Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

WREN

I wake up in Caelan's arms, his knot still holding tight, though somewhat looser than before. I blink, trying to get my bearings, my body as limp and loose and relaxed as it's ever been.

"There she is," he murmurs, pressing a kiss to my forehead, my ear. "I'm going to pull it out now, Wren."

I mumble something completely incoherent and he laughs against the side of my neck, nuzzling a sore spot.

A sore spot from him biting me.

I go hot all over at the memory, and he hisses out a breath as I clench around him.

"Wren, I'm not going to be able to keep it down if you do that," he warns.

Suddenly, I don't want him to. I don't want him to be anywhere but right where he is.

I clench around him again, and his breath cascades across my skin.

"You naughty little witch," he says, fangs scraping my neck again. "You aren't done? I was afraid I'd hurt you. You fell asleep while I came inside you."

"I missed the main event?" I ask plaintively, feeling slightly sad.

He lets out a shocked laugh, his arms tightening around me. "You are a minx. How fucking perfect."

I undulate in his arms, pressing my ass further against him, and he makes a pained noise.

"You aren't going to go anywhere soon if you keep doing that," he warns.

I grind against him, feeling him get harder inside me, harder and thicker, and I grin.

"I don't see the problem with going again."

"You want me to cum in you again," he says quietly, his voice full of wonder.

I pause, thinking about it.

"Maybe I shouldn't?" I finally venture. "I mean, I don't know if we're compatible, but getting pregnant with someone I hardly know?—"

I squeak as he grabs my leg, maneuvering in a way I might think was impossible if he wasn't doing it to me, until he's lying on his back and I'm straddling his broad hips, his cock still locked deep inside me, all of its delicious hardness rubbing up right where I need it.

I moan, rocking gently, until I've found the exact spot where I want him.

"Take what you need," he murmurs, and his fingers trace across my cheek. When they meet my lips, I bite them until he laughs.

"What I need," I say, my breath hitching as he moves his hips, his fingers now on my nipples, pinching them. Sensation floods me and I lean forward, starting to move in earnest.

"Tell me," he says.

"I need to know why you said mate," I finally manage, and he sucks in a breath as I bite his nipple, not hard, but enough that he knows I mean business.

"That's what you are, Wren. Mine. I warned you. I told you I'd ruin you, and this is what that means. Mine, you're mine." His hands go to my hips and he pulls me forward, causing me to gasp.

"You can't just say that," I say, but he moves me again and I grip his shoulder, clawlike, as pleasure begins to crest in me again. My fingernails dig into his skin, and he hisses before capturing my mouth with his.

There's a fierce quality to it, teeth and fangs clashing, his hands still moving me over his thick length. I groan as the knot at the base of his cock slides in deeper, my entire body clenching as I climb towards another orgasm, riding him relentlessly now.

I pull back from the kiss and he snarls, his fangs on full display. Bracing my hands against his upper thighs, I move faster, my head falling back.

"I'm not just saying it, you perfect creature. As soon as I saw you, I recognized you for what you are." His mouth settles on my breast.

I'm senseless, moving against him shamelessly, wanting more, greedy with it. With him.

He grazes my nipple with his teeth and I can't breathe, I can't think, and I don't want to. All I want is this, this moment of perfect sensation, of him telling me I'm beautiful and his and the climax that's still just out of reach.

He bites my other nipple, hard, and I scrape my fingers across his back.

My eyes fly open as he changes our positions, drawing me up to him before pushing me back to the bed, asserting dominance.

"So good," I wheeze, the way he slams into me drawing me ever closer, so close.

"So fucking good," he agrees, his eyes never leaving mine. "My perfect mortal witch, made for me in every way."

I want to tell him it doesn't work like that, that witches don't mate, but his clever fingers find the bud of my pleasure again, and all I can do is breathe and climb, climb towards the peak.

"You came to me before I ever thought you would," he growls, his eyes practically glowing in the gloaming dark, the sun setting after our afternoon nap. "You came to me, and then you begged me for my knot, and now you're mine, Wren. Only a mate could do this to a fae."

He might be lying. The thought floats between my ears, but I nudge it away because how could he be?

How could he be, when we fit together like this? When he makes me feel things I've never felt before, and after no time at all? When he drove me to take him into my bed and come inside me?

There's a ring of truth to it, to his declaration that I'm his, and as I come around him again, squeezing his length, fully awake to feel his hot release spurt inside me, I think maybe it's the only truth I've ever heard: that we belong together.

He holds me tight against him, our breathing ragged, our bodies slippery with sweat.

"Tell me you aren't afraid. Tell me you won't run from me, because it doesn't matter where in this realm you go, I would find you and catch you and keep you with me forever."

His gaze is devouring, a slight tremor to his voice that makes my heart ache.

"I'm not afraid." I nuzzle into his neck, breathing him in. "I'm not going to run."

I have a life here in Wild Oak Woods, and I'm not about to give it up because the most handsome male I've ever set eyes on has decided I'm his.

What woman in their right mind would?

"I will prove to you that I will be good to you. A good mate. Please don't be afraid of what I've said, or of me."

He begins moving again, and a moan rips out of me as my exhausted body somehow immediately responds to his.

"I won't run. I don't understand the mate thing, but we have time, right?" I manage to say, his hips moving in slow circles, tweaking my overly sensitive everything .

He doesn't answer, kissing me instead.

But if it means more of this… well, I'm willing to figure it out.