Stained Minds

by Helen Scott

  “Bite me,” I whispered on the end of a moan.

  “Not yet,” he replied with a growl, although he let his teeth skate along the surface of my flesh, which had me arching up into him.

  His hand wove between us once more, circling my clit with his thumb while his fingers thrust into me, I couldn’t help but move against him as I began to ride his fingers and they took me higher. Just as I was about to reach the top, he backed off again, this time falling onto my other breast. He drew all my attention to the nipple there as he licked and nipped at it, making me jerk and yelp with surprise.

  When his fingers found my core once again, I whined, unsure I could take him backing off a third time. “Please, let me come,” I groaned, as he began to circle my clit once again.

  “I don’t know, you said you were a bad girl. Do bad girls deserve orgasms?” Darius’s voice was so low and gravelly that I had to focus on him to make sure it was really him speaking.

  What I saw was what I had wanted all along. His hair was mussed from me running my fingers through it, while his breathing was heavy as his hands played my body like he was already an expert at it. I was panting as he drove my pleasure to even greater heights, but I managed to say, “You’re the one who said you wanted to make me come, or did you forget?”

  “Oh, I didn’t forget, mea vita.” He chuckled while his silver eyes flashed down my body before meeting mine once more. “Maybe it is time. I just need one thing first.” He paused, and I groaned as his fingers slid into me once again, moving within me as they grazed an especially sensitive area again and again.

  “What?” I breathed the question while my body moved of its own accord, seeking out the peak to this mountain of pleasure he had me climbing up.

  “I want to know if you want to be mine. Tell me, meum cor, do you want to be my mate? Do you want me?” His question was oddly serious when we had been so playful with each other until that moment.

  “Darius, I knew you were mine from the moment I saw you. Even if I fought it, I knew. You are my mate, and I am yours. I want you. I want to be yours. More than anything,” I ground out, “I want you inside of me while I feed from you.”

  The words seemed to unlock the doors that had separated us, because when his fingers started moving once more, they pushed me up and over the edge faster than I would have thought possible. Even though I had meant to resist because I wanted his cock and his fangs in me as I came, I found myself screaming his name as wave after wave of pleasure rocked through me. My whole body was clenching and releasing as though I was having some kind of seizure, but it was just the most intense orgasm of my life.

  When I was finally done twitching, my eyes fluttered open and I found Darius staring down at me with a satisfied grin on his face.

  “Don’t worry,” he rasped, “I won’t really make you beg me to fuck you, at least not tonight.”

  “I do want you to,” I told him, my voice sounding like I’d just awoken from a ten-year nap.

  “That’s good because I think I might explode otherwise,” he replied with a grin. His dimples popped out and I couldn’t help but smile back at the sight, which made him look ridiculously youthful.

  He leaned down and kissed me then, the ferocity of before was buried in the past, and all that remained was a need and longing that was echoed within my own heart. I needed this man as much as he needed me.

  This time, when I felt something push at my entrance, I knew it wasn’t his fingers. The thickness of his cock was surprising, but welcome. I ran my hands down his back and found that I was just able to reach his butt. I flexed my nails into the muscular globes, but it was only when I scented his blood that I realized I’d broken skin.

  Darius grunted and thrust forward, deep into me with one, long stroke. I gasped as he filled me, stretching me so far I had to brace myself against him. When he withdrew, I felt the loss of him, the emptiness of where he had been. I didn’t have to wait long for him to move into me again though. He started with long slow thrusts, and as I started to meet him with my own hips, rocking them up to his, he picked up the pace. Soon, I couldn’t keep up with him, though not for lack of trying. When he felt me lose that ability, he flipped us over so I was on top.

  “Do you trust me, Mate?” he asked, eyes blazing up at me.

  I looked down at him and felt like a queen. Did I trust him? Without a doubt. But I needed a second just to take in the beauty of this man.

  His hair was splayed out on the pillow behind him, and his dark eyes looked more like the night sky in that moment than anything else. I felt like I could fall into them, fall into his very soul almost, until there was nothing left of the two of us, and just one being. Part of me felt the bonds with the others, and I knew that they were holding me back from doing that, not that I thought it would be a particularly good thing if I did. The bonds that flowed through the two of us were about more than just us, they were about the rest of the brotherhood as well.

  “I trust you,” I breathed.

  “Then allow me.” He placed his hands on my hips and lifted me, pumping me up and down on his cock without me doing any of the work. It was glorious. I tipped back so my hands were resting on those muscular thighs of his, and he helped me ride him until I started to play with myself again. The pleasure was too much and I wanted to crest the peak of an orgasm with him inside me, but not just his cock, his fangs too.

  “I want...” My voice trailed off as he filled me over and over again. My mind unable to focus on anything but the feeling of him inside me.

  “I know what you want, meum cor.” His voice was so full of affection that I felt it all the way down to my bones. He truly wanted me as his mate. I wasn’t a quick fuck, or a toy, or something to satisfy his hunger, I was so much more than all of those things to him. I could feel the truth of that thought through our bond, as clear as crystal, and I realized that my delaying of this moment had been born of immaturity and fear.

  But no more.

  It was time to grow up.

  Darius lifted me off his lap and spun me around so he was behind me. I was on my hands and knees when he thrust into me, and I couldn’t stop the moan that escaped me for love nor money. After a moment of him filling me like that and me letting him know how massive he felt at that angle through the noises that were escaping me, he lifted me up, wrapping his arm around my shoulders so he could hold me against him, my back to his chest.

  “Bite me, Mate,” he growled.

  With his arm so close to my mouth, all I had to do was bend my head down and bite. His blood flowed into me and I drank it down. It was like the most decadent dessert and the most luxurious feeling all at the same time, like I was eating the best cake between satin sheets on the world’s most comfortable mattress. I could still feel him moving in me, and with his blood pouring down my throat, I felt more connected to him than ever before.

  Darius’s lips traced the curve of my neck, before he nipped at the skin, making me shudder against him. The next moment his fangs were in me, I felt complete in the strangest way. The bond wasn’t cemented yet, but feeding off each other at the same time certainly put us a hell of a lot closer.

  He groaned at the taste of me, while his free hand stroked my stomach as it headed south. I wanted to moan in anticipation, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop drinking from him, and since he wasn’t letting up either, I figured he was fine.

  The second his fingers began playing with my clit, I could feel my orgasm building. It was like all the teasing earlier was still just below the surface, like that earth-shaking orgasm hadn’t quite satiated the need he had stoked like a fire. For a moment, it felt like we were frozen in time, feeding from one another as he fucked me and brought me ever closer to orgasm all over again.

  It felt like I’d had too much of his blood, like my stomach was actually full from all that I had consumed. I felt that I’d surely be draining him dry any second, and yet the compulsion within me was so strong I couldn’t break away from his arm.

>   Finally, I don’t know how long later, the trance broke. My orgasm rushed over me, and I felt my walls clenching around his cock. He thrust into me harder and faster than ever before, and joined me in his own pleasure. I felt him twitch and jerk inside me as he came, his come filling me the same way his blood was. The moment seemed to stretch out into forever as we were both rocked by our orgasms and the flow of our blood into one another.

  When the moment broke, it felt like a tuning fork had been struck inside me. Everything rang with a sudden clarity that I hadn’t had before, even in the fuzzy-headedness of post-orgasm. I was, thankfully, able to release his arm. Whatever compulsion had been pushing me forward before was gone. I licked the wounds to help them close, and savored any last droplets of blood that were there as I felt Darius do the same.

  We collapsed onto the bed, unconsciousness pulling at me faster than ever. I fought it, wanted to cuddle with my mate, to cement the tenderness that had grown between us as well as the mating bond.

  A deep chuckle came from Darius before he said, “You will always have tenderness from me. You can rest now without fear of losing it.” Then he kissed my lips. “Sometimes, Mate, you needs must deal with me when I’m nice.” Another kiss. “And when I’m nasty.”

  His arms pulled me close, my head resting on his chest as he protected me from whatever was to come. I felt safe, loved even. Feelings that I hadn’t anticipated or known I had in me erupted and my throat closed up, making me unable to speak for a moment.

  When I felt I could, I sighed and declared, “Mate, nasty or nice, you are mine.” It was the only response I could make before the darkness enveloped me.

  Darius

  For one so strong, my mate was vulnerable in ways I hadn’t counted on, and as I lay there, pondering that, a sudden scent filled my nostrils, and suddenly, everything clicked into place.

  Her hesitation.

  Her desire for me, and yet, her keeping herself apart from me.

  Ovulation.

  Such a rudimentary reproductive response.

  I should have known.

  Pursang females attacked their mates. They didn’t dither. Didn’t dally around waiting to secure the bond at the last moment when the instability of said bond could drive the female to madness.

  Females ovulated once every two years, and of course, I thought on a groan, Marcella’s had to hit right now when we’d consummated the bond. Her body had insisted on waiting, knowing that this was the height of her fertility.

  I wanted to curse, even as I accepted that it might be for the best. But, Maker, how could a babe at this moment in our lives be for the best? What was done was done. There was no morning after pill for us, not even condoms would work.

  Shit.

  I reached down and rubbed where she’d bitten me as hunger stirred in my belly. She’d almost drained me, and I’d need to feed before tonight, more than usual as well.

  Mated pairs weren’t rare, and most males knew the way of it when the heat struck. The female would sleep in between bouts of fucking and biting and feeding, and for Marcella? That was about to take on another intensity.

  The only trouble was, the last thing we needed was to compound the risk of pregnancy.

  In my head, I called out, Marcella is ovulating.

  There was radio silence for a handful of seconds then, Raven asked, How the fuck do you know that?

  I can smell it. How else? I frowned at the ceiling, wondering what the man thought was happening in this room.

  We can’t afford for her to get pregnant, Gideon said, his tone grim.

  I agree. But she’ll want blood and seed and very little else for the next forty-eight hours. The heat explained one thing—why her emotions had been so up and down of late.

  We can’t give her that, Keiran’s soft mental voice joined into the conversation.

  The blood we can do, Raven responded.

  It won’t be enough, Raven. We may have to restrain her, I warned, the notion making me wince.

  That isn’t necessary, Keiran argued, tone more strident now. I can lock her in a dream. Make her think you’re fucking her.

  I pondered that suggestion for a good two minutes, weighing the pros and cons. The biological need to reproduce won’t diminish with that. She wants cum. You know how pursang females are.

  Not really, Gideon retorted, voice dry. She’s the first pursang female we’ve been around longer than a few days. There’s learning from books and then learning from the flesh. Marcella fits no textbook description I’ve ever read.

  The others sent me grunts of agreement. Well, I can promise you, most are vicious, brutal, and make she-wolves look friendly. I sent them mental images of the state of some mated males I’d come across over the years post-heat.

  There were a lot of mental ‘fucks’ and ‘yikes’ and ‘holy shits.’

  Exactly, was my grim response. Pursang females are lethal. At least it explains why she’s been so rabid recently. I reached up and rubbed my chin. It might be wise to lock her in a dream, Keiran. One where she rests. She needs to sleep through it. Otherwise we’re fucked. There’s no way I’ll be able to evade her. She’ll drive me to fuck her. I thought back to mere moments before when she’d snapped my control as though it were nothing more than a fragile stem on a champagne glass. I’ll have no choice.

  Talk about thinking with your cock, Raven muttered, his disdain evident.

  Think about Marcella on an average day. She’s potent. Then think about that multiplied by ten.

  Did cementing the bond trigger her ovulation?

  Gideon’s question had me frowning. I doubt it, but all the blood and the sex has made her scent stronger. She’s coming into ovulation now. The deed might be too late. I’d go as far to say that Marcella, without knowing it, held off from completing the bond just to make sure she was at the optimal time for conceiving. If I’d known… I blew out a breath. If I’d known, so what? The Maker made it difficult for us to discern because if a male could evade the heat, he would. It’s not only a dangerous time, but a pregnant female is…

  Is what? Raven asked, his curiosity evident.

  In danger. The fetus can drain her. And the very prospect had my heart racing as though someone had pressed a two-ton bolder onto my chest.

  I’d only just found Marcella… I couldn’t live without her.

  Like in Twilight?

  I rolled my eyes at Barclay even though he couldn’t see them. How the hell would I know what happens in Twilight? I snapped, my rage exploding as fear overset me. I can understand Marcella’s rage now.

  What do you mean? Gideon asked.

  It all feels like we’re being forced in one direction, doesn’t it? Like we have no say in any of this. Like the Fates themselves are fucking with us. As if it wasn’t enough that we’ve been guided to this moment, now Marcella could get pregnant?

  Maker, that is messed up, Raven breathed.

  Keiran grunted. You’re being dramatic.

  No, I’m not. Everything happens for a reason, and I have to wonder why the Maker or the Sires would want Marcella to be pregnant.

  Any child would be yours—

  No, I countered, stopping Barclay in his tracks. You’ve all fucked her in the lead up to this moment, and our genetic material doesn’t have an expiration date. All those little swimmers you’ve been pumping inside her? Any that are still in there are alive and kicking.

  Fuck, that’s gross, Raven groaned.

  That’s nature. Nature wants our females pregnant. Our numbers are already not large enough by comparison to the humans. In my lifetime, we’d evolved. At the beginning of my life, a female had only been capable of carrying one child. Now? They could carry several. Evolution had made us compete with the humans, but we still weren’t fast enough.

  So, what you’re saying is any of us could be the fathers? Barclay asked, and I had to wonder how such a smart kid could ask such dumb questions.

  I’d slap you upside the head if you weren’t in the gym
, Keiran retorted. Use your fucking brain, dumbass. Yes, that’s what he’s saying.

  I blew out a breath. Keiran, place her in a deep sleep. One like the Headmaster of Westbrook’s.

  That will drain her.

  Better that than we impregnate her against her will.

  It might already be too late, Gideon retorted.

  It might, but that’s unknowingly. Marcella has to have a say in this or she’ll never forgive us.

  How very twenty-first century of you, Raven remarked.

  I didn’t bother replying to the smart ass, just maneuvered my way out of the bed when Keiran whispered in my mind, She rests.

  Blowing out a breath, I stated, Let’s meet in the kitchen. We need to come up with a game plan.

  You need to shower first, Barclay retorted. I can smell you all the way from the other side of the house.

  Though I huffed at the statement, I headed into the shower and quickly washed myself down. Drying off, I grabbed a pair of pants and shooting a look at my resting mate, I paused to watch her sleep. She seemed calm, wasn’t restless in any way that could trigger my concern.

  For a second, I stared at her naked stomach, so flat and toned now, while the Sires or the Maker himself apparently wanted otherwise.

  My jaw firmed as I moved away from the bed and toward the corridor. I met Raven on my way and we jerked our chins at each other before settling into the kitchen where we all gathered as I’d instructed.

  “You look like a beef rib that she’s been gnawing on,” Barclay commented, after drawing deeply on his water bottle.

  “I feel it,” I assured him. “I’ll need blood today.”

  “There should be some in the fridge,” Keiran replied, and without asking, he climbed to his feet and headed over to get me some.

  “Thank you,” I told him, my tone heartfelt as I palmed the bag of blood and began slurping on it straight from the container.

  For a second, the men just watched me, then they began snickering.

  “Never thought I’d see you do that,” Gideon remarked with a grin.