Inhaling, I froze. Wrenching my head upward, I locked eyes with Sascha as heat filled me. A heat I knew.
A heat I wanted.
Crying out, I rested forward on my knees, widening my thighs in invitation as my hands swept my body. “Sascha.”
His voice choked, and he came for me.
As I wanted him to.
A smile crossed my lips.
He found me, hands gripping my ass to bring our naked bodies flush. The feel of our skin touching was bliss. The inferno in me climbed higher as his lips brushed my neck, inciting heatwaves that rocked me to my very core.
“Inside,” I ordered in a hoarse voice.
Gazes locked, Sascha blinked a few times, body shuddering. “Mate—”
“Not mate.” I brushed my hands across the broad expanse of his chest. We’d fit perfectly—him inside me. The ultimate pleasure awaited, and my legs trembled where I sat on his lap, ankles hooked at his lower back. Even pressed against him like this, the sensation was otherworldly.
My head tipped back, a desperate noise leaving my lips. “I need you, Sascha.”
“You—”
His voice choked again, and I frowned, anger sweeping through me. I gripped his face, straightening to scowl at him. “Now.”
He tried to turn his head away and I dragged him back, grinding down on him.
Black flooded his eyes and he shoved me away.
Sprawled on the forest floor, I snarled up at him, attempting to stand on wobbling legs so I could pounce on the naked male.
Naked male.
Hold on.
I—
I lifted a hand to my forehead, steadying myself on the rise behind me. The inferno firing my body was almost painful.
Only one person could help it go away.
Shaking, I looked at Sascha. Black eyes. He was shaking too.
“No,” I whispered. I didn’t want this. This was the mating call. The heat!
Legs folding—or more collapsing—into the kneeling position, I forced my weakened arms to assume the cleopatra position.
The words.
What were the fucking words?
My voice failed me, but I shoved the words out of my raw, aching throat. “Doore koh e baka.”
Shuddering, I crumpled on the shingled ground, unable to help myself as my head slammed into a thick root.
Frantic footsteps.
The most intoxicating smell I’d ever experienced. I inhaled deeply, unable to stop myself.
Hands swept my body, turning me.
“Andie. How—?” Horrified honey eyes stared down at me, and I was too tired to look away.
His hands trembled as he gathered me in his arms.
“Beautiful wolf, what happened?” He sounded close to tears, and a fat tear of my own slipped unbidden over my temple.
I shivered as he cradled me closer. “You weren’t meant to find out.”
Black closed in on his vision and I watched him battle it back, more than aware, now, of the war raging within him. Sascha didn’t completely win. Gravel rode his voice hard. “The wolf in Water did this? This is why you hid from me and changed your mind about the meets.”
A furious growl ramped in his chest, and a wrinkle formed between my brows at the way the sound made me feel.
Safe.
In a word, with my new ears, Sascha’s voice was wondrous.
His smell. His touch. The way he sounded.
They made me realise I’d never marvelled before.
I squeezed my eyes shut, repeating, “You weren’t meant to find out.”
“You went through your first shift alone.” He sounded broken beyond words. “You could have died. You should be dead.”
That opened my weary eyes again. “Really?”
“A wolf can’t shift without their alpha in attendance. The entire pack usually calls to the new wolf to help them. But I have no link to your Luther form.” His expression blanked. “Your wolf is a sigma.”
Clever cookie. Knew he’d put two and two together. “She is.”
He squeezed me to him gently. “Do you know how lucky you are? Any other status and you’d be dead.”
Which meant he’d also be dead.
My eyes drifted closed. “I need to get back. What’s the time?”
“Just past midnight. Your howl woke me. And the pack. Fuck,” he whispered into my hair. “I thought it was a dream. Your howl is the most beautiful sound—I couldn’t believe my ears. You’re a wolf.”
The glee in his voice was unmistakeable.
“This doesn’t change a thing, Sascha. Aside from us moving through the meets now I’ve scented you or whatever.”
He started walking us back through the forest, and I couldn’t summon the energy to care that he was holding me.
“You’re wolf form is exquisite,” Sascha said after a while. “I’ve never seen a red wolf before. You stole my breath away.”
The pleased feeling rising through my chest was foreign. Your crush will never see the light of day, I told her.
Displeasure replaced the pleased feeling, and my arm jerked, fingers squeezing Sascha’s bicep.
My eyes widened. Stop that.
You’re the one that wanted to share both forms, she taunted.
“I didn’t know she was red,” I said in a strangled voice.
“Do you feel anything else around me now you’re a wolf?” He ducked us beneath a low-hanging branch.
We were back at the lake, and he was thankfully not going to mention the small bicep-groping incident.
I stopped fighting my eyelids. “You sound good. And smell good too. It feels good to touch you.”
Understatement of the millennium.
“Thank you.”
“Not a compliment.”
His lips brushed my forehead, and I let him do it. Kind of impossible not to at this point. My body was packing up for the day. Or night. But one thing bothered me. “Thank you for stopping me. Earlier.”
We’d be three orgasms deep by now if he didn’t shove me away. From what I understood, a female Luther’s heat completely took over a male. I couldn’t imagine how much control it took him to separate us.
What if the male wolf didn’t want the female? I’d always looked at this as Sascha using his power and knowledge to take advantage of me. Really, women got the most choice in this. What if Sascha hadn’t always wanted me? He’d be a slave to the heat regardless.
My heart panged.
I fucking hated these meets.
“I’m glad you weren’t forced to do anything you’d later regret and hate me for,” he said mildly.
Blood crept into my cheeks. “I’m glad I didn’t force you to do anything you didn’t want to do.”
“There’s no danger of that, beautiful wolf. I assure you.”
Looked like sleep wasn’t happening just yet. I slitted my lids to watch him. The harsh line of his jaw was just visible through the tangled strands of his shoulder-length brown hair. My stomach clenched and I tensed at the surge of need.
That felt way more intense than usual. Almost like the pain I felt in the heat.
Sascha’s nostrils flared and he stopped short, staring at me.
Even I could smell my… want. Lust? Fucking embarrassing was what it was. That his lust rose hard and fast in response only lessened my mortification by a sliver.
“That’s just, uhm, leftover.” I pressed a hand to my cheek in case Little Miss Grope took over again.
The massive werewolf didn’t stop his stare. “Is it?”
Was he asking himself that question or me? “It feels kind of like the heat, but I’m not mindless.”
His eyes rounded a fraction.
“What is it?” I asked. Was this unusual or something?
Sascha pressed his lips together. “We’re not ready for sex, little bird.”
That’s a shame. Because in this state—vulnerable, tired, and horny as hell, I was more than ready to make a delicious mistake. “Why? Out of interest
?”
Sascha walked us to a boulder lining the lake and sat down, still holding me close. “From what I witnessed between you and Logan, you use sex as a weapon. Or at the very least, you don’t view sex as emotional. More a need to be fulfilled rather than something… more.”
My mouth dried. An angry retort balanced on my lips, but I refused to give it voice. That wasn’t how I used sex at all. I liked sex. Sex was fun. It felt good.
And boy, had it been a long time. My eyes narrowed. Are you influencing me somehow?
My wolf didn’t answer.
Dang. This was all me.
I looked up at him. “I thought you wanted me.”
“I want you so much that I cannot take that gift from you yet. Not like this. Not until we are one in other ways.”
Yeah, he really wasn’t getting the memo on that front.
I winced as the ache between my thighs became acute. Seriously, it was out of control.
I needed to get home to deal with it myself.
“But I am a man who takes care of his mate’s needs.” Sascha’s voice hitched.
Warmth pooled in my belly. “What do you mean?”
Please mean what I think you mean.
His expression was solemn. “If it comes down to me having front row seats to what will inevitably happen or imagining what you’re doing to yourself for the hour after I drop you home, I choose the front row seats. No sex doesn’t mean we can’t touch.”
My chest rose, and I processed for the first time that we were both naked. He’d been clinical until now, but that dam broke as he dragged his gaze to my breasts and across my stomach.
“Andie,” he said softly. “It comes with conditions.”
“What?” I breathed.
I wanted his hands on me, his mouth on my breasts, and his fingers crooking in just the right spot.
Now.
He didn’t do it. “You tell me, truly, that it’s what you want. That you won’t regret it.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
I bared my teeth, feeling my claws lengthen, and he grinned. “Easy, beautiful wolf. You know this is important.”
A foreign agreement, and my claws receded. You’re an absolute sucker, I told her.
“I want this. And I won’t hold it against you after,” I said.
This wasn’t the magic-mating voodoo forcing us together. This was me, horny as hell and after a solution from a male that I’d always found attractive. I didn’t have to agree with what he was or who he was to get off.
Sex was a business deal.
I traced a finger over his pec muscles, sucking in a breath at the sensation.
“Second condition,” he said hoarsely. “You let me help you learn to be a Luther.”
“No. I can figure it out.” My wolf agreed with that—and no wonder with her stance on rules and others.
“Yes,” he breathed. “Or I won’t bury my face between your legs.”
I stared wide-eyed at him as the visual of that pulsated exactly where he intended to relocate. I’d always been easier to convince when horny. “I shifted by myself.”
Sascha lay me back over the boulder. He put distance between us, and I closed my legs as he left the frame of them. “There are things you must know. For your safety. The pack’s safety. For humans’ safety too.”
And to help the stewards in the game. Really, I shouldn’t turn this offer down. “It will be hard to get away from tribal lands.”
“You’ve moved to a cabin on the outskirts. We’ll manage.”
Of course he knew about that. Sigh. “Once it’s done. Once I’ve learned what I need to. Things will return to normal. We’ll get the mating call over with. Things between us will officially end. None of this ever comes to light. Not me being a Luther. Not anything we’ve shared. Not the mating call. Nothing.”
The full moon didn’t leave room to miss the sadness in his honey gaze. “You shouldn’t feel ashamed of what you are, little bird.”
Shame?
Yes, I was fucking ashamed. Out here like this? I could marvel at the powerful creature I’d become. I could be curious about the new presence within me and what she might offer.
When I stepped onto tribe land, that stopped. I could only hide what I was from those who would view me as a monster.
Shame?
I felt so much shame that adding another piece of it right now was nothing.
“I’ve agreed to your terms, Luther.” I wet my lips. “Will you deliver?”
A growl rumbled in his chest. “I’ve waited months to deliver. You’re certain?”
My need for completion was making sleep seem like a tiny whim. I couldn’t rest until he touched me. “Make me come, Sascha.”
I wasn’t rusty in that department at least.
His eyes blazed. That was all I saw before he leaned over and took one of my nipples in his mouth. My lips parted and I slapped my hands down on the rock that would be cold if I wasn’t running so damn hot.
“Oh my god,” I whispered as he lapped and circled, biting softly.
The Luther smiled against my skin, fingers rolling my other nipple as he whispered scalding kisses across my middle.
Down.
My fingers found his hair, helping him, but he resisted my none too gentle pushes, turning his attention to my left knee. A kiss.
Right knee, just a little higher. A kiss.
Left, higher.
Right, higher.
He drew closer to my core at an excruciating pace, left to right, inching upward.
I whimpered as he kissed the crease at my inner thigh. “Please, Sascha.”
“No.”
Scowling, I tried to line my pelvis up with his mouth, and he clamped down on me.
As a werewolf, I was stronger than I could’ve ever imagined.
He was stronger.
Stronger than I could fathom. Unless he wanted to move me, I wouldn’t budge an inch.
The pain was almost at exploding point. “You promised to help.”
“Little bird,” he hummed against the edges of my core, making me arch—the only movement afforded by his iron hold on my lower half.
Honey eyes burned over the flat plane of my stomach, between the valley of my breasts, to bore their way into me.
Sascha lowered his head, kissing my core.
My eyes fluttered shut as I left for a moment.
Heat flushed my body in a wave that promised the start of something unfathomable as I slammed back down.
Fuck.
He kissed me again, just as slow, and my thighs began to shake.
Once more.
“Faster,” I begged.
He watched me like I was his favourite show. I didn’t want him to see me come apart like this.
“Close. Your eyes,” I moaned.
Sascha arched a brow. “No.”
My fangs and claws lengthened at the refusal, but my mind stalled as Sascha dragged his tongue from my ass all the way up.
A desperate cry left my lips and I felt that initial step from pain to pleasure. I needed him to lick me for all he was worth.
I needed fast. Hard.
Over.
Done.
Another slow lick. Actual tears welled in my eyes. “Please. I can’t take it anymore.”
Sascha latched directly onto my clit and sucked hard.
I screamed. I screamed bloody murder, using my entire strength to buck against his face as my body catapulted into something so powerful, it couldn’t possibly be an orgasm.
But it was.
God, it was.
He released his hold. Freed, I circled and ground against his mouth with abandon, using the tongue he so nicely kept out.
My hips jerked, slower and slower until I collapsed on the boulder. He followed me down, and I panted, writhing as Sascha continued sucking and lapping relentlessly.
Oh—
Arms wide either side, I shook from a violent aftershock as Sascha released my sen
sitive flesh.
I thumped my head against the rock, gasping for air.
I couldn’t speak. There weren’t words.
“I’m so fucking hard.” Sascha rested his forehead against my thigh. “That was, without doubt, the sexiest thing I will experience in my life.”
He regarded me, and I couldn’t find the will to close my trembling legs. “You taste incredible, mate.”
“Thank you,” I said. More for the sexual favour than his taste buds’ approval.
My core throbbed angrily. The pain there though less was still present.
I hesitated.
He stood, smiling. “More, beautiful wolf?”
I broke our stare. “It’s okay.”
If this was what the after-effect of a denied heat was now I’d become a Luther, I’d hate to actually go through a heat.
Sascha stopped me rolling off the boulder with a hand on my stomach. “I’m not done with you.” He glanced down. “Do you mind if I deal with this at the same time?”
I fanned my lashes to look at his erection. “Oh. Okay. That’s… fair.”
“Does the thought make you uncomfortable?”
The amusement in his voice had me snapping my gaze up again. “Do what you need to, Sascha.”
His lips twitched. “Don’t mind if I do.”
I watched as he took hold of something I’d ignored pretty well until now, given the size. I tried not to react as he moved his hand up and down in slow, firm strokes.
Not reacting was well and good until we could both smell my mounting approval of his actions.
Fuck my life.
Sascha was done laughing, however.
This time he didn’t bring his head between my legs. He released himself, and pinned me again, working a large finger inside. I was so wet, his finger slid in, but—as before—he kept the pace excruciatingly slow.
Pricks of pleasure lit my body, tingling in my arms and spine. It was like someone slowly turning up the wattage.
I’d never felt anything like this.
“Are you going to scream again, Andie?”
My claws scratched against the boulder, seeking purchase. “I hope so.”
His chuckle was deep. It filled me as surely as his finger.
He took himself in hand again, stroking slowly, in time to the sliding movement of his finger.
Was he making this feel like sex on purpose? My need just slightly outweighed my embarrassment, but I wished he’d stop looking at me that way. Timing the movement of his hips and the push of his hand between my thighs.
Moon Claimed: Supernatural Battle (Werewolf Dens Book 2) Page 11