by M. L. Briers
“Breathe.” He whispered against her ear, deep, low, and commanding, so that her mind snapped to attention and she sucked in a long breath. “Easy, sweetheart, I have you.” He nestled down between her thighs, resting on his elbows he brushed her hair away from her face and waited for her to come back to him.
When she opened her eyes and regarded him through hooded lids he couldn’t help the small smug smile that turned up the corners of his mouth and lit his dark eyes.
“That was…”
“Intense?”He offered as she paused to drag in another breath.
“Very.”She didn’t think she had a bone left inside her whole body, she was almost certain that they had all turned into mush within her. Her legs quivered when she ran her feet up his legs, opening herself wider for him. The emptiness within her at having him only so far and for so long, but not completely, drove the need that still bubbled within her. An itch that needed to be scratched.
“Is that your way of telling me that you’re ready for me love?” He moved his hips against her, pressing just inside her needy channel. Darby curled her legs around his.
“More than ready, Max, I have a burning need for you to be inside me.”Her words caused him to growl out his desire in a long, deep, sexy rumble that rolled through his chest.
“You know I’m going to mark you as mine?”He eased through her still pulsing muscles, swollen tighter around him as he took her to the hilt on one long stroke. The growl of pure pleasure as he filled her so completely mixed with her gentle moans of satisfaction at having him buried so deeply inside her, and he brushed his thumb against her cheek when she didn’t answer him. “You know you are mine, Darby…”
“I’ve known from the moment I met you Max, you’re the one who was denying me as a mate, I was just trying to abide by your wishes…” Her voice was so delicately feminine that it stirred his blood, stirred his instincts to protect her, to love her.
“I was an idiot…”
“You’ll get no argument from me…” She teased back at him, and watched him raise one dark brow at her as he pulled his hips back and took her from the hilt to the tip and back again. He was in no rush to mark her, although his wolf was baying to taste her blood, to put his mark on her body.
“I’m guessing that will be a rare occurrence.”He teased. Taking her deeply and watching her lids flutter as she tried not to break eye contact with him made him harder still.
“But, I’m sure you being an idiot will be a constant…” She bit down on her lip as he stroked back and forth within her on a constant barrage of sensation that flowed deep within her, finally burying himself deeply as her muscles pulsed around him.
Max growled a gentle warning before he claimed her mouth to silence her. He wanted her to think of nothing more than the feel of him inside her, the feel of his hands roaming over her soft skin, and his mouth on hers.
Darby was once again lost to the feel of what Max was doing to her. It wasn’t a case of turning off her brain it was a fact that she couldn’t think of much else when he assaulted her senses in this manner.
The feel of his hands roaming over her skin, a touch here, a caress there, left her guessing where next. His mouth on hers, deep passionate kisses that left her in little doubt that he was claiming her as his, interspersed with the gentle teasing of his tongue, his lips had her breathless in anticipation. And then the feel of hard steel covered in satin moving inside her, filling her so completely with long, slow strokes that took her from the tip of him to the hilt, holding deep inside her as her muscles pulsed around him, until she was on the verge of begging him to move, mixed with bursts of his hips pumping against hers, constantly caressing that bunch of nerves within her that he had so expertly stroked to life with his fingers.
The constant change in the angle of his stroke, rubbing his shaft against her sensitive nub one minute, before sliding his hand under her lower back and raising her hips so he could rub over that sweet spot with short, fast bursts that had her fingers curling into the hard muscles of his shoulders.
Darby knew she couldn’t hold onto her rising need for release much longer and she could feel Max’s passion building within him. He was becoming more powerful, more dominant, and his beast was pushing forward to assert his own need to mark her as his.
When he nuzzled into her neck on a long growl, Darby turned her head to the side to allow him better access. As his hands ran up her arms and captured her wrists, so his tongue ran over the smooth skin where her shoulder curved up to her neck. She knew he was close to marking her. The feel of his fangs against her flesh caused the excitement within her to escalate to a point where she needed release, needed to feel his bite, and she moaned her need, her desire, and her passion for him.
Max heard his mate urging him on. He could feel her body climbing towards rapture beneath his. Pressing her hips down into the bed with each long, deep stroke inside her, he caged her beneath his body.
He was walking a fine line with his beast, allowing the wolf just enough rein to bubble beneath the surface, so they could mark their mate, but not enough for the beast to take him over completely and bond with her.
Max felt the moment she tensed under him. Her inner muscles tightening around his shaft before she cried out on her release, those muscles going into rapid hard spasms around him, massaging him towards orgasm and he pressed his fangs into her skin. The taste of her blood created such rapture within him that he couldn’t have held back his seed if his life depended on it.
He released his fangs from her skin an instant before he felt the hard grip of his own orgasm rip through his body, wave after wave of pulsing heat flowing through him. Every nerve ending came alive with throbbing energy of pure pleasure and he growled hard as his beast roared within him. Pulling his hips back and thrusting back against her womb, over and over as he spilled his seed within her.
Max nuzzled into her shoulder, the scent of her blood drawing him back from pure bliss to her needs. He tended her wound, cleaning and sealing it with his gentle tongue as his muscles quivered around him.
Never in his life had he felt so weak. Never had he felt so damn complete, contented in a way he never knew he could be. His wolf was at peace for now, having marked her as theirs it was no longer demanding to bond, and at this moment in time, this shared intimacy, he felt sated.
Max looked down on his mate. Her eyes were still closed to the world, her lips were parted as she drew ragged breaths, and her body still quivered with the aftermath of her release.
He turned them in the bed, keeping her against him, unwilling to break the contact between them. He brushed her hair away from her face, tucking the silken strands behind her ear and soothing her back to him with gentle words until her lashes fluttered open.
“Max…” She breathed out the word as if she hadn’t seen him for so long, as if she had missed him so, and his heart was totally and completely lost to her in that moment.
“Mine, Darby, forever.” His voice was deep and gravelly, and the growl of his beast rolled under the surface.
“Yours, forever.” Darby reached up and palmed his cheek, her eyes taking him in until he brushed his lips gently against hers, a slow caress until he deepened the kiss. There was no demand this time, just reverence.
Max awoke to the sound of the lone wolf howling. His arms tightened around his mate protectively. With her back pressed against his chest, their bodies fitted together perfectly, and he took a long moment to savour the fact that she slept soundly within his arms. Her flowery Fae scent encompassed him and made him harder than just the normal wake up routine that all men faced.
The sound of the howl dragged his attention from his mate and he instinctively knew the sound belonged to the rogue. Mike was offering up a challenge, baiting him to hunt him, obviously he was eager to die, for that would be the outcome when he hunted down the beast.
Rogues were not something an alpha could afford to allow a continued existence. They were the worst kind of danger for any
pack. A danger to each individual member of the pack, prone to attack at random and without mercy, even for their fellow pack members, their mates, and for the people they had grown up with.
But they were also posed a danger for the continued safety of the pack in their community. Rogues had no compunction about outing the pack to the human community around them, and that was a danger that could not be ignored.
Without the humanity that the human side of a Lycan showed, a rogue was a deadly weapon, even more so than an ordinary wolf pack. Faster, stronger, and smarter than a normal wolf, they posed a threat to anyone who came into contact with them, and that included humans.
Max heard the third howl that broke the relative silence of the night and gently eased himself away from his mate. Slipping out of the bed, Max headed for the bedroom door and took one last look back at his mate as she lay sleeping in their bed. He would answer the rogues challenge and then start his new life with Darby.
He saw her stir and wanted nothing more than to climb back into bed beside her and hold her within his arms once again. Arms that felt empty now that they weren’t wrapped around her body. He was already fighting the urge to bond with her, and dragging himself off for a rogue hunt wasn’t how he wished to spend his time right now. Even if his beast was eager for the hunt and to put an end to the rogue, his humanity wanted nothing more than to be nestled between her thighs, buried deep within the heat of her body, and causing her to make those little noises that told him what she liked and how she much liked it.
He cursed himself for delaying when he saw her drag herself up onto her elbow and search for him in the darkness of the room.
“Where are you going? Come back to bed.” The sound of her voice, huskier than normal with her sleep filled tones, sounded to him as she did when he had brought her pleasure and his arousal grew rock hard at the memories they had already created on this night.
“I have to go hunt the rogue…”
“No not now. Stay.”
“Darby…” He offered, but she cut him off.
“I have a bad feeling, Max…”
He knew if he crossed the room to sooth her he would have her back in his arms and not leave her again this night, and he needed to finish the business with the rogue so he could give her his undivided attention.
“I’ll be back soon. The rogue calls a challenge and I have to answer it.” Max didn’t wait for her response, he couldn’t risk it. Every moment he stayed he needed to be with her more. They may have mated, he may have marked her as his, but they still hadn’t bonded and that call on his body, on his wolf, was getting stronger.
Darby watched him go and felt the urge to call out to him, to keep him with her using whatever feminine wiles it took, but she couldn’t. He was the alpha and he had to protect his pack the way he saw fit, and that included her now. She had no business getting in the way of that.
Darby pushed back the covers and reached for her discarded top. She wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until he was safely back with her again, especially not with the uneasy feeling within her. Lying in bed would do her little to no good, she needed coffee, and maybe chocolate to console her until he returned.
Max shifted the moment he left the house. When another deathly howl pierced the night he took off on fast paws in the general direction of the call to arms.
Mike was baiting him into a challenge and he would give the young alpha rogue what he wanted, at least then he could get back to Darby and concentrate on his mate.
Now that he had claimed her as his he didn’t think it would take much to woo her into bonding with him, and that thought made him more than eager to finish pack business and return to his mate, return to his bed, and settle once more between her milky thighs.
By the time Max had covered the ground between his home and the general vicinity of Mike’s call he had firmly put aside all thoughts of mating with Darby. Max wasn’t stupid and he knew he needed to concentrate everything he had on the challenge from the rogue.
Without their humanity rogues could be unpredictable enough, add to that the strength and grit of an alpha personality and Max knew that Mike wasn’t going to be an easy challenge. Max might have the upper hand in age and experience, but Mike was probably as strong as him, now that he had given himself completely to his feral side.
This was a fight that only Max could take on. He had ordered his pack not to engage with Mike unless they had no other choice. This was how it should be, Alpha to Alpha, and he wouldn’t allow anyone to take on this fight for him. He was the Alpha, it was his job to protect the pack from all threats, even ones from within their own pack.
What troubled him most was that it was one of his own that had gone rogue. He had expected Mike to one day either mount a challenge for control of the pack or leave to form his own pack. The last thing he had ever expected was for the young wolf to go rogue. Maybe he wasn’t such a good judge of character as he thought himself to be, especially as Doug had raised objections to making Mike a Beta. But that kind of naval gazing was for another time. He needed to end the threat to his pack here tonight. There would be time afterwards for the ramifications of what had happened.
Max caught the scent of his pack brother in the air, it was slight, but it was there, and he slowed his speed to start the hunt. He doubted that Mike would be hiding from him. The young wolf had called out his challenge, what would be the point in turning tail and running from it now?
Following the scent was easy, Mike hadn’t tried to mask his presence in anyway, and Max made a slow progression through the woods, all of his senses on full alert for an attack.
Just because the young wolf wanted this fight, it didn’t follow that he wouldn’t be playing dirty. He couldn’t see a rogue just standing out in the open waiting for the fight to come to him. No, he would almost certainly attack hoping to get the upper hand and draw first blood, and that was exactly what happened.
Max caught the strong scent in the air at the exact same moment that he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning on fast paws he saw the red glare of the rogue’s eyes a heartbeat before the beast attacked.
Darby didn’t have so much trouble finding anything of Max’s to wear per se, it wasn’t about sniffing and not wanting to smell his scent this time, it was more about finding a pair of jog pants that would actually stay up on her hips and not immediately drop down to her ankles again.
Truth be told, she was more than grateful that Max’s clothes were not an exact fit on her body, that would just be wrong and would send her into a tail spin of denying chocolate for as long as humanly possible, which wasn’t long, in order for her to drop a few sizes.
Max was a large man, build like a mountain, if her curvy body had fitted into his clothes she would probably have to look like one of those female weight lifters at the Olympics, and on her small frame that wouldn’t have been good.
That wasn’t to say she didn’t carry a few extra pounds here and there, and there, and there… Well almost every-bloody-where, but nobody was perfect, at least nobody she knew, which made her feel better about herself, even if she did get the urge once in a while, usually after reading one of those stupid airbrushed woman’s magazines, to drop a few lumps…
Darby dropped down the last stair and turned towards the kitchen, coffee and chocolate, or chocolate and coffee, or maybe just chocolate and she’d put a pin in the coffee, she debated, trying to keep her mind off of the fact that Max was out there somewhere in the night looking to go head to head with the rogue.
Every time she let that thought into her mind her stomach twisted into knots, and that wasn’t going to help her when she had a need for soul food, comfort food, chocolate. Her best friend and worst enemy all rolled into one tasty bar of heaven.
Thinking about Max now would probably drive her insane, she both wanted to be there to know what was happening, and wanted to have him here and safe from the danger that the young rogue presented.
While she was in no doubt
that Max could take care of himself, there was always the chance that something could go wrong, and she didn’t want to think about that, she wouldn’t think about that. He was the alpha, it was always going to be his job to protect everyone, she needed to get used to that fact, but right now she just wanted to bury it under comfort food, and by food she knew the only thing she could possibly push down would be chocolate.
The sound of knocking on the front door drew her attention away from thoughts of anything other than Max. That feeling was back within her in an instant, the one that said something was wrong, something bad, and maybe something that she could do something about, after all, fate had led her here to Max for a reason, it couldn’t just be as simple as he was her mate could it? There must have been another reason that they were supposed to meet in this time and this place…
“Darby, it’s Paula, Max has been hurt…” The female tones echoed through the large room and through her mind with equal amounts of woe. The thought of her mate lying injured slapped her into action and she ran for the door with only one thought in her mind, how quickly could she get to him, and was she strong enough to be able to heal his wounds or would she need to call on the help of a certain vampire friend that owed her more than one favour?
The tall blonde Lycan looked down at her with an air of disdain. It wasn’t the look she had expected to see on the young females face, but she dismissed it easily, not everyone liked the Fae, as she had already found out today, and her concern for Max’s wellbeing far outweighed anything else. They could deal with the Lycan’s obvious prejudices against her at another time, right now all that mattered to her was getting to Max.
“Where is he?” Darby demanded feeling the rush of panic within her for the unknown. How badly was he injured? Where was he? How quickly could she make it to Max’s side…?