"Zeke, please…" She didn't know what she was asking for, only that she needed more.
He lifted his head and his eyes found hers. "Tell me."
"I need you inside me. Now."
But he moved down her body instead. She started to protest until his mouth found her and thought became impossible. No fumbling, no searching—his tongue found her clit and circled with pressure that made her see stars. One thick finger slid inside and she caught her breath at the stretch. Her body clenched as he found that spot deep inside that lit up her entire nervous system.
A second finger joined the first, stretching her wider while his tongue continued its work. His free hand splayed across her stomach, and she knew he sensed how close she was. He curled his fingers just as he sucked her clit into his mouth.
She shattered and a scream tore from her throat as pleasure crashed through.
He held her there, working her through the peak and extending it until she was limp and shaking. Only then did he move up her body to settle between her thighs. The broad head of his cock pressed against her entrance, hot and thick. She was so wet from her orgasm that he slipped inside without resistance, and they both groaned.
"Slow." His arms shook with the effort of control and she wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or her.
Wrapping her legs around his hips, she pulled him deeper. "I can take you."
He pushed forward another inch, then another, until he filled her to the hilt. They both paused, panting in the charged air between them.
"Move. Please, move."
He withdrew and pushed back in. The friction was perfect torture, each thrust hitting the angle that made her gasp. But she didn't want control. She wanted raw and real.
"Harder." Her nails dug into his back. "I won't break."
A growl tore from him and his hips snapped forward, driving into her with enough force to slide her across the soft moss. This was what she needed… not gentle but fierce and claiming. He fucked her hard, rhythm shifting in response to signals her body sent without her conscious knowledge.
"Mine." The word rumbled against her throat. "My mate. My Michelle."
"Yours." She bit his shoulder hard enough to leave marks. "And you're mine."
The bite seemed to break what little control he had left. His pace turned frantic and powerful, pounding into her. Her next climax built faster and harder than the last, her body coiling tight and ready to snap. His hand moved between them, and his thumb found her clit.
"Come for me." Pure gravel filled his voice. "Let me feel you."
The touch and the command pushed her over the edge. She clenched around him as her orgasm ripped through with force that bowed her spine. He followed a heartbeat later, pulsing deep inside her, heat filling her as he emptied himself with a roar that shook dust from the cave ceiling.
They clung to each other as aftershocks faded, both slick with sweat despite the cold air. His weight pinned her to the moss, a solid anchor in their stone sanctuary. She pressed her face into his neck and breathed him in, tasting salt on his skin.
They were alive. She was safe.
And completely, utterly his.
Chapter 11
The storm had erased everything.
Kraath stood at the edge of what had been a game trail twelve hours ago, but was now nothing but scoured stone and hardening mud. The flood had torn through this valley with enough force to strip bark from trees twenty feet up their trunks. Michelle’s blood trail, Zeke’s tracks, any sign of their passage, all of it had been swept away like it had never existed.
Perfect.
“Nothing here either,” Raaze called from further up the slope, crouched over a section of exposed bedrock. The tracker straightened and wiped mud from his hands. “Whatever direction they went after leaving that clearing, we’re not finding it from here.”
Kraath nodded. His attention had already shifted to the fresher tracks they’d picked up an hour ago. It was the same group of ferals they’d been following before the storm, their prints pressed deep into the soft earth where runoff had deposited fresh silt. These tracks told a different story than any feral sign he’d seen in his considerable years on Parac’Norr.
“Funny how we’re not heading back to coordinate a proper search grid,” Raaze said. “You’d think finding the human female would be the priority.”
“We’re following the most likely trail.” Kraath kept his voice neutral. “The ferals who took her would seek shelter from the storm, same as anyone.”
