by Sam Hall
This was what I was born to do, I realised, right as I launched myself at him, grabbing him around the ribs mid-flight and swinging him around so he landed flat on his back in the soft sand. His eyes were wide, his chest heaving as I clambered up and over him—my love, my prey. He reached for me with shaking fingers, that need still pulsing inside, but I batted them away, linking mine with his, then pushing them above his head. Stay there was the unspoken command, and he did as I looked over the spoils of my hunt.
He was going to hurt going in. He did the first time I had sex a few years ago, one night after training. People had invested so much into my virginity and choice of sexual partners that I’d just thought fuck it and shoved my hand down his pants. I could see he was hard for me again, and right then, I wanted to see what that was like. His hand had gone to my wrist to stop me at first, then when he looked into my eyes, he held me in place, his hard cock thrusting up into my palm, like it did now.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” he snarled, the wind tearing at his words. “I’ve needed you so much since we got here. Paige, I—”
I put a finger to his lips as I moved astride him, not slotting him against me yet, just parting my thighs, working his cock in my palm and looking down at him—my mate.
My wolf was entirely on board, ready to wrest control and chomp him if I didn’t. We weren’t walking off this beach without joining, and I didn’t want to. I rubbed the slippery pre-cum around the head of his cock as I leaned over and kissed him, just once.
“Come here, ride my face. I’ll get you plenty slick enough to—Oh!”
He watched the sky and I watched him when he felt my cunt slide down his thick cock.
Then it all got kinda blurry, the harsh stretch of taking him with so little prep, the slick pouring from me, trying to ease this. My fingers, claws, digging into his chest, the thrust of his hips up as he fought my directive to stay still. The feel of his lips sobbing against mine as I worked him as far as I could get him before bumping against his knot.
My eyes closed when I felt it grind against my clit as I thrust down, something that happened over and over as I began to move in earnest. He disobeyed me, his hands going to my hips, fingers digging in, guiding me, dragging me back down upon him, not letting me dictate the pace.
“Yes, love…” he hissed. “Fucking need you so much. You’re so tight and wet, but you’re gonna take me.” He wanted it to be a statement, but there was a lilt at the end that made it a question. One hand detached, sliding between us, the thumb massaging my clit, making me clamp down, drawing a strangled groan from him. I knew how he felt, as every fucking cell in my body sang at this, at this connection, at the feel of him inside me.
But not far enough.
I hadn’t felt it before. We’d both seen his knot, sometimes I gave it a squeeze, which seemed to especially please him, but otherwise, we just ignored it. But not now. Something ached inside me, needing something else, something more. That didn’t seem possible. Zack was both thick and long, high fiving my cervix on the regular, but not now, not this time. I moaned, the wind snatching my response away, my thighs spreading wider, my spine thrashing as I slammed down hard.
The first time we’d had sex, there was a lot of foreplay, lube, and patience, but despite panting like a woman giving birth, I’d been able to take him. Now I stared into the bright blue sky, feeling my body…shift. It wanted, needed Zack, all of him, as far as he could go and then maybe a little more. My eyes snapped down to him, going wide as I felt it. My heart smashed around in my rib cage, but his face just went soft, sweet.
“That’s it, baby. This is it.”
He rolled us over, so I lay on my back now, helpless beneath him as he nudged farther in, wriggling his hips slightly, which did insane things to my clit, until finally I felt it, a tangible pop.
“Fuck…fuck…fuck…” we both panted, pausing as if to mark what had just happened. Then I squeezed tight around him.
“Babe, no, too good…” he groaned, moving now, harder, faster, all the hard-won control immediately lost. His fingers were claws that stabbed into the sand, raking it as he drove himself deep into me. I was lost, buffeted around by great waves of pleasure, my screams like the seagulls wheeling above. I wasn’t moving towards orgasm, I was just that endless crystal clear feeling of pure, bright pleasure that comes right before your body goes into riot, but mine didn’t stop. It just crested higher and higher as my hips met his with every stroke, keeping him tight against me, not willing to relinquish an inch. And he couldn’t, since the knot kept his strokes short, precise little stabs that cut me free.
He bared his teeth, trying to hold back, to wait for me, but I was already there. And besides, it was my fangs that mattered. I rose up, sweat matting my brow, my face a mask, a terrible creature that he caught sight of and then did what I never realised was possible. He bared his neck to me, the ultimate sign of wolfish surrender, only ever done under extreme duress, but he did it for me, to show that he would whenever I asked.
That was what I needed more than anything, which Mason patently hadn’t understood but my Zack always would. No matter his size, his strength, I ruled him, his heart, just as he ruled mine.
I sank my teeth into the thick muscle of his neck, clamping down, feeling his cum jet into me as I did so, and felt my own release slam into me at the same time. I held on, my screams muffled by him, our bodies jerking like fish on a line, until finally, we were mated.
“Don’t pull away,” Zack said, holding me close. “Not yet. Still really fucking sensitive.”
His knot had us locked tight. I was on birth control, but my body didn’t know that as it held on for dear life while his cum flooded my cervix. I wasn’t going anywhere. Little aftershocks racked my body, making him smile wickedly as his hand slid down between us.
“No, no, Zack… Oh!”
Just a featherlight brush, and another orgasm washed through me, shorter, sweeter, making my eyes fill with tears, so he did it again and again until finally, he was able to pull free.
“Why did we do this on the beach?” he mumbled, pulling me into his arms and down onto the warm sand. As always, he sheltered me with his body from the nipping winds. “I just want to snuggle down in a warm bed with you and do that at least five more times before Mother Moon rises.”
“Only five?” I was joking, but my cunt twitched at that idea. I’d been kinda scared about the knot, but it was fucking fabulous. I felt the same way—loose, lazy, and so ready for more of that particular pleasure.
“That’s why nix’s have multiple partners, baby. When you go into heat, you’ll be fucking voracious.”
“You sound…turned on by that.”
I looked up at him, searching his face.
“My brother’s got it all twisted. I don’t exactly want to think about my mum like this, but fuck, a queen of a woman with the kind of sexual power to bring a harem of wolves low? That’s fucking hot. I love you, I’m not some toy to play with, but how can I not want to see me and the brothers you choose destroy you with pleasure? Plus, y’know, it takes some of the pressure off.”
He shot me a cheeky grin, but I just stared, my mind already working.
“So you’re just cool with me trying things on with all these different guys? What if I want to go through half the town?”
“Then you do. I’ve never stopped you from doing what you want, ever. Would I prefer to be part of the process, to meet whom you want to bring into our life, to make sure we all work as a team? Well, yeah. But if you’re drawn to someone, if you feel like we felt just now, then they’re there, part of us. I’ll work out how to make it work. I always do.”
“Mum used to always say Mother Moon puts people in our way for a reason and I thought it was always religious bullshit, but Zack…”
He wrapped an arm around my neck and pulled me close. “I know, love. Trust me, I know.”
It took a while to retrieve our clothes, then we had to try and flick them free of sand before puttin
g them back on. Maybe that was how they approached without us realising. Their scent must have been dragged away by the breeze, something I had to be more careful about going forward.
“So you’ve found your mate.”
Both our heads jerked up to see Aidan and a few of the other contenders walking over the dunes towards us.
“By rights, that should nullify any pull you have over us. You belong to him now.”
I took Zack’s hand. “I do. I didn’t plan it this way, it just happened, but I guess that finalises the contest for my hand. Neither of us wants to stick around in Lupindorf, so we’ll still need to sort out who becomes alpha and if the contenders get community support—”
“So why do I still knot for you, Paige? Nothing’s changed. As far as I’m concerned, you’re still my fated mate, and I’m prepared to jump through whatever hoops you put out there to have my own pretty little interlude on the beach.”
Chapter 23
I should’ve taken my gun with me. I should’ve gone to Nan’s and Stevie’s after the beach, then pumped them for information on whatever the fuck a nix was. I should’ve told Mason about the threat Aidan might pose, and whoever his dick posse was. I should’ve…
Instead, we drove home in silence, kinda shell-shocked. Not in a bad ‘what have we done’ way, more ‘we just made the earth and the sun collide, wheee…’ way. But we touched, his hand sliding from the gear stick to my thigh, mine stroking his, reaching over to the back of his neck and tangling my fingers in his hair. Then I was taking my seat belt off, ignoring the alarm dinging, and just breathing in his scent for a moment.
Fuck, I was in love. It sang within me, an endless perfect note, and nothing, not reality, not Aidan, no one right now could’ve taken that away. Zack pulled the car over, dragged me onto his lap, and then stroked my face like I was precious.
“You love me.”
“So much. It feels like it just keeps growing and growing inside my chest until it almost hurts, but I don’t want to stop it from hurting. I’m so full of you, Zack.”
He smiled his crooked smile at my hurried words and then pressed a kiss to my forehead before forcing me back into my seat, my belt clipped back on, until we got home.
He made me stay in my seat, walking around to open the door, sweeping me into his arms, then walking past the creepers lurking on the streets and inside the house. I was carried all the way into my bedroom, some of the enforcers turning to look as they paced downstairs, gun holsters now strapped to their chests. I thought we’d go to bed, that he’d strip me down and fuck me hard with that gorgeous knot of his, but he had other ideas.
“Sand is the antithesis of hot sex,” he said with a firm shake of his head. “Sandblasting one’s genitals is not sexy.”
So instead, I was cleaned off rather meticulously, while I did the same to him, feeling the need to really make sure no sand got stuck to his knot.
“You’re gonna make me cum,” he growled out. “I feel like there’s nerve endings there I never knew existed.”
But I liked the look of the loss of control on his face. His hand slammed down on the tiles, his breath becoming ragged, his hand pressing down on mine, making my fingers grip him so damn tight, I was sure I was going to hurt him, until a few quick gasps alerted me to the streams of cum that came jetting out.
“On the bed, now,” he growled out. “If I don’t have your pussy on my face in five minutes—”
“You’ll what?”
“We’ve never really explored sadomasochism, have we? How do you think you’ll like getting your arse smacked raw?”
I got on the bed.
The world wanted to press in on me, but I was lost in the feel of Zack’s hair between my fingers, the drag of his lips against the soft skin of my inner thigh, the seep of my slick, readying me for him. He moved in, licking it away, getting a taste for it before burying his face in me.
“Fuck…your slick.”
I was bloody glad he liked it because there was so much of it. It just leaked out of me when his fingers slid inside, when his nose brushed my clit, when he grasped it firmly between his lips, when he suckled lightly on it, occasionally brushing the hood with his teeth.
“Zack…” I moaned, clawing at him, trying to drag him up. “I need you. I need you now.”
“Come on my tongue first, then I’ll come up, slam myself deep in you, and fuck you through one orgasm and into the next. It’ll be good, I promise.”
I nodded reluctantly, but then it was no chore to surrender to that talented tongue, flick, flick, flicking until I screamed, eyes wide as he scrambled to do just that. As he rammed himself inside me, as my claws raked his back, it was hard to believe anything he’d said about other guys. There was only Zack.
I told him that later.
The light was dying away outside, casting everything in the room a heavy gold. He just chuckled at my declaration, holding me against his chest, stroking my hair.
“No one’s saying you have to take other mates, it’s just for you, you’ll be open to that. I’m done, locked down, yours forever now. You’re my mate and that’s all there is, but you, you can go through all of this again and again with other guys, if that’s what you want.”
“And you’re OK with that?”
“I love you, which means loving what you are. There’s a selfish kind of pleasure gained from thinking it could just be the two of us, and I don’t mind saying I’ll be enjoying that for as long as it lasts. Just talk to me. If you feel drawn to someone, let me know. Let me get to know them. I don’t want to hang out on dates or watch you fuck or whatever, but just clue me in.”
“It’s that simple, is it?” I asked, looking up at him.
“It is for me. Now, did you have anything to tell me?”
I sat up, then flopped backward, resting my foot up against the wall, near his head. He kissed my ankle, then let his fingers trail up my leg.
“You know about Mason?”
“Not really. Tell me like he isn’t my brother. We weren’t close, and he left before I was even in my teens.”
“Right.” I looked up at the ceiling and then told him the story of Mason and me.
“That was the pain I felt when we met,” he said. “You were aching.”
“Part of me always will, I think. First love and all that, though maybe that was Declan.”
“The enforcer with the freckles? What’s the deal there?”
“Teenage sweethearts,” I replied. “I loved him, maybe too much. We were stampeding towards my eighteenth, and I knew I was going to have to choose. What had been this special privilege all my life became this…life sentence. We started fighting, squabbling.”
“That was probably part of your nix nature raising its head. Monogamy between two people is a happy choice for many, but not all.”
“Maybe. He told me he wasn’t ready to lock himself down, commit to becoming the alpha…to me.” I inspected my fingers way too closely, picking at a hangnail. “We decided to end it. It was the right decision. We were miserable by this point, and we were only kids.”
“And now?”
I snorted, letting my arms flop back over my head. Zack followed the movement of my breasts with lazy interest.
“And now he’s the same old Declan—flirty and funny and attentive. But without all the teen angst. At the same time, he’s also not. I don’t know what Dad did with his enforcers, but Dec seems…more. More settled, more growly, more…”
“Was he good to you?”
“Of course. Dad wouldn’t have let things get that far if he wasn’t.”
“Then he sounds like a possibility. If you want to pursue things with him, I’d like to meet him properly. Sit down and have a beer, find out what teenage Paige was like.”
I shook my head and laughed nervously. “I am never going to get used to that.”
“So who else?”
“I don’t know. Mason’s off the list obviously. I danced with Micah, and he held my hand a few times.
Lorcan kissed the inside of my wrist.”
“He did what?”
I went still, for a moment feeling that hereditary fear of pissing off a possessive wolf shifter.
“Um…we were testing a theory about this whole nix thing, before I knew what it was.” His hand slid up my thigh, sliding way too fast, my skin damp from our previous lovemaking. “He said he saw himself kissing the inside of my wrist in his dreams, so we tried it out to see what it would… Mmm.”
My story faded away as a finger very carefully swiped through the copious wetness that had collected in my folds.
“Keep telling the story, Paige.”
“I…unh…”
“Yes?”
“He kissed my wrist, and it felt like a bomb went off inside me. I could see a girl running, wolves chasing…”
His finger slid down the hood of my clit, pulling it back slightly, then letting it fall back. The sensations were delicate, exquisite.
“He… We…”
“How did he make you feel, this Lorcan?”
It pressed down more firmly, making the fragile pleasure of before bloom more rigorously, my thighs falling open, my back beginning to arch.
“Paige?”
It slid down to trace a line around the place where I ached, where I needed his knot. I whined at the feeling of uncomfortable emptiness.
“Zack, I need—”
“I know what you need, that’s why we’re talking. Tell me about Lorcan.”
“He was fucking quivering with need for me, and my slick was gushing. He offered to stay, crawl under the desk, and get me off with his tongue, and I nearly agreed to piss Mason off, force him to watch, to just be a selfish bitch and use him for my pleasure.”
“That’s it,” Zack crooned, moving forward, pushing two fingers into the ache.
They curled up expertly, pressing hard on something that just made my clit throb. “Be honest with me. That’s all I want. There’s all sorts of games we can play if you’re honest, and then we work to make sure no one gets hurt.”
