12. Apryle

Chapter 12

Apryle

K ye kisses me like our lives depend on it. It is a desperate gesture that sets me alight from my hair to my toes. Even I wanted to resist him, I can't. My body yearns for him, and I can't fight the magic that bonds us together anymore. The pull of it is so strong, I react without meaning to. He's not those monsters from my past. He's not a monster at all. Kye is a fucking good guy.

So I lean into him, opening my mouth to allow him to slide in. I do trust him and not just because I feel his sincerity pulsing through our bond. There's no hint of malice or ill intentions toward me. All I sense is his desire and love for me.

No one has ever loved me.

That's enough to break down my walls.

Throwing caution aside, I submit to his advances, letting him push me back onto the couch cushions and press his hardness against my core. I wrap my legs around him, pulling him on top of me, and the bond surrounds me, comforting as his weight crushes my body beneath him. It's not fear I feel this time, but he calms the nonstop roaring in my head.

His mouth fuses to mine, taking everything he wants and giving me everything I need while I cross my legs against his back to secure him in place. Our mating bond throbs and pulsates, flooding happiness through my mind from both him and, surprisingly, me.

My wolf appears for the first time in a long time, lifting her muzzle and baying her approval. I ignore her, just like she's ignored me, instead focusing on the way Kye's tongue slides across mine.

Every inch of my skin is heated, and the apex of my thighs pulses. I thread my fingers through his hair and tug, holding him in place as I claim him as much as he's claiming me.

When he breaks our connection, I whimper, irritated at the loss of him, until his mouth moves along the column of my throat. Each press of his lips sends waves of pleasure splintering through my body, and I arch my back as much as I can underneath him, seeking more.

My pussy throbs and begs for attention as he grinds his hardness against me.

"I'll never let them have you," Kye whispers against the shell of my ear.

"I know you won't." I sound breathy, wanton.

He rips the material of my pants, shredding them away from my body. The cold air kisses my skin as he does the same to my panties, leaving me exposed.

I'm dizzy from all the sensations rolling through me as he moves down my body, and when his mouth latches over my clit and sucks it hard, my eyes roll in my head. The throbbing between my legs is so intense I feel lightheaded. Every cell in my body is electrified as he moves over my sensitive bundle of nerves.

"Fuck, Kye…" I gasp the words, gripping the edge of the couch as if it can stop me from catapulting my hips into the air as he swirls his tongue along my slit.

I can already feel my climax building. Tingles and tremors gather momentum deep inside my pelvis and my nipples are so hard beneath my shirt that I can't stop from kneading my breasts to relieve the growing ache.

"Do you need me to help you with that, little mate?" he asks, a hint of amusement in his words.

"Yes," I whimper. "Please."

His hand moves mine aside as he reaches under my shirt, lifting it over my breasts. I watch his fingers pull down the cups of my bra and roll around my left nipple. Pleasure shoots to my pussy and my back arches off the cushions. His mouth latches around one of the buds, sucking it gently before grazing his teeth over it and I draw in a hissed breath at the wave of pleasure that spans through me.

I need him inside me.

There is pressure in my head as my orgasm gathers to an almost painful crescendo. My mouth is open as I suck in air that doesn't seem to fill my lungs.

Every inch of me vibrates with need and desperation to have him. It's never been like this. I can feel his every emotion through the bond, and it's dizzying.

Come for me, my little mate.

The reverberation of Kye's voice in my mind is too much. My body responds to his command, and I fall into my pleasure. I squeeze my thighs together as they tremble, trying to close them as my orgasm almost painfully tears through me.

My eyes scrunch shut as I gasp and pant like I've run a marathon.

Something enters me, and my pussy clamps around the intrusion, still pulsing and contracting, trying to pull it deeper inside my body.

It's only his fingers, but it does ease the ache within me a little. A low growl rumbles in his throat as he uses the pad of his thumb to manipulate my clit while hooking two digits inside me.

I'm not even fully naked, and this may be the most erotic moment of my life. I'm so desperate for him to fill me.

"Please," I beg as he almost brings me to orgasm again, but at the last second, he pulls away to focus on sucking and nipping my bottom lip.

I'm going to die if he keeps this up. I'm wired tight, like an elastic band that has been pulled too many times. I keep chasing the orgasm building within me, needing release, but before I can go over the edge, he changes what he's doing.

"Kye!" I snarl, and he kisses my jaw.

"You want to come?"

"Yes!"

I try to focus on the orgasm that is tantalizingly close yet so far out of reach. As a last resort since he's not getting the job done, I slide my hand to my clit, circling it, and trying to get myself off.

"Such impatience." He chuckles as he removes my hand, earning another growl from me.

Before I can say a word, he tears off the sheet that was wrapped around his waist and shoves his cock inside me. I make a sound that I've never heard before—a guttural moan that seems to travel the whole length of my body. He drowns it out when his mouth clamps over mine, and heat pools further in my belly as our lips crash together.

There is a pinch of pain as he stretches my insides wide enough to take his thick shaft. Pinned between him and the cushion, all I can do is cling to his biceps as my body adjusts around him.

I can feel him so deep inside me, it only adds to our growing connection. Our eyes lock together as he hammers his hips against me, driving deeper and deeper into my pussy. Neither of us looks away as this moment between us is immortalized.

"Mine."

I don't argue. I am his, and he is mine. He dips down and kisses me like I'm his oxygen even as his hips keep moving. There's a part of me that relishes being this wanted. Nobody has ever treated me like this before. I was the freak with magic powers. The girl with no wolf. Kye sees past all of that. He doesn't care how broken or defective I am.

He wants me.

I feel it so intensely through our bond; there is no denying it. He's in my head, in my thoughts. He's everywhere.

And you're mine, I respond.

The mating bond becomes louder in my head, my connection to him deepening as it fully slides into place.

My back arches as he drives into me over and over, his breath becoming ragged too. My nails embed in his skin as I anchor myself to him, my thighs widening with his every thrust. Perspiration beads on his forehead and on his naked chest, which is still stained with the blood of those he killed to protect me.

His body shakes as he spills inside me, his hot cum filling me, and my body tenses, blinding lights appearing in my vision as I come harder than I ever have.

His eyes flash wolf, and I feel mine surge to the surface too—both animals recognizing each other.

I'm too hot, yet my skin is chilled as his thrusts slow before they stop completely. He collapses onto his hands, though he's careful not to crush me as his soft eyes gaze down at me.

"My mate," he murmurs with such adoration that tears burn my eyes, and I can't stop them from rolling down my cheeks.

Kye pulls back, a hint of alarm in his face. "Did I hurt you?"

I can't articulate what I'm feeling without bursting into tears, so I just shake my head.

"Apryle? I can feel you're happy through our bond, but you're crying."

"I know. It doesn't make any sense. I just feel so overwhelmed."

He climbs off me, his cock slipping free of my body, making me whimper. I don't want to lose his touch, so I reach for him before I realize he's only moving far enough to grab a blanket off the back of the couch. I don't care about being half naked. I feel safe with Kye, and I'm not ashamed or embarrassed to share my body with him.

Even so, I let him wrap me in it, sensing he wants to take care of me. He uses the other half to cover himself before he positions us on the couch so we're sitting side by side. I sink against him, loving how his arm drapes around my shoulders and the way his fingers sift through my hair in a relaxing motion that calms the emotions rolling through me.

"I've got you," he soothes. "I'm never letting you go, Apryle."

"I'm never letting you go either," I tell him, snuggling into his side, my arm wrapped around his middle.

"I was so terrified when we were captured. I thought I was going to lose you. You can't do that again."

Oh, boy. I don't want to have this conversation when I feel happy and sated, but it needs to happen.

I pull back and slowly sit up. Kye doesn't like this, but he doesn't stop me either.

"I'm sorry that you were worried, and I'm sorry that you feel like I put us in a dangerous position, but that's going to happen again. This war against the Order involves me too, Kye. I'm not going to sit by and let others fight it for me."

"I won't let you die in this crusade."

"That's not your choice to make," I snap at him. "I'm not some damsel you need to protect. I want to make things better for the generation coming after us. I want to make things better for us . You need to handle your feelings on that."

He considers my words, but I can feel his mixed emotions through the bond. "I'd never want you to be someone you're not," he says, mimicking my own words from before.

"If you ask me to step aside and let others fight this battle, that's exactly what you will be doing." I take his hands. Like everything about Kye, they are so much bigger than mine. "I promise you I won't be reckless or do anything to intentionally put myself at risk, but if you want me to stay here behind the high walls Callum built, I can't do that."

He squeezes my hands, so I keep going. "These people have to be stopped. They plucked us off the street in front of witnesses without giving a shit if they got caught. Look what they did to Savannah. That little girl is skin and bones, Kye. I don't even want to think about how long they had her before we got there. It can't be allowed to continue, and I won't be left out of that fight. I have my own scars from things that have been done to me because of what I am, because of the hate perpetuated by assholes like the Order."

He strokes my hair back from my face, and the gesture is so soft that I lean instinctively into his touch.

"Nothing will scar you again. And I will kill anyone who's done so in the past."

I place a hand on his chest, feeling the rapid pounding of his pulse against me. "Easy, tiger. I don't need you to go on a murdering spree for me. They're all dead anyway."

His brows come together. "You? Or someone else?"

I'm not sure I want to admit to being a murderer, but since we share a headspace, I doubt I'll be able to keep much from him. "Me." The thread of sadness in my voice for the lives I took seems to annoy Kye.

"You did what you had to. Don't ever feel bad for protecting yourself from those who are trying to hurt you."

"I don't feel a single moment of regret for ending their lives, Kye. I'm upset that they pushed me to do it."

His mouth pulls into a dark snarl of disgust.

"They call us the animals, and yet they are the ones hurting children and innocents."

My fingers trail over the blood spots covering his chest. I should be horrified that we had sex while he was wearing the blood of others, but it only serves to remind me that I now have someone in my life that would risk it all to keep me safe.

A lot of someones.

The others put their lives in danger as well to pull us out of that place.

"We're not animals. We're just trying to survive."

"How did you?" he asks, and I blow out a breath as memories of that day assault me. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he adds quickly, but I shake my head.

"I'm not ashamed of my past, Kye, and you're my mate. I want you to know these things about me." I peer up at the ceiling for a moment before I give him my attention again. "I've killed multiple times to protect myself. First were my old pack."

I swallow hard around the lump in my throat. That time had been one of the worst in my life. I was so scared every minute of the day, terrified that I would be discovered and that hunters would come for me.

"Hester was the one who saved me." I will never forget when she used her magic to protect me from the Order's soldiers. "I hate that she betrayed us the way she did, because I owe her everything."

"Do you want me to kill her for you?" I think he's joking, but when I look at his face and see the seriousness of his expression, I realize he's not.

"Are you always so willing to kill without knowing what happened?" I tease.

He scoffs. "Of course. I see a problem, I neutralize it, the problem is gone."

I frown. "Hester isn't a problem. She's… she's scared." I rub at my neck, trying to shake off the ugly feeling spreading through me. "I want to hate her for what she did, but I can't."

"Do you want to tell me about her?"

I do, but that's a whole story and right now we're in a good space. "I will, but not now," I promise. "I'm not worried about Hester. I'm more concerned about the supporters of Revna. How many other organizations are out there, trying to harm our kind?"

I have so many questions, and I hate not having any of the answers, but that seems to be a constant thing. We are always ten steps behind and completely in the dark.

"These people are crazy, Apryle. They don't need a reason to do what they do. Don't waste your energy worrying about it."

He's wrong. This is all connected somehow. "Do you think Savannah's blood is different too? Is that why they were keeping her there? What were they doing?"

He grabs my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him. My heart is pounding a frantic beat beneath my ribs as fear I don't understand consumes me.

"We'll stop anyone who tries to get in our way."

"We can't beat our enemies if we don't understand what their motives are," I say.

He presses his mouth to mine, and for a moment, I stop worrying about the Order and hybrids and the war that we are fighting. I just get lost in him.

When we pull apart, he rests his forehead against mine, his eyes closed, his big hand cupping the side of my face. "We'll figure it out. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but we're getting closer, Apryle. They can't hide what they're doing forever."

I know he's right, that logically what he's saying makes perfect sense, but everything still feels like it's spinning out of control. There is no way for us to avoid what is coming, and yet we are so unprepared there will be casualties.

"Why are all these crazy people obsessed with us?"

I close my eyes. I wish life was simpler, that we were just two mates coming together under normal circumstances. That we had a future to look forward to.

He pulls me against his side, impatient with me sitting so far away from him, and I go willingly. "I have to admit, I prefer you like this," he says.

"Half naked?"

He snorts. "Not trying to kill me."

I match his snort with my own. "Who says I'm not going to do that?" I lean my head against his shoulder, fixing the blanket around us. "How did you end up here?"

I feel Kye stiffen, and I lift my head to peer up at him, wondering what wound I have opened. His eyes are tight and dark, and the tension coming through our bond hurts me like a physical ache.

"Sorry," I say immediately. "I shouldn't have pried."

He shakes his head. "No, it's fine. You're my mate. There are no secrets between us, but this story is not one I like to relive."

"You don't have to tell me. Just knowing that something bad happened is enough."

"I don't want there to be any walls between us, Apryle."

"Okay."

He sucks in a breath before licking his lips as if trying to prepare himself for what he is about to unlock from whatever box he has kept it in. "I was born into a vargr pack. There were thirteen of us altogether—cousins, aunts, and uncles."

I trace circles over his chest, trying to soothe him as I feel his pain. "That sounds wonderful," I say.

"It was… until it wasn't. I was coming up to my nineteenth birthday. My cousin was about to come of age and go through his first moon ceremony. As we were preparing, they attacked."

His voice is tight, as if he is having to push the words through corded throat muscles. "The Order?"

He nods. "We tried to keep our pack hidden. My grandparents always talked about the dangers of being discovered. I don't know how they found us."

"They just seem to have ways," I offer. "No matter what you did, they would have found you eventually."

His eyes are unfocused as he stares at nothing.

"They killed everyone who was no longer capable of having a heat cycle. My parents, my grandparents. Most of my aunts and uncles. Two of my cousins died trying to defend the others, but I was bound and put in the back of a van with another of my cousins. I could tell he was terrified. I was too, but I was trying to be brave for his sake. I wasn't sure where they were taking us, but as we lay bound on the bottom of the van, I knew we were screwed."

He falls silent, and I have to resist the urge to fill it with conversation. Kye isn't the kind of wolf who talks without purpose, so I give him the moment he needs to collect himself, and eventually he speaks again.

"Callum and his group intercepted us. We were saved, but the Order recaptured my cousin later on. I wanted to go back for him, but Callum stopped me. We were outnumbered, and it would have been worse if we'd tried to extract him then. I hoped we'd find him fast, but it's been years, and we are no closer."

My heart breaks for him and all that he has been through. This isn't how life should be.

I press a kiss to the side of his face, savoring the feel of him. The blood spattering him is masked by own scent and I like it. "We'll find him. We'll find everyone that the Order took. I promise you."

His eyes meet mine, and for a moment we both get lost in each other's stormy orbs. "We have to destroy them completely," Kye says.

From his tone I can tell he's not joking, that he seriously and truthfully means what he is saying.

"We will," I assure him. "There is no world in which our kind will be safe with these stupid assholes still around."

He trails his fingers over my face, his eyes mapping every inch of me as he does.

"I know I scare you. Sometimes I scare myself, but I promise you, Apryle, I will never hurt you and I will never leave you."

I was not expecting him to say that, and my stomach fills with heat and warmth, like a hug enveloping me. "I'm sorry I was so difficult when we first mated. I was scared."

"I don't care about the past. The only thing that matters to me is that you are mine and that you trust me to take care of you now."

"Just as well, because my wolf side is really broken, Kye. She's buried deep inside me, so deep that sometimes I don't feel her presence for a long time."

"You're perfect," he murmurs as he nuzzles his nose into the crook of my neck.

Tingles build inside me. My body pulses, begging him to take me again as his tongue licks over that sensitive spot on my neck where a claiming mark would be. "Yes," I gasp, tilting my head, so he can give it to me.

I never thought I would be eager to receive his mark, but coated in his scent, my pussy sore from his cock, I desperately want him to do this last thing that would make me his completely.

Kye doesn't seem in a rush to complete the mating process though. Lazily, his teeth scrape over my skin sending my heart fluttering wildly. Just as I think he's going to mark me, his tongue moves away from the spot and along my collarbone.

"Kye," I complain—more like whine. Damn him.

"What do you need, my little mate?" Is that… is that humor in his voice?

Asshole.

"Claim me," I demand, sounding bratty. I don't care. My body is electrified, and my thoughts are playing only one track.

"Are you sure you want me to?" he asks between devouring the curve between my neck and shoulder.

My pussy squeezes and I rub my thighs together as my arousal thickens the air. "I want it. Give me the mark."

"I would do anything for you," he murmurs before his teeth trail over my throat.

Then he bites into my soft flesh. I gasp as the pain fills me for a second before morphing into intense pleasure. The rush of heat that works through me is like nothing I have ever felt before. I need more of this, I need more of him. My wolf surges to the surface, and I know my eyes must be glowing, because so are Kye's.

Meeting the gaze of his wolf is more intimate than anything we have done so far. It connects us on a level that is more carnal and primal than anything else. I don't flinch or look away until his wolf retreats and Kye buries his head back into my neck.

Each swipe of his tongue over the mark sends throbbing pleasure to my pussy, as if the two are connected. My orgasm swells inside me, everything sensitive and needy until it crashes down around me. I bury my head into the crook of his neck, clinging to him as I breathe in our mingled scents.

This is perfection. It's more than I ever could have dreamed of. My wolf howls, lifting her muzzle into the air with each sound before she retreats back into my mind and I'm aware of Kye's wolf through our bond as love surges through me.

"Now you're mine completely," he says, his fingers tangling into the hair at my nape.

My arms wrap around his neck as I take his bottom lip between my teeth and sink into it hard enough to taste blood on my tongue. "You may own me, Kye, but I own you just as much," I say, meaning every fucking last word.