.
What the fuck did he know about love? His mother had loved him, but her love hadn’t been affectionate. She’d hidden all of herself away from him, and she’d never really let him love her back.
But this…this was entirely different. Entirely new. A foreign love, something he never would’ve expected, never would’ve deserved, of which he never would’ve dreamed.
No. Not foreign. Not new.
He’d felt this for a while now, hadn’t he? It had dwelled in him, expanding day by day, ever since they’d first spoken in Cornerstone. It had been there all this time; he simply hadn’t recognized it for what it was.
And now that she’d said it, he knew. He knew what that feeling was.
His heart was pounding again, and his breath was shaky.
Some part of him had known all along, he’d just been too blind to realize. The first time he’d called her val’syra , he hadn’t meant to do so; the word had simply come out. He hadn’t understood the weight of it then. Hadn’t understood how deeply he meant it.
Sevik opened his eyes and stared down into hers. In those dark, enthralling pools, he saw the reflection of everything he felt for her.
“I never answered your question,” he said, voice low. “Didn’t know how to before.”
Her brow furrowed. “What question?”
“ Val’syra doesn’t translate directly into English. It’s two korasi words put together. Ostval , which is the piece that completes a thing and holds it together. The piece that is the key. And syra …which means heart.”
Mina’s expression softened, and moisture welled in her eyes. “So val’syra means…”
“It means that you are the key to my heart. That you are the piece I’ve always been missing.” He leaned down, stopping only when his mouth was a hair’s breadth away from hers. “I love you, Mina.”
Sevik pressed his lips to hers, giving life to his words with a long, tender, heated kiss.