41. Dirge

FORTY-ONE

Dirge

" Y ou. I just want you." Her words hung between us like unlit tinder for one heartbeat, then another.

She kissed me then, soft and slow and deep. It felt like she wanted to drink me in, meld the two of us together until there was no telling where one of us ended and the other began. In that moment, I wanted it too.

It was a slippery slope, and while something inside still screamed that I should be holding myself back, how could I? I wanted her in a way that was unholy. I'd never done drugs before, never had much taste for alcohol or the oh-so-fleeting buzz it brought to a wolf. But was this what addiction felt like?

The hot burn of need in my veins? I didn't know, only that she was my oxygen and I was hers. In any way she would have me, I was hers.

I kissed her back with every ounce of passion I had in me, and when her hands moved to the hem of my shirt, I leaned up, letting her pull it off over my head. It landed with a wet plop behind us, and within seconds, hers followed. Her nipples were beaded up tightly, begging for my kiss.

I circled one areola with my tongue—not quite where she wanted me if the arch of her back was any indication—then moved to the other. I teased her, back and forth, back and forth, until she wove her hands into my hair and pulled, driving me where she wanted me.

Her moans of pleasure as she anchored me to her breast had me harder than steel, itching to drive home into her warm grip.

I hadn't planned this, this slow frenzy of lovemaking. All I'd wanted was to show her the grotto, give her a good memory to hold in this uncertain time. Share something of my past with her.

But when she shoved me back and hooked her thumbs into the waistband of my sweats, I was lost to her thrall. Reason and worry were gone, and there was no one and nothing but Shay, muzic? mea.

She gripped me tightly with her small hand, my head bowing under the strain of staying up and not crushing her. And that was before she started to stroke.

"You're going to embarrass me if you keep that up," I murmured, frozen to the spot as she worked my dick.

She hummed happily, not easing her pace as she grinned up at me.

Saucy little she-wolf.

If she wanted to play dirty, I could be dirty. I flipped her hand away from my shaft, then quickly shucked off her own sweatpants before switching our positions. When I was flat on my back and she was sitting with her burning core plastered to my abs, I urged her up my torso.

"What? I?—"

"Ride my face."

Her eyes went wide, casting around the grotto as if someone was going to burst out of the stone and stop us.

"I've never, umm." She blushed prettily, and pride filled me. She'd never ?

Excellent. I'd be the first to blow her mind, and the last.

"I won't let you fall." I urged her, my hands steady on her waist as she slowly scooted up. She hovered above me with a look of heat mixed with uncertainty.

"Trust me?" I echoed the question.

"Always," she whispered.

"You're in control. Take what you need." I winked at her, then pulled her down, fastening my lips to her lower ones, laving her with my tongue.

She cried out and arched above me. The sight of her perfect, small breasts against the backdrop of the grotto burned itself into my memory. I never, ever wanted to forget this moment. Forget her.

I moved from her cunt to her clit, making slow circles at first, until she began to whimper. Following her cues, I amped up the tempo, chasing her over that edge.

Her scream of pleasure echoed off the stones that made up our private little haven as she soaked my chin with her slick arousal.

Shay's fingertips were on mine, then, insisting that I let her move.

I loosened my grip but didn't let go. She wobbled a bit before her strength came back, and she eased back down my chest. It was her turn to take me by surprise when she didn't pause, didn't catch her breath. She notched the tip of my cock at her opening and held my eyes as she sank down in one long, torturously slow movement.

All my breath went out of me in a rush as she took me to the hilt, our bodies grinding together as she chased that friction. Goddess, when she took charge… it was sexy as sin, and I loved every second of it.

I grabbed her hips when she tried to lift herself to plunge again, bucking up into her instead. She was heaven. Her walls gripped me like a vise, and I wanted to flip us over and pound into her until we both crashed over that edge together. But I forced myself to hold back.

"Shay, what about the risks?" I hated the words. Loathed them. But they had to be said. We couldn't lose our heads here.

She dropped her hands to my chest, digging in with her nails just enough to get my attention. As if she didn't already have it.

"There is nothing standing between us anymore, Dirge. You are mine, and I am yours. I'm not in heat, Brielle did her omega magic… At some point, we're going to have to trust. I want this. I want you . And if you say no, if you stop this bond forming between us… that's your choice. But you need to understand that I don't want that. I want to face whatever comes together ."

My chest seized at her words, that fierce look in her eyes that I loved so much. Was she right? Should I really let go?

She clenched around me, and my eyes fluttered shut with a groan. "You're killing me."

"No, I'm showing you what I want. What do you want, Dirge?"

What did I want? I wanted her. I wanted to chase this passion, live it every day for the rest of our lives. I wanted her, every day, forever.

I lifted her up and slammed her back down. Her head fell back, soft keening sounds falling out of her mouth as she rode my cock like my queen.

"That's it, Shay. That's it. You going to soak me? Come all over this dick?"

"Yes, yes." She took over the motions then, faster and faster, chasing her pleasure and bringing me right along with her. I rose and met her stroke for stroke, even as I tried not to blow. I wanted to match her, fall over that edge together.

The pleasure built to an unsustainable height, the pressure in my balls begging for release as she cried out once more, locking down around me as she came. I followed her over the edge, eyes locked and glowing with our wolves as we fell into the abyss of release.

Shay lay on my chest in the quiet aftermath, and I held her like she was the most precious woman in the world, because she was. There was nothing between us but the steady drumming of the waterfall and the mingling of our shared breaths.

When she gasped and her hand fluttered up to her chest, concern ripped through me like a lightning bolt.

"What is it?" I sat up, bringing her with me to rest on my lap, straddling me.

"I think—" She stared down at her chest, and I watched with awe as the beautiful green scrollwork of her marks spread, reaching almost all the way across to the other side.

"Oh, shit. It burns." She held my shoulders as the ink seemed to peter out, breathing hard before she let her forehead drop against mine. "Why does that hurt so bad?"

She whimpered, and the sound broke my heart.

"I'm so sorry. It's got to be the fractured bond. I'm here, for what it's worth," I murmured against her lips, stroking her sides gently. It wasn't much, but all I could do was hold her and soothe her.

Then the searing pain hit me square in the chest, and my own breath left me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I grunted, and she pulled back, mouth dropping into an o of surprise as my own mate marks finally made their belated appearance.

"Just hang on," she said, grip on my shoulders steady as she watched.

It didn't take long. They were no bigger than the size of my palm when the mark stopped spreading, not even leaving one pectoral muscle. Nowhere near the broad span of her marks, and they were still incomplete.

Shit.

"I know it's not a good sign that they didn't finish, but that's got to be a step in the right direction, right?" she asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

I thumbed her lip, the sight of it popping free and glistening wet making me instantly hard again beneath her.

"I guess we'll just have to keep working at filling them in, won't we?" My suggestion was husky, strained with a renewed surge of need.

She giggled, a sound I hadn't heard from her before, and I immediately craved more. I wanted to hear every laugh, every facet of her. Each new thing was a piece of the beautiful puzzle that was my mate.

"If you want to call that work, I suppose," she finally said. "But we need to get back. This was only a pit stop."

I grimaced when I realized she was right. "But do we have to put those clothes back on? There's nothing worse than wet clothes."

She smacked me lightly on the shoulder, then stood, crossing to our very sad, very soggy clothes, which were also now full of grit from the stone.

Shay seemed truly chagrined when she felt them between her hands. "Walk of shame it is, then. Assuming you know how to climb out of here?" She glanced around the cave, concern turning her sweet scent slightly acrid.

I levered myself up off the floor with a chuckle. "There's a trail. Come on, gorgeous."