"Your knot," she whispered, then louder when his stillness demanded it."I need your knot locked inside me when you do it.Need to be full of you, claimed completely—"
He thrust into her mid-sentence, swallowing her cry with his mouth.This coupling was different from the first—slower, deeper, his hips rolling in a rhythm designed to drive her toward madness.Each stroke dragged against places inside her that made her vision white out at the edges.
"When I bite you here"—she realized his hand was on her throat when his thumb pressed against her—"you become mine in ways that transcend law or church.Your body will recognize no other alpha.Your heats will call only to me."
"Yes," she gasped.
"You'll carry my scent in your skin always.Other alphas will smell me on you from across a ballroom."He nipped at her lips."They will know you are thoroughly claimed, thoroughly fucked, thoroughly mine."
The crude word should have shocked her.Instead, it made her hips roll desperately against him.
"Is that what you want?"His voice dropped to that commanding register that made her insides clench."To walk into London society reeking of my spend?To have every alpha know I've had you on your back, on your knees, taking everything I give?"
Elizabeth's nails raked down his shoulders."Yes—heavens, yes—"
"They'll know the way you drip for me."Each word came punctuated by a harder thrust."The way your body cries out for mine alone.That I've spoiled you for any other's hands."
The first press of his swelling knot made her entrance flutter.Greedy, her body was so greedy for it, clenching to take him deeper—but panic bloomed sudden and bright beneath her desire.
"Please," the word broke from her on a sob, fingers tangling in his hair to hold him close, as though she could bodily prevent his retreat."Please don't—don't leave me empty again.I couldn't survive—"
"Never."The word came out guttural, his hand cradling her face even as his hips snapped forward."Look at me, Elizabeth.Look at me."
She forced her eyes open, meeting his gaze through tears she hadn't realized were falling.
"I'm going to knot you."His thumb brushed away her tears even as his knot swelled larger."I'm going to lock myself so deep inside you that you'll feel me for days.And then I'm going to bite this pretty throat until everyone in London knows exactly who you belong to."
A broken whimper escaped her."Promise me—"
"Feel me," he commanded, pressing deeper, his knot stretching her entrance."Feel how my body refuses to leave yours."
She felt the truth of it in her bones—that inevitable fullness her body received like salvation itself.This time brought no abandonment, no cruel denial.This time he moved inexorably forward, his stare locked on her expression with primal intensity as his knot swelled past the tight clutch of her entrance.
"That's it," he growled."Take it.Take what you've been begging for since Netherfield."
The stretch burned exquisitely as his knot pushed past her entrance, locking them together.Elizabeth's back arched off the bed, a broken cry escaping her throat—part pleasure, part relief so profound it felt like coming home.
"Now," Darcy commanded, his control finally, finally shattering."Now you're mine."
His teeth sank into her throat just as his knot swelled fully inside her.The dual sensation—pain blazing into pleasure, fullness beyond bearing, and the profoundrightnessof finally, finally being claimed—sent Elizabeth tumbling over the edge with a scream that surely reached the servants' quarters.
The claiming bite held firm, his teeth working deeper as her body's response tightened around where they joined.His hips rolled in tiny, desperate movements—all his knot would allow—and each shift dragged against places inside her that made stars burst behind her eyelids.Such pain should have broken her—but it flowed through her blood as blessing, as rightness, as coming home.His tongue traced tender paths across the wounds he made, and Elizabeth discovered knowledge buried in her very marrow, a truth that predated conscious thought, that existed before reason had a name.
Elizabeth's fingers found the back of his neck, holding him to her throat."Don't stop—"
His teeth sank deeper, and Elizabeth came apart once more, her inner muscles gripping him with such force that his groan vibrated against her throat.The rhythmic throb of his release filled her, his knot expanding beyond what seemed possible as he spent himself, and that fullness sent her tumbling through another climax that had her weeping against his shoulder.
When he finally released her throat, blood trickled warm down her neck.Darcy's tongue moved over the punctures with deliberate gentleness, collecting each drop while Elizabeth continued to shake in his arms, held fast on his knot, feeling every twitch and pulse of him buried deep within.
She was his.
He was hers.
The room spun gently around Elizabeth, her body floating somewhere between consciousness and dream.Darcy's weight anchored her, his knot still locked deep inside, each tiny shift sending aftershocks through her overwrought nerves.His tongue continued its ministrations at her throat, sealing the wounds he'd made, and the careful tenderness of it made her eyes burn with fresh tears.
"Mine," he murmured against her skin, the word reverberating through her bones.His hand cradled her face, thumb brushing away the moisture on her cheeks."My omega.My wife.Mine."
Elizabeth's fingers traced the scratches she'd left on his shoulders, marks of her own making."Yours," she agreed, then daringly, "And you're mine."
