by Alexx Andria
Tieran wiped away the blood welling on his lip and grinned. “And you used to hit harder.”
She returned the grin. “Touché.”
They sparred for a solid ten minutes before Tieran caught Serra with a surprise kick to the stomach that sent her reeling to the floor, gasping to catch her breath. When she didn’t immediately rebound, he worried he’d actually hurt her and went to help her up, but she caught him with a swift kick to the jaw as she spun around and suddenly he was seeing stars while flat on his back. Serra wasted no time in straddling him, the heat of her core nestled perfectly against his groin. It took a full second to realize she’d won the match but his body reacted like an eager boy with his first conquest, hardening beneath her ready heat. “It seems there is something between us you haven’t managed to forget,” she murmured triumphantly, grinding against him and sighing with pleasure as the hard-ridge of his cock rubbed against her clit. She leaned down to catch his bottom lip between her teeth before sealing her mouth to his. In a flash, everything about Serra’s familiar weight on top of him felt wrong — even repugnant.
He bracketed her hips with both hands and lifted her off him, nearly tossing her free with a glower. “What are you doing?” he demanded in a harsh growl as he climbed to his feet. “I have bonded with Cassandra. What we had was child’s play compared to what I feel for Cassandra. Do not shame your clan in this way!”
She followed suit, her eyes flashing. “You are the one who has shamed our clan by refusing to do what is necessary to ensure the clan’s survival.”
“Watch your tongue.”
“If you were a real Alpha, you’d vow to kill the baby whose blood isn’t pure. The seed of Clan Janus germinates in the belly of your mate and yet, you allow it to live. If you were half the Alpha you pretend to be, you’d know this is an abomination. She has poisoned your mind, turned you from your beliefs. Do you need further proof that she is ruining this clan? We have survived and thrived because our Alphas always did what was right, no matter the cost. But this woman has managed to turn you into a soft, mewling kitten at the prospect of snuffing out one tiny life.”
“Silence.” The command echoed in the room, laced with danger. “You forget yourself.”
“No. You forget yourself. I am not some weak woman that you can order about. I was destined to be your mate. You know it to be true. Deep inside you know what you have with Cassandra doesn’t feel right. When we were together, we were unstoppable. Just as destined mates should be. If you were truly bonded to Cassandra, you would not be here with me…you would be with her. No matter the circumstance.”
He stared in hard silence. Slowly, a cold smile broke across his lips. “You are right about something not feeling right,” he said, surprising her. “But it isn’t how I feel about Cassandra. It’s how I thought I felt about you. Y% iad I was ou are not my True Mate. It is Cassandra. I am sorry you were hurt in all this but I cannot change what is meant to be.”
“I don’t believe you,” she whispered, angry tears filling her eyes. “You’re lying.”
“You may stay until tomorrow. Until this moment, you would’ve had my undying respect, if not love. Now, I feel nothing. Do not further shame your family and clan with your protests and accusations.”
Tieran left the work out room with Serra screaming obscenities through a wash of tears. He felt no guilt, only regret for putting Cassandra in an uncomfortable spot. He bounded up the stairs to Cassandra’s room and strode in with purpose. He shut the door and locked it, then stripped as he went. By the time he crawled into the bed beside Cassandra he was naked and hard. He had to touch her. He would be gentle, if need be, but he couldn’t go another second without feeling her skin, tasting her lips, and losing himself inside her.
***
Cassandra awoke slowly from a delicious dream, one that made her body yearn for Tieran in a way that made her want to cry with frustrated desire. But as her eyes fluttered open, she realized she was not alone. Her frightened startle quickly turned to gasps of pleasure as Tieran’s mouth closed over exposed nipple. “What are you doing?” she asked, twisting and raising her arms above her head to give him better access.
“Making love to my True Mate,” he murmured in answer, nuzzling her soft skin and moving to the next nipple. “We’ve gone too long without touching and I aim to rectify that if you are willing.”
“God yes, I’m willing,” she said in a breathy moan, so grateful. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’m sorry my head wasn’t clear. If I’d listened to my heart I never would’ve been confused,” he admitted quietly, pausing as he humbled himself before her. Her heart sang to hear him admit that she was the one, not Serra. “Never again will I give you cause to question my love and admiration.” Tears trickled down Cassandra’s face and he wiped them away, pressing his mouth against hers, coaxing her mouth open with the soft touch of his tongue. Their tongues tangled and danced, sliding against one another as they linked hands, drawing out the tension between until it was near unbearable. This was what she’d craved and been missing with Tieran. She felt the diff someone else.”
“Tieran,” she cried, burying her face against his neck as he maneuvered her gently to her side, mindful of her swollen belly. He caressed her stomach, splaying his large hands across her midsection, palming the life housed within her body. Her heart felt full to bursting with a previously unknown emotion and it both frightened and exhilarated. She didn’t know how this would all end, but she knew if she had Tieran by her side, it would be all right. She rolled away from him and presented her backside to him, knowing he couldn’t lie on top of her due to her size. He took the unspoken invitation and position himself at her entrance. When he hesitated, unsure, she nodded. “I need you, Tieran. The babies will be fine. Please…I need you inside me. Now.”
“I would die if I hurt you, but I confess, if I don’t feel you around me this instant, I might have a heart attack.” He gripped her hips gently and slowly pushed himself inside. Her nipples pearled at the sensual invasion and she groaned at the pleasure of being deliciously stretched by her Alpha. His desire hardened every plane on his body as he grew in size, half-beast, half-man. His thick length pulsed deep against the cushion of her tight walls and rubbed against a pleasure spot that immediately made her pant with need, arching her back like a cat in heat, desperate for deeper contact. “Cassandra,” he groaned, sliding in and out with a restraint that caused the veins in his neck to bulge. “I want to bury myself so deep inside you that I no longer know where you begin and I end.”
Words weren’t possible as Cassandra trembled with need and desire. The position allowed Tieran to cuddle up to her, cupping her breasts from behind as he slowly made love to her but Cassandra needed more. She loved the tenderness but it wasn’t enough. She made a sound of frustration and rolled away from him. Before Tieran could say a word, she positioned herself on her hands and knees, lifting her backside to him in offering. “Take me, Tieran.”
At the sight of her heart-shaped ass and her softly furred woman’s folds parted in dewed invitation, he couldn’t restrain himself. “With pleasure,” he growled, moving behind her swiftly and plunging inside her again, this time, going balls deep. Cassandra moaned and closed her eyes as waves of pleasure battered her senses with the rough contact. His fingers curled into the flesh of her behind as he gripped her tight, rocking her body as he built a heart-pounding rhythm. The fleshy head of his cock rubbed her pleasure spot perfectly, creating a riot of sensation cascading through her body but the epicenter deep inside her, fairly rang with power and pleasure. She rocked against him, taking as much as possible of Tieran into herself, needing him as much as he needed her. Cassandra hit her plateau first, shocked by the keenin>
Tieran followed seconds later, filling her channel with sweet essence, bathing her core with slippery liquid that only further cemented their bond both physically and psychically. Together they’d rocketed to a spiraling finish that’d left them both winded and shaken by what they’
d experienced. Several moments passed where nothing but the sound of their harsh breathing was heard between them.
Cassandra suddenly understood they’d become two hearts that would forever beat as one. They were bonded for life. Tieran was her True Mate and she was his. She didn’t need to see inside his mind to know he knew the same. She gazed at Tieran, loving what she saw — a man who was more than a man and entirely hers. Cassandra’s smile reflected the peace she saw in Tieran. This was happiness, she thought giddily. For the first time in her life she felt as if she belonged. “I never realized I was waiting my entire life to meet you,” she said softly.
“That makes two of us.” He smiled, knuckling away the stray strands of hair drifting toward her face. “Too bad I was so reluctant to admit what my heart had known all along.”
“Well, you did say your mother called you the most stubborn of her pups,” Cassandra quipped, eliciting a rueful chuckle from Tieran. She slid her hand down her naked belly, marveling at the taut skin. “Do you think our pups will be as stubborn as you and me?”
“Without a doubt. Which will make them perfect, of course.”
She arched her brow playfully. “Perfect huh? Already the proud papa I see.”
The laughter faded from his mouth and he clasped her hand, saying solemnly, “I will do my best to be the best father our pups deserve. My own father was a hard man. Strict and foreboding. I want to be a different kind of father. One that loves to have his children around him, on my knee and at my side. Do you think that makes me less of an Alpha than my father?”
“No. You could never be anything less than a true Alpa in every sense of the word,” she assured him. “You will be a wonderful father.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you are already putting the babies’ welfare first, no matter their parentage. You already know that one of these pups is not—“
“Shh.” He put his finger to her lips, silencing her gently to say in a firm but loving tone, “they are my pups. End of story.”
Tears crested her eyes and she nodded as her throat closed. How she loved this man. Deeply. She took a deep, halting breath, saying in a watery tone. “Then we need to start thinking of names because I think they’re going to make their entrance sooner rather than later.”
“How can you be sure?” he asked, worry lines creasing his forehead.
“I don’t know how I know,” she admitted. “I just know. Where is Iona?”
“She had personal business to attend to. She will return this evening.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes, but I was surprised by the sudden decision to leave the compound. Iona could’ve sent any number of men out to run her errand but she was adamant that she must be the one to handle her business. The Seer is a wise woman but there are mysteries to her that I will never understand. If she promised to return by this evening, I know she will. The Seer never promises what she cannot deliver.”
“Good. I’d feel a lot more secure knowing she was here.”
“Agreed.”
Cassandra snuggled against Tieran, loving the way his bronzed skin was tight with muscle yet smooth as granite. She allowed her hand to drift down the ridges of his hard belly until she encountered the softening length of him that she adored the most. “I used to think I was a raging nymphomaniac because of the Phase but now that I’m no longer Phasing I can’t really blame it any longer for the way I feel when I’m around you.”
“And how is that?”_ iad I was
“Completely and utterly insatiable.”
He cocked his brow at her, a smile growing on his handsome face. “Is that so? I have seen no evidence of this insatiable nature you speak of,” he teased. “Perhaps you are imagining it.”
Cassandra made a sound of mock outrage and straddled him, her wet core sliding against his cock, her ready heat encouraging it to plump and harden once again. “Perhaps I’ve been holding back for fear of wearing you out,” she challenged.
He grinned and filled his hands with her full breasts, pinching the sensitive nipples. “I fear it’s the other way around. As you can tell,” he thrust his hips against her, pressing his full erection against her. “I am nowhere near worn out as you say.”
Cassandra’s giggle was cut short as he maneuvered his cock deep inside her. She rocked back on his length, sucking in a tight breath as wondrous sensations spike through her like comets streaking through the night air. She rolled her hips, griping his thighs with her own, bracing herself with the bed. A flush stole up his neck as she rode him, undulating on his length, finding her own pleasure and creating pleasure for him at the same time. “Cassandra,” he gasped, his grip tightening on her hips as she rocked his cock, the sound of their joining filling the room with a sensual rhythmic music that spurred her to greater pleasure. A carnal joy swept through her as she lost herself to the sweetness of Tieran’s cock inside her, his big hands cupping and squeezing her breasts, as she clamped down hard with her internal muscles to milk every last drop of his seed from his staff. An ever-building wave of momentous pleasure crashed down around her in one big swoop as she came hard, shaking and crying his name over and over. “Tieran! Yes, Tieran!” Tieran followed with a shout that echoed from the rafters as he filled her sheath with his essence, flooding her channel with the most sacred part of himself and she shuddered as her body trembled with each receding wave of tiny pleasurable spasms. She leaned down to take his mouth fiercely, kissing him deeply even as his cock remained lodged inside her. She could live a lifetime just like this, entwined as one. She pulled away only when it became hard to breathe because of her belly. Cassandra slid from his body and rolled to her back, still breathing hard from her exertion.
After a long moment when he’d finally recovered h>
and it thrilled her senseless.
Tieran shocked her by dipping his finger into her honeyed sheath made wet and slippery from their lovemaking and then, with a serious gaze, began spreading his seed around her folds and mound, as if marking her with his essence. “You are mine, Cassandra. From now until forever. No other man will ever spend his seed in your body and I will never share my seed with another. You are my True Mate and I will spend my life being the man you deserve.”
Cassandra stared in awe, her heart cracking with pure joy and elation. Nothing before that moment mattered. Tieran was everything she’d ever wanted, even if she’d never known what she’d wanted until then. “I’ll spend my life being the mate you deserve,” she said with a watery smile. “And I’ll do my best to learn the ways of our kind so we can teach our pups together. I want to make you proud.”
Tieran’s gaze lit up at her promise and he sealed their covenant with a soft kiss. “You already have,” he answered, rubbing her nose with his. They shared the sweet moment together until Tieran sighed with reluctance and pulled away. “As much as I’d love to remain here in our bed, there are many details to attend since Ulster’s defeat. I cannot be remiss in my duties even though I’d love to simply lose myself in your lush body many times over.”
“Such a sweet talker,” she murmured with a smile, stretching like a satiated cat drunk on cream. “But I understand. I guess that’s what happens when you’re the Alpha’s woman, right? Duty before booty.”
He barked a short laugh at her short joke and swung his legs from the bed to tug on his jeans. Cassandra was sad to see all that lovely skin disappear behind clothing but she supposed it was unrealistic to lie around naked all day. She reluctantly followed his lead and
redressed her in gauzy white pajamas. “Would you like to take a walk in the garden later this evening?” he suggested.
“Under the full moon?” she asked. At his nod, she agreed with delight. “I would love to.”
“Good. I will return to bring you more food if you like.”
“As if you need to ask,” Cassandra replied dryly. The need for food was the only constant in her life as long as she was gestating. “Something crunchy,” she added.
“And salty. But don’t bring me a pickle.”
“No pickles, I promise. I will do my best to find something that will satisfy your craving. Until then, you need to rest.”
She sighed. “All right but only because I am pretty tired. You took all my energy,” she teased, smiling with genuine happiness as she snuggled down into the soft bed to sink into an exhausted sleep filled with nice and naughty dreams of her sexy Alpha beast.
***
Cassandra awoke to Serra sitting beside her. It was disconcerting to find the woman who openly hated her had been watching her while she slept. “What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving,” Serra said, her expression curiously flat. Cassandra expected tears or venom but Serra offered neither. “It seems I underestimated Tieran’s affection for you. I was mistaken in believing I was his True Mate. In our kind, we mate for life. I’d been raised believing that I would be the one to stand by his side. But fate had a different plan.”
“I’m sorry,” Cassandra said, empathy lessening her animosity. She could understand Serra’s feelings at the very least. She shifted, putting more distance between herself and Serra. “Where will you go?”
Serra, who had been staring at her hands, looked up. “Does it matter?”
“Well, yes. I know you think I’m some terrible person but I never meant you any harm. I didn’t even know about my heritage, much less your relationship with Tieran. We don’t have to be enemies.”
A small smile lifted the corner of her lips but her eyes remained cold. “You share our DNA but you know nothing of our ways. We cannot be friends. Tieran was right to send me away. I cannot make a life here with you and Tieran playing the happy couple. While his heart is closed to me, my heart still beats for him. It will take time and distance to heal that wound and I cannot do that here.”
“I understand,” Cassandra said quietly. “I love him. I will be a good mate for him.” Serra’s lack of response felt like a cold slap but Cassandra didn’t blame her. It was a difficult situation all the way around. “For what it’s worth…I’m sorry for everything you’ve lost.”