Silence. Finally. Blessed silence except for our breathing.
I reached Wen and buried my face in her neck. Breathed in her scent despite knowing it would make my control even more tenuous. Let it fill my lungs even as it drove me half-mad with need and the desperate urge to claim her properly.
“Mal?” Her voice was breathless and confused. “What’s going on? Why do I feel so... everything feels wrong. Too hot. Too much.”
“You are in heat, little mate,” I growled against her skin. “Your first heat. And every unmated male in this castle is going to be able to scent it within the hour.”
22
— • —
Wen
I was panicking.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“What do we do?!” The words came out as a whisper-yell. My voice was shaking. Everything was shaking.
Heat was coursing through my veins. Not the pleasant warmth I’d felt before through the bond. This was fire burning under my skin. My body felt like it was on fucking fire from the inside out.
And there was pain. An ache starting low in my belly that was growing worse by the second. A desperate, clawing emptiness that made me want to sob.
“It - it kind of hurts,” I grimaced, pressing my hand to my stomach. The pressure didn’t help.Nothinghelped.
Mal’s hands were on my face immediately, gentle despite the red glow of his eyes. Despite the way I could feel his wolf pressing against his control through the bond.
“I know. I am sorry. It is going to get worse before it gets better.”
“How much worse?”
“Much worse. The first heat is always the most intense.” He swallowed hard. His jaw clenched. “Unless - you need to bite me. Now. Complete the bond. That will help significantly.”
“And then?”
“And then if you want-” His voice was rough, uncertain in a way I’d never heard from him. Like he was afraid of my answer. “If you want me, I will help you through the heat. I will give you what your body needs. But if you do not want that, if you do not want me to touch you, I will guard your door until it passes. It will be painful without a mate to ease it, but less painful than it would be without the completed bond. The choice is yours. It will always be yours.”
He was giving me a choice. Even now, when I could feel his desperate need through the bond. Even when his eyes were glowing red and his control was clearly hanging by a thread. When every instinct he possessed was probably screaming at him to claim me.
He was still giving me the choice. Well, lucky for him, I didn’t even have to think about it.
I was mad at him. Furious about being dragged here against my will. Wanted to throttle him for a dozen different things.Yes.But I was still in love with him. That hadn’t changed,couldn’tchange. No matter how angry I was or how much I wanted to be angry, my heart had made its decision weeks ago in a bookstore in the human realm.
I grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him down to my level. Found the spot on his neck where I wanted to mark him. Where he’d marked me. Licked it once to taste his skin.
He braced himself against the wall behind me and growled low in his throat. The sound vibrated through both of us.
And then I bit down hard.
The change was immediate and overwhelming. The pain vanished, disappeared as if it had never existed. In its place was pure desire. Need so strong it made my knees weak and my vision blur at the edges. I was instantly, desperately wet, more than I was before. Aching for him in a way that eclipsed everything else.
Mal groaned against my mouth, his hands clamping down on my hips so tight I knew there’d be bruises later. “Wen. Little mate. Tell me you want this. Tell me you want my cock inside you. I need to hear you say it.”
“Fuck,” I gasped into his neck, my pussy throbbing with need. “Mal. Please. I need-”
I couldn’t even string the words together right, but he got it. He grabbed my legs and hoisted me up like I was nothing, carrying me across the room to that big council table. He laid me out on it flat on my back, my ass right at the edge.
“I need to hear you say it explicitly,” he growled, his eyes turning full red, glowing like embers. “Tell me yes to me fucking this tight pussy. Beg for it.”
