Her mind swirled with doubt—she didn’t think she was graceful, but I could feel the truth. Her lower body control was incredible as she undulated her hips with smooth, rhythmic thrusts that sent both of them spiraling toward the edge.
“Aw, cocoa bean, you’re riding him so good,” I murmured. “Ash’s losing his mind.”
Ash gritted his teeth, and his thoughts came over the bond whether he meant them to or not.
"He's not sure how much longer he can last," I told Noelle. "He wants to help you get there. Can he touch you there?”
“Please,” Noelle gasped, letting one of Ash's hands slip from her heavy breast.
Ash brought his thumb to her clit, testing varying pressures until he hit the one that made her cry out. I felt her reaction, sharp and intoxicating, as if it were my own.
But then she flinched with a flash of guilt, thinking her preferences made her dirty somehow. That she was a hypocrite for wanting a rough touch after her ex…
“No, that makes you perfect,” I choked out, unable to stay quiet.
Ash rubbed harder, his thumb working her clit with rough circles as her pleasure built. The waves coming through the bond made me imagine Mak taking her, too—biting her, claiming her, fucking her hard until Christmas. A bone-deep urge to beg her to stay with us, to accept Mak's bite, laced through me.
"Don’t ask her again,"Ash’s voice growled in my head, pulling me back before I could give voice to the instinct. "It has to be her decision to stay."
Noelle cried out, her back arching as an orgasm rocked through her, body trembling with the force of it.
Ash lost his control. He flipped her onto her back and thrust into her, hips moving sloppily, desperate to chase his own release.
And instead of begging her to stay, I took her hand in mine, kissed her knuckles, and murmured against her skin, “He’s out of his mind, cocoa bean. Ayaska culture doesn’t believe in heaven, but he’s starting to get the concept because that’s how it feels inside you.”
Her bond bite flared with pleasure as she came again, trembling and clinging to Ash’s neck. He followed her over the edge with a roar, his body shuddering as he spilled into her.
For a moment, the room went still. Noelle’s mind. Ash’s desire. Even the urge to tell her how very much we already loved her quieted for a few fleeting seconds.
Maybe she already knew.
There were no more arguments. Ash rolled off her, and I scooped her into my arms. Without a word, we left Mak’s room and returned her to the nest.
The estrus still simmered a few layers beneath her consciousness, but her human side was exhausted.
It had been a hell of a day.
I set her down in her nest and let her sleep while Ash and I tiptoed around her, taking showers and preparing a meal that would easily reheat—just in case her estrus let her eat when she woke again.
It didn’t.
Late in the evening, she gasped awake, her needy pussy already clenching at air.
“Ssh,” I murmured, sliding in behind her. My hands gently pulled her closer as I notched my dick at the back entrance of her pussy and pushed inside before she even had to ask.
She let out the cutest little squeak when I filled her to the hilt with a single stroke. Then she leaned back, turning her head, seeking my lips in the dark.
I was more than happy to give them to her, my mouth capturing hers as my hand found her clit. No, I’d never touched a girl like this before. But that was the nice thing about maul bonds. What Ash knew, I knew. Bite osmosis.
So I touched her exactly how she liked, rubbing hard and slow until she cried out into my mouth and came all over my dick. The feel of her spasming around me, the heat of her release, made me lose control, and I followed her with a groan that echoed through the den.
“I wish you could read my mind, cocoa bean,” I rasped against her ear, my voice thick with emotion. “Then you’d know I’m telling the truth when I say… you were worth the wait.”
After she fell back to sleep, I let Ash take over, curling up with her in the nest in case another wave of estrus hit before morning.
Once they were settled, I shifted into bear form, my massive body taking up the other side of the nest to guard its entrance.
Ash once told me an Ayaska legend about the Night Howlers—wolves mutated by the serpent god who’d created both wolf and bear shifters. According to the tale, male wolves couldn’t shift once their mates were pregnant and, therefore, were forced to remain human until three months after their pups were born. However, the serpent god had trusted bears more, assigning us the role of kingdom protectors, while wolves were relegated to errands, easily commanded.
