Chapter 11 - Rachel
Something was wrong.
I realized it the same way I might know that I had burned myself, an innate certainty that filled my entire body, setting me on edge as I tried to figure out what was happening.
It was something bad, I could tell that.
It was something dangerous, but I wasn’t in danger, so where was that certainty coming from?
It hit me with the speed of a train. I was sensing it through the mating bond. I wasn’t the one in danger—Sam was.
I checked the clock. He should have been home by now. Picking up my phone, I dialed his number. My foot tapped anxiously as the phone rang. And rang. And rang.
“Hey, this is Sam. Leave a message.”
“Fuck.” I hung up.
I tried his phone again later to get the same result.
The minutes seemed to drag on. I tried to sit still, but as that sense of danger continued, I couldn’t.
I paced back and forth, biting my nails as my mind raced, running through a hundred scenarios that ended with Elias knocking on the door and telling me that Sam had died.
Even as I told myself repeatedly that I would sense something through the bond if he was dead, that didn’t stop the crippling fear jolting through me.
All this time, I had told myself I didn’t care about him anymore. I told myself that it didn’t matter. Now, sitting in this house, unsure what happened and having to wait for someone to tell me something, I had to face the fact that I had been lying to myself. I still cared about Sam.
You can worry about that once he gets home, a voice told me.
But when the hell was that going to be?
I gritted my teeth, fists clenching. I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t just stand here pacing back and forth. Without giving myself any time to think more about it, I grabbed my jacket and keys and marched toward the door.
I was halfway down the hall when the doorknob rattled. I heard a key scrape the inside of the lock, and the door pushed open.
Sam limped in. He was covered in dirt and scrapes. A long scratch ran along one cheek, and his arm was wrapped in heavy bandages, as was his arm. Injured, clearly battered, but alive.
“Oh my God.” Without realizing what I was doing, I cleared the gap between us at breakneck speed and collided with him as I wrapped my arms around him.
“Oof. Ow.”
“Oh, God, sorry.” I stepped back, my heart still hammering as adrenaline pumped itself out of my system, replaced by relief at seeing him okay. I took a deep breath, finally realizing that my hands were shaking and my knees had started wobbling with relief.
His face creased into a frown. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“What the hell happened?” I asked, ignoring the question. “I sensed something through the mating bond, but I couldn’t figure out what it was, and you weren’t answering your phone. I was about to—what?” I cut myself off as I caught sight of the amused grin dancing on his face.
“Were you worried about me?” he teased. “Because it sounds like you were worried.”
I shot him a glare. “You could have called,” I retorted.
He tilted his head, that obnoxiously attractive grin spreading further over his face. “You would only want me to call if you were worried about me.”
Glowering, I folded my arms. He was going to make me admit it whether I wanted to or not.
“Fine. I was worried,” I snapped. “Now tell me what the hell happened.”
The smirk flickered out of existence. “We were tracking the demons, and they led us into an ambush,” he explained. “We managed to get out of there all right, but not without a few new scars.”
I stared, then closed the distance between us. I reached out, as if to pull him toward me.
I slapped his arm. Hard.
“Ow!” he said. “You know, bandages typically mean injuries.”
“You idiot,” I snarled. “What the hell were you thinking, wandering into danger like that?”
“I can’t help it,” he fired back. “It’s my job.”
“You need to be more careful.”
“I don’t have a say in what sort of danger I get into,” he countered.
“I’m the pack beta. I have to take those risks.
I’m not going to let the other guards put themselves at risk, and not willing to do the same.
And in case it wasn’t clear, I didn’t know we were running into an ambush. You can’t blame me for that.”
“You had to know it was a chance,” I said.
“Of course I did,” he said. “But I have a job to do, and that comes with risk. I’m protecting the pack.”
But I wasn’t done. All my emotions welled up to the surface and burst out as if a dam had burst. “You know I feel everything that happens to you. How do you think I would feel if something worse than this happened to you? I nearly went out of my mind with worry, and I could still tell you were alive. I don’t want to have to feel you die.
At the very least, you could have called. ”
He went still as he studied me, and I realized exactly what I had just said. Heat flooded my body, and I couldn’t tell if it was out of embarrassment at what I had admitted or some other, more visceral reason, like the intensity of his stare as it locked on me.
“I didn’t realize you felt that strongly about it,” he said. “Based on past conversations, I didn’t think you would care one way or the other.”
“Of course I care,” I snapped, anger still searing through my veins. “God, how are you so fucking dense?”
“I’m the dense one?” He marched forward until he was standing in front of me. “You’re the one who doesn’t realize what sort of effect you have on guys. Me in particular.”
“Don’t change the subject,” I said, but the anger in my words quavered, replaced with something else entirely as his words sank in.
He stared down at me with an intensity that made my body burn bright hot, settling between my legs.
“You’re the one who scared me half to death, and I’m not going to let this go until you say you’re sorry. ”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Then, before I could fire back another response, his lips were on mine, and he was pressing me back against the wall, his good hand grasping my hip as he pinned me against him, his mouth claiming me.
His bandaged hand gripped my hair and tilted my head back, holding it in place as his tongue slipped between my lips.
Without realizing I was doing it, I grabbed his shirt, tugging him harder against me, that heat I had been resisting for weeks bursting into flames. I couldn’t hold it back anymore. I didn’t want to.
My body responded to his every touch, the way his fingers ran along my side, tightening their grip every so often, enough to make me twitch with a burst of longing. I had never experienced a burning need like this before, and something told me I may never again. Or, at least, not with anyone else.
His hand slipped beneath my shirt, fingers caressing bare skin as they moved slowly, tantalizingly upward. My breath went ragged when he finally broke the kiss, his mouth moving down my neck, each brush of his lips sending new shivers of need running through me.
“You’re injured,” I muttered, though the vague protest barely escaped. I didn’t want him to stop.
“I really don’t give a damn,” he muttered. “I’d have to be in a wheelchair for me to even think about holding back.”
His hand reached my breast, and he let out an approving growl as he realized I wasn’t wearing a bra. My body convulsed as he squeezed, and I let out a soft gasp. He cracked an amused grin, his eyes sparkling with both laughter and hunger.
“You’re reactive, aren’t you?” he muttered, squeezing again, my body twitching in the same way. “I like that.”
Before I could even respond, he had scooped me up in his arms without warning and was carrying me up the stairs to his room.
He pushed the door open and took me to the bed, laying me down. Without asking, he unfastened my jeans, tugging them off along with my underwear, leaving me entirely exposed.
My chest tightened, and I could barely breathe as he stood over me. I would have thought I would hate feeling this exposed, laying on his bed entirely bare—and I did—but instead of terrifying me, it electrified me instead.
Sam looked down at me with undisguised hunger, as if he had wanted to do this for years.
Slowly, he took off his clothes. I sucked in a breath as I took in his stature, the perfect abs and lean muscles that made me want to run my hands over them.
His cock sprang out, and a flush of embarrassment and heat raced through me at the sight.
I had never seen one before, and yet I wanted to take it in my hands at the same time, to see what it felt like.
He clambered onto the bed next to me, his hand trailing along my bare skin, brushing the side of my breast as he continued to drink me in.
Every touch only intensified that need. I had wanted him since I was a teenager, even if I had never admitted it, and now that it was here, I realized that the want I had felt then was a puddle compared to the ocean I felt now.
He moved until he hovered on top of me, and my heart skipped a beat.
“Are you sure?” I asked even as my entire body quivered with need.
“I’ve been fantasizing about having you naked on my bed since before the mating bond,” he said. “Why the hell wouldn’t I be sure, now that I finally have you where I want you?”
I hesitated, embarrassment flushing through me as I tried to form the words, but worrying that he might no longer want me if he knew the truth. Why would he want to be with someone so inexperienced? Still, he deserved to know.
“I’m—” I blushed, the words not quite forming.
He blinked, seeming to read what I couldn’t say. “Are you a virgin?”
The blush deepened as I nodded. I waited for him to clamber off, bracing myself for that disappointment.
He leaned forward, his lip moving to my ear. “In that case, I’ll make sure your first time is a memorable one,” he murmured.
Instead of thrusting into me right away, his fingers ran down my chest, between my breasts, and past my navel, until they found my slit. I gasped, my hips bucking as he found my clit, and he gave a grin as he watched my reaction.
He rubbed my clit, stoking that fire. After a moment, his fingers plunged into me. I let out a soft cry of surprise and longing. He bent over me, his free hand pawing my breast as he continued thrusting his fingers in and out of me. My hands gripped the bedsheets as I writhed and moaned.
When I opened my eyes, I saw with a burst of flame that he was staring down at me with undisguised lust and satisfaction, and his cock twitched as if he was getting pleasure just from watching me squirm at his touch.
He continued thrusting his fingers in and out of me, my breath growing ragged, until the only thing that mattered was the pulse of need rippling through me. I held on, wanting more of it, wanting it to keep going.
Just as I was about to come, he slowed, pulling out his fingers. I glowered at him, needing that release, and he gave a small chuckle and pressed his lips to mine.
He pressed his tip against my vagina, just enough for me to feel the pressure but not penetrating.
Just that sensation, that promise of things to come, made my breathing grow ragged and my mind blank with need and anticipation.
I bit my lip as I looked into Sam’s face.
I was completely vulnerable to him, naked in every way.
“You can say stop if you need to,” he said.
I would never tell him to stop. I didn’t think I could.
Slowly, he pushed himself in, slowly filling me, letting me get used to his girth.
That craving between my legs intensified as I felt him inside me.
I took every inch of him. When he was in, he didn’t move.
He stayed propped on his arms as he hovered over me, his cock inside me but not moving, driving my wolf mad with need.
He must have seen the need in my face because he let out a low, hungry chuckle. “I want to hear you ask for it,” he said.
I bit my lip, that order turning me on far more than I would have expected. His dick throbbed inside me, sending more pulses of craving rippling through me.
“Please,” I muttered.
“Hmm?” He cocked his head, his hand running along my side, his fingers going to my breast. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite hear that.”
He pinched my nipple and tugged gently, making my body convulse.
“Please fuck me,” I begged, the words filled with every ounce of burning need I felt pulsing through my body.
He slid out until just the tip remained inside me, then he thrust in, ramming me with his cock. I screamed as he filled me, but his mouth slammed over mine, muffling the sound as he continued pumping in and out of me.
Every thrust was a new reverberation of lust, that craving and need that I had never experienced before running deeper and deeper every time he slammed his cock inside me.
My head rolled back as my toes curled, barely able to think.
I had never imagined sex could feel this amazing, this intense, and all I wanted was for it to last until the end of time.
I felt myself nearing the precipice and willed myself to hold on, wanting to grasp that sensation for as long as possible, to savor that incredible feeling radiating through me. My hips began to thrust in time with his, pushing him in deeper and intensifying that electricity.
Between two thrusts, I shattered. I cried out as ecstasy and release raced through me, my body writhing as Sam continued pressing his thumb to my clit as he kept pumping in and out of me, refusing to stop even as he watched my body squirm and felt me shudder as the orgasm all but drowned me.
Just as my own wave began to subside, Sam let out a groan of his own. A moment later, I felt his cock pulse inside me, each throb filling me further. After a long moment, he slid out of me, leaving me feeling strangely empty.
He hovered above me, his hand caressing my cheek, pushing a strand of hair out of my face as he looked down at me, searching my face, trying to gauge my reaction.
“How was that?” he asked.
Unable to yet put it into words, I pulled his mouth to mine, trying to convey all my emotions in that single gesture. He responded eagerly, as if trying to relay his own message.
When we broke apart, I found my voice again. “You certainly made it memorable,” I said.