Holding Hope Word Doc NC

by Paloma Beck

Ella reached up to place her finger on his lips. “I’m not angry. I would’ve expected nothing less from my mate.”

  Her smile rendered him speechless. All he could do was lean in to claim her lips once again. For long moments, their mouths fused as one and time was lost. There were no words necessary as they shared their emotions through their joined tongues.

  Without coaching, Ella ran her tongue along one of Lucas’s sharp teeth and broke the skin. Lucas scented and tasted the blood at the same time. He groaned in sweet agony as he tasted the elixir he’d only dreamed of. It was heaven. In a burst of clarity, Lucas could feel everything Ella felt, and when combined with his own desire, their joining –that bond all Valendite Breeds share with their mates- was the most powerful thing he’d ever known.

  “I promise to go slow.” Lucas spoke as he moved his mouth along the column of her throat. Now that he’d tasted her blood, he wanted her cream.

  “Not too slow,” Ella’s voice was rough and her breathing more labored. Lucas knew she was as aroused as he was but he’d promised her he would go slowly. “It hurts a bit.”

  Lucas lowered himself to her breasts, greedy for a taste of her nipples as well. His tongue licked around the most perfectly peaked nipples, swirling and nibbling until she pushed up against him seeking more of the sensation. He obliged and gave her a firmer suction only to release them and lap the wetness with his tongue.

  Just as his tongue dipped into her belly button, Lucas saw her Magdalena Circle sign just to the left of the precious indentation. He traced it with his tongue as he gave thanks for his mate. This sign that every woman of the Magdalena Circle wore as a birthright showed Ella’s soul sin of lust. It reminded him that until meeting him she’d not experienced sexual desire. What a brave woman she was to be welcoming him now, not to be running away from him. She’d not had an easy life but he meant to change that now.

  When he moved lower still and found her warm center, he felt her shudder. Stopping, he asked, “Are you okay, Ella? Should I go slower still?”

  “No. I- I need you. This is so- so overwhelming but please don’t stop,” Ella spoke so softly, so timidly, Lucas could feel her uncertainty. He would be the man to bring out her confidence in bed, the one who taught her how to find satisfaction for all her sexual needs.

  “No stopping then,” Lucas murmured against her tiny thatch of curls as he breathed in her scent. He rubbed his nose into her curls and drew in the heady aroma of her desire. It was like cinnamon and honey, causing his hunger to multiply tenfold. He sat up onto his knees and placed one hand on her belly before using his other to stroke her curls, skimming the apex of her core as he readied her for him.

  With a single finger, Lucas explored deeper, pressing along her wet folds. Suddenly right where he wanted to be, Lucas was in no hurry. Time stood still as he prepared his mate to take him. She grew wetter as her sweet moans grew louder and hungrier. He would forever remember this one moment when he claimed his mate.

  “Do you feel it? My need and your need are woven together now. It’s part of the claiming. We can feel each other’s desire.” Lucas smiled down on her to see her watching his face.

  His need swept through him as he continued to prepare her. She was perfect for him. Thank the Goddess he hadn’t been cursed to be alone for his entire life. Lucas grew harder as he considered being bound to someone so seemingly perfect for eternity. As he grew still more rigid, he knew he wouldn’t last long and, from the wetness on his fingers, he could feel her readiness too.

  He sank a finger deep inside her core until she pushed against his hand. He palmed his own erection with a promise of more to come before he brought his moist fingers up to his lips and licked them, sucking them into his mouth as Ella watched. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were sparkling. Small sprinkles of light released from them like lightning bugs in the summer sky. He knew it was her magic and it was telling him she was ready for more.

  Lucas held her knees up in each of his arms and placed himself at her core, opening her to his body and slowly pushing himself inside. Working to maintain control of his own need, Lucas pressed forward only an inch at a time. He felt her channel open and allow her to accommodate his size. Her channel squeezed him as he pushed inward but he watched her face for any sign of discomfort. He refused to cause her pain.

  He felt the slight resistance when he reached her barrier. Instead of continuing as he was, Lucas stroked her clit to bring a flood of pleasure into the small tip and distract her. He brought Ella to the edge of her orgasm before he pushed in more. He watched as she was overcome by the sensations flooding her and fell in love as she so trustingly gave herself over to his care. Just as she was going over the edge, Lucas pushed his shaft deeper.

  Lucas held still while his cock found its home inside his mate. Small beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he held himself back from driving into her. She was glowing under him, just coming back to him from her first orgasm. Her skin glistened, her chest and cheeks flushed and her eyelids fluttering. Her hair was a mess around her head. Short strands of honey blonde hair stood straight out from its roots.

  “Open your eyes.” Lucas kissed each eyelid. “We aren’t finished yet,” he explained and then chuckled at her surprise.

  “That wasn’t it? I don’t think I can…” Ella’s words were cut short by Lucas’s thrust. He positioned himself carefully so she would feel him rubbing along that same sensitized clit that had moments before sent her flying. He knew it would still be sensitive.

  “I’m positive you can.” Lucas leaned down and took her lower lip between his teeth, lightly nipping at her flesh and then soothing it with his tongue. “Feel how perfectly we fit together.”

  Lucas flexed inside her again, pushing himself forward and spreading her legs even wider. He watched as Ella’s eyes looked down toward where they were joined before she sought out his eyes. Her gray blue eyes lit up, mesmerized and transfixed as she felt him shift his hips back, drag his cock out against her clit and then press back in again. Whimpering and shaking, Ella pushed her hips forward to meet his thrusts. He didn’t stop his motion as he strove to push against the mass of sensation swelling around them.

  Feeling his own release close, Lucas sank his cock deep into her core even as he felt her inner muscles contracting around him. He balanced himself so that he could reach down with his hand to pinch her puffy little clit. Like magic, Ella came again even as Lucas came. The spasms swept over him for long moments. His cock refused to soften, a common occurrence in mated males to assure a complete joining with their mate. Lucas smiled at the reminder that already their mating had begun. For the remainder of their time, Lucas and Ella would take their nourishment from one another.

  As a woman in the Magdalena Circle, she was a destined mate of a Valendite Breed. While she provided him strength and life through her blood, his blood would bring her lengthened life. They would live and die together, a thought that very much pleased him. Lucas remained inside her, dreaming of their future, as they held each other and waited for sleep to take them.

  Chapter Three

  Ella awoke with a warm body next to her and a tightening in her lower stomach. That need she’d first felt when she’d met Lucas continued to thrum inside her even after spending the last few months here with him. She was shocked to realize she needed more of him each day despite falling asleep out of sheer exhaustion each night begging for mercy. Now she couldn’t remember ever sleeping as soundly as she did in his arms. Lucas made her feel safe, and loved and so, so hot. Goddess, she needed to get up and splash water on her face.

  Slipping her legs from the sheet, Ella slowly moved to the edge of the bed but got no further than an inch or two before Lucas’s arm banded around her waist and pulled her back.

  “Just where do you think you’re sneaking off to?”

  “I’d like to take a shower,” Ella explained.

  “Sounds like fun,” Lucas purred into her ear, his voice still sleep-roughened. “I think I need a
shower too.” Still, he made no move to get up as he gathered Ella closer. She felt his erection at her back and wiggled her bottom into him. He inhaled sharply, let out a long moan and bit down on her shoulder.

  “How can we possibly want more?” Ella asked even as her body began to tingle. Her skin came alive, her flesh on fire everywhere he touched.

  “Mi amo, I don’t know if I’ll ever have enough.” Lucas continued nibbling at the tendons in her neck, alternating with sucking and licking the tender spots, until Ella couldn’t stay still.

  “I’m not sure I will either,” Ella conceded before tilting her head to give him greater access.

  “Your neck is tempting.”

  “I’m not stopping you.”

  “I know but I’m trying real damn hard to not overwhelm you.” Lucas sighed. “Are you tender?”

  “A bit,” she admitted. “But I can rest after.”

  “After. I like after. I like now even better,” Lucas’s words faded as he went back to her neck, to that spot that made her believe nothing else in the world mattered.

  Ella lost herself in the feel of her mate loving her. Never before had she felt so safe, so connected to another human being as she had since she met Lucas. Yet the reality was that neither of them were truly human. She’d finally found the world she belonged in because this was her world, not the human world where she was forced to exist.

  Lucas’s tongue lapped a wet line along her neck. “I need to drink from you,” he whispered just before she felt his teeth pierce her skin. He drank deeply, so very deeply as he always did, and as he swallowed her blood, she couldn’t hold in her sounds of pleasure. She lifted her arms over her head and stretched to run her fingers through Lucas’s thick, wavy hair. She pressed her bottom back against his pelvis, ready to scream as he continued to take his nourishment.

  “Lucas, I need—” Ella turned her head to the side to reach him for a kiss.

  Lucas cut off her words, “I know. Take from me first so that I can give you what you need.” He nipped at her lips, drawing blood and waited as she did the same to him before their mouths fused. Their tongues danced as they shared their blood. Then Ella pulled away and turned her body for a closer touch.

  She climbed on top of Lucas, straddling his hips. She knew if he didn’t want her there, he’d move her but he did no such thing. With her hands on his bare chest, she could touch in the grooves of his muscles. Lucas shifted beneath her to slide his cock along the folds of her core. Warmth suffused her, a heat that bit up her spine, as his thick cock glided across her soaked folds. Ella moved her hips so she could feel his full length, still enamored by his strength and amazed how safe she felt with him. The Goddess had given her the perfect mate.

  Ella rolled her hips, adjusting so the head of his cock fit against her channel and then she pivoted. In one smooth lunge, Lucas was inside of her. She leaned down to Lucas’s ear and spoke, “I want to ride you.”

  “Oh Goddess,” Lucas deep voice scraped against her spine as he trembled beneath her. She’d never taken control but she was enjoying this. His eyes rolled back even as he smiled. “You have become my little vixen.”

  “You’ve been a very good teacher.”

  She didn’t give him a chance to process her words before she pushed herself up on her knees, his shaft rubbing against her clit on the slow climb, and dropped back down onto his full length. She could feel him hitting her cervix as she cried out. So wet, they were so wet from her juices that she moved easily up and down.

  Lifting her hands to toy with her nipples, Ella used her leg muscles to build a steady rhythm. The thought of making him cum, of having the power to do that very thing to her mate, was overwhelming. Tears stung the back of her eyes. More firmly now, she pinched and pulled at her nipples to send the sensations into her core as she looked down to see Lucas watching her. Ella would give him a show.

  She lifted her finger to her mouth and licked before bringing it back to her breast and swirling it around her nipple. Grinning at his eyes growing brighter to nearly a glowing green, Ella did the same to her other nipple. Then she grabbed each breast in a hand and massaged, extending them, rolling her eyes and moaning even as she altered her rhythm to roll her hips and grind them onto Lucas’s cock. He was so deep. She was so wet. Goddess, she couldn’t wait much longer. She’d started this game but now she needed to find completion.

  Without warning, Lucas tugged her down. Ella could feel every hard groove of his body below her softer frame. Lucas had a nipple planted firmly in his mouth before she could even consider complaining that he’d taken over. His large hands held her hips and she lay on top of him as he thrust his pelvis up. Each thrust put pressure on her clit and caused her muscles to quiver.

  “I can’t wait, Lucas. It’s so perfect,” she panted. Her breath was coming in short bursts.

  “Don’t wait, little vixen. I don’t want you to wait. I want you to come. I want you to come with me planted deep inside you.” Lucas continued talking to her as she fell off the edge and into euphoria. Ella felt the bursts of his hot cum and then the abyss. Exhaustion reigned.

  * * * *

  “Ella, sit up for me.” Lucas startled her from her sleep. His voice held alarm and she reacted immediately to his command.

  His hands were at her neck, rubbing over a spot that was growing more sensitive with every touch.

  “What’s wrong? What is it?”

  Ella was sure Lucas could hear the panic in her voice. She knew something was wrong. Lucas’s demeanor –shit, his entire presence- had transformed. No longer relaxed, he sat at attention and his face was in deep concentration as his eyes zeroed in on that spot.

  “Lucas, you’re scaring me. Please talk to me.”

  “I’ve been rubbing your back and watching you sleep. Then I felt a lump here. It may be nothing but we should check.”

  “What kind of lump?”

  “Don’t worry. You can’t be ill because we don’t get diseases,” Lucas was quick to assure her. Ella remembered he could feel her emotions now and would sense how upset she was. Still, she was grateful for the reassurance even as her heart nearly beat out of her chest.

  “What do you think it is?” Her voice trembled.

  “Not sure but we should have one of our medics check it out.”

  “Someone you trust?”

  “Yes, one of my brothers-in-arms. We’ve worked with TEU a long time together. He’ll be safe.”

  Ella reached her hands around to touch the spot behind her neck. Lucas helped her find the lump and she gasped in surprise, never remembering feeling anything like that before.

  “Lucas, wh- what do you think it might be?”

  “It’s likely something the men who had you placed in you. My best guess would be a tracking device.” Lucas placed his hands on Ella’s shoulders, massaging gently but mostly simply holding her in place. She looked terrified, that same expression her face held when he’d found her in that damn cell.

  He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “What I can’t figure out is why I hadn’t noticed it before now.”

  “So- so they can find me? They know where I am?” The panic was rising. Ella pushed away from Lucas and paced the floor. “Crap. They’re coming for me. They wouldn’t let me escape like that, with a tracker and not be coming for me.”

  “There are secure perimeters all around this cabin for miles. It will alert me the moment anyone crosses them. For now, we’re fine.”

  “For now?”

  “Yes. Look, Ella, you’re right to be concerned but I promise that I will not let anything happen to you.” Lucas stopped Ella’s pacing and pulled her against him. “You are mine, mi amo. No one hurts what belongs to me.”

  Ella relaxed into his words. She knew them as truth. She was safe. Lucas would keep her that way. After everything that had happened, after a life filled with lies and deceit, Lucas gave her hope and she’d trust in him. He was her mate.

  * * * *

  “I’ve fou
nd a lump along Ella’s spine on the back of her neck,” Lucas reported the moment the line was connected.

  “Lucas,” Caedon questioned. “Shit, we’d given up on you ever contacting us.”

  “We needed time. Ella needed time but I don’t think we have that anymore. For whatever reason, I’ve only now found this lump and I need Van out here to check it.”

  “Not happening. Van has found his mate. How about I send Nico?”

  “Yes. Nico will work. Let him know she’s still skittish about meeting people. It’s one hell of a story. She didn’t even know what she was until just before she was captured and she can’t recall how long she’d been in captivity.”

  “You want me to run some checks on her?”

  “Go ahead. The answers, and knowing more about her past, might help her move on,” Lucas agreed. “I’ll send you some details back with Nico.”

  “Good deal. Let me get Nico headed in your direction. I’m patching you through to Madden. He’ll have my ass if he finds out I talked to you and didn’t fill him in.” Caedon transferred him before he had a chance to object.

  “Lucas, brother,” Madden’s voice came across a broken connection. Lucas knew he was in TEU’s gym.

  “Working out?”

  “Sparring with a new recruit. What’s going down?”

  “I need a medic to look at something I found on Ella. It might be a tracking device but the thing I can’t figure out is why it took me so long to find it.”

  “Where is it?”

  “On the back of her neck.” Once he answered, Lucas immediately knew Madden was working his way through to the right conclusion.

  “She’s your mate.” Lucas could hear the smile in Madden’s voice. Despite the circumstances, Madden would know just how profound this mating would be for Lucas. Lucas also remembered all the teasing he’d done when Madden claimed Layla not even a year ago.

  “Yes. And I deserve any ribbing you’d like to dish out because I get it now.”