Waking the Beast

by Lacey Thorn

  “Abby, if you don’t want me to sprout those claws you thought you saw and shred your clothes from your body, you really need to strip.”

  Abby gulped as she bent to untie her boots and kick them off. Tah moved to the edge of the bed and sat to remove his boots and socks. She reached for her jeans and taking a deep breath, pushed them down her hips and off.

  Utah growled as his eyes latched onto her bare pussy. She’d been so worried about him seeing her scar, she’d forgotten she wasn’t wearing panties.

  “I’m a virgin,” she whispered as he stood and moved toward her.

  His head rolled again, and she swore his chest puffed out.

  “Mine,” he rumbled as he scooped her into his arms and turned back to place her on the bed, coming down over her.

  His mouth took hers before she could say anything further. She knew better than to argue with the primal claim he’d just made. Not when she could see the animal so close to the surface, as the golden yellow that must be the eyes of the lion fought the warm brown of the man.

  He only left her mouth long enough to jerk her shirt over her head. Then he was back, hot, hard, and naked as his hands made quick work of her bra and tossed it aside. He burned her, setting her nerves on fire with a lust she’d never imagined could exist. Her breasts were crushed beneath the power of his chest as his hands explored and caressed her.

  His mouth finally left hers, and she gulped in air, not wanting to pass out and miss a moment of this. His teeth scraped over her neck again as he slid down until his hot breath fanned across her aching nipple.

  “Tah,” she moaned as he licked over it. One hand plumped her breast, holding it up for him as he licked her. “Oh God, Tah.”

  “Mine.” He told her and took her breast in his mouth.

  The warm wet suction had her arching off the bed, pressing deeper into his touch. Both her hands reached for his hair and cradled his scalp, scratching and holding him close. She knew she was rocking her pussy up into him, fighting for a touch that would bring relief to an ache she’d never known.

  He moved to her other breast and treated it to the same thorough attention. When he pulled back, they were even more swollen, the tips wet from his mouth. He pinched and tugged at her nipples, making her cry out as her hands slipped to claw at his shoulders.

  “Mine.” He informed her again, and she was helpless to do anything but nod in agreement.

  His fingers brushed over her scar, and she felt torn in different directions when his gaze fell there. Part of her wanted to hide it as she had all her life, since the day she awoke in the hospital with it. But there would be no hiding from Tah. His mouth dipped, and he traced each claw mark with his tongue, sending pulses of liquid fire to explode in her womb.

  This time he whispered his claim against her skin as he nuzzled her there. “Mine.”

  His touch left her boneless, unable to do more than watch as he skimmed over her belly, pressing her legs apart. He shifted until he settled between her thighs, using his broad shoulders, spreading her wide. He inhaled deeply and the pure pleasure on his face kept any embarrassment she might have felt from registering. When his eyes met hers, they were a deep amber, a perfect blend of the brown and gold.

  “Mine,” he said as he watched her. He rubbed his face against her plumped folds, but made no move to taste or touch like she wanted.

  “Mine,” he said again and waited, searching her face for something.

  “Yes,” she agreed, realizing he was waiting to see if she would deny him again. “Yours.”

  That rumble left his chest again as he parted her and drove his tongue inside her pussy.

  “Tah!” She almost came off the bed as she screamed his name. He pumped his tongue in and out of her, fucking her with it, and though she’d had toys, nothing could have prepared her for the rapture of his touch.

  His thumb found her clit and rubbed over it. She came with another cry, his name spilling from her lips. Tremors wracked through her as he purred against her, the vibrations keeping her lost in the pleasure washing over her.

  She was still gasping for air when he flipped her over to her belly, shoved a pillow under her hips, and pulled her up to her knees, moving in behind her.

  Oh, God. He would be incredibly deep like this. She didn’t doubt she could take him. Her heart screamed she’d been made just for him. She was his just as he claimed.

  His cock pressed into her and kept pressing until he filled her. He shuddered behind her as her pussy contracted and fluttered around him, struggling to adjust to the newness of him inside her. His hands were hard where they gripped her hips.

  “Mine.” The growl left his lips just seconds before he began to move. Slow and easy strokes quickly turned into deep, hard thrusts that had her dropping her head to the bed and clenching her fingers in the covers.

  He rode her hard, taking her as if he needed to brand her with his scent, and this was the only way he could accomplish it. Her mind was trying to make her acknowledge something, something she might feel was important later, but she denied it, reveling in the sheer pleasure of being claimed by Tah.

  That’s what this was. It was more than sex. It was a primal claiming as he fucked her senseless.

  She didn’t think it could get better as she screamed with another orgasm. His body lowered over hers, and she felt his breath at her shoulder. One hand fell forward to brace him as the other shoved her hair aside before it dropped to the mattress too. She had only a moment before she felt the scrape of his teeth against the muscle where her shoulder met her neck. Then he struck, his canines breaking skin as he bit her and held her in place beneath him.

  He came with a roar muffled against her skin as she shuddered and jerked under him. She felt no pain, no horror at what he’d just done. She felt loved, desired, claimed. She felt mated.

  He lifted one of his hands to cup just under her right breast, and she shuddered as his fingers seemed to fit perfectly against the scars a lion’s paw had left in her skin. He pulled his teeth free, and she felt her pussy clench, forcing another spurt of semen from his cock as he licked over the wound he’d made.

  “Mine.” He purred against her as he continued to lick where he’d bit.

  Once again, she was marked by the beast.

  He was rubbing against her, purring.

  “Tah?”

  “You smell like me now,” he whispered as he licked over her again. “I smell like you.”

  “Okay.” She wasn’t sure what to say about that, but it seemed important to him.

  He sighed as he tugged his cock free and shifted to lay beside her on the bed, pulling her against his chest as if even after what they’d just shared he couldn’t stand not to touch her.

  “My senses are growing.”

  She nodded against him, her hand resting on his lion tattoo as she snuggled into him.

  “When I was out today, I could smell women’s lust. I’ve seen it before, but I didn’t realize it has a smell, an awful smell. It made me sick to smell how those women wanted me.”

  It pissed her off too. He must have sensed it because a growl rumbled up from his chest.

  “I don’t want them, Abby. And knowing they wanted me made me angry. I got our supplies as quickly as I could. I needed to be with you. I needed to touch you, to remind myself I belong to you. Not because I didn’t remember, but to assure myself you did.”

  Oh God, she was going to cry. He felt like he belonged to her?

  “I can feel your brain spinning from here, Abby.”

  She snorted and nipped his shoulder with her teeth. He grumbled and jerked her onto his chest, so he could see her face.

  “We’re going to have to talk about these caveman tendencies you’re developing.”

  “I’ve always been possessive.”

  “I’ve seen you with other women, Tah,” she reminded him. “You’re not possessive.”

  He growled as if her reminding him of the other women pissed him off. “I’ve always bee
n possessive of you.”

  She opened her mouth to argue with him and stopped herself. The past was the past and if this was going to work, they’d both have to understand that.

  “I’m possessive too, Tah. You’re mine now, and I don’t share.”

  He smiled at her, and if it melted her heart a little bit, then no one needed to know but her.

  “I’m yours.” His hand stroked over her skin, and she watched his gaze fall to the mark he’d left on her when he bit her. “Does it hurt?”

  She flexed her shoulder and then shook her head. “It doesn’t.”

  “I didn’t mean to bite you,” his brown eyes seemed contrite. “I couldn’t stop the urge. It was like I needed to mark you in a way so that no one could ever say you weren’t mine. And even I realize how insane that sounds.”

  Without thought, she lowered her mouth to his chest and clenched her teeth in the top of his pectoral muscle, just above his left nipple. She bit down hard and sucked his skin into her mouth. He jerked against her and that sexy growl rumbled up through his chest again. His hands clenched against her ass, and she felt the steel length of his erection before he flipped them over and spread her legs with his knees.

  She released him with a cry as he buried inside her once more.

  “Mine, Tah.” She did a good job of growling at him. “Now I’ve marked you as well.”

  He growled down at her, but she could see the pleasure on his face, the warmth in his eyes.

  “Yours,” he agreed and took her to heaven all over again.

  Chapter Five

  From the journal of Abby Lane

  I dream about the lion. If I told anyone about these dreams, they’d have me locked away, claiming insanity. But the dreams are there, and I swear they feel real. More like visions than dreams. Maybe I am crazy.

  In the dream, I’m surrounded by woods. There are trees and mountains, and though I never see a house, I know I am home. Sometimes I walk alone. Then there are times I walk with a lion beside me. He butts his head against my side as we walk, and I smile, brushing my fingers through his mane. He is fierce and beautiful, but I have no fear of him, only love for him.

  Once I dreamed of a child with golden hair and amber eyes that laughed up at me. And I felt love, so much love pouring from me for this child. I can sense the man, but he always remains in shadow, and I feel as if he represents the possibility that might exist if I make the right choices, follow the right paths.

  I sense he will come to me, and it will be up to me to save him. From what or who, I don’t know. But I know if I do the wrong thing, he’ll die and the happiness I’ve dreamed of will never be.

  Sometimes when I’m awake, I swear I can feel him there, in the mark of the lion’s claws on my skin. It’s as if the lion was trying to tell me something when I was a child, but I didn’t have the ability to understand. I still see his big sorrowful eyes in my mind, both in dreams and waking. And I wonder how he really died.

  I hope when the time comes, I will know what to do. I want the happiness. The man. The lion. And the child. I want it all, and I know no matter what battles lie ahead I will fight to get it and kill to keep it. That knowledge terrifies me even as it strengthens me. I will kill to keep it.

  * * * *

  Abby awoke with Tah’s erection nudging her ass. He was plastered against her back, one arm lying under her pillow while the other wrapped around her waist and held her close to him. He had a leg between hers, his hard thigh pressing against her pussy. A tremor went through him, and she felt the tremble of abused muscles, even as her pussy grew wet with desire.

  She rolled in his arms and wasn’t surprised to find him blinking at her. She was happy to see the warm brown of his eyes. His hand rubbed her ass, and his cock pulsed against her belly. There was no way she could take him again this soon. She might be wet, but she was also sore. Before yesterday, she’d only had a toy or her fingers inside her. Tah was bigger than both of those. A lot bigger. And she’d taken him twice with little break between. She was going to need a little while before they did that again.

  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t do other things, things she’d been dreaming about since she’d first laid eyes on him. With a gentle nudge from her, he rolled over to his back, and she licked her lips as she let her eyes run over him. He was sheer masculine perfection, and he was hers. All hers.

  She trailed her lips over his jaw, then along his neck, and down over his chest. She took feminine delight in seeing the vivid mark on his skin where she’d bit and sucked at him. She hadn’t pierced his skin as he had hers, but still, she’d marked him as hers. She licked over it, then latched on and sucked the skin into her mouth again.

  He purred under her, one hand clasping her head and holding her to him. When she released him, she licked over his nipple, teasing it until the flat disc hardened and brushed against her lips. She nipped it with her teeth and sucked it before moving over his chest to do the same to the other nipple.

  “Abby.” Her name was a purr rumbling through his chest as she slid over to his tattoo.

  She kissed him there, nuzzling against it and licking the lines of the powerful lion’s lips and jaw. She nuzzled her nose against the one inked into his flesh. One final kiss there and she was sliding lower still, her lips skimming over the flexing muscles of his incredible abdomen.

  She felt the damp tip of his cock kiss her skin as she moved down. She turned and nuzzled along the shaft, flicking her tongue out and tasting the rigid flesh.

  “Mmmhmmmm.” It was her turn to purr as he growled and thrust his hips up at her.

  “Abby,” he pleaded. “Don’t tease me.”

  She cupped the taut sac of his testicles in one hand, while she wrapped her other around his girth, so she could slide her palm along the velvet skin. She licked over him, tasting everywhere—his balls, his shaft, and then over the mushroomed head already wet with a bit of pre-cum.

  “Suck it, Abby,” he ordered her. “Suck my cock.”

  She moaned as she opened wide and sucked the crowning head into her mouth. Her tongue flirted around it, rubbing and tasting as she tightened her lips and fed on him. She used her hand on the shaft, while she worked the head with her tongue.

  “Fuck, baby. That’s it.” His fingers were wrapped in her hair as he exerted just a little bit of pressure while pumping his hips up. “Take more of me, baby. Let me in. Suck my dick. Suck it.”

  She let him guide her, show her what he wanted and how to give it to him. She couldn’t take all of him in, but he put his hand over hers and showed her how to work the rest of his shaft in tandem with her mouth. She glanced up his torso and met his eyes with hers while she sucked him. It was erotic and powerful, and she took satisfaction in seeing the pleasure she was giving him.

  “Ahh, God, baby.” He groaned as he spoke, his hips pumping off the mattress to meet her mouth and hands. “I’m going to come, baby. Feels too good. So good.”

  She sucked harder, swirling her tongue and tapping it in the deep ridge under the head where it crowned over the staff. His chest was doing that rumbly-growly thing he did as his fingers tightened in her hair.

  “I’m coming, baby. I’m coming.” He growled, throttling back a roar as the first jet of semen hit the back of her throat and almost choked her.

  He heard or sensed and tried to pull free but she gripped him with her teeth, holding him in her mouth as he continued to come. She reveled in the taste of him on her tongue, the heated wash of his release as it filled her mouth before she swallowed every drop down. Hers. It was all hers. And though there might have been women before her, she would kill any woman who might try to take what was now hers.

  “Abby.”

  She reluctantly released him as he tugged gently on her head. She grinned up at him. “Not bad for a first blow job.”

  “The best blow job of my life,” he vowed, and whether it was the truth or not, she believed him.

  She wasn’t surprised when he hauled her back up
his chest and took her mouth with a heated kiss. A man as confident and sexual as Tah wouldn’t care that she’d just swallowed his cum.

  She lay on his chest for a long moment after, her chin propped up on one fist while she ran the fingers of her other hand through his hair.

  “It’s growing,” she noted out loud. “And I think you’re getting some gold streaks in here.”

  “I’m changing,” he agreed. “And I can’t control it.”

  She met his eyes. “You’ll be okay, Tah. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  He held her close. “Did you find any information yesterday that could help us?”

  She liked the way he said us, admitting they were in this together. Then she jerked up as the sexual haze he’d had her under finally lifted since they’d walked in the motel room however long ago. “What time is it?”

  He made no move to help her as she flounced around the room naked, searching for the clock before realizing she didn’t have her glasses on. And she could see. Not perfectly, but she could see. Holy shit, normally she could barely make out shapes without her glasses.

  “What’s wrong?” Tah was out of the bed, landing in a crouch in front of her as if searching for whatever had frightened her.

  “I can see,” she whispered, reaching down to pat his shoulder. “Holy crap, Tah! I can see.”

  He stood up slowly, turning to look at her, and she saw whatever comment he’d been about to say disappear as he reached up and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

  “You’re not wearing your glasses.”

  “And I can see. What the hell did you do to me?” The words were out of her mouth and in the air before her brain was engaged enough to stop them.

  Tah flinched, and his gaze became hooded. She’d hurt him carelessly, and she hadn’t meant to.

  “I’m sorry.” She moved into him, nuzzling her face against his skin and wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’m just a little shocked here.”

  His arms came around her. “I understand.”