A Healing Love

by Shara Azod

  “No.” He cleared his throat and looked right at her, turning an even deeper shade of red. “Because it’s mine.”

  Whoa! No way! The man looked like a night full of all kind of hot, sweaty promises. How could this be his first time?

  “You mean like with a mate, right?” Because no way he was untouched, even living way up at the top of the world.

  “I mean at all.” Nervously, he pulled at the neckline of his shirt.

  Mica simply gaped; her mind was having a hard time processing that little tidbit. He was a virgin, just like she was. It was mind-blowing, especially because he was so big, so powerful, so very, very male. Luka emanated masculinity; she just couldn’t imagine he wouldn’t know what to do.

  “Well, we will just figure it out together.” It was all they could do. With her entire body throbbing, there was no way she was going to suggest not going through with this.

  “Mica, sweet, I really need for you to get out of those clothes.”

  Oh! Now that sounded like a man who knew what he wanted. Mica’s fingers actually shook as she moved to do exactly as he demanded, throwing her clothes to the side of the bed. Luka hadn’t moved. God, she needed him to move! It wasn't until she was completely bare that he walked closer, stopping at the side of the bet. He didn’t sit, didn’t lean down. Standing there his fingers lightly trailed her skin, starting from her shoulder to her hip.

  “So beautiful,” he murmured, his eyes hooded.

  Surely she was going to go crazy. The need that had been simmering since she first opened her eyes was in serious danger of burning out of control. Her nipples hurt painfully as they stabbed at the air, desperate for any kind of touch. She’d plead if only she knew what to ask for. Instead she spoke his name in a broken whisper.

  “Luka...”

  The only response she received was a low purring groan that sent a bolt of shock straight to her clit. Trying to relieve the pangs of emptiness inside her, Mica pressed her thighs together as tightly as she could. Didn’t do any good. At least Luka wasn’t removing his shirt. The man had to be made of steel; there was nothing about his demeanor that spoke of urgency. Other than the blistering heat in his gaze, he appeared perfectly cool, calm and collected. She, on the other hand, felt like she was slowly losing her mind.

  After toeing off his boots and just loosening his jeans, Luka slowly climbed on the bed with her. But instead of the passionate kiss she was expecting, he moved down to her ankles, slowly, oh so freaking slowly, kissing his way up her body. Each little caress with his mouth caused tiny little quakes all through her. Every time she tried to move, his strong hands held her firmly in place. By the time he got to her knees, Mica really didn’t believe she was going to survive this. Her heart pounded erratically, her skin feel too hot, but far too cool without his heat.

  He was making her so crazy she forgot all about her apprehension and allowed him to open her thighs wide and burrow his big body between them. It all came rushing back, however, when she felt the flat of his tongue against the seam of her pussy.

  Holy crap! Not what she was expecting at all! There was no chance to close her thighs, to cover herself, because his shoulders were way too wide, way too solid. Tugging at his head didn't work either, because for some reason, her fingers wouldn’t actually pull. Damn traitorous digits just curled into his silky white-gold locks and held on. Even her hips worked against her, bucking up into his mouth. Which apparently gave him permission to slip his tongue inside her pussy.

  There wasn't enough air in the world to breathe properly. Luka slowly pushed his tongue all the way inside as far as it would go, his nose tickling her clit; then the wicked man purred. Purred right up against her pussy. The vibrations set off a series of fireworks within. Forgetting all about modesty, which really had been lost as soon as he laid her on the bed, Mica jerked up and down with no discernible rhythm. She just needed more, but oh God, could she even handle more? Didn’t matter. This was just too good, so flipping good!

  The carnal kiss seemed to go on forever. Just when she thought she might regain some sanity, he would switch tactics, sucking on her clit in a gentle cadence until there were actual stars dancing in front of her eyes. She was pretty sure the sound of a woman crying, pleading and moaning was her. Couldn’t be moved to care at the moment. But when he added his fingers—

  “LUKA!”

  Instant detonation. Everything shook, everything was spinning. Her body shook so hard it was almost as if she was having seizures. Holy shit! No amount of erotic romances in the world had prepared her for this.

  If this was mating, nope, she really wasn’t going to survive it.

  *****

  Who would have thought listening to his father lecture his older brother Misha about the finer points of mating for the first time would pay off? Luke was damned glad he had lent half an ear. Mica seemed to like the way he explored her body. However, it was killing him. At the last moment he decided to leave his jeans on so he wouldn’t ravish her. Damn, but he wanted so very much to ravish her.

  Trying to remember exactly what he should do was worse than hard. All the lessons Valeri had pounded into his sons never applied to him; or so he’d thought. His father never pushed him as he had the others because they all knew the likelihood of Luka finding his mate before...well, it hadn’t looked good. Some of the lessons had stuck, sort of. But as he tried to go through them in his mind, he was distracted by the softness of her skin. Her scent drove him insane. All he wanted to do was taste her, lick her, drink in her essence. By the time he reached her sweet honeyed cunt, he was a goner.

  Every lesson he managed to remember went straight out the window at the first swipe of his tongue. More! He wanted her cream flowing steadily into his mouth. It was so addicting, for a while he forgot to stop. He was a cat, damn it. Every scratch she made to his shoulder, every pull on his hair was just egging him on. She was so wonderfully responsive, so free in her moans and cries of pleasure. Although his cock was pulsating wildly, eager to be nestled inside her walls for the first time, Luka wanted to taste more.

  Reluctantly he placed a last lingering kiss against her nether lips and began to move north. With each passing moment her scent changed, becoming entangled with his own. His chest grew with pride; it was the way she should smell. Like his. Still, he dared not free his cock just yet. There was simply no way he wouldn’t pounce, thrusting himself deeply inside her welcoming warmth.

  So he lingered at her breasts, drawing deeply on the long, pebbled nubbins, watching the tiny bumps on her skin grown and spread. Unfortunately for his self-control, Mica began undulating her hips against the clothed ridge of his erection. It was killing him!

  “Mica, milaya, I am going to need you to stop moving.” It was a desperate plea, and of course she didn't listen.

  “I need you,” she whispered hotly. Damned if her words didn’t stroke his cock every bit as much as if she were touching him. “Please, complete it. Make me yours.”

  There was simply nothing else he could do. Her need was his own, and her little hands were tugging at his jeans, her fingers grazing the head of his dick. There was no hope for it; he was a goner. Collectively they had barely managed to tug the jeans past his hips before he thrust long and hard inside her sodden channel.

  Fuck! He really had meant to go slowly. That was impossible, however. Her pussy seemed to suck him inside, as if her body had been waiting, wanting, needing this as much as his. He supposed it had. Once inside, there was simply no stopping. His hips slammed inside her with insatiable hunger. This was home; it was life, it was everything.

  “I don’t want to hurt you.” Really he had no idea if he was talking to her, or to himself. “God, I have needed you for so long.”

  “No hurting. More! Harder, please!”

  Perfect. Everything about his mate was so fucking perfect. She met him thrust for thrust, their bodies heaving in a race that would only start all over again as soon as it was finished. There was no getting enough of t
his woman. Grasping her hips, he moved faster, urged on by the way her vaginal walls spasmed all around him. Unable to help himself, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and before thinking about it, sank his fangs into the supple flesh.

  The world exploded as soon as he marked her, for real this time. Her body jerked, seizing underneath him. He couldn’t hold on. In turn he exploded inside her, flooding her womb. There was only one thought in his head, one word that kept repeating itself over and over; Mine! Mine! Mine!

  “Of course I’m yours,” came the sated reply. “I always have been.”

  He hadn’t realized he’d been shouting out loud. It didn't matter. That was the perfect answer, the only answer.

  “Yes you are, kotyonok,” he purred, kissing those pouty lips of hers. “And I am about to show you how much all over again.”

  Epilogue

  This had to be the weirdest Christmas Ilya could ever recall. The mood in the massive Teegr household was beyond jubilant. There were after all not one, but two matings to be celebrated. Two matings that by all common wisdom, never should’ve happened. Ilya stood slightly apart from the festivities, watching his family as if viewing them from the outside. This year, there was no pall of doom that lingered at the edges of the gathering. For the first time, there was no one brooding, no one completely hopeless, no one feeling the ache of helpless loss.

  Not even he felt slightly melancholy, which was—weird.

  So apparently there was such a thing as female tigers, because Uncle Valeri had certainly brought one home for Christmas. She had shifted and kicked Misha, Maxim, and Grigori’s ass, which had been amusing. One of a tiger's favorite holiday pastimes was mock combats to see who could claim to be the fiercest fighter. Generally, Luka always won, being fueled by hopeless rage and a drive to avenge the mate he thought he would never get to know.

  And apparently this tigress, Megan, had done what both Uncle Valeri and Luka had sworn to do: kill his father. Ilya wasn't sure how he felt about that. He had barely known the tiger called Gleb. Since his mother had killed herself when he and his twin Ivan were only six, he had been raised in his uncle’s household. Really all Ilya could remember of his father was that the tiger had made him and his brother feel extremely uneasy. Gleb had smelled wrong for a very long time.

  Now his greatest shame was gone, and this female had done the honors. He supposed it was rather funny in a way. The Teegr men saved by a female. Only that was certainly the most ferocious female Ilya had ever seen. More so than natural female tigers—ruthless predators in their own right. And she was very much a mother tiger, the way she coddled Luka’s mate.

  Which was another Christmas surprise. Luka’s mate, Mica, wasn’t dead as everyone had suspected. For some reason she had come back to Alaska, where Luka had accidentally began the mating process long before he and his mate were ready for any kind of mating. Yet another sin to be laid at his dead sire’s feet. But here she was, as beautiful as a dream, smiling sweetly at all but never leaving Luka’s side. As if Luka would ever allow such a thing. The surly shifter had become a possessive, albeit totally satisfied mated male. Ilya was willing to bet anything Luka and Mica would be leaving the family gathering soon.

  Just as Uncle Valeri and the fascinating, alluring and completely feline Megan would be disappearing upstairs, leaving the younger tigers to frolic at will. Meanwhile, Ilya and his brother had a serious discussion to have this night. There were decisions that had to be made, a past to lay to rest once and for all.

  Yes, now that he considered it, he was very, very glad Gleb was dead. And even gladder it hadn’t been his beloved uncle or favorite cousin who had ended his mangy hide. For far too long this house had lived with the horror of being betrayed by one of their own. Ilya and Ivan had felt it just as deeply, but wholly differently from everyone else.

  “Do you feel as if a weight has been lifted?” Ivan whispered, his voice for his twin’s ears only.

  “Yes and no.”

  No one had ever treated him and Ivan as any less than a member of this family. Not even after Uncle Valeri’s mate had been slaughtered. By rights, they could have been turned out to fend for themselves, but it hadn’t even been considered. Uncle Valeri had pulled them closer, as always treating them as if they had been his sons all along.

  But the ghost of Gleb had always been there. Yes, the ghost was gone, but his deeds would always remain. So what was left for his sons? Yes, this was their home, their family, but neither of them felt as if they really belonged. At least, not yet.

  “Come.” Ivan sighed, nodding toward the side door. “No point in putting this conversation off any longer.”

  His brother was right. This was something he had been dreading, but something they both knew was coming. Following his brother, Ilya cast one more look over his shoulder. They were finally happy. Whole. It was something both he and Ivan had longed for.

  “You know we have to leave,” Ivan stated as soon as they were out of earshot of the house.

  Ilya didn’t answer right away. Instead his eyes traveled across a seemingly endless sea of white and green. Beautiful country this was. A wild place, just like the animals that dwelt inside them. This would always be home in a way. It just didn’t feel like home right now.

  “We don’t have to.” A lie, Ilya knew, but he felt if he didn’t say it, it would be denying the happiness they had both known here, despite it all.

  “No, we don't have to. We can stay and live off our uncle’s largess. We can pretend out mother hadn’t killed herself because she was horrified at whom she mated. We can pretend our father didn’t try to destroy those we love.” Ivan pulled no punches. He never had. HIs brother was forever the realist. “Or we can go make our own way. Prove ourselves as males worthy, and perhaps come back with a mate of our own.”

  That was just it. A mate of their own. One mate. Two of them.

  Whether forged by tragedy, or whether it was a consequence of the twin bond, Ilya and Ivan had always known there would only be one woman between them. It was not unheard of exactly, but had never been done in the Teegr line. After having the first psychopath also in their direct bloodline, neither wanted to push the love of family so far, especially as they literally had nothing of their own.

  So much water under the bridge, and yet, they still had so far to go. The only thing they could do to feel like worthy males in their own right was to go. At least for a while. They needed to stand on their own, find their own destiny, then rejoin their family as more than the offspring of a renegade.

  “Do we at least say goodbye?” Ilya’s heart ached, but Ivan was right. This was the right thing to do.

  “No. This is not goodbye. One day we will return. That I swear.”

  And they would. When the time was right.