Chapter 13

Lucian was up to something. She wasn't sure what, but she knew he was. He had made sure that the entire clan, with the exception of those on patrol, was seated at dinner when they joined them. Earlier in the day, he'd sent men to meet the fishing boats to procure enough of the highly desirable Copper River salmon for them all to enjoy. Zenya loved salmon in general, but Copper River was her absolute favorite.

All of the side dishes were ones she enjoyed: risotto, potatoes, a whole variety of vegetables and real sourdough rolls made from a sourdough starter that had been in the making since the gold rush. Then there had been the choice between the only two desserts she couldn't resist: hummingbird cake and key lime pie.

For days now, Lucian had been far more seductive than he had been in the past—under the table, he laid his hand on her thigh, making her tremble. He brushed his big body against hers, all the while purring or rumbling at her either so low no one else could hear, or silently down the link. Each time she could feel her arousal increase so that everything he did—even chewing his food—seemed full of sexual innuendo.

His hand came to rest on her thigh, squeezing it gently until she wanted to either melt and become a puddle at his feet or curl up in his lap, purring to him and waiting for him to take her upstairs to their bed. The longer they ate, the more he increased the level of seduction. He touched her, brushed against her, all the while purring or rumbling to her down the link. He whispered in her ear, nuzzled her neck and was blatant in his attentions.

Zenya was trying to enjoy her hummingbird cake. She wasn't sure how Lucian knew she'd come to love the hummingbird cake, as she hadn't discovered it until she'd been on her way to North Carolina. But he'd known her since she was a child, and he knew how much she adored key lime pie. The sweet and sour curd combined with a crispy graham cracker crust and whipped cream had always been something she couldn't resist.

Lucian used his fork to cut a bite from the back of the pie that combined crust, curd, and whipping cream. She couldn't seem to look away and watched as he put his fork down and used his fingers—his long, sensual fingers—to pick up the bite. His other hand was trailing from the top of her thigh to the inside and up toward her sex.

Her eyes were fixated on the pie as he slowly raised it up to her face, leaned in, and slipped it into her mouth. He was close enough and his voice was a low, husky whisper that only she could hear. "I can't wait until I can watch my cock slip between those luscious lips, both those on your face and those that even now are swelling and softening for me."

It took Zenya a moment to realize what he'd said to her. Once she did, her reaction was immediate and definitive. She bit his fingers—hard, forcing him to jerk his hand back. She pushed back from the table, violently shoving the chair back as she stood up and sent it crashing to the floor. As a coup de grace she took the pie plate containing the remainder of the key lime pie and dumped it over his head.

"I'd rather suck the dick of a dragon than get anywhere near yours. I hate you." She turned and addressed the room. "I hate you all, and someday I will be able to turn my back on this place and on this clan and walk away—never, ever to return."

They were terrible words, and they weren't true, but they burst forth nonetheless.

Zenya spun away from him and rushed out of the room. She knew she'd caught him by surprise and that it wouldn't be long before he was after her. She needed to get to safety, but there was no place at Ice Storm that was safe. If she ran outside, he was faster and stronger; he'd be on her in a minute. She'd issued a direct challenge and insult to him and had done it in front of the entire clan. There was no one, including her brother, who would help her.

She needed to hide, but where? She charged up the stairs. He wouldn't expect her to stay in the house. She ran to her room. Not the best place, perhaps, but at least she knew what was in there. She entered the room and decided not to lock the doors. That should throw him off. She would go into the big walk-in closet and hide among the clothes that kept showing up—some were from North Carolina, but others had been curated by a stylist at one of the expensive boutiques in Seattle.

Making herself as small as possible, she curled into the back corner and hoped for the best. She could feel him calling to her—not hear him, feel him. He was inside her head, and he was getting close to her.

"You have been a very naughty mate this evening," he said, sliding the hanger down the rod away from her to expose her hiding place. "I have been very patient with you, Zenya, but I think you may have exceeded even my tolerance for your misbehavior." He held out his hand to her. "Come, mate."

The lust in his deep rumble made her entire body shiver, and while she recognized a command when she heard it, she wasn't sure if he wanted her to get up and go to him or have an orgasm. She was pretty sure she could do either.

Lucian beckoned her with his hand and extended it to her. She grabbed his one hand in both of hers and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

"You are beautiful," he purred as he pulled her close, reaching for the hem of her sweater and drawing it over her head.

"Lucian, don't."

"I don't think so," he said as he unhooked her bra and freed her breasts. "Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to get my hands and mouth on these beauties?" He strummed her nipples with his thumbs as he knelt before her, placing butterfly kisses on her belly.

Zenya moaned and steadied herself by placing her hands on his shoulders. She was fairly sure her knees would have buckled had his hands not been supporting her, holding her up. Keeping one hand resting on her hip, Lucian ran his hand down the back of her calf, gently pulling off first one boot followed by the soft, slow removal of the second. Zenya moaned and swayed as he hooked his fingers in the waistbands of her leggings and panties and peeled them down, nuzzling her mound. That was almost her undoing. She bit her lower lip in an effort to stave off the orgasm she knew was inevitable.

"Lucian, no. Please. I will never forgive you."

He chuckled—his breath puffing out and tickling the curls at the juncture of her thighs. "No, my beloved, that isn't true. Come morning, you will purr for me and want more of the cream only I can give you."

Lucian pulled the flannel shirt he'd been wearing over his head and stood up, skimming his hands up her curves and cupping her breasts again as he toed off his boots. He removed her hands from his shoulders, bringing them down to the top of his jeans.

"Unbutton my fly, Zenya," he purred.

She was staring at her hands resting on his waistband. She couldn't seem to move; couldn't seem to do anything but stare until she finally shook her head.

"Yes, Zenya." The purr deepened into a growled command.

She fumbled with the buttons, trying to pull her hands away when she could feel his hard cock throbbing against them. Lucian growled again and brought her hands back to his fly.

"Now, my mate. This will go easier for you if you don't argue with me. As it is, my control is limited at best. It is time we were one."

Finally, she had the fly open, and his cock sprang free. He wasn't wearing any kind of underwear, and she was confronted with a large hard cock with a bulbous head that was leaking precum.

"I don't want this."

"Yes, you do," he purred. "Almost as much as I do."

"How can you want this when you know I don't?"

"Because we both know that you do." He placed his crooked finger under her chin and raised her eyes to him. "I can't wait to feel your climax spasm along my cock as I thrust into you. You will submit to my possession, and I will revel in your surrender. I long to feel your nails rake my back as you writhe beneath me in ecstasy."

He made it sound all too easy, and there were several parts of her that wanted to believe.

"I won't," she whispered.

"You will," he assured her.

"I don't want to be."

"But you are, and come morning, the claiming bite on your neck will mark you as such."

He shucked off his jeans and now stood as naked as she was. He had the most beautiful body, and she couldn't resist the urge to trace his sculpted pecs, the washboard abs and the deep hip notches that pointed to the massive cock that seemed to almost reach his navel. He had yet to really caress her and already her nipples were beaded and painful to the touch. The butterflies that swirled deep in her belly were moving down to tingle and tease her most feminine places—churning in her pussy and causing her clitoris to swell.

"No," she whispered again, knowing it was futile and hating herself that she didn't want him to stop.

"Yes," he murmured as he placed one hand behind her shoulders and another at the back of her knees, lifting her up in his arms, cradling her to his chest as he left the closet and then her room and took her to his bed.

He set her on her feet before turning back the sheets and then lifting her, placing her in the middle of the large bed. He followed her down, covering her with his body, forcing her thighs apart so he could settle himself between them. She could feel his rampant cock seeking her entrance.

In desperation she began to try and punch him, but they were in too close quarters for her hits to be anything but ineffective. Being pinned beneath him negated any power she might have put behind the blows and diminished her ability to inflict any harm. His eyes flashed with feral lust as he grasped her wrists in his hand, pulling her arms over and reaching into the side table to extract a length of leather. Even with her struggling, he managed to bind her wrists and secure them to the headboard.

Once he had her secure, his mouth descended, planting a fiery kiss on her mouth before he moved down to her breast—teasing, nipping and then suckling her nipple. One hand played with the other breast and the other slid down between them, finding her swollen clit and teasing it with light feathery touches, circling around it before tugging at it, pinching it, and then pressing down.

Her body was betraying her. She couldn't seem to make it do what she wanted, and she moaned with a pleasure she had only guessed at before. She might tell herself and anyone willing to listen that she didn't want this, but her body wanted him in a way she had never dreamed possible. And once he had claimed her, he would be able to force her vows from her or just disregard that convention altogether and keep her as his own. She continued to try and struggle, but even she knew there was no conviction to the fight. She wanted him, and she wanted him with every fiber of her being. Her body's surrender to his impending dominant possession was every bit as devastating as it was unstoppable.

Her nipples were stiff and beaded; wet desire gathered and pooled between her thighs. She could feel her pussy softening, ripening, making itself ready for the enormous cock that was poised at the entrance to her core. When her gaze caught his, all she could see was a primal, feral lust, reflected back at her. His eyes deepened from their normal ice blue color to that of a stormy sea.

He continued to play with her body in the same way a skilled musician played a priceless Stradivarius. He boldly caressed her body in a way she had never even thought to do, giving her a level of pleasure she had never experienced before. Her hips began to undulate of their own accord in the same rhythm with which he suckled her breasts.

"Lucian, please," she mewled.

She no longer knew if she was pleading with him to stop or to continue on to the natural conclusion of this interlude. She cried out as two of his fingers penetrated her, roughly mimicking what she knew he planned to do with his cock. He took her to the edge and then held back, probing more shallowly than she wanted him to. She was disappointed and becoming frustrated and angry when he didn't continue so that she could reach climax.

"Patience, my love. Soon you will feel my hard cock breach your virgin pussy. Then you will come for me repeatedly until I release my hot cum into you to bathe your ravaged pussy with its soothing warmth."

Lucian took her mouth in a hungry kiss as he reached beneath her, grasping the globes of her ass as he made himself at home between her thighs. She felt the bulbous head of his cock at the entrance to her core only seconds before he gave a single, powerful thrust, driving himself up into her fully and forever tearing the fragile membrane that had once guarded her virginity. Zenya screamed into his mouth as he entered her, the unbearable combination of pleasure and pain forcing her to climax.

"Shh," he whispered, nuzzling her neck. "That's the worst of it. From now until forever I will bring you such pleasure that all that will remain of this night is a joyous memory of the first time I possessed you."

Slowly, he began to rock within her—pushing forward and then pulling back until only the head of his cock remained inside her. The pain began to recede and was replaced with a marvelous feeling of well-being as they rode the waves of her orgasm. As he had promised, her body responded to his possession—her pussy quivered and trembled along his length as ripples of sensual feeling washed over her. Her body shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. Her overly sensitized nipples remained swollen and the hair on his chest continued to stimulate them as he thrust in and out of her.

She felt the second climax sneaking up on her only moments before it flashed over and within her, causing her pussy to clamp down hard and Lucian to groan in pleasure as he growled contentedly in her ear.

"Come again for me, Zenya," he purred as he reached up with one hand and released her bonds.

She wanted to deny him in both word and deed and could not find it within her to do either. Zenya was surprised at how quickly her body seemed to be working toward obeying his command. She felt as though erotic energy flashed through her veins only to gather in the sheath he now used for his pleasure. She could feel her body cushioning every bit of his powerful physique as he continued to surge forward, draw back, and push in again. She moaned in rhythm to his thrusting. Nothing had ever felt this good, this complete.

Zenya could feel another climax building. She wanted desperately to hit that pinnacle of pleasure another time, and it seemed so easy for Lucian to call her response forth. Her nipples were painful with an almost unbearable need to be soothed by his mouth. It seemed incongruous to her that she burned with need, and she ached to feel him pinch or tug her nipples. His leisurely surging in and out of her body served to continue to rake her pebbled and sensitive tips with the coarse hair that was lightly dusted across his chest. It did so in the same way that the swollen nub between her legs was pressed and stimulated by the place they were joined.

Once again, Zenya could feel her entire being seize as he drove her toward the abyss of her own desire. Her toes clenched and every muscle in her body contracted. Her legs were now wrapped around his, and her pelvis was tilted at the best possible angle for his cock to rasp the walls of her warm, wet heat. Her pussy began to spasm in the same rhythm as his stroking and then contracted in another powerful climax that caused her to rake her nails down his back as her body shuddered in and tumbled over the abyss in blissful surrender.

Lucian gave a last, ferocious thrust into her depths, and she cried out in ecstasy as she writhed in his hold—her legs trembling and her pussy spasming as it clamped down hard, greedily milking his cock and savoring every bit of pleasure as he held her in his arms. Spent and exhausted, Zenya barely noticed as he withdrew from her body, rolling her to her side, and baring her neck. She scarcely had a moment to realize his intention before it was too late.

Sinking his elongated fangs into the nape of her neck, he bit down savagely, making her pass out from some weird combination of pain, pleasure, and surrender. Her last thought as consciousness slipped from her was that he had won, and there was not a damn thing she could do about it.