Chapter 7

Ada

Ididn't want to feel anything toward the vampire, yet I couldn't help but feel this softening in the center of my chest at what he'd done for me, not just right now but since we'd been thrust into this dimension together.

He'd even cut his shirt so I had something to wash myself with.

The pool wasn't large enough to sit and be submerged, so I quickly washed the dirt and grime off, dried as best as I could, and got dressed in the same clothes.

The ick feeling of putting them back on was real, but the alternative was walking around naked in front of Sebastian, and I didn't trust myself around him with clothes on, let alone sans them.

I stepped back into the main area but didn't see him by the fire. A deep noise caught my attention, and I looked out toward the cave entrance.

I saw him standing right by the opening, but his posture was strange, his shoulders tensed and curved forward.

A guttural sound left him, and my heart thundered, thinking he was injured.

I all but ran to Sebastian, my heart in my throat, feeling panic at the very thought that he was hurt. And it was solely because I didn't want him to be.

It had nothing to do with our circumstance. Nothing to do with the very thought of being trapped here alone.

It was because the very idea of Sebastian hurt had this pain settling in my stomach and rising up to my throat, curling its icy claws around me until I couldn't breathe.

I reached out and grabbed on to the rocky wall to steady myself when I reached him.

"Sebastian—" I stuttered out his name.

I knew he hadn't heard me approaching given the fact that he was still making those harsh noises and hadn't turned to face me. Gods, he must really be in pain if I could come right up on him and he wasn't even aware.

"Sebastian, are you okay?"

His back tensed and he spun around. Everything else faded away as I realized what I was looking at, and why he'd been making those noises.

He'd unbuttoned his pants and pulled out his huge erection, the thick, long length held in his big palm. Gods, he was so hard.

Oh Gods. He wasn't in pain. He'd been jerking off.

I snapped my gaze up to his face, realizing I'd been staring at what he'd been holding. My face became scorching hot, and my eyes widened in humiliation.

For a second neither one of us spoke or moved. I couldn't even breathe, couldn't comprehend what I was witnessing. And then as that initial shock started to fade, I felt something else.

Sensations moved through me—the likes of which I'd never envisioned before. Feelings and desires that had my body heating, my core tightening. I grew hot and wet, and tingles settled between my thighs.

My nipples beaded, my breasts felt heavy and sensitive, and I was right back to staring at his cock.

It was just so big. So long. And the pearlized drop at the tip grew as more seeped out before it started its slow descent dripping down the underside of his shaft.

Gods, why couldn't I breathe? Why couldn't I get enough oxygen into my lungs?

And the longer I stared at Sebastian, the more his expression changed from mild shock to something darker, more feral.

His eyes became hooded, and he lowered his head, keeping his gaze locked on me. His stance was almost predatory in nature.

Low, deep, and rhythmic sounds started to come out of him, an almost purring noise as he took a step toward me.

On instinct my gaze dropped down to the massive length he held, and a shocked sound left me as I watched him start to stroke himself again. He was completely shameless at the lewd and obscene act I was witnessing.

"I thought you were hurt," I whispered and found myself taking a step back.

"And you came rushing to my defense." His response was almost too low for me to hear, but I didn't miss how pleased he sounded.

Another harsh growl left him as I moved away and he came forward. I knew retreating was fruitless, not only because he was a predator stalking his prey—me—but because I didn't really want to escape.

As crazy and dangerous as this moment was, my body knew what it wanted, and that was the male looking at me like he wanted to devour every single inch I had to offer.

Before I knew what was happening, I had my back pressed to the cavern wall. A sense of déjà vu filled me as he came closer, crowding me, his body so big and tall that he blocked out everything behind him.

My head was craned back, my scalp digging into the rocks as I kept my focus on his eyes, which were now flashing red. The ruby glow filled the interior of the cave, and I felt my heart racing further, my breathing picking up harder.

His right arm was moving back and forth slowly in a way that meant only one thing. He was still touching himself.

And the way the corner of his mouth kicked up told me he could sense how off-balance I was by the situation.

And he got off on it.

I should've slapped him across the face for being so crude in front of me, doing such an intimate act in my presence, but I couldn't find it in myself to control my reaction.

Besides… I was aroused, so incredibly heated that there was no way he couldn't tell. Hell, even if he were human, I knew he'd be able to see the change in my body.

"How much of a bastard does it make me to keep jerking off knowing it makes you uncomfortable?" He placed his free hand on the rock beside my head and leaned in.

I looked away and took a shuddering breath as the scent of a potent male vampire filled my head.

The feeling of the top of his nose running along my jawline nearly had me making an embarrassingly aroused sound.

Then there was the sensation of his lips skimming down the side of my throat, the sound of him scenting me, and finally the touch of his fangs at my pulse point.

I clenched my thighs together as a wave of heated desire coursed through me.

"Mmm," he hummed and I braced my hands on the wall to steady myself. "You know what you smell like?" He said in a low voice that I felt the vibrations right between my legs. "Mine. You smell like mine."

I whimpered, an involuntary sound that should have humiliated me, but instead I felt empowered by it."I'm not your anything. I'm not yours." Even I could hear the lie laced in my words.

"That's where you're wrong." I sucked in a breath when I felt him run the tip of his tongue back and forth over my pulse. "You're my everything."

He was so close that his body heat surrounded me, whisking away the chill that being within the cave gave. I could smell every part of him, the male wildness that clung to him. The powerful dominance he wore like a second skin. There was also a dark, spicy undertone that had my body lighting up, tingling and feeling like I was burning alive from the inside out.

"Mine," he growled and I felt the vibrations through my neck and straight down to my core.

He gently nibbled on my skin, his fangs sharp and causing all the erogenous zones in my body to start rapidly firing off. I couldn't help but think of all the other places on my body he could use those fangs.

He groaned as if he read my thoughts, but I couldn't find it in me to care or be embarrassed.

I dug my nails into the cavern wall, held my breath, and felt the pleasure start to rise swiftly just from the feeling of his teeth scraping back and forth.

Gods, the threat that he could puncture my skin and drain me dry had me snapping my eyes open as the pleasure grew and grew and grew.

"Fuck, I want to bite you so badly." He pressed his thigh between my legs, lifting it up slightly so pressure was placed right at the most intimate part of me. "I want to take my fill of you, drink from you until I'm drunk." He purred against my throat. "I want to part your thighs and sink in deep, forcing myself as far into your sweet cunt as I can get until you don't know where you begin and I end."

There was something growing inside of me, building higher and coiling tighter with every press of his thigh between my legs, with every gruff rumble of his words against the side of my throat.

"To need something when you've never needed anything in your life is a potent feeling," he groaned and licked the side of my throat over and over again. "To desire when you've never felt pleasure before…" He bit down gently, then harder. "And to want to kill just to present you with the corpses of my violence, because I want you to know I can take care of you, makes me want to destroy the fucking world."

His words and touch were a breath stealer, a heart stopper. I tipped my head back and closed my eyes, my lips parting as a new wave of desire and hunger tried to steal my very sanity.

And just as whatever was growing inside of me was about to peak, a deafening roar sounded right outside the cave.

I snapped my eyes open and held my breath as I glanced at the entrance.

Sebastian had gone stiff in front of me, pressing his body harder against mine in a protective gesture, his head cocked to the side as he, too, stared out the entrance.

He was growling low, and faster than I could anticipate, he tucked himself back into his pants and turned to become a wall between me and whatever was outside.

For long moments we just stood there, my breathing slow and shallow as the fear of whatever was in this world coming inside and tearing us apart was a very real prospect.

He had a hand thrust behind him and curled around my waist, his nails now shifted into black claws as his aggression and protective feral side rose. I knew vampires were vicious creatures, bordering on psychotic and bloodthirsty, and I sensed that rage seeping out of Sebastian.

I sensed his excitement to kill.

We stood there for long moments, and the only sound that came from Sebastian was the low, rhythmic growling. It was only after long, tense minutes in this standoff with an invisible threat that I felt his big body start to relax slightly.

He backed up, forcing me to retreat while still keeping himself between me and the danger outside of the cave.

Only when we were back by the fire did he turn and face me. His nostrils flared and relaxed, repeating over and over again as his chest pumped up and down from his harsh breathing.

It was clear he was struggling with the need to go out and find the threat, as he kept looking behind him at the entrance of the cave and making animalistic sounds.

"I want to go out and make sure things are safe." His voice was a serrated growl, and he kept relaxing and curling his hands into tight fists at his sides.

"Do you think something's following us? I'm sure it's just a native creature."

He didn't answer right away, but then turned to face me again. Sebastian took a step forward, and I didn't retreat even though he was quite terrifying right now. His body seemed bigger, his muscles more pronounced, and the air around him was frigid.

I'd never seen a vampire before being taken by the Assembly, and especially had never seen one on the edge of losing their damn mind.

But as I stared at my mate and felt his rage encompass every available inch of this cavern, I could definitely see why his kind were known as one of the more volatile species in the Otherworld.

"I can sense we aren't alone. Whether it's hunting us or not, it knows we're here."

Great. Like I needed to be even more freaked out than I was.

Maybe he saw something on my face that had him reading my mind, because before I could sense him moving, Sebastian was in front of me, his hands cupping either side of my neck.

He moved his thumbs back and forth right below my ears in a calming manner. Although it certainly wasn't having that effect since the arousal kept rising in me faster than I could control it.

I was taken aback by this seemingly gentle, intimate touch. It seemed so soft and out of character with how he'd presented himself so far.

I could do nothing but stare at him, my lips parted, my breathing starting to increase because his touch left me feeling unbalanced and my soul bared.

"If you think I'd ever let anything hurt you, you're about to realize how fiercely protective I am of you."

I felt myself softening as he continued to add slight pressure to my pulse points.

"Nothing is going to get through me to get to you. I'll fucking destroy anything that tries." His eyes flashed red as he stared down at me. "There isn't anything more dangerous in this world than me protecting you."

Gods, I couldn't think with him being so close.

He added a little pressure on my head to tip it back slightly so I could fully look into his glowing eyes.

"Okay?" He said that one word with so much finality that I had no option but to nod in agreement.

And just like that he was stepping back and I was sucking in a lungful of air, realizing being trapped in an alternate dimension wasn't the craziest thing to ever happen to me.

Being mated to this sociopathic vampire topped that.