34. Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

C ourage

This is my mate. Every primitive, feral bone in my body wants to pounce on her, pound into her, make her mine in every way. My fangs are dripping with saliva as I try to curb my need to bite her, to give her my mate mark.

Slow, slow, tender, Courage. This is what human women want. You're going to terrify her, scare her off within minutes of her accepting your proposal.

Skimming my hands over her body, I master the urge to extend my claws and claim every inch of her skin with pale red marks. I have no desire to make her bleed. I just want to scrape hard enough to leave a mark for an hour. My need is overwhelming to brand, to claim, to mate.

Instead, I control all of that and touch her even more tenderly, repeating how much I love her in Wolven and English.

"Make love with me, Courage."

It takes every ounce of strength I possess to tamp down my baser urges and continue to arouse her with my tongue, my fingertips, my words. My head feels as though it's stuffed with cotton. I can't think anymore, functioning only on impulse as the back of my mind howls, my wolven nature demanding to take over.

I'm licking and nipping her nipple when she grips my cock. Her touch is rough, a gentle yank that grabs my attention. It's only when I look into her eyes that she demands, "What have you done with my Courage?"

"Hmm?"

"Where's the male I fell in love with? You've buried him. I fell in love with a wolven. Fuck me like one."

A roaring sound fills my ears as my cock turns to steel. My eyes flare as I gaze at her, trying to ensure this is what my woman wants before I lose my mind completely.

"I want you, Courage. All of you. Just as you are. No pale substitutes."

My wolven nature leaps to the forefront, announcing the change with a howl that reverberates off the walls. Without thought, I toss her to the bed and follow her onto it. As I grip her shoulder with my fangs, I let her feel the pressure yet keep its power leashed.

Instead of terrifying her, she goads me on. "That's right, wolven. This is the male I fell in love with."

No longer hiding my true nature, I let myself loose. I slide my unsheathed claws through her hair, then draw them down her shoulders and breasts, watching the palest pink lines appear on her skin.

"Mine," I rasp.

When her arousal scent bursts on the air, I realize it was missing when I was keeping my true nature hidden moments ago. This. This is what my woman wants. All of me.

"I'm going to fuck you, mate."

"Good."

"You're going to take my knot."

Her fear-scent spikes, but dissipates quickly. We've never talked about my knot, but she's sucked my cock and has to know what I'm talking about. Bold and Jasmine are soulbound. Will the Goddess bless us too? We won't know until I bite her with my mating mark. It's too much to hope for, but it doesn't matter, we we'll be mates no matter what.

My Candy doesn't just lie back and wait for me to make the next move. Instead, she commands, "Give it to me, wolven. Give me your knot."

This woman faced down her abusers and walked away the winner. What made me think she couldn't handle a thing like my knot?

As I sheath my claws, I yank her thighs apart, then slide one, then two, then three fingers inside her warm channel.

"You're dripping for me, Candy."

"Yeah. Because I love you. All of you. Now, show me what you've got."

I know she wants me to pound into her, force my knot inside her, but that's not the wolven way, certainly not my way. I need to make her come first.

I bury myself in her in one long, slow slide, groaning with the bliss of being gripped in her tight sheath. Her hands fist in my shoulder pelt as her thighs grip my hips, her feet resting on the backs of my knees as she positions herself to take her pleasure.

I ride her from above as she writhes below me, moving her hips in rhythm with mine, bucking up to force each thrust as deeply as possible.

"Feel my knot?" I husk into her ear. How could she not feel it? It's pressing against her with every passionate drive of my hips.

"Harder!"

That's my Candy, my mate.

"I want you to come first." My words are murmured into the shell of her ear as I change my angle and drag against her clit with every sweet invasion.

I know it's perfect when she gasps and her thighs clutch me harder. She's keening now, her head thrust back, throat arched—a prey's gift to the predator, the signal of complete surrender.

"Fuck!" I almost lose my load at the sight of my woman giving me everything, all of her.

She quivers, her inner walls clenching me tight as she falls apart under me. She fists my pelt so hard I imagine my hair is being pulled out by the handfuls.

"That's right, beautiful woman. Take your pleasure."

My words urge her on, somehow making her climax gain momentum as she spasms beneath me, around me.

Now is the time to bite her, when she's in the throes of bliss. We haven't discussed it, though I should have brought it up.

As she slowly spirals down from her orgasm, I place my fangs on her shoulder, capturing her attention.

Reluctantly pulling my mouth off her, I say, "I want to bite you, love. It will hurt and will leave my permanent mark on your neck, but it will bind us."

Our gazes connect and somehow a conversation passes between us, though no words are exchanged. The expression on my face must tell her how much I want this because she barely hesitates before nodding.

"Do it." When I hesitate, she hisses, "Do it, Courage. I don't want to wait a minute more to become your mate."

All control evaporates, and I pierce her with my fangs. The coppery tang of her blood bursts on my tongue. Though I've never tasted anything like it before, it's like coming home. She cries out, muffling the noise in my pelt.

Her pain tears at my heart for only a moment, then that's when the old tales become true. The elders said if the female is our soulbound, it only hurts for a moment, then our saliva increases her pleasure.

Though she had a powerful release only moments ago, her rapture seems to hit her like a thunderbolt as her channel grips my cock and she moans in bliss, her back arched like a bow.

Releasing all inhibitions, I hammer her now, battering her so my knot can move that final inch and slide inside her. She's working with me, as determined as I am to finish this. If she were a different person, I would offer to wait, tell her we could try again another day. But if she were a different person, I wouldn't love her as much as I do.

With one final thrust, the thick ring of flesh slides inside her. She yelps, her eyes flaring wide as her mouth makes an O of surprise. Then her lids flutter shut, her lips forming a thin line as she lapses into silence.

She opens her eyes and captures my gaze in hers. "Oh, my God. So. Full. I've never felt closer to you."

"I love you, Candy." Though I want to tell her she's mine, I surprise myself by declaring, "I'm yours."

"I love you, too. And Courage, I'm yours. Forever."

I mate her with renewed vigor, my release building, spiraling, climbing until it explodes. My knot swells impossibly larger, locking my cock inside her. I paint her womb with my seed as I howl loud enough to wake everyone on the floor.

Candy's back arches and the scream that rips from her throat blends with mine as her walls seize my cock in a vise of rhythmic pulses that blast me into the stratosphere.

I press my forehead to hers as we gasp for breath. I didn't believe it, but I knew it in my heart. Candy is my soulbound. My one and only.

A moment ago, everything had been so serious, life-altering. Now, somehow, we're both laughing. To soothe any residual pain, I lap at the beautiful mark on her left shoulder. Seeing it there fills me with pride, possession.

"So, your knot knotted?"

"Yes, Goddess be praised, it did. A wolven's knot swells and locks only for his soulbound."

"How long will we be connected like this?"

"Don't know. Why?"

"I love it. Love being together. So intimate. But the moment you release me, I want to see what my bite looks like."

For the briefest second, I wonder if she'll hate being marked, but the look on her face is anything but filled with regret. Her grass-green eyes are sparkling.

"I'll need a new wardrobe, you know. Some of my friends have done that when they got a tattoo, found clothes with shoulder cut-outs. I want to show it off. Oh!" Her eyes fly wide. "It won't fade, will it?"

A starburst of satisfaction flares in my chest that she wants to show off her connection to me. "Not if I have anything to say about it. If it does, I'll just have to bite you again."

"Mmm." She gives me a long, close-lipped kiss. "That gave me the most powerful orgasm of my life. You'll get no complaints from me, mate ."

My mind is racing with joyous thoughts about this, but I realize that although I've kept my thoughts to myself my whole life, I'm mated now. This woman wants to know what I'm thinking.

"I landed on Earth, little more than a pup, in a painful heap on the sands of the Mojave Desert. I was alone and terrified. A wolven female who lost her mate and pups took me in and raised me until she died when I was eighteen. I joined the Warriors and they became my family, my pack. Since then, my prospects haven't exactly been bright. I've kept my hopes and dreams to a minimum to protect my heart from aching. But there were moments in the dark of night when I allowed myself to dream of a mate."

I press my palms to her cheeks, needing her to gaze into my eyes as I tell her the next part.

"In all that time, even in my most hopeful dreams, I never dreamed of anything half as wonderful as you. Mae adme rosh . I love you, Candy Wood."

She bursts into tears and haphazardly waves her hand at her face. The only words she can force from her lips are, "Tears of joy, Courage." Then she hugs me tight and I lap at her mating mark until she falls asleep in my arms, my knot still joining us together.