Chapter 14

RYKER

As soon as those two words leave my lips, I walk us both toward the wall, caging her in between my arms. She smells like fucking heaven and hell wrapped into one, her emotions too chaotic to pinpoint. Whatever she is feeling right now is sweet, making the need to devour her that little bit more intense.

Her hands reach up to cup my jaw on both sides, pulling my face closer to hers as she rises onto her tiptoes. Those jade green eyes bore into my own with wonder, the invisible tether hauling me closer to her. She holds my heart, every fragile part of it in the palm of those hands now, tracing a line down the back of my neck.

The chance to step away is long gone, always has been. But in this moment, with the scent of her arousal flooding my senses, I have no chance to stop what's coming. The girl is about to be mine.

"Lyra, this is your last chance. I mean it. My control is slipping, fast. I need you like I need the air I fucking breathe."

When she doesn't move at all, she seals her own fate. The line in the sand has been whisked away. She has seen my hellhound form, watched me kill my father, and is still standing here without an ounce of fear. Those walls she has been building around her for years are crumbling right in front of my eyes, allowing me in for a rare taste.

"Ryker, I have always needed you. Since I walked through those doors, I have needed you. But you left me."

A stray tear rolls down her cheek, so I bend down further, my tongue flattening on her jaw. Low growls rip from my chest the moment my tongue connects with her skin, my demon side fighting its way to the surface. The flames running through my veins made it hard enough to shift back to this form, a battle I very nearly lost the moment she touched the smoking fur. That side of me reveled in her touch, the first and only person who has been allowed that close without a limb being torn off. Even at my most primal, my body craves her.

I follow the trail up her cheek before hovering a whisper away from her parted lips, not quite touching her. She will have my firsts, every single fucking one of them on a silver platter. My first kiss, my first time willingly fucking someone, my first time letting someone sleep beside me, all of it reserved for her. At least, everything that was within my control.

"You have no idea the choice you just made, pretty girl."

My hands run through her hair, gripping at the root and pulling backward to expose her throat to me. The mark I made across her neck a few weeks ago is still red, and although she has makeup on, she has made zero attempts to cover it. My teeth graze over the mark, sending a shiver through her already trembling frame.

"That was you, wasn't it?" She swallows, not attempting to shift her head at all, allowing me to hold her in place. "The mark."

I continue nipping at her delicate skin, across her collarbone, pulling the hoodie she is wearing to the side. She's so responsive to me, light, breathy moans escaping her parted lips the moment my teeth graze the sensitive space between her neck and shoulder.

"I would never let anyone other than me leave marks on your skin, Lyra. I have made sure of that."

My cock aches between us, digging into her upper stomach as I continue tasting her, enjoying the feeling of her being so sensitive to every move I make. Her body blooms to life under my touch, leaning into me as one of my hands trails beneath the waistband of her tight black pants. Before my fingers have even gotten beneath her panties, they are slick with arousal. Mine.

Bucking her hips forward, she forces my finger over her sensitive clit, my name falling from her the moment it makes contact. She doesn't know how fucking dangerous this game is, how very little control I have, how easy it would be to snap her in half by accident if my demon side takes over completely. As if sensing the thoughts, she pulls me from her throat and looks me straight in the eyes.

"I won't break, Ryks. I don't want you to be gentle. I want you to replace the pain, to taint my soul in a way that removes every piece of him."

Before she even has a chance to finish her sentence, I am ripping at the fabric of her pants, dropping them into a heaped pile at her feet. She pulls the hoodie over her head along with her tight white tank, her arms folding across her chest and stomach.

The bitter tang of fear starts to spread through her, her little heart racing in her chest now that she is as exposed as I am. The difference between the two of us is stark, me towering over her shivering frame, covered in drying tracks of crimson and black ink, her short and curvy, with only the small tattoos covering some of her scars, skin as soft as fucking velvet.

"I need to taste you right fucking now."

She nods as I run the back of my index finger down the slope of her chest, dropping my knees to the ground. Moving her arms, I nip at the skin of her sides, her stomach, leaving small red marks in my path. All I have ever dreamed of is for her to be mine in all ways, to be able to cover her in the marks of me, my scent.

Lifting one leg over my shoulder, I lick from her ass to her clit, brushing over the sensitive spot that has her jumping in my firm grip. Her eyes look over at the empty, dark pile behind us: the shell of my father, his soul long gone and out of this space. She shouldn't have been witness to that, his death. I had plans for him, to draw it out as long as his pathetic body would allow. He made the mistake of touching her again, though, and this time, I had the power to stop him.

My canines descend just enough to pierce the skin of her inner thigh, taking in a small amount of blood as it trails down her thighs. My kind are not usually biters, but fuck, if I didn't want a taste, and it distracts her enough to look away from the mess I made of my father. The copper tang floods my mouth, her life essence forcing my eyes to roll back just a touch.

"Are you sure you want this here, Lyra?" I whisper against her wound, giving her one last chance to get out of this. Not that I would leave her alone; I am having her either way, but it could be back at her apartment and not faced with death. His vessel's presence doesn't worry me; he died in my eyes the moment he laid a hand on my girl. The loss means nothing outside of sheer fucking relief to me.

"Take away the memories. Do I need to be?—"

The word beg is caught on the tip of her tongue while mine devours her, circling her clit while my fingers spread her apart, using her arousal to slide two fingers in. Her pussy clamps down around me, hugging my fingers tight with every movement. I curve them up once my palm is flat against her entrance, putting pressure exactly where she needs it.

Her hands thread through my hair, pulling me closer while she grinds herself on me, setting the pace. I could live here, all day, every day, drowned in the taste of her. The way she clamps down on my fingers has my cock twitching, beads of precum dripping onto the floor beneath us. Fuck, I need to be inside her, and it needs to be quick.

Upping my pace, I tease her clit a little more, my canines grazing each side of her pussy, on the verge of breaking skin. It doesn't take long for curses to fall from between her lips, her fingers pulling my hair tight as she rocks back and forth on my mouth. I chance a look, and what I see is something that will be ingrained in my mind for the rest of my existence: Lyra at the point of rapture, cheeks flushed, mouth open, tears streaming down her reddened cheeks.

As soon as the last wave of her release is over, I stand, picking her up off the ground. I can feel her smile against the skin of my shoulder, her body still trembling in my hold. Walking us over to the dining table, I lay her out like my last meal, her body on full display while her legs open wide. This woman is pure fucking perfection in every single way. At this moment, my demon side is completely in control, wanting to fuck her into oblivion.

"Please, Ryker," she chokes out, sitting up slightly and resting on her elbows. My hand wraps around her throat, pushing her back against the cold tabletop, the need to feel her thundering pulse beneath my fingers winning out.

Sliding my cock down her drenched pussy, I wipe her release from tip to base, twisting a little at my knot. Fuck, it's going to swell. I can feel the burn already, needing to be seated firmly inside her. My eyes roll back the moment the tip inches in as I bite down on the inside of my cheek. The sounds coming from me right now would scare the living shit out of her, halfway between man and beast. I'm holding on by the thinnest of threads, moments away from shifting against my will. If that happens, she will be torn apart at the seams.

The amount of lust that pours from her the moment I unleash has me unsteady on my feet, taking as much of her as I can. There is no softness to my pace, no easing her into it, but she meets me with every thrust. Her hands wrap around my forearm still gripping her throat to hold her in place. At first, I think she is trying to pull me away, but her teeth digging into her lush bottom lip tell me otherwise.

It takes everything I have not to explode, claiming her in every way I can, marking her from the inside out, knowing that every demon, human, and everything in between will know she belongs with me. In that exact moment, I start to siphon her emotions, starting the process of snapping our bond into place. She has no idea, nothing about the supernatural world and how it works, why she has been drawn to me since she set eyes on me and vice versa. But she will learn, in time. Right now, though? Right now, my demon is claiming his mate, and there is no stopping it.

My hand moves from her throat to her waist, gripping each side with a bruising grip. There's no doubt in my mind that she will have marks all over her, nips and bites, marks from my hands digging into her flesh like my life depends on it. It's a sight I can't wait to see, one I have waited years for with the bonus of my release dripping down her thighs. Fuck.

She grabs the edge of the table, sensing the onslaught coming. With a small nod from her, I completely unleash, my pace feral as she cries out into the silence. The table scrapes against the floor, moving us forward until it hits the wall with a loud smash.

My knot starts to swell at the base of my cock, prepping itself to slip inside her, to hold every last drop I have to give her. The overwhelming sense to breed this woman almost has me passing out, and I don't even think we can procreate. I let the lust pour in, the stress. Everything she has to give, I take, throwing my head back with a snarl.

She looks so perfect beneath me, crying and flushed. Marked and bruised. Filled to the fucking brim with me. My name falls from her mouth with a scream, her pussy gripping me painfully tight as her release rolls through her. Her body trembles beneath me, twitching with each aftershock, but I don't stop. I can't.

My knot pulses, slick with everything she has to give before it pushes its way inside her. It takes seconds for my balls to tighten, filling her to the fucking brim with my release to the point that it overflows out the sides, pushing past the knot. A small smirk plays at the corner of her lips as she clamps down around me, squeezing out every last drop.

Both of us remain silent, dripping in sweat, our chests heaving. I pull her up, my cock still locked inside her, and carry her over to the sofa. If I could only be in one place for the rest of my fucking life, it would be right here, deep inside her. Not in this house, though, no. This place needs to burn to the ground the moment we step foot outside. But first, she needs to release my knot, because there is no fucking way I am letting Axel see her like this, splayed out, completely naked.

Dropping down, I rest her thighs on either side of me, holding her close to my chest. She has yet to say a word, her emotions back to a swirling mess of everything piled into one. No rhyme or reason, just big feelings welling inside her perfect body. It would be a lot, seeing what she did. I wonder if her body can sense the bond like mine can, the warm thrum under the surface of my skin, the tightness of my heart as it thumps inside my ribs.

My reaper will be pissed, that much I know. He will rake my carcass over hot coals for how this was handled, even more so that I fucked her after it. He has no idea the magnitude of the situation and just how much I have tried to stay away from her, but now that the line has been crossed, there is no going back. Whatever I have to do to keep her, in every single fucking way, I will do it.

Regardless of the consequences.