Cruz snickered, growing in confidence.
Gabriel knew Cruz thought him weakening, thought him an old man. He was, the healing sapped his strength with every passing moment. His steps slowed more and more, his arms grew heavy, his feet leaden. But he was not so weak he couldn’t take out this pup.
Gabriel jabbed at Cruz, moving past him with purpose, falling to one knee with a cry of agony that rippled on the night air. Cruz saw his opening, exposed his vulnerable heart as he swung his arm wide to take off Gabriel’s head. Time seemed to slow. The wind moved at a snail’s pace against his face, shaking off droplets of perspiration as he twisted from the fall.
His own growl sounded heavy in his ears, deeper than his own voice. It grew in intensity, becoming wild as he drove his hands up Cruz’s chest. He felt the flesh give way, the sudden cessation of movement. Bone crunched, crumbling beneath his claws as he dug deep inside to the rapid beating heart. He sliced it, feeling repelled, sickened at killing one of his own, knowing there was no other choice and hating the need to kill or be killed.
Blood rained, hot and slick, streaming down with the force of a river unleashed. Gabriel pulled back, looking away from the dead eyes of his enemy. Without support, the body dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
Gabriel stood over him, a knot in his gut. The fool had needed killing, deserved it with years of menace, but he despised being forced to do the deed. Cruz was a vengeful bastard--one of them would have died eventually, and Gabriel preferred it be Cruz to himself.
Jessica was safe from him now. It would have to satisfy his guilt for this night. There had never really been any other choice but the path he’d chosen.
Two pack members came and hauled the body off before the next challenger came into the clearing.
Gabriel sighed and wiped the blood from his hands on the grass.
He stretched his kinked muscles before facing his newest attacker. The night promised to be long, and by the line forming, he had little confidence that he would win.
Chapter Seven
Someone was at the tent opening. The soft sound of a zipper sliding slithered through the tent, evoking terror as if a snake glided toward her. Fear flashed through her, pumping her adrenaline until she verged the line of panic. Her breath came harsh against the gag, puffing her cheeks, flaring her nostrils. Her heart thrashed, threatening to beat through her ribs. She tried to get a hold of herself, to think clearly so she could escape, so she’d have some chance rather than none. She’d been here so long, and instead of time dulling her apprehension, it had only increased with each agonizing minute.
The tent flap opened. She jerked against her tethers, desperate to free her hands before they could come inside and kill her....
It was Gabriel.
She knew him the instant he entered, though his head was bowed and his hair fell down, obscuring his face in thick wet locks. She wanted to scream in relief, rail against him for giving her such a fright ... and throw her body against his until the tremors racking her ceased. The dizzying race of her blood abated to a dull roar.
The door flapped down behind him. He stood up once he passed the shallow entrance, standing straight and jerking his head back to toss the cloying strands away from his face and eyes. He froze as though pinned when he saw her. He looked at her. She looked at him.
He was naked.
The information filtered through the chaos of her thoughts to that one coherent whole. She didn’t know why he was--didn’t care. The relief alone of seeing him was enough to make her feel giddy. That he was naked changed everything, heightened senses that had been blunted previously by unease.
She was scared, yes, but it didn’t stop her brain from functioning, stop her eyes from taking in every glorious inch. She wanted to tell him to get her the fuck out of there, but she hadn’t moved past her initial shock at seeing him nude. It was her first time seeing him with nothing to bar her view. The adrenaline pumping through her system, the fear of before, it rushed in her head, made her careless, intoxicated. He’d looked good before. He was devastating now. So much skin, so bronze and beautiful. Muscles, everywhere, gleaming with droplets of water running in beads down his skin like liquid gold.
She wanted to feel him against her. Cold shock chilled her, made her shudder with appalling weakness. She’d never felt so needy in all her life. She should’ve been outraged, horrified at the turn of her thoughts, but all she wanted to do was feel his heat inside her, until it thawed every pore and banished the chill seeping from her marrow.
She wanted to look down, see all of him, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready, knew she should die on the spot for daring to think of sex at a time like this. She tore her gaze away from his belly up to his face. Hair clung damply to his neck and cheekbones. What captured her attention was the expression on his face--drawn, hard, his jaw clenched until the muscles stood out. Black stubble shadowed his face, lending him a rough, untamed look she hadn’t seen before.
But his eyes ... they were hunted, wild and fierce. His black eyebrows were drawn down to two hard, straight lines. He looked ... haunted.
Fear shot through her once again, more potent now than ever before. What gave him that look? What had he done? What had they done to him? It terrified her to even think of it. The charming rogue of before looked vanished, wiped away and replaced by a savage stranger with hungry eyes that saw too much.
He dropped suddenly to his knees before her, kneeling at her feet as he untied her ankles. The binding came free and she rotated the joint, drawing her legs up as he moved forward between her legs.
Her breathing grew harsher the closer he came. Heat radiated off of him, until it felt like he touched her, pressed intimately against her skin. She flinched as he drew closer ... could practically feel the head of his cock looming close to her sex. A spasm seized her cleft, drenching her with sudden, liquid lust. God, she wanted it so badly. She was tired of fighting, tired of running. Her clit throbbed with aching need so fierce, she thought she would die from it.
He stopped a moment, his nostrils flaring as his breath quickened, as though he could smell her arousal. He held her gaze steadily for heart stopping seconds. She saw war in his eyes, a battle that waged for control. His face went tight with need, his jaw tense. His lids lowered, heavy with carnal appetite. Lust glittered in his eyes, quickly masked as he dropped his gaze.
She’d seen it, knew that he sought to hide his need, but he couldn’t hide the potency of his desire from her. Danger had heightened her senses, until she could feel the hunger emanating from him, practically hear the blood rush to engorge his length.
He said nothing as he leaned close and reached around her head. She felt like she would melt into the pole at that heated flesh so close to her own. Her skin tingled, her nipples tightened, like buds seeking the warmth of his skin. He removed the gag before moving to her hands, acting as though nothing had changed, that he couldn’t sense the begging of her body.
“Oh god, Gabriel,” she whispered, trying to find the strength of her voice. Her lips felt numb, her throat and mouth dry. His arms slid against her arms, raising the hair with delicious goosebumps on her skin. She shivered at the sensation. “I thought you’d never come.”
“I made a promise, petite,” he murmured, his fingers brushing against her as they worked on the binding.
Jessica worked her jaw muscles, stretching them. The rope on her hands came loose and her arms fell forward, her shoulder joints pinching with a dull ache. The pain didn’t matter. She had to touch him herself, know that he was real, whole and unharmed. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. “I thought you were dead.”
He went rigid all over, stopped breathing. “Don’t touch me,” he said, his voice hoarse and rough, as though he were in agony. They’d hurt him somehow. The knowledge spread an ache through her chest.
He sat back on his heels, hooking his hands under her arms, trying to push her away.
She tightened around him, refusin
g to let go. “No,” she said, kissing the side of his neck, breathing against his ear, breathing in the clean scent of him that was so familiar when everything else seemed to have changed. She needed this. Her body tightened all over, needing to feel him touch her all over.
He shuddered, his breathing loud in the sudden silence, harsh and ragged. Against her chest, she felt the race of his heart, beating hard and fast. He pushed again, with less force this time--resolve weakening. “Stop. Don’t touch me, chere, please.”
“I can’t not touch you. I don’t want to let you go.” She ran her tongue up his neck, reveling in the subtle tremor that raked through him. She didn’t know what was happening to her, instincts guided her. An inner impulse wanted to taste him, smell him ... touch him ... everywhere....
He growled suddenly, thrust one rough hand in her hair and pulled her head back. Jessica gasped, her eyes wide, her mouth open and waiting for him. Like a storm, he descended, giving her no chance for retreat. He kissed her violently, his mouth savage, so hungry and rough alarm shot through her veins. Hot need welled the instant his bruising mouth touched her, blooming heated and wet between her thighs. Something was different, something had been unleashed.
God help her, she liked it.
The fingers gripping her hair at the crown hurt, burned her scalp. Her skin prickled from the abrasive stubble around his mouth. Jessica flinched at the pain, making a soundless cry into his mouth. His tongue thrust inside with a sharp growl, stroking wet against her limp tongue, coaxing and commanding until she was helpless but to join him. He missed nothing, encompassed, wouldn’t let her withdraw.
Her tongue eagerly mated with his, stoking the arousal that gripped her body. Her stomach contracted with a hard spasm, reverberating deeply in her womb. Lust so intense it hurt lanced through her pussy, pulsing wildly in her clit. Jessica sucked his tongue hard, taking him deeper, as though it would satisfy the sudden aching emptiness of her core.
Rough excitement rumbled in his chest at her capitulation. He jerked with it, crushing her against him. The bruising pressure of his body, the molten sweep of his tongue spiraled through her body, drenching her sex with lust.
Jessica whimpered into his mouth, clawing at him for more, wanting so badly to feel the pleasure.
Her movement startled him awake. He tore away from her as though he’d been bitten, releasing a strangled, frustrated groan. His chest heaved, his eyes were black with violent longing. His face was hard with barely repressed desire. The intensity of his look frightened her, made her insides clench with fear and hunger. Her heart struggled in her chest.
They were inches apart. He devoured her with his eyes, drew them down her body as though he would eat her. Her sex spasmed at his heated look.
She wanted him to eat her.
He closed his eyes suddenly as if pained. He shook his head.
Jessica allowed him no respite, closed the distance and locked around him. He stiffened again. She hated and delighted in his resistance.
“No. No. Sweet Jesus.” His voice broke. He closed his hands around the underside of her ass, fingers digging into her flesh, drawing a ragged groan from her. She squirmed, brushing her breasts against his chest, her nipples hardening more than she’d ever thought possible.
He groaned, long and deep and pulled her without warning, hard, sliding her so suddenly up his lap she had no time to react. And then the heat of his cock was there, tight against her parted lips, slick against the wet heat of her cleft. Jessica jerked at the probe, tightened her knees around his thighs, gasping as the unyielding ridge of flesh slid through her soft lips across her clit in one agonizing motion. Her wet cleft jerked with pleasure against the silky smooth thickness of his erection. Every rigid, engorged vein tormented, sent pleasure soaring along taut nerves. Her muscles contracted involuntarily, wanting what he wouldn’t give.
“They’ll kill me for this.” His hoarse whisper into her hair sounded tortured. He shuddered, tightening his hands on her ass.
“You’re killing me,” she managed, hating the desperate need that held her in thrall. Jessica clenched, tremors of pleasure working through her. She rocked, unable to sit still, needing to move on him. Needing to impale herself on his hard, thick cock.
“Oh god. Don’ move. Don’ move!” he ground out.
She rocked again, unable to stop herself.
He sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes squeezed tight. “Stop. I’m gonna cum all over your preddy body if you don’t stop!”
Her hips jerked at the rough growl of his voice, the harsh promise.
He was hard all over, tension bleeding from every pore, muscles standing at attention, ready to break control at any moment. She felt that he was on the edge, his hold tenuous. His cock throbbed against her, scalding her flesh like a red hot poker. She ached to feel that rigid heat inside her. Her entire body whimpered with need. She couldn’t stand it. She had to move, couldn’t stop herself. She rocked against him again, and an anguished moan tore from his throat.
Gabriel was dying. His mind raged with lust. Every muscle screamed with pain, screamed with the need to ram, to lay waste and conquer. The cream of her body felt like hot oil on his cock, making the nerves jump. He was engorged to the point that the slightest movement, the softest brush of her labia had him groaning in agony.
Time meant nothing to him now, when it should. Each second near her felt like an eternity of sensual torture. He could see nothing but her, feel nothing but her skin, smell nothing but her musky, sweet desire. Her cunt promised ecstasy, liquid fire that would devour his soul. A hard shudder wracked his body. His beast raged, his cock spasmed to be inside her. She consumed him in every possible way ... and they would die because of it.
He had to let her go. He commanded his hands to release her, to thrust her away ... commanded his legs to move, to run and not come back. Touching her was madness, stretched his sanity to the brink.
She moved on him, sliding her pussy up his shaft, drawing out the torture until he was near mindless with the urge to ram inside her. His control slipped a notch every second. Her breasts rubbed against his chest, her body pulled against the burning rings in his nipples. Pleasure and pain raced through him, mingling, racketing through his body out of control.
He sucked in a sharp breath, willing his cock to lay still, his hands not to move. His fingers dug into her cheeks, palms sensitized with the woman’s flesh filling them. He couldn’t be gentle. He’d hurt her before, knew he had. He hadn’t been able to stop. The hunger raged in him now, unleashed by the beast and the fights. He was close to turning, anything could push him over.
If that happened, he could kill her.
He fought the beast back, felt it hovering beneath the surface, always there, always waiting for any sign of weakness.
The musk of her sex intoxicated him, heightening the danger.
Oh god ... just one thrust inside her, it was all he wanted, all he needed. He knew it wasn’t enough, that he had to have her completely, fuck her again and again until his body was dry of its juices. And then he would fuck her again.
The thought rang savagely in his soul, burning him alive. He wanted more than that, wanted her to surrender herself in every way.
“Please, Gabriel,” she whispered, begging, her voice seducing him out of his wits.
They’d smell it, know what he’d done, know that he’d fucked her without the right of a mate. “I ... can’t.”
“You can,” she breathed, kissing his jaw, running her fingers through his damp hair. “Please, if we’re going to die anyway, I want to have you inside me, just once.”
His cock throbbed unbearably at her words. The selfish impulse grew, wresting control. He wanted to be her first Lycan, the first to mark her in their way. He couldn’t fight it, not any more.
An anguished growl escaped him and he went down with her, crushing her against the ground, her legs still wrapped around him. Her feet dropped to the ground as they landed, and the breath fled her lungs. He k
issed her, long and hard, moving one hand between her legs, guiding his cockhead to the entrance of her pussy.
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