In the Roar

by Milly Taiden

  This planet got cooler by the second. She took his offered hand and walked to the edge of the water with him. He held her in his grasp with enough pressure to calm her nerves. He wouldn’t let her go.

  SIXTEEN

  Karel watched his mate dip a toe into the sea. Fear clung to her pores, but once he’d tighten his hold on her hand, she’d calmed. To his pleasure, her entire foot went into the water. “It’s warm!”

  He laughed at the wonder in her voice. “It is.”

  He’d heard about earth beaches. Temperatures were usually cold, and even at the warmest beaches, the water didn’t get to the heat levels they did in Aurora.

  She stepped farther out, lifting a handful of the pink water. “It’s so clear,” she gushed. “I can see my feet.” She glanced up to meet his gaze. “How come it doesn’t look pink when I scoop only a little?”

  “It only looks pink when you put a lot of it together. The amount of mineral in a large body of water makes it look pink.”

  Time passed with her asking questions and him answering as best as he could. He sensed her fear the farther out they went.

  “Why are you afraid of the water?”

  Panic dashed through her eyes. She bit her lip and splayed her fingers through the now waist high water. “I almost drowned when I was a kid.”

  His chest tightened and his lungs burned. He’d almost lost her before he’d found her. “What happened?”

  “My grandmother loved visiting new places. She had a lot of money from my grandfather’s life insurance, so we traveled a lot. His company was managed by a board so all she did was collect a massive paycheck every month,” she said, curling her hand into a small scoop and lifting water to his chest. “We went to Costa Rica and had a great time. I was like nine or ten at the time,” she said, her voice growing far with her memory. “I was zip lining with some of her friends’ kids. They’d chosen to go over a river instead of just regular land because,” she snorted, “land was so boring.”

  He curled his hands around her waist, holding her close while she spoke. “You don’t have to tell me,” he said. The animal in him hurt from the amount of fear pouring from her.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I want to.”

  He nodded, bringing scoops of water to her shoulders, watching the drops slide down her chest, cling to her nipples before falling into the sea.

  “My clip broke and I fell into the river,” she said, her voice low and shaky, as if she were reliving the moment. “I went down hard with a scream.” She gripped the sides of his arms, digging her nails into his flesh. With every word, her hands gripped tighter. “The water wasn’t clear like this. It was dark, muddy, and I couldn’t see anything. I panicked when I couldn’t get any air. Everything was so dark.” She visibly gulped. “I tried to push my way up, but I was dragged down. Probably by my own fear.” She shook her head and cleared her throat. “My lungs burned and I could feel my body giving in to what would kill it. I inhaled water. I don’t recall what happened after that.”

  He hugged her. There was nothing else he could do to comfort her after such a harrowing tale. “Someone got you out.”

  She nodded on his chest. “Yes. One of the tour guides jumped in after me, but it took him a minute to find me. All that time I was under felt like an eternity but it had been less than a minute.”

  He held her in his arms, their heads turned to face the suns offering their last rays before darkness overtook and the twin moons bathed everything in soft light.

  “Come on,” he said after a while. “Let’s rinse off by the mountain not far from here and get something to eat.”

  He took her along a pathway he knew to a small waterfall with a shallow heated spring. The water came through the rocks, pooling around them, then returning into the mountain.

  They stood under the water and he had to grit his teeth to keep himself from pressing her against the rocks and taking her, but he wasn’t going there. Not until she wanted him to. He knew she was still confused about him, and the last thing he wanted was to complicate it more with sex. That meant depriving himself, which pissed off his jaguar enough to need a run. Maybe once she was asleep.

  “What are we eating?” she asked back at their camp.

  “I choose packed meats and cheeses,” he replied, handing her a towel to dry off with. His cock ached as he stared at her wiggling while drying herself. It was going to be a long night.

  * * *

  He was drifting off to sleep, but Karel’s heart felt weighed by the sadness in his mate. He was right. He could see she’d suffered throughout her life in the softness of her brown eyes. The way she wouldn’t believe he genuinely wanted her forever still worried him. Why were earth women so skeptical of true desire. Gerri warned him humans didn’t believe in fated mates. Women needed to feel loved before they made a commitment.

  He could only hope in the coming days, Liv learned to trust her emotions when it came to him. To them. His little mate might not realize it, but he’d go to the ends of any galaxy for her. He’d fight any creature in any world to keep her safe, and give himself to her without asking anything in return. Now it was just getting her to believe in him. That was his biggest hurdle.

  SEVENTEEN

  Liv woke in the middle of the night with the desperate need to pee. She sat up in a rush, blinking and glancing at the twin moons. She peered to her left and saw Karel on his side, his hand inches from where she’d been lying. He’d held her when she first went to sleep, and now she had to get up. In the damn forest, there was nothing but trees and darkness.

  She slid off the hammock bed quietly, trying not to wake Karel. The last thing he needed was for her to tell him she needed a babysitter while she peed. Earth girls can’t pee without a man. Right. Not.

  Good thing the grass on the back side of the beach was thicker or she’d worry about being barefoot. Already she was imagining all kinds of critters crawling over her feet. She reached her bag by the foot of the bike and grabbed a tissue from inside a pocket. At least she wouldn’t have to dry with a damn leaf. Talk about living primitively.

  She rushed into the bushes, not too far from the hammock bed and peered at the grass. Dammit. Why did she keep thinking she’d have a snake slithering around her ass the moment she squatted? That was so not conducive to wanting to pee. She shoved her shorts down and waited. And waited. Finally, her bladder took the road less traveled and drained forever, sending trickles of urine while she glanced around in fear of snakes or whatever could be in the grass.

  Get a hold of yourself! This was not how grown-ass women acted in the middle of the jungle on a new planet while trying to pee. What the heck did she know? She wasn’t a fucking expert in intergalactic peeing.

  After wiping, she tried to figure out what to do with the napkin. Keep it? Toss it? Yeah, all she needed was a souvenir. Still, throwing it on the ground felt wrong. The area was clean of trash and she wasn’t the kind of person to litter. She decided she’d shove it in her bag until she reached a place to toss it. Hopefully nobody went into her duffle or they’d be totally grossed out.

  The sound of crunching leaves made her squint into the darkness. Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed twin golden spots glancing at her. Fear coiled around her heart. She stumbled back, but the eyes came closer really fast.

  She whirled around and ran, but only got a few feet into the open before an animal swiped a claw against her leg. A scream tore from her throat as she fell.

  She stopped herself from falling, reaching out for the tree in front of her. The animal swiped again, slicing through her same leg. She screamed louder, this time calling for Karel. Clinging to the tree trunk she flipped around and stared at the massive beast. She couldn’t figure out if it was a pig or a dog. It looked like a cross between the two with massive tusks and deadly talons.

  A blur jumped in front of her. She recognized the massive cat immediately. Karel. Her jaguar.

  Karel leapt for the big pig-dog and fought the anima
l. He swiped his claws and shredded slices of the other animal’s side. Blood poured out of the pig and a loud piercing wail sounded from it.

  The jaguar didn’t stop. He jabbed at the animal, biting and dodging the pig’s tusks. At one point it looked like the pig would get his tusk into the jaguar’s side, but Liv held a broken branch and slammed it over the pig’s body, calling its attention to her. That gave Karel the break needed to bite the back of the pig’s neck and cling to him, puncturing holes into its side.

  In moments, the crunching of bone filled the night and she watched Karel shift back to a man covered in blood.

  “Get on the bed,” he ordered with a deep and animalistic tone. “I’ll be there shortly.”

  She rushed back. Once the adrenaline started wearing off, she winced at the burn coming from the back of her leg. She couldn’t see it, but when she wiped a hand, it came back sticky with blood.

  “Let me see,” his voice broke her thoughts.

  “It’s nothing, just a scratch. Doesn’t even hurt,” she lied. The shit might be a scratch, but it totally hurt like a bitch.

  “Relax, love. Let me look at it. Lie on your stomach,” he told her softly. She did as he asked and waited. He wiped something over the back of her leg and the burning stopped.

  “What is that?” she asked, trying to look over her shoulder, only seeing his head bent over her calf.

  “A leaf from a medicine tree that helps heal wounds,” he replied. She felt his fingers press at her legs. “This is going to feel warm.”

  He wrapped something around her calf. The material felt soft and comfortable. “Is that it?”

  “Yes, you can sit up now,” he said and grabbed her by the waist, helping her.

  He’d placed one of the sheets around her calf. It shifted with her movements, but didn’t come loose. She didn’t see a tie or butterfly clips holding it together. How did it stay wrapped?

  He joined her on the bed, pressing her back on the mattress and curling a hand around her face. “Please,” he said, gritting his teeth, his voice so low and rough, she could barely understand him. “Don’t leave without me again. We have animals we hunt for food. They can be dangerous to someone who isn’t a shifter.” He pressed his lips over hers hard, devouring her with his mouth. Before she got a chance to really enjoy the meeting of their lips, he pulled back and met her gaze. “I couldn’t live if something happened to you because I wasn’t there.”

  She nodded, her body warming from her need for him. She spread her legs, cradling his body with hers. He pressed his erection into the damp crotch of her shorts. The adrenaline from her fear and close encounter of the bitey kind changed into a blast of desire that burned from the inside.

  He shoved her tank over her head, leaving her breasts bare for his view. Then he pulled down the shorts, taking her panties with them. She was naked and open for him. The look on his face made her feel beautiful.

  She ached for him. Need pounded through her veins, seeking the release she knew only he could give her. He draped his body over hers, his cock pressed on her leg, long and hard.

  “You’re so soft,” he groaned, his mouth latching on to her nipple and sucking deeply.

  A flood of moisture pooled at her pussy. “Karel, that feels amazing.”

  He nibbled on her tit, twirling his tongue over her sensitive bud. She groaned as bursts of heat seared her. He lapped greedily at her breast, seducing her with every flick of his tongue.

  She raked her nails over his warm and smooth arms. His skin felt like heated silk under her fingertips. She’d never paid this much attention to how a man’s body shifted or felt to her touch, but something about Karel drew on her basic instincts: the need to touch, feel, kiss, and taste. All her senses came alive the moment he put his hands and lips on her.

  He continued to sweep his tongue over her chest, moving from one nipple to the other and back, driving her mindless with need. Her lungs struggled to get air, breathing in broken gasps.

  She bit her lip, her pussy fluttering, and another round of moisture left her folds, making her slicker. He slid down her body, placing kisses on her round belly, rubbing his stubbly jaw on her mound and finally pushing her legs wide and staring at her pussy.

  Holding herself up on her elbows, she glanced at his head between her legs.

  “Do you know what makes you different from other women?” he asked, gaze glued to her pussy as she felt more drops of wetness leave her channel.

  EIGHTEEN

  “My amazing wit and great personality?” she joked and cleared her throat.

  He met her gaze, his golden eyes full of fire and feral need. A shudder raced down her spine. That proprietary stare he gave heated her.

  “There’s no other woman’s pussy I want to lick but yours,” he told her. “No other pussy is as beautiful as yours. So pink and wet.” He spread her lips wide, dipping a finger into her and coating it with her heat. “I don’t want to fill another woman’s pussy. Yours is the only tightness I want to fuck so hard, I leave skid marks from my cock.”

  She gulped back a moan. Lord have mercy. “Karel…”

  “You are the only woman I want to fill with my cock and spill my seed into. I want to see you full of cum and get my cub growing inside you.” She shouldn’t like his words, but she did. She’d been wanting a baby and hearing him say he wanted her pregnant struck her emotions in a way she couldn’t explain. Another side of her came alive.

  “Do it,” she encouraged. “Fuck me and fill me. I want you deep in me.”

  He licked around her pussy, circling her clit and thrusting his tongue into her sex. A loud moan tore from her throat. Her body spasmed with every lick he laid on her slick folds. He probed with his tongue, lapping at her and drawing circles around her clit. Faster. Harder. With increased speed, he growled on her pussy and sent vibrations rocking into her channel. Her belly clenched hard and pleasure scorched her to the marrow.

  She was shaking, her pussy contracting around nothing when he crawled up her body, pressing the head of his cock into her. He didn’t push forward, just waited and cupped her face, holding her to look into her eyes.

  “When I fuck you, I’m making you mine.”

  She took a harsh breath and watched the lines of his face tighten with need. “Karel, please.”

  “I can’t stop the need to have you, Liv,” he growled. “Tell me you’re mine.”

  She bit her lip and moaned, the head of his cock spread her pussy wide but by staying at her entrance, he kept her feeling unfulfilled. She curled her legs around his ass, trying to use her feet to push him into her. It didn’t work.

  “I’m not moving,” he ground out. He sucked her lip between his teeth and nibbled on her mouth. “I’m staying right where I am, teasing your sweet, slick heat and feeling your pussy suck at the head of my cock, until you admit you’re mine.” He jerked his hips a little, giving her a taste of what was to come and pulled back.

  “Once you tell me you’re mine, that this hot, tight, pussy is mine, I’m going to take you, fuck you, own you, and stamp myself so far inside, you will never forget who you belong to.” He rumbled the words, still caging her head with his hand.

  The animal glowed brightly in his eyes and his features had gone from handsome man to animalistic and wildly sensual. “Say it,” he encouraged. “Tell me you are mine and I will fill you with my cock. Fuck your pussy raw. I won’t stop. I’ll fill you with cum. Fill you with my seed and my babies.”

  He inhaled deeply. “Ah, baby. I know you want that. You want to be full with my cubs. I want that. I want you birthing my children for the rest of our lives. You, and only you, I want for a mate. I only need you to say what we both already know. You. Are. Mine.”

  The image of him doing her had her pussy clenching and unclenching against the tip of his dick. She wanted him so much. Who was she kidding? This man filled her brain with more than lust. The idea of their babies took root in her heart with him as their father.

  “Yes,” she
moaned softly. “I’m yours. All yours.”

  He pressed his lips roughly over hers, demanding entrance and thrust into her mouth with his tongue at the same time he plunged with his cock. She didn’t expect the tension to snap inside her. He’d gotten her so turned on with his words that with a single thrust her body unraveled.

  He drank in the scream through their kiss, fucking her hard and rough, not stopping for a single second. Not through her orgasm or the follow-up shudders. He thrust fast, deep, and pulled back just as quickly, taking her pussy with wild, quick strokes. He sank his cock into her with swift moves. Each faster than the last.

  She couldn’t speak, could barely breathe. Her perspiration-slicked body allowed him to slide farther into her. She pulled from their air-stealing kiss to gasp a breath. Feral grunts and moans came from both. She dug her nails into his back, urging him deeper into her body. His shaft felt like a hot branding iron scorching her inside. Her pussy was soaked with her need for him. With every thrust, she soaked.

  He grabbed one of her thighs and pulled it to his waist, giving a tilt to her hips. The move allowed for him to rub against her hard clit with his pelvis. Two rubs and she went flying.

  Her back curved off the mattress. A hoarse scream flew from her lips as contractions made her pussy flutter. He tensed, riding the wave of her orgasm. Her pussy sucked hard at his cock. Her nerve endings felt one hundred times magnified, until he slowed, taking shallow plunges and finally tensing inside her. His cock pulsed, thickening with another orgasm coursing through her body.

  Then he roared. A loud, wild sound of ownership with the word “mine” ushered from his lips. He brought his mouth down and scraped his fangs on her shoulder at the same time he bit his claws into her leg, leaving a fiery scratch on her thigh. She came hard at the feel of his bite. So hard she saw white spots dance behind her lids. It didn’t end there.

  Hot spurts of semen filled her channel as he gave in to his own release. She loved it. Loved feeling him inside her, coating the walls of her pussy with his seed for long breathless moments. Maybe it was wrong of her but she hoped with every fiber of her being that he made her pregnant and gave her the babies she wanted so badly.