“Come to me.” A soft, seductive whisper, a predator’s cajoling charm. “A step only. Just a little closer.”
The tether he’s sunk into my soul goes taut and I obey. One step.
“Good girl,” he breathes. “Now, let me tell you what will happen next.”
I tense.
“You are my wife, by blood and your willing oath in front of witnesses.Twice.”
He pauses, but it’s not like I’m going to refute the obvious.
“That gives me the right to wrap my hand around your throat, force you to your hands and knees, mount and stuff you full of the cock that will make you scream so loud the clan will hear it over their revelry. I’ll bleed you and seed you and Iwon’t let you up until every last inch of your skin is saturated in my scent. We won’t rise from our marriage bed until you’re pregnant.”
The heat always simmering in my core explodes, the flutters in my belly now a drumbeat. “That might take a few weeks.”
His smile is a wide, glittering baring of teeth. He shifts slightly, leaning forward, muscled chest and shoulders tensing. The moon breaks through the cloud cover and highlights his face and body.
“Even if it took a few years, I would endure. My sister will bring us food. She was the one who suggested I breed you to keep you still.”
“That. . .bitch.” Also, I’m a midwife. We won’t have children untilIdecide.
Rath chuckles. He hasn’t blinked—the conversational tone he wields is a lie. “She's selfish. She wants littles of her blood to cuddle and spoil into monsters but doesn't want the trouble of taking a male to breed them herself.”
That is so Iloni.
“Kyona.”
I close my eyes, shuddering, and hold out my hand while taking two quick steps forward. He seizes my wrist, yanking me against him. I expect him to fulfill that threat of a good time, but he holds me, hand pressing against the small of my back, unsheathed talons lightly pricking my bare skin.
And then he lowers his head, pressing his forehead against mine. “Kyona, if you don't want this, I'll take you home, feed you, bathe you, tuck you into our bed. I'll hold you and do nothing more than stroke your hair and breathe in yourscent. I love you. If you don't want me, I'll be content just to have you in my life. It's more than I've had the last twenty years.”
My eyes drift closed as he speaks, but I force them open again as my body relaxes against him, our chests pressing together, nothing separating our skin except for the thin cloth of my breastband.
I take a deep breath, exhale it in one long ragged sigh, and slide my hands up into his textured hair, gripping.
“I couldn't deny you then, and I can't deny you now.” I swallow. “I love you when I shouldn't. Even against common sense, and dignity, and every survival instinct. I came home because another minute breathing air that wasn't saturated with your scent would've killed me. Rath’a.”
His hands sweep up my sides, gripping my rib cage as I tug his head down, capture his lips—feel the usual spark of resentful envy at his beautiful tusks and my lack.
Though I don't feel like I lack anything when he touches me.
The growl starts deep in his chest, and he locks his arms around me tight, pulling me flush against him. Our gentle kiss turns into a savage, primal, devouring thing.
Blood fills my mouth, and I can't tell if it's his or mine, maybe both.
He breathes fast and ragged, turns me in his arms so my back is against his chest. He bends me and slides a hand down, yanking up my skirt as his feet kick my ankles apart.
Strong fingers shove inside me, fast, brutal, offering no opportunity for me to object.
I jerk in shock, crying out. “Rath!”
He wraps his other hand around my neck, squeezing. “By your own word you’re mine,” he growls in my ear. “Your mind may believe it, even your heart, but your body doesn't know it yet. I'm going to fuck you every which way, wife, train your body to come as soon as I step in a room andlookat you. This pussy is belongs tome.”
As he croons those seductive threats in my ear his fingers punch in and out of me, the whimpers in my throat spilling out until they're full-blown whines. My legs tremble, and with each stroke my pussy clenches down, the heat in my core bubbling over.
He drags his fingers out of me, up my slit, and rubs furious circles around my stiff clit, then dips back inside, three fingers this time, the wet sucking noise obscene.
“Can you take more?”
