by Nora Ash
He was moving easier now. The rhythm of his thighs slapping against hers was no longer slowed by her body’s viselike grip, as the orgasm had relaxed her channel enough to finally take him as she was meant to.
Kain grunted his pleasure out every time her velvet heat swallowed him to the root. Along with the obscene squelching for every one of his thrusts, his grunts filled her ears with the sounds of mating so animalistic and primitive she could barely recognize the man who had tried to save her.
But it was him. His thumbs stroked gently over the swell of her hips, even as he picked up the speed so much she had to brace her arms against the sawdust to keep on her hands and knees, and when she cried out from the roughness of the pounding she was taking, that oddly calming tone he’d hummed for her before broke through his grunts and growls.
Kain. Kain was the man claiming her as his own—the one taking her like she’d never been taken before. Her chest and stomach felt strangely light, even as her throbbing sex was heavy with his presence, and the warmth from everywhere his skin touched hers flooded through her veins.
He was hers.
The knowledge settled in her brain with overwhelming clarity even as she panted and whimpered for his big cock. He might be the one doing the claiming, but even through the haze of forced pleasure she knew that this man was hers, body and soul.
Her moment of revelation was broken when the demon pushed her to the floor with his weight in the ultimate display of domination.
Selma gritted her teeth as the angle of her hips changed, making his ridges ride her g-spot hard and mercilessly. His heavy mass on top of her kept her in place, forcing her pussy to milk him with each fluttering spasm despite her high-pitched shrieks at the violent stimulation.
It took mere moments for her violated core to reach the steep climb towards orgasm again.
She strained up against his broad chest, using its strong surface to steady her body against the convulsions making her jerk frantically underneath him. His arms wrapped tighter around her, supporting her clutching hands for better grip. Despite the insane pleasure wracking her mind and body she realized he was attempting to close her into a protective cocoon of his own flesh, and when he bent his head to rest against hers, she felt encapsulated in muscle and heat, safe to lose herself to the pounding rhythm of the massive girth fucking her to completion.
“Let go, Selma.” His harsh gasp in her ear was rough with both pleasure and tension. “I got you—let go.”
It wasn’t clear to her if it was his rumbling voice that pushed her over the edge, or just the inevitable result of the mating —and she didn’t care either way, because her body obeyed him. Violently.
Her entire body seized, clamping hard around his still thrusting cock as her pussy sent a deep, unbroken shock of release through her flesh and bones. It rocked her in full waves, making her scream and thrash underneath him until black and red dots danced before her eyes. Until she was nothing but a quivering extension of him, locked to his being by the huge girth grinding against every square inch of her most sacred place.
When she was certain she’d die if it didn’t end, he took his own release from her.
Roaring, Kain reared up on his hands behind her to slam his hard length in one last time, and the pulse of his essence bathed her cervix in a flush of warmth, filled her past overflowing with spurt after spurt as she was finally seeded.
Selma collapsed down to the ground. Not a single muscle in her body felt capable of holding her up even for a moment longer, and when Kain’s warm form came down to rest over her, her eyelids fluttered closed. For five full breaths there was nothing apart from the soul deep pleasure, him, and the hot semen coating her still weakly-spasming channel.
Then muted noise finally broke through to her blissed-out mind. Cheering. Loud, rowdy cheering and shouting.
“Shh, relax,” Kain murmured to her when she stirred, brought out of the blissful afterglow by the unsettling sounds. “You don’t have to deal with this.”
‘This’? Her brain slowly woke up from the haze, forced to react to the intrusion into her peaceful sanctuary underneath the male.
They were surrounded by demons. Demons, who’d seen her get fucked into oblivion—had seen the sacred moment between her and her protector—her mate.
Horrified embarrassment filled her, pushing away the glorious feeling of peace and completion.
Kain growled low in his throat above her, clearly frustrated with the change in her scent so soon after their mating, and raised up from her.
She felt the loss of his protective warmth keenly, but it was the tugging between her legs when he gently pulled out that made her whimper—despite his release he was still mostly erect, and though his cock was much softer now, it still stimulated her swollen passage with the movement.
“Shh, little one.” He placed a soothing hand on her backside when he was finally out, ensuring she stay put despite her desire to curl up on herself. “Stay still.”
Selma obeyed, not least because she could hardly move her sore body, and pressed her face into the sawdust, wishing they were anywhere but there. She needed his touch and comfort, needed his scent—and only his scent—to surround her. Not these strangers staring at her body while she was at her most vulnerable.
A booming roar, even louder than the one he’d given when he climaxed, ripped through the arena, silencing everyone in its wake.
“The Breeder is mine! My mate! I have claimed her for all to see—she is under my protection, now and forever more!”
“We recognize your claim. Now and forever more, Brother,” Beron’s voice replied formally to his shout. “Take your mate to the Victor’s Chambers—you have both earned your rest.
In the following silence Kain bent to pick her up, holding her to his chest as gently as if she’d been a child, before he began walking.
Selma cracked her eyes open at the movements, and looked up at the man who’d made her his in his effort to save her. His brow was furrowed and his soft lips pressed into a thin line in an expression she couldn’t interpret.
“What happens now?” she asked.
His black eyes shifted down to her, and his features softened in a way that made her chest feel light.
“Now, you rest, my little one.”
That sounded like a pretty great idea. Exhaustion tore at her mind, now that she was safe in his arms again, and no longer in the middle of the group of monsters leering over her naked form.
Content that he would protect her, should the need arise, she closed her eyes again and let his steady gait and the thrumming of his heart against her ear lull her to sleep.
* * *
It was the first time in what felt like a very long time that Selma woke up without need burning in her blood.
Sun bathed her face when she sluggishly cracked her eyelids, but the pleasant warmth penetrating all the way into her bones didn’t come from its rays. It came from the big man who’d curled his massive body around hers at some point while she’d been sleeping.
Kain.
She remembered everything from that horrible auction clearly. Remembered her fear and the forced lust for every man who’d come close enough to her cage for her to smell his pheromones. And she remembered Kain winning the rights to mount her, after bidding an outrageous amount of money.
A faint blush touched her cheeks at the thought of his claiming.
The last time she’d woken up in his arms they’d done pretty much everything but full intercourse, and at the time he’d been a stranger to her, but this time … This time had been about so much more than sating her agitated brand.
She was his—and he was hers. The things he’d done to her to prove that fact made her toes curl.
The warm pulse between her legs at the memory of their wild sex quickly reminded her of the downsides to being fucked by a demon—and especially one of Kain’s size. Though his semen had evidently ensured that she was not as bruised and battered as she should have been after the po
unding he’d given her with his ridged girth, her inner muscles were still tired beyond belief. When she tried to experimentally move the rest of her body, the stiffness in every muscle and joint made it quite clear she’d be spending the day in bed if she got her way.
Of course, she had no idea if she would be getting her way, or if Kain had plans for their day.
Selma looked at the sleeping male who’d obviously ensured she was safe from any danger by the way his body shielded hers. His legs were wrapped securely around her lower half, not constrictive enough to cause her discomfort, but definitely tight enough that no one could snatch her away from him while they slept.
A smile tugged at Selma’s lips at the gesture. Apparently, his hormones had taken the full leap into crazy town after he’d given in to his instincts and claimed her.
Her serious mate.
Gently, she reached out a finger to trace his eyebrows that, for once, weren’t locked in a frown. He looked peaceful in his sleep. Even beautiful. The lack of a scowl or a frown on his handsome face softened the sharp angles, and with his full lips gently parted there was nothing to suggest he had any sort of trauma in his past or present.
Her heart clenched when she recalled what had happened to his mother—and how that had made him swear to never claim a mate of his own. And yet here he was, lying next to her after taking her as his, because that had been the only way to protect her.
“Kain.”
Despite her soft whisper of his name, his eyelids immediately fluttered open, and his black eyes found hers.
“Hey.” She couldn’t hold back a smile at the searching look he gave her—as if he thought she’d awoken him because she was in some sort of distress.
He didn’t reply, but his eyes flickered back to hers, holding her gaze. The frown was back.
Selma reached out to smooth the line between his brows with the tip of her finger. “I didn’t tell you thank you before I fell asleep.”
“Thank you for what?” He pulled back a little, looking honestly confused. And unhappy.
“For saving me. I thought you were angry with me—that I wouldn’t get to see you again. And I was so scared that I’d … that one of those demons would take me away forever. But then you came.”
A small twinge pulled on his face and he breathed out sharply before lifting his limbs off her so he could sit up.
“Kain?”
The big male gathered his legs up underneath him and rested his face in his hands with a groan.
“What’s wrong?” Selma frowned and forced her own body to sit up, though her muscles protested wildly at the movement.
“’What’s wrong’?” He didn’t lower his hands—didn’t even attempt to look at her. “Don’t fucking thank me, Selma. I raped you. Don’t pretend like I’m some great fucking hero, sweeping in to save the day. I did exactly what every other monster of my kind does to Breeders. And I liked it.”
Selma blinked. Repeatedly. “You … you think you raped me?”
“That’s exactly what I did.” He finally let his hands fall to the duvet covering both of them, giving her a bitter look. “We both know you have no choice in the matter once your mark’s been touched. I thought I could claim you without … without giving in to the beast inside, but I couldn’t. I didn’t. I did to you what my father did to my mother over and over and over again, so don’t fucking thank me!”
That light feeling in her chest that’d been present since sometime during their mating squeezed uncomfortably. Selma gave him a stern look. “Look, I wanted what you did—all of it. It’s not just about the mark. Don’t you get it? I was hoping and praying you’d come. And yes, I knew what that’d mean. Does it really upset you that much that you liked having sex with me? I liked it too.”
Kain gritted his teeth and looked away from her. “That’s the hormones talking, and you know it. We’re both still wrapped up in the post-claiming haze.”
Selma barely avoided rolling her eyes. He had severe issues after what’d happened to his mother, and she would just have to be patient with him. “So what did you plan would happen after you claimed me? I mean, you must have had a plan, right? Is it to never touch me again? Because I gotta tell you, you paid an awful lot of money just to keep me around to make your morning coffee.”
His growl made her jump, and then wince, thanks to the sore muscles in her abdomen and lower back.
“I did not purchase you as a slave. I bid a sufficient amount that none would wish to bid any higher after that, thus lowering the risk that I’d lose you in a fight. And my plan was, and is, to bring you to Colorado.” The demon sent her a glare, and then pushed off the bed.
Selma watched him silently as he walked to the other end of the luxurious room and disappeared behind a door. He left it ajar, and she could hear water running.
To Colorado. He was going to bring her to the sanctuary … was going to give her her freedom, despite the money he’d spent and the fight he’d won to keep her as his.
Her chest gave an achy spasm.
He was going to give her up.
Perhaps he was right—perhaps she was lost in the hormonal afterglow of everything that had happened, because a few weeks ago she would have been over the moon with gratitude. Now … she just felt oddly deflated.
The faucets in the bathroom turned off, and Kain reappeared with a bowl in one hand and a cloth in the other. He was still as naked as the day he was born, and Selma found herself suddenly distracted from her more morose thoughts. The aching in her chest traveled south of her naval, turning rather more pleasant, albeit still painful.
Kain was a very attractive man. She wondered briefly what he looked like underneath the human disguise, but then lost interest in pursuing that particular train of thought when he bent to place the bowl by her side of the bed, and his abs flexed in the process.
“What are you doing?”
“I am tending to my mate. Can you move on your own?”
Tend to her? Intrigued, she glanced at the bowl. “I can move. What do you have in mind?”
He sent her an admonishing glance. “Swing your legs over the edge, little one.”
Moving slowly and awkwardly, Selma obeyed, though it could hardly be classed as ‘swinging’ when she finally pushed her legs out from under the duvet to dangle over the edge of the bed.
Kain knelt in front of her and proceeded to place his large hands on her knees.
The sweet ache between her legs heated up further at the contact, and she winced as her tired muscles attempted to clench in anticipation.
Then he spread her legs with a firm press of his knuckles against her inner thighs, and she couldn’t hold back a whimper.
Kain quickly looked up at her face with a concerned frown. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” It wasn’t a lie—what had hurt her was her body’s immediate and overwhelming attempt at welcoming him. Her pussy throbbed, and overworked muscles were forced to tighten as moisture began seeping from her core.
For a moment he looked like he was about to press her further on the matter, but then his nostrils flared and a delicate shiver traveled through his naked body.
“Mm.”
It was his only verbal acknowledgment of her predicament, but when she glanced down, she saw his cock strain thick and pulsing between his thighs, eager to heed her body’s call.
Without further comment he grabbed the backs of her knees and slid her closer to the edge of the bed, ensuring that her exposed mound was easily accessible.
Before Selma managed to as much as squeak at the movement, he’d released her and dipped the cloth into the bowl.
She watched him in silence as he smoothed the lukewarm cloth through her curls, rinsing off the dried semen with care that seemed impossible for hands his size. Over and over he rubbed the cloth over her pussy, delving into every fold and even circling her clit a few times.
It felt amazing. So very different from anything she’d experienced before in the hands of demons—there was
no pressure to arouse her, no demand being made of her in any way. Just the warm, wet slide of the cloth over her velvet heat as he gently cared for her.
She sighed her contentment out, and without really thinking about what she was doing, placed her hands in his mahogany hair.
Kain paused his movements, his large hand coming to rest atop her thigh.
It was an instinctive reaction, to stroke her fingers through his glossy strands before grabbing a tighter hold of his head and guiding it to her warm center.
His breath ghosted over her slick folds, sending a delicious shiver through her, and then his tongue flicked out to follow the seam of her pussy, from the bottom up to the small nub of nerves.
Selma’s breath exploded out in a hoarse gasp. She hadn’t been aware she’d been holding it back, but when Kain’s mouth opened to suck on her, it left her lungs in soft pants.
He was slow with her, delving his tongue in to taste every part of her, only giving her clit a few, deep suckles as he explored her soft flesh with the same care he’d shown while cleaning her. Even though her body ached as she clenched and moved for his lips and tongue, his pace was gentle enough that the pain was manageable.
When her gasps turned to needy whimpers, he pushed the cloth aside so he could brush her lips fully open with his thumbs and focus his efforts on her tight clit. The pleasure shot up through her, now sharper and much more demanding on her sore body, but it was exactly what she needed, despite the ache in abused muscles and tendons.
“Kain!” She called his name out as he brought her closer and closer to the edge. A part of her wanted more from him—wanted to be penetrated and claimed all over again, but the demon kneeling between her legs remained excruciatingly careful during the entire process. When her muscles finally seized and she cried out in climax, he’d still only stimulated her clit.
Selma slumped over him, resting her shaking arms against his dark hair. Her body was sore from being worked so soon after the rough mating, but endorphins overpowered the discomfort.
“Thank you,” she murmured, letting her fingers slide through his soft hair in a gentle caress.
