Chapter 35 Aurora #3
When I finally meet Ezra’s gaze, he greets me with an adoring lopsided smile that makes me feel weak.
“Although your jealousy makes me rock hard, darling, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.
“Charlie was never a lover, merely someone I crossed paths with. I may have taken out two of her best security guards who tried to stop me from killing a high-profile meal. I explained the terror this human brought upon others, and although Charlie understood, she was not pleased.
“I didn’t stick around long enough for her to seek retribution. That was over a hundred years ago. Hopefully, that’s plenty of time to forgive and forget.”
After a few calming breaths, I feel a little better about Charlie and give Ezra a tight-lipped smile. Emme retreats to the back of my mind, pissed we didn’t get to maim and murder the tüskvarr.
The ancient Grim wraps his arms around my waist and runs his nose up my neck.
He nips at my ear and whispers, “I’ll use every ounce of my power to protect you … and I’ll teach you to command yours, so you’ll never need saving.”
A pulse shudders through his shadows. They tighten around my arms, curling up my back in a cool, dark embrace. Their presence lingers between us, thick with something unspoken. They’re waiting, ready to pull me closer if I don’t believe him.
Heat floods my veins when his hands trail down my back and settle firmly over my ass.
Ezra clocks the change in my breath and growls, “Louie, don’t you have somewhere to be, my dear?”
A few shadows twitch smugly in Louie’s direction. One even waves, clearly daring her to say something.
“Christ, don’t we have shit to do today? We still don’t know where you were or what you’ve been up to this past week,” Louie whines.
Despite her protests, she stomps up the stairs to her room, mumbling and cursing the entire way.
“Bunch of goddamn inkblot groupies. Clinging to her like they could actually protect her. Like, get a fucking hobby.”
My heart flutters, and my breathing becomes shallow now that I’m alone with Ezra again.
When did I become so insatiable?
Maybe I always was. Maybe it just took teeth and shadows to drag it out of me.
“Now, darling, where were we?” Ezra’s voice is all play, but his shadows betray him.
They slither up my spine as he lifts me onto the counter. One wayward tendril curls around my ankle, smug and already too pleased with itself.
When I spread my legs, he nestles between them, then plants soft kisses along my jaw.
“Do you trust me, Aurora? To keep you safe?” he asks while reaching a hand inside my robe. His thumb rolls over my aching nipple, and I let out a sound that’s not even close to polite. My body arches into him, desperate for more.
“I do, Ezra. And I trust that you’ll help me grow and master my power.”
I tilt my hips forward, grinding against the thick bulge in his pants.
My tongue drags up his throat, and I grab him through the fabric, just to hear what kind of noises he makes for me.
Ezra pins my arms behind my back with one hand, tearing open my robe with the other.
A heated blush runs through my body when Ezra’s fingers lightly graze my clit, making me squirm and pant in frustration.
“Mm, I love how your body responds to me, little flame. Your nipples peak. Your cunt drips. Your back arches, begging for me. It’s breathtaking. Now, tell me what you want, Aurora,” Ezra demands, sinking two fingers deep inside me.
Bold of him to assume I can form words when he’s knuckle-deep and talking like that. But I find them anyway. “I want you to take me from behind again,” I whisper. “I want you to be rough. I want to feel it tomorrow.”
My face flushes with embarrassment, but also with excitement.
Ezra’s hands settle on my hips, and with a gentle motion, he lifts me off the island. When my feet hit the floor, he spins me around and bends me over.
“Is this what you want, darling? To be bent over the counter while I sink my cock deep inside you?” Ezra exhales sharply when he removes my robe, and I swear I can feel his devouring gaze dragging over every inch of my skin.
His hand goes to my hair, roughly pinning my head to the counter.
“Hands behind your back, malake-ye kuchulu,” Ezra whispers.
His shadows lunge, a smoky chill winding up my leg, then curling around my thighs before eagerly tightening around my wrists. They flex, testing my resistance, almost giddy before cinching down.
My breath fogs the counter as I brace myself, 100% ready to let this man make terrible decisions on my body.
He uses his knees to nudge my legs apart, then runs his hand down my back and over the curve of my ass.
I try to ignore the fact that I’m naked in Ezra’s kitchen, fully on display. But that self-consciousness disappears when Ezra sinks two fingers into me, causing a flood of wetness to run down my thighs.
“If I had more time, I’d kneel between your thighs and feast on you like the dark devours the stars, tongue-fucking you until your sweet cunt’s dripping down my chin and you’re screaming my goddamn name,” Ezra growls, slowly pumping his fingers inside me.
He builds me up, right to the edge of my orgasm. My legs shake while I loudly beg him for release. But before I can come, he removes his fingers.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch him lick and suck my arousal off them.
“Mm. You taste like Hell, Aurora.”
I grind back against him, wild with need, aching to be filled.
Finally, I hear the sharp, metallic clink of Ezra’s belt buckle followed by the slow, sinful hiss of his zipper. His cock nudges at my opening, then slowly, inch by inch, he slides deep inside of me.
I moan louder the deeper he goes, loving how my body stretches for him.
“Rota, Aurora. Do you know what you do to me? How you rip me apart, then stitch me back together with every breath? You ruin me. Revive me. Again and again. You’re my pain and my pleasure, my salvation and my destruction,” Ezra whispers in my ear as he leans over me.
“I’m going to take my time, little lupine. I want you to feel every inch of me. Plus, I love hearing my little goddess beg me for more.”
I moan as he slowly slides out of me, then gently fills me up again until he’s buried to the hilt.
“Please, Ezra. Harder!”
His fist tightens in my hair, and the exquisite burning sensation spreading along my scalp makes me shiver.
“No, priyā, we’ve done it your way. Now it’s my turn.”
The shadows around my wrists shudder, begging him to push hard, to make me scream.
“I want to watch your sweet little cunt swallow my cock. Feel your cum drip down my thighs. Hear you pant. Moan. Fottutamente implora,” Ezra growls, landing a sharp smack on my ass.
I yelp in surprise, then feel another gush of liquid suddenly run down my leg.
Holy shit, that stings, but fuck if it doesn’t send a bolt straight to my core.
He softly kneads my ass while he continues his slow rhythm, driving me insane.
“So, you do like a little pain with your pleasure, sweet girl. Your ass looks perfect in red. Tell me, Aurora—should I give the other cheek a matching print?” Ezra asks as another loud smack cracks through the room.
“Fuck, yes Ezra! More … please!”
My voice fractures into a desperate whimper, lost between pain and need. His shadows react instantly. One slithers around my waist, while another curls up my thigh, anticipating his next move.
Tears blur my vision as I edge closer to release, every inch of my body strung tight.
“That’s it, darling. Just like that. Such a good girl, the way you milk my cock. Your sweet little cunt clenches every time my shadow grips you tighter. J’en veux encore.”
His hand travels to my breast, where his long fingers roughly pinch my hard, aching nipple. I cry out, the sinful mixture of pleasure and pain almost too much to bear.
“Chryste! So fucking tight. So fucking perfect,” Ezra moans, landing two more sharp slaps on my ass.
My tears flow freely, the sensations overwhelming my body and mind.
“Please, Ezra.” I grind back against him, desperate for more.
He finds my clit and I cry out, begging him not to stop. Ezra pulls out slow … then slams back in without warning.
My hips hit the counter, sharp pain blooming alongside pleasure. I’ll bruise. I fucking hope I do.
The scream that rips from my throat echoes across the kitchen as his pace picks up. He pumps into me with slow, powerful strokes, gripping my hair and rhythmically pinching my clit.
“I will never get enough of you, Aurora. I want everything you have to give and more.”
His shadows pulse, vibrating against my wrists, responding to his need. One strokes up my ribs in a slow, possessive glide, echoing the hunger in his touch.
“And you’ll take everything I have to give, won’t you, sweet girl? That perfect ass is simply begging for my hand. My belt. My fucking teeth,” Ezra groans.
I’m so close. I need him to say those words that make me come undone every time.
“Ezra. Please. Say the words. I need to hear them.”
Ezra chuckles as he leans over my body. He yanks my head back, lips dragging up my neck as he fucks me slow and deep.
“I want everyone to know that you’re enyém, little lupine,” Ezra says, sucking hard at my neck.
The sharp pain shoots straight to my core, and I moan loudly.
“Yes, Ezra. Mark me. Hurt me.”
Why I would ask for that, after everything I’ve been through, I’ll never know.
But I trust him.
And asking to be hurt gives me a sense of control I didn’t have with Jameson.
And somehow, that power—that choice—makes every nerve in my body sing.
I teeter on the sharp edge of my orgasm, every muscle pulled tight like the strings of the cosmos, tuned only to him.
“Fuck, Aurora. Someday I will mark you as mine permanently. No one will ever fuck with you again. I will keep you safe, darling. You belong to me, and I will kill anyone who dares to touch you or thinks they can take you away from me. Do you understand, little queen?”
Ezra sounds animalistic again.
I should probably be afraid. But fuck, it’s hot.
Suddenly, a strange thought pushes its way into my head.
Would he consider hunting me?
What a fucked-up thought. But it’s a fucked-up thought that makes me wild with desire.
“Ezra … please!” My words come out in a garbled cry while he pants in my ear.
“I thought about you last night,” he growls, barely keeping the tremor out of his voice. “I lay in bed, aching, imagining you beside me wrapped in hellfire. Your hand gripping mine, power pulsing in your veins, and someone wicked gasping their last breath between us.”
The shadows around me twitch.
“No one’s ever stood with me in this,” he murmurs, his voice thick with something ancient. “Not really. But you could, Aurora. I’d raze this pitiable, ill-starred world with you, hand you the match to burn the rest down, then fuck you in the ashes.”
Shadowy tendrils coil tighter, vibrating with something dark and primal.
They’re waiting. Eager for the hunt, for the violence. For me.
“I want to tear my prey apart, bathe in their blood, then take you while I sink my teeth into your pretty little throat. You’ll come with my shadows on your skin and my name in your mouth. Milking me dry. Salt and clover coating your tongue. And when it’s over?”
He leans in, razor-sharp teeth at my neck.
“We do it again.”
Pleasure rips through me, leaving only inky darkness in its wake. Ezra groans, hips stuttering, and spills into me as he drops onto my back, possessive even in the aftermath.
His shadows slip away from my wrists as he strokes my arms gently, working away the stiffness with warm, grounding touches.
“Are you well, Aurora?” he whispers. “It wasn’t … too much for you?”
Ezra’s voice is full of concern as he pulls me up, then wraps my robe around me. His cum coats my thighs and I swear some twisted part of me purrs.
It contradicts every feminist belief I hold, but the ancient, instinctive part of me—the one that knows power the second it touches my skin—wants more.
“All is well, Ezra. Fuck, that was amazing.”
I’m still panting as I wrap my arms around him.
He softly kisses the top of my head and chuckles.
“Ezra?”
“Hm?”
A shadow strokes my throat with eerie patience, like it already knows what I’m about to ask.
“Would you ever consider hunting me?”
Shit, I don’t know why I asked, especially now, while I’m still shaking and raw. But it slips out anyway.
Ezra stills, his gaze sharpening. And for one breathless second, I panic.
Then I see it.
Not just hunger. Pride. He sees the trust beneath the confusion—how much it costs me to ask.
I want this. I want to give him this.
Heat spills through me. Not from shame, but from the terrifying, beautiful truth of it: I feel safest when the monster comes out to play.
“Do you mean …” he breathes, a grin already curling at the corners of his mouth.
“Would you hunt me, Ezra? Chase me through the woods? Pin me down and take me when you catch me?” I hesitate, exhaling sharply. “I know it sounds crazy, especially after everything … but I trust you.”
Ezra groans, like he’s already imagining me on the run.
“Jesus fucking Christ, little vixen,” he growls, shadows curling behind him.
“You never stop surprising me, do you? Always dangling new ways to bring me to my knees.” His eyes darken.
“Yes, darling. Someday, when you’re ready, I’ll hunt you down like the merciless monster I am. And when I catch you?”
He leans in, his voice sinking into a whispery growl. “I’ll drag you into the dark and fuck the fight out of you. Then I’ll breed that sweet little cunt until you’re leaking down your thighs, so full of me you feel it in your gut.”
His gaze pins me in place.
“Unleash that side of me, little queen, and I may never put it back in the cage. But no matter how far I fall, I’ll never let you break. Not physically, or mentally.”
Holy. Shit.
Yes fucking please to everything he just said.
My stupid smile earns me a happy little hum as Ezra pulls me in and runs his nose up my throat.
So goddamn possessive.
“I’m happy I can please you, little queen. Now, I think you need to shower and dress. I’m afraid I’ve delayed the report of my recent travels long enough. You and Louie should know everything … what’s at stake … before we visit Iain,” Ezra says, while pulling on his suit jacket.
“Should I be worried?” I ask, fresh cup of coffee in hand, lingering just long enough to make sure Ezra gives me a real answer.
“Worried? No. Although what I learned is a bit terrifying, I will allow nothing to harm you. I would, however, be determined to get your powers in check because there’s a bit of a conflict on the horizon. And, unfortunately, you are at the center.”
“Great,” I sigh, dragging myself upstairs toward the bathroom.
I’m not sure how Ezra defines worry, considering he’s been here since the Earth was lava and vibes, but everything he just said would make a normal person collapse into a panic nap.