Chapter 29

Piper

The silence sitting between us felt like deafening chaos.

Those bright hazel eyes of his human form shifted into the color of a honeycomb, with the promise of a lingering sting, right before me. The slowness of it—the stealth—made everything seem more real.

I felt like his easy prey. A little lamb being led to slaughter.

And him the predator. Made for dominance, slowly moving in for the kill.

My body longed for that animalistic side of him.

The wild side that called to me like a wolf.

Zander stood so still that I wanted to snap my fingers to make sure he hadn't malfunctioned. To make sure this wasn't fake. That I hadn"t dreamt of this entire experience.

Zander swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbed heavily in his thick throat. "You know what you just did?"

I squared my shoulders, not letting myself sink into self-doubt, and I nodded. "I sent them away."

It'd hurt to hear my mother's voice and the pain in it. She was worried, and I understood, but I needed to do this for myself. I'd go to her once the curse was broken, tell her some farfetched lie that I didn't have the time to think about.

Hearing Henry pretend he cared about my whereabouts made my decision easier. Maybe his coming was fate, because if it'd been my dad, I wasn't sure I could have walked away from them.

Maybe fate wasn't so farfetched after all.

Zander braced one palm on the door beside my head, mostly to keep himself upright. "You chose me," he whispered, his breath inches away from my mouth. "You stayed for me."

His intense stare sent warmth in between my thighs, so I lowered my gaze and kicked at the floor with my bare toe. "I made my choice, Zander. Now, please put me out of this terribly long and miserable misery."

This seemed to snap him out of his trance, and the confident man I longed for resurfaced. Sliding his thumb against my bottom lip, he smoothed it against the wet skin, and down my neck to where I'd slipped my bra back on before coming to the door.

Slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, which we did not because the beast was coming, he slipped both palms to the back of my upper thighs and lifted me to his waist.

He carried me up the stairs, and toward his room. Adrenaline thumped like a drumbeat in my chest, and the throbbing place in between my thighs ached in a heavy rhythm.

Zander's gaze slid toward mine, and a smug smile tugged at the corner of his lush mouth. "You're excited, Little One. I can't blame you. I'd be excited to get into my bed, too."

Laughter spilled from me, mostly from nerves, and partly because of the arrogance of man. Zander kicked open his door, shut it with the back of his foot, and shoved me against it.

With both arms barricaded above my head, he trapped me against his chest. "I can't explain to you the emotions I'm trying to hold in right now." He chuckled, it was dark, and his eyes flashed quickly. "I have a lot I'm trying to hold in right now, and most of it is the need I have to sink my dick and teeth into you at once."

Oh, mercy ...

I hadn't had much thought to how it would feel to have him mark me, other than I felt deep down I wanted him to do it. "Will it hurt," I whispered, my voice soft.

Zander's gaze lowered to my neck, and he pressed the hard outline in his pants against my thigh. "Yes, but I'll make sure your orgasm is well worth it."

Zander waited on me, and I knew we didn't have much time before the beast broke free, so I nodded. With my approval, he lowered his mouth to mine and stopped, slowly sucking my bottom lip into his mouth, I pressed my back into the wall to help keep myself upright.

White hot need filled me the lower he kissed, unsnapping my bra and sliding me out of my underwear until I was completely bare for him. The primal look on his face told me to shove those insecurities out of the way.

Zander loved what he was looking at, and I didn't need any reassurance. I felt it with the way his callused palms circled the back of my upper thighs and he carried me to his bed.

The familiar fabric of his bed slid against my backside, but nothing compared to his weight between my legs. Lowering himself with one palm on each side of my head, he nipped my jaw, and then my neck.

He soothed the burn of his teeth with the width of his tongue until I felt like someone had turned on a faucet between my legs. I clutched the covers and arched my back.

"Why are your clothes still on? I whispered, knowing our time was running low, but dying to feel him inside of me.

Zander, lazily, licked my nipple before sucking it into his mouth. "I need you ready so that you're so overwhelmed, that maybe, the bite won't hurt too bad."

"Please," I begged, reaching forward to grab him, but he slipped from the bed, shedding his t-shirt and sweats, he crawled over me.

I felt his hardness trail up my leg, and he greedily gripped my hips and pulled my spread thighs toward him. I shamelessly ogled him. I'd seen him in the shower, but having his cock so close to my center, made everything different.

He was going to mark me.

Finally have sex with me.

"You're sure this is what you want?" he asked. "When I mark you, and if you decided to leave me, I'll—my wolf will go feral. I know that"s hard to believe since I turn into a beast, but he'll go mad Little One. Promise me—,"

"I promise you that if you don't put your dick inside of me right now I am going to leave, dammit."

Zander chuckled, and nodded, bending down to nuzzle his mouth into my neck, he softly kissed the skin. "Your smell. It's so strong. It's the bond luring me in as if I needed persuasion."

Pushing up on his hands, he pressed the tip of himself at my entrance and kissed me slowly.

My body called out in a way I'd never experienced.

Lowering his mouth to my neck, he aligned his teeth against the vein. The points sharpened against my neck. Reality began to sink in, but it was so sinfully sweet that I couldn't think of backing out.

Wrapping my legs around his waist, I fisted his hair and closed my eyes. The bittersweet rhythm of my pounding heart softened. Zander whispered, "Konpayon."

I recognized the language from my dream, which was a branch of creole, but not unusual in southern Louisiana.

"What does that mean?"

"Mate," he whispered once more before sinking into me.

My body arched, from pleasure, then liquid fire scorched my insides. His teeth sank deep, and my body fought with the desire to both moan and scream.

Zander's fingers tightened in my hair, and the other clutched my waist, dragging me closer before he started to remove his mouth and pulled back to look at me.

Blood trickled down his lip, as he stared at me with feral eyes. Lowering his mouth again, he soothed the mark with his tongue, growling at the taste of me. "You taste like Heaven, Little One."

I nodded, still clutching his shoulders, I realized my fingernails dug into his skin. Zander slid back onto his knees, bringing my ass up his thighs, he sank into me again, staring at me with such desire that I felt bashful all of the sudden.

"I've waited so long for this, Little One. You feel tighter, and taste sweeter than anything I've ever touched."

My eyes fluttered closed as he created a rhythm with his thrust. My body ached, and a new pleasure built in my gut, one indescribable. It pulled me toward him, linking me in a new way.

Zander clutched my thighs and swiftly turned me around to where my ass was in the air for him.

He growled—almost like the beast—his approval, and slapped his hand against the meat of my cheek. Sliding in from behind, he curled his palm around my hip and brought me back against his thrusts.

"We're mated now," he whispered lowly. "This is forever. It's equivalent to saying ‘I do' and I take it seriously," he said, bending over me, continuing his assault.

My mouth opened in a soft moan that turned into a tone I'd never heard come out of me. My begging for an orgasm bled into pleas for mercy, my face buried into the covers, as I clutched them for dear life.

The only thing I"d ever wanted in my life was to be married. Bound to a man that truly loved me for me. This was it. It was the start, a very unconventional start, of our forever.

One orgasm turned into another, and Zander became reckless with his thrusts, turning me back over, he tangled his fingers into my hair and angled my mouth the way he wanted it.

It was dominance in the sweetest form.

It was pure desire.

It was everything I'd ever wanted.

Zander's eyes turned beastly, and I sensed the beast breaking free. With one last kiss, he pulled away from me, and everything he'd been holding back spilled from him and into his hand.

He stumbled away toward the chains, sweat dripping from his face, as I scurried over to secure him to the wall.

I hadn't expected him to change all of the sudden. The curse said I had to love him, not mate with him.

But I knew that would come because I felt wildly close to him. Like I belonged there. Like we belonged together.

I wanted the voodoo queen to fail.

I would make sure she failed.

A soft chuckle slid down my neck, and I turned around swiftly to stare at the darkness. "Did you hear that?"

But when I turned, the beast stared back at me.

It must have been my imagination.