“Fuck! Ni!”
I exploded in her mouth, cum pouring down her throat as she drank it like nectar. My breath came out in whimpers, my mind blank as I stared down at her like she was the universe. My universe.
Her lips were still wrapped around the base, sucking and licking like I hadn’t just given her everything I had.
When she finally pulled off, she looked up at me, a wicked glint in her eye, the picture of sin incarnate.
“Now, you know what it feels like to be owned, even when I’m the one on my knees.”
I nodded, willing to agree with anything and everything that came out of that perfectly plump mouth. I didn’t know if this was her plan all along, to scramble my brain and wreck me so fully I couldn't think beyond her smiling face.
All I knew was my all-consuming need to kiss those cum-slicked lips andmake them mine again. I grabbed her by the arms and hauled her up, crashing my mouth to hers. My tongue plunged deep, claiming her, tasting myself on her lips, and all I wanted was more.
* Song: Touching Me by Chandler Leighton
25
LUCUS
Itried to sleep, I really did, but it was useless. Sleep hid behind a door I couldn’t unlock, mocking me from the other side while my body twisted in place, aching for something I couldn't name.
No, not true. I could name it.Aniyah. My entire being felt like it was being magnetically pulled toward her, this low, thrumming instinct insisting that I was in the wrong place. That I wasmeantto be with her.
She was a leader, a badass who refused to rely on anyone. She carved her own path, made her own rules, and built everything with her name stamped on it in bold, bright letters. I admired the hell out of that. It was everything I’d been fighting for my whole life.
My family came from old money. Legacy types. They believed in tradition, in playing it safe and steady. Their success was slow and predictable, measured by time and preservation. They didn’t take risks. They didn’t chase the unknown.
But me? I’d always wanted more. Craved it.
I wanted to make waves and shake things up. Winbig. I yearned to prove that I didn’t need their safe, suffocating version of success. I wanted to build something that made my blood rush and my heart pound—something electric, something worth living for—and around Aniyah, Ifeltthat.
She was the spark to my fuse. The fire I’d been searching for. She made me feel like I’d been sleepwalking until I met her.
When we first crossed paths, I wrote her off as just another beautiful woman running an upscale brothel. I didn’t think there was anything deeper than curated pleasure, but then I started to see it, the architecture of her mind, the way she had built something from the ground up. She didn’t just offer pleasure. No, she offered what supesandhumans craved most—belonging. Someone who understood and accepted them, whatever that looked like, and I wanted it. Wantedher.
At first, I thought I could have just a taste. See what it felt like to hold a woman like that. I could even try to break her, tame her, but deep down, I knew you couldn’t tame a wildfire. You could only survive it… or burn with it.
Still, I liked the burn. I liked the resistance, the sass, the way she surrendered on her terms. It was never about dominance. It was about earning every inch of her, and I found I wanted to accomplish that task.
Then I walked in on her and Alic at the club, and something dark and primal rose up inside me. If she was trying to figure out a choice, I wasn’t about to be cast aside because I didn't get in when I had the chance. No. I was going to get equal attention. So I joined. Was it fueled by adrenaline, ego, or lust? Take your pick.
But the moment her ruby-red essence touched my tongue? That was it. Game over. I was addicted. Completely, stupidly hers.
Something inside of me shifted the second my fangs pierced her skin—a deep, searing certainty. A beast rose inside of me, rearing its head toward her.Mine,it echoed in my head, and I didn’t dispute it.I wasn’t even surprised to see my mark manifest. It felt… inevitable.
But that was the problem, wasn’t it? She wasn’t only mine. I could see it in the others. Maso. Alic. Van. Even that smug bastard Rasmus. I recognized the pull in their eyes, the weight of longing in their voices, and I knew her family history.
Her mother had five mates.Five. So, why not her?
I wasn’t new to sharing in bed. I’d had my wild years. I told myself I could handle it, as long as we were all hers, like partners in a business venture. Different assets, all under her empire.
Then she told us about that damn mate-blocker tattoo, and everything cracked.
My understanding of the situation shattered. How could you block something so sacred? So rare? Something that only ever happened once in a lifetimeifyou were lucky? How could sheblock me?
I tried to shove it down and talk myself out of the pain. Maybe she was overwhelmed. Maybe it was just bad timing. She was facing a crisis, and she didn’t have space for love or mates or emotional earthquakes at the moment.
It all sounded reasonable in my head, but none of it helped the knife twisting in my chest.
