Chapter 18
Panic tried to claw away at the first moment of true peace I’d had in over a decade. I refused to indulge it. Holding Nina for the past half hour, my scent on, and inside, her body, her small fingers tracing my tattoos, this was a heaven I didn’t deserve, but I’d enjoy it nonetheless.
I knew being with her would be powerful, that it would not only destroy any of my boundaries but it would ruin me for pushing her away ever again.
I had no idea that it would cement her place in my soul, that I would be truly powerless to deny her anything.
The monster inside of me was preening with satisfaction that our seed was inside of her; whether it took root or not wasn’t the point. She smelled like us, she had not balked at how rough I’d been.
“You alright?” she asked, half sitting up next to me.
I took a moment to just enjoy the sight of perfect, round body. Her breasts filled my hands with a glorious weight, and those pert berry tinted nipples were a fast growing obsession. She must’ve seen where my eyes were looking because Nina chuckled and she bopped my nose with her finger.
“My eyes are up here, big guy.”
“Your whole body is a feast for my eyes though,” I skated my hand down her side, cupped one breast and swiped my thumb over the quickly hardening nipple.
“You keep doing that and we won’t leave this room,” she said breathily.
“I wish we didn’t have to,” I admitted. “I want to take you to a remote cabin, where I can keep you naked for at least a week. I’d spend the first day just making you come on my tongue and then move on to—”
“Me playing with you?”
She reached out and grasped my quickly hardening cock and stroked me hard. My hips bucked of their own accord and I curled my hand around hers to guide her on the rhythm.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I rasped. “Being my little play thing? Wearing my cum on your body, inside of you.”
“Promises, promises.”
It was frightening how quickly she could make me lose control.
I tore her hand off me and tackled her to the bed, devouring the squeak of surprise that fell from her lips. They were already kiss bruised, my tusk marks all over her chest and chin and I wanted more.
I took myself in hand and dragged my tip up and down through her soft, damp curls, teasing and asking a silent question. I knew I’d fucked her harder than I probably should have; she wasn’t a virgin but I was large and Nina was probably sore. But I needed her with a ravenous ache that belied the fact that I’d just had my cock in her tight channel thirty minutes ago.
“Please,” she begged, her nails scoring my shoulders as she wiggled under me.
“I’ll always give you what you want, baby, always. All you have to do is ask like a good girl.”
“Please, sir, I need you to fuck me again.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not alive unless you’re inside of me. Please, sir, please fill me up.”
I closed my mouth over hers and as I sank myself slowly into her, a part of me that had been in darkness for far too long began to warm. She was like sunlight and I was the cold, dead earth that needed her. Everywhere we touched, Nina was bringing me to life. With her trust in me, she was making me believe that maybe this time I wouldn’t destroy the love I so desperately craved. Maybe this time I would be able to hold onto her and our dream of a shared life.
And that started now with me claiming her. Every time she took a step, the pain in her legs, in her cunt would remind her who she belonged to. But I also didn’t want to break her. Nina was so small compared to me, so delicate, that I needed to keep in mind that it would take very little to hurt her.
My berserker was just as concerned for her safety and the animal wasn’t pushing me to take her hard. Instead, we were once again of one mind, thinking of her pleasure, her safety as I sank further and further into her with each stroke.
She was so tight, so wet. Every mewl, every moan, I drank down as my due, and demanded more as heat curled at the base of my spine.
Nina was meeting my thrusts, her legs wound around my waist as far as they could go as she cried out and begged me for the release her body needed.
I reached between us and pressed on that perfect, naughty little button at the top of her slit and Nina’s channel pulsed around me as she arched her back and cried out. It was enough to drive me to the edge of all control and I started to pick up the pace.
Her tits bounced as my thrusts became harder and I clasped her hips to keep her from falling off the bed. Fire chased my breaths, and I was seeing red, then bright spots danced before me as flames erupted through my shaft. I let loose a roaring growl and spilled myself once again inside her. And like last time, it just kept going. I’d never had this much before. I filled her so full that it was seeping out. When I finally stopped, I hated the sight of so much slipping from her tight hole.
I gathered the excess from her reddened thighs and slowly, with care, finger fucked it back into her.
“Darius,” she groaned, “yes…God, yes.”
Apparently my little fuck doll was as ravenous as I was.
I grinned at her and added a second finger and more of my cum. The room filled with her cries and the wet squelching of me working her to another climax that had her sobbing.
She was a mess of cum and sweat and tears and I’d never seen anything more gorgeous in all my life.
I should have wiped my fingers on the ruined bed sheets but instead, urged on by the beast inside of me, I painted her inner thighs, her belly button and hips with my spend. I would massage it so deep into her pores that no amount of soap would wash away the evidence of my claiming.
I was about to spread it on her nipples when someone banged on the door. I growled, baring my teeth at whoever dared to interrupt me.
“Who is it?” Nina asked, her voice strained, a little hoarse.
“April. And if you two can stop fucking for a hot minute, you may get one more practice session in before we have to leave.”
Nina let out a groan that had nothing to do with me running my index finger around her areola.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” she said.
“Shower first, will ya? I can smell you from here.”
“Oh my God,” Nina covered her fast-reddening face with her hands and let out a chuckle.
“That’s right,” I nibbled my way up her throat, “you smell like me, like us, and you will for the rest of the job. I’ll not have anyone mistaking you for being available.”
“I have to shower at some point.”
“That won’t take away what I filled your cunt with. That stays, you understand?”
I gripped her chin and made her look at me.
“If you clean that pussy out, I will put you over my knee and fuck you all night, in every hole you have, so that you can never, ever wash me out of you.”
The words shocked me with their intensity. I couldn’t remember ever having this fire of possessiveness before. It was overwhelming, canceling out any sense I might otherwise have. I needed her to be mine, in every way. The thought of her not wearing my scent, of not having any sign that she’d been claimed, was starting to make me panicked.
She must’ve seen the wildness in my eyes because Nina cupped my cheek and planted two little kisses to my mouth.
“I’ve been yours since the first day you met me,” she whispered, “and I’ll be yours until I take my last breath. And if you need to mark me to make your inner beast feel better, then do it. But just know, I don’t want anyone else, ever. I want to be yours forever. I don’t ever want to leave you, and I’m sorry if that’s na?ve or too soon but that’s how I feel.”
I cut her off with my mouth on hers, crushing her soft body to mine. This was too much of a good thing, too much of a dream come true. I couldn’t let her go, couldn’t allow her out of my sight. I’ve never gotten what I wanted in life, and when I thought I had, it was always stolen from me.
Usually by my own hand.
And this time, I was being presented with the most precious thing, the brightest jewel in this fucked up world. If history was any indication, this was when it would all go wrong.
“I can’t let you do this, not anymore. I’ve changed my mind,” I said against her mouth, my hands grasping. “You’re in danger…it’s too much.”
“Darius, look at me.”
I shook my head, our foreheads touching.
“I always lose…always,” my voice broke as all those jagged pieces of my past started to carve into me. “I can’t lose you too and I will, I can feel it. We have to run, Nina.”
“To where? And what about the Morrigan?”
“There has to be another way, another artifact. It’s not been so bad, right? We might have more time than Angelica thought.”
Nina pushed my face away from hers so she could look me in the eye. Now it was her turn to wipe my tears away. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried, not even when she’d been taken. It might’ve been when my family died, but I knew it had been a long time. And now here I was, weeping in Nina’s arms because every lesson from my past had taught me that I wasn’t deserving of good things. And Nina? Nina was the best thing I’d ever been given.
“We have to see this through,” she said. “It’s going to be okay.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it’s us, because you’re going to make sure of it.” She pressed her hand to my chest and her bow-shaped mouth spread in a tantalizing smile. “You both will make sure of it.”
The beast in me snarled with pride that our mate trusted us.
“We’re almost done. And then, I’ll let you lock me up for weeks and fuck my brains out.”
I chuckled, in spite of the pulsating fear inside of me.
“Let’s have a shower, and then you can watch me kick some ass with my kinesis, whadya say?”
I may have nodded, may have gotten up and insisted on washing her body even though I hated cleansing my scent from her skin. But inside, I was burning with anxiety and the possessive urge to carry her around just to be sure no one dared touch her.
It would have been ludicrous, and one more reason for everyone on the team to treat us differently. They were already unsure about Nina, after that stunning show of power at dinner; I didn’t need to add to their doubt about having our backs, if it came down to it.