Chapter 23

Kimble

I found myself in an endless expanse of apple orchards. The air was perfumed with the intoxicating scent of ripe fruit. The trees, heavy with luscious red apples, beckoned me closer as if whispering secrets of desire. Each apple glistened under the sun, evoking a sense of forbidden temptation.

As I moved across the orchard, the warm breeze caressed my skin, heightening my senses. I reached out and plucked an apple, its smooth, cool surface contrasting with the heat of my palm. I rubbed the apple on my cheeks and then brought it to my lips and took a bite. The sweet, succulent juice dripped down my chin, igniting a sensual hunger inside me. I moaned, loving the taste, and so I took another bite, and soon I was sucking its juice, moaning and exploring my erotic desires freely.

Someone groaned. I didn’t care. I loved my apple way too much.

The boundaries between me and the orchard blurred, making me a part of the erotic Eden I was in.

A soft “Kimble” didn’t deter me from sucking the juices. I felt a tug of my head as if someone had fisted my hair and yanked my head back. “Kimble,” he groaned.

I gasped when his fingers dug in my ass cheeks, and I jerked open my eyes only to realize what I had done. I had bitten Talon right on his nipple. The bite was so intense that blood oozed around it. The worst part was that I was licking it.

“Oh my God!” I jolted away but he didn’t leave me. My sex was pressed against his very hard cock. He moaned when I tried to squirm in his grasp as I accidentally rubbed myself over him. “I’m sorry!” I apologized, looking at him.

“What for?” he asked, staring at me intensely. His eyes darkened. “That’s my mate’s mark.”

I gulped, my heart thundering in my chest like it would leap out. “Look, I didn’t mean to bite you. It was an accident. Let me get some antiseptic and clean you up.”

“A very lovely accident,” he said and lowered his lips to mine, tasting me again. He kissed me roughly, delving his tongue inside me like he had the right to do whatever he wanted with me. And by Goddess—why did I open up for him?

I pushed against his chest forcefully. “No!”

He let go of me, breathing heavily, staring at me like I had stolen his favorite toy. I rolled away from him and got out of the bed. My eyes went to his chest. It was still bleeding a little. Feeling guilty as hell, I walked to the bathroom and came back with a soaked towel. My head felt dizzy at first, but the feeling went away quickly. When I went back to him, I wiped the blood from his chest. “You might have to go to a doctor,” I said, examining it. “I’m so sorry again…”

He grabbed my wrist to stop me. “I’m not sorry.”

I licked my lips and took a ragged breath. “How is this going to work out? I don’t want to stay with you. I’ll pay off my debt to you, and you’ll free me like you said you would.”

He folded his arms and cradled his head on them. “You aren’t going anywhere. Consider that option deleted from your life. You’re mine and I protect what’s mine. If you even think of escaping, Kimble, I promise I’ll burn this place down and pile bodies upon bodies to get to you. And I’ll unalive any person who tries to stop me.” He took a strand of my hair and rubbed it between his fingers. In a soft, yet menacingly calm voice, he added, “So don’t think of leaving me. You’ll be doing mankind a favor.”

I stared at Talon. He was extremely serious. Swallowing the lump forming in my throat, I got up and walked to the bathroom, knowing full well he was watching me from behind. Holding the knob of the door, I said, “If you dare touch me again, I’ll cut your cock off!” I showed him the middle finger and slammed the door shut.

His deep, throaty laugh was my answer. I knew my threat meant nothing to Talon. And why was I so hot? It was as if my body was on fire. I stepped into the shower and turned the temperature right down. The blast of cold water made me gasp, but it was what I wanted. As the water sluiced down my body, my anger subsided and I felt better. Though I wanted to weigh my options about what to do now, I couldn’t. The only thing in my mind was that I was the Luna of the biggest pack in North America. But more jarring was that I’d cultivated many enemies overnight.

I heard the sound of running water outside and turned off the shower. Shocked, I peeped through the glass and saw Talon peeing. “God damn it!” I shouted. “There’s no privacy here!”

He said nothing, patiently peed, and sauntered over to me with his cock bouncing in front of him. Man that cock and those balls. My face heated when a crude image entered my mind of sucking and milking it.

“Did you like it?” his voice broke into my thoughts.

Gasping, I turned the shower back on. I needed more cold water.

Talon came to stand behind me. He didn’t touch me, but his presence was enough to make me squirm. The heat from his body enveloped me, settling in my lower belly. Unable to control my stupid scattered emotions, I hurried out of the shower, snatched a towel from the towel stand, and walked out of the bathroom, still dripping. I pressed the towel to my chest as I took deep breaths to calm down.

I got dressed quickly in shorts and shirt, and rushed downstairs to have breakfast because I was ravenous.

“Luna Kimble!” A maid bowed to me immediately. “I’m Dana. What would you like for breakfast?” she asked, sounding flustered. Everyone else in the dining hall also bowed.

These were the people who shunned and mocked me when they thought I was a servant bought by Talon. The change in their demeanor was astounding. “Orange juice,” I said, walking to the dining table. An assortment of fruits was displayed on a tray. I picked up an apple and took a bite, but it reminded me of my dream and I gasped.

“I see you like apples a lot,” Talon’s voice sounded from the doorway.

I snapped my head up to see he was wearing only jeans. His upper body was naked. My mouth dropped open and he smirked when my gaze landed on the bruised area around his nipple. “Where’s your—”

“Alpha Talon!” Dana was joined by several other servants. She flushed when she saw Talon practically naked. Her eyes went to his chest. Sharp jealousy stabbed me and I blushed to the roots of my hair. “We’ve made fresh blueberry muffins. Would you like some? There are fresh sausages as well.”

Talon disregarded her as he proudly walked over to me. Holding my wrist, he raised my hand to his mouth and bit into the apple. Then he curled his finger beneath my chin and closed my mouth saying, “It’s midge season, love.”

I hissed, “Where’s your shirt?”

“Don’t you like me naked, wife?” he said with another smirk.

“When did I say that?”

He circled the table and sat at the head. “You said that in the bedroom.” He sat on the chair, proudly broadening his chest as if to show off my bite.

“What the hell?”

Before I could say anything, he pointed at the chair on his right. “That’s your seat. Come over.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Kenzie arriving with surprise written all over his face. “You look… happy,” he remarked to Talon, sitting in the chair to his left.

“Do I?” he said, turning his chest toward him.

Kenzie’s eyes went straight to his nipple, and I let out a frustrated sigh. Talon was behaving like a caveman, and I didn’t know how to tame him. I stomped to the chair on his right and, just as I was about to sit, he grabbed me by my waist and yanked me to him. I fell right in his lap.

“Talon!” I shouted.

“This is where you’ll sit for breakfast today,” he said, and inhaled my scent by dipping his head in the crook of my neck.

Kenzie laughed and shook his head but didn’t say anything. I shot a glare at him. “You sedated me!”

He shrugged. “Alpha’s orders. If we hadn’t sedated you, his venom would have affected you.”

“So you were part of this ploy?” I took a ferocious bite into a tuna sandwich Talon had given me.

“Guilty as charged.”

“It’s illegal to kidnap people like this,” I pointed out.

“In this land, Alpha makes the rules.”

I wanted to smack his Alpha, but his fingers were drawing lazy circles on my belly, which distracted me. I found myself settling against his chest, eating food from his hand. “Good girl,” he praised me. My ass got itself settled in between his thighs, fully aware that his penis was misbehaving. Talon grabbed my free hand and took it behind to cover his cock through his jeans. Out of anger, I squeezed it hard, and he groaned.

“Do that again, and I’ll fuck you right here,” he warned me.

So what was I supposed to do? Sit there with my hand on his cock? I squeezed it again. He hissed, but he didn’t do anything.

Talon and Kenzie talked about pack affairs as the Omegas brought us more food. Dana kept glancing at him, and I swear I wanted to gouge her eyes out. At the same time, I attempted to get out of his lap, but he curled his arm around my waist so tightly that it was impossible to get away.

“Alpha Liam is pretty injured,” Kenzie said with a deep ragged breath. “I’m sure he won’t take this defeat lightly.”

Talon went quiet for a while. He picked up my orange juice and made me drink it. “He had it coming to him,” he said eventually. “Any information about the Viking pack?”

“I’ve sent a few spies, but I highly doubt they’ll get more info than we already have. In my opinion you should pay a visit to them. We can find common grounds to meet and—”

“Not now!” Talon cut him off. “I want to spend some time with my wife and my pack.”

I clenched my jaw at his statement.

That day, Talon had the audacity to go into his office without a shirt. When I insisted that he wear a shirt, he said, “You chose to mark me on my nipple. I have to show everyone where my wife marked me.”

“Are you mad?” I growled weakly. “This is just shameless.”

“Who said I have shame?” he replied cockily, and headed out of the bedroom. Before closing the door, he said, “You can go anywhere you like around the house, but you won’t step out without an escort. I’ll be back in an hour. Until then, don’t even look at any males.”

What the fuck? “And you won’t be touching me!”

“Oh, I will.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he slammed the door shut, his heavy footfalls receding down the stairs.