by Bonnie Vanak
Nervousness churned inside her stomach, which felt as if she’d swallowed ground glass. She hated this. A mating should have love and tenderness, not this ritualistic formality.
Aiden leaned against the closed door. “I thought you’d be more comfortable if we changed into these for our walk to the forest.”
He pointed to the white robes hanging on the pegs.
Nia blinked. “Isn’t that a violation of the rules? I thought we were to be bare skinned.”
“The rules can be bent.” His dark gaze was unwavering. “I want you to feel as relaxed as possible, Niki.”
Relaxed? She’d never felt this awkward before. She’d never even undressed before a man. Nia’s insides quivered. Maybe if he didn’t call her by her twin’s name, it would feel better and she could pretend that there was love between them, pretend Aiden cherished her.
“I wish we didn’t have to do this,” she murmured.
“I don’t like this either. But we have no choice. We have to adhere to the rules of the challenge. As much as I want us to have privacy for our first time together, we can’t. We have to set the example as alphas.”
If only I were the true alpha of my pack.
Aiden seemed larger than life, sucking up all the space in the dressing room. The scent of him overpowered her senses. Musk, spices, and pine. All man.
All wolf.
And soon this wolf would lay claim to her body, taking her in the traditional Lupine manner of an alpha claiming his mate. Only the consummation of their union would be done before their united packs.
She could barely look at him, couldn’t even summon a flicker of desire at this moment. Nia was too nervous.
He jammed his hands into the pockets of his trousers. They were such nice trousers, and he’d ruin them.
“Honey, what’s wrong?”
She hugged herself. “I can’t do this.”
Aiden approached, his manner relaxed and easy. “It’s just the two of us now. You’ve already seen me naked. Undress for me, darling. There’s no one else here to see. Only me.”
She’d have to remove her clothing either here or in the forest. The forest would be darker, but this was far more private.
Nia swallowed hard, and turned around. “Unzip me, please.”
She felt his fingers brush against her back as he slid the zipper downward. Aiden stepped back.
Nia wriggled out of the white gown and let it puddle at her feet. She slipped out of the white satin pumps.
She had not worn stockings. Only her satin bra and the white matching panties remained between herself and total nudity.
Steeling herself, she slid the panties down, past her wide hips, wriggled out of them and tossed them aside. Last, she fumbled with the heavy bra. Nia unfastened the hooks and let it drop to the floor. Air brushed against her skin and her sensitive nipples. She stared at the wall, a flush igniting her face as she crossed her arms over her breasts.
Never had she felt this exposed.
Aiden stepped close, slid a thumb beneath her chin. He tipped up her face to meet his eyes. Warmth, and deep tenderness lingered in his smoldering gaze. “You’re so beautiful,” he said hoarsely. “So damn lovely. Better than all my dreams.”
Very gently he took her hands and removed them from her breasts. Nia stared at his solemn expression.
“You have an unfair advantage, Mitchell. You’re still wearing clothing.”
“True, that.”
Aiden sat on the bench to remove his shoes and socks. Standing, he tore off his tie, shrugged out of his jacket and then unbuttoned his shirt, shrugging out of it. He hung both on a clothing peg. Nia’s breath hitched at the sight of his warm, tanned skin. Muscles rippled below his skin. She studied his ridged abdomen and felt her arousal kick up several notches.
Then he unbuckled his belt, and unzipped his trousers and pulled them down, along with his boxers. He stepped out of the clothing, and hung both trousers and boxers on the pegs.
Nude, he stood before her, his erection nearly reaching his belly button. Nia licked her lips, not sure if she should quiver with fear or rejoice at his size.
Wow.
He was alpha. No doubt about that.
He stepped forward and looked down at her. “No one here but us, Niki. Only you and me.”
This big male desired her, only her. And soon he would be exclusively hers in bed, just as he’d make her his own.
She would not think of the consequences if anyone discovered she wasn’t the true alpha. Tonight, she wanted to think only of Aiden, and fulfilling the sexual desire she’d held for him ever since she first saw him years ago.
“Niki,” he said thickly. “I’ve wanted you for so long. I couldn’t wait any longer, wolf. You drove me crazy. If I couldn’t have you, I’d die.”
It wasn’t a declaration of love, but passion filled his voice. Tonight, passion would suffice.
She wanted to run her hands up his back, over the thick muscles, and then downward, touching the slope of his firm ass. Nia thought about him pumping that ass as he took her and her arousal sharpened. The forest would be dark and she would ignore the packs, focusing only on Aiden and his fierce need for her.
But the rules of the challenge were clear. No sexual touching after they had spoken their vows, then they would consummate their union before the packs.
Ever since she’d set eyes on Aiden, she’d wanted him, wanted him with a ferocity that she’d never claimed. Nia denied her feelings, concentrated on her people, and pushed aside desire. Nervousness rippled over her body. When you wanted something for so very long, and the very thing you wanted stood, larger than life before you, it was hard to believe it was real.
Aiden took her hand, guided her over to the dressing table. “Sit. Face me.”
She did.
A small smile played on his full lips. “Relax. I’m not going to eat you.”
“Pity,” she murmured.
His smiled turned wicked. “Vixen.”
“Wolf,” she corrected.
All those fantasies she’d had late at night, pleasuring herself and thinking of Aiden as she did so, now surged to the surface. This was real and intimate. Too intimate.
As if he read her mind, Aiden walked over to the light switch and flipped it off. Candlelight played over his honed muscles, danced over the chiseled angles of his face.
He dominated the space in the room, sucked it up by the sheer power of his presence. Dominated it as he would soon dominate her.
But there was a smile lifting the corner of his mouth, a smile filled with wicked promise. No trace of the big, arrogant alpha. Except for the desire always on the surface.
Feeling shy again, she covered her breasts.
“You are perfect. You have nothing to hide.” Aiden took her hands and placed them at her side.
A lick of scent threaded through the air, her desire and his intense, male smell of forest and spices. Nia drew in a breath.
“Spread your legs.”
She bit her lip and balked.
“Do it.” He gentled his voice. “Please, honey.”
Flushing with heat and embarrassment, she opened her thighs wide. He sank to his knees before her, like a supplicant. It made her feel more relaxed, instead of him towering over her. He was a big man.
She resisted looking at his groin. In more ways than one.
Aiden drew in a breath as he stared at her center. “You’re so perfect. Wet and glistening, like dew on a rose.”
Nia trembled.
“Did you ever touch yourself at night, thinking of me?” He rested his hands on her thighs.
She said nothing, not wanting to give him that power.
“I stroked myself a lot at night, thinking of you.”
She stared at him. “Really?”
That same, intimate smile filled with heat. “Really. I’d take my cock in hand in the shower, and think of you. Dreaming of this moment when we’d be alone together, naked.”
His voice de
epened. “Ever since I saw you, pixie, I’ve wanted no one else but you as my mate. And I knew I had to have you. Until I claimed you, I had to be content with my fist.”
Only her? Or did he want the alpha of the pack? She licked her lips. His crude words evoked an image that made her body pulse with need. Aiden alone in the shower, his head thrown back, his eyes closed as he pumped a fist over his erection, thinking of her…
“Only me? Why me? Because of my looks?” she whispered. Gods, she needed to know it was really her in his mind, not the image of her as alpha. Or her twin. They looked alike. What if it was really Nikita he desired?
His gaze became filled with heat and a fierceness she didn’t understand. “You’re a fine-looking Lupine, sweetheart, but that’s not it. It’s you. Your passion, your spirit, what drives you…” he pointed to her chest, “as much as it drives me. Pack. Everything for your people. When I first met you that day in the pasture, I recognized a kindred spirit. A woman who would not hesitate to do anything for her people. Make sacrifices and put her own personal needs aside for the sake of pack. I saw that in you, and I said to myself, ‘That is the only woman for me.’”
Damn him, Aiden Mitchell. He’d said the only thing that she’d ever longed to hear…that she was special and unique. Not her twin. Just her. Perhaps some women needed reassurances of their beauty or their intelligence. Nia did not.
She wanted someone to recognize she was different from her twin.
His voice dropped a notch. “I’m no saint, Blakemore. I saw you, a strong alpha female who would make a perfect mate, and all I could feel was this need, this intense fucking need that I’ve never felt before. It took all my control not to chase after you on my horse, tumble you to the ground, strip you naked and fuck you senseless. I’m dying here, because I want you so badly I’m shaking.”
Nia could barely breathe as his chest heaved in and out and she saw him quiver, like a restless horse eager for a gallop.
Or to mount a filly…
Aiden drew in a deep breath. “Relax, baby. Breathe in and out for me.”
She did.
“Now imagine my hands on your legs, sliding up your thighs. Your soft, warm skin. You’re trembling because you know what I’m going to do.”
His voice deepened to a husky rumble. “I’m going to touch you. You want me to touch you there.”
Tiny muscles in her sex throbbed and pulsed, as if he’d stroked a finger over her wet folds. Nia squeezed her vagina tight, knowing she grew wetter at the heat in his words.
“Do you want me to touch you?” he asked in a husky voice.
She nodded.
“I can’t.” Real regret sounded in his voice. “The rules are I can’t touch you sexually, not until we are in the forest, surrounded by pack.”
His gaze darkened to pitch. “But there are no rules about me watching you touch yourself.”
Breath left her lungs in a whoosh.
“Do it, Niki. Touch yourself, baby.”
He took her hand, kissed the back, then guided it between her opened legs. “Close your eyes and see me caressing you.”
Nia closed her eyes and leaned against the table.
“First, I’d touch your thigh. So warm and soft. I’ve been dying to touch you there. You have amazing legs and your skin is like velvet,” he murmured, his deep voice like a brush of dark chocolate against her tongue.
Nia slid her hand up her thigh.
“Then I’d work my way up, making certain you were slick and ready for me. I’d want to taste you, feel the wetness of your juices beneath my tongue, like the sweetest, syrupy fruit.”
Her fingers trembled as they made contact with her soaked folds. With a butterfly touch, she slid a finger through her cleft, feeling the slippery evidence of her desire.
“Do it,” he ordered. “Feel yourself and imagine it’s me doing it…teasing, light, just the barest touch.”
Nia dragged a finger through her soaked folds and touched her swollen clit. She trembled with need and excitement.
“I’m stroking you, oh so slowly, gentle now. And then harder as your body begins to tense and the pleasure starts to mount. You need this, you beg me for it, wanting me to touch you, making you come. Only me, baby. I’m the only one who will ever do this, will ever know the sweet perfection of your body, will feel your perfect little tightness around my cock.”
Her hand moved to the sound of his words, as if obeying the inherent command in his deep voice.
“Come, sweetheart. Come for me. Let me see you come,” he whispered.
She arched back, obeying the husky command in his deep voice, and let the tension overtake her. Nia cried out as her body tensed in climax.
She bucked back and forth, gasping as the orgasm seized her. Nia panted, her legs trembling, the space between her legs damp with arousal.
Aiden drew in a deep breath. She opened her eyes.
“So beautiful,” he murmured. “I can’t wait until we’re alone together to watch you do it again.”
Still breathing hard, Nia felt her sex pulse from the aftershocks of her orgasm. Never had she felt anything this intense, this shattering. She struggled to regain her senses and her control. She’d become a slave to desire, and he had taken her there without laying a finger on her.
This was bad, oh so bad. One orgasm and she craved more, many more. Aiden was intoxicating and she hadn’t even kissed him. She must regain her composure.
Or he’d shatter her in a different way. Sexually, the man could easily dominate her in bed.
But out of it? Never.
Nia pushed her thighs together and gave him a teasing smile. “Lazy, Mitchell? I’d rather watch you do it to me.”
He grinned, his gaze filled with heat. “I plan to wear you out, Blakemore. I hope you have a mirror in your bedroom for watching.”
“Installed one special just for you. It makes everything look bigger. But now that I’ve seen you in the flesh, I wager you don’t need it.”
He chuckled. “You are a minx.”
“Wolf.”
Aiden glanced at the flickering candles. “We have to go. It’s time.”
She took his outstretched hand and stood.
“But we’re not leaving here until I kiss you.” He framed her face with his hands, and his scent made her drown in desire all over again.
“Breaking the rules, Mitchell.”
“Fuck the rules. One kiss won’t hurt.”
His kiss was light, gentle. Then she slid her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.
He broke away with a slight smile. “We’d better stop here, or we’ll both be in trouble.”
Aiden handed her a robe. Nia slipped it on, relieved to have the cloth covering her nudity. He found two pairs of sandals and she slipped on the smaller shoes.
“The gravel is hard on your soles,” Aiden told her.
“More rule breaking, Mitchell. I like it.”
As they left the lodge, she felt the dampness between her thighs. It served as a reassuring reminder that they had shared an intimate, private moment outside of pack.
Soon, she would lose her virginity in a moment that was far from private. Nia reached deep inside her for her wolf and found her staring back, pawing for release. She was Lupine. Wild and powerful, and savage as her mate.
His equal.
They walked down the pathway to the pond, where silver moonlight shimmered upon the still water. Aiden led her to a grassy clearing near the pond. The wide, open space was ringed by hills and whispered of ancient secrets. Several granite boulders formed a ring. Nia had held pack meetings here before.
And now here she would mate Aiden.
Assembled around the ring were the combined members of their packs. No visitors. Not tonight for this formal ceremony.
The Lupines surrounding them were clothed in the traditional black ceremonial robes.
Aiden gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. Drawing in a deep breath, she slipped off her robe as he did the same
.
Cool air brushed against her naked skin, caressing her breasts and teasing her nipples. She dragged in a deep lungful of air and scented Aiden. Her mate. Nia let her wolf rise. It clawed, eager in its demand to mate.
Nia faced him, her courage spiking with her arousal. She took his hand. It was large, warm and bore the callouses of hard labor.
Aiden was not a lazy cowboy who let the others on his ranch do all the work.
Boldly, she slid his hand downward, until it covered her breast. She stroked his hand over her warm flesh, the friction making her nipples erect.
A groan fled his lips.
“I want you, my mate Nikita. As an alpha desires his mate,” he stated.
“I want you, my mate Aiden. As a female alpha desires her mate,” she said aloud.
Eyes widening and darkening, he drew back. Nia watched his penis lengthen and thicken. She felt her vagina grow moist and ready to take him.
“Turn around,” he said hoarsely. “Kneel and place your palms flat on the ground.”
Obeying, she flung her long hair aside, and peered over her shoulder. In the moon’s silvery glow, Aiden stood tense, his hungry gaze stroking over her body in a heated caress.
His swollen, red penis grew even longer and thicker. A Lupine reaction.
Trembling, she dropped her head down and waited. She felt his hot, wet tongue part the soft folds of her vagina and delve between them. Aiden began lapping at her soaked core, each stroke creating unbearable pleasure.
And then he seized her hips with his large, callused hands. She felt the rounded tip of his cock probe her soft feminine flesh.
Fight him. She had to prove she was a tough female, and at least try to fight him, for this was part of the challenge as well. If Aiden proved weak and she could best him, the mating would become void and she would be free once more.
Other alpha females would prove their strength, and test his to see if he would prove himself strong enough to father their young. She must try to throw him off as other alpha females would. Nia’s arms felt shaky. With all her might, she reared backwards, and snarled. But Aiden pressed her downward easily with his muscled weight.