Chapter 32

I ’d wanted Ordell from the first moment I’d set eyes on him in his gray joggers. But that had been lust. Lust could be managed and handled, and I’d done that. Controlled my physical reaction to him easily. But somewhere along the line, emotions had intruded, and then he’d marked me, taking our connection to a new level. Honestly, keeping my distance had been one of the hardest things I’d done, and now…Now I was going to remove the one thing that was keeping us apart.

But that one thing had been my life for so long.

My purpose. My guide and my anchor.

Who would I be without it?

I shut down the thoughts because all they’d do was spawn doubt, and there was no room for doubt when it came to saving Ordell’s life.

“You don’t have to do this, Orina,” Ordell said.

“I know. But I want to.” My throat went dry as I raked him over, laid out on the stone floor while Hemlock checked the shackles. He was a feast for the eyes even with the beast having taken half his body, and maybe more because of it. He was larger, the muscles in his abdomen cobbled and ridged, his pectorals flat and taut. When he tugged on the chains to test them, his biceps bulged, and my pussy throbbed.

Hemlock stepped back, hands on hips. “He’s ready.”

“Fine. You can go.”

“Oh, I’m not leaving,” Hemlock said. “I need to be here to help subdue his beast when it rises once you two…finish.”

My face warmed. “I am not doing this with you in the room.”

Hemlock’s jaw ticked. “You think I want to be in here watching you two…” He took a breath, composing himself. “Look. I need to be close. I’ll stand over there with my back to you, okay?”

But he’d hear everything…

“Orina, please…” He stepped close, his heat caressing mine. “There’s no other way. It doesn’t have to be weird.”

“She’s about to have sex with a man who’s chained to the floor,” Ordell says. “I think we’ve bypassed weird.”

“This is sex,” Hemlock says. “That’s all it needs to be. A consummation.” He glared at Ordell. “Full consummation or it won’t work. You can’t worry about the possibility of passing on the curse.”

It took a beat for me to realize that he meant the possibility of getting me pregnant.

“It’s all right for you,” Ordell ground out. “You and Ezekiel have the power of intention.”

“Intention?” I looked to Hemlock to explain.

“We can turn it off,” Hemlock said. “No intention means no pregnancy.”

Ordell’s jaw tensed. “I’m sorry, Orina.”

“Don’t be. And luckily, it’s a safe time for me to do this.”

Hemlock understood my meaning right away, but Ordell looked momentarily confused before my meaning clicked and relief softened his features.

“So get it done,” Hemlock said. “The rest…the lovemaking can come later.”

I blinked sharply as it hit me that after this, with no blessing, I’d be able to have that with Ordell, with anyone if I wanted to. But the thought was quickly followed by a pang of loss so acute it stole my breath and brought tears to my eyes.

“Orina…” Ordell sounded just as pained, and I shook my head.

“I’m fine.” I unbuttoned my pants. “Let’s do this.”

Hemlock retreated to the other end of the room, and I watched as he turned his back on us. In a moment I’d have my back to him, while I straddled Ordell, so if he wanted to, he could peek. A strange shiver shot up my spine at the thought.

Beneath me, Ordell tracked my movements as I shucked off my pants and underwear. His chest rose and fell rapidly, eyes darkening with hunger, and when he spoke, his tone was deeper, thicker with a gravelly undertone. “You need to pull down my pants.”

I licked my lips and straddled him, reaching for the waistband of his joggers where his arousal was already evident, cutting an impressive impression beneath the fabric.

I stroked him through the material, and his body vibrated on a growl that shot straight through me.

“Fucksake,” Hemlock snapped. “Ride him already.”

I tugged down his joggers and freed him, breathing through my mouth as I took in his thick, veiny size. His skin was like silk, jumping beneath my fingers.

He let out a groan that ended on a rough growl. “Orina. Fucking hell.”

Precum beaded on the tip of his cock, and I rubbed my thumb over it, smearing it over the spongy head as he sucked air through his teeth. My pussy flooded with heat and wetness, ready for him. I rose up slightly to position myself above him, locking gazes with him as I pressed him to me.

His mouth parted, eyes blazing almost in challenge. I could push down, take him now, but a wicked part of me woke, wanting to tease. Wanting to play, and so I rolled against him, rubbing myself along his thick length to tease my clit until my thighs were trembling and my pussy was weeping, pulsing hungrily, eager to be filled.

“Orina, fuuuck…” Ordell pushed out the words through clenched teeth.

“Orina, what the fuck?” Hemlock groaned. “Just fuck him already.”

One moment. I needed. Oh, fuck me. I came over his cock, hips jerking as I pressed down on his length, wanting to keep the feeling, wanting it to expand and burgeon until?—

I rose and took him into me, slamming down on his cock as my walls contracted at the height of the orgasm. Something inside me snapped and floated away, but I barely felt the loss before my body was flooded with the delicious cold bite of a fresh orgasm.

Ordell cried out in guttural triumph while all I managed was a strangled whimper because release had a grip on my body, squeezing and pulsing while I rode him in a frenzy.

The delicious sounds of our bodies meeting filled the room and obscured my senses, until every part of me was focused on the sensation between my thighs as he swelled and throbbed, stretching me, burning me until pleasure and pain were one.

“Orina. Fuck.”

His heat filled me, his hips snapping up to meet mine once, twice, before we locked, grinding together as we rode the climax.

His pupils contracted to slits, and silver flecks bloomed in his irises like cold fire. My heart shot into my throat as a vicious snarl vibrated his frame and the beast stole his face and fiery yellow ate away the blue in his eyes. He snapped his teeth and strained at his bonds, trying to bite me, to consume my flesh, and the dark hunger hidden inside me responded, wanting to consume. To own. To claim. I dug my nails into his shoulder as a new energy swelled within, pushing outward.

I sensed Hemlock beside me, and the part of me that was still grounded, the part that understood the danger, wanted him to help. But there was another part in charge. Stronger, sure, and wanton. It took control, moving my hips and resuming the aching rhythm that would bring us to climax once more.

His snarl morphed to a low growl that was almost a purr, and then he swelled inside me.

I took him as deep as he could go, and—Oh…Oh yes.

He panted as I rode him, every inch of my body tight and tingling with a new sensation, a new power. It rubbed between my thighs, against my clit, over my nipples, plucking and twisting and?—

I came with a roar, wet and hot all over his groin.

“Fuck…” Hemlock said. “Oh, fuck…”

I speared him with my gaze, and in that moment, I wanted him too. Wanted him behind me, his cock in my ass, fucking me as I fucked Ordell. Hard enough to hurt. To make me scream, to?—

“Orina?” Ordell’s soft rasp pulled me out of the dark thoughts and back into my body, back to him.

His face was back. The beast gone.

Hemlock retreated, thank goodness, because shame was a prickle over my skin, and I couldn’t look at him right now. Instead, I focused on Ordell. “How do you feel?”

He shifted beneath me, still hard inside me, and I gasped.

“You tell me, angel. How do I feel?” He throbbed, pushing against the sensitive place inside me, and I bit back a cry. “I need to touch you.”

My pants landed on Ordell’s chest. “You should get dressed,” Hemlock said curtly.

He was right. We’d done what we needed to. I kissed Ordell softly, lingering for a moment, because he was back. We’d succeeded in subduing the beast, and he was mine. All mine. I nuzzled his jaw and rubbed my cheek against his beard.

“Unshackle me,” he purred against my ear. “I want you again. I want you in my bed. Pinned to my mattress while I fuck you senseless. I want you gripping the bedpost while I take you from behind.”

I clenched around him, and he moaned.

“Dammit!” Hemlock snapped. “Orina, focus.” He grabbed my arm to pull me up, and Ordell’s eyes flared yellow, a lethal growl tearing from his lips.

Hemlock released me abruptly and threw his hands up. “Calm down.”

“Don’t touch her,” Ordell warned.

But the encounter was the cold bucket of water I needed to prompt me to climb off my mate…

My mate.

He was my mate now.

Our gazes locked in silent communication, an understanding that this wouldn’t be the last time we were together, that there was time for us now.

He was the first to break contact, his eyes slipping closed as he sank into sleep.

“What’s happening?”

“The slumber after the consummation,” Hemlock explained. “Nothing to worry about. We can check on him later.”

I pulled on my pants, my gaze drifting to my arm. To the spot where my blessing had once rested.

My skin was now clean and unmarred.

I’d claimed a mate and saved a life, but my blessing was truly gone.