And he had to be part of it. Deep in my soul, I knew. Even though we barely knew each other, even though there was so much left to learn about him—his people, his history—he was giving me a part of himself now, sacrificing a future in his world.
He wantedme.
And I wanted him in return.
“My body and heart are in agreement,” I replied. “I want this. I want the bond with you.”
He growled, snout skimming my throat, the hand on my hip slipping beneath the hem of my shirt. “This will hurt,” he warned, eyes softening. “And I don’t want to hurt you.”
Swallowing hard, I shook my head. “It won’t,” I replied quietly. “If there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s this: we’re made for one another.”
The Primal made a strangled sound in the back of his throat before pulling my shirt up. Much to my surprise, he didn’t tear it off. Instead, he tossed it to the side and gazed down at me.
“You are the finest female I have ever laid eyes on,” he growled, tracing a claw over the swell of my left breast, cupping it gently. “And these…” He wouldn’t meet my eye, staring hungrily at my chest as he thumbed my tit, circling the hardened nub softly. “So soft. So heavy.”
My skin prickled with another shiver as a cold breeze tickled my heated flesh. “And very, very sensitive,” I replied, arching into his touch. I thought I’d been sensitive before to my mates toying with my nipples, but this was something else. Each brush of his skin against mine and the rough pad of his thumb elicited an entirely different reaction within me.
Xerxes hummed under his breath, still playing with my breast. To my surprise, he dipped his head and licked it.
I sucked in a breath, the touch making me buck. Xerxes didit again, this time with more force, the scrape of his tongue making my belly flutter.
I had to use his arm to hold myself up as he tasted and licked my tit. If he wanted to, I was almost certain he could fit the whole thing in his mouth.
Each flick of his tongue had me breathing harder, heart racing faster. I gripped him, bunching the fur between my fingers as he continued to lap at just my nipple alone. The constant attention had need pooling between my thighs, my panties damp from it.
Before I could explode with desire, he pulled back with a groan. “Your scent. It?—”
He stopped, growling as he stepped back. When I glanced down, where there had been no sign of a penis before, there was what I could only describe as amonster cocknow on full display, hard and weeping.
It was so unlike the dick I’d seen on naked male Xerxes. He’d appeared very human, except for the swell at the base for his knot.
But not this one. This one was long, black, and it glistened—shiny almost—the tip a deep red. Veins bulged along the shaft, prominent and pulsating as he sucked in deep breaths, and just like his normal penis, there was a bulge near the base for his knot.
I swallowed hard, mouth watering as I dragged my eyes up to his. There was a dangerous shift in his gaze, like he was seeing me once again as his prey.
The Primal was in complete control now. And a girl needed to keep her pants.
There should at least be a tickle of fear in my chest, especially as I hooked my thumbs in my tights and pulled them down. The way he watched each movement, tracking me like the predator he was, shouldnothave turned me on the way it was.
And yet, I kicked my pants off, slumping into the tree. I tried to keep my eyes on his, but noticed each twitch of his cock, how it throbbed.
Xerxes moved closer, cock brushing my chest. He was almost at the perfect height for me to take him in my mouth, but I had a feeling that wasn’t what the Primal wanted.
He wanted to mate me. And by the look in his eyes, he was trying to figure out the best way to do it with howsmallI was.
And compared to him, it was an issue. One I could solve.
“Pick me up and hold me against the tree,” I stated, meeting his dark eyes.
It didn’t take much convincing; Xerxes grabbed me by the ass and hoisted me into his arms, nestling me against his warm chest and the tree.
“See?” I whispered, pressing one hand against his racing heart, trailing the other down his chest. “Not so bad.”
He was so gentle, so unlike what I expected. Then again, I wasn’t surprised. Xerxes and his beast might have been a terrifying sight—well, the Primal was, the male not so much—but he was always careful with me. Never tested limits.
Xerxes met all expectations, yet defied them, too.
And I couldn’t wait to see what that would look like later. In one year, in ten.
