by Brenda Trim
Her hands roamed over his sweat-dampened skin, stilling over his flat nipples. Returning the favor, she tweaked his nipples as she claimed his full lips again. She sucked the bottom lip into her mouth gave it a quick nibble. He groaned and devoured her mouth like it was his last meal. She wrapped one leg across his waist and brought her aching center in alignment with the impressive bulge in his pants.
“Stay still,” he rasped roughly. “My control is shaky, Em. Do not push me right now.”
“I need, Orlando.”
Her blood raced in her veins as her body cried out in hunger. She unbuttoned the closure of his jeans but struggled with the zipper.
“Goddess you smell good. Like a tropical beach,” he whispered inhaling deeply.
“I can’t seem to get these damn things off,” she protested as she jerked the stiff fabric.
He sucked in a breath when she shoved her hand inside his underwear and her knuckles brushed the head of his cock. He grabbed her wrist and turned her palm, encouraging her to feel his girth, but stopped her movement when she firmly gripped his shaft and pumped. It was awkward with the zipper in the way, but she was determined to make him as lost to the lust as she was.
“Goddess, Wildcat,” he groaned as he undid the zipper. Her eyes flared as his enormous erection sprang free and pressed against her stomach.
“You are so…big,” she gushed as she once again reached for what she wanted.
He allowed her to encompass him with her small fist. He pumped his hips, forcing his shaft through her tight hold while his fingers reached around and found purpose between her legs. She pumped and squeezed him as he slid between her wet folds, pressing down on her engorged nub. When he pinched her clit, she rubbed her sex against his hand. They writhed against each other as their mouths crashed together.
Lips, tongue and teeth came together urgently with their building need. She’d never been so close to the edge from so little foreplay. Some males called her a tough nut to crack or ice queen because it took a lot to arouse her and even more to bring her to climax. But this male had her wild with need from a single touch. Once she got going she was a wildcat, but she was not a female who enjoyed a male that wanted nothing more than to pound into her and be done in five minutes.
“Enough,” he said with a growl as he pulled out of her grip.
He squirmed off the sofa and picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist in response. As he began walking she rubbed her wet slit over his cock and he faltered.
“I wanted to get to your bed where we would have more room,” he growled as he pushed her against a wall in the hallway, “and take my time pleasuring you, but I can’t wait,” he confessed before shoving his jeans down and thrusting inside her with one hard stroke.
His shaft parted her flesh so suddenly that pain lanced through her and made her suck in a breath.
“I’m okay,” she replied quickly at his look of concern. Sweat beaded his brow and covered his body with his effort of holding back.
The pain was gone almost as quickly as it began and she nodded at him and lifting off his shaft before bouncing back down. He filled and stretched her in the most delicious way possible. Her chest sighed in contentment at finally having him seated inside her but at the same time it begged for more. Sharing this with him felt fundamentally right. Feeling a bit silly for the thought, but something told her she had been heading towards him her entire life.
Their sweat mingled as she deepened the kiss and he bucked wildly. “Don’t want to hurt you…but can’t…stop,” he muttered against her lips.
“Feels so good,” she panted, reveling in his frantic movements. He held her up with one arm under her ass and the other snaked between them and fingered her sex.
He brought his finger to his mouth and licked it clean. “I want to taste all your honey next time,” he informed her.
She liked the sound of a next time but was enjoying this moment far too much to consider that it would end. She wanted it to last forever.
She nodded in agreement as his long fingers slid through her folds and pinched and tweaked her clit. Her nails dug into his shoulders as her muscles clenched.
“So close,” she muttered as she had the urge to bite his hot flesh.
As if reading her mind, he leaned his head and bit down on her nipple. She detonated around him, milking his hard length as her orgasm barreled through her like a storm. Burying her head in his neck, she cried out his name as her muscles clenched tighter and her body shuddered with pleasure.
Her body prepared for another orgasm, but then blinding pain ripped through her upper arm. Her eyes flew open with all the competing sensations and she met his glowing green orbs. They were wide with shock as his face twisted in ecstasy.
When his cock jerked with its orgasm and her second one released, she realized several things.
First, pressure from a barb had extended from the base of his cock and embedded in her soft flesh, hitting her G-spot while it held him locked inside her. The barb only allowed short jabs for his thrusts and his pleasure washed through her right before his pain did.
Second, the pain they were feeling was a brand that was magically burning into the skin of their right biceps. The pain from that had her eyes watering while her body came down from the most intense orgasm she’d ever had. Everything clicked into place and she knew the look on her face matched the stunned one across his.
“Oh my Goddess. We’re Fated Mates,” Ember breathed as she cradled his face in her palms, joy spreading like wildfire.
Something deep clicked into place and everything in her world was suddenly right. She’d found her other half. This male carried part of her soul and was made for her. She could have been given any type of being as a mate and would have been happy, but the fact that the Goddess had given her a shifter was her wildest fantasy come true.
“I never thought I’d find a mate,” he responded automatically, a furrow appearing between his eyes. He lifted her and separated their bodies after enough of the barb had retreated. “I’m afraid I’m dreaming. Nothing can feel that good.”
“It can and it did,” she assured him with a kiss to his lips.
“I don’t know what to say to this. I need some time to think,” he mumbled, making her wish she had a blanket or a baseball bat.
She wanted to cover her exposed body or hit him over the head. She wasn’t sure which one took precedence. His words hurt more than she could’ve imagined. She’d always hoped her Fated Mate would fall at her feet from sheer elation when she found him. What she’d been given instead was a far cry from what she’d expected.
It sucked to go from the height of bliss to utter disappointment.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Bubbles floated up the staircase as Orlando headed down to the dungeons. What the fuck was Santiago doing down there? Did Tori get permission for a conjugal visit and Zander forgot to tell him, Orlando wondered. The only reason Zander had given him permission was because he had told him about the mating so he highly doubted Tori was there. Orlando thought the king was going to force him to hash his shit out with him, but luckily he’d understood Orlando needed his best friend’s advice on this.
A pink sparkler zipped past his head and he quickened his steps down the stairs. Laughter escaped him in a rush at the sight that greeted him. Some of the gnomes were busy redecorating Santiago’s cell.
“Shut the fuck up,” Santiago snarled. “I swear Zander is having them do this as part of my punishment,” the warrior lamented with a shake of his head.
Orlando glanced around and caught Pepper’s eye. The little gnome winked at him and continued changing Santiago’s comforter. Orlando had no idea what prisoners were typically given but he doubted it was pink and sparkly. “Are those ruffles?” he asked, unable to stop laughing.
“Yes, they are. Izzy is rubbing off on these creatures,” Santiago replied as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh, you know you begged them to paint tha
t pretty unicorn on the wall,” Orlando teased.
In the next moment, the bars to Santi’s cell became a rainbow of color next and the bubbles thickened to where Orlando could barely see his friend. “Is Izzy’s bubble machine in there?”
“No, the wonders of magic. Like I said, torture,” Santiago muttered dryly. “Please tell me you’re busting me out of this place.”
Orlando met his friend’s eyes and saw the stress lines, as well as, the pale color to his skin. Being imprisoned and given three squares a day didn’t seem like much punishment until you considered that the warrior was newly mated.
Anyone of the Dark Warriors would struggle with confinement. They were accustomed to constant action and battle. For a shifter confinement was a particularly cruel sentence because their animals not only craved freedom and the outdoors, they needed it to survive or they could go insane.
When Orlando considered his own mating compulsion and his desire to seek out Ember and claim her in every way, he truly understood the full extent of Santiago’s plight. Yes, Santiago had brought his situation on himself, but a newly mated male denied the comfort of his mate was unthinkable.
“Stop being a baby. You were out just last night,” he teased the warrior, hoping to distract him from his dilemma.
Like a pin popping a balloon, Santiago slumped onto the pink bed and glitter flew around him in a thick cloud.
“My wolf howls constantly and I want to claw my skin off. It would have been easier to be beaten with a morning star daily, so long as I could return to Tori at night. It’s her belief in me that keeps me holding on. That, and the fact that, I only have one week left,” he said and Orlando could feel his relief over that fact.
Orlando thought of the affect a Fated Mate had on a male and wondered why Ember hadn’t had the same impact on him. She’d been there when his world had been torn apart and Jaidis died, asking Orlando to care for her son. Fate seemed to have it out for him, he thought bitterly.
A voice in the back of his head reminded him that Ember did help calm him that night. That he’d been ready to tear Kenny’s corpse and the entire house apart when her scent reached him. He’d been able to think clearly after that, even if it hadn’t stopped all the pain.
“If you’re not here to get me out, why are you here?” Santiago asked, changing the subject.
“I found my Fated Mate,” Orlando blurted as he rubbed his shoulder where the mate brand burned like a hot coal.
Santiago jumped to his feet and crossed to where Orlando stood, a huge smile spreading across his face.
“No shit? Congrats, O. Damn, you work fast. I have no idea how you managed that after the brutal fight last night, but you deserve all the happiness she will bring you. Who is she, and, why the hell don’t you look happy about it?” the warrior asked.
Orlando considered the question. Was he happy? He wanted to be happy. This is what most supernaturals dreamed of finding. He was happy, but it was overshadowed by all the other shit.
“I don’t know what to think or feel right now. So much has happened in the past month that my mind is struggling to catch up. And, I haven’t slept in weeks so that doesn’t help,” Orlando stated.
“Is this about Elsie?” Santiago narrowed his eyes and pinned Orlando to the spot.
The intense gaze had him shifting from foot to foot. “No. Yes. I don’t really know,” he answered honestly.
This was why he needed to come see Santiago. He needed help screwing his head on and his best friend was the perfect person for the job.
“First of all, you need to put that fucking crush behind you. Elsie has never belonged to you and she never will. You have found your other half. Bro, she carries part of your soul,” Santi exclaimed.
“I know, and it’s not really Elsie, per se. I’m fucked up, I know. First, I fell in love with a female that belonged to Zander and as soon as I got over her, I fell for another female that belonged to someone else. Shit, I barely knew her. I smelled her sweet scent…” he drifted off as he realized why he’d been so drawn to Jaidis.
She’d worn some perfume that smelled like a tropical flower, which was close to Ember’s natural frangipani.
Dipple raced by Orlando’s shins carrying a huge stuffed bear nearly as big as him. He and Santi watched, their conversation momentarily forgotten as the gnome attempted to stuff the animal through the bars. The little guys were entertaining, if nothing else.
Shaking his head at the sight, he refocused on Santiago who looked confused by Orlando’s ramblings.
“To make a long story short, I met Jaidis. She was pregnant and had an abusive mate. I realize now that she smelled like my Fated Mate. Regardless of my initial pull to her, I was determined to save her and her unborn baby from the horrible situation they were in. Jaidis’s mate attacked her and she ended up killing the sonovabitch then died giving birth to their son,” Orlando explained.
Santiago leaned against a now purple stonewall shaking his head. “Only you, my friend. So, let me guess, your head is all caught up in the dead female and you can’t get past that.”
“Pretty much. Took a week for Ember to seduce me to her bed. I had been resisting the urges towards her, but after Crocell nearly killed her, emotions were high. The thought of losing her slammed home and I couldn’t deny my attraction any longer,” Orlando admitted.
Santiago nodded his understanding. “So, who is the lucky female? And, please tell me that you ended that blue bitch after I was taken back here.”
“No, we didn’t find her, or her twin. Ember Hawthorne is my mate. She’s the feline shifter that fought with us last night and she is the one that discovered there were two demons. She saved countless lives last night.” He couldn’t help how his chest puffed with pride. Ember was intelligent, sexy, and passionate…and she belonged to him.
“Ember was the one you were so freaked out about. I thought it was because she was a female, but your reaction makes sense now. So, why aren’t you still in her bed?” Santi asked matter-of-factly.
“Why do I keep falling for the wrong females?” Orlando countered.
“Wake the fuck up, bro. This isn’t like the others. She belongs to you and you alone. She will never want another. You’re so stuck in the past mistakes you’ve made that you aren’t seeing what is right in front of you,” Santi chastised.
Orlando hadn’t stopped to think about that fact. It didn’t lessen the pain of losing Jaidis or his chagrin with how he’d fallen for Elsie, but Santi was right. Ember was his other half. His and his alone.
“You’re right. But I have a baby now. There are so many issues I don’t know if she will accept.”
“I’m assuming the baby you’re referring to is the one that belonged to Jaidis because we both know until your recent cherry-popping with Ember, you couldn’t have gotten any female pregnant. By the way, the gnomes haven’t stopped flapping their chops over how good Brantley is,” the male added as he swatted at the bubbles wafting around his head.
Orlando recalled the feeling of his barb extending for the first time and had to agree that it was a lot like losing his virginity, but in the most pleasurable way. He’d never experienced anything like it and his body craved to feel it again.
“Yes, Brantley is Jaidis’s son. She asked me to take care of him. It was her dying wish so there’s no way I’m giving up that child for anything, or, anyone” he explained.
“Of course you did. I would expect nothing less from you. I can’t wait to meet the little tyke. He will be a great addition to the family,” Santiago replied with a smile. “But as your mate, Ember will welcome him. You don’t need to worry about that.”
“That’s just it. She has never once asked about the baby. I’m not so sure she will like raising another female’s child. Especially, knowing how I felt about Jaidis.”
Santiago groaned and rubbed his goatee. “Don’t tell me you told her how you felt about this other female.”
“I didn’t know she was my mate at the time,” Or
lando defended.
“I admit it’s a fucked-up situation,” Santi mumbled, “but you’ll never know how she feels until you talk to her. And for the love of the Goddess, tell her how much she means to you. She’s your mate, O. This is great news.”
Orlando recalled what everyone had told him about finding a mate. They’d each been inescapably drawn to them and unable to deny their desire. And, after that first sexual experience they’d seemed so tight and inseparable.
Orlando couldn’t relate to that. Yes, he was drawn to Ember, but they weren’t a team. He couldn’t help but wonder if they could ever function as one unit.
“Thanks. I guess I need to go see a certain female about a mating ceremony. I’m glad you’ll be out soon so you can be there.”
“It’s not just the ceremony, Orlando. You need to get real and tell her how you really feel,” Santi advised, his brown eyes sincere.
“When did you get so wise?” Orlando asked before he turned to head out.
“Through lots and lots of mistakes that I don’t want to see my best friend make.”
Orlando shook his head and climbed the stairs, tossing over his shoulder, “Thanks again.”
His blood heated in anticipation. He had a cougar to hunt down.
*****
Ember sat at her kitchen table glaring at her sexy mate. Her mate mark burned, she was horny, and he was blabbing about everything but the reason he walked out of her house after discovering they were mates.
She’d known he was less than enthused about the idea, but he sounded like he had a business proposal for her. She looked at the wood surface half-expecting to see a document in front of her outlining their future together.
“This isn’t an arrangement, you know,” she snapped as she pushed her glasses up on her face. “We are connected at the soul. Something we will never share with another being, but if you don’t want this, then tell me now. I will figure out a way to deal with the repercussions.”