Page 78 of Hunted

“God, Ellie. You’re so fucking sexy.” He teased my tank up another inch, thumb grazing the soft, sensitive skin of my nipple. I shuddered, gooseflesh breaking out across my skin.

He cupped my breasts in warm palms, gently tugging the peaks. After I thought I couldn’t take another second, he released me.

“Take your clothes off,” he ordered. Moving to stand beside the bed, he stripped off his shirt and belt so that he stood barefoot in his jeans and nothing else. “I want to see what that pretty mouth can do.”

I knelt before him, heart pounding as I stared up at him through my lashes. River’s fingers loosened the band in my hair so that it cascaded over my shoulders. His fingertip grazed my nipple, and I shivered, my lips parting. His eyes hooded. Stroking himself slowly, he brought the tip of his cock to my mouth.

“Open,” he commanded.

If I expected River to fuck my mouth hard and fast, I was wrong. Instead, he wove his fingers into the hair at the nape of my neck, fingers softly caressing as he brought only the tip of his cock to my lips. My tongue teased out, softly circling, learning the shape and heft of him, discovering through trial and error what made him hiss and throw his head back and what made him gasp my name and softly moan. His hips drew back slowly, inexorably, his breath coming in dark shudders for the endless second it took for him to withdraw and thrust back through the warm circle of my lips.

“You’re mine, Ellie,” River growled, his free hand grazing the claiming mark I’d left on his bicep and causing needy tingles of arousal to shiver from the base of my spine to the aching tips of my breasts, to the wet pulsing center of my core where I ached for him so desperately I couldn’t see straight. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me. We have to stop. I’m about to lose control.”

He pulled free from my mouth. When he held out a hand to help me to my feet, his eyes burned a dark gold, the wolf’s eyes. “I need to fuck you now. It’s not going to be gentle.”

“I don’t want it gentle.”

He traced a single finger over my scar, and I shuddered. “You’re a virgin. No matter what else we’ve done all the nights I came to your bed in dreams, this is technically your first time.”

“Bond me to you and to your wolf, River. Don’t hold back.”

“Kneel on the bed. Hands on the headboard, knees apart.” He moved behind me, placing his hands on the headboard framing mine so that I was caged in, his erection hot and hard between my wet folds. “Spread your legs.” I complied, craning my head back over one shoulder for a kiss. River captured my mouth, tongue stroking mine as his fingers lazily teased my nipple. “God, I love the way your skin smells.” He kissed his way down my neck, fingers moving lower to slip between my folds, circling my clit when I spread wider to give him access. “Like strawberry shampoo and that herbal soap you like and just you. I could inhale the scent off your pillow all day.” He pinched my clit and I moaned, rocking against his hand.”

“I’m ready.” I nipped at his bottom lip, pushing my ass back into his cock, which was slick from pushing through my wet, swollen folds. “Take me. Make me yours.”

He kissed me, hot and possessive, tongue stroking mine. I felt a burning ache as the head of his cock pushed through my entrance, filling me, felt my hips being lifted to line up our bodies to compensate for our height difference. “Hang on sweetheart. This is going to be a bit rough.”

There was a quick, sharp burst of pain as he entered me fully. I shuddered, gripping the headboard with my good hand, River suddenly everywhere around me, inside me, his hold tight, possessive, as he nipped and kissed the back of my neck, man and wolf claiming me for their mate.

“Oh god,” I gasped.

“Ellie,” he growled, the sound one of deep satisfaction. He guided me away from the headboard so that I was face down on the bed. “Is that better?” he asked gently, everywhere over and joined with me now, his arms a hard wall of muscle caging me in. The love bites at the back of my neck were growing increasingly hard and hot and possessive. I couldn’t move. I wasn’t sure I wanted to move. From the aching pressure between my legs that was growing more intense by the minute, I just knew I needed more.

“Um,” I panted as he slowly drew out of me and thrust back in, kissing the trail of gooseflesh his movements drew along my neck. “That feels… oh wow. I think I just need you to move. Can you just move and go slow and… yeah like that,” I breathed. The burn was still there, but underneath it, a hot needy ache was building. “I don’t know if I can come. I want to, but this is so new.”

“This is us. You and me. I’ve made you come a thousand different ways in your dreams.” Dizzying pressure began to build in my hips, that desperate ache growing so tight that my legs began to shake. River growled, knocking my knees apart to enter me deeper.

“You feel fucking amazing.” He pinched my clit, causing me to tighten everywhere, around his length where he was buried so deep, the ache still there, but deeper than that, pleasure dissolving as my thighs threatened to collapse. River swore, gripping my hips to hold me up as I cried out, shattering into a thousand pieces. I felt him move over me, felt his Alpha wolf’s dominance as he curled around me, trapping me in a hold I had no desire to escape, taking me in deep thrusts.

“Mine,” he growled. He bit me roughly just over where his original claiming mark had been. The shivery whisper of the mating bond fluttered across my bare skin, his Alpha magic slaving his wolf to mine. Twisting my head to the side, I bit his bicep. River gritted his teeth and hissed out a long breath, and deep inside me, I felt a rush of warmth as he marked me as his in every way…

* * *

“WILL YOU TELL ME SOMETHING YOU’VE NEVER TOLD ANYONE ELSE?” I whispered against the underside of River’s jaw, gently kissing his scar.

He hummed quietly, bending to capture my lips in a slow, lazy kiss where we were stretched out under my duvet. I’d stolen the soft gray t-shirt he’d worn here. He was in a pair of sweatpants, and I wanted to inhale the scent of his skin forever.

“I hated not being able to use my gift these past few weeks,” he said quietly. “But a part of me was also relieved. I can block people out for short periods, but it’s mentally exhausting, and when I’m around family, I can’t always sustain it for long. And over the years…”

He coiled a strand of my hair around his index finger. I traced his collarbone, letting him decide if he wanted to go on. Eventually he sighed.

“My dad and I had this huge fight right after he banished Dallas to Calgary over accidentally infecting Lacey. It really tore the entire family up. Dallas was only seventeen and Dad had… well, he really lost it that night. Dallas had several broken ribs. I get why Dad was angry. Werewolves weren’t even out at the time and Lacey had to come stay with us in seclusion on the ranch for a year, lie to her mom and pretend she’d run away. Her mother had her memories erased by the Tracers. Dallas lied and snuck around so he wouldn’t have to break up with her and that lie destroyed two families. But what Dad did that night went too far. And Mom didn’t stop him.”

“You would have been what, thirteen?” I tried to do the math, but I wasn’t really sure how many years Dallas and Lacey had been ahead of us in school.

“Twelve. I’d just manifested as a neural manipulator when Dallas was sent away.” River leaned back into the pillows, staring up at the ceiling. “Those were awful months. The whole house was constantly on edge. Lacey was living with us and she would try to put on a brave face at meals and then go into her room as soon as the dishes were done to cry. And one night Dad and I got in a huge argument about something stupid. I don’t even remember what. But there was this awful shouting match. And he grounded me and told me to get in my room or I would lose access to electronics for a month.”

River was barely breathing, but his pulse had spiked. “And I told him… I told him that he wouldn’t be able to control me forever. Not like Dallas. My dad just stared down at me when I said that. The whole room went kind of eerily still. West and August were there, too, and everyone just… froze. I went off to my room, slammed the door, and later,” River hesitated, and I curled into his side, sensing what was coming, “I heard him sitting out on the porch, trying to cool off, thinking about our fight. He was worried I would one day, in his words, ‘fuck up my life even worse than Dallas had,’ maybe even kill our entire family while everyone was asleep.”

He toyed with a strand of my hair. “It fucks with your head, you know? The idea that deep down, your family believes you have the capacity to turn evil. I think maybe I always knew from that point when I was twelve that I was destined to be the lone wolf of the family. And mostly it was fine. I decided I could live with that fate, even if I’d never wanted it. Most of the time. Until I reconnected with you.”

I sat up, pulling him up to face me. He groaned, but complied.

“This is important,” I said seriously. I kissed each of his fingers. “You’re not evil. You’re not a monster. You have magic that can be used for great or terrible things. You protect those in the pack who can’t protect themselves. It’s in your Alpha blood. Everyone has potential. It’s our choices that define us. And I love the man you’ve chosen to become, a man who walks into danger instead of away from it. You have the best, most selfless kind of heart.”