Chapter 122

Creed

The first time I kissed Jessalyn felt like fate. The first time I made love to her, but especially when my fangs dug into her shoulder, marking her as mine, that only deepened that feeling, but none more than now. I spun her around, presenting my mate to my pack and then dropped my mouth to my claiming bite. The wolf's tongue found it, licking a stripe across it just to make her shudder, then my fangs found each indent I'd left in her skin.

I'd been hard, desperate, out of my mind with longing when I first saw Jessalyn again. Part of me was sure she would reject the bond still, despite the army I'd brought together for her, but then in her moment of surrender? I'd been forced to hold something back.

Not now.

Fur prickled across my face, the wolf threatening to take over. Fuck, bite, claim, that was what he needed and while we'd done two of them, there was one last thing he needed. Our claw slid down her body, and the man in me feared her response to such an alien touch. To my delight, her body rippled under my touch, leaning into my caress. Emboldened, my other claw tilted her head sideways.

Would she look upon me with such heat if I was in my wolfman form? Would she draw his head down as she did mine, pressing a kiss to his muzzle as she did my mouth? The human reluctance when it came to things like this had been drilled into us from a young age. They could not accept this other side of us fully, not like another wolf shifter could. But as her eyes shone in the moonlight, a secret smile curving her lips, I wondered perhaps if in the future she might. The man had her now though, so he pressed forward, taking her mouth with his.

Gods, I would never get used to kissing Jessalyn. Was it merely because I was so unused to such acts? I didn't know, but her lips felt like they seared mine, branding me just as my fangs had her. That little moan, the way she was forced to suck in air through her nose rather than pull away, it had me tugging her hard against me. Jessalyn was bare under that shirt, and so was I. Arik's stuttered recount of what had happened didn't allow time for me to get dressed. Right now I couldn't bear a scrap of clothing between us, so I jerked Roan's shirt off her. She gasped and looked down as the fabric tore clear off and then was left to flutter to the ground.

"We choose life," I reiterated. "We choose Jessalyn, because that's what I'm about to do now." I scooped her up and laid her down on the ground, finding a soft patch of moss before dropping down on top of her. I repeated that with every kiss I dotted along her body, until her hips lifted and the sweet smell of her permeated the air.

The wolf needed her. She was ripe, fertile, he told me in a sibilant whisper inside my head. She was ours. If we mated her now, we'd have cubs, babies in the winter. We'd den down in our palace, and I'd wreathe her in furs to keep her warm as her stomach swelled. We needed to mate her. But she would get no child from me, not without my knot being forced inside her. My mouth dropped down, down, until I heard someone approach.

"Life sounds a hell of a lot better than fighting on yet another fucking battlefield," Roan said, kneeling down and lifting Jessalyn's hand so it landed on his lap. "It feels, looks, smells a lot nicer too." He nodded to me. "Better start licking, brother, or I'll be forced to take over."

Jessalyn shifted at that, not to stiffen, but to rise and fall like a wave. Every movement of her body was hypnotic. It always had been, but it was only now I could allow myself to fall completely beneath her spell. Her taste on my tongue, the wolf wanted that more than the moon, the grass, the air. He needed the sweet, salty explosion on his tongue. The wolf was so close to the surface that he thrust inside her, filling her up.

"Oh!"

"You always sound so surprised." Silas came to kneel by her side. "As if each moment of pleasure was unexpected. We need to change that, don't we, brother?" He stared up at Arik, who stood as still as a statue, somehow still staring at the stag, not our mate. I couldn't understand why, my nose nudging her pearl with every thrust of my tongue, she glowed far more fiercely. Brighter and brighter, she rivalled the moon as her hips rocked against my face. The wolf knew I needed to please her, open her up, ready her for my knot. That protuberance ached fiercely at the base of my cock. But the man? He was lost in her, in all of her soft, wet femaleness, feeling her flex around his tongue, her cries filling the air.

I knew she was about to reach her peak by the sounds she was making. Harsh, guttural, she sounded like the same cry of alarm deer made when they noted predators. We eyed the deer beyond us, but the stag hadn't moved an inch. He felt no need to attack, just to protect what was his. I felt a strange moment of kinship with the beast right then. As I felt her channel flex and cling to me, I pulled away as the last wave wracked through her, then moved up.

Wolf to man, wolf to man, I kept shifting in ways I hadn't since I was a lad, but that was what she did to me. Shredded all control until I was slapping one claw down beside her head, then another. One retreated, sliding down my body and her legs parted, her arms going around my neck, her fingers delving into my fur then my hair as she nodded, but before I could do what I must, my alpha intervened.

"The wolf is close to the surface." He said this as coolly as others might describe the weather, waiting until Jessalyn's eyes held his to continue. "Creed is not a man, not a wolf, but both. You want to choose life? You need to choose him, all of him."

I watched her every response with hungry eyes, choking back a howl of triumph when she nodded.

"You know what that means…?" Silas asked, his voice trailing away as she nodded again before his focus shifted to Roan. "We need to open her up, so this doesn't hurt."

"I'm better equipped to do that than you."

His rakish grin had something of the wolf in it, which reassured mine.

They were pack. Silas was meant to pick up my almost drowsy mate and set her straddling Roan. I was meant to come behind them, pressing against her as Roan pushed in. Any fears of hurting her disappeared as she moaned, sinking down on his cock.

"Well, look at you…" Roan couldn't seem to work out what to look at, his eyes flicking between the look of pleasure on her face or the place where the two of them were joined. "Taking all of me, just like that." She moved then, her arms rising above her head, swaying like the trees did in the breeze. "Gods, you feel so fucking good. You can take more, can't you?"

His hands slapped down on her hips as if she was about to fly away and he had to stop her, their bodies slapping now as they came together. The strokes got shorter, his words mumbled now. My brother told my mate how beautiful she was in the rough and ready words of his people.

"Take me," he growled, his eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Take all of me. Gods, why do I need to get deeper?"

"So part of you will still be there inside her, long after this is done," Silas replied. Jessalyn turned his way blindly, her mouth open and panting, and he moved to claim that. A kiss, then another, trailing his mouth down her neck. But as she clawed at him, he knew what I did. As my cock rocked against her, the slip of her skin everything and not enough all at the same time, he jumped to his feet and then fed his cock past her lips.

To fill all of her—that need had my fangs lengthening. Then that restless ache inside me wouldn't be alleviated until she was, but I experienced both relief and jealousy as she opened her mouth wider. Every move Roan made thrust Silas deeper, something that had him easing off lest she choke. The wolf snarled at that ragged sound, making clear that it would not be permitted, so Silas cradled her head as gently as a newborn bird, before wrapping his hand around the base of his cock to stop her from taking more.

"Fuck…" Roan panted that, or Silas did, I couldn't tell. There was no I left, only we. We pleased our mate. We mated her. We drove her harder and harder, her moans muffled. We made her stiffen. My claws punched into the earth, feeling like they'd reach into the depths to grip the very roots of the trees around us, because we knew. Roan's almost sad sob as he shuddered. Seed dripped down her thighs and onto the ground, a sacrifice for the earth itself, that it might bless us with fecundity, as I moved to fill the space he'd left.

Her cunt was still spasming with pleasure as I lined myself up. Jessalyn let out a frantic little whine as Silas dragged himself free. The man wavered on his feet, looking like he might faint as Arik stepped closer. His eyes locked with mine as my hand slapped down on the back of Jessalyn's neck. Her head was pressed into Roan's chest. He cradled her there, stroking her hair, as I forced her to present herself to me, ready to be mated. Her hips were tilted back, opening her up, resulting in the seed she'd already received pooling against her cervix. Perfect for breeding, I let out a strangled growl, right as I surged forward.

Despite everything we had put her through, her body still fought me. I made it in an inch or two before she clamped down around me. "Let me in," I growled, the wolf feeling the flames of a mating frenzy licking at his skin, but he wasn't in control. I was. "Let me in, Jessalyn."

Her body bucked under my grip and Arik crouched down to stare into my eyes.

"Don't hurt her. Don't you fucking hurt her or I'll have you on the ground, my knife in your throat within seconds."

"Everything hurts," I snapped back. "Who knows that more than you? You've fought everything, but sometimes…" I felt her flex and open around me, allowing me to sink further in. "Sometimes the greatest pleasures come from surrender."

I was lost now, in the feel of her, so tiny by comparison, and yet she was swallowing me up. She felt like wet silk tied tight around my most sensitive skin, the sensation enough to have me drawing back, just to stab back in.

"Gods, yes, my mate. Take me." All the talk amongst unmated males was about taking and conquering. The elders looked upon this with thinly veiled irritation, but most ignored it as youthful expressions of masculinity, perhaps because they knew. I wasn't giving anything to Jessalyn. She was taking. Every inch was another part of my soul claimed by her, another part that would always find her eyes across a crowded room, who would silently snarl at anyone else who dared to watch her walk past. "Take me, Jessalyn, take everything because I am yours."

She was letting out little sobbing gasps of pleasure by the time my knot grazed against her, her fingers raking across the ground.

"Creed… Creed…!"

"Just a little more," I urged.

"Don't push her too fast," Arik snapped.

"Just a little…" She was made for me, so of course she opened up, my knot sinking into her, the feeling of it being swallowed by her cunt indescribable. Sex was great, but this was glorious. My roar echoed out through the forest, the golden deer finally bounding away at the sound of it. Seed burst from me in a breathtakingly long arc of bliss that threatened to have me slumping forward, limp with ecstasy.

"Oh… Oh! Oh, oh, oh!"

"Has he hurt you?"

Roan was shoved aside as Arik landed next to Jessalyn, his hands going to her face, but I was willing to bet he didn't expect this. One long ragged laugh of bliss from my mate, then she tried to twist around. We were locked tight together, the movements difficult but not impossible. Jessalyn panted through each one, her brows creasing as her cheeks flushed bright red.

"Oh I'm going to… Again? Oh gods…" She threw her arms around my neck, pressing her face into my neck and I held her close, feeling the shudders of pleasure running through her.

"She's fine," Roan assured Arik. "More than fine, I think." He moved closer with a nod to me, sweeping his hands across her stomach. "Knotted like this will be like being on roseblood but better."

As he kissed her neck, she writhed, the sensation pulling more seed from my balls to shoot up inside her. Nothing, not anything in my life prepared me for the ecstasy of this sensation. Nor Jessalyn, it appeared. She kissed me messily as she began to move, stringing out the sensations until we were both forced to burst again.

"Because he's knotted you," Silas said, drawing closer to stare at our mate. "If you're fertile…"

She was, I knew it. My seed and Roan's were planted inside her. All it would take was for the others to join us with theirs. Once she'd milked me dry and I was forced to soften, as the sun started to bleed through the trees, each one of us would breed her in turn, and then she would be our mate in every way.

"Fertile…?"

Somehow that was exactly the wrong thing to say to Arik. Rather than draw closer and serve our mate, he pulled away. I watched him disappear into the darkness but was unable to follow his path, because Jessalyn claimed my attention.

"More?" she asked in a breathy voice.

"More," I agreed.