Chapter 21
I’d triggered my werewolf form out of fear for Aurora’s safety.
Not once had I appeared as the were in front of Mila.
Not a single instance. I’ve only used the werewolf for intimidation and force during a few skirmishes.
That’s not a coincidence. I’ve also never been stuck in that form.
And what took me out of it? Aurora and her calming presence, her voice.
So many questions. So many possibilities.
I couldn’t let her, a vampire, endure eternity draining blood from a bag or animals.
She ought to feed. She had done the honorable thing, swearing off hunting humans, moving to the Cove to lessen the temptation.
Providing for her was one thing. I wanted to be her life source.
It would be so much different between us.
Humans had been food for her, but me? I’d be an elixir.
I dropped to my knees in front of her to give her better access, holding her tight when she instantly tried to reject the idea.
“Harkin, what?” Aurora had gone to sit up, but I held firm. It took little, given how weak she had become from ignoring her hunger.
“You heard me, Rory.” I lowered the tone of my voice, letting a small growl gather in my throat.
Her gaze dropped to my neck before she darted it back to my face. “I haven’t fed on humans in decades. I told you that.”
I bent forward, grinning with my proudly displayed canines, the wolf dancing in my gaze. “I ain’t human.”
The tip of Aurora’s tongue brushed her bottom lip as if she was imagining my flavor. “No, you most certainly are not.”
The desire was there, playing in the way her eyes kept traveling to my throat. It was a big deal, from how long she’d stood her ground. I understood that. She needed something more.
“I’ve fantasized about it,” I whispered, kneading her legs with my thumbs.
Aurora arched a dark brow. “Being bitten by a vampire?”
“Bein’ bitten by you.”
A smooth, shallow breath pushed from her throat.
“Ever since that night when I caught you. If it had been any other vamp, I’d have chased them off, but you?” My dick got hard recalling the memory. “Wanted those fangs in my neck.”
As if to tell me they were a willing participant, her fangs unleashed. Aurora shifted forward, but paused. “Harkin, I’m not sure.”
“You can’t hurt me and sure as hells won’t be able to kill me. If you go too far, I can stop you.” I trailed my fingers up her thighs. “Makes sense now why my alpha voice works on you.”
Aurora’s eyes turned crimson for a split second. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I challenged her with a steely glare of my own. “If you’re fixin’ to kill me, you best believe I will dare, but I reckon it won’t come to that.”
Her fangs dug into her lower lip as she inched even closer, but still didn’t fully commit.
“Bet I’m fuckin’ delicious,” I growly whispered.
The vampire glimmered in her eyes from that, and she beckoned me with a curl of her finger. “Come here, wolf.”
Answering her, I wedged my hips between her thighs.
She moved forward, her nails dancing up my pecks and over my collarbone until her hand reached the back of my head.
Her fingers tangled in my hair, gripping hard.
As a final action to show her I meant what I said, I craned my neck to the side, offering that bulging vein she’d been ogling, thinking I hadn’t noticed.
Her tongue lapped over my skin before she finally sank her fangs into my flesh.
Given the injuries I’d taken through my life, the puncture felt about as uncomfortable as a pinprick.
When she started to pull blood from me, I had to grab the couch to keep from sinking into a pleasurable heap on the godsdamned floor.
Fuck. Aurora feeding on me, her nails digging into the back of my head, her other hand fondling every muscle I possessed, her tongue smoothing over my neck.
It all had my balls tightening, my cock straining inside my jeans.
A snarl erupted from my chest, Aurora moaning into the bite to signal her appreciation.
I recognized the feeling of nearing death’s edge, that final, spectral tug on existence.
I wasn’t near it. Not even close. We could really do this.
I could be her source. Fuck the bags. Fuck the rabbits.
Fuck anyone bold enough to ask her for this, to offer this.
Growling, I possessively curled my arm around her waist and pulled her against me, pinning us together.
Aurora smiled against my skin, still sucking, still drawing energy from me to fuel her own.
When she reluctantly pulled away, her fangs disappearing from my neck, I yanked her tighter. “Take more, Rory.”
“But—”
I lowered my mouth to her ear and I roughly told her, “Take more.” It wasn’t my alpha voice, only a plea to not stop.
Aurora plunged her fangs in with a bit more aggression and fuck if it didn’t make my balls ache.
She fed on me for several more minutes before slowly pulling away.
Her head tilted back, her eyes closed, and she ran a hand down her throat.
She looked more vigorous and drop-dead gorgeous.
The bite, the draining, none of it made me any weaker or even woozy.
Observing her like this, alive and satiated, I could carve my way through mountains.
“Was right, wasn’t I?” I asked with a snarky grin. When she lazily opened her eyes, I finished with, “Fucking delicious.”
Aurora shot to her feet with her flash-speeding, walking me backward and shoving my ass against the kitchen island. She’d done it with enough force that it moved the counter. That was no easy feat considering my size. The quartz of my werewolf form shimmered in my gaze as if triggered by this.
She dipped her hand into the open fly of my jeans, teasing her fingernails over my stiff cock.
The vampire grinned at me, beads of my blood rolling down her chin.
I smiled back with my wolfish canines and curled my hand around the back of her neck.
My claws crept out. I pressed the pad of my thumb under her chin, lifting it higher.
Her eyes lowered to the two puncture marks in my neck, still bleeding but slowly regenerating.
“You have no idea.” Aurora tugged me forward by my pants, her arm circling my neck and pulling me to her mouth.
She kissed me, devoured me, spreading my blood over my tongue.
I didn’t share her palate for blood, but I reveled in how much she liked it.
As I kissed her, I chuckled at how ravenous she was, clawing at me as if she couldn’t get close enough.
She pressed her hips against me as if I had plans to be anywhere else but here.
I swooped an arm around her, turning her from colliding straight into a wall, taking the brunt as my back slammed against it.
Aurora pulled away from the kiss, her teeth pinching my lip and drawing a bit of blood she was quick to lick away. “You ruined my nest, wolf.” Her eyes pointed at the overturned couch from my werewolf escapades.
“Who says it’s ruined?” Grabbing her thighs, I hoisted her over my hips, showing my strength was still very much intact, and carried us to the disheveled mess. With one hand, I flipped the couch back onto its legs.
Aurora chewed on her thumbnail as if she were contemplating the legitimacy of what she’d built before.
Wiggling to be free, I let her slide down my body.
She took my pants with her, planting her foot on them for me to step out of.
Aurora grabbed my comforter, tossing it onto the sofa and primping it in places. The sight of it seized my damn spine.
Aurora whisked her shirt up and over her head, baring her heavy, swollen tits for me, her nipples pebbled and hard. I stroked my cock as I watched her slide off the pants next until she was standing naked, robust, and I could have sworn a flush to her chest and face.
“Sit,” Aurora ordered with a mischievous grin.
Prowling over the couch, I sat on the edge, still sliding my hand on and off my dick and obsessively gazing at her.
At this vivacious, carnal, and resilient female.
Aurora turned her back to me, bending forward to give me a view of her ass.
She moved over my lap, spreading her legs wide and lowered herself.
I held the tip at her entrance, letting go once her hips met mine, fully seated inside her.
With a groan, I circled an arm around her stomach. Aurora rocked on and off me, her head falling back to rest on my shoulder. I bucked my hips upward, meeting her thrust for thrust. I fondled between her breasts before grabbing one, then the other, teasing a nipple between two claws.
“Fuck,” Aurora moaned.
Aurora’s nape stared at me. That meaty piece of supple skin right there between her neck and shoulder.
I grazed my teeth over it, but when my knot started to swell, I reluctantly switched to kissing there instead.
My desire to do both to her was known only to the gods, but that meant claiming her.
Something I wouldn’t do before we’d had the mate conversation.
I was scared, worried that bringing up the prospect would make her drift away.
I hadn’t a clue what being mates was supposed to feel like, but considering my knot spoke for me, trying to swell twice with her now?
That was all-telling. If I hadn’t fought it back and it had grown to its entirety, then she was my mate.
It would only do that for her. It never happened with Mila.
Her excuse had been that I had a problem.
Snarling the thought away, I pound into Aurora harder. She responded by slamming her body onto my thighs, her back arching, cries of her pleasure ringing in my ears. Rising with her, keeping her ass pressing into my waist, I held her jaw.
Aurora smiled at me, her dark hair hanging in wavy tendrils over her shoulders and breasts like a damn moon goddess. “I keep trying to take control and somehow you yank it right back, Kins.”