Chapter 23 – Shiloh
Chapter Twenty-Three
Shiloh
W hen I’d eventually made it back to my apartment, I’d crawled into my bed exhausted. I hadn’t bothered unpacking, kicking off my shoes as soon as I was through the door, not even stopping to put them away. Those were all problems for tomorrow.
My body no longer felt like my own, and I hurt in ways I never thought I could. I was going through another horrible peak of preheat, and my skin itched and burned until I wanted to peel it off. In the quiet moments between the waves, I swore to myself that I would never abuse my suppressants again. Lesson learnt.
I would even apologize to Zion, right to his smug self-righteous face if I could just make it through the next couple of days in one piece.
I don’t know how long I manage to sleep for when I wake, but I’m not even sure I’m really awake because there’s a familiar warmth wrapped around me. A mouthwatering scent.
I choke on a sob as the leathery smoky scent weaves its way around my limbs, embracing me, protecting me, calming the rising tide as it relieves some of the pressure in my bones.
Zale.
What a beautiful dream.
What an awful nightmare.
This time I let the sob break free from my chest. I’m overwrought, exhausted and now even my mind was conspiring against me, showing me the things I couldn’t have.
“Relax, baby. I’m here.” A hand strokes my hair, lacing me with more pheromones and making my body relax. “I’ve got you.”
My eyes snap open and I turn my head to look at the large alpha spooning me. When did he get here? How did he get here? What did this mean?
“I told you we were in this together and I meant it,” he whispers as he wipes away my tears.
My ability to ask questions doesn’t last for long, as something wild and restless in my chest threatens to consume me.
“Mine. My omega.” The words are murmured against my burning body, barely audible but I hear them loud and clear as if he was singing them from the rooftop. Mine. His.
I sink deeper into him, surrendering myself completely to pheromones. As I let the burning sensation wash over me, my mind goes hazy, dragging me under with every kiss he places on my body.
My skin feels too tight for my frame, suffocating me as I start to claw at my pajama shorts, desperate to get them off. I need to be naked. I don’t want anything other than Zale touching me. I scratch my band-aid off too, grateful that the darkness hides my failed mark.
It’s too hot.
Too much.
Where his bare skin touches mine is the only real relief I get. I kick the blanket away but the cool air does nothing to quell the fire inside, I need more. I need something else. Why is he still wearing his sweatpants? Why isn’t he naked already?
Turning my head, I smash my lips against his, desperate for a taste of his smokiness. His tongue dips into my mouth, just as hungry, just as eager and I moan. Rolling over, I push him onto his back as I get to my knees. Needing more. Always more.
My hands scramble to push his sweatpants down past his hips, exposing his thick cock which slaps against his stomach with a heavy thwack.
My mouth waters. Fuck.
More.
The haze in my head becomes laser focused. Him. I need him. Inside me. On me. Knotting me. Owning me. Claiming me. Mine.
Now.
“Please,” I beg, wrapping my hand around his length and pumping my fist until we’re both staring at the precum beading on his flushed tip. “I need you. Claim me. Mark me.”
He tosses his head back as I continue to jerk him off, blond hair ruffled, like he’s been pulling anxiously at it. Exhaling shakily, he tries to ease out of my grip, ignoring my cry of protest.
“It’s your heat, Shiloh.” He cups my face, intense gaze holding me even though I’m in agony, blazing up. Burning for him. “It’s making you say that.”
“I’m not—” I try to say, but I swallow my words.
I am. I’m in heat. It’s been building for days, but now there is no denying it. My head is a mess, filled with thoughts of him, while my body aches for his touch. My pheromones flood into the room, wrapping us in a haze of desire as it pulses and swirls around us like a living thing.
“You want me to mark you now,” he chides softly, voice sounding pained as he closes his eyes and inhales. Our scents are combining. Even I can smell it now, tones of warm toffee and autumn evenings sitting around a bonfire fill the room. “But will you still feel the same when it passes?”
Biting my lip, my hands hover over his skin, itching to touch. I think back to every time I’ve reacted to him. This isn’t a normal heat, and he isn’t any old alpha.
He is my alpha.
My Mate.
My body knows it.
And the fact he’s trying to fight his instincts to give me a choice? That makes me even more resolute in my choice. He’s supposed to be hers, but the reality is, I can’t fight what’s between us any longer. It’s like a red ribbon, weaving between every stolen glance, every sarcastic comment, every moment of tension and every touch tying us up in knots until we’re tangled together.
“I want this.” My tongue feels thick and heavy in my mouth, my head swims and I need more than his hands and mouth on me.
He looks into my eyes, as if he’s searching for something. A weakness? A hint of hesitation? Well, he won’t find it.
Zale runs the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip, before saying, “Don’t regret this, I don’t know if I could?—”
“I won’t,” I promise, crushing my mouth against his. “This is my choice. You. Now.”
We kiss, and it’s like two puzzle pieces slotting together as I give myself to him, readily. Zale grabs my ass pulling me on top of him, I don’t miss a beat, holding him close between my thighs as I glide my cock against his with a patience I don’t feel.
One of his hands slides lower, fingers brushing down my crease, and he makes a noise in the back of his throat when he feels how slick I am. I’m dripping with need for him.
He lifts his fingers to his mouth, lapping at them while I continue to rub against his hardness until we’re both sticky and slick. “So sweet.”
“Fuck,” I whine, tightening my thighs around him, flicking my own tongue out to lick his fingers before kissing him again. “I’m going to need you to hurry this up.”
He chuckles, scent marking my neck again, as if I’m not already drowning in the smell of him. “Impatient.”
“VERY.” I growl, digging my heels in to urge him on.
Wrapping his hand around his thick cock, he nudges me to lift my body before brushing the tip through my sticky crease and playfully notching the head against my hole. “You want this cock filling you, omega mine?”
“Yessss,” I hiss, trying to squirm so that I can push him inside me but he keeps his hold on me firm. “Now.”
“Not yet, Hedgehog. I need to stretch you out a little first.”
“Noooooo,” I pout, tugging his hair as I try to push against his length again.
Zale lands a light spanking on my ass cheek and for one blissful moment, my mind blanks before the longing comes back stronger. With one hand in his hair and the other clawing down his chest, I start rolling my hips, leaning forward to chase the friction of my dick against his abs. Sinking my teeth into his collarbone, I move faster, going out of my mind with lust. The heat was consuming me. I wasn’t going to survive this.
“Shiloh,” he raises a brow, his voice laced with authority and I go still. “We do this my way, or not at all.”
“Fine.” I grumble, burying my face into his shoulder. He may be pulling the alpha card, but I was still confident that if I said no, he’d still stop. I held the power here, but I didn’t mind letting him be in charge until we were done. After all, it was making my cock drip, spurts of precum dribbling down my shaft every time he spoke softly in my ear.
“Good boy.”
“I hate you.”
He kisses my head before carrying me over to the bed. “I know. And I promise to spend the rest of our lives making you change your mind.”
Gently, he flips us so that I’m pinned beneath him, his large body caging me in and my omega instincts love it. Settling between my legs, he pushes my thighs apart until they burn. The pain mixes with the pleasure of his touch, the feel of his body on mine as he leans in to kiss me and I can’t help the small noises I make. He swallows down every whimper, every plea.
His fingertips bush over my sensitive rim, my hole fluttering as he teases me. The tip of his nail lightly grazes over my skin and my whole-body clenches, needing more.
Zale pulls back a little to smirk down at me. Narrowing my eyes in a glare, he steals the wind from my sails by pushing inside me easily, the heat making my body desperate for him.
“Look at you taking two fingers so well,” he purrs. His long, thick fingers brush over my swollen prostate and I almost howl. Slick trickles from my hole and drips down my legs, soaking the sheets as he starts sliding in and out of my desperately needy body. I was built for this. Made for him.
My hands wind their way into his hair as we breathe one another in, unwilling to pull away. His lips belong on me, anywhere, always.
Claiming my mouth in another kiss, I can hear how wet I am as he scissors his fingers, twisting and fucking them in and out of my needy hole. The sloppy noises combined with the scents are the final straw as all rational thought leaves my brain.
“Now. Please. Now. Now.” I implore, yanking his hair and capturing his bottom lip between my teeth. “I need you to fuck me now, Zale. Need your knot.”
“Almost there, just a little bit more,” he promises, shifting down my body. His mouth leaves a wet trail of kisses, bites and marks down my torso as he moves. The visible marks show how much he wants me but I need more. I want him to bite and suck me everywhere.
Devour me whole. I get my wish as he takes my cock in his huge hand and swallows me down without hesitation.
Fuck!” I arch off the bed as he buries his nose in my pubes and inhales like the animal he is. He bobs down on my dick, making obscene noises of satisfaction as he hums around my shaft.
Ocean eyes look up at me with a smug glint as he eases off, lips shiny and wet. “I think that’s the quietest you’ve ever been.”
Rolling my eyes, I flip him off but he only chuckles before running his tongue over the vein on the underside of my shaft, following it up until he takes the head of my cock back into his mouth. Sucking until his cheeks hollow, I curse. Fuck. He was going to be the death of me.
He works three fingers inside me and I feel so fucking full. Stretched. Desired. It doesn’t take long and I’m already ready to come, my body trembling and moving on its own as I fuck his mouth and fingers with wild abandon.
“Come for me, baby.” Zale’s voice is raspy, and he’s got this glazed look in his eyes as he places a kiss on thigh. “I’m ready to taste you.”
I want to snort at his corny words as he sucks me, but I can’t because damn him, my body listens to his command.
Emptying into his mouth with a drawn out ‘Fuckkkkkkkkkkkk’, I keep him pressed against my skin everywhere I can until my breathing calms. I need a few moments to regain some composure, but it makes no difference, the heat has claimed me in full force – I won’t be satisfied until he’s knotted me and pumped me full of cum.
Laying back, I toss my arm over my face while he laps at my spent cock, licking me clean while his fingers keep fucking me slowly.
It takes barely any time at all until I’m hard again, ready for the next round. Waving him away, I roll onto my stomach and push onto my hands and knees with my ass in the air.
Looking over my shoulder, I flash him a wicked grin. “You need to knot me now, or I’ll ask Blake to help.”
His eyes narrow, and without any other preamble he launches himself at me. One hand lands on the back of my neck, shoving me face first into the sheets while the other slams down on my ass cheek, much harder than the playful spank he gave me earlier. It stings where he hit me, the pain blossoming across my skin. Opening my mouth to protest, I don't manage to get a single syllable out before he’s pushing inside me with one smooth thrust that makes me keen.
“Omega, mine.” He grunts, as his fingers dig into my hip and neck. He fucks me like a man possessed, merciless as he slams into my tight hole over and over until tears are streaming down my cheeks and I come again, spilling onto the sheets.
He doesn’t let up, a slave to the pheromones we’re basking in. I’m covered in my own cum, begging for his knot when he hooks his arms under my thighs and fucks me harder, the new angle forcing him against my prostate with every movement of his powerful hips. I throw my head back as a pathetic spurt of cum shoots from my dick, my body nothing more than a bundle of nerves and sensations.
We’re both breathing erratically, staring at one another. The corner of his mouth lifts into a wry smile. “You’re making a mess Hedgehog, and we aren’t close to being done yet.”
Leaning in, he claims my mouth in a violent kiss that has me tasting the coppery tang of blood. A jealous alpha is a dangerous creature.
“You want my knot?” Zale teases as he slowly fucks in and out of me. Painfully slow.
“Yes, please. Please. I need it.” I’m lying on my back, sticky and covered in cum, tears and sweat since Zale has managed to draw another two orgasms from me, but it still isn’t enough to satiate the blaze inside.
I needed his knot. Round after round was incredible, but my body was on fire. It was a raging inferno, consuming me, devouring my sanity, reducing me down to nothing but a bundle of carnal need. I wanted that fucking knot.
I wanted it more than I needed air to breathe.
He licks up a bead of sweat that’s started trickling down my neck. “Then you’re going to ride me. Fuck me hard. Milk me with that sloppy hole of yours until I’m stuffing you full of my cum.”
“Oh fuck,” I whimper, trying to cover my face. We’ve been at this for hours already and his filthy words were driving me wild. I liked it when he said those things, when he made dirty promises while covered in my cum.
“You want that, omega?” I don’t know when it changed from being embarrassing to being hot as hell, but it had. He thrusts me hard, making my body jolt with the power behind it. Yes. There. Yes. Fuck . “Want me to fill you up and knot you? Keep all that spunk inside where it belongs?”
“Yes. Now.” I nod eagerly, as I claw at him.
This man was mine in a way that meant we’d have to be torn apart. I want him under my nails, inside my body, fused to me in any way possible. “Fuck me and mark me.”
He rolls back on to the dirty sheets, pulling me with him until I’m on top. Taking him like this is intense, I’m stretched out and stuffed full until there’s no space for anything else other than him.
Gasping and writhing I pull myself off him, to lower myself down, working him all the way back into the hilt. “Why does this feel so good?”
He’s under my skin in a way I can’t begin to describe.
“Because you’re mine.” His hands move up my body to tweak my swollen, sensitive nipples. “Only my touch, my cock, my knot will satisfy you.”
The faded bite mark on my neck seems to flare up as I fuck myself on his huge cock, fingers digging into his skin as I ride him. I’m not his. Not yet.
“Mark me,” I demand, with a roll of my hips. He groans, his head thrown back into the pillows, the lines of his neck making me want to mark him too. He’s covered in a soft sheen of sweat, his muscles tensing every time I shift and clench with him inside me. Hints of leather and charred wood wrap around me as he grabs my hips, and bucks up to meet me part way.
“I want this,” I howl quietly, needing him to know how I feel. “I want you, Zale.”
Zale moves us again, putting me back on my hands and knees and I hate the empty feeling inside me as he pulls out. My hole twitches, desperate for him.
He slides back into me slowly. “Are you ready, Shiloh?”
“Yes!” I’d been ready since the first kiss, this was just punishment now. The voice inside my head had been pleading for hours, crying out mine, mine, mine with every touch, every kiss, every thrust.
His hips move with a brutal force, as he fucks me hard and fast. He pegs my prostate with each thrust, making my body go into overdrive. If I thought I was on fire before…now I was on the precipice of an explosion. I can feel it swelling in my core, a combination of pheromones, heat, and my Mate was at the center of it all as I feel my orgasm build.
I’m a mess of sensations and nerves, a slave to feeling as my body shakes, trembles and bucks all on its own. My head is a mess, nothing more than primal thoughts and instinct as I clench down on his thick cock, needing him to breed me.
To own me.
Mine.
Breed.
Mine.
Own.
Now.
I come with a gasping scream, thick ribbons of cum shooting from my cock and adding to the already filthy sheets. Humming, I turn to place a kiss against his jaw as he wraps a hand around my cock and wrings out every last drop of my orgasm.
“You’re so perfect.” Zale wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me back, so that I’m flush against his chest while he continues to thrust into me. “You look so pretty when you’re messy and desperate for me.”
Wet heat floods me, and moments later there’s a pressure as his knot inflates.
“Yes, Shiloh.” He grunts. “Fuck!”
The swelling is perfect, the stretch burning deliciously as he rocks into me, making sure the knot is fully inside my tight rim. He’s plugging me, keeping all that alpha cum inside me so I can absorb the alpha enzymes that calm a heat.
With his knot pressing on my prostate, I can’t do anything other than lean back into him, my eyes rolling into the back of my head as pleasure consumes me until I feel like I've been stripped raw.
Just as I think I can’t take anymore, I feel his lips pressed over my old bite mark and a sharp sting as his teeth sink in, Claiming me.
With a snap, something inside gives way and I know instantly that the mark took. Zale Claimed me as his, and no matter what else happens now…we’re bonded. His emotions, his desire, his need flood the bond, which means he must be feeling mine the same way.
“This…” he rasps, holding me tighter, “is everything.”
There’s more pressure inside me, as Zale comes again, his second orgasm coaxed out by the gentle half-aborted thrusts and the feedback loop of being bonded.
When we’re in a heat ebb, Zale guides us onto the bed so that we’re lying on our sides, his knot buried inside me while he places tender kisses on my neck, over my mating mark. The remnants of the previous failed bond are gone, shattered by Zale’s Claim.
When the next wave of my heat hits, Zale is just as patient, teasing me, wringing me dry before filling me so impossibly full until cum trickles out around the knot. He taunts me like this twice more, the hours blurring into one haze of orgasms and begging until my body is limp, sore and the heat has finally broken.
Forcing me to sit in my armchair, Zale eventually changes the sheets quickly before easing me back into bed. He gets in, pulling me against him as I sigh softly, utterly ruined. The simmering smell of toffee surrounds us, clinging to our skin like a delicious reminder.
Finally drifting to sleep, I grumble when Zale places a tender kiss on my head and strokes my hair. “Rest, love.”
My heart feels full as it latches on the word ‘love’, liking how it sounds. I can feel the echo of his feelings down the bond, I recognized them as easily as if they were my own. He means it.