And then, just when she wondered if she’d have to do more with her nails than just dig them into his shoulders—the scent of blood would probably drive her She-Wolf wild with need—she felt something deep inside her.
He stopped moving at that exact moment.
Gulping, she realized what was happening and felt her body start to meltdown as his cock began the process of knotting.
It was magic at its most insane, and she’d figure out afterward if she liked it or not.
How had she forgotten that males knotted when they came? She’d been so fucking psyched about being able to be with one of her mates that this part had completely slipped her mind. In human culture, girls were nervous about losing their virginity. In her world, girls were nervous about the first time they felt the knot of their mate deep inside them.
Only a mate could make this kind of connection.
A sharp gasp escaped him and his back arched as the knot began to form. He looked in pain, but it was a kind of delirious pain, she figured. His hips made short, sharp thrusts that had her letting out a whimper as her nerve endings suddenly treated her to a fireworks display. An internal one. Each bang and explosion was a fizz that turned her blood to champagne. The effervescence whispered through her system, making her feel punch-drunk with the glory of what was happening.
Women feared this?
Why?
“Sweet Gods, Rafe,” she cried as his cock locked inside her. She felt it. Felt it like she’d hear the lock of a door clicking as a key turned in it. She felt it as her entire world righted itself. Everything grounding and balancing in response to this moment where separate beings became one entity. “What are you doing to me?”
“I’m making you mine,” he gritted out, but the words were half-slurred and the strain on his face made her heart melt… well, the memory would. As it was, she was having a hard time not letting everything melt.
With the knot in place, he moved his hand away from her clit and placed it at her lips. “Get them wet, cherub,” he whispered.
The dirty words, the innocent nickname, had excitement flaring inside her. She opened her mouth, not wincing at the taste of herself, and cleaned his fingers. He pulled them away with a pop, but she saw his reaction as he slid them back in again, twice more. With a shudder, he reached down between them and began to rub her clit while he made those jerky thrusts that seemed to tease the knot’s connection.
Each one sent jolting sparks of agonizing bliss through her until a roar of wonder escaped her lips as finally he pushed her over the edge. That was all he needed too. He came. Her roar mingling with his long growl as his cum bathed her womb. Each sluggish pelt of seed sending another wake of tormentous pleasure through her body until she was shaking beneath him.
And then, he pinched her clit. Hard. That was it. She was a goner. Her eyes turned blind, her ears turned deaf, and every single part of her body focused only on the knot that tied him to her.
From now on, that link, binding him to her, was the only thing that mattered.
But, for those endless moments of glorious wonder, nothing mattered. Nothing but him and her as she tumbled into the darkness; a warm, welcome haven that scented only of him where at last, she was safe. From her family, from the world, and more importantly, the future.
5
"In future, just take over," she commented, her words slurred as she drifted from the depths of wherever the hell he'd taken her with an orgasm that had sizzled her insides and short-circuited her brain.
She squinted up at the ceiling, only just realizing they were no longer on the floor, but a lumpy mattress that made the tiles seem soft and cozy. She also realized Rafe was leaning over her, head resting on his hand as he studied her.
To anyone who hadn't met their mate, that would have seemed creepy as hell. Being watched during sleep was a big no no, right? But she understood his need. The urge to just watch his chest fall, to see him breathe. To watch the slow drift of his eyelashes as he watched her.
It was a compulsion. Because finally, after so many years, they were no longer separate entities. They were one. As and when she found her other mates, they would merge into that one mythical being; a true union blessed by the Mother.
A smile drifted across her lips at the thought and his finger came up to trace it.
"I wasn't sure how it would work with my taking charge the first time."
She thought about that, consulted her bitch, and realized that Rafe didn't feel like a lesser rank now. He was just Rafe. And her She-Wolf wanted to see his Wolf.
"You don't feel Gamma to me," she told him, a slight pucker on her brow. "Don't get me wrong, it wouldn't matter if you did," she was quick to point out. "But you don't. Saying that, you're a weirdass Gamma anyway."
His lips quirked into a grin, and something told her he'd smiled more in the time they'd been together than he had in a long while. "See? I was right. I knew you'd be good for my ego."
She snorted. "Seriously, Rafe. What Gamma becomes a doctor? Are you sure your rank is correct?"
"Oh, yes. I’m definitely sure." He grimaced and rolled over on to his back, the act one of avoidance. She immediately curled against him, sliding her leg across his. Not knowing why he needed comfort, just wanting to ease him. She wished she hadn’t passed out after her orgasm; she’d have loved to stay awake to feel the connection between them until the knot unraveled. Something to look forward to in the future, she guessed, then focused when he replied, his tone bitter, "Dad had me tested six times when I was a kid. He couldn't believe his only son was the lowest rank possible, and in an all Beta household, too. Even my mom is Beta."
She pressed her lips against his arm, and whispered, "Guess he was wrong, then."
Rafe frowned at her. "What do you mean?"
"You're my mate. Your dad is so low on the pecking order he can't even see you now."
The corner of his mouth cocked up. "I guess he got his wish."
She snorted. "Underestimation of the year. Rank means jack to me, anyway. It's all nonsense as my grandma likes to say. I've got Betas in the palace acting as errand boys, getting off on my telling them what to do! The only person brave enough to be around me for lengthy amounts of time is an Omega cleaner, and Council Alpha males are frightened of me; enough that they whisper and bitch about me behind my back. Yeah, I don't put much faith in our testing systems."
He frowned. "A Beta has been behaving inappropriately with you?"
She grunted. "So inappropriately he might as well paint 'I heart FemDom' on his forehead." She waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. I won't need messenger boys anymore." She grinned, thrilled at the idea of the newfound freedom she'd have now.
Almost as though the thought was the trigger, the door to the motel room blasted open, sending shards of wood sailing from all angles. A quartet of heavily armed SWAT men appeared in the doorway, all aiming M4 rifles at the bed.
From peace to utter madness and in less time than it took to blink.
Beside her, Rafe froze. It took her sitting up to shake him out of the stasis he'd just sunk into, and only then because he reached for the sheet to cover up her nudity.
Touched by the gesture, she didn't shrug off the sheet as she would have done.
She had nothing to be ashamed of.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she spat at the men. Recognizing Rick behind one of the masks thanks to the head of gingery red hair sprouting out at the back, she shot him a glare. "Do I look like I'm in need of saving?"
Rick removed his mask, and for a second, looked sheepish before resolve settled on his features, and he stepped toward the bed. "I have my orders, ma'am."
He headed toward Rafe's side of the bed, his hand extending toward Rafe. The instant he made to grab her mate's arm, Thalia was in his face. Her position on the bed was precarious, but she shot her leg up and out, aiming for his chest and putting all her not-too-puny strength behind it.
He flew across the room, half into the window,
half into the wall, disturbing the old fashioned TV as he passed. The window shattered, setting yet more dangerous splinters sailing through the atmosphere. She felt one cut on her back, felt the blood start to ooze out of the wound, but ignored it.
"You touch my mate, you fucking touch me. You got that, you fuckers?" she bit out, face white with her intent.
The trio of men looked at their now-fallen comrade, her once favored guard, and then back at her. She knew she was asking them to countermand what were probably orders dictated to them by the TriAlpha themselves. She didn't care that they would all try to go for her; she was in no real danger. It wasn't like they were going to shoot her! But Rafe? No. Rafe was in danger, and her She-Wolf howled at the thought.
Unbidden, the bitch took over. Thalia’s mind was a blur of rage and fear, but the She-Wolf was ice cold with intent. There was no point in shifting. That wouldn’t protect her mate from bullets, but the bitch knew what to do. In the time it took for one of the guards to reach the bed, her hands shifted into monstrous hybrid hand-paws, tipped with deadly claws that were sharper than the knives tucked into the guards' belts.
She felt the deadly silence in the room at the shift, felt her beast rescind more control to maintain the energy-draining half-shift; knew the men were staring at her like she was a freak, because only the very strongest, only a handful in the world, were capable of a half-shift. Rafe had seen a smaller display earlier, when her eyes had turned. That was a baby step in comparison to this lunge.
She hadn't spent a lot of time in this form; only relying on it when she was in danger of attack, something that happened infrequently. The most she'd had to do was fend off a few rutting natural wolves who had reacted to her heat in the most predictable way possible.
She knew, if there was anything capable of making these Lykens countermand direct orders, it was this. No one signed up for this shit.
The hybrid paws were heavy, made her arms ache, but she showed not a sign of weakness. Couldn't afford to, when her mate was on the bed and ill-prepared for the welcome party her fathers had sent. A bullet, even a stray one, could take him from her.
In her mind, the She-Wolf howled out her fury at the prospect, and pumped more energy from the adrenaline that buzzed around her veins into the half-shift.
Thalia made fists of her new hands and the scent of blood filled the room as her claws tore through the rough skin of the paws. "Do you understand me?" She growled, watching with satisfaction as the guards took shaky steps back. "You keep on backing the fuck off. We'll be at the palace before night falls. Tell my darling daddies that."
The sound of glass scraping against tile sounded from the corner, and she knew Rick was trying to get to his feet. She flashed him a glance, and knew her eyes had turned too because the hyperfocus was almost distracting—she heard his heart beat like it was her own in her head even as her gaze took in the tension in his body which preempted an attack.
"Don't try anything, Rick. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you come between my mate and I. Think of Dexie," she half-pleaded, seeing the intent start to drain from his features. "Think how you'd react if someone threatened her."
Silence fell, then he gritted out, "We'll tell your fathers."
He looked at the other guards, shared a soundless message with them, and they all jerked their heads in assent.
"Tell them, warn them, I won't have my mate threatened. Do you hear me, Rick?"
"I hear you, Thalia."
In all the years, he'd only used her given name a handful of times. Using it now, she knew he understood and forgave her for kicking him across the room.
"Good."
She watched as they trundled out, waited until they'd gone to revert the shift, and just in the nick of time too as the hall started to fill with gawkers wondering why a SWAT team had been called to the motel.
The instant the threat disappeared, she half-fell off the bed and sank to the floor, her bones like mush.
The amount of energy she'd used maintaining those paws was immense. She didn't care that there were shards of wood and glass on the floor, she just wanted to sit.
Every part of her was shaking in reaction; and then came the emotional blow.
What if Rafe was freaked out by the sight of her half-shift?
What if he couldn't accept her protecting him the way she had?
But even as the panic tore at her insides worse than any shards of glass could tear at her skin, a hand squeezed her shoulder. The simple touch enough to reassure her that all was well. For the moment. And she shuddered as a result, the connection enough to let her heartbeat calm down.
The mattress squeaked as he moved. A frown puckered her brow as she sensed him move away, but then she heard him shift something heavy—it thumped against the ground, but she didn’t have the energy to lift her head to see what he was doing. Another thump came before he called out, "Nothing to see here, folks. They got the wrong room." Thalia's lips twitched at that, especially as it set off a flurry of concerned twitters as to who the armed guards were really after.
Scraping enough resolve to see where he was, she half-turned her head and saw that he was fitting the door into the empty hole where it had once stood.
"I don't think I'll get my security deposit back."
The rueful comment had shock flooding her. She turned to face him, saw the wry grin on his face, and felt relief overtake her momentary shock: he wasn’t frightened. Wasn’t even concerned if his wry grin was anything to go by.
"No, I doubt it," she whispered uncertainly. “I-I’m sorry.”
“I can afford it,” he said, waving a dismissive hand. Then, that dismissal disappeared as he sucked down a huge gulp of air. "I guess I should get ready for an interview with the TriAlpha, eh?"
Even though he tried to sound calm, she could see his panic at the prospect in the slight darkening of his eyes, the paleness of his face.
She nodded. "I'm sorry. It's unavoidable. But don't worry. It's me they want to lay into, not you. They just want to lock me back up in the palace... well, they can fuck off."
The horror at such a prospect had her collecting her energy reserves enough to raise her knees to her chest. Glass ripped into the soles of her feet, but she ignored the sting to clasp her arms about her calves and rest her head on the bony joints.
Thalia heard him pad toward her. She sighed and released a shuddery breath as he stroked her hair and moved it away from her nape the instant he was close. He pressed a kiss to the back of her neck, and, in a tone that conveyed confusion and concern, murmured, "Lock up?"
She wriggled her shoulders, but then slumped against the side of his legs now he’d taken a seat on the bed to her left. "Don't you think it's weird that you couldn't recognize me by sight? There hasn't been a picture of me in Lyken publications since I was sixteen. They've kept me in the goddamn palace like it was the Tower of London!"
He processed that but changed the subject; "In fairness, they might just be concerned about you. The security footage probably looked odd—you getting into the minibus with us. They might have thought you were under duress or something."
She grunted. That was bullshit. What little her fathers knew of her, they’d be aware that even under duress, Thalia wouldn’t be a party to anything she didn’t strictly want. "Or something. It doesn't matter. I'll deal with my family." Thalia turned her head to look up at him and not her knees. "You have a problem with a Beta in your pack, right?"
He frowned at her shift in conversation, then looked flustered, embarrassed. She reached for his hand and squeezed.
"Please, don't feel shame. I don't think less of you for who you are."
His smile was strained. "You say that now."
"I'll say it until the cows come home. Until the sun stops setting! You're my mate, and I'm proud of you. Whatever you are, whoever you are. Because the Mother wouldn't have paired us together if we weren't two parts of a whole." Then, she blew out a breath. “You’ve not exactly got yourself a priz
e, Rafe. I’m a freak,” she confessed sadly, staring at her hands. And he didn’t know the half of it.
He looked at the floor, studying the grain in the tiles for a second, then as he reached for the hands she was staring at like they didn’t belong to her, he squeezed them gently with his and said, "Jason Torres. He's newly promoted to Beta in the council hierarchy."
"He raped the women you're with, didn't he?"
"And more."
"If they'll finally let me attend the Centennial festival, then we'll go. I haven’t been in too long, and once I get out of that fucking place, I don’t intend on going back for a good long while. But after, I'll deal with Torres for good. My fathers are too old-fashioned to do anything. Even though they let my mother do whatever the hell she wants, and will give her anything she asks for, they won't change the law in favor of the Gammas.
"Not because they're bastards; although, they can be," she tempered, trying to be fair. "Simply because they're old. They're nearly one-hundred and thirty. They're set in their ways. But I'm not. I'll fight for you."
Rafe scowled down at the floor. "I don't want you to have to."
Even Gammas had pride, she realized, not totally surprised by his words but still, hurting for him. The lack of equilibrium between their ranks could become a problem if she wasn’t cautious with the situation. But, she’d die first before she let Rafe feel like shit about something he couldn’t help.
"What did this Torres do to you?" she asked quietly, wanting him to share his troubles with her, and for her to help. Though she modulated her tone, careful to keep her voice emotionless, more shame flooded his features. His skin was clammy, pale with it. She cupped his jaw, and whispered, "Tell me."
His shrug was jerky, and she knew he was going to temper his words out of discomfort with the truth. "They beat me."
They. Who the fuck were ‘they’?
Her eyes narrowed as she thought about the situation. Thalia might have been locked up in her pretty cage for too many years but she knew her people. Knew they wouldn’t run around singly when they could run around in a collective; especially not a Beta. They needed to feel the protection of a pack.
Trinity (The TriAlpha Chronicles Book 1) Page 10