Chapter 22 #3
He set a pace that was deep and hard and relentless, each thrust hitting the spot inside her that made sparks burst behind her eyes.
She hooked her ankles behind his back and pulled him as deep as possible.
His hand gripped the headboard above her for leverage.
He then used his other hand to slide beneath her hip and tilt her at the perfect angle.
The new position made her cry out and her eyes roll back in her head.
"So fucking tight." He was breathing hard, sweat on his forehead. "You feel so good it's breaking my brain. You getting close. I can barely—" He cut himself off with a groan when she clenched around him on purpose.
"I want on top." She shoved at his chest and he rolled them without breaking the connection, the narrow bed protesting beneath them.
She planted her hands on his hard chest and sat up with him still buried inside her.
The angle shifted as she sank down another inch.
His hands flew to her hips, fingers pressing hard into the flesh.
At this angle he seemed ever bigger. It felt a little like being split open, but only in the best way possible.
She rolled her hips and watched his face twist with pleasure so sharp it looked like pain. But it wasn’t pain either of them was feeling as she moved against every ridge of him inside her, as he struggled to not thrust up and take over.
The power of having this man beneath her, this stubborn wolf who'd fought his feelings for months and was now looking up at her like she was the only thing left in the world that mattered, lit a fire in her chest that she knew would never extinguish.
She rode him. Not gentle, not teasing. She took what she wanted, rising until he almost slipped out and sinking back down in one hard roll that made them both groan.
He took too as his hands slid up to cup her breasts, thumbs circling her nipples, while she braced her hands on his stomach and set a pace that was both punishing and delightful.
"Touch me," she told him, and his hand slid between them.
His thumb rubbed tight circles that matched the rhythm of her hips, and the double stimulation built fast, heat pooling low and tight.
To her delight, his orgasm built right alongside hers, held back by nothing but his teeth and sheer willpower.
"Not yet," she said, and the sound he made was the most feral sounding thing ever.
"Willow. I can't—"
"You can." She slowed her hips, grinding down on him in circles that kept the pressure on her while denying them both the rhythm they needed. His head fell back against the pillow, his throat working as he hovered right at the edge, every nerve on fire, holding on because she told him to.
She leaned forward and kissed him. Deep and messy, nothing careful about it, and when she pulled back his eyes were all wolf, showing just how close he was to the surface. She practically saw the shimmer of it beneath his skin.
"Now," she whispered. "Please. Take what you need." She whispered against his skin. “What you both need.”
He moved without hesitation. Flipped her beneath him in a motion so fast her breath left her in a rush, and drove into her with a force that shoved her up the bed.
She grabbed the headboard and held on. He hooked one of her legs over his shoulder, changing the depth, and the angle hit something inside her that made her scream.
"That's it." His voice was barely human, rough and raw, the wolf bleeding through. "Come for me. Now, Willow. I want to feel it."
His thumb found her clit again while he thrust, and the combination of depth and pressure and the bond carrying his desperation into her was too much. The orgasm tore through her, her body locking down around him, and she felt the exact moment his knot began to swell.
It was different from their first time, when she hadn't known what was happening and the sudden stretch had startled her.
This time she felt it build, the base of his cock thickening with each pulse, expanding inside her until the pressure went from full to almost too much, making her scream as the primal satisfaction of his wolf appeared in her mind the moment his knot locked them together.
"Oh Ryker." She couldn't form a full sentence.
The knot pressed against nerves she didn't know she had, each pulse sending aftershocks rolling through her.
Her inner walls clenched around the swell of him and she came again, a second orgasm crashing over the first while he was still locked inside her.
The sound she made wasn't a word. It was just his name, broken into pieces.
"Mine." He groaned it against her throat, his hips still rocking in the shallow thrusts that the knot allowed, each one grinding the thick base against her swollen clit. "You're mine. Say it."
"Yours." She was shaking, tears on her face, the bond so wide open between them that she couldn't tell where she ended and he began. "And you're mine."
His teeth found the place where her neck met her shoulder.
The claiming bite was sharp and fierce, and the bond deepened with it, flooding her with a heat that went deeper than skin, deeper than muscle, all the way down to the place where her magic lived.
She could feel him settle into her like a key in a lock, his heartbeat syncing with hers, his breath moving in her lungs.
The bond was complete, not just restored but remade. Stronger. Theirs.
Forever. As it was meant to be.
She pulled his head down to the curve of her own shoulder and bit him back. Hard enough to bruise, maybe even to mark. They were equals. And it didn’t matter that she wasn’t w wolf. He growled in pleasure at her ear as his come spilled inside her, and that alone set her off one final time.
His knot pulsed inside her and she whimpered, the aftershocks still pulsing through both of them.
He gathered her to his chest, rolled them onto their sides, still locked together.
She buried her face in his neck and breathed him in.
Cedar and whiskey and the warm scent of his wolf, and underneath it all something new.
The bond itself, threaded through his skin, a warmth she could taste on her tongue every time she inhaled.
"How long will the knot last?" she asked against his throat. Her voice was wrecked.
"It varies. Based on how I feel right now? Probably a long time." He pressed his lips to her forehead. "I don't care. I'd stay like this for the rest of my life if you'd let me."
She clenched around him on purpose and felt his whole body jerk. She laughed against his skin.
"Don't start something you can't finish," he warned, but his voice was smiling and his hand was already sliding down her stomach, fingers finding her clit where they were still joined. She stopped laughing and started gasping.
He worked her with his fingers while his knot held them together, each small roll of his hips grinding the thick base against her in a way that made thought impossible.
Pleasure layered over pleasure, and when she came yet another impossible time with her teeth biting into his shoulder and his knot pulsing inside her, she felt his own release follow, his cock throbbing with each wave, filling her while the bond poured his satisfaction into her like sunlight.
When the knot began to soften, the loss of that stretching pressure left her breathless. He eased himself out and she winced at the sudden emptiness.
“Don’t worry, babe. I’ve got you.” He pulled her tight against his chest and held her while the aftershocks faded and their breathing slowed.
They lay tangled together for a long time after, breathing in sync, the aftershocks still humming between them in steady warm pulses.
His head rested on her chest and her fingers moved through his hair.
Every few seconds one of them would shift and feel the other's response, a feedback loop of warmth and contentment that made the narrow bed feel like the safest place in the world.
"I can hear your heartbeat in my head," he said against her skin. "It's the best thing I've ever heard."
She pressed her lips to the top of his head.
The claiming mark on her throat pulsed warm.
The scar on her left palm was pressed against his shoulder, the line of healed skin resting on the muscle where she'd bitten him, and the symmetry of it caught in her chest. The wound she'd made to free herself, resting on the mark she'd made to claim him.
His arm tightened around her waist and she let her eyes close. The bond was now a steady glow between them, nothing like the frantic burning of those first months, but still hot as fire and intense. The difference this time was that it was welcomed. They’d both earned this.
The festival ended tomorrow and for the first time, this island full of special people truly felt like home. She'd walk out of this cabin in the morning with his mark on her throat, and every wolf on Devils Point would know.
And it would be their turn to choose.