Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

Ada

C allum carries me clasped tightly against his chest. It feels like we are flying as he takes giant leaps across the ship's deck. There is so much weight to him that I feel the ship almost rocks under the passage of his tread.

There is a hole with shattered wood around it where the trapdoor to the hold once was. He jumps clear through, landing on the floor below, with a resounding thud vibrating through my body.

His chest is heaving, his body a radiating menace, and yet it is not directed at me.

Somehow, miraculously, it is my Callum inside here.

He prowls straight to a dark corner, where I see the remnants of chains and scraps of material representing the pants he once wore. Here in this shadowy corner, he gently lowers me to my feet before settling upon his haunches, caging me, his intent gaze centered upon me.

I asked Lizbeth what was coming. "Fun," she said. "Messy, glorious, life-changing, fun!"

Did she know what Callum was?

Did Gray?

I believe he did.

Only now that he has changed and is before me, I'm still not sure exactly what he is.

I mean, he looks much like Gray's shifted beast form—his face is distinctly wolven—but he is huge and must be twice the size.

How did he ever contain all this inside his human flesh?

He sniffs, drawing closer until his nose butts up against my chest. I'm naked and grow a little nervous as he nuzzles me, his eyes flashing bright green.

He's not going to… he wouldn't… he couldn't… not without breaking me.

"Oh!" His huge, beastly tongue darts out to lick over my collarbone.

He continues to sniff me and lick my body in various places: my breast, my shoulder, and underneath my chin. He turns me around and laps from the back of my thighs, over my ass, and up my back, making me squirm when it tickles.

I twist around to face him again, trying to ward off his eager tongue.

He rocks back on his haunches and makes a deep, rumbly sound in his chest—his purr. The contented sound brings the sting of happy tears to the back of my eyes .

"Callum," I say in wonder, sinking my fingers into the thick, luxurious fur covering his chest before sliding all the way up until I cup his huge jaw. Where Gray's fur is short and dense, Callum's is long and shaggy, and the most beautiful russet color with flashes of black and cream.

He stills at my touch, pushing his snout into my palm before emitting a sweet crooning noise.

It softens me completely. I fling my arms around his neck, pressing in as tight and close as I can. He wraps me up and moves deeper into the corner, crooning for me.

"I love you, Callum. I have missed you." A small, happy giggle escapes me. "But goddess, how is this much beast contained in a single man?"

I feel the world tilting. At first, I think the ship is listing on the sea. But then I realize that the giant beast is shrinking before my eyes.

The shrinking stops when he is a more comparable size to Gray.

"Oh!" I gasp as he suddenly drops me to the ground, spins, and issues a menacing growl. His body seems to pump up and grow again.

I peer around him to find Gray standing there.

"You are upsetting him," I say. "Do not rile him up. I have only just calmed him down!"

Callum swings his head to face me. He makes a strange chuffing noise that almost seems to say, "Be quiet, lass," before he turns back to Gray.

"I am not going to interfere," Gray says, his voice a deep rumble, for he is likewise in beast form. He holds his arms wide and open.

Callum makes another chuffing noise, this one directed at Gray. There is a warning aspect to it.

Gray lowers himself to a low, restful, watching sort of crouch. "I am not leaving," he says determinedly. "I understand that she is yours. She has always been yours. She is now also mine, too. But you are also new to this form, so although I cannot beat you, I will fucking try if you are not careful with the lass."

Callum's chuff is distinctly indignant.

"Fine," Gray rumbles. The air shimmers as he shifts to his wolf. He is a giant, easily the size of a horse, yet even knowing he is deadly, he seems less so as he plants his ass against the floor and slides out his front legs to lie down.

Callum's body pulses as he slowly shrinks back to regular beast size. Seemingly satisfied that Gray issues no threat, he swings back to me.

I nibble on my lower lip, suddenly feeling shy before this new aspect of him. "This has been a very difficult week without your touch."

He chuffs again. Gray can speak in this form, but I get the impression that Callum cannot.

"He will not try to stop you," I say. "There was never any intention to hurt either of us nor to deny the bond we already shared." I shift a glare to Gray. His wolf remains alert, so I continue, "Although he went about it in a very poor way…" I return my focus to Callum. "Come back to me, Callum. I also need to see the man."

His body pulses again, shrinking, shrinking before the air crackles, and in the place of a beast is a naked man.

His chest heaves. I am tiny before him. It would appear that the human side of him has likewise grown.

"Callum!" I throw myself into his arms, and he hefts me up so I can pepper kisses across his cheeks and down his throat, clinging to him possessively. "Callum! Callum, I love you."

"I love you, too, Ada," he says gruffly. "I love you with all my heart."

It takes only moments for the feelings of love to explode into passion. I was not lying when I said I missed him—all aspects of him.

His naturally gentle ways.

His protectiveness.

That he is the kind of man who followed me onto a ship to save me, even as hopeless as that was.

There is yet another aspect to Callum—the rough, possessive male who rutted me and knotted me on a cold wooden floor after a competition fight.

My fingers spear his hair, then tighten. My lips are at the juncture of his shoulder and throat. I bite with all the savagery I possess.

"God's, Ada," he growls, his hand cupping the back of my neck.

I feel him trembling against me. His body. His hands. I know he feels all that I do, that he mirrors my needs.

He takes me down onto the floor, cradling my body in his hands as he lowers me with gentle reverence to the scrap of material that was once his pants. The floor is hard and rough. I do not even care.

His mouth seeks my throat, and he sucks rough, urgent kisses against my flesh.

I know he will leave a mark. I want him to.

His lips trail downward until they find the plump swell of my upper breast. He sucks hard again, marking me, then moving lower until his lips latch onto my nipple, where he greedily sucks.

A sharp thread of arousal shoots straight to my core. My body ignites, and I tug his hair, holding him closer. I arch up, my mouth open on a wanton cry as he trails hot devastation on a path to the other breast. Then, suckling this side with the same hunger as he cruelly twists the neglected nipple.

I am aflame for him and burning brightly with need. Heat pools in my belly and lower, the sweet, achy sensation that demands I be filled.

"Callum, please, I need you."

His lips pop off, and he lifts his head to pin me with a look. His big body braces over me, caging me against the floor, nostrils flaring. A primal male, I now understand he is more than a mere man.

As I grapple with the enormity of his monstrous power, I joyfully conclude that he is simply Callum, my Callum, my mate.

And I am an omega, and I will have my dues.

He hooks his hands underneath my ass and lifts me from the floor until our chests are together, with my legs wrapped around his waist. He rocks me, rubbing my pussy up against the swollen ridge of his cock.

My hand slips down between us, grasping the firm male flesh.

I pump slowly.

He groans weakly.

I'm shaking with need and lift it up, trying to put his hot flesh where I need it.

He cups my ass, raising me up until I can wedge his cock at the entrance of my pussy. And then he lowers me, a rumbly purr emanating from his chest as he slowly penetrates me.

My jaw falls slack as I stare into his beautiful eyes, so green and bright, taking in his handsome face, flushed with his pleasure, and his wild ginger hair, all in disarray, shaggy.

"Fuck you feel good," he says. My eyes lower to where his body enters mine, filling me with a delectable stretch I can never get enough of. I see that he is not fully seated. The faint swelling of his glands remains outside, but I now know it will grow as he ruts me, becomes thicker, and fills me in the perfect way.

I try to rock—to get more. He pins his wrists at my hips, holding me still.

I growl my displeasure.

"I had forgotten how needy you are." He smirks.

Gods, I love him. I love everything about him. I thank the Goddess every day that we met, and that he saved me—that he is here with me today.

His smile slips, and a determined glint enters his eyes. Releasing my wrists, he takes my hips and begins to slam me down with slow, deliberate thrusts.

It awakens nerves along my channel and makes my breasts sway as our flesh meets with a slick slap . He clasps his right arm around my waist and cups my breasts with his left hand, pinching my nipple roughly as his lips slant over mine.

He kisses up my cries. All I can do is hang on to his shoulders as he takes me, our bodies moving together, his lips against my throat, nipping, biting, before seeking my lips and hungrily kissing me again.

My body explodes with pleasure. It tears through me at lightning speed. My pussy clenches savagely around his cock.

And still, he does not stop.

I am pitched into free fall: my mind tumbling, my body nothing but pleasure and bliss. Our hands turn chaotic—urgent touches, gripping fingers sinking into flesh in ways that will leave welcome bruises. My nails rake his back, and my teeth bite his lower lip. He only grunts and kisses me more deeply and encourages me to do more.

"Come for me, Callum," I beg, dragging my lips from his. "Fill me. Give me your knot."

He growls; it reverberates, long and low, through my body from his.

Inside, I feel his glands swelling, the sweet stretch, the sensation of being too full and yet just right. And then he slams deeply one more time. We are locked together. I feel him pulsing, flexing inside me, filling me deeply. The hot gush of his seed. The rush that races through me triggers me, and we climax together as one.

His lips find mine, and he kisses me, sweeping me away from reality and into an alternate plane of existence. One where only the two of us exist, our love reuniting as our bodies likewise join.

There is no me and him; there is only us , a perfect thread that connects us together, an awareness that tickles and then grows warm as a joyful connection blooms.

But the thread does not sit only between us. It moves outwards beyond us. Searching, seeking until it finds another presence.

A wolf waiting, burning with his own needs and yet knowing that his time is yet to come. As Callum's lips lift from mine and we stare into each other's eyes, heaving gusty breaths, I know that everything has changed.