Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
ROSAMUND
I’m running.
A wolf is after me. My worst nightmare, since I was taken by the wolves. Werewolves, dark fae, shifters. And so is the wolf after me. A dark fae who can shift into a beastly form.
He’s coming after me. And he’s the one who told me to run. Something about pain, fear, and desire, about the chase, the hunt, about pushing me facedown into the dirt and sinking his teeth into my neck.
The thought is terrifying, but Gods above, it’s also exciting.
I don’t know why, why the thought of him chasing me, grabbing me and throwing me down, pinning me with his muscular body and taking control of me is so arousing.
I swear I’m sopping wet, and I throb between my legs, I throb so deep it hurts.
I’m afraid to be caught. Even more afraid not to. I want him to catch me, but I’m running as fast as my feet can take me and every rustle in the grass, every noise from the grove I’m heading toward, has me gasping and panicking.
Objectively, it’s dangerous to be running like this, heedless of the animals lurking in every crevice and shadow. There are wildcats, snakes, earth dragons, boars, wolves, golden horned lions and winged dragons... and possibly also dark fae in human or animal form, out hunting.
Valen has saved me from danger before. Now he’s thrown me into the heart of it. It was as if he couldn’t help himself. Is that the wolf way of solving issues, letting go of anger... or mating? He spoke of the chase almost like a sexual act.
This isn’t what a good girl would do. Not what a noble lady would agree to. And I didn’t agree to it... I wasn’t given a choice. I ran and have been running ever since.
Exhaustion is catching up with me. I bet he could catch me in a heartbeat, but he gave me a head start. My heart is hammering, my chest can’t fill with enough air. Black spots are dancing in my vision.
I won’t make it much farther.
And then I hear him. He’s light-footed, like most of his kind, but I don’t think he’s being very careful right now. There was a wildness to him earlier, a madness I haven’t seen in him before. I don’t think he’d hurt me, but I could be wrong.
Gods help me, I could be wrong in a final, fatal way. Can’t forget he’s a werewolf, a fae with twisted magic, a dangerous creature. The kind of monster mothers warn their children of when they go out, or through fairytales at night when they lie in bed.
The kind of monster who grabbed me as a child and left me scarred and afraid of my own shadow.
“There you are,” his grave voice says from behind me, and suddenly I’m grabbed and yanked back, against a muscular body. “Been looking for you.”
“You knew where I was all along,” I pant and squirm, his cock and knot digging into my back, my body thrumming with arousal.
“Indeed, I did, but chasing you was my pleasure.” His breath washes over my neck, hot. So hot. “You ran away, you naughty girl.”
“You told me to run! You—”
“Now you’ll be punished. You want to be punished, don’t you?”
“Valen...”
“That’s why you played along. Deep inside, you want to be both. My good girl. My naughty girl. I’m going to bend you over my knee and spank you until your pert little ass turns crimson.”
I open my mouth to say no, of course no, that’s absurd, I don’t want to be spanked, but... no sound comes out of my mouth. For some strange reason, the thought of having him spank me feels arousing, too.
Everything he does is arousing, and as I turn in his arms and look up, seeing the ferocious, hot desire in his eyes, the bared teeth, the ticking jaw, I’m ready for it, for anything he wants to do to me, except...
“Don’t worry, princess,” he growls, “I know the rules. I won’t fuck you; only teach you some manners. Discipline you. I bet nobody in your life ever tried.”
Rules? What are the rules for desiring someone you can’t have, someone you shouldn’t want in the first place?
“Then do it,” I hear myself say. “Discipline me.”
“You shouldn’t have run away from me.”
“I don’t want to run away from you,” I whisper, every word true and hurting like jagged glass in my mouth. “Ever.”
“Fuck, Princess…” He drags me by the hand to a rock, and my gaze is drawn to his face, more human-like now than earlier.
He sits there and, true to his word, bends me over his knee.
I squeal when he lifts my skirt and underskirt and yanks down my long undergarments. “Let’s see what we have to work with.”
Cold air hits my bare ass, and I shiver. It’s awkward to hang over his muscular thigh like this, my hair in my face, but above all, it’s the anticipation of what’s to come that has me nervous and uncertain.
Should I have said no? Is this going to turn out to be a huge mistake?
Am I burying myself deeper and deeper in the mud instead of readying myself for my future?
Then I lose my train of thought, all thought, deep or shallow, as his big hand caresses my ass, warm and rough, raising goosebumps all over my body. Something so simple, so innocent shouldn’t send a throb through my belly, shouldn’t make me clench.
“Fuck, your ass is so juicy. So round. I’ll discipline you until you come, pretty lady. I’ll take care of you.”
“Valen…” I squirm.
“Fuck, what you do to me. Fucking hell.” Down comes his hand on my ass, and I gasp at the pain. “Bad girl. Take the punishment, relish it. Do you like it? Do you like the sting?”
I can’t speak. Down comes his hand again, and every slap hurts, but slowly, that pain is morphing… into pleasure? Why do I feel every impact deep in my belly? Why is it turning the need up until I’m writhing in his lap?
“Feeling good, Princess?” he growls, and down comes his big hand again and again. “Liking it?”
“Please…” I manage. “Please…”
With another growl, he spreads my legs and his hand smooths over my hot ass cheeks, then his long fingers dip down my crease and over my pussy.
I whine deep in my throat. “Valen…”
“Good girl. So needy. So fucking wet. You’re soaked, baby.”
And he slaps me again, slaps against my exposed, wet pussy, and I cry out, my insides cramping, the pressure in my belly unbearable. I’m going to come, I realize with sudden clarity. I’m going to come from this spanking alone.
The rhythm changes, slowing down, and tears gather in my eyes. I need release, I need this throbbing ache inside me to erupt and end, relieving me.
“Please,” I moan. “Gods, Valen…”
“Come for me, my pretty,” he purrs. “Come now.”
I shouldn’t… I can’t let him manipulate me into this, I don’t want… Oh Gods, who am I kidding? I can’t lie to myself anymore. I want it. So badly. I’m dripping wet, throbbing so badly I want to cry.
I’ve been aroused for what feels like forever, ever since I saw Valen, and now as his hand comes down again, against my tender flesh, against my soaked pussy lips, something erupts in me.
The pleasure has me jerking, cutting like a knife, pushing a strangled scream from my throat. Not an orgasm, but a release of sorts.
“Oh, yeah, such a good girl,” he growls. “So aroused. So hot.” His hand smooths over my burning ass as I clench and clench, moaning, tears slipping from my eyes, cooling my hot cheeks. “So amazing.”
I want his hand to stroke lower, where I’m still throbbing and spasming, I want him inside me.
And now I’m weeping from how much I want him and because I don’t know what to do.
“Princess.” Finally, he stops spanking me, touching me. He pulls up my undergarments and lets my skirts fall over my abused backside. I bite my lip at the sparks of sensation the fabric causes where it touches my reddened skin.
“What…?” He won’t make me come?
“I never promised you release,” he chides softly. “I promised to take care of you and discipline you, and I’ve done that.”
No… Frustration grips me as his arm slips under my middle and pulls me up. He turns me over, sitting me in his lap, and gazes down at me. Even seated, he’s so tall. I’m trembling—from the chase, from the spanking, from the fact that I can feel his hard-on and swollen knot against my ass.
“So good,” he whispers, his eyes like golden crescents. “You loved being spanked, didn’t you?”
My blush is answer enough. I swallow hard. How did I go from frustration to a different kind of pleasure?
His words make me feel so warm and kind of proud inside. So accomplished and accepted. Not a failure anymore. Not drowning and struggling to keep afloat in someone’s affections.
Cherished.
And still so, so very aroused.
“Do you want to come?” he rumbles in my ear and pulls back to pin me again with that golden gaze.
Looking away, unable to bear his scrutiny, I nod quickly.
“Thought so. Then take your pleasure.”
My eyes snap back to his face. “What do you mean?”
“Grind yourself against me, Princess. Or touch yourself. Or both. Surely touching yourself doesn’t go against any rules?”
“I…” I find myself gazing down at his upturned face again. “I don’t…”
“Oh fucking hells, I forgot you’ve never done that.” He cocks his head to the side. “Is that how repressed human high society is? Do they tell you it’s against the Gods’ will to feel pleasure or something?”
“It’s just me,” I admit. “I was uneasy around people for a long time, and uncomfortable with my body and scars, so…”
“Baby.” His expression softens, then the heat returns to his gaze, setting the gold on fire. “Does that mean I’m your first?”
“My first what?”
“Your first everything. First orgasm, first masturbation, first man?”
“I don’t…” I squirm, so aroused and aching. “Yeah? Valen… Please.”
“Straddle me.” He leans back on the rock he’s sitting on, freeing one hand to brace it behind him, using the other to pull me to him. “I promised not to touch you, but you have my cock, all hard for you, and my knot, inflated for your sake. Grind yourself on them.”
“It won’t hurt you?”
A strangled chuckle escapes him. “I’m in pain for you every single day and night, girl. What’s one more ache?”
When I hesitate, he tugs on my hip and positions me the way he wants me. I gasp when his hard bulge presses between my legs.
“There,” he says, satisfaction lacing his voice, lashes dropping to hide his gaze even as I feel the tension ratcheting up in his body. “Try it. You can thank me later.”
It’s too much, even in my needy state. I can’t rub myself on him like a cat in heat. It’s crazy. I need to get up and move away from him. He’s intoxicating, muddling my rational thoughts.
He’s watching me, not moving a muscle, still as a statue. One corner of his mouth has tipped up in a faint smirk. Is he enjoying this?
I shift, preparing to dismount, but the friction against his cock sends such a spark of pleasure through me, I gasp and grab blindly for him.
He lets out a hiss. “Princess…”
I shift again, desperate to move off him, and instead find myself writhing in his lap, my mind turned into a fizzling light.
Every shift, every move only serves to rub my aroused flesh against his hard cock, and it’s exactly what I need.
The pressure is mounting in my belly, my heart is racing, and my body keeps moving, heedless of my mental protests, which are also fading, lost in the burning need.
“That’s it,” he whispers, his voice deepening as I rock against him, desperately seeking release.
“Take your pleasure. Forget the world and its fucking rules and restrictions. Obey your need. Please yourself. Please me. What I wouldn’t give to spread you underneath me or bend you over and take you from behind, but this will do. Oh, it will have to do…”
He’s rambling like a drunk man. That’s how I feel, too. My inhibitions have faded in this moment of madness, and I ride him, rising and falling, unable to keep back my moans as the pressure crests, leaving me teetering for an endless moment on the edge…
And I fall with a cry, coming so hard I see stars.
I writhe, the waves of pleasure rocking me, finally ebbing, leaving me slumped against his bare chest. My cheek presses to his pec and I hear his heart thundering.
His chest is rising and falling rapidly, as if he were running, as if he were the one moving.
He grunts softly, wrapping his arm around my back, his hips rolling.
“You’ll be the death of me,” he mutters after a while. “And it will all be worth it.”