He felt so full, as though he hadn’t fucked in days, rather than multiple times just hours ago. He considered his next move, knowing that she was going to complain when he woke her. She never wanted him in the mornings, not like she did at night. She would complain that she was sore and often grimaced when he entered her, even when he was gentle.
This morning, he did not feel as though he could be gentle. Were he to give in to his baser instincts, he would have rolled her over right then and fucked her hard and without contrition. That wasn’t the route he wanted to go, though one way or another, he was going to get inside of her.
Erik moved a hand down past her belly, slipping it between her thighs. He rubbed two fingers over the fine hair, before nudging aside her outer folds. He took in a sharp breath as he came in contact with her wet, hot flesh.
She let out a guttural moan and clamped her thighs down on his hand. He grew excited, his body instantly ramping up for what was to come. Then, she smacked his hand.
“Stop it,” she muttered, her voice muffled by the furs. “I’m trying to sleep.”
Erik kept his hand where it was, refusing to be rebuffed. “You can sleep later.”
“I have a headache.” She sniffled. “I think I might have a cold. Can you go get my bag? I’m pretty sure I have some Tylenol in there.”
Erik suppressed a growl as a rush of bizarre emotions assaulted him, chief among them being anger. She rebuffed him almost every morning. Usually he gave her a pass, sometimes he coaxed her into submission, but it had never made him angry.
Everything about this morning was different. She always made him hard, but this wasn’t pleasurable. He was uncomfortably hard, more so than when they had first been together. He didn’t want to be inside of her, he needed it.
I need to mate with her.
“Ugh, my nose is so stuffy. How could I even get sick up here? Isn’t it too cold for germs?”
Even if Erik knew the answer, he wouldn’t have responded. His awareness had turned inward, as a realization slowly settled over him. His nostrils flared, taking in a long drag of her scent. It was muskier than usual and it made his mouth salivate. He’d never smelled it before, but primitive instinct told him what memory could not.
She was ready for him to mate with her in the truest sense of the word. His body was not primed for pleasure, but for purpose.
He rolled her onto her belly, cutting her off mid-sentence. Gripping her hips, he lifted them up, aligning her pelvis with his. Before he could position himself for entrance, she pulled one leg back and kicked him hard in the knee.
She must have hit him in exactly the right spot, because it hurt like hell.
“What the fuck was that for?” he snapped.
She pulled free from his grasp and turned to glare at him.
“I told you to stop it and I meant it! I’m sick. I need fluids, medicine, and sleep,” she said, ticking each one off on her fingers. “Unless your penis is full of acetaminophen, then you need to keep it to yourself for a few days.”
“What the fuck is acetaminophen?”
She put her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. “Stop cursing at me!”
Erik took a deep breath in a feeble attempt to calm himself. Yelling at her wasn’t getting him anywhere. It wasn’t even making him less aroused, if anything, it was wearing on his already frayed self-control.
He reached out and put a hand around her wrist. It was so small. He pulled at it, uncovering one of her ears.
“You’re fertile.”
“Erik, we’ve talked about this and I don’t feel like having this conversation again right now, so—”
“Astrid.” Using her name was the only way he could think to silence her, and it worked. “Your scent is different. I don’t know how long it will last, but I know that if we mate right now, I can put a pup in you.”
She shook her head in a jerky motion. “Regardless of what you think you smell, you have no idea what’s going on inside my body. I can’t get pregnant and you’re only setting m—yourself up for disappointment, so stop it.”
Tugging her wrist, Erik pulled her into his lap. She didn’t help or hinder him as he placed her legs on either side of him and positioned his erection at her entrance.
“I’ll take my chances with disappointment. Now shut up and put your arms around my neck. I won’t be gentle.”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Astrid drew her legs up and wedged them between their bodies, pressing her feet against his chest.
“Wait!”
He slapped her legs aside. “No.”
“Yes,” she said emphatically. She barely managed to get one knee between them as he tried to advance. “I need to eat, I’m thirsty, and I need to wash up.”
Erik was glaring, but behind his pissed off façade, she could see the gears in his head turning. He was sizing her up and planning his next move. She should have been planning her own, but all her mind wanted to do was try and process what he’d told her.
“You’re fertile.”
Astrid thought back to The Wolves of Nunavut, her mind shuffling through a jumble of information. Though she’d seen the documentary many times, it felt as though it had been a thousand years ago. Everything farther back than a few weeks ago might as well have been shut away in a lockbox engraved with the letters B.E.: Before Erik.
Erik pushed her back onto the furs, hard enough to knock the wind from her chest. She tried to roll away, but he placed a hand on either side of her, caging her in.
“I am not dealing with that shit today,” he growled.
“I’m sorry if food and basic hygiene are offensive to you.”
Astrid snapped her head forward to scowl up at him, but her expression immediately softened. When she really looked at him, she could see that he wasn’t glaring at her at all. His eyes were narrowed, but his face was tight with strain. His body vibrated with a fine tremor and despite the chilled air, a thin sheen of sweat covered his body.
He’s in pain.
She placed a hand on his cheek. “What’s wrong?”
Erik leaned into her touch. His eyes shut, as though he couldn’t bear to look at her as he spoke his next words.
“I need you.”
He was just talking about sex, she knew this, but the confession still made her stomach flip. Warmth washed over her as she began to stroke his cheek.
“It hurts?”
“I need you,” he repeated as he rubbed his cheek against her hand.
Erik was more than twice her size and God only knew how many times stronger than her, which was why his overt display of vulnerability was so striking to her. Biting down on her lip, Astrid forced her intrusive thoughts back and did her best to focus on the alpha looming above her.
With one hand still on his cheek, she reached between them and wrapped a hand around his cock. For a second, she thought she might have grabbed him too roughly, because his body jerked and he let out a harsh breath through his teeth. She almost let him go, but she was too surprised by what she felt.
Erik was far too domineering for her to have much experience with his manhood. Sure, he’d mounted her more times than she could count, but she’d only touched his penis a few times. The one time she’d gone down on him, she’d taken a few moments to appreciate the sheer size and all around magnificence of him, but although he’d seemed to enjoy oral sex, he hadn’t permitted her to do it again.
Despite her unfamiliarity, as her fingers glided over his cock, she could tell that something was very different. The vein that ran the length of his shaft was thick and protruding. He was rigid and swollen, so engorged with blood that his skin was pulled taut and she could feel him pulsing in tandem with his heartbeat.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
Still stroking his face, she carefully guided him to her entrance. She nudged his crown against her, teasing her clitoris with his tip. Up until that moment, she hadn’t been particularly interested in having sex. The hours she’d spen
t out in the snowstorm had taken their toll on her body, making her feel tired and congested. But the feel of his hot velvet flesh against her clitoris instantly cleared her head. She suddenly felt invigorated, as though she’d had a full night of restful sleep and then had awoken with an appetite every bit as carnal and irrepressible as Erik’s.
Maybe he saw the desire flare in her eyes, or maybe he just couldn’t wait any longer, but Erik abruptly seized her wrist, squeezing it until she let go of his cock. Then, he entered her with a deep, hard thrust.
Her sharp intake of breath was lost amid Erik’s harsh and prolonged groan. She clutched at his shoulders, her nails digging at his skin. It was on the tip of her tongue to berate him. He hadn’t taken any time to prepare her, and although she’d been moderately wet, moderately simply didn’t cut it when taking in a male of Erik’s caliber.
The reprimand died in her throat as Erik nuzzled the top of her head. He was murmuring something, but the words were muffled by her hair. Though she couldn’t make out what he was saying, the gentle, cajoling tone of his voice, so at odds with the stinging pain between her legs, had her heart thumping erratically inside the small cage of her chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and, trying not to think about why she was doing it, she pulled herself up to press her lips to his neck.
Erik growled, but it almost sounded like a purr. She swallowed, before pressing her lips to him again, and then again, until her mouth had run a trail of kisses down to his collarbone. Stopping in the hollow at the base of his throat, she paused, feeling his body vibrate against her mouth. When she was certain he was enjoying himself, she flicked her tongue out to lick him. His skin tasted like a combination of sea salt and what she could only assume was a potent cocktail of pheromones. The stinging became a relentless burn. With a beseeching moan, she flung a leg around his hips and rocked against him, urging him to move inside of her.
It was as though she’d dispelled the fog he’d been lost in. All at once, Erik seemed to remember where he was and what he’d been doing. With preternatural agility, he flipped her onto her knees. The universe regained its equilibrium as the alpha reclaimed his position of dominance and control.
Their sex had never been anything but rough. Even the few times it had started off playful—the times when she would play coy and banter with him until he wrestled her into submission—sex between them had always seemed to devolve into something that blurred the lines of pleasure and pain. And it was everything she’d never known she’d wanted.
She had always viewed Erik as merciless and uninhibited, but it wasn’t until he completely lost himself that she realized just how much restraint he had been using with her. He took her harder than he ever had before, thrusting into her with violent disregard. His nails had elongated, and the sharp talons dug deeper into her hips with each blow, until she could feel her blood running down her thighs.
He could break me.
The most disturbing part of the thought was how much it excited her. Everything about this was as thrilling as it was terrifying. For a terrible moment, she thought that it was the pain that she enjoyed—how else could she possibly revel in something so brutal? But then she realized that she loved it in spite of the pain, and that was even more confusing. How could pleasure override the feeling of being torn apart inside and out?
Her climax came on quickly and hit hard, making her body spasm and then go limp. She was so accustomed to them coming together, or Erik coming shortly after her, that she became overwhelmed when he continued pounding into her. She tried to tell him to slow down, to explain that she was too sensitive and that she was uncomfortable, but it was impossible to get a sentence out while she was frantically panting for breath. She considered a simple, one word command. “Stop” came to mind. It had worked in the past. But she somehow knew that it wouldn’t work this time. Everything about this time was different.
Her abdomen tightened as her discomfort intensified. She heard a low, ragged moan rise up from within her chest, and then she couldn’t hear anything, not Erik, not the sound of their bodies crashing together or even the sound of her own breathing. It reminded her of the night at the camp, when she’d left her tent to find that reality as she knew it had vanished, replaced by blood, death, and a man who had seemed as cruel as he was beautiful.
Everything became still. She could feel that she was in pain, but it felt distant in comparison to the pleasure that suffused her. She knew that she’d climaxed again, but like everything else this time, it was unlike anything else she’d felt. It wasn’t the hard and powerful ecstasy that she so often associated with the climaxes Erik gave her. This, if she had to name it, was rapture.
She floated for a while, feeling her hum and pulse. Several thoughts passed through her mind, but if she tried to bring them into focus, they’d take flight like birds from a tree. Her body refused to move, and so all she could do was stare slack-jawed at the wall, waiting for her new reality to set in.
As awareness came back to her, she felt rhythmic movement against her back. It was the rise and fall of Erik’s chest. He held her in a tight, possessive embrace, his arms wrapped around her torso and his legs clamped around her legs. She knew that he wouldn’t be holding her like this if he hadn’t already climaxed, but she could still feel his hard, solid length buried deep inside of her.
“Did you bite me again?” she asked as she noticed a throbbing pain at the juncture of her neck and shoulder.
His voice was dark, husky, and unrepentant. “Twice.”
“You’re always making me bleed,” she muttered.
His hand gripped her chin. He turned her head to the side so that she could look up at him. “Bite me.”
She searched his face for traces of humor, initially assuming he was joking or being cheeky again, but he looked dead serious.
“You want me to,” she swallowed, “bite you?”
Releasing her chin, he moved his hand to his throat. He ran a calloused finger over a patch of flesh above the base of his neck. “Right here.”
Astrid tried to sit up, but Erik’s legs held hers in a vice grip. He growled his displeasure, and she realized that the sound no longer frightened her.
“How do you expect me to bite you if you won’t let me turn around?”
Erik considered this, and then sat up, bringing Astrid with him. He maneuvered her in his lap, careful to ensure that he remained inside of her. He placed her legs on either side of him so that she was straddling him. The position may have made her feel in control, if he didn’t dwarf her even while sitting.
He tilted his neck to the side. “Bite me.”
Astrid scratched her head. “Is this some sort of mating thing?”
He appeared thoughtful. “I’m not sure. I don’t think so.”
“Then why do you want me to do it?”
“I want to know what it feels like.”
“You’ve never been bitten before?” she asked, arching a brow.
His lips curved. “Not by you.”
Astrid looked away from his face and fixed her gaze on his chest. She could feel her stomach flipping again and she didn’t like it, not one bit.
“How do I know you won’t freak out and attack me? I mean, a few days ago you didn’t even want me putting my mouth near your penis and now you want me to bite your neck?”
“You weren’t my mate then.”
“I’m not your mate now.”
“Bite me,” he repeated. “Or I will bite you. And you will not enjoy it.”
She cast him a sour look. “I never enjoy it.”
“You did earlier. When I bit you, you screamed my name and then you came so hard—”
Astrid placed a hand over his mouth.
Had she really done that? She didn’t think he would lie about that and she definitely couldn’t ask him, otherwise she’d have to admit that he had quite literally fucked her brains out. Rather than drive herself crazy with speculation, Astrid straightened her spine, leaned in, and bit down on his ne
ck.
Erik groaned and flexed his hips, reminding her that he was still inside of her. “Harder.”
She complied, biting down until she could feel her teeth about to break through the skin. The strange, purring sound vibrated through his chest again, and he took hold of her hips. Before he could start manipulating her body again, she took the reins, rocking her hips against him. Though she knew it wouldn’t last, it felt good to be in control for a few moments, and she was once again struck by how little the pain bothered her.
“What is this?” she murmured against his skin. “Why does it feel so good?”
No longer bound to her hips, Erik’s hands were free to explore her body. One held a fistful of her curly hair, while the other was massaging one of her breasts.
“It’s the mating thrall,” he said, as though it explained everything.
Her eyes fluttered shut as she focused on the sensation of his thick member sliding in and out of her. “But why—how is it affecting me? I’m not a wolf.”
“You’re my mate.”
“You keep saying that.”
“You keep forgetting it.”
“What does—?”
“Bite me again,” he commanded.
She bit down on his neck, this time hard enough to break skin. She’d done so mostly to shut him up, but as his blood filled her mouth, her body began to tingle. Erik’s grip on her hair tightened and he dug the heel of his palm into the back of her neck, preventing her from moving her head. She swallowed his blood, expecting to gag, but instead her body flushed with heat and she sucked, taking in another mouthful of coppery liquid.
Erik took back control, seizing her hips and moving them in ways she had not known were possible. It felt incredible, but part of her wanted him to throw her onto her knees and take her from behind again. The way that they were, chest to chest, face to face, it felt too intimate.
Enslaved by the Alpha (Shifters of Nunavut Book 2) Page 19