16. Slade

16

SLADE

I let her stew while I stripped off my clothes. I knew she was unsatisfied—she needed to come. And that desire would only get stronger.

That was because we were Fated Mates , which was drawing us closer together whether she realized it or not. And because while males get The Thirst , women who are the Fated Mate of a Brutal male get what we call “ The Need .”

The Need is different from The Thirst because it can take many forms. The Thirst gives a male a deep, almost painful desire to taste his female’s juices and bring her pleasure with his mouth and tongue. But the Need can manifest in a woman in a lot of different ways.

She might get intensely cold and need skin-to-skin contact with her Fated Mate . Or her breasts might fill with thick, sticky, nectar that has to be sucked out. Her pussy might start getting really wet—making more honey that it ever has before. A woman with the Need might also find her clit getting painfully sensitive—a condition that could only be soothed by her Fated Mate’s tongue. Or she might feel an intense emptiness inside and a need to have her pussy filled.

She might even develop a thirst for male seed—though that symptom is rare. But mostly, the Need causes an unfulfilled woman to need to come—to orgasm. And not just once—over and over again. But her own touch doesn’t help her—she needs her Fated Mate to make her come. Which is where The Thirst comes in—the two compliment each other nicely. When the woman in question is willing to let her male drink from her, that is.

A woman in Need might display only one of the possible symptoms—or she might develop all of them or some new ones that no one else had ever had. But all the symptoms had one thing in common—the only cure for them was physical and sexual contact with her Fated Mate . So all I had to do was wait for Aurora to begin manifesting one or more of the signs and then give her what she needed so desperately.

She was stubborn— I knew that. But the longer she was in Need , the closer it would bring her to me. As my Fated Mate , she would come to crave my touch the way I craved hers. But I couldn’t rush the process. I could only wait patiently until The Need overcame the fucking ridiculous beliefs she’d been raised with and brought her to me.

The Thirst tore at me but I pushed it away. I wasn’t going to rush her, I told myself. A night of breathing my Fated Mate pheromones and being close to me would bring her to me and The Need would do the rest. She’d be parting her thighs for my tongue before she knew it.

I was fucking sure of it.