Chapter 33
Rogan deepens the kiss, and outside in the ether, rain begins to fall, a steady rhythm that matches the drumming of my heart.
It seems right, in some way. Right that the clouds above us are crying because Rogan and I are holding back such tears. Above us the droplets fall on the dead, saying goodbye to them.
And here, Rogan and I are saying goodbye. Our paths are now unknown, and that knowledge weighs heavy in my heart, overtaken only by the longing for this man I love.
Rogan’s kiss becomes more desperate and—if possible—even more aggressive.
Again I feel like he’s branding me, making sure I stay his no matter what happens.
He doesn’t need to worry. I’m not the one who’s bound to another. His heart will follow where his body takes him, but my heart will always be his.
The only person who will suffer when his true mate comes to claim him is me.
I break the kiss, my fangs still descended. “Mine,” I growl before I plunge my teeth hard into his pectoral, right around his nipple. His blood trickles slowly compared to the carotid, but I didn’t do this for nourishment. I’ve already taken enough blood for now.
No.
This is my mark. My brand. The mark of my canines on his flesh. It will leave a scar, and no one—not even the woman who’s above us somewhere en route to her mate—can take that away.
I seal my lips around his flesh as I continue to partake, and though I don’t want to let go, I eventually do, sealing the wound with my saliva. I look at the mark—my mark—and while I’m not at all happy, I find myself smiling.
Rogan will always bear the mark of my teeth here. Right here, where any new lover he takes will see it.
I meet his gaze, his irises swirling with passion. “Take me,” I demand, my voice a low growl, as I roam his body with my fingers and revel in the hard planes of muscle.
He responds eagerly, matching my aggression, gripping my hips and pulling me flush against him. The heat radiates from our bodies, filling the room, making it difficult to breathe.
Still, I manage to inhale—inhale his spicy masculinity, his animal musk.
His hard cock grazes my tummy, and its warmth against me invigorates me further.
“I’m going to fuck you, princess,” he snarls into my ear. “I’m going to drill my cock into you so hard that you’ll never believe I could ever love another.”
I close my eyes, let his words infuse me as if they’re part of the rain above, nurturing the fallen. Nurturing me.
He’s wrong, of course, but he believes what he says. I have no doubt.
While his love for me may be real, the overpowering need to mate with me is not. It was manufactured.
The heat between us is real, though. At this moment it pulses through me as if it’s alive.
“Touch me first,” I command, guiding his hand between my legs, where my need is most urgent. “Feel how ready I am. How wet I am for you.”
And though I don’t say it, I know I’ll never get wet for any other man the way I respond for Rogan.
Perhaps I’ll have future lovers, maybe even a husband.
But never will anyone stoke the fire inside me like the man who’s doing so now.
He obliges, teasing me with his fingers, sliding them over my clit and then shoving two, and then three, inside me.
“Fuck,” he growls.
“That’s how much I want you, Rogan. Remember that. Remember that all your days.”
“Fuck,” he growls again, this time deeper and raspier.
He lifts me and carries me to the wall of the cave. The dirt walls are surprisingly soft, but I moan anyway as they scratch my back, dig into my shoulders.
In one swift move, he shoves his cock into me, the angle so perfect that it hits my G-spot and sends me catapulting into a climax already.
“That’s it, princess. You come for me. Never for anyone else. Only for me.”
His command seeps into my soul, and for a moment I wonder if his words are hypnotic. If I’ll ever come for another.
But the thought is fleeting as I escape into the pleasure of the orgasm, the rapture of his hard and fast thrusts as I clench around him.
“Never like this,” he pants against my neck. “Never like this with anyone else, Hannah.”
God, he used my name.
He believes what he says.
He makes me want to believe it too.
But I know better.
Still, I let myself go.
She’s out there, searching, and she will find him. Or he’ll find her. They’ll find each other, and the mating process will begin.
I close my eyes against the images in my mind as the orgasm closes in.
Thrust, thrust, thrust…
“Harder,” I demand, my own voice barely recognizable to my ears.
He complies until I feel like I’m being bulldozed, but I’m loving every minute.
Closer and closer I come again to the edge. I claw at his back, leaving more marks on him and drawing blood.
Inhaling the intoxicating scent of him, of his red elixir.
The second orgasm takes me even higher, and from above I look down at our bodies, at Rogan fucking me so fast, as if he’s a damned machine. His grunts and groans resonate throughout the bunker, ricocheting up to me where still I gaze down.
Until…
I plummet back into my body as he releases.
Releases into me.
“Only you,” he whispers harshly into my ear. “Never another. Only you, Hannah.”
Gently, he kisses my neck. Our heartbeats are in sync, and they slow together as we lose ourselves in the sound of the rain outside.
Only you, Hannah. Only you.