“You’re close, aren’t you?” he demanded. “You’re tightening around me. You’re about to come until you can’t walk.”
It was true, and she hated it. Despite how much this might have been her fantasy, her choice, her sense of self-preservation couldn’t help but put up a fight. Perhaps it was the knowledge Zeth knew—had to know—how much she’d wondered what he’d feel like, how his cock would fill her, what his hands would do to her willing body, and how amazing it would be to experience one moment of liberation. If she hadn’t considered these things, they wouldn’t be here…and the knowledge he had so much insight, even if he didn’t realize it yet, left her open and vulnerable. So yes, Zeth would make her come like a porn star, and instead of enjoying it, she felt more humiliated than she’d ever thought possible.
She gasped. “Oh shit.”
“Gotta say… I never pegged…you as the…sort that…could be fucked dizzy.” Zeth grinned and, before she could blink, flipped her onto her back, then pounded her brutally into the mattress. “Let me…know…if you…see stars.”
He panted, bruising her body with his, slamming into her so hard her bones shook. He was close too, she realized. Close to losing himself, close to getting lost in her.
That awareness, the sensation of absolute certainty, shook her to the core.
And then the world detonated, and everything melted away. She trembled, spasmed violently, and came so hard that she brought the stars he gave her back to earth. Every cell in her body exploded. She dug her nails into his biceps and sank her teeth into his shoulder, muffling her scream around his skin and shivering when he snarled.
“Raegan. Raegan!” The mask of hate had vanished again, and his voice was bathed in awe. “Oh God. You feel…” He thrust wildly into her, his movements no longer guided by whatever had been in control just moments before. Then he shook hard, buried his head in the crook of her neck, and came. And for a second—a split second of utter insanity—she felt something close to completion.
A long whimper tore from her lips. “Ohh!”
“Raegan…”
God, he sounded so helpless. So lost. She’d made him do that. She’d made him whimper and mewl. She’d knocked him to his knees without even trying. And, without warning, she felt stormed with a rush of…something. Affection. A rush of affection for Zeth. And it took her by such surprise the whole of her went numb.
“Raegan,” he whispered again, kissing her throat. “God, Raegan…”
The way he said her name made her tremble.
Chapter Five
In the space between the happy fall back to earth, Raegan contemplated a lot of things. Time seemed suspended, allowing a parade of possibilities to dance by her tired, confused mind. Whatever had just happened had completely transcended anything in her line of experience. She felt horribly exposed, and she hated being exposed. The thought alone of anyone even sneaking a peek of what lay beneath her carefully crafted safeguard left her more than naked, especially when the creature daring to catch a glimpse was the very reason she had dived into her career.
Natalie’s death had changed things. Though Raegan bore her wounds like proud shields of armor, she doubted anyone knew just how much her friend’s murder had shaped her. The werewolf responsible, Razor, hadn’t seemed like a monster at first. At one point he’d been the cute guy from her alma mater, the lead singer in a punk band he’d co-created; a guy who carried just enough Goth with a touch of realism to make him the star of a young co-ed’s dreams. Raegan had found him all kinds of hot, but it was Natalie who wound up in his bed.
It was also Natalie whom he sought after his first transition of the semester. The wolf had tracked her scent to the dorms, cornered her in the bathroom, and left behind a bloody pool of ripped flesh and scattered innards. If Raegan had been there herself, chances were she’d be dead, too.
But she wasn’t dead. She’d lived to hear the coroner’s report—some kind of wild animal, they’d said—and, at his request, had later met with an agitated Razor. The ensuing conversation had escalated to an argument by means still not clear to her. All Raegan knew was they’d been yelling at each other one moment, and the next she was screaming herself hoarse and commanding her feet to run. Razor had crumbled to the ground, barking things she couldn’t hear, his bones shifting with nauseating pops and cracks, his snout elongating and thick black and gray fur spreading across his skin. His clothing shredded with a final strain of muscle, and she’d stood face to face with a snarling monster right out of a John Landis film. Had campus security not been on full alert, had she not run the right direction, had she not crashed into a sea of people, Natalie’s fate would have been her own.
Instead, she had found help. Found an animal control officer patrolling the grounds in enough time to watch a tranquilizer shoot into the man-turned-beast, ending one nightmare at the expense of a new one.
Instead of dying, Raegan had walked away with a fucked-up psyche, a headful of questions, and an important lesson—trust is an enemy’s greatest weapon. With college-age stupidity, she had trusted everyone, allowed anyone who showed an interest to get close to her.
That philosophy had worked until Zeth. Zeth had transformed just as Razor had—out of control, without warning, the full shebang. Yet where Razor had come after her, canines barred and ready to kill, Zeth had fled the scene. Left her before he could do any damage. It was the first time since Natalie’s murder that she’d experienced the beast called doubt. In all the days that followed, Zeth had not once given her reason not to trust him, but he had likewise not given her a reason to throw everything on the line. To open herself up to the possibility of not only being hurt, but watching everything around her destroyed as a result.
No matter how close she felt to him now, she couldn’t let herself get wrapped up in the moment. She couldn’t fool herself into thinking she’d finally found something different.
She couldn’t let him break her.
“Get off.”
Zeth lifted his head drowsily, smacking his lips together. “Raegan?”
“It’s over. Let me up.”
She could see it coming. His tenderness evaporated, and then he leered at her unpleasantly again. “What’s the hurry?” he asked, wiggling his hips.
Impossibly, she felt her body reacting. Felt her sated nerves sparking with new life, her pussy clamping around his cock, which was hard and ready to go. Was that the spell or a product of some sort of inhuman stamina? She didn’t want to know.
“Stop that.” The words weren’t as strong as she would have liked.
Zeth, of course, noticed her lack of conviction. He chuckled and thrust hard into her. “You don’t want me to stop.” The softness of his tone offset the scold in his words, but that didn’t matter the next second when he dropped his mouth to her throat. “Oh yeah.” He grunted around a mouthful of her skin, moving inside her in slow, agonizing strokes. “Squeeze me tight. Just like that.”
“I don’t want to squeeze your…” Raegan’s mouth fell slack when he wrapped his lips around one of her breasts. Her traitorous pelvis rose to clash with his every time he tried to drag his cock away from her aching pussy. “Uhh…”
“Admit it,” Zeth drawled with a grin, teasing her nipple with his teeth. “You’re just eating this up.”
“Get over yourself.”
“Well, you were earlier, anyway.” He bit lightly at her flesh. “That was your first time, wasn’t it? Taking it down the throat like that?”
Raegan’s skin flushed hot. Why on earth would he think that? Was she that bad? “No,” she ground out, enjoying the way his eyes widened in shock and…jealousy? God, her life just couldn’t get any stranger. “No… You… Uhhh…”
“You let someone else into your mouth?” he demanded, his gaze burning with illogical outrage, his thrusts driving to frenzy without warning. Raegan squeaked ineloquently and squeezed his shoulders, her head falling back as she tried desperately to match his pace. Every time his cock left her
body, he took a part of her with him.
He growled something unintelligibly into her skin, rocking against her with sharp, jerky thrusts to accentuate every breath that escaped his lean body. Not until his mouth neared her ear did she make any sense of what he said at all.
“Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine…”
The headboard crashed against the wall again. Zeth’s cock pounded into her pussy, his mouth at her ear, his hands exploring her body possessively. He marked her, damn, he marked her all over. No part of her didn’t shake, didn’t tremble under the influence of his sinful touch. No part of her felt anything but him.
“Mine!” he snarled, and she felt his fangs nudge her cheek. Fangs? Raegan reeled back long enough to see a yellow glow in his eyes. A thick smattering of fur had sprouted along his shoulders and chest, inching up his neck, but going no farther. Holy shit, she’d never seen him like this. She hadn’t even known it was possible to only kinda-sorta wolf out, and even if she did, she definitely would never have expected the sight to make her heart pound with anything but terror.
In that moment, he was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.
Raegan was too startled—too aroused—to balk or scream or do anything but pant and moan and hope he didn’t kill her when his fangs pierced her neck.
And why didn’t that worry her? She knew he would bite her, and for whatever reason, she didn’t care. She couldn’t worry about his fangs. She couldn’t. She felt too preoccupied with the wicked strokes of his cock. With the way she felt like dying every time he slid from her pussy, no matter how much his movements made her body sing.
Zeth growled and fisted a handful of her hair, jerking her head back. “You’re mine!” he snarled, his thrusts hard, his gaze feral. “You’re mine.”
A sliver of fear, tagged with defiance, raced down Raegan’s spine. She belonged to no one, least of all Zeth. It didn’t matter that he was wolfed out and currently screwing her into oblivion. A spell was a spell—nothing more. She had no control over herself, and she owed Zeth squat.
“Mine!” he barked again, smashing inside her. “Mine!”
“No!”
The feel of his ivory fangs slicing into her throat triggered an explosion of pure euphoria. Her mouth fought to latch on to something—anything—to stifle her elated cry, but Zeth’s incisors were buried in her neck, he pounded her into an Raegan-shaped hole in the mattress, and nothing could prevent the scream of his name from flying off her lips.
“Mine!” he snarled again, his head snapping back, his yellow eyes swallowing her whole. His lips were red with her blood, and she felt a rush of unadulterated lust shoot straight to her core. “You’re mine, Raegan!”
“Oh God. Oh God.”
“Say it! Tell me you’re mine!”
A warning bell went off. Something felt wrong. Somewhere in the back of her head, screaming for recognition, was a voice telling her the second she said yes she would enter a lifetime of regret. But in that instant, there existed no other truth.
She belonged to Zeth. Completely.
His head dipped, and his mouth sucked on the bite he’d given her. “Mine!”
“Oh yes. Yes. Yes!”
Her nails raked down his back, and her muscles clenched around him, and when he growled against her throat and spilled himself inside her, she’d never known a sweeter homecoming. She felt, for once in her life, that she was exactly where she belonged. She felt completion. Utter completion. The world around her dissolved in bliss.
“Mine,” Zeth murmured into her throat, his hardening cock thrusting shallowly into her pussy. “You’re mine.”
Raegan sighed and curled her arms under his shoulders, trembling when he began to purr.
Perfection.
“Mine,” he growled again, pillowing his cheek against her breast. “Raegan…”
Then the world stopped. Somewhere in the back of her head, a memory surfaced. A memory buried in the pile of research she’d exhausted herself on following Natalie’s death and Razor’s revelation. Every book by an authority on the subject had been very clear about two things. One: werewolves mated for life and beyond. Once a bond was forged, nothing, not even death, could break it. Two: becoming mated to a werewolf took words of ownership and acceptance of that ownership.
And in a blaze of orgasmic glory, she’d given herself to him.
“Oh my God.” Raegan shoved him hard. She sat up with a start, ignoring the sharp pang that shot through her the second he left her body, and pressed her hand to her neck. Okay. Panicking. “Did you just—”
Zeth frowned and bounced lightly at the foot of the mattress. She really hadn’t intended to shove him that far, but…well, then again, yes she had. She couldn’t shove him far enough away.
It really didn’t help that he remained close enough to touch her. If he touched her, her anger would dissipate, and she wanted to hold on to her anger. She deserved it. He’d just done something monumentally stupid. Her body already missed his touch, but that seemed the last thing she needed to consider.
“Raegan—”
“You claimed me, you son of a bitch!”
To his credit, Zeth didn’t look any more thrilled at the prospect than she did, now that the fog across his face had dissipated. “I didn’t mean to!” he objected. From how visibly he shook, though, pointing out how very little that detail mattered likely wouldn’t do either of them any good. “I just…” He froze and shuddered. “Oh God.”
Raegan scooted over and smacked his arm. Hard. “You claimed me? What the hell were you thinking?”
“I obviously wasn’t.” He scowled, sat up on his legs, wrapped his hand around his erection, and started to stroke. There was something seriously wrong with this picture.
Only that had pretty much been the motto for the night, so it lacked the shock Raegan would have liked. And why in the world would he beat off while she remained sprawled naked in front of him? Was she not good enough now that he’d claimed her?
And why would that bother her?
“No,” Zeth growled irritably, pumping himself harder. “You shoved me out of your cunt, remember?”
“I…I don’t give you permission to read my thoughts.”
“I can’t read your thoughts. Claims don’t work that way.”
“Then how—”
“They’re called ears.”
“I said that out loud?”
“Yeah. And my ears are particularly sensitive, so I can hear even if you are muttering under your breath.” He smirked unpleasantly, palming his balls and giving them a good squeeze. “You want me back inside?”
Yes. She ached all over. She felt wet and desperate and very much in need of him. She needed that cock inside her and not in his hand…no matter how hot watching him masturbate made her. Especially when his gaze flickered alternately between her breasts and her pussy. Especially when he licked his lips and snarled possessively.
She felt certifiable. Absolutely certifiable.
“The spell’s over,” she said slowly, knowing it wasn’t true. “It has to be over now. We’ve already—”
“I don’t know about you, Raegan…” Zeth paused and sniffed at the air, his mouth stretching into an obnoxious grin. “Well, actually, I do know about you. Nose doesn’t lie.”
“Ugh!” Raegan shot out a leg in his direction, only to have him seize her by the ankle with his unoccupied hand. She tried to ignore how good his fingers felt against her. “Get over yourself.”
“We’re not done,” he replied softly.
Then he tugged on her leg, dragged her down the mattress, ignoring her surprised yelp, and positioned himself at her opening yet again. She felt certain that any second now her heart would leap out of her chest. She lay on her back, stretched out before him, and he had her pelvis lifted as an offering for his cock. He didn’t touch her at all. His body didn’t stretch above hers. His chest didn’t press against her breasts. He held her only where he needed to, rubbing his length across her slit.
“You’re mine, Raegan,” he said again. Slowly. Intently. He refused to look at her—his focus was on her pussy. “For better or worse.”
“I am not yours.”
“I claimed you.”
“Not my problem.”
Zeth’s eyebrows flickered with interest, but he didn’t look at her. “You accepted.”
“You forced me.”
He sniggered. “Whatever you need to tell yourself.”
“It’ll go away.” The head of his cock brushed against her clit, and she trembled hard. Her body reacted in all the wrong ways. If this happened, she wanted body-on-body contact. She wanted him with her and not using her only for what lay between her legs. He didn’t touch her, and she needed him to touch her. She needed to feel him against her. “It’ll go—”
Zeth tsk-tsked and shook his head, slipping his cock inside her again and tugging on her until her legs were wrapped around his waist. “Doesn’t go away,” he replied, his voice distant. “Not after you accept.”
“You made me—”
“Even if that were possible, it’s a fucking moot point. You’re stuck with me.” Finally he blinked and trailed his gaze up her body until it clashed with hers. Only Zeth didn’t look out through his own eyes. Not the Zeth that had been with her all night. This seemed a different Zeth. A Zeth who guarded himself. “You’re mine.”
Raegan shook her head and wiggled, earning little more than a sharp thrust and an enthusiastic gasp. “No!” she protested. “No!”
“Raegan—”
“You can’t—”
She choked out a sob and reached for him, feeling idle and stupid. She needed him to be with her. This emotional-distancing crap would only kill them both. Her body didn’t feel conditioned for sex without feelings; hatred and anger seemed preferable over nothing. She needed Zeth to feel something. She needed him to touch her. She needed him.
InsatiableNeed Page 5
