Crowning Glory [The Royal Wolves 3] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Honor James

  Biting her neck carefully, he held her as he jerked against her, pushing in deeper even as his cock somehow, and the look on his face indicated he wasn’t really sure if it was only his imagination, his cock grew larger. Growling softly, his satisfaction and pleasure in the sound filling the enclosure with a rumble of pure love. Licking at her pulse as her grip loosened, he lifted his head to kiss her softly, gently, completely the opposite of what they’d just done together.

  His gentle kiss quelled the wildness in her and she kissed him back, hands moving up his neck and cupping his cheeks as she kissed him as gently as he kissed her. When he pulled back, she smiled. “I didn’t break.” But god it felt like she was going to with how much larger he was inside of her. He was even bigger this time than last time and it was such an amazing feeling. “I hurt you.” Oh god, her eyes widened as she looked at the scratches all over his arms, shoulders, chest and back. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” She was no better than Robert, she had hurt him as he was giving her his love, how could she?

  “Hey.” He bit her lip to regain her attention. “I don’t mind, at all, I love knowing that you were into it as much as I was. You can do that any time you want, I like knowing you have claws. In my world you need them, love,” he said quietly. “As a Wolf, what you’d just done was a love tap, a treasured stroking of my ego. It doesn’t hurt.” Well, not much, his face seemed to indicate, but it was a good hurt. Kissing her again, a little harder this time, he pulled back slowly. “I love you. You can mark me any time you want, I had my turn,” he pointed out. “Besides, they’ll be gone in a couple hours and the deeper ones gone by morning.”

  She frowned, but the mention of his mark on her shoulder had her clenching and sighing. “Laszlo, will you kiss me there? Run your tongue and teeth over the mark?” Just his breath was making it almost to the point where she was ready to scream. However, this she needed to know.

  Frowning slightly, he nodded as he pressed his lips to her mark and brushed them back and forth over the swollen flesh. Sliding his tongue over her, he felt her clutch him hard deep inside of her body. Intrigued to know if the rumors about the mating marks were true, he lightly scraped his teeth over her bruised flesh.

  She sobbed. “Oh god, more.” She clenched him harder and tighter. “That feels—” She could feel it in the very center of her core and deep in her womb, she felt her body releasing again just from the feeling of him moving his mouth over the mark. “Feels so good.” His tongue laved at the mark and she let her head fall back and sobbed in pleasure.

  “It’s true,” he murmured against her skin as he licked at the mark over and over. Each time she clenched at him harder. He didn’t move, just his mouth shifted occasionally, but he knew that if she kept that up he’d come again. He was already throbbing with the need again, his cock having its own pulse that was strong and getting even more so.

  When his teeth nibbled the edges of the wound, she felt her body tense and once more screamed in pleasure as she came in a flash, her body clutching his so tightly in demand of his orgasm as well. “Laszlo,” she cried out loudly in the small shower.

  Grunting in surprise, he came with her, his fingers digging into her flesh to hold her to him. “Holy mother,” he breathed out in shock as his knees wobbled. That was definitely new and totally told him the rumors about the mating bite weren’t just rumors, it was bloody wonderful fact.

  She was panting and finally when she was able to speak again whispered, “I can’t believe I just came and all you did was kiss and nibble that mark, Laszlo.” He hadn’t moved one single inch, he had stayed deep and hard inside of her and hadn’t thrust, hadn’t caressed her clit, but she had exploded and funnily enough, so did he. “I want to give you this kind of a mark, Las.” She wasn’t wolf, so she couldn’t. “I want you to experience what I did.”

  “Honey, I was totally experiencing what just happened,” he told her with a satisfied expression. “It’s the mating mark, it’s highly sensitive, but usually not so quickly.” He paused and leaned his head back to look at her. “You sure you don’t have Wolf blood in you?” he asked out of curiosity. It would explain why she was so sensitive the day after their mating.

  “Not that I know of.” She shrugged. “Never changed into a wolfy.” Her eyes twinkled in pleasure but curiosity as well. “I’ve always been faster, stronger and smarter than those around me, but so was my father.” She watched his eyes go wolf and back and she had to shiver. “God that felt amazing, though.” She couldn’t move past that little detail. “Anyway, how would I know if I had a bit of wolf in me?” She didn’t think she had, but if he was questioning it, there had to be a valid reason for it.

  “I don’t know,” he murmured with a line of concentration forming between his brows. “I’ve run across a few with very diluted bloodlines, so much so that they’ve never changed but they’ve had some of the extra abilities. But even they hadn’t realized that they had wolf in them, but their scent was just that little bit different from the average human.” Leaning in, he pressed his nose to her neck, but with his scent all over her skin it was hard to tell. “You may have a bit, love, but it could be diluted enough that I definitely can’t tell. It would have been interesting, though.” He smiled, lifting his head to smile at her.

  “And why would that be so interesting, Laszlo?” Her hands now moved over his body, the wetness of the shower giving her a slippery slope to play on. “Would you be disappointed if that were the case, darling?” She leaned into him and inhaled deeply. “I love how you smell.” It wasn’t cologne, but him. He smelled of the outdoors after a rain shower, it was perfect.

  “Would be rather fitting, don’t you think?” he asked softly. “Get a she-wolf for my mate,” he teased, something in his voice indicating he already knew that he had one, whether she had Wolf blood or was all human. It seemed like he didn’t want to bring up the fact she’d practically shredded his back, but it was a good sign of what could be. “I could never be disappointed with you, Desmonda, you’re my mate and therefore absolutely perfect.” His voice indicated he’d kill anyone that suggested otherwise, a good sign that they would have a long and solid life together, utter possessiveness of one’s mate being another sign of a perfect joining.

  “I’m glad that you are happy with me, Laszlo, because I am happy with you.” She sighed and leaned in, kissing his chest. “How badly did I hurt you?” She couldn’t look at him, but she knew that she had gotten more than carried away and she was going to have to stop that in the future, she couldn’t continue to hurt him, he didn’t deserve it.

  “Not at all, Desmonda,” he told her honestly. “Little love bites is all it amounted to, so stop worrying so much. I’m Wolf, it’s perfectly acceptable and even enjoyed. I’m not human, don’t place human standards over what goes on between us.” Tipping her chin up, he kissed her softly as he slid free and eased her down onto her feet. “Wash up so we can eat,” he said, stroking his fingers down her throat.

  “Are you sure?” she asked, and when he just gave her that look she grinned and sighed. “I have to admit I rather liked it, being so physical and able to do that and not have to worry about hurting you or being beaten, because it felt amazing to me.” She chewed her lip, an unconscious habit. “I rather loved having you biting me, your fingers digging into my skin and being rough because I knew down deep that no matter how rough we got, you wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “Of course I wouldn’t, Desmonda,” he said with a frown. “I’d rather cut off my arm than hurt my family, but with you, I’d rather cut out my own heart than do anything to cause you pain.” Kissing her neck gently, he shifted so she could already see his healing back. The welts were red and angry but had scabbed over fast and were already fading. “See, it’s all healing up. Give it another hour and you’ll just see what would amount to a light scratch mark, promise.”

  She touched the paired lines of four that were very, very deep and frowned. “These haven’t scabbed up yet.” That was when her orgasm h
ad sent her skyrocketing and she knew it. The memories making her tense, her body ached with need and had her gasping for air. “Right, I need to shower or I am going to show you that I have it in me for another round, or twenty.”

  Chuckling he turned back around to face her and crowded her under the water. “I’ve got another forty rounds, easy,” he told her in a low, suggestive tone. But she clearly needed time to wrap her head around “them,” so he left her be as he passed her the soap. “Those will heal in a little longer time,” he assured her softly. “There’s not much a Wolf can’t heal from, only life threatening wounds ever leave a mark and even then it’s pretty damned faint.”

  She took the soap and instead of using it on her body, she reached out her sudsy hands and pressed them to him. When he was about to argue or complain, she said, “I want to. Please let me do this, Laszlo? It’s almost time for me to become the cold and emotionless void that I am, but for now, while I am here with you, will you just let me be something and someone softer than I really am?”

  “This is the real you, Desmonda,” he said as he pressed his hands to a wall on each side and let her do as she wanted. “The other you is a shell, a barrier, a shield against the world.” Ducking his head, he kissed her gently when she stood to get more suds on her hands. “Just don’t ever give me that other you or I’ll bite you again and someplace even harder for you to explain easily.”

  Turning her face up to him, she grinned. “You know, you make that sound like a punishment, but I have to be perfectly honest.” She didn’t venture lower than his navel or they would be having wild wolfy sex again. “The way that sounds, it makes me want to give you that person, Laszlo, I think I would rather like having you biting me somewhere else, my darling wonderful wolf.” She wanted him, her body responded to him, but there was food to be had yet and relaxing outside of water.

  “You say that now, but when you’re trying to sit after pushing my buttons, remember we had this conversation,” he said with a slow smile. Taking the soap from her, he finished up before passing it back. “You’d better wash yourself, my self-control is at a bare minimum right now,” he told her. If he put his hands on her, he’d have her bent over for him and would be fucking her again and again until he felt like the edge was slightly dulled on his need for her. God knew how long that might actually take.

  “I know it is horrible, Laszlo, but I want you again, we just had each other and god my body is on fire for you again.” She sighed. “Right, clean my body.” She turned her back to him. She couldn’t look at him and just how hard he was or she was going to say fuck everything, that she needed him. “How are we going to deal with the wolves that want me dead, Laszlo?” she asked as she looked over her shoulder at him. “I can’t very well do my job from behind your walls, but I would rather like to live long enough to be able to have that time where I can’t walk straight with how long and hard we have loved.”

  He was worried about the threat hanging over her as well. “I don’t know.” It was clear he hated not having the answers, especially when it involved her. “But I’m going to figure out something,” he said. His face indicated he had a thought. Kissing her neck lightly, he rinsed off. “I’ll meet you in the bedroom,” he told her before stepping out of the shower. He looked like he needed to get something for her, and walked in the direction of the door. The look on his face indicating he’d forgotten something until that moment and her words of concern.

  She watched him leave and when she was alone, she quickly finished her shower and got out. Wrapping the towel around her body and one around her head, she walked out into their bedroom, spotting him at the safe. “All right, you seriously have my curiosity peaked, Laz.” She was drying her hair with the towel as she walked. “So, what do you have for me?”

  Pulling out the box, he set it on the dresser as she came out and pressed his fingertips to the top. “We weren’t able to get much out of the Palace after we’d fled, but we did go back for a few things. A couple portraits with our parents and a few little things that we were able to shove in our pockets.” Looking down to the box, he stroked the carving of a wolf howling to the moon with his fingers. “This was my mother’s, she told me that if ever we found our mates that inside was something to help protect them.”

  Lifting the lid slowly, his nose twitched at the faintest scent of his mother’s light perfume, something his father had had custom-made just for her. Swallowing hard, he pulled up the top tray and looked to the bottom where there were five bags, each of their names embroidered on them. Lifting the one with his name on it, he knew he’d have to get the others to his brothers, but for now… Opening it, he let the chain and pendant tumble into his palm before straightening it out. Lifting it, he turned it slowly so he could see, and his face looked stunned to find the Royal seal as well as the symbol of his lineage on the pendant, something no Wolf, rebel or not, could ever go against.

  Moving to her, he undid the chain and then slid it around her throat. “If you’re ever trapped or in trouble, pull it out. No one, even the Wolves that hate us and want us dead can or will harm you as long as you wear it. The symbol is a marking of my lineage and it dates back to a time when no Wolf could go against the Royals. It’s ingrained in them and will, if nothing else, buy you time to shoot the bastard.”

  She touched the pendant and felt the power in it. He said that it was the seal that protected, but she could feel more than that, far more. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered, and the scent of the perfume teased her nose and made her smile. “That is a beautiful fragrance.” She wasn’t touching the part where he said it could buy her the time to shoot whoever might have her, because she was already thinking it would be wise for her to carry not just the 9mm but also a backup Beretta and ammo, lots of ammo.

  “My mother’s scent,” he murmured softly, moving around to stand before her, his fingers trailing over the chain. “My father had it specially commissioned for her. Because we have greater senses of smell than humans, any perfumes that our women wear have to be specially made to not send us into convulsions.”

  When she looked up at him once more she had tears shimmering in her eyes. “Are you sure that you want me to have this, Laz? This was your mother’s. It belongs to you, not me.” But her fingers stroked it lightly, reverently.

  “It’s yours, Desmonda,” he said quietly. “My mother had them commissioned for our mates. You are my mate and that means it’s yours. Besides”—he smiled—“you’re wearing it and as you’re mine it’s still mine, too,” he teased gently even as he felt the smile falter. “She would have loved you, Des,” he murmured fighting the sadness threatening to swamp him as it did every time he thought of his parents, but mainly his sweet and gentle mother.

  She felt her tears fall for his loss and wrapped her arms around him, needing to hold onto him and hold him close because she was hurting, because he was hurting. When she pulled back she needed to tease him to see his smile. “I belong to you, Laz, but you belong to me, too.” So in the end it was a circle, just as it should be.

  Nodding, he smiled faintly but just couldn’t hold it as he hugged her closer to him. Kissing her temple gently, he buried his nose in her hair and inhaled slowly, her scent seeming to ease his pain over the past. “I’ll always belong to you,” he murmured softly. Taking a moment more, he held her and then released her. “We should eat,” he said, locking his emotions back down as he closed the box and returned it to his safe before heading for the closet.

  She felt him withdrawing from her and knew that of all things, this was going to be the hardest. Having him being so loving and attentive and desperate and needy for her one moment, and then in the next the cold and in control man that set her teeth on edge.

  Swallowing down the hurt, she pulled off the towel and pulled on her clothes from last night, shrugging into the shoulder holster before even putting on her socks and boots. Once her gun and badge were in place she tugged on her socks and boots and had her hands finger-combing through he
r hair as she waited on him to finish dressing as well.

  Gone were the lovers and in place were the cold, emotionless voids who did their jobs, protected everyone and felt nothing, but deep inside she hurt, she ached to once more have the facade becoming a part of the life she wanted with him.

  Turning to her, his eyes landed on her holster and he frowned slightly before shrugging it off. She was back to being the cop again, something he’d have to get used to. Moving to her, though, he ran his fingers through his hair, and stopped before her. As if going on instinct, he reached out and, cupping her cheek, leaned in to kiss her. “I love you, Desmonda,” he murmured. For a Wolf, finding their mate was an unlocking of emotions within. Love for them was instantaneous and pure, there was no waffling on feelings with them, either they were there or not.

  She leaned into his touch and let out the breath she was holding. “I love you, too, Laszlo.” She stepped closer, the hurting was there in her eyes. “I don’t want to be this person with you, but I don’t want you to be that person with me, I love you and I want the man I have spent the last many hours with, loving and getting to know, to always be the one with me. It hurts when you turn from me and bring up the icy cloak that protects you from the world.” Her hand covered his. “Especially when I want to be there with you.”

  Stroking her cheek he stared into her eyes and nodded slowly as understanding seemed to come to him. “I’ve been this way for two hundred years, Des, it’s not something I can change overnight. But I will try, for you I’ll make a conscious effort.” Kissing her again gently, he moved his hand down to her throat, his palm covering her pulse. “I don’t mean to hurt you, honey, I promise you that.”

  “I know.” She sighed. “I love you, Laszlo, and as long as you know that we are meant to be it will be good.” She hoped. “I just didn’t know what to think when you suddenly turned cold on me, I don’t like that, at all.” She did offer him her smile, however. “So I geared up for battle to protect myself, silly huh?”