“You have to stop. I can’t—” He took a deep breathe, a shudder running through his entire body. “If you want to go for a ride, you better do it now.”
The soft, sensuous laugh that left my throat was a sound I didn’t recognize. Being with him changed me in fundamental ways I still didn’t understand.
Mine. Mate.My beast practically purred as we followed our mate’s command and crawled up to position our wet pussy over the tip of his cock. His gaze focused on the space between our bodies like a laser. He groaned as I lowered myself onto him. Took all of him as he stretched us open, made us feel taken. Claimed.
“Fuck.” He rolled his hips under me and I gasped. Reached down to touch the hard muscles of his chest, spread my palms flat so I could get some leverage. The sleeves on the pale blue shirt I’d taken from the closet rode up my arms, exposed my wrists. Bare wrists where mating cuffs should be.
“You’re mine, Ethan Blake.” I shouldn’t have said it out loud. But I did. My beast demanded we tell him the truth. He was claimed. Mated. Mine.
He froze, his gaze on my wrists. “You’re wrists. What the hell? Why did you let me hurt you?” He struggled against his restraints, the motion of his stomach muscles tightening against my clit made me moan. “You’re going to use that healing wand as soon as we’re done.”
Gods help me, he was adorable, handcuffed with his dick inside me, still trying to take care of me.
“It’s nothing….” Nothing important. Bruises from our previous sessions. I squeezed my inner muscles, clamped down on his cock, made him groan. I didn’t dare tell him the truth; that my beast needed mating cuffs around her wrists to remain sane, that when I woke up without handcuffs on, she’d nearly gone mad with rage that our mate hadn’t claimed us, had seethed with agony at his rejection. I told her he didn’t know, didn’t understand.
She didn’t fucking care. Did not understand. She simply hurt.
Shaking, fighting to control her, I did the only thing that would calm her down… touch him. Claim him. Feel his skin on ours. The beast needed to know she had a mate. Needed the reminder that we weren’t alone anymore. If he was near, I could regulate her. Barely.
Claiming Ethan had been a mistake. I knew that now. Having his seed inside us, his scent on our skin, his taste in our mouth? It drove her wild. He didn’t just satisfy her, he made her stronger, nearly impossible to control. She had become amonster inside me, threatening to come out, to take over, reveal herself to the human who hated our kind.
I opened my eyes to see him watching me. Assessing. Analyzing. We were frozen in place, his cock deep inside me, my black and blue wrists on display atop his chest.
“All right. But never again. If you need restraints on your wrists, I’ll fucking restrain you. We’ll use something else. Something that won’t make you bleed.”
My beast rolled in his authority, his command, the protective tone of his voice. She sat down hard, took him deeper. “Yes.” Her voice answered our mate, not mine. His reaction made her wild and I didn’t even try to stop her as she took what she wanted from him.
Ethan lifted his hips off the bed with perfect timing, matching me thrust for thrust. I leaned over and took his mouth, savored him as I rubbed my clit against his hard stomach muscles.
Our bodies slammed together like two machines, hard and fast. Relentless.
Reckless. Being with him broke every rule. I didn’t care.
My entire body shuddered as I came. He shouted out beneath me, his cock twitching inside me as he filled me, gave me his essence, as my mate should.
I collapsed on top of him, my chest heaving as I fought to keep my beast from roaring his name like a feral animal. She should be appeased. Satisfied.
She was neither.
Mate. Mine. I come out. Claim Ethan.
No!I had no idea if she could do as she claimed and actually transform my body physically, as the Warlords’ beasts did. What if I changed into a beast and couldn’t change back? She wasn’t supposed to exist at all, was a side effect of experimental DNA integrations that, as far as I knew, had never been tried on anAtlan female before. I had no idea what would happen if my beast came out. Had no desire to test it.
“Enough. Take these off. Now.” Ethan rattled the handcuff’s chain against the metal bedframe.
Regret and longing nearly broke my heart as I rolled off him and reached for the key. After today, he would never look at me the same way. Never want me again. Never touch me. Wouldn’t allow me to touch him.
I unlocked the handcuffs. He immediately wrapped me in his arms and rolled me onto my side.
I closed the distance and plastered myself against him, skin on skin. Breathed him in. Sighed in relief when my beast was satisfied.
If only I had a pair of real mating cuffs. Shiny, beautiful metal with our family design etched into the matching bracelets. Ethan would look so good wearing them. So sexy. So mine.
“What now?” He lifted his hand and pressed our palms together. I curled my fingers over and between his, bound us together.
“I heard from my commander. They sent me the location of the Silver Scion’s base. He’s calling in some backup. We’re supposed to go meet with the strike team tomorrow. They want to hit the Scions’ base sometime in the next few days.”
“What kind of backup? Where are they?”
