Strange how the heart worked. Even as her chest spiked with jealousy at the thought of Rafesson laying with a human woman before her, it also ached for him. She did not need the mate bond to sense how hard this must have been for Rafes, to never be able to enjoy the company of another without fear of his wolf.
“But then came the one night I didn’t jump out of bed. It was late. We’d finished up this eight-hour take home exam and decided to celebrate. The last thing I remember is closing my eyes and telling myself it would just be for a second. But when I woke up…”
The image of a crying brunette crouched by a door and bleeding from several scratches and bites, flashed across Myrna’s vision so starkly, she knew it had to be the human of whom Rafesson spoke.
“My wolf didn’t kill her, but it came close. My father gave her a huge settlement and arranged a job for her in Wyoming with my aunt and uncle, who were the King and Queen at the time. She went into heat a few years after taking the job, and now her children are werewolves, too. And their children will be werewolves. All because I let myself close my eyes…just for a second. So yeah, saying the wolf has brought me great shame is an understatement. I’ll never forgive it. Never forgive myself.”
As good as he felt between her legs, Myrna resented the knot in that moment. For did she wish fervently to turn over in his arms and draw her mate close.
“Rafesson…” she started to say.
“You know what, I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” he said. And though his voice was quiet, his words jolted her, because they were spoken out loud. “Thank you for handling the wolf. Let’s leave it at that. You need your rest.”
He was back, she sensed. The robot president who didn’t want to talk. Never wanted to connect. And refused to let her see his wolf.
She ached to refute him. To answer his command with a soft kiss. But they remained locked into place. And he was right about her needing her rest. With just a few moments of quiet, she could feel the darkness, rising up to make its own claim of her body.
So she settled for stroking his arm, now stiff and rigid around her waist, and pushing the understanding he did not wish her to speak out loud over their mate bond.
Tomorrow…she vowed to herself. Tomorrow would be different.
32
Rafes
Tomorrow was different.
Rafes woke up with Myrna in his arms, her body warm and sweet as a hug…even as a thousand plus biomessages from his team began to download into his mind.
On an impulse, instead of muting the notifications as he had the last time he woke up beside his sleeping mate, or even changing his status to Do Not Disturb Save For Emergency, he turned his biosystem off. Just completely turned it off.
In the blink of an instant, everything went quiet inside his head. Leaving nothing but the memory of Myrna’s sweet and husky voice.
And yeah sure, he experienced a few moments of strangeness at not being in constant communication or knowing exactly what time it was down to the second. Other than that…yeah, he liked this feeling of finally being fully alone with his she-wolf. Liked it a lot.
For the first time in his entire post-adolescent life, he gazed down at a female without fear of hurting her. The wolf had stilled inside of him. Not gone by any means, but no longer lurking just under his surface, threatening, threatening with every breath. For this, he found himself beyond grateful to the she-wolf dozing beside him, and that feeling made him want to kiss her awake for reasons that had nothing to do with her still being in heat.
But she needed her rest, so Rafesson forced himself to just lie there and hold her like she deserved to be held.
He could hear people moving around in the kitchen. Probably a skeleton staff of seniors beyond heating age, sent in to see to his needs while he and Myrna went through the heat process. And though his wild Viking princess probably wouldn’t have cared, he didn’t like that she was just laying out here in the hallway with him, naked and exposed. He should cover her up, carry her back to the room and call down for some food like the gentleman he’d been pretending to be his entire campaign.
But then her heat smell released. Dark and rich and utterly irresistible.
“Rafesson…” she mewled in that strange accent of hers with her eyes still closed. Her hand reached down, and she started rubbing at herself in her sleep.
All gentlemanly thoughts disappeared, his cock going from half-mast to excruciatingly hard. His eyes glowed hot as he pulled her fingers out of her pussy, then rolled on top of her, pinning her devious hand above her head.
“I’m here, baby, I’m right here. I‘ve got you,” he pushed into her mind at the same time he thrust into her soft, tight welcoming heat.
It felt like coming home. And though the wolf no longer rode him, threatening to rise at any second, Rafes soon lost control, taking Myrna with such sloppy urgency, it bordered on crazed.
And as for Myrna…well, she only made it worse.
“Oh, fenrir mine, what a wonderful way to be awakened,” she murmured inside his head. “You are so very huge and thick inside of me. I am so full of you. And I can feel myself—oh…ohhhh!”
She came then, her pussy tightening around his cock so ferociously, Rafes released before he was nearly ready, with a sharp kick of pleasure down his shaft.
“Fuck, Myrna,” he cursed out loud, simply unable to understand how anything could feel this damn good as his head fell to her shoulder.
Heaven. Being inside of her was heaven. Her body was his church and all he wanted to do was praise her.
And so that was what he did. Pushing in even deeper, he knotted inside of her, then carried her up two flights of stairs with her naked and locked on to his dick. Again, not a look befitting a president, but guess what? He didn’t give a good goddamn.
Upstairs in his room, he laid her down gently underneath him, then rocked inside of her. Experimenting with the knot, until…mission accomplished. She stopped moaning and began to scream. Yep, coming all the way up to his sound proof bedroom, had definitely been a good idea. And though he was beginning to treasure this she-wolf above all others, he circled his hips cruelly, grinding into her G-spot until she passed out, still keening his name.
He ended up watching her for a long time as she slept, her pussy still pulling powerfully on his dick despite her unconscious state. God, she was mesmerizing. He couldn’t look away. Couldn’t keep his hands out of her bushy red locks, even though his Aunt Tu had warned them on more than one occasion against touching a black woman’s hair without permission.
But this was different. Because this woman was like no other he’d ever encountered. And because this woman was his. Those two thoughts made both him and his wolf growl with happiness as Rafes, too, fell asleep.
When he woke up the next time, there was a note waiting by the door with something he didn’t see much of these days. Actual physical handwriting. But he guessed it had been necessary, since he’d turned off the room, too, not wanting even the smart walls to see all the things he’d do to his irresistible mate in his now priority number one mission to put a baby inside of her.
TRAY OUTSIDE DOOR, the note said, and Rafes’s stomach growled in appreciation when he opened up his room to see a tray overflowing with drumsticks, sausages, breads, and fruit.
However, his mood soured when he came back into the room with the food and found Myrna, now sitting up in his bed and looking around, her eyes wide with shock.
He imagined what she was thinking, taking in his barebones room. There was little to no furniture beyond the bed. Instead of hand knotted oriental rugs like the ones gracing the floors of every other room in The Wolf House, his bedroom floors had been covered in black rubber mats. And even though his smart walls no longer glowed, she had to notice the custom grating lining each wall of his room. It was the same kind used in police dog training facilities, and he’d installed it himself, because he’d been so intent on keeping his secret from The Wolf House IT staff.
“Not what you expected, huh?” he said setting down the tray—on the bed, of course, since there wasn’t a side table in this room. Or any other piece of furniture his wolf could destroy.
She turned her brown gaze back to him, and he hated the pity he saw in her eyes. “Your wolf?” she asked quietly.
“No, this is part of that new caged dog interior design trend everybody wants in their home,” he answered through clenched teeth.
Myrna considered his words, then asked, “This is the sarcasm again, yes?”
“Yes,” he admitted. Feeling like a grumpy idiot. “But I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just eat before you get hit with another heat wave.”
Myrna reached out for a drumstick and started eating, but soon he felt her gaze drift back to him. And this time instead of speaking out loud, she pushed the words into his head, “You are a very honorable wolf, fenrir mine, and I understand now why what passed between you and that human female still burdens you with great guilt. Why you’ve held on to your wolf so tight all of these winters. But I am here now, Rafes. And the gates sent me to you for a reason. This burden you have been carrying alone now belongs to the both of us. What you perceive as your greatest shame, I only see as a lack of wolf training. This I can help you with. For that reason alone, I am glad the gates called me to your side.”
He stared at her.
And she looked back at him, her gaze becoming soft and quizzical. “I can never read your body language…but there is a new feeling coming from our connection now. It is fierce…and warm. I have not angered you with my words?”
“No,” he answered out loud. “You have not angered me all.”
“Then why do you look at me like this?” she asked, her face no longer closed off as it had been at yesterday’s breakfast, but open…and confused.
“Because you’re perfect,” he pushed along their link. “So perfect.”
Her breath caught at his words, and she said, “No, Rafesson, I am not perfect. I am truly not.”
As she spoke those words, a sharp spike of shame lit up their mate bond. And this time, that shame wasn’t his own.
Rafes frowned, immediately wanting to know why his seemingly happy-go-lucky she-wolf would be harboring a secret shame. But this time had to be used wisely, so he let her eat in silence, because he knew it was more important for her to get some food in between heat waves.
But he watched her as she ate. Hating the way she kept her eyes downcast as she made quick work of three chicken legs, a piece of bread and two large bunches of green grapes.
“I am satisfied,” she eventually said, returning the last empty grape stem to its plate.
Rafes set the tray on the floor and then climbed back into the bed, settling against the headboards. “Come, sit between my legs. Rest until the next heat comes,” he said, beckoning her forward.
She hesitated, then crawled over.
He’d been trying to be nice, but the sight of her on her hands and knees, her full breasts hanging down had an immediate effect. And she slowed, watching as his cock became a thick staff right before her eyes.
She then looked up at him, her eyes as beguiling as a fucking siren, right before her heat scent filled the room like a scream.
There was no rest to be had then. Rafes grabbed her and seated her on his dick. Then he sank his teeth into her shoulders as he worked her hips up and down on his cock.
She came with a long moan just a few minutes later. And he wasn’t far behind, his cock jerking wildly as he coated her slick walls with his release.
They breathed together. Coming down together. Not hugging each other but holding on to one another as if they were the only safe place in the entire world. At least that was what it felt like to Rafes.
“My wolf comes out when I sleep. That’s why my room looks like this. Why only the cleaning robots are ever allowed in here,” he told her as they clung to each other. “But now you’re here. And I couldn’t be happier about that.”
She drew back, looking down at him with gentle eyes as her pussy milked his dick. “I please you?” she asked, her entire face lighting up at the notion.
“Myrna, you have no fucking idea how much you please me.”
That did it. The surprising shame from earlier disappeared from their mate bond and her over wide smile came back like a friend, long lost but not forgotten. “Thank you for these words, fenrir mine. I can tell from our mate bond, you do mean them.”
He could have left it there. He thought about letting her fall asleep on his knot, peaceful and distracted from whatever had ruined her mood earlier.
But no…
“I told you mine. Now comes the part where you tell me yours,” he said, instead of conducting another G-spot investigation with his knot.
“Tell you my what?” she asked, resting her head on his shoulder, with obvious plans to go to sleep in this much more comfortable position.
“What happened before me? Why did you come through that portal single at the age of thirty-two when most she-wolves didn’t make it to the age of eighteen without getting mated off back in the Viking age?”
She stiffened in his arms. And he suspected she would have raised up and left him here in this bed if she weren’t locked on to his dick. “I wish not to speak on this topic. You should let me rest,” she said. “Is that not what you told me last night?”
Touché. However… “It’s a new day. Yesterday, I would have died before letting anybody in here to see this room. But here we are.”
“It is not the same,” she insisted. But then her voice appeared once again inside his head: “You suffer from an untrained wolf. But as for me, it is my human who has rendered me ever the maid. You see there was a male I was engaged to at the age of sixteen winters. He was from a land called Jelling to south of us and his father wished to make an alliance with mine, uniting all the wolves of the south and the north. My father was very excited by this prospect as he wished to leave FJ a kingdom even more vast than the lands he currently oversaw. And my marriage to the Jelling king’s son was welcome to me, because the Jelling prince had a reputation throughout both the north and the south. They said he was as handsome as the sun and as wise as a spring rain after a fire.”
A bitter spike of jealousy arced through him at hearing Myrna speak so complimentary of another man. But he held his tongue, sensing that this story was about to take a turn. “The troubadours were wrong?” he guessed.
“No, they were quite right, in truth,” Myrna answered. “He was quite pleasing to look at. And even his father’s men sought out his advice, even though he was not yet king. He brought me a necklace made of precious gems mined from his father’s lands as an engagement present, and even though I cared not for jewelry I was well-pleased with the match and many of my friends told me how fortunate I was to have been gifted such a mate. I thought he was wonderful. But he…”
Myrna took a deep breath before continuing with, “He did not feel the same about me. During the feast to celebrate our engagement, I noticed him growing more and more quiet the further he got into his cups. At first, I paid no mind of it as FJ was quite the same, sinking deeper into his own counsel with the more wine and beer he took. However, after a time the Jelling prince abruptly stood up from the table and left without a further word to me or my family. The Jelling king followed soon after. And again, I might have not concerned myself. But the Jelling prince and his father remained outside for a very long time…”
Rafes listened intently, feeling as if he was reliving the story along with her, as her heightened emotions thrummed over their mate bond.
“And thus, did I become suspicious when my friend Torhild, a brown wolf, whose father hailed from the Jelling region, returned to the hall, his skin as pale as snow. I often wonder what would have happened if I had not followed that suspicion through. If I had remained in my seat until the Jelling prince returned to the hall with a false smile upon his face. But before you I had always been a she-wolf who spoke and acted befo
re thinking, no matter how my parents chastised me afterward. And so, I went to Torhild, asked if he had heard something. He answered that he wished not to tell me. Not to offend me. But I insisted that I wanted to know….”
Again, she stopped, anger and shame washing over her, even as she held Rafes tighter. As if he was the only thing keeping her from fully sinking back into the past. "And perhaps, because we have been friends since both of us were pups, he told me what he had overheard. The Jelling prince yelling at his father about this match. He had no idea I would be so dark. He’d had yet to raid with the rest of the Jelling wolves and therefore had never seen the likes of people like my mother and myself. Unfortunately, he did not look upon the different color of my skin as a mark of exotic beauty, as my father had with my mother. In fact, he did not like my wide nose or my bushy hair or the way I laughed, loud and savage with no refinement whatsoever. He lamented all of this to his father and perhaps much worse. Torhild had no wish to hurt me, and I suspect he only reported the mildest of the Jelling prince’s rebukes. However, it was enough.”
She went quiet then, but Rafes suspected she hadn’t finished the story. “Tell me. All of it. What happened next?”
Myrna shook her head against his shoulder. “You must understand, my parents’ story was considered very extraordinary. True fated love was not common in our village. And like you, everybody expected something of me. That I would be married off to whomever would provide the best alliance to my father. A good she-wolf princess would have married him anyway if only to unite the two kingdoms. I discovered that night I was not a good princess.”
She sighed, her breath warm but sad on Rafes’s neck. “I have always had too much of what my mother calls pride. I could not bring myself to marry someone who thought so poorly of me, who lamented the very thought of spending the rest of his life with me. However, I also knew that if I relayed the Jelling Prince’s words to my father, things would unfold very badly after my confession. My father abides no insult when it comes to his children or his wife. He would have cut the Jelling Prince down right there in our hall, and his father, too. I did not wish for there to be a war between our lands. So without telling my father why, I called the wedding off and refused to meet with the Jelling prince again. The Jelling king was very upset, but I could see the relief on the Jelling prince’s face as he and his father sailed away.
The Brothers Nightwolf Trilogy Page 65