by Dia Cole
He gasped audibly, his eyes locked on my nipples. “We can’t… I can’t...” He slid his leather office chair back until it nearly smacked against the darkened two-way mirror. The conflicted emotions on his face told me his resolve was starting to crumble.
Good. Now to take him all the way. “You don’t have to touch me at all. What if I touched myself?” I ran my hand along the top of my breasts.
Nathan’s gaze tracked my fingers the way a predator locked on prey. He said nothing, but his breathing hitched as I toyed with my nipples.
I pinched one of the stiff peaks and then the other, not even trying to bite back my gasp of pleasure.
“Harder,” Nathan said in a voice so hoarse I didn’t understand him at first. “Do it harder.”
I smiled. He’s in the game now. Obediently, I increased the pressure on my nipples and moaned at the delicious pleasure-pain sensation. Unable to help myself, I rubbed my thighs together trying to ease the growing ache between them.
Nathan jumped to his feet. “That’s not enough. Not nearly enough.” He yanked open a desk drawer. After riffling through it, he pulled out two medium-sized binder clips and threw them down next to me. “Use these.”
I picked one up and pressed the tiny metal bands apart with my fingers. Damn. This is going to sting.
Nathan stood in front of me with his arms folded over his chest. He was clearly waiting to see if I was up for his challenge.
Not about to back down now, I positioned the first clip over my right nipple and clamped it. Biting back a cry of pain, I repeated the action with my left nipple. My sensitive flesh screamed at the intense pressure.
“Good,” he purred. “How does that feel?”
“It hurts,” I confessed, my eyes watering.
“But you like it, don’t you? You like a little pain with the pleasure. I can see it in your eyes.” He reached out and tapped one of the clips.
I let out a moan. Suddenly, the biting clamp of the binders felt good. So good. I tapped the other clip, loving how the motion sent streaks of pleasure straight through my breasts to my core.
Nathan made an approving noise. “Now spread your legs for me.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, knowing the proper response from years of my femdom role-playing. Drowning in anticipation and need, I slid to the edge of the desk and splayed my legs open.
Nathan stared down at the crotch of my black panties with a gaze so intense I thought the damp fabric would go up in flames.
He reached out as if to touch me there, then pulled his hand back. He shook his head, appearing to be warring with himself. “Touch yourself.”
A shiver of excitement ran through me. God, this is going to be so hot. Moving my hands as slowly as I could stand, I stroked my fingers across my fluttering stomach, then down my thighs.
Nathan made a sound of disappointment.
A rush of feminine power speared through me. I loved this feeling of control over him. Raising my hands, I hooked my fingers through the elastic sides of my panties and shimmied them down my legs. This time, when I spread my thighs and bared myself to Nathan he groaned.
“You’re so beautiful.” His golden eyes almost seemed to glow.
Giving him a seductive smile, I slid my hand between my legs. My fingers glided through my slick flesh, finding my clit. “Oh, God.” Temporarily forgetting that I was putting on a show, I pinched it between my forefinger and thumb and tugged. The spike of pleasure sent my back arching off the desk.
“Do that again,” Nathan demanded.
I pinched myself harder, this time coming so close to orgasm, I saw stars.
Nathan cursed, reached out, and pulled one of the binder clips off.
I hissed at the pins and needles sensation of blood returning to my engorged nipple. How can it hurt and feel so good at the same time?
“Don’t stop touching yourself,” Nathan ordered.
I rubbed my clit harder. My hips thrust against my fingers.
Nathan pulled off the second clip, his chest rising and falling faster. “You look so hot when you do that. Do you ever think about me when you touch yourself this way?”
I tilted my head up so I could stare into his burning eyes. “No.”
He frowned in obvious disappointment.
“I think about you when I’m doing this.” Never tearing my gaze from his, I slid two fingers inside my wet channel and rocked against them.
Nathan made a growling sound and then suddenly, he was on top of me pressing me back on the desk.
Yes! Our mouths fused together. His lips and tongue devoured mine. The soul-searing kiss made every rational thought in my mind scatter. The only thing that mattered was Nathan. As we broke for air, he licked and sucked his way down my neck. Oh God. This is happening, really happening. I wrapped my legs around his waist and boldly reached between us. I needed to touch him… to feel his raging desire for me. Only his cock wasn’t raging at all.
At my touch he jerked away cursing.
“Is something wrong?” It seemed like he was really into what we were doing, but obviously his body didn’t think so.
“No. Yes,” he panted. He turned away from me, but I could still see his tormented expression in the two-way mirror. He tugged on one of his wrist cuffs so hard it had to be digging painfully into his skin.
I tried to ignore the insistent throb at the center of my legs. “Is there anything I can do?” Maybe he was one of those guys who couldn’t get it up. Now that I thought about it that would actually explain a lot. Embarrassment and shame could be keeping him from pursuing relationships. From pursuing me.
He spun around, his eyes filled with some unnamed emotion. “I want you. Fuck. I want you so much, but I can’t…”
“It’s okay.” Filled with sympathy, I reached out to touch his arm.
He jerked away. “This was a mistake. We can’t ever be together. If she ever found out...”
“She?” Who’s she? I searched his face in mounting confusion. “Are you with someone?” Thus far, I’d never seen any evidence of another woman, but that didn’t mean squat. He could have women scattered all over the world and I’d never know. A ball of snakes began to writhe in my stomach. “Nathan, tell me. Are you with someone else?” Oh, God. What if he’s in a relationship?
He shook his head. “No. I’m not with anyone. I can’t be with anyone and that includes you. From now on you and I will no longer spend time together. I was a fool to think we could have any kind of relationship.”
A mixture of relief and confusion swirled inside me. “Don’t say that.” To have finally crossed the line and know for a fact that he wanted me as much as I wanted him blew my mind. We could work through whatever issues he had whether they were mental or medical. Together. “Look we don’t have to have sex. There are a lot of other things we can do.” I motioned down at the binder clips on the desk and gave him my most flirtatious smile.
He lifted his head, his lips curled back in a snarl. “No. You’re going to forget this ever happened.”
He didn’t honestly believe that, did he? The pussy was out of the bag so to speak. “Nathan—”
He cut me off by leaning down and staring me straight in the eyes. “Forget this encounter between us ever happened. You didn’t see me tonight, Vana. Run back to your room, climb into bed, and go to sleep.”
Sudden pain lanced my skull. With a cry I gripped the sides of my head with my hands and rushed straight to my room. Once there, I dove into the bed, and after briefly wondering why my nipples ached so badly, fell into a dreamless sleep.
12
Nathan
Lust and frustration whipped through me in equal measure as I watched Vana flee from my study. With a roar, I slammed my fist down on my desk. It went straight through the wood. Sharp pain radiated across my knuckles as blood poured out of the barely scabbed-over cuts from my brawl with the Bitter Lake Enforcer. Fuck!
To be so close to what I craved, but unable to have it was pure unadulterated hell
. Never had I wanted to mate a female so badly. Seeing Vana with those clips on her dusky nipples and her hand between her thighs ignited a desperate need to claim her. But I couldn’t. Not with the silver cuffs on my wrists. And to see the desire in her eyes turn to pity only added insult to injury.
My shoulders slumped as I walked back over to the couch and sat down. The hypnotic dance of the flames in the fireplace beckoned me back to the night my life changed forever.
There had been a crackling fire in Tasha’s receiving room hearth that night too. I’d paced in front of it for hours waiting for news from one of the midwives. As I wore tracks in the Persian carpet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that dozens of glassy eyes were following my movements. I swept my gaze over to the wall behind the massive gold embossed high-back chair sitting at the top of the three-stepped platform in the center of the room. There were close to fifty taxidermied heads mounted on that wall—some were wolf heads, some were human. All were visual symbols of what happened to Tasha’s enemies. I’d long suspected my head would eventually be added to the wall.
Tasha let out a bloodcurdling scream that carried all the way from her bedroom down the hall. I flinched, but not in sympathy for the Alpha female’s birthing pain, but because I knew my babe was coming soon. Despite my hatred for Tasha, I couldn’t help the excitement that gripped me at the thought of meeting our young.
“What an auspicious day,” exclaimed a raspy voice behind me.
I spun around to find an elderly Omega female carrying in firewood.
She was stooped over with age and struggled to carry her load.
“Let me assist.” I rushed to her side and grabbed the logs.
“You don’t need to do that, Councilman,” she panted.
“It’s nothing.” I carried the logs over to the hearth and added them to the pile on the iron rack.
She thanked me and I dimly remembered her as one of my and Ty’s boyhood caregivers. Although Tasha had rotated our nannies and tutors frequently to keep us, and them, from developing any attachments, the female’s rheumy blue eyes were familiar.
“Agnes, is it?”
Her craggy face broke out in a wide grin. “Yes. You remember me?”
I nodded. “You’d sneak me food after…” I looked over at the manacles hanging from the far wall. Not wanting to bring up Tasha’s torture sessions, I cleared my throat. “You were always giving me treats.”
Her smile faded. “It was the least I could do.” She made a clucking sound. “It was heartbreaking to see her beat you—”
Another one of Tasha’s guttural screams interrupted her.
Agnes snapped her mouth closed. “Well, it seems all’s well that ends well. Here you are fathering her young.” She gave me another smile, this one clearly strained.
"Yes," I confirmed. Although I didn't share the fact that the babe had only come about through force. When Tasha had come to me in heat, I’d refused to mate with her. Angered, Tasha had threatened to kill every servant in the house until I complied.
“Let’s hope to the fates the babe is a male, eh?” Agnes said, reaching around me to grab the fire poker.
I shrugged. “Female, male, it doesn’t matter.” I’d love and care for my young whatever their gender. Moreover, I’d do my best to protect them from their mother. As long as I drew breath, I’d make sure no child ever grew up at the mercy of that bitch again.
“B-but,” Agnes stammered, “she only allows the males to live.”
I froze. “What are you talking about?”
“She kills the females at birth,” Agnes whispered. “I thought you knew. Everyone knows.”
An ice-cold fist gripped my heart. “No,” I said, refusing to believe that the Beast would stoop low enough to murder her own infants. I knew there were rumors that she’d ordered the deaths of Alpha females born in the faction, but every time I’d confronted her about it she’d vehemently denied the claim.
Agnes’s pitying gaze made my stomach churn.
“She wouldn’t.” My denial sounded weak to my own ears. Tasha’s trophy wall seemed to be closing in on me.
Agnes leaned in close enough that I could smell the stale odor of her breath. “They said it’s because she was betrayed by her first daughter.”
A loud scream carried into the room followed by the piercing cry of an infant.
My babe! “Excuse me,” I said to Agnes. Then I rushed down the long hallway toward Tasha’s room.
The three midwives were just leaving the bedroom when I arrived. All wore pensive looks on their face.
I stopped the eldest midwife by stepping in front of her. “Is the babe healthy?”
The middle-aged female looked up at me, her eyes watering. “She was perfect, Councilman.” She ran around me, joining the others who couldn’t seem to rush down the hall fast enough.
“She was…” I repeated softly. No. Fuck no.
The two male Enforcers standing sentry by Tasha’s door tried to stop me from entering.
“Leave!” I shouted, turning my Alpha power on them.
The muscular warriors immediately backed away and then ran down the hallway after the midwives.
With a roar, I yanked opened Tasha’s bedroom door. The scent of blood and roses hung heavy in the air.
The Alpha female kneeled on her canopied bed, her golden hair in tangles. She wore only a gold silk robe that gaped open revealing the blood dripping down her thighs, but it was the sight of the sharp knife in her hands that forced my attention.
As I watched in horror, she raised the weapon over the mewling babe lying in front of her.
“Stop!”
She looked up at me, her eyes widening. “Nathan?”
Using every bit of my Alpha speed, I rushed to the bed and snatched the tiny blood-covered babe into my arms. The infant cried, but I didn’t dare look away from the Beast leaping off the bed.
“Give her back,” Tasha ordered. “She can’t be allowed to live.”
I gripped the babe tightly to my chest. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
“You’d dare challenge me?” Tasha threw off her robe, her jaw elongating. With a snarl, she contorted into the monstrous hybrid form only the true Originals could take. Course yellow hair sprouted all over her lupine body. Her snout peeled back to reveal jagged fangs as long as daggers as she drew herself back on two hind legs. The razor-sharp claws on her dinner-plate-sized paws made deep grooves in the wood floor as she stalked closer. In this form, she loomed over the squalling infant and me.
Damnation. She was the biggest, strongest, and most lethal Lykos in existence and anyone who challenged Tasha in this form or any other died, brutally. Think. Think. What does Tasha want most in this world? I held out my hand as if it would ward the Beast off. Power. She lusts for power. “Stop. I’m willing to make you a bargain. You can take my seat on the council if you let me keep the babe.”
The ravening beast cocked its head to the side and a second later Tasha morphed into her human form. The transformation wiped away the effects of childbirth. The bleeding was gone, her stomach was once again flat, and her tawny skin shone with health and vitality. Even the long hair framing her stunning face gleamed like spun gold. “Your council seat?” she purred, her yellow eyes glinting. For decades she’d coveted a place on the high council, but not even torture or threats had moved me to abdicate and give her that amount of power and control over our people. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Yes, I will step down effective immediately and name you as my successor.” Council seats were inherited by blood, but I couldn’t imagine any of the other council members challenging my will, not when it’d earn them the wrath of the Beast. “And you, in turn, will allow me to raise our young.” I looked down at the babe who was rooting against the inside of my arm. She’s hungry and cold. I snatched Tasha’s robe off the floor and bundled the infant inside it.
Tasha sniffed. “You’ll need to leave Winterhaven, I won’t have that—” she poin
ted at the infant “—in my home.”
“I’ll take her out of the country.” I’d raise the babe in Eastern Europe were there were no Lykos factions to threaten us.
“No!” her voice boomed. “You’ll take her to Saguaro Valley where you will remain as my personal ambassador.”
Chained to her bidding, for the rest of my life? Fuck. But what choice do I have? No other Alpha would dare openly go against Tasha and offer me and the babe sanctuary. However, I knew of dozens of factions that would seek the immediate extermination of the babe. “Agreed, if you swear never to come to my home and never to harm our daughter.”
She pursed her lips. “I’ll keep my distance until her first transformation.”
That was probably the best offer I was going to get. At least I had twenty years or so to figure out a plan for keeping the babe safe once she went through her transition into a full Lykos. And now for the other ultimatum. I took a deep breath and said, “I will also no longer be your consort.”
Her eyes flashed with anger. “You’ll be whatever I tell you to be, Nathan.”
I met her stare unflinchingly. “I won’t be your consort.” Never would I allow her to force another mating.
She let out a dark laugh. “Then you’ll be my eunuch.” She strode over to her bed and ripped down the silver shackles attached to the headboard. Wearing a menacing smile, she tore the chains from the metal cuffs. “Hold out your wrist,” she ordered.
I transferred the sleeping babe from one arm to the other while Tasha cinched the metal cuffs around my wrists. Immediately, I felt the draw on my energy. My muscles weakened and my stomach churned with nausea.
“As long as you wear these, I’ll hold up my end of the bargain. But you won’t be able to transform, or heal, or screw anyone while you wear them.”
Sweat beaded my forehead. To my knowledge no Lykos forced to wear silver for an extended period survived with their sanity intact. In decades past, it was used as a punishment for criminal offenses before the council had deemed it too cruel.