Chapter 36
· Aubrey ·
Soren climbing into bed makes me stir, my limbs are heavy, sedated almost at the sound of his calling, and I roll over wondering how long I’ve been out for.
“Shh, go back to sleep,” Soren murmurs as I roll into him. Yawning, I rub my eyes to see it is still dark, so I can’t have been asleep too long.
“What time is it?” I ask and he grumbles, tugging the blankets higher. Soren tugs me to him, draping his arm across my waist, his skin is extra toasty and he smells heavily of soap like he just showered.
“Early morning,” he yawns and his calling wraps back around me.
“Don’t, I’m not even tired,” I try to tell him, wanting to get up as I push off his chest.
“Well I am, I have to be up early,” he grumbles and I huff annoyed. If he would stop knocking me out with his calling so much I wouldn’t be awake.
Soren groans when I toss the blanket back, his calling rushing out.
“I need to pee!” I hiss at him and he drops it with a sigh.
“Then hurry, I need to sleep and I can’t have you roaming around the castle unattended.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” I mutter as I walk to the bathroom, only to hear him speak as I reach the door.
“Right now, you do. It won’t be forever, but at the moment I need you calm, you can fight me tomorrow over it.”
“I don’t want to fight you.” I roll my eyes and quickly use the bathroom before deciding to shower.
The moment I turn on the water, I hear him growl in frustration.
Ignoring him, I step under the shower spray.
Warm water cascades over my body, washing away the weight of the day and any lingering grogginess from his intrusive calling.
I pour a handful of lavender-scented shower gel into my palm and begin to lather it across my skin. Just as I’m rinsing off, I hear the bathroom door creak open. “Aubrey,” Soren calls out, his voice faint but clear over the sound of the running water.
“I told you, I don’t need a babysitter!” I retort. A moment later he wanders in. “You better not knock me out. Once I figure out how to do that, you’re in trouble,”
He chuckles. “You learn how to do that and our roles have reversed.” I swipe a hand over the glass to look at him. “What?” I ask only to see him start stripping his clothes off.
“Only men can do it,” he tells me, opening the shower screen.
“How’s that fair?” I grumble, reaching for the soap.
“It’s to help sedate your heat, and calm you.
We aren’t like werewolves, your heat will affect me but not in the same way werewolf males are affected.
” he tells me, stealing my shampoo and pouring it in his hand.
He then nudges me so I turn before his fingers are suddenly in my hair massaging it through the lengths.
“Great you can knock me out whenever you feel like it while I just have to take it.” I huff as he tilts my head back under the spray.
“Werewolves are vulnerable to the full moon and the heat. Lycans not so much, in a sense. The woman is vulnerable, while the male has a calling to help keep them calm and stop them trying to mate with other Lycans.”
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“Your heat won’t care if you are mating me or any other, it’s why men have it, but aren’t as affected by the heat so we can protect our females. Keep them safe not only from other Lycan males but yourselves,” he tells me with a sigh as he starts washing the conditioner in my hair.
“And to knock us out so you can have your way with us.” I growl, his hands in my hair suddenly tug my head back forcing me to look at him.
“I would never, you should know me better than that,” he growls, pressing his lips to my forehead.
“I didn’t say you would,” I mumble as he moves the showerhead to rinse my hair out.
Once I’m rinsed off, he washes himself despite smelling like soap when he climbed in bed.
“You’re showered, now come to bed. I have to be up early. I need sleep,” he yawns, stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist.
Sighing, I take my time under the water.I stay until my fingers start to prune up and the water has cooled slightly.
“What are you doing now?” His voice calls through the wooden bathroom door, echoing off the tiled walls.
“Shaving my legs.” I call back.
“I swear to the Moon Goddess if you don’t hop out and stop dawdling I will drag you to bed caveman style.”
“Yes, let me just get dressed,” I call back. Despite the incredible power his calling holds over me, Soren has never once used it to violate my privacy.
Hurrying now, aware he is waiting on me, I dry off and wriggle into a fresh nightdress before exiting the bathroom. He’s waiting for me on our bed, eyes closed.
“Happy now?” I ask him sarcastically as I climb back into bed with him.
“Mmm.” He murmurs in response, letting out a soft yawn and making room for me under the blankets without opening his eyes. Even in his sleep drowsed state, his calling unfurls around me once more; not suffocating this time but comforting. Still, I’m not tired.
I reach for my phone, deciding to read if he is asleep only for my phone to be taken. “Hey.”
“Bed,” he grumbles.
“I’m not tired, I told you.” His calling washes over me stronger and I roll over only to be crushed against his chest which I bite making him hiss.
“Sleep, I will read until I fall asleep.” I tell him reaching for my phone.
“Besides, where are you going so early, anyway?”
“We have leads on Rhett, I need to check them out.” Hearing Rhett’s name a new sort of tension suddenly consumes me.
Well any hope of sleep he had will now go out the window because that has just set my anxiety off.
“You found him?” I ask.
He groans. “Not for you to worry about, sleep.”
I can’t. “You can’t say that and not tell me more.”
“I promise, I’ll tell you everything when we know more.” His voice, although quiet, reverberates in my mind. Sleep was closing in on my senses.
“No…” My words are slurred. I can hardly fight the pull of sleep any longer. He groans, dropping the calling and I feel it lift.
“Fine, you don’t want my calling, I have other ways to make you tired,” he purrs, shoving me on my back.
“Where is he?” I ask as he climbs between my legs.
“I’ll know more tomorrow. Damian is sending scouts out.”
Before I can protest and ask more, his lips crash against mine. His tongue sweeps into my mouth as I try to speak around his mauling tongue.
Soren chuckles as he deepens the kiss and I feel the bond awaken with desire, his lips moving lower nipping at my jaw.
“That’s cheating,” I tell him and he purrs, his teeth nipping at his mark on my neck making my eyes roll back as tingles erupt all over. “Would you like me to stop?”
I’m too busy lost to the sensation of the bond burning with abrupt all consuming lust.
“No,” I growl.
“Didn’t think so.”
“I know you’re trying to make me sleep.”
He pushes my night dress up to expose my chest and the rest of me to him.
“Hmm, you don’t want my calling,” he tells me just as his lip latches around my nipple. My back arches at the feel of his tongue and lips tugging and sucking. ”But you want my mouth.”
“Just shut up and move where I want you.” His lips slowly move lower and I know he is now teasing me.
His chuckle is low, a warm rumble against my skin.
“And where might that be?” he purrs, fingers skimming along my thighs, just barely touching as he pushes my thighs apart and moves to settle between my legs.
Yet he doesn’t move where I want him, instead his lips and teeth grazing the inside of my thigh.
His touch isn’t enough and I squirm beneath him, a frustrated whimper escaping me before he presses his lips to my mound.
“Stop teasing,” I beg softly, and he makes a sound of deep satisfaction for having wrung such a plea from me.
I reach down to guide him, my hands tangling in his tousled hair. His hands move up and down along my sides, skin against skin, setting my nerve endings aflame. My body responds readily to his touch, his hands move up, caressing my thighs.
“Soren,” I whisper breathlessly. His teasing is blissfully distracting and yet still not where I need him most. His chuckles turn into a full-blown laugh at my pleading tone and that only incites him more.
“Patience,” he murmurs against my skin, the heat of his breath adding to the pool of want inside me. He raises his eyes to mine, and there they smolder, full of naked desire.
“Tease,” I accuse him and he nips at me once more for that. He chuckles, his warm breath causing a shiver to dance down my spine. I reach for him, but he catches my hands in one of his, pinning them just above my hip in his tight grip.
With a wicked glint in his eyes, he dips his head, his tongue swiping painfully slowly across my slit.
The seconds stretch on into an eternity while I whimper with the delay of gratification as he takes his time, his tongue slowly parting my folds, sucking each one into his mouth before lazily moving his tongue around my clit.
His eyes lock on mine as he swipes his tongue across it before sucking it into his mouth. I gasp, arching into his mouth as a surge of heat and pleasure shoot through me.
His tongue moves slowly at first, then with increasing speed, working me into a frenzy. I can feel myself unraveling, the pleasure building inside me like a dam about to burst. His free hand finds one of my breasts, kneading lightly before he rolls the hardened nipple between his fingers.
The combination of his mouth on my clit and fingers on my breast proves too much. I’m teetering on the edge of ecstasy only for him to slow down, making me growl, his fingers rolling my nipple, making me squirm at the sharp twist.
“You like that?”
“You know I do; then you stopped.”
“Hmm,” is his response, his grip on my wrists tightening.
He continues to work on me with an almost religious devotion until I’m teetering on the edge of climax. Some dark part of him seems to delight in holding me there, a hair’s breadth away from release.
“I hate you,” I growl when I can find words again, but they’re empty threats that fade into soft sighs.
“Liar.” His mouth and fingers send me spiraling higher.
A guttural groan is my response as his fingers delve inside me to stroke that sweet spot.
It’s too much but not enough. Every touch drags me further into this blissful torment.
The world blurs as pleasure consumes me, all rational thought leaving my mind.
“Soren, I can’t… oh gods…” I stutter, white-hot pleasure lapping my senses. His other hand glides up my leg, leaving goosebumps in its wake as he lays a gentle kiss on my inner thigh.
“I’m going to cut that evil tongue out if you stop again.”
“Did it ever occur to you,” he murmurs against my skin, “that perhaps I enjoy teasing you?” There’s a mischievous note to his voice that begs for a slap. But I’m too far gone to provide it.
Instead, I buck against him, my hips begging for more friction, and he finally seems to get the message. His tongue returns to my slit, delving deeper this time while his fingers work to push me over the edge. My breath hitches in my throat as his fingers trace circles around my entrance.
“Please… Soren,” my voice coming out more desperate than I’d like. He chokes out a laugh, the sound muffled by my own flesh. It’s intense, it’s too much and yet nowhere near enough.
I’m teetering on the edge of ecstasy when Soren finally grants me release. He looks up at me with those eyes full of raw hunger. And with a curl of his fingers and a tug on my clit, he sends me spiraling into a universe of immense pleasure that erupts from deep within.
The sounds I make are incoherent as emotions wash over me in an overpowering wave, leaving me breathless and teetering on the edge of losing myself completely. Soren doesn’t stop - his motions slow but don’t cease, drawing out my pleasure until it’s all I know.
My heart is racing, my skin burning as I come down from my high. Slowly, he lifts himself back up to hover above me. His face is flushed with triumph and satisfaction. But even in my hazy post-orgasmic bliss, I can see his eyes strained with something else: exhaustion.
“Now sleep,” he demands as he crawls back up to me. His body radiates warmth against my spent one and within moments, my eyelids grow heavy with exhaustion.
“Is this how you intend to make me sleep from now on?”
“It’s an idea,” Soren murmurs quietly against my hair, nuzzling into the crook of my neck.
Overall, it appears Soren gets what he wants after all; as sleep drags me under.
I feel safe wrapped in his warm arms, despite knowing soon I may need to face Rhett again.
For now, that anxiety is forgotten as sleep takes me.