Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Daughters of the curse have always inherited the matriarchal powers. Until Winter that is. It worries me.
—Lorinne Leroux’s private journal.
There was life before Winter’s pussy, and there was life after. He buried himself deep inside her and held still.
“Please, West.” She exposed her throat. “Claim me.”
He slid his hand down the smooth skin of her stomach, landing on her blood-soaked clit. She hummed at the contact. Withdrawing himself to the tip, he asked, “Why me?”
“Because,” she panted, “I trust you with my heart. If … if you’ll have it?”
It was bold to expect him to hold something so precious. His hands were built to crush, not cradle. He plowed back inside her. There was nothing gentle, slow, or calm about the way he fucked her. They both needed a reminder of how dangerous he was. “I prefer to eat them, Winter.”
She smiled, rocking beneath him. “So I’ve learned.”
The sight of her fanged grin always made his dick throb.
“Fuck, West. You feel so good.” She hooked her legs around his waist and drove her hips against his.
“Stop,” he grunted, trying not to finish. Glancing over his shoulder, he eyed the pool. “We're getting back in.”
“I’m not wet enough?”
He cracked his neck side to side and uttered an absolute lie.
“No.” With his dick still fixed inside her, he lifted her in his arms and carried her away from the blood-stained floor.
Once they were in the pool, he sat them on the submerged bench and moved her golden-brown hair away from her shoulder.
Her lips trembled, her eyes darkened, and her pussy tightened around his length. “I need all of you. This …” She eyed the area where their bodies met. “It won’t ever be enough.” Her breath was ragged and his dick wasn’t even moving. “Claim me.”
As opposed to the alpha title he’d been gifted, this moment was a privilege. He dropped his forehead onto her chest, conceding. “It would be my honor.”
She raked fingers in his hair and steered him to her collarbone. “Then bite—”
His fangs slid across her skin, then plunged into her.
He’d wanted this for too long to hold back now.
Winter screamed, but it wasn’t loud enough.
He unlatched and took another bite. Harder this time.
There was a small pop as he burst through a vein.
Blood spilled into his mouth, tasting a little like sugar—the kind that leaked from maple trees. Woodsy, sweet, and something like home.
Winter pressed her palms into his chest. She was crying and cursing, but it wasn’t from pain.
It was from grinding back and forth on his dick.
“I’m going to come,” she gasped. The words spilled out at the same time her walls shook and warmth flooded his length.
He retracted his fangs, moved down to her breast, and tugged on her nipple until the skin broke.
“Yes,” she cried. There wasn’t a part of her body he didn’t want to bite.
Winter went from rocking to bouncing, and he was going to explode if she didn’t stop. He lifted her off his dick and suspended her ass in the air. It was a good thing blood was her favorite color, because she wore a necklace of it. “My. Beautiful. Mate. Tell me how bad you want this.”
She dug fingernails into his shoulders. “So bad. I can’t hide my feelings anymore. I want to cry. I want to hurt. I want you to remind me how much I can take.” She dropped her head back, showing off her bloody chest. “Fuck me, West.”
He closed his eyes, capturing this moment in his memory. His mate was nothing short of a goddess. When he reopened them, she was fondling her bloodied breasts.
“Please,” she moaned.
There wasn’t a shred of self-control left—Winter had won. He gripped her so tight and fucked her so hard, the bath lost a third of its water. She toppled forward and wrapped her arms around him. “Keep biting me.”
His snarl was animalistic as he ripped into her flesh.
He didn’t just puncture her skin this time, he dragged his teeth along it, slicing.
Greed was a sin he reveled in and Winter’s blood was his.
Every piece of her his to taste, tame, and take.
Her voice carried the power to stop him and she hadn’t used it once.
He gulped down a mouthful of blood, still hammering into her quivering pussy.
“Fuck, fuck,” she moaned. “I’m coming again.”
He might’ve followed her over that edge were it not for his world shifting on its axis. It felt like looking into a mirror. He was watching himself fuck Winter. He saw his lips move to say, “What’s happening?”
“I came,” she breathed.
“No, not that.” His body was under his control, except for one part. He was seeing the world through her eyes. “Can you see okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I think my eyes are your eyes.”
Winter let out an indulgent laugh. “We’ve been through this.” They had the same eye color. Looking at him was like seeing her reflection in a mirror—the one she’d refused to acknowledge for such a long time.
“No,” he said urgently, “my eyes don’t work anymore. I’m using yours. All I see is me …” He thrust into her to be sure. “Fucking you.”
Her head tilted.
“That too. Everything tipped when you did that.” He rubbed his face, then he regripped her hips. “Help me get them back.”
“How is this happening? You’re supposed to be teaching me about werewolf things.”
“This doesn’t happen, Winter. I think I’m blind.”
Wasn’t he a master shifter? “You should try to relax. Breathe, maybe? Will your sight back, I don’t know. Isn’t that what you’d say? This obviously has something to do with claiming me and not your actual vision.”
He closed his eyes.
She watched the tension between his brows soften with precision. He began blinking, then exhaled with relief. “You’re right. It’s the same as shifting.”
“They’re back?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Woah, wait.” She entered her mental vault. “The prophecy, West.”
“A window opens when two souls meet,” he mumbled. “Why would this happen?”
She swallowed. “I have no idea. Are you okay?”
He tugged on his hair, pulling the strands away from his forehead. “Yeah, I don’t feel anything. Do you feel okay?”
“Yeah … but I could be better.” She grinned, lifting up slightly on his dick.
He grabbed her by the chin. “I’m being serious.”
She pouted. “So am I.”
“Then I’m going to split you in half.”
“Good,” she said, waiting for her kiss.
He pulled her off of him instead. She immediately groaned at the empty feeling, cursing his name. “I thought—”
He pointed. “I want you on those steps with your ass in the air, now.”
When Winter’s palms met the limestone, she swayed her hips side to side and glanced back at him. “Like this?”
He’d been biting his lip so hard he was bleeding.
A low rumble escaped as he closed the distance, narrowing in on her perfect pussy. He found her hips and nudged his cock at her entrance before slipping it inside. She was still so tight, but so wet.
“Ready to scream?” He pulled out and plowed back in so hard she had to catch herself on the step. Her bellow echoed through the cavern, making him harder. “Louder,” he demanded, crashing his pelvis against her.
Her cries lured him towards the edge. He didn’t want to come again, he wanted this to last. Lifting both her thighs until her feet were in the air, he said, “Wrap your legs around me.” She glanced back, looked at her suspended ass nestled against his pelvis, then hooked her legs behind his back. “Ready to go for a ride?”
Winter let her fingertips graze the limestone, yielding all control.
Her pussy was his to fuck. Every thrust was hard, deep, and unrelenting.
And after drinking her blood, he felt every emotion stirring inside her.
There were too many to sort through. Her pain, her euphoria, her need. Each one seeped into his soul.
Then another feeling flickered to life—like a swarm of fireflies on a summer night. Whatever it was, it felt rapturous.
“I love—I love you, West,” she whimpered.
He stilled. She didn’t mean that, she was high off the claiming. He grunted and started fucking her again.
“I want this … you,” she gasped, “forever.”
He dug his fingers into her thighs hard enough to leave bruises, taking what he needed. “I didn’t give you permission to speak.”
“I didn’t give you permission to make me fall in love with you … but here we are.”
He bit his bottom lip, slid out to the tip, and plunged back in. She sang his favorite song. He dropped his head back, about to finish. Three more demanding thrusts and his body tensed. “Ahh,” he roared, coming so hard his eyes rolled.
“Fuck, West, you feel so good.”
He grunted, still coming. There was so much it seeped out from between them and dripped all over.
“Mm, I love you,” she whimpered.
“And I love you,” he declared, holding himself in place. “So fucking much.” His body shook, still vibrating from his climax. “You’re never leaving me again.”
Did he say what he thought he just said? Standing upright became impossible—he collapsed and took her down with him. They curled into one another on the steps, breathing.
“I don’t want to. Ever,” she said.
They didn’t move—there was no need to. Water trickled in the background, pools sparkled, and everlasting light bobbed around the room.
Just as his eyelids came to a close, her warm voice startled him awake. “Can I tell you something?”
He held her tighter. “Yes.”
“Before I came back to this time, I blew out a candle and made a wish.”
“Another wish?” That had been the main ingredient to the spell that had got her here in the first place.
She laughed and rolled over to face him. “Yes, exactly. And the peculiar part is they all keep leading me back to you.”
He half-smiled. “So … what’d you wish for?”
“To learn how to love again. I swear, there wasn’t a part of me that thought it’d ever come true.” She brushed hair away from his eyes. “But you changed that.”
His heart thumped. “And you changed me.”
“How?” she whispered.
Words were easier for her—something he was still working on.
He took a deep breath, unsure where to begin.
“I never thought alphas were capable of something as fragile as love. In fact, I was certain they weren’t.
I allowed my conviction to strain my relationship with Mel, and her relationship with Xavier.
” His throat swelled as tears stung his eyes.
“I hurt everyone, including you, running from the only thing that truly matters.”
Winter cupped his face in her hand, stroking his cheek with her thumb. “Why would you ever think you weren’t capable of love?”
“The day my mother’s heart stopped beating, I think mine stopped too. Her death still haunts me.”
“I’m so sorry. Please, talk to me …”
Anger crept up at the memories, but Winter was holding him, soothing him.
“She escaped her abusive mate when she was pregnant with Mel. She traversed several states, hiding her scent. When she found Elmwood, she settled down with my father and the Sterling Pack. She was safe. She raised Mel and she eventually had me. But her sanctuary didn’t last forever. ”
Winter’s eyes widened. “What happened?”
He exhaled, rubbing his forehead. “The worst thing that could ever happen.”
She went pale. “He found her?”
“Twenty-two years later, he walked onto our property with his pack demanding to know where his child was. Mel had been sent to hide in the woods. My mother, confronted by him, lied on the spot. The moment she said Mel had passed away from fever he used his alpha title to enact the Mauling Clause for failure to protect one’s young.
He just killed her. My father, also an alpha, let him take my mother’s life.
There wasn’t even a fight in her honor.”
“Why not?”
“My father was weak, and he would’ve given up the whole farm and every wolf in the pack if he lost. It wasn’t virtuous to me, and far from noble. The only alphas I’ve ever known aren’t capable of love. At least, not by example.”
Winter pressed her lips to his, soft and quick. “Listen to me, okay?”
He nodded, letting the tears roll off his cheeks.
“I wish you had more time with your mother, I really do. What happened to her was awful. But I hope you understand that no matter how careless those wolves were with your mother’s heart, alphas can love.
I know this because I love you, West. Deeply.
I feel it in here.” She placed her palm on his heart, gently rubbing it.
“And I think you do to. And together, we can make this work. You and me.”
He rubbed his nose against hers. “When I’m with you, sometimes I wonder how all of this is even possible.”
“I know,” she whispered, “me too.”
Their mouths met, soon molding into one. She reached behind his head and held him close. Good—he planned to kiss her until they both passed out.
He supposed now was as good a time as any to thank the universe for his mate. A wolf with a heart of gold had fallen into his world, teaching him he didn’t have to be a monster. And now she was kissing his tears away.