Warm hands cupped her face. Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks as she fought the sudden, terrible urge to cry. “It’s going to be okay, Cam,” he promised for the hundredth time.
She sniffed hard. “I know, but I can still worry, can’t I?” The words came out tart, though she wasn’t truly upset with him. How could she be, when he might leave her so soon?
“Yeah, you can.” Viktor sat down next to her on the bed and drew her into his lap. His heartbeat was a steady rhythm against her side. Holding her tightly, he said, “When this is all over and we’re settled in the new territory, what’s the first thing you want to do?”
When this is all over…He said it so casually, as if it was a given that things would work out. She knew better than anybody that nothing was a given, nothing was ever truly promised. Her parents should have had forever. A love match, two consorts who were utterly devoted to one another, and they’d only gotten a measly thirty years together before they were torn apart.
Would she be even less lucky? Would she only get a few goldendayswith her consort and her new pack before the gods yanked him out of her life once more?
Camille dug her blunted claws into his shoulders and clung as tightly as she was able. “I don’t know. I can’t picture a time after— after everything right now.”
Viktor skimmed his lips over her forehead. “I can. I can see us in our den, in our new territory. I can see us with the pack, having picnics and playing with the cubs in the lake. I can see us arguing about the best place to put the sofa and trying to hide what we got each other for our birthdays. And I can see us going camping, too. Just the two of us, when we need an escape from the pack for a little while.”
She let out an incredulous laugh. “Camping? Elves don’t go camping.”
“My elf can,” he playfully asserted. “I want to take you deep into the woods and have my wicked way with you.”
“Outside?”She balked. Sex was for their sturdy bed, the couch, the shower, and sometimes the kitchen counters. Notoutside.“Why in the world would we do that?”
She liked nature more than any other elf she knew, certainly, but Camille still had a brain in her head. There was nothing sexy about dirt, bugs, and having to pee behind bushes.
Viktor tangled his fingers in her hair and slowly tilted her head back. Looking down at her with dark eyes, he rasped, “Because I want to see my mate wild and free in the world. I want to know what it’s like to hear her scream my name and hear it echo off of a fucking mountain.” He dipped his head to skim his lips against hers. “I want to know how it feels to lay you down in the leaves and fuck you raw; to see the sun shine on your body as I lick your cunt.”
Camille’s breath hitched. Bugs aside, that didn’t sound too bad at all.
“Vik…” She trailed her hand down his bare chest to rest her fingertips on the waistband of his sweatpants. He rarely wore more than that when they were home. Her coyote preferred to walk around in his skin.
It was jarring at first to see so many of his packmates wandering around in so little, if anything at all, but in the brief time she lived among them, she’d begun to acclimate. It made sense, after all. Shifting at will meant clothing had to be optional.
Besides, she liked being treated to the sight of her bite on his neck. The silvery scar told everyone that he belonged to her, just as the much larger bite on her shoulder proclaimed to all the world exactly whoshebelonged to.
Viktor used his free hand to cup her between her thighs. Her breath quickened as the heel of his palm slowly ground down against her. “Yes, sweetheart? Does that sound like a good plan to you?”
She made a soft sound in the back of her throat. Her eyes fluttered closed as she spread her thighs for him, demanding more.
He let out a husky laugh. “Yeah, I thought so. I think you’ll like being fucked outside, sweetheart. I think you’llreallylike it.”
Camille bit her lip and wiggled her fingers past his waistband. Her searching met hard, hot flesh that beat with his quick pulse. “Anywhere,” she breathed, freeing him from his clothing. “Don’t care where. I’ll always like it.”
Viktor hissed when she gave the head of his cock a small, proprietary squeeze. “As long as you bringthis,I’m game.”
He smiled against her cheek. “Well, I can’t exactly leave it at home, can I?”
Her laugh was watery, but when he kissed her, she let him sweep away her fear in a wave of desire.
Viktor broke their kiss to peel off her shirt. When they were home, she generally forwent a bra, so his seeking mouth met the soft skin of her breast as soon as it hit the floor. Bending her slightly over his forearm, he trailed his lips over her shoulder to kiss her bite before moving them back down, over the rise of her clavicle, to gently bite the swell of her breast.
Camille’s fingers flexed on his cock as a streak of pleasure ran through every nerve. Gods, she loved it when he bit her.
With his free hand, Viktor continued his torturous pressure against her aching center. The steady grind of his palm stood in stark contrast to his sharp nips to her breasts. His tongue chased away the sting, but not for long. Soon, her breasts were peppered with dark purple marks, her nipples hard and aching, while she was a wet, panting mess in his arms.
Squeezing him impatiently, half-retribution for the exquisite torture and half-desperation, she gasped, “Vik, you’re driving me insane.”
“Mm, that’s the point, sweetheart,” he breathed. “I want you crazy for me. I want you wild when you ride me.”
He closed his teeth around her nipple and carefully rolled the sensitive flesh between his teeth. When the pressure bordered on pain, he sealed his lips over it instead, alternating between sucking and biting until she couldn’t tell up from down any longer.
Camille made a strangled sound. The ache between her legs was becoming more and more painful by the moment, and his slowly rubbing palm was only making it worse.
