Chapter 21 A Dangerous Admission #3
She maneuvered us, guiding me up her body until I was hovering over her. A small grimace crossed her face as she shifted her weight. I settled above her, pulling her flush against my front, and she reached down, her fingers fumbling with the buckle of my belt.
“Let me,” I growled, my hands shaking slightly as I worked the fastening.
“No,” she commanded, her tone leaving no room for argument. She slid her hand into my pants, her fingers tracing the length of me, grounding me, and I hissed, my control fraying at the edges. She wrapped her hand around me, stroking me once, twice, and then she guided me into her.
“I want you,” she whispered, her voice trembling but fierce.
I pressed into her, and the friction was blinding, a searing line of pleasure that shot straight to my core.
I slid in inch by agonizing inch, as she gasped, arching her back.
I pushed the rest of the way in, the friction searing, burning a path through the haze of my mind.
I bit back a groan of pure pleasure. I stayed there for a moment, letting my body adjust to the heat of her, my eyes locked on hers.
She was staring at me, her chest heaving, the bandage on her shoulder stark against her pale skin.
I reached out, gently supporting her injured side with my free hand, careful not to pull on the stitches, and pulled her closer.
“Move,” she breathed, a command so soft it was almost a prayer.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I withdrew until I was teasing her, and then I drove back in hard and deep.
The sound of our bodies meeting filled the quiet room.
I set a rhythm, slow and deliberate at first, testing the limits of her body, testing the limits of her injury.
But she was restless beneath me, arching her back, her nails digging into my shoulders to pull me down. She needed more.
I picked up the pace. The friction was maddening, each stroke sending sparks of pleasure shooting through my veins.
I was drowning in the heat of her, the scent of her, the way she felt around me.
I was careful not to jar her shoulder, keeping my movements controlled but deep, drilling into her with a steady, punishing rhythm.
Her skin was slick with sweat, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps, her back bowing off the mattress in a silent plea for more.
I adjusted my angle, angling my hips to hit that spot inside her that made her gasp my name, while keeping my weight supported on my elbows to avoid pressing on her shoulder.
The friction was blinding, a pure white heat that obliterated everything but the rhythm of our bodies.
I could feel the ridges of me dragging against her, her arousal coating us both.
She was hot, impossibly hot, her sweat glistening on her skin, her breath hitching in sharp, ragged gasps that I couldn’t seem to catch up with.
She tightened around me, her muscles pulsing, and I groaned, my control snapping.
I thrust into her harder, deeper, driving into her with a steady, relentless rhythm, careful not to jar her shoulder but unable to hold back.
The bond flared between us, blindingly bright and hot, amplifying every sensation, every touch, every stroke.
I felt her nerves singing, her pleasure spiking, and I knew she was close.
“Cassie,” I breathed, my voice strained. “Look at me.”
She forced her eyes open, her gaze locking onto mine, filled with a desperate, overwhelming need.
I leaned down to kiss her and she whimpered, her hips bucking up to meet my thrusts.
She came with a cry that tore from her, pressed tight against my kiss, her body clamping down on me like a vice, pulling me deep.
The sensation was too much. I bit my lip to stop from roaring, my body going rigid above her, and thrust one last time, deep and hard, burying myself in her. I pressed my face into her hair and kept her name locked behind my teeth because the wolf wanted to howl it where the whole pack could hear.
Cassie’s mouth brushed mine. “There you are.”
My chest ached.
After, I cleaned her gently with warm water from the basin Sava had left, then settled her back against the pillows.
She was nearly gone with exhaustion, eyes heavy, mouth soft.
I pulled the blanket over her, then sat beside her because lying down with my full weight anywhere near her bruises felt impossible.
Her hand found mine under the blanket.
“Don’t sit in the chair,” she murmured.
“I might hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
Her eyes opened just enough to cut me. “I know enough.”
I lay beside her. Carefully. Slowly. On my side, one arm beneath my head, the other resting where she could hold it if she wanted. She shifted closer until her forehead touched my chest.
The bond quieted and for the first time since the hunt, the wolf laid down.
Cassie’s breathing evened. Not sleep, not fully, but close. Her fingers stayed hooked around mine.
I listened to the room. Sava outside the door. Two guards at the end of the hall. The distant churn of too many wolves trying to make fear sound like order. Ronan’s voice below us, speaking to men who would obey because the alternative had my blood on it.
Then footsteps approached. Ronan didn’t knock. He opened the door, took in the bed, the blanket, my bare chest, Cassie’s pale face against me, and the fact that my hand was already free.
Sava came in behind him, furious before anyone had spoken. “I told you she needed rest.”
Ronan didn’t look away from me. “I need the room.”
“No,” I said.
His eyes went cold. The Alpha entered before my brother did. It changed the air. Power pressed against the walls, old and familiar, the weight I had bowed to my entire life because the pack needed me to kneel somewhere.
Cassie stirred against my chest. My arm tightened before I could stop it.
Ronan saw. Of course he saw.
“That,” he said quietly, “is exactly why I need the room.”
Sava shut the door. “You can have a conversation without clearing out the injured woman whose room this is.”
Ronan’s gaze flicked to Cassie. Some of the ice shifted, not softening exactly, but acknowledging her as more than a problem in a bed. “Cassie.”
She opened her eyes. “If you’re here to congratulate me on surviving the murder maze, I’d prefer a card.”
Sava made a small sound that might have been approval.
Ronan didn’t smile. “Three Thorne wolves are dead.”
“Should I have written them thank-you notes for trying to rip my throat out?”
“No,” Ronan said. “You should have been protected from them.”
Cassie looked at him more closely, some of the defensive edge easing under exhaustion. “Then we agree on one thing.”
“For now,” he said.
I sat up slowly, keeping the blanket over Cassie. “Say what you came to say.”
Ronan’s eyes returned to me. “You didn’t answer command.”
“I know.”
“You killed three wolves.”
“They were Thorne soldiers in a rigged hunt course with my mate’s blood on their hands.”
Ronan stepped closer. Power rolled with him.
“That answer will satisfy the part of the pack that enjoyed watching you make a warning out of them. It will not satisfy the council. It will not satisfy neutral witnesses. It will not satisfy any Alpha looking for proof that my enforcer can no longer tell the difference between justice and slaughter.”
My lips pulled back. “They wanted proof. They got it.”
“Yes,” Ronan said. “They did.”
Cassie’s fingers tightened around the sheet.
Ronan lowered his voice. “You think tonight proved the bond is real.”
“It is real.”
“It proved she can call you back when I cannot.”
I rose from the bed.
Sava moved at once. “Ian.”
Cassie pushed herself up on one elbow and winced. “Don’t.”
The single word stopped me more cleanly than Sava’s warning. Ronan watched it happen. Something grim moved through his expression.
“There it is,” he said.
My hands curled. “Careful.”
“No. We’re past careful.” Ronan’s voice stayed even, which made it worse. “The council watched my command fail in front of every pack with an interest in weakening us. They watched a human woman do what Alpha blood could not. Do you understand what that means?”
“It means they owe her their lives.”
“It means they will call her a leash.”
The word landed foul in the room. Cassie went very still.
I took one step toward him. “Do not call her that.”
“I am telling you what they will call her.” Ronan didn’t move back. He never did. “A leash. A weakness. A weapon already attached to the most dangerous wolf in my pack.”
“She is a person.”
“I know that.”
“Then start speaking like it.”
“I am speaking as the Alpha who has to keep her alive through the next hour, then the next day, then whatever comes when every elder in that hall realizes she has more hold over you than I do.”
“You mean control.”
“I mean survival.”
Sava crossed her arms. “You both are doing beautifully at having the worst possible conversation beside a patient with blood loss.”
Neither of us looked at her.
Ronan’s jaw flexed. “You bonded further with her.”
Cassie’s breath caught.
I didn’t answer.
Ronan’s eyes went flat. “Do not insult me by denying it. I can smell it on both of you.”
A flush rose along Cassie’s throat. Anger followed it. “Well that is a hideous thing to say out loud.”
“Yes,” Ronan said, and for once there was weariness beneath the steel. “It is. Everything about this is hideous now.”
My wolf rose at the shame in her scent. I shoved him down.
Ronan saw that too.“You are binding yourself deeper to a human woman who has to die in every version of the story the pack knows how to tell.”
The words hollowed the room. Cassie’s face lost color. I heard the change in her heartbeat.
Ronan’s gaze didn’t leave mine. “If the bond is false, they will call her death mercy. If the bond is real, the council will never allow a human marked mate to live freely. If she leaves knowing what we are, she is exposure. If the bond sets fully, every enemy we have can use her to break you, then break this pack through you.”