“Thank you,” she said in awe. “I could never imagine a place like this.”
“I could barely imagine you,” he said quietly, spreading his fur cloak so that they could sit comfortably.
“Oh?”
Riona settled herself on the luxurious fur and looked up at him. For the first time, Rordan looked, if not nervous, then ill at ease, and it took him a few moments before he was willing to settle down next to her.
“The witchfolk were mostly gone when I came of age,” he said softly. “I knew of them, but they were stories. The old timers talked of women who could see into you, who could draw the beast from the man and the man from the beast. We're like two halves of a whole. Our people were never meant to be apart. You were meant to be by my side since we were young.”
Riona smiled, daring to reach her hand out to stroke a dark curl that hung over his ear. So strange to be this intimate with a man she had only known for a few days.
“Me or someone like me,” she said teasingly. “I know you were searching for a witchfolk woman for quite some time...”
Rordan shook his head. “No,” he said firmly. “It had to be you. It could be no one else, and I know this now.”
She started to ask what he meant, but then, with aching care and gentleness, he covered her lips with his own.
She knew she should protest, there was still so much between them, and so very much she needed answers for. Riona still didn't want to take someone else's word for who she was and what she must do, but there was truly something so wonderfully right about the way he felt when he kissed her, and the simple sense of completeness that she felt when she was in his arms.
Riona suddenly decided, abruptly and with no hesitation, that no matter what else was between them, they could have this. There might have been a lot left unsaid, but there was truth in their silence as well.
She pushed him to his back on the fur cloak, and for a long moment she simply looked at him. His face was already familiar to her, and she knew that no matter what happened, she would not forget it. She traced the lines of his clean-shaven face with her fingers, making him smile when she trailed them over his lips. He closed his mouth gently over her fingertips, and for a moment, she allowed him to lick at them, smiling at the ticklish sensations and then drawing a breath of surprise when he sucked on them.
“Do you like what you see?” he asked when she pulled back, and underneath the cocky smile, there was a real question.
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Everything. All of it. Only....”
He tensed, eyes suddenly alert and shoulders stiff, but she smiled.
“Only I could stand to see more of it.”
“Vicious little thing,” he said with affection, and he sat up to pull his shirt over his head. She pushed him to his back again, and this time she boldly slung a leg over his hips, seating herself on him comfortably.
“I'm not too heavy, am I?” she asked with sudden concern.
He rolled his eyes. “I could bear two of you with ease. Two of you... now that is a thought.”
She playfully swatted his shoulder, which he ignored in favor of tugging at her dress.
“Fair's fair,” he teased, and since she agreed wholeheartedly, she pulled her dress and her shift over her head. Now the only thing separating them was his trousers, and underneath her, she could feel his cock stiffen at her weight.
“You're so very beautiful,” he said, shaping his hands to her lush hips. He couldn't take his eyes away from her, and though part of Riona wanted to hide out of shyness, it was suddenly much more important to lean down and kiss him fully on the mouth. She explored it as carefully as he had hers the night before, running her lips over his and sliding a gentle tongue into his mouth. She found out how sharp his canines were, and then she experimented with dropping kisses on his face, his ears, and his neck. When she paused for a moment, he grinned.
“I suppose this is where I should ask you if I hurt or frightened you last night, but somehow I don't think I need to.”
“If I'm hurt or frightened, I tend to make it known very loudly,” she retorted. “Right now, however, there are far more interesting things to think about.”
He started to ask what, but then she was kissing her way down his chest, pausing to lick his flat brown nipples with the flat of her tongue. The way his hands landed on her shoulders to hold her close made her whimper, and when her body pressed against his still-clothed cock, he moaned.
“You bit me last night...” she murmured.
“Should I not?”
“No, just... can I bite you?”
“Please, yes, please, love, do that...”
A part of her exulted to hear him call her that, but another part was simply too pleased by the idea of getting to bite him. With no more warning than that, she latched her teeth into the firm flesh just a few inches above his nipple and bit nearly as hard as she could.
The groan she wrenched out of Rordan made her even hotter, and the way his hands landed in her hair, not pulling her away but asking for more made her bold. When she pulled back, there was a vivid red mark on his flesh, and the imprint of her own strong teeth made a nearly perfect oval on his flesh. They were both panting, and his eyes were wide and wanting.
“Beautiful...” he breathed, and his hands were on her hips, rocking her bare body against him. She felt a rush of power. This man was entirely hers, all of him, and suddenly she knew they would always have this raw physicality, this perfect union.
“I want you,” he said, his voice harsh with desire. “Old gods above, I want you so much...”
She nodded. That was all she had to do, and suddenly, their places were switched and she was the one on her back on the fur. He rose up above her like a devil from a fairytale, and her body ached with how much she needed him.
She reached for him, and her fingers brushed the bite mark she had left on his shoulder. As she brushed gentle fingers over it, he growled with pleasure and buried his face in her neck. Instead of biting, he sucked at her skin, nipping gently with her teeth. Riona whimpered and bared her neck to him more, simply knowing that this felt right in a way that nothing ever had in her life.
“Please,” she whimpered. “I need you so much.”
His laugh was ragged as he reached down between their bodies to unfasten his trousers. She felt his hard proud flesh rear up against her thigh, and blindly, she reached down to touch it. It was hard, but smooth as silk from the Far East. Fascinated, she brushed her fingers over the shaft again and again. Rordan held himself brutally still for her, tremors shaking his body as she explored exactly the way that she wished. She slid her fingers through the warm drop of liquid at the tip, and on impulse, she squirmed down close and lapped at it with her tongue.
“Witch!” Rordan groaned, his warm hands landing on her body.
“It's no less than what you did last night, and what you did last night felt so very good.”
When he made no reply, she pressed her mouth to the warmth of his shaft again, running her tongue up and down the length, She relished the taste of him, and the feel of him against her sensitive lips, but even better were the shivers that shook his body and the fitful way his hands pressed against her.
Out of curiosity, she took the tip into her mouth, suckling gently, and the response was instantaneous. In a matter of moments, he had pushed her away and he was looming over her again, and this time, the look Rordan's face was nearly wild. Another woman might have been afraid, but Riona only pulled him to her fiercely, devouring his mouth with her own.
“Please,” she murmured. “Please now, Rordan....”
To her surprise, he lifted from her, and with hands that were as powerful as they were gentle, he turned her over. Confused, she looked over her shoulder at him, and he grinned, his teeth showing white and sharp in the dim light of the cavern.
“You will love this,” he promised her, and he pulled her hips up until her weight rested on her knees and her elbows. She still wasn't
quite sure what to make of it when he reached down to part the flesh of her thighs, and she felt his questing tongue lapping at her slit. It wasn't the full assault that he had given her the night before. This was ticklish and a little awkward, but the position made her belly tighten with arousal, and then his tongue found that sensitive bundle of nerves that he had manipulated so cleverly the night before, and she cried out.
“Yes, you will love this,” he said with certainty, pulling back. His hands momentarily caressed the curves of her belly and her hips before reaching up to squeeze her breasts, and then she felt him parting her cheeks to expose her slit to the cooler air. She shivered for a moment, but then she felt him pressing the tip of his cock to her wet flesh.
Riona moaned, trying to press back and take him inside again, but instead he held her still with one hand at her hip. The other took his cock and slid it teasingly along her lips, moving up and down until she could have shouted. Reaching back blindly, her hand touched his on her hip, and she looked back at him.
“Don't make me wait anymore?” she begged pleadingly, and he shook his head.
“Never will I deny you anything,” he murmured.
With aching slowness, as if to make up for his frenzy the night before, he pressed his cock deep inside her, not stopping until they fit together like clasped hands. She felt his weight against her body, and he leaned down to press his chest to her back until they were so intimately connected, she could feel his breath against her skin and the beat of his heart. The fullness of him inside her made her sigh with pleasure, and the only thing wrong with this position was that they could not kiss.
“Please,” she repeated, and he knew to start moving.
Rordan thrust deep inside her, stroke after stroke, filling her completely. He allowed her to luxuriate in the feeling of fullness and of the push and pull of their bodies together, like the waves of the ocean she had heard about once. The slow pleasure of it was nearly hypnotic, so different from their passion of the night before, but no less powerful.
The fire at the bottom of her belly was hot, and the buildup was so gradual that she barely noticed it before her legs were shaking and fire started to race through her.
“Rordan,” she gasped, and his strained sound told her that he was close as well.
She started to twist her hips, pushing back against him. She knew from his startled moan that he liked it and she pressed back against him. She exulted in the strength and beauty of her body, and how she could draw this response from him, and in a matter of moments, his hands on her hips were tighter, his thrusts sharper. It drove the pleasure in her up slowly, and soon they were both frantic. Riona could hear the echoes of her own cries against the cavern walls and she clenched her fists, pushing herself back even harder.
He toppled over the edge first, filling her with the heat of his completion, and she wailed, unable to stand being left in this state. Instead of pulling away, however, Rordan leaned down and reached his hand around her hip, finding the top of her slit with fingers that were uncannily accurate. With a few hard strokes, he pushed her right over the edge, sending waves of almost painful pleasure through her body. She knew she screamed, but otherwise, her body was clenching so hard that it shook.
It could have been hours later when she came back to herself and found Rordan watching her with a frown on his face. She lay on her side and his shirt had been thrown over her body.
“You're crying,” he said softly.
In surprise, she touched her face. Her cheeks were wet, and she shrugged. “I want you so much,” she responded simply.
He crushed her to him. “This is right,” he murmured against her curly hair. “This is where you should be.”
The warm pleasures they had shared cooled inside her instantly, and even as she held him, she wondered uneasily what the future could bring. She had accepted this fierce wolf king, but her own destiny was beginning to seem a fearsome thing, full of unknown peril and terror.
***
Niall backed away with blood on his muzzle and hatred in his eyes, and he growled angrily at MacBrae.
“You're no wolf king,” he snarled in the language of wolves, but when MacBrae snapped his teeth at him, he subsided
“Conleth is dead or dying, and the bandit refused to have us,” MacBrae said, tail held high. “I am your wolf king, and you will heed my commands as you did Conleth's.”
The other wolves growled, but one by one they all lay down, giving him their submission if not their love.
“Get up,” he said. “We've got to get to the capital and back before that bandit's trail grows cold.”
As his men rose, MacBrae thought of the glory of killing the uncatchable werewolf bandit, and of bringing the beautiful witchfolk woman back to the capital.
“Come on, hurry up,” he said, snapping his teeth at one slow wolf. “We've much to do.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK THREE: The Truth of Blood - Volume 3
***
The Truth of Blood
***
The wolf huddled at the back of the stone cellar was a skinny thing, and when the light of Riona's lantern caught his eye, he flinched back, whining loudly.
“The poor thing,” Riona whispered.
Siobhan laid a restraining hand on her shoulder. “That poor thing as you call him, was once the last wolf king's second in command. When I was just a pup, I saw him rip an elk's leg right from its body. Simply because he is frightened, do not make the mistake of thinking that he is helpless, my friend.”
Riona nodded, never taking her eyes from the animal who clung to the wall and watched them with such mistrustful eyes. She handed Siobhan the lantern and knelt down on the dusty floor, holding her hand out to the wolf.
“I am called Riona,” she said softly, “and I have heard many stories about you. You were strong, and you were brave, and when you spoke other people listened. Do you remember what it is to be a man, to walk and talk and greet your people?
The wolf growled nervously at her, but it stood a little further from the wall.
Encouraged, she smiled gently. “You are a great warrior, and Ferric and Angus told me many tales of your skills in battle. They also told me once of how you fell so in love with a town girl from the edge of the forest that you tried to go live as a man for her.”
The wolf looked more interested in that, and his ears, which had been laid flat against his head, pricked sharply.
“That didn't go so well, did it? You brought back the neighbor's piglet all bloody for her because you did not understand that you shouldn't, and she drove you out with her broom.”
The wolf looked positively offended at that, and she laughed, even if her arm was getting a little sore from being held out.
“Ah, but you were wiser in battle than you were in love, they told me that as well. They told me in awe of how you ran straight up to a bear and took its throat in your jaws, and they told me that when it came time to fight for your home and your family, you were always there, behind the old wolf king by just a pace.”
The wolf made a whining sound and inched closer to her. His cold nose was just a scant few inches from her hand, and she kept herself still. This close, she could see the size of his frame, and when there was more muscle and flesh on it, he would easily have been as big as Rordan or Conleth. Now he was shrunken, and she could see the way his skin hung on him, as if it had been made for a much bigger thing.
“You always had something to protect, but never more than when you met your lady, did you?”
She watched as the wolf turned bright yellow eyes to her. She was not imagining a sadness there, an awareness that had not been there before.
“She was a wild thing, a runaway from a circus troupe, and you had never seen anyone who could flip and tumble as she could. Do you remember, how she could swing through the branches of the trees above you? She was never afraid of you.”
The wolf whimpered and suddenly pushed his nose into her hands before pulling away quickly. There
was something mournful in his face, and she nodded.
“Yes, she was a beautiful woman, and it was right for you to miss her. She died suddenly, there was nothing to be done, and it was not your fault, not even a little. You cried at her bedside, and you would not let them burn her body for a full day and night until the old wolf king tore you away. You wept when they burned her, and then you went wild.”
The wolf shivered, a deep mournful bay rising in its throat, and then its howl was bouncing off the thick walls of the chamber. Riona struggled to keep from covering her ears, and Siobhan shifted nervously. There was something a little unhinged about that howl, and Riona could tell that Siobhan wanted to pull her away.
“But this is not all you are. She would not have wanted this, you see. You were meant to be more. Come back now. Your nieces and nephews miss you, you know. Come back. I see you. I see who you are. Please come back.”
With every word she spoke, the old wolf crawled closer to her, and with an exhausted trust, he laid his large head in her lap. She stroked his ears, scratching his neck and his throat, and by the time she stopped, it was not a wolf with his head in her lap but a grizzled man clothed all in furs.
For a long moment, no one moved. Riona only stroked the few strands of hair on his head, continuing her soft comforting words, and she could feel the wetness on her thigh from his tears.
“Old gods forgive me, but I was lost,” he whispered, clutching her thighs hard.
“It's all right,” Riona crooned, “for you have been found again.”
At Siobhan's signal, Ferric and Angus entered to bring the old man out. He limped, and now and then, he crouched as if he would rather go on four legs than too, but soon enough he was walking.
Riona climbed unsteadily to her legs, and Siobhan came to help her.
Following the Wolf (Trilogy Bundle) (Werewolf BBW Erotic Romance) Page 5