10

IVY

THE picnic lasted nearly the whole afternoon,with one of the other shifters on Jay’s team watching over us from the shadows so as not to scare the girls which I appreciated.

Thea had gone with a fairy-tale-themed picnic. With some help from her ‘mice’, we’d gotten to eat finger sandwiches, a crepe cake that Thea had managed to whip together in no time, and some fruit salad Eloise and Ginny had carefully prepared.

Eloise and I had found an old rug we could use for the picnic, and some pillows, and we’d taken them to the edge of the forest bordering the entire house.

We ate, the girls wandered around the area looking for insects, and Eloise had finally looked somewhat at ease for the first time since I’d seen her after the attack. The stress she’d been carrying was slowly lifting from her shoulders, and even if it was because of a small picnic and a little exploring, I’d take it.

The girls were asleep before their heads hit the pillows, and I sighed a breath of relief when Eloise finally crawled under the heavy covers of her own bed.

“Did you at least have a little bit of fun out there?” I asked quietly, pulling her hair back from her face as she hugged a pillow to her chest.

“Yeah,” she murmured, eyes fluttering shut, a yawn passing her lips. “Thanks for making it happen.”

“We won’t be here for long; I don’t think so anyway. We’ll keep them busy somehow.”

Eloise snorted softly, and before I knew it, she was out cold.

I eased my way through the otherwise quiet house and made my way towards the back door. Despite the day, I was still overwhelmed, and knowing what the kids were going through, I couldn’t bring myself to walk into my room and pretend like everything was okay.

We’d had a great afternoon, but I still had so much to do for these girls.

As I stepped out into the cold evening, I sucked in a breath and let it fill my lungs before releasing it slowly. Looking up into the night sky, I focused on the stars. They were difficult to see in Forthampton. With the light pollution from the city, you couldn’t see the different constellations. But in the darkness of the forest, where the night was so black, the stars seemed inevitable.

I lifted my chin a little higher to take in the wash of light. I wasn’t sure where we were, but the stars here seemed to be different to the ones anywhere else. Like I’d found myself in an entirely new world.

“Why are you out here alone?”

I turned quickly to find Elias stalking from the shadows wearing nothing but a pair of low-hanging jeans that hugged his thighs and—quite possibly—his ass. Without a shirt, and despite the darkness, I could make out the smoothness of his skin and the abs that begged to be licked. Feet bare, he stomped through the wet leaves and moss until he stood over me, eyes dark with his wolf.

I swallowed roughly and met his eyes. “I’m standing by the back door and looking at the stars, Elias. I’m not out wandering through the trees alone. I am simply enjoying the quiet.”

His eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring. “Inside. Now.”

It was my turn to scowl. Crossing my arms, I gritted my teeth. “No.”

His growl should have been a warning, but instead, arousal pooled in the pit of my stomach. My magic reared its head, begging for something I hadn’t expected.

Mine. Mate. Claim.

My eyes widened, and I stumbled back a step. I wasn’t sure if Elias was feeling the same thing, and before I could ask, he was leaning over, and throwing me over his bare shoulder. I yelped as he righted himself.

“Let me go!”

He snorted, patted my ass, and started for the house instead of replying.

I thumped my fists against his back. “Seriously, Elias, put me—” My hands brushed over a series of scars on his body that felt more raised and harsher than the ones I’d viewed elsewhere. They followed a pattern that immediately turned my stomach.

Elias stopped completely as I traced a series of lines. The implication was there.

Holy shit. Who did that to a person? What kind of monster—

I was back on my feet before the thought could be finished. Where I expected to find anger in his green eyes, I found nothing. No emotions. No thoughts. A void of nothing met my stare.

“Elias—”

He turned sharply and stalked towards the shadows of the trees. I didn’t think. I followed him, wincing at every sharp rock and stick that cut the underside of my feet. But the pain was nothing compared to the need to go after him. The need to prove I didn’t judge him for the pains of his past.

“Elias!” I hissed, clambering over a downed tree. My foot caught on a root. “Ah, fuck—”

Before I could fall, strong arms righted me. “Go back to the house,” he growled, pulling away as soon as I was standing on my own.

Maybe I was sick of being cooped up in the safe house. Maybe I was too afraid to sleep, because even with his temporary band-aide, I was still scared of what might appear in my dreams. Maybe I was a little sick of not being in control and wanted to finally assert some damned power over my messy emotions and this complicated situation.

But right now, I was ready to pick a fight with Elias. He could be as sour and grumpy as he wanted, but I was not going to let him go off in a foul mood because he was ashamed of his scars. After everything he’d done for me, for all the darkness he’d already been forced to see in me, he wanted to turn back now?

“No.”

His brows lifted in disbelief, like he couldn’t believe I, Ivy Wilson, would disobey his direct order.

Elias’s nostrils flared as he glared down at me. Anger was clear in his eyes, but something else also swam in his deepening stare. Something primal and dark that I wanted to play with. That my magic called for and wanted to taste. His body gravitated towards me, like we were two magnets pulled together.

I heard him whisper, “Fuck it,” before his lips claimed mine. It was everything I thought it would be and more. He tasted of whiskey and spice, and I drank it in as I submitted to his touch. One of his large, warm hands cupped my cheek softly while the other captured my hip and dragged me against his hard body. I felt each ridge of his chest, the racing of his heart, and the warmth of his skin through my thin t-shirt.

The kiss grew hungry, harder, as he tipped my head back to deepen his hold on me. I gasped and moaned as he used the moment to slip his tongue inside my mouth. I was drunk on the taste of him. It was euphoric, enlightening, like coming home and discovering something entirely new.

Elias walked me backwards into a tree without breaking the kiss. His tongue swept over mine with claiming strokes that almost made my knees buckle.

The hand holding my hip slid up my waist and beneath the hem of my t-shirt. The first brush of his fingers against my skin ignited me.

The second undid me.

I pushed against him and ripped my mouth from his to trail hungry kisses down his chest. A shiver worked its way down his body, and he growled as my tongue flicked over his nipple.

“Turn around, Angel,” he said through gritted teeth, running a hand over my hair.

I peeked up at him through my lashes and dragged my teeth over his nipple. “But I don’t want to.”

The hand in my hair tightened at the base of my neck. He tugged my head back to look up at him. “Tonight, I’m in charge.” Glowing eyes grazed over my body, the heat enough to make me want to fan myself. Instead, I pressed my thighs together. “You’re going to turn around and spread your legs like a good girl.”

I swallowed as he released my hair. Everything he said went straight to the throbbing heat between my thighs, and with my heart thundering, I did as he said. I was already aching and wet before he’d said that, but now I was ready to beg for release.

I pressed my hands to the tree’s rough bark and looked over my shoulder at the shifter I wanted—no, needed—to claim. Wiggling my ass a little, I smiled at the darkening of his stare and the hardness tenting his jeans.

“What now?” I asked.

Instead of responding—of course, he only deigned me with words when it came to orders—Elias tore a hole right through my yoga pants. I sucked in a gasp as he palmed the globes of my ass.

“Fucking perfect,” he muttered. “Be good and don’t scream just yet. You won’t come until I tell you to.”

Swallowing, I nodded. A wicked smirk played on his lips as he knelt behind me. His teeth, slightly sharper than normal, bit into my ass cheek. I hissed, but he pulled back and licked the spot before doing it to the other side.

Bastard. He was so close to where I needed him, yet he was toying with me.

The next swipe of his tongue made me shudder in bliss. He toyed with my clit over my wet panties, lapping at the sensitive nub teasingly. I trembled from the friction, but it wasn’t enough.

“Please, Elias. I need more.”

The wolf growled, and gone were my panties, torn away and left discarded on the wet earth beside the tree.

“You could have just taken them off,” I muttered, shaking my ass for good measure. “Now I need new pants and underwear.”

Elias smacked me. Well, he spanked me. If it weren’t for the immense pleasure it gave—which was not an expected side-effect—I would have turned around. As he kissed the stinging area and massaged it with his large hand, I couldn’t stop the moan from spilling from my lips.

“Did I say you could speak, Angel?”

I bit my lip and shook my head. His palm hit the other cheek, leaving a pleasurable sting in its wake. “Words, Angel.”

“N-no,” I stuttered around another moan. Holy hell, I never expected to like this. Shit like spanking was more Thea’s expertise. She was the one who explored things like that.

I never had, and now I was kind of glad I hadn’t been with someone like Elias. Because this experience would be everything.

He blew on my clit like a warning before sucking it into his mouth. I stifled a cry as he sucked and nipped at it while his hands spread me wider for him. In this position, everything was bare to him. Even though I would have felt self-conscious ordinarily, I only felt more desire as he flicked his tongue over me.

Elias lapped and sucked, drawing the pleasure out slowly, painfully. When he inserted two fingers into me, I almost groaned in relief. He pumped into me, curling his fingers, stroking me slowly as he continued his assault on my clit.

I moaned his name as I hit the precipice of desire. His strokes picked up as he sucked my clit into his mouth, almost pushing me over the edge.

“Come now, Angel,” he growled, the vibrations going straight to my core. “Come on my face.”

“Elias, fuck!” I shuddered and tensed as I came, tightening around his thick fingers. He drew out my climax with slow pumps of his fingers and gentle laps of his tongue. As I came down from it, he wrapped an arm around me and held me against his chest.

“You were so good, Angel,” he murmured, nuzzling my hair.

Lust and magic pounded in my veins as we each caught our breaths. A constant barrage of thoughts, of demands, echoed in my head. Mate. Mine. Claim. Mate. Mine. Claim. Over and over again.

“Elias—” I pushed back in his arms, feeling the steel length of his cock against the tender flesh of my ass. His hand slipped beneath my shirt and explored the heated skin of my stomach and the aching swells of my breasts. One tweak of my nipples—which hardly ever fell victim to sexual stimulation—and I was raring to go again, wetter than Forthampton in spring.

I arched into his touch, another moan slipping from my lips. “Please, Elias, I need more.”

The rough callouses of his hands elicited another shiver. I rocked back, his cock twitching with the impact, earning me a growl that only made me need him more.

“I need you,” I whispered.

His canines scraped against the flesh of my throat, and he cupped one full breast in his large hand, thumb stroking my hardened nipple. “You know what will happen if we do this, Ivy?”

Chewing my lip, I shook my head.

“You will be mine,” he growled, pinching my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “Until Nyx claims us. You, Ivy Wilson, will be mine.”

This time, when I shuddered, it wasn’t out of desire. It was because of the promise in his words. The knowledge that if we continued, we’d be together until a new Queen rose to take my place. He would be by my side.

“Is that what you want?” I breathed. “Me for the rest of your life?”

My heart almost stopped in my chest as I waited for his answer. For a long moment, we listened to the rustling of the forest, to the soft pattering of rain as it hit the leaves.

Elias dragged his free hand down my stomach, brushing the apex of my thigh as he gently kissed the crook of my neck. “I knew I would be yours the moment I saw you behind that desk, Angel. This isn’t a matter of whether I want you. This is about whether you want someone like me by your side for the rest of your reign.”

I turned my head to the side to take in his rough features, from the hard line of his clenched jaw to the darkness of his hooded eyes. I reached up and cupped his cheek to angle his lips in my direction. The kiss was soft and gentle, all the things I hoped he needed to feel. My gratitude for his strength and protection, my admiration for the way he treated my sisters, and my own need for him to be by my side. Because even if he was the grumpiest asshole I’d ever met, I still needed him.

Elias met the kiss with a ferocity and hunger that melted me. His arms tightened around me, pulling me flush against his strong chest. The heat of his body chased away the chill of the forest, his kiss removing any doubts about what I wanted—and needed.

“Please,” I whimpered against his lips, “I need you.”

My heart raced, crashing in my ears, and I pressed my thighs together. The hand that had once been playing with my breast slipped out from beneath my shirt, skating up the length of my body until it rested against my throat. Fire filled my veins; I arched into the feeling, into the heat trailing his fingers on my flesh, into the way he consumed me.

Elias devoured me, plunging his tongue between my teeth, attacking my mouth with a yearning that stoked the fire in my veins. It was sublime, everything I’d ever wanted: painful yet gentle, all-consuming, and passionate. His hunger fuelled the need building within me.

He pulled back finally, dark eyes on mine. “Both hands on the tree, Angel, and spread your legs.”

I swallowed a moan as I resumed my earlier position. Behind me, Elias rested a palm against my backside, massaging the flesh of my ass as he unzipped his jeans.

Over my shoulder, I watched him stroke himself. My view was hazy, but I could make out the bulbous head of his cock, the twitch of it as he stared longingly down at my exposed core.

Elias was thicker than anyone I’d been with before, his length veiny and the head of his cock rounded and pink. A wave of arousal flooded me as he wrapped his fingers around the base and stroked up to the head before angling towards my entrance.

I felt Elias brush the head of his cock along the seams of my pussy, rubbing himself in my wet desire. A low moan slipped from my lips as he finally entered me inch by inch, stretching me until I was filled with his girth.

“Oooh fuck.” My head dropped as he paused, letting me adjust to his size and the fire that accompanied him impaling me. He could tear me in half if he wanted to.

Elias pulled out until it was only the head of his cock inside me before slamming into my core. “Your pussy was made for me.” Another thrust. “Tell me how it feels, Angel. Tell me how much you love being filled up by my cock.”

The magic telling me to claim grew louder in my head, the need to finish the bond filling my veins. I clenched around him as my hands balled into fists where I held onto the tree. Adoration pooled in my belly with each hard thrust, as his dirty words filled my ears.

My magic, that ancient creature growing in me, reached for him. I closed my eyes, and there I could see the tether between us, a rope made of golden light binding our souls as one.

“Angel,” he warned, slowing his thrusts.

I whimpered. “Fuck, Elias.” He slammed into me with a force that made the tree shudder. I would have fallen forward if it weren’t for his strong hands gripping my hips. “You feel…so good.”

He pounded into me, fingers biting into my skin with enough force that I suspected there would be bruises in the morning. But I didn’t care.

I bowed my head as pressure built again in my core. “Fuck, I’m so close, Elias.”

Elias grunted and slowed until he was teasing, not fucking. “Not yet, Angel. You don’t get to come until I tell you to.” I bit down on a whimper at the loss of his powerful thrusts. He palmed my ass cheek before spanking me again, massaging the stinging flesh, and I clenched around him.

“Elias—” Another wave of arousal pulsated through me as he planted another stinging hit on my ass.

“Not—” He picked up his pace, pounding into me harder, the slap of skin echoing throughout the forest. “—yet.”

My magic arose, prickling against my skin. As it filled my veins and reached for Elias, I could feel the snap of something else, something more as our bodies joined together as one.

“Ivy—” It was the only warning I got before he pulled me against his chest, wrapping an arm around my midsection and bringing the other to my throat. The angle changed as he continued to thrust roughly into me.

“Elias, please, I need to come,” I whimpered, my entire body vibrating with the building pressure in my core.

Elias brought his mouth to my neck and peppered kisses to the skin beneath my ear. “Come now, Angel. Come on my cock and milk me of everything I have.” Sharp teeth scraped my throat, gliding down to my shoulder, before plunging into my flesh.

His bite triggered something within me. A cry left my lips, one of pain that morphed quickly into pleasure. My climax rushed through me with a force as the mate bond snapped into place.

Elias’s thrusts turned uneven as he pulled his teeth from my shoulder and growled with his finish, cock pulsing and hot cum filling me. The bite stung, but only briefly as my magic simmered and returned to its slumber, finally appeased in the completed bond. There was no way to tell where I started, and he ended. He filled me in an all-consuming way, one I never knew I needed—and yet recognised I couldn’t live without.

“Oh, fuck,” I muttered, resting my head back against Elias’s chest. It rose and fell with hard breaths. With the binding of our souls, the haze of lust cleared, and I was brought back to reality.

A reality filled with sticky thighs, shredded pants, and no protection.

My eyes popped open, and I released a shaky breath. “I’m not on birth control right now, Elias. And we just—”

He stiffened, but his arms tightened around me instead. “I have every intention of putting a child in you, Ivy,” he growled, nipping my earlobe. “But you’ll be fine for now. If you’re really worried, see Marion about it.”

It was my turn to stiffen. “Marion?”

I could almost feel his smirk against my neck. “The healer caring for your mother. She’ll help you.” He nuzzled the crook of my neck and grunted. “But for tonight, you’re mine, and I’m not done with you yet.”

Maybe that shouldn’t have made me so happy. But I couldn’t help the giddiness filling my belly or the smile that curved my lips.

You’re mine now, Angel, his voice whispered in my head.

My eyes widened, and I turned my head to take him in. He looked pleased as hell, and by the way his cock twitched inside me—ready for another round.

“Did—did I just hear you inside my head?” I asked warily. The only time I’d heard a voice inside my head had been…

Elias pressed his lips against mine. “Yes. A perk of the mate bond, one that will protect you.”

“So, you have full access to my thoughts, then?”

He shook his head, kissing me gently again. “No. You’ll be able to control it with time. For now, though, there are other things I’d rather do than talk.”

I missed his warmth immediately as he pulled out and felt the remnants of his release drip down my thighs. There was something primal about his cum leaking down my legs, but also pretty uncomfortable.

“You look so perfect dripping with my seed,” he growled, palming my ass, and giving it a gentle squeeze. “You have no idea what it does to me—and the wolf.”

A shiver raced down my spine. I turned to face Elias as he tugged his jeans up, encasing his still hard cock behind the denim.

Oh, what it would be like to take him in my mouth, I thought, biting my lip as he smirked down at me.

“You can most certainly do that, Angel. I won’t stop you.”

My cheeks warmed as our eyes met. “I thought that a little too loud, didn’t I?”

Elias chuckled. He seemed much…lighter. Who knew a good fuck would change his mood?

“Only you can do this to me,” he murmured, catching a strand of my hair between his fingers. “And now—” Before I could say another word, Elias swung me into his arms bridal-style. “For the rest of the night, you’re mine. By the end of it, you’ll be full of my seed, and you’ll be so sore you’ll never want to leave my bed.”

I giggled like a love-sick schoolgirl as he carried me back towards the safe house. Snuggled in his arms, I relished in the safety and calmness running through me. My magic was settled, just a gentle thrum in my veins. For the first time since I’d learnt about any of this, I felt…at peace in my flesh.

I’ll see you soon, my little flower, whispered the voice I’d heard from the attack. My heart stuttered as I looked up to see if Elias had heard it, too.

But all he did was smile down at me with a softness I’d never seen on him before, one that made my heart swell with so much emotion I could hardly contain it.

I would discuss it with him later. Tonight, I would simply enjoy my mate.