Chapter 5

Rose

W ill and I darted out of the cave and toward Mariana, my heart pounding the whole way. My eyes darted back and forth, searching for any sign of Joseph's people, but there was no one out and about in the surrounding ocean. Getting caught was not something either of us could afford, but we made it to Mariana without incident.

Taking Will's cue, I shifted to my human form—which was still a wonder to me—and followed him up the beach by the Kings' cul-de-sac. A wave of nostalgia hit me as I took everything in. The golden sand, the large rock formations protruding from the earth, the path to the docks were all a welcome sight. The only thing missing was the various selkies and seals that were usually flopped all over the beach, but it made sense that they'd taken shelter elsewhere after… Yeah, I'm not going to go there .

Despite the dark turn of my thoughts, I realized I'd missed this place. A lot had happened on this beach: Will outing the selkies, his father taking his mind, Milo fucking me mercilessly and biting me... the latter of which had my cheeks blazing hot.

Trying to think of anything else, my eyes inadvertently went to Will's ass as he walked ahead of me… which wasn't any better! You have a boyfriend! You can't ogle your ex's ass just because it's right in front of you, I chastised myself. Yet my next thought came unbidden, unfiltered, and raw anyway. Even if it is a wonderful ass.

Will had always been gloriously formed. When I met him, he'd been big into weightlifting and swimming and had been quite bulky from that. Though he was a little slimmer now, there was little doubt in my mind that he was still as strong, even without the extra beefiness. My palms itched to run over the sculpted plains of his chest, his arms, everything—to reacquaint myself with every inch of him. But I couldn't. It wasn't appropriate.

While I was musing on his muscles, he turned to face me, the tension in his body somewhat relaxed now. Yet, a shadow still remained over his features.

Reaching out, I took his hand in mine. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He sighed, giving me a small smile. "I should be heading back, though. I don't want to get caught either, even if I have the invisibility charm."

I shuddered. The very notion had been a constant nightmare before my change. "Please be safe anyway, okay? If anything happened to you, I'd—I'd—"

I didn't know what I'd do. Despite everything, it would break me if he was hurt or fell prey to his father again. I wasn't sure I'd ever recover.

"Sweet Rose, I promise I'll be safe, just as long as you do the same. Don't go anywhere alone until I can get you a charm of your own. If my father figures out you're the talisman, he'll stop at nothing to take it for himself. I can't allow that to happen. It would be a disaster for all of us."

I let out a long breath. "I know. I'll stay with the Kings until we can figure all this out."

The idea of him leaving, though, had my stomach—and heart—in knots. In the last days of my transition, he'd slept on the floor of my bedroom. I'd gotten used to the feeling of his aura near mine, the sound of his breath, the beat of his heart. Even the little noises he made just existing had become a comfort I leaned on. I'd slept little in my time under the Call's power, but when I had, it hadn't been good. The silence, the solitude, had been too much.

"It's going to be okay," he said, as if sensing my unease. "We're going to figure all this out, and I'll be back soon to bother the hell out of you and be the worst teacher you've ever had."

That surprised a laugh out of me. "Vi was right. You really are a menace."

"And you like it." Will closed the space between us until there was barely a breath between us. He lifted his hand for a moment, halfway to touching my face, before dropping it again, a tinge of pink climbing into his cheeks. "I'm glad you're back."

"I'm happy to be back, too, even if…" Even if everything's all wrong now.

He opened his mouth, and it looked like he was going to say something… but he closed it again without a word. Instead, he smiled down at me. Already, the distance was unbearable, as if he were taking a part of my very soul with him, and I wanted to pull him back into my arms and never let him go.

But I didn't do that. I didn't ask him to stay like I desperately wished to, like the tugging in the center of my chest begged me to. Nor did I close the space he'd put between us.

Godsdamn was it a struggle, though.

With one last murmured goodbye from both of us, he walked back into the water, an echo of when he'd left me on the beach all those months ago. This time, however, when the water was up to his chest, he looked back. I waved at him, trying to smile and mostly managing to do so. He grinned back, raising his hand to wave at me in return, before diving out of sight.

My heart twinged. Watching him leave, even knowing he was going to come back, hurt. Almost as bad as when he'd walked away from me a year ago.

I didn't get the chance to dwell on my tender heart, though, as a voice cut through the air.

"Rose?"

I twirled around. Like a vision from my dreams, there stood Milo. My eyes drank him in, rememorized his features and his face. The last I'd seen him, the last time I'd heard his voice, I'd left him on the beach without so much as a glance behind me. But there he was. So close. Yet I was rooted to the spot, wanting to run to him while also mesmerized at the same time.

Six and a half feet of lean muscle clothed in only a pair of navy sweat shorts stalked toward me. He was just as beautiful as the last time I'd seen him, with his tousled hair plastered to his face and neck from the rain and his eyes oscillating between jade and cinnamon brown. Freckles dotted along the tops of his tanned cheeks and nose, and his lush lips were parted as he breathed hard. It was his scent, that beautiful sea and cinnamon, that came to me last, and my heart did somersaults in my chest as I breathed it in.

The past overlaid the present in my mind. A memory I desperately didn't want to remember… the night of my turn…

"Rose, please. I'll help you. Just give me a moment to…"

Milo's voice trailed off as I took another unwilling step back. Lunging forward again, he tried to get to me, but Will held him back, nodding at me, giving me permission to go. My feet kept bringing me backward, and Milo's eyes switched to that beautiful cinnamon brown I loved as he roared.

"Let me go, you finned fuck!" he screamed as he tried to shove out of Will's arms. His features sharpened, and his humanity bled away, his selkie coming out in full force.

"I can't. You have to let her go."

My vision blurred as I watched him trying in vain to fight out of Will's grasp.

"Rose! I love you!" he screamed, his heart breaking before my eyes. "Don't leave me! I love you!"

But I couldn't respond aside from choking back another sob, my heart shattering in my chest. All I could do was keep backing away, my whole being wrenched toward the sea. Once my feet touched the surf, against my will, I turned away from him to look at the ocean again, to where the thread was.

Then, without another look back, I dove into the water, listening to the man I loved scream my name, begging me to come back…

Finally, Milo was before me. Before I could comprehend his intentions, he yanked me to him and wrapped me in his arms, chasing away the bad memory. A rumble from his chest vibrated against my ear as he buried his nose in my hair. I clung to him as hard as he held me, and it wasn't until that moment that I realized how much I needed this, to be held together by the man who was becoming my everything… who already was my everything.

A hand tangled into my hair to angle my head toward him, and his cinnamon eyes met mine. There was so much I wanted to say, so much I needed to say, but my words died in my throat. What could I possibly say to make up for what I'd done?

My selkie, however, had other ideas for how to proceed.

His lips crashed into mine, mastering me in a moment. I wasn't prepared for the force, the ferocity with which he demanded I meet him. Yet my own desire, my own long-forgotten need, blazed up within me. My fingers laced into the hair at the back of his head as I hungrily devoured his mouth in return, letting him continue to guide me backward.

Pulling away just enough to breathe, I murmured, "I love you," before diving back in. I repeated the action once, twice, three times more. I needed him to know.

"I love you. I'm sorry," I said again as my back collided with rock. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want to leave. Please forgive me."

This was when he lost control, his eyes shifting completely to cinnamon as Beastie took over. "Say it again."

"I'm sorry?" And I was. I was so fucking sorry.

"No," he rumbled, his eyes boring into mine. His voice was inhuman, a deep bass, and it made my heart pound harder in my chest. "Tell me you love me."

"I love you. I love you. I've spent every waking moment I was in control of my mind wishing I was with you." My tears mixed with the rain pouring down on us. My breath hitched. "I love you, Milo and Beastie. I love you both with everything I have in me."

When his lips collided with mine again, his kiss had a feral edge to it, and I met him with the same intensity. I needed him like I needed oxygen in my lungs, sun on my skin. He was as essential to me as the beat of my heart, and until that moment, I hadn't realized it. I'm never letting him go again , I promised myself.

Beastie took two fistfuls of my dress and tore it from my body, baring me to his gaze. He tossed the ripped pieces away from us as if offended by the scraps of cloth. Those cinnamon eyes of his raked over me, perusing every inch of my skin. It took me far too long to realize he was checking me for injuries or scars.

I looked down at myself, praying to any God who would listen that I wasn't horribly disfigured from Davis's blade, but to my infinite relief, not even Joseph's claw marks were there. I could've cried. My torso, however, wasn't what Beastie was fixated on.

He brushed a finger over the left side of my clavicle, his gaze fixed there. There was such emotion in his eyes, one feeling morphing into another before I could fully name any of them.

My bite mark.

"You kept it," he said, almost in disbelief.

"Of course I kept it," I whispered. "It marks me as yours." In truth, I'd not really had a choice, but if I had, I'd have asked to keep it regardless.

"You still want me?" he asked, his usual confidence gone.

"I always want you. I want to be your girl forever." He could ask me to throw myself onto a bed of spikes, and I would do it just to see him smile.

Bending forward, he kissed the scar he'd given me before grazing his teeth over it. I shivered; it was much more sensitive than I thought it would be.

"My girl…" he rumbled, his grip on me tightening. "I must… You need my scent. You need to smell like mine."

My heart broke a little more. The despondence in his voice… he sounded so lost.

"Whatever you need to do," I whispered, running my hands over every inch of flesh I could reach, "you can do it. You can punish me if you need to. Anything—" I paused, my voice cracking a little. "Anything to atone for hurting you. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to leave you."

"Punishment?" He pulled back and tilted his head. The cinnamon of his irises started to bleed into the whites of his eyes as he regarded me, and my breath caught in my throat. Is he going to lose control? I pushed that thought away. No, this is just Beastie. He would never hurt me.

"You are angry, aren't you?" I asked tentatively.

He leaned in close, his lips a breath from mine. "I will be less angry when you smell like mine again."

He hesitated, not moving, and it took me far too long to understand that he was waiting for me to give him consent. So, I nodded. "Okay."

That was all Beastie needed. He dove in, capturing my lips in a brutal kiss that I welcomed. He growled, and something shifted between us, the air charging with an energy I'd never felt before. It left me utterly breathless.

His hands skimmed down to my ribs. "You're thin," he said, displeased.

I stayed completely still. "I didn't have much time or the control over my body to eat."

"Hmmm," he grumbled. "I will feed you once I am finished with this. I will make you fat and happy… I'll do anything to make you happy, Rose." Those inhuman eyes of his bored into mine. "I'd never return to the sea if you asked me not to. I'd burn my pelt. Even if it hurts, I will give you everything your heart desires. Everything that I am is yours to do with as you wish."

His words spoke to something deep within me, something primal. I reached up to cup his cheek reverently. "I could never ask that of you. I love you. I wish you to be whole and healthy and at my side."

"And if I wished to take care of you? To spoil you and hide you away in my den?" he asked, as if this would deter me.

Nothing had ever felt so right. "I would let you."

His pupils dilated until the cinnamon of his irises was not much more than the thinnest rim. "You trust me to take care of you?"

"I trust you with everything that I am."

The air between us charged and shifted again, prickling against my skin. As his power pulsed over me, a rush of heat went straight between my legs, and my nipples pebbled into taut points. His nostrils flared.

"Then I would ask that you give me your trust now."

"You have it," I whispered. "You've always had it."

"Good. You're going to need it."

That was all the warning I got before he was on me again, bearing down on me until we lay on the sand with him on top, straddling me. His mouth spent only a moment on mine before traveling to my jaw, then to my neck, and further downward still. The sensation that sparked along my skin had needy little noises spilling from my throat. The sensations I was experiencing now—what he was making me feel—paled in comparison to any I'd ever felt as a human. The rasp of his fingers across my skin, the drag of his lips, the glide of his teeth… all of it made my skin feel as if it were on fire. Everything was just… more.

He made his way to my breasts and wasted no time in sucking one into his mouth so hard I cried out in pain, a pain that had my pussy gushing wetness. He sucked a little harder, pulling back and letting my nipple pop out of his mouth before giving it a few soothing flicks of his tongue. Then he did the same to the other one, a little harder this time, making me arch my back.

"Beastie!" I cried out, just when it came to the point of too much pain.

He released my flesh from his mouth once again, flicking this nipple with his tongue, too, and when he saw how pink my skin was, he grinned, pleased with himself. It was only then that I realized he'd given me hickeys there, the pink remaining and darkening before my eyes. I opened my mouth to protest, but the words turned into a squeal when he shifted. Now he was no longer straddling my legs but between them.

Beastie's big hands spread me wide, bending my legs to get a better angle, and his gaze zeroed in on my dripping wet core. He let out an appreciative rumble and licked his lips. His intent was more than clear. He grinned anew.

Without warning, he gripped the backs of my knees and bent me practically in half so he could feast on my pussy. All my weight rested on my shoulders as he greedily sucked my clit between his teeth, just as he'd done with my nipples, and though I tried to kick my legs to escape the pleasurable torture, he merely readjusted his grip on my thighs to restrict my movements. The longer he licked me, the less I could think about anything but his tongue and mouth and teeth.

Beastie ate me like a starving man, like a feral animal getting his first meal after a long famine. He left no room for thought or doubt. There was only pleasure. White hot, ravaging pleasure that sparked an inferno within me more intense than anything I'd felt before. He lapped at the source of my wetness, letting it slick his face and dribble down his chin before moving back up to work my clit. This man, this creature, knew exactly how to make my body sing for him, and sing I did. I came for him in a chorus of screams and pants and moans.

As I orgasmed, he sucked my clit into his mouth one last time, wringing every last ounce of pleasure out of me before releasing my flesh with another audible pop. He didn't let me take a breath or come down from the heights of my climax before he was moving me into another position. Unfolding my body, he let my feet touch the sand, but he kept hold of my hips with one hand so they were off the ground and lined up with his. With the other, he ripped the front of his pants clean off, freeing his cock so that it thumped against my pussy.

He rubbed the hard length of himself against my sensitive flesh, eliciting a shiver from me that seemed to please him. With his free hand, he lined up his manhood with my pussy, and the broad head of his cock pressed into me. It was too much so soon after coming. Pleasure coursed through me, and my eyes fluttered shut, but my Beastie gripped my hips harder and growled, making my gaze snap to his.

"Eyes on me. Don't you dare close them," he snarled with absolute authority. "I need you to see who you belong to."

I nodded. It was all I could do, but it seemed to satisfy him. He pushed forward, filling me at an agonizingly slow pace, and when he was fully seated inside me, his eyes left mine to look where our bodies were joined. He didn't move. He didn't thrust into me. He just stared where we were connected. Another appreciative rumble vibrated through him.

"My woman looks divine on my cock," he said when his eyes finally met mine again.

"Oh, fuck," I breathed, clenching around him.

His eyes fluttered as a grin split across his face. "Oh, I think I will."

Readjusting his grip on my hips, Beastie pulled out of me nearly all the way, then drove back into me hard enough that the breath was knocked from my lungs. I gasped for air as he repeated the action, making me breathless all over again. He plunged into me like that over and over again, gaining speed with each push forward until he was pounding into me.

His pace was punishing, brutal. Harder than it was fast, his hips thumping against me. It was nothing like the sex we'd had before—at all—and the little part of me worried I'd break, that he'd shatter my bones and ruin me. I was held in place by his grip alone, subjected to whatever he wanted to give to me, and all I could do was watch him as he owned me. An edge of panic sharpened the pleasure he was giving me. I was at his mercy.

And I loved it.

My orgasm came out of nowhere, ripping through me hard enough that I screamed, losing control of myself completely. My claws and webbing came to the surface, as did my sharpened teeth and a wealth of scales on my legs, and though I tried to stop myself, my eyes rolled to the back of my head. This was pleasure on a different level… beyond anything I'd felt as a human. My whole body seized with it.

Beastie didn't give me a chance to come down this time, either. In fact, he didn't even pause in his relentless pace, as if he were carving out a place for himself within me. One of his hands released my hip, and he slapped my ass, bringing my attention right back to him.

"Eyes on me," he growled. "We're nowhere near done yet."

I wailed in disbelief. "I… we… I'll break!"

"You can take everything that I can give you. I'll prove it to you."

He had the absolute audacity to smirk at me before scrambling my brains even harder. I didn't even think it possible, but somehow, he thrust harder and faster than before, throwing aside any fa?ade of humanity. In those moments, he showed me who he was, his wildness. The animal within him. Everything he'd shielded me from was laid bare as the man was completely stripped away.

He brought me to the peak of ecstasy twice more, his eyes boring into mine the whole time. I felt everything he was doing to me keenly. This intensity of sensation was nearly beyond my comprehension, and I was nearly delirious. My claws dug deep grooves into the wet sand as I mindlessly screamed my pleasure.

But as I tired out, so did Beastie, losing his steam as he tried to work me up to a fourth cataclysmic orgasm. A shudder went through him, and the way his eyes fluttered shut and his movements halted, I almost thought he came, but he remained hard within me, that tell-tale wet heat from his spent pleasure absent. A whisper of uncertainty surfaced in my scrambled thoughts, only to be replaced with concern when he shifted suddenly, lowered my bottom half to the sand, and lay chest to chest with me, breathing hard.

When he opened his eyes, it wasn't the cinnamon of Beastie that looked back at me but the jade of the man to which my heart belonged. Once more, all my unsaid confessions rose up, but Milo kissed me sweetly. Tenderly. And when he pulled back, he pressed his forehead to mine. I gazed up at him in wonder.

"One more," he panted. "One more for me. Not for him."

I didn't have to guess who he meant. I just nodded, wrapping my arms and legs around him. This time, his movements were slow and deliberate, coaxing my pleasure from me rather than forcing it, and tears sprung to my eyes when I gazed up at him.

"Rose," he murmured, his tone awed. "My beautiful Rose. My love."

Words were hard to form when confronted with the love shining in his eyes, so I kissed him with everything I had in me, willing him to understand how I felt about him in return, even if I couldn't say it aloud. Milo responded in kind. When he pulled away from my lips, there were tears in his eyes but a smile on his face.

My pleasure crested one last time. My sharpened teeth sank into the meat of his collarbone as I came, marking him as mine the same way he'd marked me that day on the beach. It wasn't a conscious thing, but the need to stake my claim upon him, to show the whole world he was mine, was an instinct I couldn't deny. His blood filled my mouth, spilled from the corners, and dripped down my cheeks and chin as my jaw locked in place.

He bellowed, the sound echoing off the water and stone around us as the bite tipped him over the edge and his own orgasm overtook him. His knot swelled within the confines of my pussy and locked him inside me. It expanded, stretching me around him, giving me no quarter or mercy until it bordered on the pleasurable side of pain. His spend filled me, the warmth of it heating me from the inside. More than that, I could feel his soul twining with mine, wrapping around me just as tightly as his body was.

I missed you… I love you… forgive me… I whispered to him, hoping he'd hear my pleas. And in response, his soul radiated the same love that I gave him. Tears filled my eyes again.

I pulled my teeth from his flesh to look up at him, to look upon the man who had my heart. Rain and blood dripped onto me, but my eyes were fastened to his face. His expression had relaxed to something akin to relief and calm, and when his gaze met mine, his heart shined through.

Milo's lips met mine once more, not caring that his blood flavored our kiss. It was slow and languid, filled not with heat but with passion and love. When he pulled away, he gathered me to him as we both tried to catch our breath.

"I tried to follow you," he said after a long silence, his voice so low I nearly missed it. "I tried to follow you, but then Joseph came. I had to make sure your aunt was safe, and by the time I'd dealt with that, your scent was gone. You were too far from me to find you."

"I'm sorry," I replied, kissing his unbitten shoulder and hugging him tighter to me. His tears were hot and wet against my skin, and they brought out more of my own.

He pulled back a little, but not enough to look at my face. No, he was looking at my shoulder again, and with a little noise, he forced out, "You still have my mark. I was scared that… I was scared that it would be gone when you were changed."

"I'm still your girl," I said, then added as a wave of uncertainty broke upon me, "if you want me."

Milo lifted himself enough to look me in the eyes. "Of course I want you. I love you, Rose Annemarie Sutton McKenzie. I love you so much, and I'm going to prove to you every day that I'm worthy of being your man."

The comfort, the happiness his words brought me filled my whole body with warmth.

"I love you, too."