by Lora Leigh
“Aiden.” Wolfe forestalled anything he would have said to his sister in the heat of anger. “Remember, Charity is not the only one who will feel the effects of this arousal. Return to your mate, discuss this if you will, or take care of the needs tormenting you both first, whichever you deem more important. But unless Keegan is found in the next few days, then this discussion will be resolved. To all our satisfaction.”
Aiden drew in a hard, controlling breath. Wolfe watched him without a hint of leniency in his expression. He would not change his mind if no other answer were found.
“Would you so willingly give over your woman, Wolfe?” he snarled viciously.
Wolfe sighed wearily as he glanced at the woman in question. “To ease her torment, Aiden, I would do whatever is necessary,” he finally sighed softly. “If it meant my own life, I would give it to ease Hope’s way.” He turned back to him slowly. “But that is my love for her. My understanding of her pain. From where, Aiden, does your reluctance stem?”
Aiden raised his head slowly, proudly. “From ownership, Wolfe. The bitch is mine. Not yours, not the Pack’s. Mine. Remember that before you come to my cabin claiming her in the name of your love for your mate.”
He turned and stalked from the lead cabin, his boots thumping loudly, the door slamming with a satisfying thump behind him. The cool night air wrapped around him, embracing him with a sense of freedom, of wonder. And yet his soul felt as helplessly bound as it had been for six long, torturous years.
* * * * *
“What do you think?” Wolfe turned to Jacob, who had stayed silent, watchful as the confrontation arose with Aiden.
Wolfe felt torn, placed between his friend and the needs of Hope and Faith, as well as Charity. The scent of her need was nearly overpowering the last time he had been in Aiden’s cabin. Even unconscious her body had sought relief, in whatever form it could find.
He watched Jacob frown consideringly before his lips twisted in a wry grin. “He’s a goner.” He shrugged. “Give him long enough to sate himself the first time with her, and he’ll think more clearly then.”
“If she’s strong enough to handle it.” Wolfe shook his head wearily then turned to the doctor for her opinion. The more unusual aspects of Breed mating had the potential to terrify, more than to arouse, unsuspecting females.
Dr. Armani arched a brow in mocking question. “You’re asking me? Sorry, Wolfe, I have yet to understand the regular mating process you go through. The anal aspects are even more confusing.”
“It eases the arousal, for a time,” Hope reminded her. “So it must have significance.”
“Of course. I’m certain it does.” She tucked her hands into the pockets of her light jacket. “That doesn’t mean I know what it is yet. And if Aiden has his way, it appears I never will.”
Wolfe growled. “Find that fucking Winged Breed.” He turned on Jacob again. “Send out one of our best groups. They have to be in that damned jungle somewhere. If you have to, put out a call to Sam’s group. I want them found.”
“Two Packs are already there, Wolfe.” Jacob shook his head, grimacing. “If they can find them then they will. I’ll call in Sam, but I don’t like the idea of it. Either way, I have a feeling Keegan or his people won’t show themselves until they have no other choice. Unfortunately, I have no idea what would push them to it.”
Wolfe drew in a deep breath, tamping down his own anger, his own frustration. His own arousal. Aiden’s woman wasn’t the only one in heat, and Aiden’s patience wasn’t the only one being pushed to its limits. If they didn’t find an answer to this soon, then there would be no hope for any of them, let alone their futures.
Chapter Twelve
She was breathing through the contractions ripping her womb apart. Aiden watched from the doorway, his mind consumed with such contradictory impulses that he wasn’t certain if he should leave, or if he should go to her. His body demanded he go to her. Every bone and muscle in his body, not to mention his traitorous cock, demanded that he take her now.
His control, so fiercely won after she had taken it from him, demanded that he run. Run hard and fast, as far away from this woman as he could get. The emotional threat she represented tore at him. The mating to come terrified him. Already he could feel the aggression, the dominance roaring within his body.
Wolfe and Aiden had warned him of what was to come, but had anyone warned her? No one had, he knew. Hope and Faith hadn’t been with her long enough, and he knew her earlier fear of their mating would only magnify if he explained the full details of it to her. Anal sex would frighten any virgin in such circumstances. To be taken in such a manner by a Breed male would be terrifying at first.
He pushed his fingers through his hair, fighting himself, fighting the urges running through him. How was he supposed to steel his heart against her? She had known rescue was coming, had fought to save him when he would have willingly died to escape the hell he knew was coming.
Had it really been her fault…his loss of control?
She moaned weakly, curling tighter into the fetal position she had assumed, holding a pillow tight to her stomach. Cian had told them that her pain had only grown worse over the months. Each injection had pushed her closer to insanity as she fought the changes ripping through her body. Changes that were slowly preparing her for him.
His hands went to his shirt, releasing the buttons slowly as he fought to maintain control of his breathing. Her scent was rich and evocative, filled with the power of a mountain storm, the heady fragrance of honeysuckle. His cock was like a staff of burning iron, throbbing beneath the restriction of his jeans, pleading for the tight confines of her honey-rich cunt. She would be wet, slick and hot. Her channel would clasp him like a wet velvet fist, dragging over his sensitive flesh as he thrust in and out. He swallowed tightly at the thought.
It only took moments for him to undress. He left his clothes where they fell then padded slowly to the bed. She was his mate. God help them both, but he couldn’t leave her in pain, nor could he bear his own any longer.
“Charity,” he whispered as he moved onto the bed behind her, reaching out to draw her hair back from her perspiring face.
“Go away, Aiden.” Her voice was strangled, thick. “I can’t think while you’re here.”
He frowned down at her. “You aren’t thinking, Charity, you are in too much pain to think.”
“The contractions are worse,” she gritted out. “The heat is worse, when it should be leveling off. There’s a difference to it now. It has to be because of the transfusion. I need a fucking lab.” She was almost crying now. “How am I supposed to figure this out without tests? Without equipment? Goddammit, get away from me.” She was panting for air now.
Aiden shook his head in confusion. She seemed more concerned with testing her damned reactions than she was with alleviating the pain. He lay down beside her, his arm hooking over her waist and pulling her back against his body.
She gasped, her body stiffening before a moan escaped her throat.
“God, you’re so warm,” she whispered, burying her head in the pillow beneath her. “How am I supposed to fight this when you’re so damned warm, Aiden?”
He closed his eyes. He couldn’t halt the need to kiss the soft shell of her ear. Her breath caught as a shiver trembled over her body.
“I’m scared, Aiden,” she whispered, her voice sounding lost, lonely. “I don’t know how to fight this when you’re so close to me. And I don’t think I can bear your hatred when it’s over.”
He breathed out roughly. “If only I could hate you, Charity.” His hand moved beneath the pillow she had gripped to her stomach.
The contractions were harder than they had been before. He moved his hand beneath her shirt, beginning a gentle massaging motion with his fingers as her breathing began to deepen, roughen.
“Feel good?” he asked, noticing her reaction as his breath whispered over her ear.
“Too good,” she moaned. “I can’t think, Aiden.�
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“Do not think at all, Charity.” He closed his eyes, drawing in her scent, becoming nearly intoxicated on the sweetness of it.
His body was clamoring now. He clenched his teeth as his lips smoothed over her neck. Her blood beat hard and fast beneath the tender skin as her body tightened further.
She swallowed tightly. “What you said earlier…” He could hear the fear in her voice.
“Neither Hope nor Faith have known any pain from the dominance of their mates, or the matings themselves, Charity. Your body is ready for me, and what is not yet prepared, will be prepared in due time.”
His cock was pressed against the crease of her buttocks. Below, the small tight hole of her anus awaited him. He hadn’t believed Wolfe and Aiden when they warned him of that overwhelming desire to possess that dark, forbidden spot. But he believed them now. His throttled growl shocked them both as he fought to deny himself. She was already frightened, he knew. To take her there, to force himself into the narrow depths of her anus, could very well terrify her. Yet, the need was like a fever flowing hard and fast through his veins.
Prepare her. He had to prepare her. If her arousal were high enough, her needs overwhelming even her fears, then she would be ready for him.
“Come here to me, Charity.” He pulled the pillow from her grasp then rolled her over to her back.
She stared up at him, her brown eyes dark, dazed with her arousal as he stared down at her.
“See how your body eases for me,” he said gently, his hand pressed to her stomach, easing the knots from the muscles of her abdomen. “It knows I can relieve the pain, the arousal. Only my body can do this for you, Charity. Only my touch.”
He pushed the T-shirt up her body, remembering heatedly how he had torn the other one from her. He undressed her quickly, tossing the fabric from the bed as he stared down at the beauty displayed before him.
Her breasts rose and fell in a hard, fast rhythm. Perspiration glistened on the silken skin, emphasizing the swollen curves and dark, elongated nipples. He tore his gaze from the ripe mounds, meeting hers as he fought for control.
“I’ll conceive,” she reminded him again, tears glistening in her eyes. “I don’t want a child, Aiden. I don’t want to bring another into such a hopeless situation.”
His lips quirked at her accurate description of the Breeds’ lives to this point. It was often a hopeless battle they fought.
“Nature will do what it must.” He pulled her slowly into his arms then. “Our concern, Charity, is to aid it as best we can. No matter the cost. We survive, because we must.”
He gave her no chance to answer or to argue. His head lowered. The temptation of her lips, swollen from the sensuality of her arousal, was too much to resist. Like the sweetest fruit, demanding that he taste of its erotic perfection.
She whimpered when his lips touched hers, opening to him, her hands moving timidly to his shoulders as his fingers continued to stroke her tightened abdomen.
She was as intoxicating, as he knew she would be. Aiden allowed his tongue to stroke over her trembling lips, ignoring her soft entreaty as they opened for the silken feel of the plump curves beneath his tongue. She was moving against him slowly, her nipples raking over his chest like little brands of need.
Control was a tenuous thing at best, but he found pride in the fact that he was holding onto his. Until she arched against him, a hungry moan breaking from her throat as her tongue reached out to lick back at him.
Chapter Thirteen
The teasing, licking strokes at her lips were driving her crazy. Charity had hungered for Aiden’s kiss, his touch, for too long. As the pain in her abdomen slowly began to ease, another torturous ache took its place. The fires in her cunt began to flame through her body, clouding her mind with an arousal too fierce to fight any longer.
As she stroked across his tongue, a growl, deep and rough, sounded in his chest a second before it plunged hard and hot inside the depths of her mouth. His arm pushed beneath her shoulders as the other went around her waist, jerking her closer, tighter to his chest as she tasted the wildness of his kiss. Spicy and addicting, the moist stroke of his tongue inflamed her further.
As hers tangled with it, she felt the small swollen glands at the side, though paid little attention to them. Yet another strange occurrence for this unusual Breed. He moved further over her, stroking the interior of her mouth, her lips, her tongue, the edge of her teeth until she clamped her lips on the teasing invader and suckled at it desperately.
The taste that filled her mouth sent her senses spinning. She wouldn’t have believed lust could have its own unique flavor, but Aiden’s did. It tasted of a summer thunderstorm, quenching her thirst for his passion but only driving her hunger for his touch higher. The taste filled her, intoxicated her, made her desperate for more. It made her as wild as his taste.
She twisted in his arms, pressing harder against him. She needed, ached for more. What the “more” was, she wasn’t certain at that point. But her entire body felt inflamed, her arousal building higher, to heights she never dreamed of knowing.
Each time she drew on his tongue the taste of his lust filled her. Within seconds her body was burning brighter. As though the very essence of his kiss was an aphrodisiac all its own. It was worse than any of the drugs forced into her body. More blinding, more intense than anything else she had known in her life.
He growled into her mouth then, pulling back, his teeth nipping at her lips as she fought to draw him back to her. He controlled her struggles easily as his lips moved down her neck, his canines raking her skin as she shuddered at the pleasure of it.
“Aiden, don’t torment me this way.” Her cunt was on fire. She could feel the flames licking through the tissue there, traveling to her womb, stroking it with the lava-hot agony of her arousal.
“Soon.” His voice was a rough, untamed growl. “First. First I will do as I have dreamed of for years.”
He held her wrists to the bed as he paused over her heaving breasts. Charity watched him, barely able to keep her eyes opened, fighting for breath as she marveled at the sensuality shaping his face.
“Aiden…” She trembled beneath his brooding, hot gaze as it focused on her swollen curves.
“How pretty they are,” he breathed out roughly. “How many years I’ve dreamed of tasting your sweet breasts, Charity. Feeling your nipples in my mouth, against my tongue. Hard and aching for my touch.”
He licked his lips and Charity moaned against the punch of lust that contracted her womb. No pain this time, just a brutal contraction of agonized desire that halted her breath. Then his tongue distended and she whimpered. When it stroked against one overly sensitized nipple she arched violently to him, a cry of pleasure erupting from her throat.
When the heat of his mouth covered the hard tip, pleasure whipped through her body with such force that she jerked with it, an almost orgasmic sensation ripping through her.
“Aiden please.” She pressed against him, gasping for breath as his lips suckled at her breast, his tongue stroking her nipple with diabolical intent as his hands held hers shackled, refusing to allow her to touch him in turn.
He moaned against her sensitive flesh, his canines rasping against her as he nipped at her nipple then. A small flash of fire, of never-ending intensity, seared across the heated peak.
Each touch made her body weaker, made her arousal flare higher. As though his touch alone was more potent than the drugs injected into her body. She stared down at him, fighting to breathe as his head began to lower, his lips stroking down the tightened muscles of her stomach.
Each caress was like a living flame on her skin. Each stroke of his tongue only fanned it higher, hotter, brighter.
“Charity,” he whispered her name as he reached the clenching muscles of her abdomen. “The scent of your need is making me crazy.”
Making him crazy? She was on the verge of melting into a puddle of lust, and he said she was making him crazy?
He relea
sed her hands as he moved lower, but there was no danger of her protesting now. She was panting, weakened by the surging pleasures, the blistering heat in her vagina.
His lips stroked over her, dipping into the small valley of her belly button, moving steadily closer to the swollen, moist curves of her bare cunt. Charity could only watch, could only tremble in anticipation as the room seemed to heat with the building sensuality stretching between them.
When his tongue stroked over her swollen clit, circling it with a smooth, sensuous lick she couldn’t halt the moaning cry for relief, or the spasmodic jerk of her hips as she desperately sought a deeper touch.
“Aiden, this will kill me…” She broke up, a strangled scream erupting from her throat as his lips covered her, drawing her sensitive clit into his suckling mouth.
There was heat and fire, and then there was mindless ecstasy. It overtook her, wrapping her in the cataclysmic folds of an impending orgasm that she knew would destroy her forever.
His tongue licked and stroked, rasping over the sensitized knot of nerves as his hands held her thighs open, controlling her involuntary undulations against his mouth. Her vagina spilled its silky moisture, then rippled in agonized anticipation as his fingers parted the swollen flesh protecting its entrance.
“Charity,” he growled against the throbbing knot of nerves as his fingers slid through the thick essence. “I cannot wait much longer.”
“Don’t wait,” she gasped, her hips arching to the whisper of his ragged breaths as her clit screamed out at the desertion. “For God’s sake, Aiden, please. Please make me come.”
One long finger thrust hard and deep inside the tight channel as his mouth returned to her clit with hungry demand. His mouth covered her again, greedy, hungry in his greed. Charity’s eyes widened, her gaze darkening as sensation began to erupt inside her.
Her clitoris fragmented into a fireworks explosion of ecstasy as her vagina tightened on the invading finger, pulsed then erupted in rapture. The whipping sensations tore through her, tightening her muscles as heat flamed throughout her body. She screamed his name, only barely aware of him moving as the lightning strokes of pleasure tore her apart.