Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

CARVER

I loved her like this, seeing her helpless, surrendering to me, even if it was all an act. Our dark little game that was all our own. When her body relaxed, I took her by the hips and lifted her ass in the air. My barreling breaths made the fine fur on her tail dance. It was cute watching her try to keep still for me.

With our size difference, I had to crouch over her, caging her against the earth as I lined our bodies up. Wicked amusement worked through me as I watched her struggle not to react to the fat cock slowly stretching her entrance.

Fuuuuck.

She was doing a fine enough job keeping still on the outside. Instead, her walls twitched and contracted around me, sucking me deeper inside. Her heart beat so hard that it tapped out a frantic rhythm against the head of my cock.

Sinking deeper inside her, the new position had my eyes rolling back into my head and my muzzle tipping to the sky.

A howl, as quiet as I could manage, bled from my throat. It wasn't smart to make noise, but this woman had a way of bringing the animal out of me.

I fully seated myself inside her with a jab of my hips, and the slap of my balls against her clit had her whimpering.

I dropped to paint a lick over her cheek, chuckling lowly in her ear. "Dead bunnies don't moan when they're being fucked, Ruthless."

My hips picked up a steady pace as I fucked her hard and deep. The faintest trace of blood laced the air, and I guessed she was biting her lip hard enough to break the skin to keep herself from making a sound.

It's not that I particularly enjoyed her being quiet, but there was a sick part of me that enjoyed watching her struggle.

"Such a perfect, limp little bunny. Taking everything I have to give her," I growled against her nape, my jaws practically encircling her neck. My tongue slipped around her neck to feel the fresh mark on her throat.

My growl melted into a purr at the way her inner walls gripped me tighter as I tongued the scar.My hand moved to hold the base of her ears, pulling on them enough to lift her face from the dirt while my other arm banded around her stomach, pulling her back tight against my chest.

This position I had over her, the control… I knew it was only because she allowed it. This ruthless woman was small in stature, but fuck me, she was strong and brilliant. A survivor. A fighter. It was sexy as hell. Especially knowing her trust, this vulnerability wasn't simply a means to survival. It had turned into something more.

It was a gift. One I had every intention of possessing forever.

My rhythm didn't let up as I pounded her into the earth without mercy, each thrust as savage as the last as I gave her what we both desperately needed.

Another moan slipped past her lips, strangled and lusty, sinking straight to my balls.

My hand found her belly, my fingers spreading over her supple skin. "I can't wait to see this belly swollen with my pup."

Her head jerked back to stick me with that bratty glare I'd come to crave. "D–dead bunnies can't get knocked up."

"Mmm. No, they can't." I nuzzled my muzzle into her hair and inhaled her intoxicating scent. "Imagining you healthy and happy… A knocked-up mate is a much better fantasy than you being my dead little bunny."

Ruth tossed her eyes as a phantom smirk shadowed the corner of her mouth where a string of drool trickled.

"And w–who said ro–romance was dead?" Her voice came out fractured, each syllable knocked from her lips with my every stroke.

My laugh came out dark and devilish. "Yes. I prefer you like this. Mouth running even as I rut you until you're drooling from both ends."

Her flesh beaded with sweat, making my fur cling to her, and my heart thundered in my chest, hammering a beat against her back.

When she groaned my name, I knew she was close. "You're mine, Ruth. Your mind. Your soul. Your heart. Your womb. It's all mine. Isn't that right?"

Black hair, with a flash of purple, lashed through the air with her frantic nod.

"Say it." I reached around, my possessive paw knitting into her pubic hair and giving it a gentle tug. "Who owns this pussy?"

"Y–you do." Her cry came out mangled as her release wracked her body, making her spine arch against my chest. "Carver!"

"That's right, my ruthless little rabbit. Now, are you ready for my knot?"

Her head wobbled with a "Yes."

Another crazed grin stretched my muzzle. I doubted she knew what she was in for.

"I wonder how much of your alpha's seed your little cunt can hold?"

I didn't expect the coy smile she shot me, but it was that look coming with a thick moan that had me slamming into her in a series of quick, shallow thrusts, thick spurts of cum emptying inside her. Flipping her around in my arms while taking care to keep her speared on me, I positioned her to face me with her back against the forest soil.

I drew back far enough for Ruth to see the huge bulge at the base of my cock. Just as realization crept behind her chocolate orbs, I shoved my length, bulge and all, inside her.

" Wha! What's happening?"

"It's my knot, remember? It will keep us together while my seed seeps into you."

Pure, ball-obliterating pleasure whirled through me as her walls quivered around my cock, gripping me so tight, and I hadn't stopped coming yet.

Her eyes rolled into her head, and her fingers clenched the fur on my shoulders, holding on for dear life. "So much cum."

"All the better to breed you with, my dear."

She blinked at me, her brows gnashing at the reworked Little Red Riding Hood reference. "Wow. Original. Get that from your latest read, did you?"

I smiled down at her and settled on top of her in a way that wouldn't crush her. We'd be locked like this for at least a little bit before the swelling would go down. "Oh, yes. The barbed wire face tattoo really howls Mother Goose."

She laughed, then sucked in a breath when my knot shifted inside her. "Fuck. H–how long do we have to stay like this?"

"Are you in pain?"

"No, it's just—" She released a shaky exhale. "Intense."

"Good. Just stay still for a little longer." I set to licking the dirt and sweat from her face, all the while emitting a low purr to keep her calm in my arms. Even the slightest shift would tug on her, and from the rutting I gave her, soreness had likely already set in.

I watched in utter fascination as she licked her lips, peering up at me through her dark lashes. "You're still hard."

"Of course I am. Look at you, naked and flushed. Your used pussy wrapped so tightly around me. If we were somewhere safe, I could keep using you for hours."

At the mention of safety, her belly tightened beneath me. "What if they find us?"

"We were quiet enough, and now you smell of me. We should be fine."

Guilt wound tight around my chest, making it difficult to breathe. I shouldn't have mated her out here. The human side, the far more logical part of my being, didn't like that we were still out here. We needed to get moving as soon as possible.

"What do you want to do when we escape?"

She stared at me for a quiet beat, probably chewing on the "we" part. I tensed, preparing for her to argue. She'd forgiven me on some level, but that didn't mean she'd gotten comfy with the idea that we'd be leaving these woods together.

I could only hope she'd want us to be together as much as I did.

Pure relief washed through me when she smiled, a thoughtful look in her eyes. "Get a job that I actually get paid for. Preferably one that doesn't involve farming carrots. And go to concerts! Oh, go on a road trip! Or on a plane! Or–or?—"

The endless possibilities had her lighting up, practically bobbing with excitement until she realized how we were connected and fell still again.

It was likely that Ruth hadn't traveled more than a few miles away from her burrow her entire life. The burrows were communes run like prisons when you compared how little freedom they were allowed. Our local one was especially restrictive. It was technically a democratic system they ran on where your vote mattered, but only so long as you were an Elder.

It occurred to me that our pack ran similarly. I hadn't done any of the things she was excitedly listing off, either. We were both victims, in a way. Born into cult life, with laws already in place meant to manipulate and exploit.

With our rutting, her heat state had ended, but fuck, she still smelled so damn good. She carried my scent now, my cum, my mark, the bruises from my grip and scratches from my claws covering her tender flesh in an obscene tapestry.

While I was inside her, the world melted away. Who we were and where we came from ceased to matter.

So, I didn't notice anything had approached us. Not until a familiar voice, wrapped in steel, called out to me from the trees. "Well, well. Look what we have here. Carver found himself a sacrifice."

My hackles bristled as a blond wolf stepped out from behind a tree. Lars rose up on his haunches, his flexing muscles making his fur ripple. "Looks like you've decided to have a little fun with your kill before avenging your twin. When do I get a turn?"

Fuck.

I'd been so stupid. So selfish.

These woods were big, but there had always been a chance they'd find us, and I'd fucked her out in the open anyway. That's what she did. She robbed me of all sense.

I remained crouched over her, raising off her body as much as the knot would allow. I could force it out, but there was a chance I'd hurt her. I could shift back to my human form, but then we'd be vulnerable.

Ruth gasped, and her pussy rioted around me. Alarm flooded her eyes as they pinged from tree to tree. "Carver. There's more."

One by one, my pack appeared. Some on two legs, some on four, approaching us from all directions. We were surrounded.

I wasn't a praying wolf, but I prayed then that Lila had done what she'd said and gone back to the pack house to rest.

Even from this distance, I could see Lars' wolfish sneer dip to where Ruth and I were still joined. His tail flicked behind him with his barking laughter. "Wait. You knotted her? You sick bastard."

Sparse laughter sounded as a handful of wolves half-heartedly joined in with the alpha.

"Does anyone else find this funny? Considering my father screwed a sacrifice, and Carver's father got his balls in a knot about it, then challenged him as pack leader. If I remember right, and I don't fucking forget, Carver, didn't you condemn my father too? Oh, the sweet irony. If only your father could see you now."

I ground my teeth together so roughly that pain shot through my gums. A warning growl rumbled from my chest. "Fuck off, all of you. This is my kill."

"You know pack tradition. You're expected to share."

"Not this time. She murdered my twin. She's mine alone to punish. When she's dead, I'll drag her back to the pack house. You vultures can have what's left of her."

For a moment, I thought Lars would take the bait.

His head tilted, his wolf ears flicking. His nose flexed as he breathed us in and took a step toward us, his line of sight going straight for Ruth's throat. "Is that— No. You didn't."

Lars' guarded demeanor turned hostile in a snap. He dropped back to all fours, his hackles raised, and his teeth bared. "He mated her. He mated Casey's killer!"