Urgency pumped through his veins with every frantic beat of his heart. The need to hide her away, the need to mark her, and the need to destroy anything that threatened her was a howl in him, so loud that it blocked out everything else.
“Tell me to stop,” he begged. “Command me, Shiya.”
He was already tearing at the simple tie that held her dresstogether at her waist. His hands moved without his consent, a flurry of action whose sole goal was to divest his mate of her clothing as fast as possible. Only a shred of Taevas the man, the Isand, the good, caring mate remained in him, and that shred needed her to push back, to tell him no.
She deserved better than a fuck in the dirt for her first time. She deserved his full attention, his care as he made it perfect for her. At the very least she deserved to be in their nest, not up against the papery bark of an old birch tree. Heknewthat, even if he couldn’t seem to stop his claws from tearing through the knot of her dress or reaching greedily past its folds to cup the heavy swell of her breast.
Control was a thing of the past. That Taevas was dead. In his place was a mindless, rutting beast, and that beast could only be commanded by his queen.
The touch of her palm to his cheek was searing. For a moment, he was gutted, knowing that she was stopping him,this.It was the right thing, but gods, he needed it. He needed to seal this open wound that was his Choosing or the fear would see him burning the world to the ground.
“Taevas.” His name fell from battered, swollen lips. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were wide when she put enough space between them to meet his gaze.
He held himself perfectly still, waiting for her to tell him what to do. Waiting for it to end as it should. But Alashiya didn’t say anything for a painfully long time. Her eyes were clear, her emotions a vivid display in them as she came to some conclusion.
The hair on the back of his neck rose as instinct recognized something his mind couldn’t. She’d decided on something, but he couldn’t tell if it was in his favor or not.
“Why do you want me to stop this?”
His voice was a jagged edge when he answered, “You deserve better.”
“Than what?”
“Than to be fucked in the dirt.” His throat worked aroundwhat felt like a shard of glass. “To have your first time be with me when I’m— I’mthis.”
“This what?”
Taevas rocked his hips. A hiss slipped out from between his clenched teeth when their bodies connected, sending a jolt of sweet friction down his cock. Alashiya’s breath hitched when he yanked the soft slip away from her breasts, letting them spill into the warm, sticky air.
Pressing his face into the soft flesh of her throat, he rolled one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger with firm, continuous pressure. “This out of my fucking mind,” he rasped, teeth scraping her throbbing pulse. “This lost. This ruined by you. For you.”
She made a soft, needy sound in the back of her throat and rose up on her tiptoes, her back arching as he rolled her nipple in the other direction, never letting up the pressure. He could practically see her little toes curling in her boots as she panted.
“Tell me no,” he ordered, more desperate than before. “Command me to stop, Shiya. You’re the only one of us who can.”
Her hands fluttered around his shoulders before they slid down, crossing his heaving chest until her fingertips settled on the waistband of his borrowed pants. “What if I don’t want to?”
A high keening note left his throat. “You can’t. You’re worth more than this. You deserveperfect.Not this.”
Even as the words left his mouth, he began to tear at her clothing with quick, efficient swipes of his claws. A twinge of guilt over the damage was a brief flare in the back of his mind, but it was gone as quickly as it came.
She’d never wear patched up clothing, hand-me-downs, or cheap fabrics again. She’d dress as she was always meant to — like a queen. He’d drape her in strings of pearls and silk so fine it stroked her skin with the same reverence he did. It’d be his honor to give her anything her heart desired from this day onward. Just the thought of her wearing whathe’dgiven her for a change made a hot curl of lust tighten in his belly.
If Alashiya had a problem with his destruction of her clothing, she didn’t mention it. Her breath came in quick little pants as she stood there against the tree in little more than her old leather boots, dainty and well-loved, but yet another sign of how much more she deserved.
“We don’t have time for perfect,” she whispered, slipping her fingers beneath his waistband. His cock jerked when she brushed the base with a fleeting, curious touch. “If this is all we get, then I’m not wasting the opportunity.”
Something about the way she said that made a faint alarm sound in the back of his mind, but it was completely drowned out by the roar of victory in his ears.
She’s not telling me no.
Some part of him was shaken by that. She was supposed to be the one in control, the logical one who’d keep their head when he couldn’t. But she didn’t appear to want that. The look in Alashiya’s eyes was as desperate and frenzied as his was, like it washerwho feared he’d be snatched away in a moment.
Never.
Taevas tilted her head back for another hungry kiss.Never never never,he silently chanted, pressing the word into her lips and tongue again and again.
The urge to reassure her was the final straw for that threadbare shred of control that remained in him. No, this wasn’t as it should be, but it was what had to be done. This was the start and the end and the pivot point from which their life would change. Everything going forward would be different, buttheywould be a done thing.
