Chapter 15 Rowan #2
Then he began snoring loudly. His weight draped across me, solid and scorching hot. I pushed at his arm, but he mumbled something incoherent and tightened his hold on me like a vise.
“Killian, I have to pee. I need you to let me up,” I whispered, shoving at his arm again.
Another grumble, then he rolled over, flinging his arm away without fully waking.
I slipped out of bed, my feet meeting the cool floor that felt shocking against my overheated skin.
After I used the restroom, I stood in the hallway, eyeing Killian’s door.
The sound of his snores echoed through my ears, which were becoming increasingly sensitive as my wolf and I grew more connected.
Every noise felt amplified. The smallest sound could rumble through my skull like a marching band.
I turned toward the living room, ready to collapse on the couch and pray for a little rest, when Talon’s smooth voice slid into my mind.
Can’t sleep, Pet?
Killian’s snoring is too loud. It hurts my ears.
His laugh slipped across our bond like silk. You'll get used to it. Come here. I will help you find sleep.
I went to him, turning the door handle hesitantly and cracking it open. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw him lying on his bed, wearing those grey sweatpants that clung to the V of his hips and molded to his very obvious bulge in a way that made my mouth water.
“I will wear these pants more often if you keep having thoughts like that.”
“Stay out of my head, Talon. God, I can't get an ounce of privacy with you four! Cade tracks my every move on his surveillance system. Killian refuses to let me even walk on my own. Ryker stares at my ass all day. And you,” I said, pointing at him, “you will not stay out of my head.”
He laughed softly and patted the bed beside him.
“As I said before, it's not my fault you can't control your thoughts. You don't hear me unless I want you to. You'll learn.”
“You keep saying I'll learn. And when exactly will that be? I need sleep. It’s getting harder every night. I hear everything now. See everything. The dark isn’t dark anymore, and the quiet doesn’t exist. The night is too bright and too loud to rest.”
"You'll get used to that too. It takes practice. In the meantime, I'll help you rest."
"How?" I asked, climbing onto the bed, as his yellow eyes glowed, moving up and down my body.
"Pain. And pleasure. I'll take your mind off of the noise. Quiet all those racing thoughts," he said, tapping my temple.
I was suddenly uncomfortable and acutely aware of how very alone Talon and I were.
I had never been alone with him like this.
Every time we'd been intimate, Ryker or Cade had been present.
They helped to offset his darkness and lessen my nerves.
I didn't know if I could take what he offered without them.
"Why do you like to hurt me?" I whispered.
"Why do you like the pain?" he countered.
"I don't!"
"Don't lie to me, Pet. You are my mate. I know you better than I know myself.
Through our bond, I can hear and feel you.
Every emotion, every fleeting thought. I know what you need, even if you refuse to admit it to me, even if you refuse to admit it to yourself," he said as he pulled my shirt over my head.
As he spoke, his hand trailed up my stomach, resting on my breast. His nimble, tattooed fingers toyed with my sensitive nipple and then started squeezing sharply. Pain shot through me, and I gasped. Slick ran down the inside of my thigh.
"There's my pet. I know what makes you wet," he said, squeezing my nipple again.
I arched off the bed, trying to follow his hand as it pulled and twisted my poor nipple.
“Turn over. Get on your knees,” he instructed as he stood and began rifling through a cabinet.
Something in the way he ordered me differed from Cade. It was not stern nor commanding. His words were a calm promise and threat wrapped together, spoken in a tone that sent a shiver of fear and delight sliding down my spine.
I did what he said without a moment of hesitation.
I listened to the noises behind me, trying to guess what he had planned.
Then the rifling noises stopped, and the bed dipped.
Suddenly, Talon leaned over me, his breath in my ear.
Tattooed hands went to my breasts, but this time, I felt the chill of something metal against my skin, and then a sharp, searing pain.
Looking down, I saw my pink, tender nipples squeezed in metal clamps.
A metal chain linked the two clamps together.
In the center of that chain which connected the clamps, another longer chain hung down and pooled beneath me on the bed. There was a clip at it's end, and I briefly wondered what he planned to attach it to.
“How does that feel, Pet?”
“Tight. It hurts,” I said, swallowing hard.
“It's supposed to. Pain is a wonderful distraction,” he murmured. “But I need to know when it is too much. Only when it's too much. When you truly cannot take it anymore. Do you understand?”
I considered what he was saying. He wasn't talking about discomfort, but my real limit. When the pain crossed the line, not where it simply pressed against it.
I nodded. "I understand."
"Good." His hand traveled along the hanging chain, until it reached the clip at the end. He tugged, pulling my clamped nipples. I moaned. He then attached the end to a large metal plug. My face paled.
"Talon, what is that?" I said nervously.
"Something you'll like, Pet. Ryker told me how much you enjoyed having your ass filled. He said you climaxed harder than he's ever seen."
"No. That is not going in my ass. No way."
His fingers slid to my face, and he squeezed the hollows of my cheeks, tilting my head so I had to meet his glowing eyes.
“Rowan, you only say no when you've reached your limit. When the pain is truly too much. We agreed. I promise that when you say stop, I will stop. But you also promised that you would let me take you to your limit. This is not your limit.”
I exhaled slowly. He was right.
"Okay, but when I say stop, you—"
"Stop. I promise. Now open your mouth."
As I did, he slid the plug into my mouth, swirling it around.
After my saliva thoroughly coated it, he pulled it from my lips and guided me to all fours.
My breasts hung heavy below me, stinging slightly in the clamps.
The attached chain dangled, following my stomach and nestling between my thighs as Talon positioned himself behind me.
I felt the cool, wet tip of the plug push against my tightest hole.
"This is a lot wider than Ryker's fingers. Take a deep breath, Pet."
I inhaled, and on the exhale, Talon pushed it into me.
I gasped at the unexpected tightness, fisting the sheets and writhing.
Looking over my shoulder, I was about to protest the discomfort when I saw Talon's face.
He fixated on where the plug stretched me, his glowing eyes filled with lust and desperation.
He looked up, noticing my discomfort, and asked, “Are you okay?” with genuine concern.
I nodded. Talon rarely cared about my comfort, preferring my pain, which was why the softness in his voice settled something uneasy inside me. His concern balanced his darker desires.
“Remember, if you say stop, I stop,” he said, sounding uncharacteristically reassuring.
I nodded again, feeling steadier.
Then he lined himself up with my entrance and surged inside me. There was no tenderness, no patience, or acclimation. Just filled in a moment, rutted deep and harsh.
"Fuck!" I cried out as he pulled me upright, flush against his muscled stomach and chest, clamping his sharp teeth down on my earlobe. My body's movement caused the plug inside me to jolt, and I was suddenly aware of just how full I was.
Talon’s tattooed fist wrapped around the chain that ran down my torso and pulled, sending shocks through my nipples. The chain between my legs tightened as he pulled too, causing the metal to ride between my folds and rub against my neglected clit.
His fist tightened and loosened the chain in a rhythm matching the speed he fucked me with, causing pain and pleasure to bloom in my nipples and clit. Every time he thrust into me, the motion jolted the plug in my ass, creating a strange sensation that quickly turned from discomfort to pleasure.
My body responded eagerly to the duality of the sensations, and an orgasm forcefully ripped through me. My ass constricted around the plug, while my core pulsed around his shaft, sucking his knot deeper and begging for it to breach my entrance.
He slowed his movements, and for the first time, our intimacy felt tender. His hips worked in a rolling motion, smooth and long as he pushed his knot into me.
“I knew you were perfect for me. I knew you would love this, that you would take me as I am,” Talon breathed against my ear. His voice, usually silky and controlled, was rough now, frayed with something vulnerable.
I turned my head slightly, enough that my cheek brushed his. “Talon, I've always felt drawn to you,” I whispered. “The first time I saw you, it was like lightning. Not just because of the bond,” I continued softly. “It’s the way you see me. The way you steady me when my control is slipping.”
Talon’s hand slid to the side of my neck, his thumb stroking my pulse reverently.
“You steady me too. You don't even realize what you do to me.” His forehead pressed lightly against the back of my head.
“Before you, I didn't have anyone who fit with me. No one understood me. No one who… belonged with me.”
Warmth pooled in my chest. “I'm yours, Talon.”
He let out a shaky breath, as if he had been waiting to hear those words for far too long.
“And I am yours,” he murmured. “Every instinct I have pulls me to you. Every part of me wants to protect you, guide you, teach you, claim you, and care for you. You're the only person who quiets my wolf.”
I stayed silent, letting my head roll back until it rested on his shoulder.
I could sense he needed this moment of vulnerability and connection.
Maybe his craving for pain and sharpness had always been a way to hide the parts of himself he didn't want anyone to see. A way to keep his partners at arm’s length so they never got close enough to realize how different he really was.
“My wolf is calmer with you,” he said. “Easier to control.”
I let him talk. Focusing on the sensation of his knot stretching my entrance, I tried not to grind down on his length in impatient desperation.
“He can sense his mate. He feels you close, and it… settles him. Takes the edge off. The violence, the rage, all the pressure that’s always clawing right under my skin. It stops trying to break through the thin cage of my body and the edges of my control.”
His jaw flexed against my cheek.
“I didn't realize how hard I was fighting the beast every day until I found you.”
My chest tightened for him. So did my core as his knot finally entered me fully. A groan left my lips, and my body recognized his knot, responding with a pulsing climax that tore the breath from my lungs.
Talon pulled me closer, his voice low and honest. “I didn’t know how much I needed someone like me. Someone who understands what it feels like to be torn in two. Who understands the control it requires not to let the wolf loose.”
He let out a slow breath. “Besides my unit, I have always felt alone. Different from everyone else. I never fit anywhere.”
His hand tightened around my throat, not rough, just possessive.
“But with you, it feels… right. Like I am not alone in this world anymore.”
And with those tender words, he fulfilled his promise. Locked together, I climaxed repeatedly before sinking into a deep sleep, warm and comfortable against his chest.
The rest that came after was heavy. It was the type of sleep that only happens when the body finally lets go. I relaxed completely for the first time in days, finding unexpected comfort in a man who spoke of pain but offered far more than that.
There were no racing thoughts about Dr. Zolkos.
No images of cold halls or the woman labeled Patient Zero.
No fear clawing at me about shifting or losing control of my wolf.
All of it faded into the background, quiet for once.
The constant noise in my head, the buzzing of worry, instinct, and uncertainty, finally went silent.
For the first time since everything started, there was no loudness.
Just warmth.
Just him.
And I slept.