Chapter Nineteen
It surprised me how quickly Malik's sorrowful demeanor shifted as soon as the request slipped from my lips.
His pupil dilated, his unscarred eye turning more black than gray as he held my gaze. He went still beneath me, heart thundering like it might burst through his chest, and I felt him harden against my seam—a hot, steel-like rod that grew larger and larger with every passing second.
Still, he didn't move. He seemed to search for something, and, though he couldn't speak the words aloud, somehow I knew exactly what he needed. Confirmation.
I gave it to him with the soft stroke of my fingertips against his cheek. With my breath that fanned against his neck, just beneath his ruined jugular, as I drew the tip of my nose to the base of his throat.
His chest heaved with every inhalation, and his hands clamped down on my hips with enough force to bruise. He didn't draw me closer or drag me against his erection. Instead, he merely held me in place, as if reassuring himself that I wouldn't leave.
My nose stopped where his scent, masculine and musky and familiar, became the most potent. There, I pressed an indulgent kiss to his flesh, savoring the vibrant pulse beneath my lips.
Malik shuddered, and instinct told me that this was the spot.
A barely-there ache formed in my gums as my canine teeth expanded, my body knowing what to do in spite of my inexperience. My tongue darted out to taste his salty skin, preparing the skin to take my bite.
I'd mark him first— claim him as my own— then, Goddess willing, he would do the same for me. But that meant nothing if we didn't complete the other part of the mating ritual.
My attention fell to the warmth dripping between my legs. It should have concerned me how quickly my body reacted to him. How it immediately forgot the heartache and pain that consumed it mere minutes ago, favoring lust and hunger instead.
The scene in front of the pack house was a mere blip in my memory, now. It didn't matter. Not anymore. Not with this magnificent male beneath me, trembling as I pressed another kiss to the sensitive flesh at the base of his throat, pulling the skin into my mouth, teasing.
Reason slipped away as heat pulsed through my blood. I felt feverish. Dizzy. Bursting with need to be filled, consumed, broken, healed—
My canines descended into his neck, puncturing the thin veil of skin. Malik's blood seeped from the wound, and the coppery tang filled my mouth as I dug deeper.
A low raspy breath vibrated from his chest, his version of a groan, and it emboldened me. One of my hands hiked up to his shoulder, while the other tangled in his hair. I moaned into his neck, biting harder out of sheer desperation to claim this male as mine.
My mate. My fated partner. Mine.
His hands found my backside, digging into the fleshy muscle and lifting me higher, granting me better access to his neck.
"Malik," I gasped against his skin, my canines retreating from the neat holes they dug. Rivulets of blood dripped from the wound, and I couldn't fight the primitive urge to lap up the precious liquid, soothing the red skin with my tongue and lips.
No long able to control himself, his hips bucked once beneath me. I hovered just out of reach. The mark and its effects would only become permanent if we consummated our union-- quickly.
Something wet and urgent burst through my core, and I pulled my mouth away from his neck, lips stained by blood, and kissed him. He took me into his mouth in an instant, no longer hesitant.
Our tongues tangled, teeth clashing as I clung to him like I'd die if we separated. We'd never kissed like this before, and it felt good. So impossibly, beautifully good. So mind-numbingly perfect that I found myself lowering onto his hips again in search of relief.
I didn't make it far. "Oh."
As soon as I pressed down, my sex brushed against Malik's engorged head. The bulbous tip slid between my folds until it notched directly beneath my opening. Only then did I truly realize the extent of my arousal.
I lowered an inch, and he easily breached my center. The slick wet welcomed him in, daring to suck him deeper. I paused, my thighs straining to hold myself up while every fiber in my body screamed at me to sink onto him.
We were both panting when I withdrew from the kiss.
Malik's eyes flared wild, his jaw clamped like it took every ounce of strength to control himself. We held each other's gazes for one long moment, exchanging the same breath, and the dark hair spanning his chest tickled my breasts.
His grip on my hips tightened, and I knew for a fact that there'd be handprints decorating my flesh in the morning. Without looking away from me, he guided my hips downward, and I took another half-inch.
I felt the first hint of a stretch. Not painful. Not even uncomfortable. But stretched.
Malik stiffened. He trembled beneath me, but he didn't push me further onto his erection. Instead, he waited, a silent question in his eyes.
I nodded in response, a ravenous, uninhibited confirmation. "Yes. Do it. Please. I need—"
Words failed me as, without preamble, Malik brought me down on him.
I cried out, an initial burning sensation shooting through me at the abrupt intrusion. My opening complained the most, like it took the brunt of accommodating my mate's sheer size and girth, but, as seconds passed, the pain dissipated.
A strained, choked sound ripped from Malik's chest as he bottomed out inside of me, and my eyes fluttered open to find him staring at the spot where our bodies joined, enraptured.
I followed his gaze, peering between our bodies. My golden curls pressed tight against the dark hair at his base, obscuring the view of his cock buried deep. I could vaguely see where my lips spread and my clitoris rubbed against his pubic bone, but not an inch separated us. Not anymore.
I expected more pain. I expected tears to be springing from the corners of my eyes, my virgin sex screaming for reprieve. But any pain had already faded into the smallest twinge of discomfort, leaving a heady sense of fullness in its wake.
I shouldn't have been surprised. We were made for one another, after all. That meant biologically as well. We fit.
My body accepted him like it would welcome back a long lost part of itself. Where I was wet and pliant, Malik was hard and unyielding. I molded around him, our bodies becoming one.
His breaths came shallow, his thighs twitching beneath me as if fighting against the urge to ratchet into me from below. I wanted him to, though, when I looked up to his face, his eyes were closed, collecting himself.
Desperate for a bit of friction, I rotated my hips, grinding against his hard pubic bone. Little sparks of pleasure erupted at my clit, only to come to an abrupt halt when his hands landed on my waist, halting my movements.
"Please," I pleaded. A desperate whimper bubbled from my chest when I tried moving again, but he held firm in his resistance.
Malik answered me by peppering gentle, doting kisses to my mouth and jawline, nibbling at my earlobe before descending down my neck. Utterly consumed by the feeling of him inside of me, I didn't understand the reason for his resistance until he sucked on the hollow of my neck.
He wanted to mark me.
Blood flooded my clitoris as his teeth dragged over the sensitive flesh between my collarbone and ear. My head fell to the side, offering him unimpeded access. Yes, yes, yes, yes—
His sharp canines pierced through my skin's barrier. They were long, descending deep into my bloodstream until hot blood poured from the wound, falling in rivers down my breasts and abdomen. But, just as when he'd first pushed inside my sex, the immediate shot of pain faded away into nothingness as his canines found purchase.
Pleasure— pure, unadulterated pleasure— churned throughout my body, leaving no corner untouched. It was everything I'd ever imagined, yet completely unfathomable in the same breath.
With his canines marking my neck and his cock buried to the hilt, the first twitches of an orgasm began to build at the base of my spine, hard and sudden. "I'm going to— Goddess!"
My back arched as my core began to spasm, and I writhed against his cock as my orgasm unleashed inside of me. I forgot how to breathe— how to think— as my entire body swelled and burst, then swelled again. I came undone. And undone. And undone.
Somewhere in the midst of my ecstasy, Malik released his claiming hold on my neck and adjusted our bodies' positions until my back pressed into the cold ground. He laid on top of me, my thighs parting to accommodate his hips as his weight pressed into me. Then, as the aftershocks pulsed through my body and skittered down my spine, I heard it.
I heard him. Deep and rumbling and unmistakably him.
My eyes snapped open. I stared up at him, and his train of thought stopped. His lips parted as the reality of what just happened seeped over him.
We'd mated and marked one another, transforming into one flesh beneath the Moon Goddess. At long, long last, we could speak.
I nodded, a bubble of laughter spilling from my mouth. Following the newfound, invisible cord that bound our souls together, I pushed my own voice through to his mind and responded, never breaking my smile. Yes, I can hear you, Malik. My Malik.
His mouth landed on mine. Hungry. Consuming. Happy.
Then, he began moving. His hips pushed me further into the dirt and grass with experimental, shallow thrusts that somehow seemed to hit new spots deep in my center. My walls fluttered around him, more aftershocks of my climax, and I cried out at the electrifying pulses they elicited.
He groaned, and this time, I heard the animalistic sound in my head. Careful... I'm barely holding on.
"I don't want you to hold on," I whispered, though my breath caught when he pushed in a little deeper.
His biceps shook from the strain of holding himself above me, and I hooked my ankles around his taut backside.
My hand reached up to stroke his cheek, scars and stubble and all.
You could never disappoint me.
We have the rest of our lives to take our time.
Right now, I want you.
All of you, Malik.
He answered with one deep, thorough thrust, pulling out to his tip before re-sheathing himself to the root. The pressure of his hips spread me open. Then, we established a rhythm. Our movements were a bit awkward and unpracticed, but they grew more confident with every second that passed.
Twice, he stopped to collect himself and take the edge off.
Each time, he seated himself deep inside of me and pressed doting kisses to my lips while we took a break from the intense stimulation.
Once during a break, I tried squeezing his cock with my inner walls, and he reprimanded me with a gentle nibble to his mark on my neck.
The light from the moon poured over us, allowing me to look up and memorize the sight of him— my beautiful, devoted mate. Our breathing grew choppy, our movements erratic. His cock relentlessly brushed against a part of me that I didn't know existed, and I came apart a second time.
That boiling heat within me bubbled over, an exquisite crescendo that I was growing increasingly familiar with. My internal muscles tightened, drawing him deeper. Milking him and—
My release pushed him over the edge.
Malik's thrusts became wild-- unhinged— and he roared. His mouth parted, eyes clamping shut as he tilted his head to the moon, and his raspy voice filled my head, the sound of him coming undone for me alone. His pleasure overpowered mine, and I willed every ounce of my focus to stay on this magnificent male as he shattered.
A string of unintelligible curses slipped from his mind into mine, and his thrusts slowed as he spilled inside of me. I felt it then. A strange new pressure at my opening, like Malik's already thick cock was swelling all over again. And it didn't stop.
"M-Malik—" I gasped, eyes widening as he tried thrusting inside of me once more, only for the incredible bulge at the base of his cock to obstruct the movement. I tried to wiggle my hips, but we were locked together by the massive swelling. "What's happening?"
His praise washed over me, and my eyes fluttered closed. I love hearing your voice. Will you keep talking?
Another shudder racked through his body, and his shoulders tensed as more of his come spurted inside of me.
My muscles squeezed in response.
Goddess, yes. You're extraordinary. I don't know what I did to deserve you.
His voice was a rasp in my mind.
Look at you, taking my knot so well.
Malik nodded, though the movement was strained like the smallest twitch might make him spill inside of me again.
A part of me wanted to test the theory, but he reached between our bodies and stroked the spot where he'd swelled and locked inside of me. It's called knotting.
It only happens in those with alpha blood who've found their fated mates, according to legend. It increases the chances of...
He trailed off, and I noticed splotches of color on his cheeks.
He didn't need to finish. I understood. Knotting created a seal that kept his seed inside of my womb, drastically increasing the chances of conception. Even so, Malik's orgasm must've been substantial, since I was faintly certain I felt hot liquid seeping from where our bodies were joined.
A newfound wave of heat flushed through my body at the prospect of carrying Malik's child, and I experimentally clamped my walls down on him again. A ragged exhale escaped his parted mouth as I squeezed more come from his cock, and his hips tried and failed to dig deeper into my sex.