“Hunter,” I cried, wound up, swirls of desire growing in arcs through my core.
There was a real possibility I might explode if he didn’t claim me this second.
“What do you want me to do, Emme?” he murmured against my breast. “You know the deal, baby girl. Use your words to tell mewhat you want.”
His voice lowered over those last words, and as he rocked his hard, naked length against me, I was nearly delirious with desire. “I want you to claim me, Hunter. Please.Claimme.Biteme.Fuckme. I want it all.”
His chest rumbled in a deep, satisfied purr, and I felt his pleasure even though there was no tangible connection between us yet. “Ah, my sweet omega. I’ve waited a long time to hear you say that. Before I could even put a face to my mate, I knew your soul. And it’s mine.”
He kissed me hard and I cried out, wondering if my drenched lower half was about to explode like a freaking bomb and kill us both. As dramatic as that sounded, the pressure felt like destruction at its purest form. I wanted to scream and thrust against his hard thigh just for some relief. “Hunter, please,” I cried, dragging myself against him, “I can’t wait. We have to seal the bond.”
Fighting fate had been the hardest path I’d ever taken in my life, and after what happened with Kellan, I hoped I could change paths. Kellan hadn’t lost his mind and started taking my power. In fact, none of the alphas had even tried to dig deeper into what I did that day, accepting that whatever it was, it had saved Kellan. It was as if the power didn’t matter to them, and I had to trust my gut here, which told me to claim a second alpha.Now.
When he leapt gracefully to his feet, Hunter dragged me up with him, and I groaned as we crashed back into the huge tree that sheltered the fallen trunk. His hands cushioned my landing, and I craved every part of this moment. Even the pain.
“How did you know this was the exact ancient band of redwoods where I wanted to seal my claim?” he rasped, kissing my lips between each word.
I’d had no idea of course, but fate was in control today, so it made perfect sense to me.
“I know you, Hunter Reeves,” I told him, believing with every part of me that was the truth. “I know your soul and heart, and I fucking want them both.”
With a rumble, our lips clashed, the kiss rough and desperate. Growls ripped from our throats, and I knew this would not be a gentle, sweet claiming like Kellan’s. This was animalistically fueled by the primality between predator and prey.
My body was on fire, the wet heat of my need dripping down my thighs as Hunter and I battled… forsomething. Control, pleasure, relief, need. When his strong hands gripped my thighs, tearing them apart, he thrust up in a mindless movement.
Despite my delirium, arousal, and need consuming me, there would always be pain with an alpha of Hunter’s size. The first stretch of him against my inner walls was a delicious burn, and I threw my head back to scream my way into an orgasm. He never even made it a third of the way inside, but the decadent feel of his body entering mine was enough to send me reeling.
His irises were gold at this point, threaded through with stormy darkness, and as he thrust again, he dropped his head to my throat. My body opened to him, piece by piece, the pleasure and pain intermingling into a hurricane—a fitting sensation for this alpha.
The bark of the tree bit into my back, the mud on my skin cracked and shattered around us. I had never felt wilder or freer as Hunter seated himself fully inside me. When our bodies were joined as intimately as was shifterly possible, my mate threw his head back and howled to the sky, bringing the ghostly visage ofmy wolf to the surface, where she frolicked with Hunter’s beast. They’d formed a bond long ago, but after this claiming, their souls would have the tangible connection to go along with it.
I tilted my head to the side and presented him the unmarked shoulder. “Please, Alpha,” I begged, recalling our deal and how I would capitulate. “Please claim me.Claim us.”
Hunter’s voice seeped out in a deep, overpowering growl of dominance. “Tell me why now, Omega? Why did you change your mind?”
There were a million reasons, but in my sex and desire addled brain, I revealed what tipped me over the edge. “You knelt for me,” I sobbed, arching into his hold. “An entitled alpha never kneels for another, and yet you did… You—” His hips moved against mine and I cried out. “Oh goddess. You showed me that—” He thrust again and I was just senselessly babbling, but he didn’t seem to care.
When I finally stopped word-vomiting all the reasons he’d destroyed me, his unwavering gaze held me. “Keep your eyes on me, baby girl,” he said, voice a deep, hypnotic rumble. “Even a king should kneel before his queen. You will never accept anything less, from anyone, including those in our pack. Promise me.”
I couldn’t speak, my voice lost in the sensation of his cock buried deep enough to hurt. Pleasurable pain.
Hunter pulled half out of me, and then thrust in again, and again, over and over, claiming my body with his. “Promise me, Emmeline Anders. Promise me you will make them all kneel.”
“I… I…AHHHHH,” I screamed as another orgasm ripped through me, Hunter’s length pulsing inside to prolong the pleasure.
His lips tilted in a satisfied smirk. “You will make them all kneel, because you’re the fucking queen.”
“I promise,” I gasped. “Please, Alpha. Bite me. Claim me. I need you…”
He thrust hard, a frantic energy taking him over until I panted and shouted his name, the building pressure indicating my next orgasm would be of the gushing, squirting variety. These alphas played my body like they held expert knowledge of every nerve ending.
Hunter’s right hand slid up my side and across my chest, wrapping around my throat. As he tightened his hold on either side, the air restriction heightened the sensation of building pleasure, and I embraced the darkness dancing in my peripherals.
“Mine,” he growled, his gold gaze branding my soul.
My wolf howled in my chest, and I heard Hunter respond as he tilted his hand collar to graze his teeth across my throat: “Mine,” he repeated, and there was a tingle of power as he shifted his jaw.
When he pierced the side of my throat, our wolves danced together in a soul-binding moment. My orgasm exploded until I was calling Hunter’s name and writhing against his firm hold. Pleasure consumed me for what felt like an eternity, and yet it was far too short.
