3. Luka

3

LUKA

I wake with a gasp. Bolting upright, I clutch at the sharp ache in my chest. My cock is hard enough to pound nails and sweat is pouring off my skin. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was having some kind of human heart attack.

Except that this is a nightly occurrence.

I had hoped that by fucking Isabelle the symptoms might lessen some, but no such luck.

You need to knot her. Claim her. My beast growls.

When I get my breathing under control, I lie back to stare up at the ceiling. I won't be doing either of those. Not until I can figure out a way to change her.

We don't want to change her. Our mate is strong and independent. She just needs to realize that she needs us as much as we need her.

If it were up to my beast, he would forgive her for everything she's put me through. I'm not about to let her off so easily.

I let out a long sigh, resting one hand against my pounding heart. Gods, I can still remember the first moment I saw her. It was during the challenge between our father, Petar, and Marcus, the vampire faction leader.

I spotted her from across the cavern, gathered with her coven in support of Marcus. Our eyes met and everyone else disappeared. In that moment, she was all that existed. A beacon of light in the pitch black. Despite the distance that separated us the sweet scent of her arousal invaded my senses.

She was all coy interest and shy glances… until Marcus won the challenge and became Alpha of Alphas.

The outcome itself was shocking and unexpected. In my grief, I lost sight of her until the crowds began to disperse. When I found her again, she was cozying up with him. Batting those big brown eyes for him, and pursing blood red lips, just like she'd been doing to me hours earlier.

She must have felt my eyes on her because she looked at me over her shoulder. For a fraction of a second, I swear I saw sadness in those eyes. I didn't want to believe that I'd imagined it, but it was so fleeting. There and gone. Then she tossed her red hair over her shoulder and turned her nose up at me, like the snotty little cock tease I realized that she was.

In the years since, I've tried my best to get close to her. To get her to see me the way I see her. Each time I get just a little bit closer. Hold her interest for a few moments longer. Until just when I think maybe this time will be different, she flips the tables again and shows me that her hunger for power will always be more important. The last straw was when she tried to seduce my brother when he became alpha of alphas.

Lucky for me, Jarik's mate had something to say about that and nearly decapitated her. It took a witch's healing spell and half of my body's blood volume to save her miserable life.

Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it.

My beast whines.

I stop at Isabelle's favorite Greek cafe on my way to the cabin. The savory scent of roasted pork, tart lemon and fresh yogurt has my beast salivating as I carry everything into the house. Tonight, I don't feel like whistling or singing or being silly. I quietly plate our meals, tuck the bag of blood I prepared for her under my arm and let myself into the basement.

She hisses when I turn the light on, flinching from the brightness until her sensitive eyes adjust. As I pull a chair next to her bed, she snaps her head in my direction and bares her fangs.

"Ah, there's the girl I've missed all day," I say as I set the plates on the side table and reach behind her to loosen her chains.

"Fuck you!"

I pause as I plump one of the pillows I was going to ease behind her back. "Well, I thought we could eat first, but if you want to go straight to dessert…"

The conflict that flickers across her face is… new. Then her stomach rumbles loudly.

"Is that souvlaki?" she asks quietly, eyeing the heaping plate of skewers and pita bread.

I take a moment to watch her, trying to figure out if she's serious or playing me. Then I ask, "It's one of your favorites, isn't it?"

She fidgets, "How do you know that?"

I lean forward, bracing my elbows on my knees and threading my fingers together. "I pay attention. I want to please you. My beast only wants to please you." So that you'll finally choose us , I want to add but bite back.

She drops her focus to where her fingers tangle together in her lap and asks me in a soft voice I've never heard her use before, "Can I—Will you let me use the bathroom?" For a moment I'm struck, not sure what to do. When she slowly lifts her eyes to me, they are wide and pleading. "Please," she begs.

I leave the chains on her, but I unhook them from the bed and lead her over to the small bathroom across the room. It's nothing fancy. Toilet, pedestal sink, and walk in shower. The iron in the chains will ensure that she cannot trace away, a nifty trick vampires have. I know that Izzy is young by vampire standards, and I've never seen her do it so I'm not sure if she can trace or not, but I'm not taking any chances.

I give her some privacy while listening carefully through the door, just in case she decides to try something. The toilet flushes, the sink turns on and when she appears at the door again she's still soft and subdued.

This is the side of Isabelle that I've longed for. As much as I love her fire, it's this softness that I crave. Perhaps because I see it so rarely.

I'm blocking the doorway, my body taking up all the space, so she'll have to squeeze past me to escape. Or she can wait for me to move. I'm not sure which I want more. To feel her body brush against mine, or to hear her beg. My cock twitches in my pants at the thought of both.

"Luka," she finally whispers.

It's all the nudge that I need to take a step closer, pressing my body into hers. One hand goes to her hip, where I dig my fingers into her supple flesh. The other slides under her curtain of fiery hair where I tug on her thick locks just enough to get her to tilt her chin up.

"Isabelle," I whisper back before dipping my head and claiming her red lips in a deep kiss.

I push my tongue into her mouth, and she moans, meeting my slick thrust with her own. She tastes rich with a slight metallic undertone. Her flavor goes straight to my head and my beast howls. Without breaking our kiss, I slide my hands down her body to bunch the skirt of her dress up, pulling at it inch by inch until her lower half is bare.

With one hand gripping her skirt, I slide the other down the crease of her ass, forcing her tight cheeks apart before delving between her legs to where she's dripping.

"So fucking wet for me," I groan against her mouth before thrusting two fingers into her tight cunt.

Her hands lift to grip my shoulders as she cries out, the sound muffled by my mouth, and her hips hitch and roll in time with my probing fingers.

"Luka," she pants. Her hips are dancing now and she's leaning into me like her legs are having trouble supporting her. "Luka, please."

The dark side of me wants to step back and see if she'll fall at my feet. It wants to show her that her desires mean nothing to me, like she made it obvious that mine meant so little to her time and time again. But I can't.

Instead, my hands slide behind her thighs and I lift her, so her legs are spread around my hips as I carry her back across the room to gently pin her to the bed. The chains rustle against each other as I gather them in a fist, using them to pull her arms over her head.

Her dress is still bunched around her hips, baring her spread legs and glistening cunt to my hungry gaze. I lick my lips and Isabelle moans, arching while her her pink little pussy flutters with anticipation. I consider fucking her to get her out of my system, but my beast is starving for her taste.

"Will you be a good girl for me, Izzy?" I ask her, slowly dragging my hands down her arms. "Keep your hands right here while I have a taste, yeah?"

"Oh, Gods, yes, I swear!" She arches her back and her knees fall to the sides so that her cunt is completely exposed to me.

The scent of her arousal is thick in the air between us. Sweet and cloying, like a drug that makes it hard to concentrate on anything other than burying my nose between her legs.

When I lick my lips, my tongue feels all wrong. It's longer. My teeth ache and I realize that my beast is forcing my shift, desperate to taste her.

"Are you ready for us?" My voice comes out deeper, raspier. My nails sharpen to claws as I drag them down her luscious body to her creamy thighs. They press hard as I hunch my back and drag her intoxicating scent into my lungs before delving face first into her sweet cream.

She screams at the first swipe of my tongue but keeps her hands above her head as her fingers twist and clutch at the bedding.

"Such a good girl," I grunt between laps of my tongue. "Keep those hands above your head."

Her hips buck and roll and, maybe for the first time ever, she does as she's told.

Fuck! Her taste on my tongue is the most decadent flavor I've ever had. The way her thighs clamp around my head and her body thrashes and trembles, while she keeps her hands clenched in the bedding above her head… it's perfect. Too perfect.

All too soon she's panting and writhing, begging me to make her come, gasping that she's so close. Her sweet slick is pouring from between her legs until I'm close to drowning in it while my hips grind into the mattress.

She jackknifes off the bed with an unearthly howl, and I know it's all over.

I push myself up and over her, one hand going for the front of my jeans, the other curling around her elegant throat, before I slam balls deep into her clenching cunt. Her body is so bowed that only the back of her head and heels are digging into the bed as I pound into her. Godsdamn, her whole body is so taut that if she wasn't pouring cum she'd have my cock in a stranglehold.

"That's it, princeza ," I grit. "Come for me. Come all over my cock."

She lets out a sob and does exactly that.

"Good girl," I croon as my orgasm begins to ebb, even as she continues quaking violently through hers. Sweat prickles across her forehead and chest. Her harsh breaths pepper anguished keens, as she falls to pieces beneath me. "Fuck, you're so beautiful like this. You're milking my cock so fucking good."

I grin when her scent flares at my dirty talk and another orgasm pulses around my cock. She brings out a side of me I didn't know I had. She might not admit it, but she likes me like this. She likes it when I'm bad. And we like to be bad, for her.

It feels like an eternity before she finally melts into the mattress, her chest heaving with labored breaths. I fall to the side and curl my body around her, placing soft kisses against her sequin covered breasts. This turns into dragging my lips and tongue up her throat to the underside of her chin where I nip hard enough to make her squeak.

"That was beautiful, Izzy," I tell her softly.

Her pliant body suddenly stiffens.

"I hate it when you call me that," she snarls, surprising me with the vehemence in her voice.

"I only mean it as a fun nickname." When I lean in to kiss her again, she turns her head to the side, avoiding me.

"It's a child's name," she snaps.

I push myself up, so I'm propped on my elbow. She's never acted like this before when I've called her Izzy, so I'm not sure what to think. After what we just shared, I choose to play along. "Alright. Then I won't call you that again."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, because the look she gives me is filled with pain and completely contradictory to what I thought she wanted.

Idiot! Asshole! My beast growls.

"What? You just said you didn't want me to call you—" Before I can finish, Isabelle shoves me off her before bolting off the bed. I barely have time to snatch the chains, hauling her back to the bed so that she's caged under me once again. She hisses, scratches and snarls like a wildcat and it takes nearly all my strength to attach the chains back to the bed.

"I hate you, Luka." Her eyes snap fire and I believe that she means every word that just gutted me as painfully as any knife. I only wish I knew why.

Once she's secured, I slide off the bed and toss the plate of food I brought beside her. She pushes it right back off with her knee and then smirks when the plate smashes to pieces on the ground.

I swallow down the snarl that races up my throat.

Whatever. She won't die from a missed meal. It was cold anyway.

Ignoring the mess, I finish attaching her chains to the bottom of the bed before reaching for the bag of my blood. My temper gets the best of me, and I throw it harder than necessary at her. Then I snatch up my untouched plate and storm out of the basement. Hitting the lights on my way out, all the while listening to her curse me and my family.

Damnit . Will it always be like this?

My chest aches where my heart is pounding behind my sternum. This isn't working and I don't know what I'm supposed to do to fix it. I want to storm back down into the basement and shake some sense into her. To shout at her that she's mine! Just like I'm hers. I want to fuck her and lock us together. I want to claim her, but I won't. I can't. Not until she accepts me.

I scrape my plate into the garbage and then dump everything in the sink before fleeing from the house, locking it behind me. My tires kick up gravel that pings against the siding as I race like the devil himself is on my heels down the dirt road and away from my fated mate.