The moment the word left my mouth, my lips were on hers. I was not a beast, not an animal. I wanted our mate soft and open beneath me. I wanted to take my time, taste all of her.
I carried her to the small bed and laid her down on her back. The soft slippers the females wore were the first things to go. I kissed her bare ankles, the heat of her core calling to me.
Pussy. Hot. Wet.
Mine.
The primitive desire to conquer her was not coming from my beast this time. The need to possess her, fuck her, sink into her body, was all me. I was nearly as animalistic as he.
I kissed a trail from inner ankle to knee. Thigh. Her scent tempted me to hurry. I would not. I took my time, kissing and tasting her. Moving my hands up her outer thighs, I slid the gown up and out of my way until the fabric covered her hips. The sight of her core peeking out from under the glittering fabric made me shudder. That was mine.
When I could not wait another moment, I lifted her ass in my hands and lowered my lips to her clit. One gentle kiss made her whimper. The beast stirred, eager for me to get on with it. I sucked on her sensitive nub until her hands were fists in my hair and her back arched up off the bed. She was close.
I smiled.Not yet, mate. Not yet.
Leaning back on my knees next to the bed, I pulled the gown off her body and quickly stripped off my own clothing. Skin to skin. That is what my beast wanted. That was what I needed. Her scent on my skin, part of me. Her declaration that I was hers. A male who smelled of his mate was accepted. Claimed. Loved.
Worthy.
I had given up hope, agreed to Helion’s insane plan. All because I’d resigned myself to never finding or claiming a mate. Never findingher.
She reached for me. “Hurry up. How many clothes are you wearing?”
I lifted her off the bed, repositioning her so I could cover her with my body. Shield her. Protect her. Feel, for the first time, that she was safe.
She opened her legs wide and wrapped them around me the best she could as I kissed my way up her belly to her breasts. I stopped there for several minutes, unable to decide which one was more delicious.
“Kovo.” She whispered my name. Hands buried in my hair once more, she pulled me up, lifted her head off the bed to capture my lips with hers.
She kissed me. I had never been kissed before. Not like this.
She held nothing back, wrapping her arms around my neck and plunging her tongue deep in challenge. My mate let me know exactly what she wanted.
My last coherent thought as I plunged my cock deep was that I was lost. Gone.
Hers.
Deep within, the beast laughed at how easily she had conquered me.
9
Adrian
Sweet mother of God. The beast had been wild. Rough. Raw lust personified.
This?
Kovo shifted his hips again and I moaned. So close. I was so freaking close. I held my orgasm back, allowed it to build, as I suspected he was doing.
The moment stretched like a shift in time and space. Nothing else existed. Just us. Here. Now. I was having sex with my mate for the first time. This wasdifferent.
This was emotions and commitment. We weren’t in a prison any longer. He wasn’t about to die. He was going to live a full life. Helion was going to get us off the planet somehow. I was going to be able to keep him.
He wasn’t going anywhere. He was mine. My mate.
I was married now. More than married. I had amate.Forever.
A wall of chaotic emotions welled up from the base of my ribcage, moved up through my chest to my throat, to my eyes. Tears leaked silently from the corners, slid to my temples, and disappeared in my hair. I didn’t know why I was crying. I just knew as his body moved over me, that loving like thishurt.
