Chapter Twenty-One

Jeremiah

I watch as the van Ares called pulls up, its headlights cutting through the darkness like a knife. We had stayed with the bodies, knowing that if we left, the assassins might retrieve their dead and leave no evidence behind.

The air is thick with tension, and I can still feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. Cassie's kill has shaken me to my core. I want her so badly it feels like an addiction, a craving I can't control.

I feel like a junkie when it comes to her. Craving her, but never satisfied. I don't think I will ever be.

Ares is talking to the man he had called, his friend Henry. I watch them from a distance, wondering if Ares is as shaken as I am. He seems calm, collected, as if this is just another day for him. I envy his composure.

My mind races with different thoughts. What if we didn't come on this run with Cassie? What would have happened?

I mean, Cassie's wolf is strong. That much she has proven to all of us, but could she have handled them all alone? I shake my head, refusing to let those dark thoughts creep into my mind.

She's safe now. We protected her and that's all that matters.

Ares exchanges a handshake with Henry, bidding him goodbye. He turns around and walks up to me.

"Come on, let's go," he says, his voice low and steady.

My heart pounds loudly in my chest, knowing what lies ahead. We will have to take Cassie tonight. It's time.

We make our way to the building, the scent of her already reaching us from upstairs. It is intoxicating, overwhelming.

I know Eric is probably doing his best to sate her up there, but it won't be enough. It never is. The anticipation is building with each step.

Suddenly, Ares turns to me, his expression unreadable. "You can knot her first," he says, his voice devoid of emotion.

I am shocked, my mind reeling. Knot her first? It is an honor, a privilege I hadn't expected.

But then he adds, "I'm going to mark her after, though."

Another shock, but I understand. This makes more sense.

Cassie can't control herself. If she remains unmarked, any random Alpha who lost their senses to her will mark her the first chance they get, just like the assassins earlier.

We reach the room, and there she is, a vision of chaos and beauty. Cassie mewls as we enter, feeling affected by our pheromones.

I walk up to Eric and tap him on his shoulder. "You've worked hard. Go grab some water."

My brother looks both spent and deeply sated, still looking at Cassie even as he nods and goes to do as he was told.

Ares takes a seat on the couch in the dark corner of the room, his gaze on Cassie and I.

Cassie's eyes lock onto mine, a mixture of desperation and desire. Her cheeks are flushed, and her hair sticks to her skin, slick with sweat.

Her sweet scent fills the air, her pheromones almost pushing me to my limits. I take off my glasses, and place them on the bedside drawer.

I take a seat on the bed and tug Cassie onto my lap, finding her mouth and devouring it in a passionate kiss. She moans softly, grinding against me.

"God, you taste amazing," I mumble against her mouth.

In response, she slides her arms around my neck and pulls herself up, wrapping her lean legs around my waist, and it's instinct that has me catching her under the thighs to support her.

It's curiosity that sends my hands sliding up her legs to her ass.

My hands are as hungry as my mouth, and they're currently filled with the delicious flesh of her bottom, and I am squeezing her skin my lips finally slot against her own in a way that coaxes them to part. And then I'm truly tasting her mouth—it's like sweet champagne mixed with the clean taste of her.

I kiss her for a long time, long enough for my muscles to remind me that I'm carrying her weight on my arms, long enough for me to familiarize myself with the swells and swerves of her mouth— the tiny vaults between teeth and tongue, the silky arches of lips, the heat, the taste, oh, the taste.

She moans against me, squirms against me, the center of her heat right against my stomach, and I hate every fiber of the fabric that separates my skin from hers.

I run my hands along the warm, soft flesh of her ass. I squeeze a handful before smacking her on the right cheek. She hums with pleasure into my mouth.

God, I can't get enough of her. I've never felt more alive in my entire life. She's writhing on my lap, grinding herself against me as I run my fingers against her wet folds. Moaning against her neck, I find Ares' intense gaze on us.

"Make her lie on the bed," he commands.

I turn around, the bed making a squeaky sound as I switch our positions, placing Cassie on the bed while I hover over her.

My hands are greedy, fondling her breasts with rough touches, moving with pressing fingertips over her waist and hips and shoulders and collarbone.

Everywhere, I want to touch her everywhere.

I lean forward and suck on the tips of her breasts while she cradles the back of my head, earning me lots of squirms and gasps from her.

Cassie wraps a hand around my waist to bring me closer. Eventually, I lock her wrists behind her back, forcing her tits to jut forward and her hips to tilt toward mine.

At some point, Ares comes to sit next to us, murmuring the most maddening things in my ear. "Put your fingers in her and thrust in and out."

I hear the sound of his zipper and the muffled fuck he whispers out.

I let my fingers slide through Cassie's wet heat. Her slickness coats my hands.

"Fuck, you are squeezing my fingers so tightly," I groan.

"Lift up your hips, Cassie. Let me see you take you Jeremiah's cock."

Biting her lip, Cassie raises her hips in the air as I line myself up with her soaking core. She doesn't even notice she did that, too lost to the sensation of my skin on hers.

I don't waste another minute—I can't, actually. My cock is so hard that the skin is shiny and tight.

Cassie lowers her hips, letting me sink deep inside her. I let out a strained moan of pleasure.

Goosebumps cover her skin as I slide deeper inside, and fuck, it feels so fucking good. She's tight and slick and hot, like a fist, and the sight of it, my thick rod disappearing into her wet heat as she keeps herself spread open for me—it's almost punishing how hot the sight is. I have to breathe through my nose as I keep pushing in, feeding inch after thick inch into her greedy body.

And then it's there, I'm all the way there, and I am still breathing through my nose, because I'm going to come any minute, I just know I am, and I'm not ready to give this up yet.

The sight of Cassie shivering with her sides moving in short, exhilarated breaths and her hair sticking against her neck is like an aphrodisiac to me. As is the feeling of her channel so slick and so smooth, clenching so very hard on my dick, like it wants to milk the orgasm right out of my body. The stroke and squeeze of her, the heat and pressure up every nerve ending in my cock, it's driving me mad.

"That's my girl," I moan, kissing her neck. "God, I love being inside you."

"I love it too," she whispers with a breathy whimper.

"You two are so fucking hot," Ares adds from beside me. He's currently stroking his dick while watching me fuck Cassie.

Fuck!

I've never been so hard.

I claim her lips once more, tracing them with my tongue and stealing her breath and replacing it with mine. I fuck into her with slow, deep rolls that have her whimpering against my mouth.

I grab Cassie's hips, holding her and restricting her on the bed, taking charge.

And then I slam into her.

Hard.

Deep.

And fast.

All the way to the top of my knot.

She moans as my fingers meet her clit, rubbing it.

God, her pussy. It's the best combination of slippery and tight, and it has my stomach clenching. My hand is fisted in the pillow underneath her and my thighs trembling with restraint.

She arches and wiggles underneath me, her stomach once again pressing flat against mine and driving me mad. I unleash a wicked flurry of thrusts out of sheer reaction, my weight driving her into the bed, my hips moving hard and fast.

"Ohhh," she breathes, staring up at me. "Oh God."

I do it again. I hug her tight to my chest and burrow my face in her neck, and then I pump into her over and over and over, static crowding at the edges of my vision, my mouth open and kissing against her neck and shoulder.

Her breasts bounce with every hard thrust, her face contorted in pleasure.

I am in rut now, an animal bent only on mating, mindless with the sheer need to knot her.

Cassie gasps loudly, and I grab her neck, shoving my tongue down her throat. She clenches so tightly around me, her slick pouring over my cock.

I grab her waist and flip her over, still remaining inside of her. I shove her head into the pillow, muffling her screams as I take her even deeper.

"Fuck, baby. You take me so good." I mutter, rubbing my hands over her soft cheeks.

I spread her cheeks apart, rubbing my thumb against the rim of her ass. Her body tenses up.

"Soon," I chuckle deeply.

I fuck her harder, her sweet pheromones weakening my senses and when I feel my orgasm creeping in, I don't hold it back.

With my hand fisted in her hair, my body explodes with pleasure. My groans are guttural and deafening as my balls draw up so tightly, and I knot her, pushing in all the way on my last thrust.

Cassie bites down hard on my shoulder in response, her teeth just breaking my skin. We both are shaking from pleasure as she takes my knot, squeezing down on me like she will never let go.

I breathe harshly, and I let the intense feelings wash over me, drowning me in ecstasy because I know that there will be more tonight. This is nowhere near over.