8. The Claiming
The Claiming
MATEO
The air in the cabin was thick with tension. The kind of tension that leaves you breathless, uncertain, but achingly aware that something has shifted. Something has changed between us.
Sunanda stood before me, nervously staring into the distance as if her mind was still adjusting to what she accepted.
She was my mate. The one I was willing to die alone without if it meant she was happier without me. But now that I had a taste, there was no going back to how things once were.
“Sunanda, come here,” I whispered, patting my lap as I sat on the edge of my bed.
Her pupils dilated as she slowly approached me, as if every step was carefully measured.
We were both a far cry from the children we once were—so much had changed, in ways neither of us could have anticipated.
I could smell her the moment she returned to town, a familiar scent that stirred something deep within me.
But beyond that, I knew something else—she was untouched.
Judging by the way our first date had unfolded, I didn’t doubt that her instincts had kept her distant from anyone who wasn’t meant for her.
There had been a certain hesitance in her, a quiet wariness, as though she was guarding something precious.
And it was clear now that she was guarding herself, waiting for the one who truly belonged with her—me.
The moment she was within reach, I grabbed her hand and pulled her the rest of the way, making her fall against me. My shirt had already been removed and I could feel the trembling of her hands as they traveled around my shoulder.
I leaned into the crook of her neck and took in a deep inhale, savoring her scent and the way it was subtly changing with her arousal. My mouth watered as I placed a kiss on her soft skin, trailing my lips down to her shoulder.
Here she was. Here we were. I could feel her warmth as if it was the only thing that mattered in this world. My hand hovered near her cheek, unsure of how aggressive I could be. I didn’t want to scare her, not now, not after everything.
But Sunanda wasn’t scared of my touch. She wasn’t scared of me despite seeing me in my other form. Her eyes flickered to my lips before moving back to mine, I couldn’t stop myself from pulling her down for another passionate and raw kiss.
Everything I had held back for years came rushing to the surface.
Words seemed inadequate, clumsy. Instead, I let my hands do the talking. My fingers slid into her hair, pulling her closer. She responded, meeting me with the same intensity, her hands tracing the lines of my body like she was memorizing every inch of me.
Her lips parted with a soft sigh, and I took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. My pulse was racing. Every inch of my skin was alive with the need for her. Grabbing the hem of her shirt, I pulled it over her head, leaning in to lick the top of her breasts as my hands fumbled with the back clasps.
The whimper she let out after she was free from her restraint made my cock jump. There was a reason why I kept my pants on for the time being—because I knew if I didn’t, I would have pounced on her before she could take her next breath.
“Sunanda, you smell delicious…” I pant, before wrapping my mouth around one of her dark nipples.
She grabbed my face, pulled me up for another kiss as she frantically kicked off her shoes and bottoms. When my hands landed on the fleshy globes of her ass, a groan escaped me.
Lost in a haze of desire, I could feel the heat building inside me, the raw pull of instinct urging me to shift. I fought against it, holding it at bay—but the way Sunanda rubbed herself against me was going to be my undoing.
With a growl, I flipped her onto her back, caging her body beneath mine, continuing our kiss while I kicked off my pants and tossed it onto the floor beside us.
And then, as if some invisible force had taken over, she kissed me again. The kiss deepened with carnal urgency, the air around us crackling with desire, with something more than just passion. It was primal, something we both knew was always there, even if we hadn’t fully realized it until now.
I could feel the wolf stirring within me, pushing to break free, roaring behind my skull. I wouldn’t let him have her—I was lost in my own selfishness at the moment. After all, Sunanda had come to me, willingly. Mateo, the man.
Her hands slid down my chest, traveling further downward to wrap her palm around my raging cock.
I helped her, shifting enough for her to slip between us easily, my heart pounding with anticipation.
When she stroked me, and our skin slid against one another, it was as if everything aligned.
She was mine. And I was hers. I could feel it in my bones.
Her breath hitched as I leaned into her, undulating my hips to urge on her explorations. The bed creaked beneath us as I licked along her collarbone, grazing my teeth against the flesh of her shoulder. She responded with a gasp as I nipped at her skin, her hand frantically moving between us.
“Mateo,” she whispered my name, her voice a mix of awe and want, and it sent a wave of fervor through me.
“Open up for me,” I rasped. “I want to taste you.”
“W-What?”
I let out a chuckle, quickly using her surprise to my advantage as I spread her legs apart and slid down to drag my tongue along her arousal up to her clit. I had dreamt of this moment for countless nights, waking up with night sweats as my body’s craving for her tortured me.
But tonight, the beast inside of me not only wanted to come out and play, he also wanted to satisfy his mate so she would never leave.
She smelled floral, sweet with a hint of something that was uniquely her.
Without any hesitation, I dove my tongue inside of her and finally gave myself a taste of everything I thought I had lost when she moved away.
With a groan, I continued to feast on her flesh, savoring the way her arousal was marking me with her scent.
When she cried out in pleasure and her back bowed through the aftershocks, the wolf inside of me howled.
She was quick, aggressive in her own right as she wrapped her thighs around my head and flipped me over like a fighting maneuver. She caught me off guard and I watched her in stunned amazement as she grabbed my cock and rubbed it along her pussy, coating us with her natural lubricant.
My hands gravitated to her delectable ass right before she slammed herself down on my cock, making me grimace from the shock of the heat.
“Shit, Sunanda—”
“Watch your mouth, Mateo,” she moaned as she rode me harder and faster. She leaned against my chest, her nails digging into my skin.
The pain and pleasure of what was happening, the way her arousal dripped around my balls made me lose control and I could feel my body contorting from the transformation.
She was lost in a haze of lust, her eyes rolling to the back of her head when I swiftly changed our positions and threw her onto her stomach, pulling her ass into the air.
The wolf inside me howled, its call a primal roar that vibrated through my chest, sending shivers down my spine.
I gritted my teeth, bracing against the pain that was coming, a dark storm building inside me.
In the suffocating darkness of this room, I could feel the claws extruding, breaking through my human skin, the sharp sensation pulling and stretching beneath the surface, as if my body itself was too fragile to contain the power that wanted to break free.
My bones shifted, cracking, rearranging with a sensual kind of violence, sending waves of fire through me. I stopped fighting it. I gave in to the change. The fine line between pain and pleasure blurred as the hunger inside me was growing, relentless, coaxing me toward something I couldn’t deny.
“Mateo?” There was a crack in her voice but it wasn’t all fear. No. The scent of her arousal grew, coating every breath I took, making me dazed in nothing but carnality and the need to claim.
To rut.
She whimpered when I slammed my cock inside of her, her body pushing back against me as her little hands gripped the sheets for dear life. She wanted this too. She felt the same primal instincts.
Covering her body with mine, my thrusts became erratic—in the throws of her next climax, my wolf snapped his jaws next to her face in barely restrained delirium.
“It feels so good,” she mewled, bowing her back further, granting me more access to her pussy.
With a snarl, I clawed the sheets beside her as my other arm wrapped around her waist to keep her in place. My hips slapped against hers unceremoniously, the entire bed shook and slammed against the wall of the cabin.
My pleasure came in a strange form of duality as both the man and wolf fell off the metaphorical cliff of ecstasy in unison. With one last vicious thrust, I howled and made sure I buried myself deeply to secure the knot that was expanding inside of her.
“So… full…” she whimpered, not realizing what was happening.
Both the wolf and I cooed against her ear, licking her shoulder to calm her as our seed continued to fill her womb with hot jets of release. When her body slipped forward, she yelped in pain from our connection and my wolf growled, biting down on her flesh to keep her in place.
The gasp that escaped her was of pure rapture as my wolf continued to fill her womb to the brink, some of the release slipping between us and down her inner thighs. The smell of our union drove me insane, making me undulate my hips once again as if to make sure the seed would take root.
She squirmed and mewled beneath me beautifully in full submission.
When my knot finally deflated, we both fell to our sides and slowly caught our breaths in the darkness of the room with nothing but slivers of moonlight filtering through the blinds.
We stayed like that for what felt like hours, tangled in each other, the world fading away until there was only the two of us, breathing in sync, hearts racing.
She shifted in my arms, looking up at me with a softness in her eyes that made my chest tighten despite me still being in my wolf form.
“I love you,” I whispered, unsure if she could understand it through the shape of my muzzle.
Her fingers traced my jawline, threading through my black fur, before she whispered back, “I love you too.”
It was a song my heart had yearned to hear through the endless years—a melody as timeless as the stars, my very own moonlight sonata.
My tail rhythmically thumped on the bed and she smiled. This was our forever. I had waited my entire life for her, and now that she was here with me, I knew nothing could ever tear us apart.
For the first time, I didn’t view what I was born into as a curse or some inevitable doom. Instead, I felt an undeniable certainty. I finally believed in fate.