by Ana Calin
“And now you and your brothers are here to take over control because you feel this town and its women belong to you. But that’s not better, Nero. We want freedom, we want to come and go as we please, live as we want, like everyone else.”
“That’s not possible for a very simple reason—if the serpents can’t have you, as soon as you’re unprotected they will kill you all.”
“But if they wanted to kill us, couldn’t they have done it from the start? Why take over this town, why keep it in their hands for so long, when they could have simply wiped it out?”
“This is where the elite comes in, people like your father.”
“My dad?”
“My brothers went a little deeper with the research after we settled here because they asked themselves the same questions. Turns out that was the original plan of the serpents, killing the people of this town. After they wiped out the werewolves in the great massacre, including the elders and our parents, they came to do the same to Darkwood Falls. But by that time the town had developed a bit, and some of the women had sons that had made fortunes due to their unusual abilities—the hybrids weren’t werewolves, because they hadn’t been conceived by werewolves with fated females, but they did have unusual strength, speed, and some had supernatural abilities. They had made money, contacts, they had power, so they had something to offer the serpents. This is how an alliance came to be. Your father’s ancestor was among the most powerful men in town.”
Princess stares at me with an open mouth as she listens to the story.
“My God.” Then, after she regains some of her composure, “Does that mean that my dad has supernatural abilities or something? Because I can’t imagine—”
“No, the hybrids didn’t mate with supernaturals, so their abilities got diluted over time. Only the females retained the gene of the Fated Female from the original werewolves. That’s something that doesn’t go away, not even after thousands of years.”
Princess ponders, looking all over my body as if she can understand the story better by doing that.
“Do you think I’m a fated female?” She whispers. She wrings her hands, anxious about the answer.
“Yes,” I reply, as even and cold as I can.
“But not for you.” It’s not a question, which is the only reason why I can withhold the answer. My feelings for her storm inside of me, whirling in my chest. I want to grab her shoulders, look her in the eye and tell her that I imprinted on her, but that I have to let her go because making her mine would put her in as much danger as being out there for the serpents to grab.
She nods at my silence, disappointed. “I understand. Well, then, you won’t mind if I tell you this—” She gives me a defying glare. “I am a sensual woman with a hot temperament. I didn’t obey Sullivan back in his day, and went looking for fun with men, and I will continue to do that. If you don’t want it to be Ramses or strangers, fine, but in that case I will accept one of the locals. There is someone in town who’s been interested in me for a while now, and I intend to go out with him soon. Just so you know.”
Every word is a blade through my heart, even though I’m aware she just wants to hurt me. It’s working.
“You mean you’d accept a man you don’t even like because you need sex, no matter how meaningless?”
“It won’t be meaningless. I admit I’m not one of those women who can use a man for the pleasure alone, without sentiment.” Then she gives me the final blow. “I intend to open my heart and fall in love with him.”
Something snaps inside of me, and I grab her tightly.
“You are a fated female, and you have to be with a werewolf. One day one will imprint on you, and you’ll have no choice but to give in to him.” I know there can be no other werewolf because I already imprinted on her, and she’s mine, but I’m angry and desperate. I would say and do anything to make sure she doesn’t land in another man’s arms.
“Sure, no problem. But I’m a twenty-seven year old woman, I need and want a man in my life. Until I meet my werewolf, I’m free.”
I squeeze her small waist, barely keeping in check my need to crush her to me. “No man will ever touch you, or I swear to God I’ll rip his head off. If you need a man, then I can fill in.”
She looks up at me with thirsty eyes, drinking in the expression on my devil face, not scared, but like she’s got me where she wanted me.
I want to tell it to her face that I can’t fight this anymore, that I can’t fight the passion, but I clench my teeth, keeping it in. I bend down to her, refraining from touching her lips yet. I start transforming back into a human, wanting to touch my human lips to hers, but then surprise. She puts her hands on the sides of my face, staring at me out of those caramel eyes as if she wants to imprint the moment in her heart.
“No, don’t shift,” she whispers. “I want to have you like this, as a beast.”
But I look more like a devil than a wolf. I don’t have a real snout, but my lips are dark and hard as concrete. Yet I am a beast, a scary one, and I can’t believe a woman would want to have me like this.
I step back just to look at her. By God, she’s a vision sitting there on the ancient stone altar, her shiny red dress showcasing her queenly body. She looks like an offering to some ancient god—the serpent god, I recognize the kind of altar, even though I haven’t seen one like in many centuries.
God, how I love the fine muscles in her legs, the way that she moves. She lies slowly on her back on the stone slab, all the while keeping her burning eyes on me. She is my mate, and I’m pulled to her, ready to serve her, give her pleasure. I place a knee on the slab, her legs opening wide to make room for the second one.
She stretches her arms above her head, arching her body upward, offering herself to me.
“Fuck me, Nero,” she pants, and my cock hardens so much that it aches. But I have to wonder. Does she feel this passion for me only because she feels the mate bond, or is she really into me? One way or the other, tonight I’ll make her love me.
“Oh, I’ll make you beg for it this time, Princess.”
“I already aaaaa—” She arches her head back, her red hair spilling over the edge of the slab as I kiss the inside of her thigh, going straight for those sensitive spots.
Her eyes scrunch, her plump mouth opening wide as I tear her panties with my teeth and lick her right between her folds. The stroke of my tongue is that of a man hungry for her taste.
I grip her buttocks under her red dress with big wolf hands, my claws starting to emerge, but I keep them back. I lick her harder, with all the lust I feel, my cock ribbed, the head purple with need.
“Oh, please, Nero.” Her plea is heartfelt, but not heartfelt enough. I come up to her chest, kissing her beautiful swan neck, taking in the flavor of her skin.
“God, how I love your scent, your taste,” I drawl, searching for those sweet plump lips. She offers them to me, kissing me hotly, taking my head in her hands. I want to go down on her again, but she won’t let me.
“Take me, right here, right now, Nero.”
I wanted to make her beg more, but I can’t control myself anymore. I drive my cock inside her slick pussy, my fur standing on end as she mewls with pleasure.
“Ah, go deep,” she pleads, and I push in all the way, her pussy clenching around me greedily. “Fuck me like you own me.”
“Oh, God.” I pump Princess like there’s no tomorrow, a devilish black beast with golden eyes claiming a princess on a stone in the garden.
I can feel she’s close to cumming, her pussy pulsing hotly around me. And when her cream bursts, coating my cock, Princess lifts her head, her face hot and flushed, staring into my eyes like she can’t believe it. She’s holding tightly with her hands to the slab above her head, using it to push her hips up to meet me.
“I’ll have you cum for me, Nero.”
God, I’m helpless against those words, and the way she says them. I come undone, flexing to pull out, but she tightens her legs around me, not letting m
e. I watch her face full of pleasure as I spill my seed inside of her, right here on the serpent god’s altar. I pull Princess into my arms as I morph back into a human, spent, my brain still afloat with the pleasure of release.
We lie entangled on the slab for a long time, a naked man with a dangerous obsession embracing his woman in red. My arms flex around her, raw strength and muscle against her delicate body. Fuck, this isn’t good, what I feel inside. These mating feelings are something not even I, a very old Alpha, can deal with. How could I ever expect poor Drago to?
“Why did you do this, Princess? Why did you make me cum inside of you?” I whisper in her ear. Damn it, I’ll never feel like I’ve possessed this woman enough. I want to merge with her to the last cell of my body.
“Out of spite,” she breathes. I disentangle from her just enough to look into her face.
“Spite? Against me?” If she only knew that the idea of her giving me cubs is enough to make me hard again.
“No. Against the serpents. Against Sullivan. He wanted to plant a viper inside my body, to make me into a serpent shifter, didn’t he? How about I slap him across the face and get pregnant with a werewolf. With the Alpha, no less. Even if you never imprinted on me. We’d have one of those hybrids with special abilities, wouldn’t we?”
This is the point where I’m supposed to let go of her, take distance, talk sense into her, remind her this isn’t where she and I are going. But the pleasure her words awaken in my heart won’t let me. On the contrary, I pull her closer, warming her against my body as the wind and the night chill intensify.
“Having the alpha’s children could mean great danger to you, Princess, and to them. The serpents would hunt you down, and they’d stop at nothing to get you.”
I search her face for signs of fear or regret. There aren’t any. She smiles at me.
“Don’t worry. I can’t actually get pregnant today, I’m not ovulating.”
The clouds break, thunder ripping through the sky.
“Apparently the serpent god is angry,” I say, looking up.
Princess laughs as the clouds break again, the first drop of rain landing on the tip of her nose. I can’t hold back and kiss it, then the rest of the raindrops that follow, splashing on her face. Before she realizes what’s happening I enter her again, enjoying the tight, slick inside of her body that I feel so entitled to. Soon I’m pumping her like an animal, my body sliding on hers, only her soaked red dress between us.
I take her vigorously, one hand on her back, steadying her, the other slipping under her bra. I cup her breast and groan as the perfectly round, white mount of flesh fills my palm.
“Tell me you love me, Princess,” I plead in a guttural voice, burning with our connection.
She stares at me, her soaked red hair coating the stone.
“I—” But she doesn’t finish, her body shifting up and down as I pump her. I drive my cock harder into her, my teeth clenching.
“Tell me,” I demand. “Even if it’s not true. Just say it.”
There’s menace in my eyes, I can feel it. My irises begin to glow, shining like flashlights on her face.
“I love you,” she whispers, obeying my command. I close my eyes and lean my head back, going drunk with the sensation. I choose to believe her, at least for a moment, pouring myself into her.
When I look down at her again, riding high on my climax, I see the need and the silent request in her face—she wishes I’d say the same, she expects it, needs it. But the love declaration that threatens to leave my mouth isn’t a simple ‘I love you.’ I want to grab her face and growl, ‘I own you,’ ‘You’ll have to kill me to get rid of me,’ or ‘I’ll stalk you till the end of my days.’
So I keep it to myself. I descend from my climax and embrace her, protecting her from the downpour with my body until it stops. Our chests rise and fall into each other as we breathe in sync, her hands running lovingly along my back. I kiss her neck as the rain stops, and the wind carries Ramses’ calls over from a short distance. He’s calling her name, and he’s not alone. People have started a search party for her through the storm.
“Quick,” Princess reacts, pushing me off of her. “They’re going to discover us.”
She sounds downright desperate to keep what happened from the world. She grabs my hand, pulling me after her. I run naked through the garden, following her until we reach a darker side of the manor. She pushes a door open, but as soon as we’ve entered the dark, chilly corridor, I halt.
I grab her elbow, forcing her to turn around. “A friend, right? Is that really all that Ramses means to you? Or did you just say that to keep the beast tame?”
“Nero, what’s gotten into you?”
“You were afraid of him finding us together. Why?”
“No, it wasn’t that.”
“Don’t lie to me, Princess,” I snap, jerking her arm. “He means more to you than you admit. You’re worried that, if he finds out about us, he won’t want you anymore, is that it?”
She looks at me shocked. “You can’t be serious.”
“Don’t you dare start an affair with him behind my back, Princess. Or I swear to God I’ll fucking kill him.”
CHAPTER VI
Princess
Nero snatches a blanket for me from a dark, empty room, an old suit for him from one of Theodore’s old wardrobes, and sneaks me out of the manor. He drives me home in silence, his jaw ticking, and in secret my heart blooms.
I can’t help glancing at him often, even though what I really want to do is stare him full in the face, letting my eyes trace each one of those hard, masculine features. I faked the outrage at what he said to me about Ramses. In truth, I relished his jealousy like nothing before in my life, and I can’t get enough of those feelings imprinted on his face.
Imprint.
I remember that one day he will imprint on a woman, and that woman won’t be me. All that he feels for me is sexual attraction, and hey, I’m ecstatic about it, but if I came into question for him as his mate he would know it by now, wouldn’t he?
I remember that sexy Latina Paola Valdez, the intimate way in which she talked to him and touched him, the look of familiar recognition in his face when he saw her. He walks me through the secret tunnel to my room and he wants to leave right after that, but I whip around, throwing the blanket he wrapped me in off my shoulders.
“What is it about Paola Valdez that earned her a long-term relationship with you?”
He blinks, confused. “Excuse me?”
I turn around like on a catwalk and prance naked to the wardrobe, feeling his eyes on me as I do it. I continue speaking as I sift through gowns on the rack.
“I hear you had a long-term relationship with her. You went to see her often, not always for sex. So you wanted more than that from her.”
He pauses, which can only mean I’m actually onto something here, and I don’t want it to be true. I want him to persuade me that he doesn’t feel anything for her, that he never has. I want him to tell me I’m the only one he ever wanted.
“Paola was, indeed, something special.”
The blood drains from my body, bitterness flooding my mouth. I keep my back at him, barely fighting the rage inside. “You imprinted on her, and somehow life separated you?”
He doesn’t reply, but I can feel his eyes searing my back.
“You can tell me,” I push. “I won’t be jealous.”
“Won’t you?”
Damn it. I pick a gown, slide it down my body and turn around to face him with my back straight, my stare proud.
“If she is special to you, then why sleep with me, Nero? Why get my hopes up? Now let’s be frank with each other. You know that I have feelings about you, why do you play with me like this?”
“You would have taken another lover if I hadn’t done what I did tonight.”
I snort angrily. “And when my own mate comes along? What happens then, huh? Will you tell him, hey, I fucked your fated mate, but it’s over now that y
ou came into the picture? If he’ll feel about me like Drago feels about Arianna, you’ll have a war on your hands. If you were a normal man, okay, he wouldn’t feel hurt, because what do humans know, right? But you’re a werewolf who knew I was a fated female. Which means you knew you were fucking some other guy’s woman.”
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“Really? That’s all you have to say?”
“What else would you like to hear?”
“Well, how about an explanation for your reaction back at the manor? Why threaten to kill Ramses?”
“I told you, he could be dangerous. He could be trying to impregnate you with a serpent, and for that process you don’t need to be ovulating. The snake lives and grows inside of you, its cells soon merging with yours, and turning you into what Sullivan was. Is that what you want?”
I stare at this tall, athletic alpha with the impossibly handsome face and the golden eyes, wanting with all I have for him to fall in love with me. I walk to him, anger blazing in my face.
“Back in that garden, all I wanted was to avoid that people found us together. That would have messed things up for both of us. But then you went ballistic about Ramses out of nowhere. That just doesn’t add up. And neither does your demanding that I tell you I love you while you fucked me.”
“I don’t want you to be alone with that Ramses guy until things clear up, that’s all.”
I keep staring at him, trying to assess his emotions.
“You confuse me, Nero. You’re cold and reserved to me, but then destiny finds a way to get us in an intimate situation, and you’re the most passionate and fabulous lover. Even more than that. You want to hear me say I love you, and you talk like a jealous lover when other men enter the game.”
I walk to him, keeping my chin up. “I’m going to ask this one last time—is sexual attraction really all you feel for me?”
He towers over me like a god that’s a misfit in this human world, especially like this, dressed in one of Theodore’s old suits, the jacket open over his magnificent naked body. I have hope of seducing a love declaration out of him, and I slide my hands under the sides of his jacket, caressing those stone hard muscles.