~ CASIMIR ~When I nipped her neck, she gave a shrieking little laugh that made my cock twitch because it reminded me of when she’d come and my name had been echoing in those same corners just minutes earlier.But neither of us was laughing seconds later when I ran both hands up her sides, then over her bra, cupping and kneading her as I began rubbing my cock along her.I’d meant it as a tease, but I was so hard, so full, so needy, soon we were both groaning as I slid my hands back down to grip her hips and guided her over my length again and again.At some point she tried to step back, but the bindings stopped her and she almost overbalanced on me. I wrapped my arms around her stomach and kept rubbing, pressing, gliding, my breath hissing between my teeth.“Ready, Jesse?” I muttered as I watched myself slide between her thighs and my body demanded more.“For what?” she whispered.“For me,” I growled.“I’m always ready for you, Cazz,” she sighed.God, she was perfect. With quick, whis
~ CASIMIR ~Jesse was leaning forward, onto the rise of the couch. My entire body responded to the sight of her and I had to take a breath, stroking her back, to gather my control. When I was certain I wouldn’t cave to the drive to take her, I dragged my hands up her back and reached for her bra straps, curling fingers under them at the back and running the backs of my fingers slowly up her skin until I was under them at the peak of her shoulders. Then I dragged them down until they sagged on her upper arms.She rippled into my touch and I smiled, breathing heavily as I slipped my silk-gloved hand around her chest and slid my fingers under the underwire of the bra to knead one breast, then tease her nipple between my thumb and forefinger, using the other hand firmly on her shoulder to keep her tight in my lap as I picked up the pace a touch.Watching her body ripple, feeling her tighten on me, hearing her little cries was intoxicating… I was beginning to sweat.I’d planned to play mo
~ JESSE ~I felt Cazz shudder and for a moment I thought it was just pure passion. But something in the bond went cold and my entire body tensed.‘Cazz?’ I asked through the bond as I reached back for him, putting my hands on his thighs and squeezing to try and get his attention. He was clinging to my stomach, his face buried in the back of my neck, but he wasn’t moving. Wasn’t even breathing.‘Cazz? What’s wrong?’ When he didn’t answer even in the bond, I grew truly worried and dug my nails into his thighs to try and snap him out of whatever trance he was in.His body was steel behind me, trembling.Then there was a strange sucking noise, and I realized he was struggling to breathe.“Cazz!” I leaned down, fighting against the way he gripped me around the stomach to reach my ankles and unbuckle those cuffs with trembling fingers. “Cazz, what’s wrong? What happened?” I hushed as I got myself free, then started to stand up, to turn around—I needed to see him!But as I started to rise he
~ CASIMIR ~I strode along the tunnels of the Palace draped in black from head to toe, wearing one of the long, black tunics that buttoned up the front that I was partial to when I was nineteen.Nineteen.Still a child by human standards, but finally coming into my own as a wolf.I was walking quickly, my body humming with anticipation, because I thought I was in love. But my apprehension that someone might smell it on me was actually helpful, coating my scent in tension and wariness.It was becoming harder and harder to hide my true feelings from my father. I did my best every time I was near him not to think of her, unless it was to replay our sexual exploits in my mind.Daddy dearest didn’t give two shits who I fucked.But love?Worse, considering her as a mate?I shook my head and kept walking, hands clenched at my sides, praying I wouldn’t see anyone important before I reached our meeting place. But thoughts of my father kept crowding in, reminding me of that female he’d caught m
~ CASIMIR ~I was frozen just inside the door, gaping like a puppy witnessing their first mating.Cuan’s eyes caught mine and he grinned, then pumped hard into her again, tearing a small cry from her throat as she opened her eyes and they went wide…She froze too… then she smiled uncertainly.And I couldn’t fathom it, because I loved her. I thought I did. I thought I had.But everything about her screamed her arousal.Her eyes were clear and her emotion real—she wasn’t compelled.She wasn’t being forced. She wasn’t being attacked.She was being fucked.By my brother.And she liked it.She and I stared at each other for an endless moment, then she gave me a wary smile. “Cazz—”She said my informal name like she still had a right to.“—Cuan told me about how you two share…”Share? He told her we share?Cuan had never shared anything more than genetics with me since my birth. He had sensed before I had that I was the greatest threat to his birthright, and though we’d worked together to p
~ CASIMIR ~“Please, Cazz, I needed your help!” she croaked, desperate and terrified, but now gaining hope, because she’d seen me hesitate. She put her hands down on the carpet and started inching towards me, her body still naked and flushed from fucking my brother.“He hurt you?” I asked carefully, doing everything I could not to let her see that I knew she was lying.A volcano of rage was rumbling in my chest, threatening to erupt.“Yesss!” she hissed. “He said… he said if I didn’t do it he’d kill me! I just prayed you’d forgive me!” Her voice was a thin rasp, barely a whisper. She crawled towards me, keeping her head and shoulders lower than her plump ass that I had bitten more than once, and cupped, and squeezed, and wondered if it tasted like her shoulder and whether I’d claim her after we were mated.My body shuddered as the cold wind of betrayal punched, sliding a frozen knife between my ribs.“Why did it have to be him?”It was the question I should have asked him before I sto
~ CASIMIR ~At first when she went still and I took the first step back into an entirely new life, fury was still my fuel. My hands shook, but my bones thrummed with power and adrenaline and sheer thrill.I could barely breathe. Yet my body had never felt stronger.I took another step back, then another, taking in the carnage of the room… inhaling the scent of blood.Two bodies.My brother.My love—no, the female who had betrayed me.Both of them, I reminded myself. They were both traitors. Both self-serving, two-faced liars.There was a flash in my head of Sheba curled up in my bed, her head on my shoulder, laughing at something I had said, her hand stroking my chest—I staggered back two more steps as the world began to spin.My father’s voice became a hurricane in my head as I watched the female I had started to think I would mate bleed out on the floor.“…they will use you. They will deceive you. Smile to your face, then bare their fangs behind your back. They will take everything
~ JESSE ~We were now sitting on the normal couch that squatted against the wall of the room. I’d led him to it when he started shaking in the middle of that story. It was wide and flat and he was a lot less likely to fall off of it when he swayed. He hadn’t even stopped talking, his eyes darting left and right as if he wasn’t seeing this room at all, but the events he was describing.When he sat down, He bent forward, elbows on his knees, head hanging from his shoulders and buried his face in his hands.But he didn’t stop.When he first started speaking there was a pinch of jealousy in my chest because he smiled when he remembered caring about her, hiding her from his father. The hope… I’d never seen him hope before, and I ached for it.But I wept for him when he described the moment he discovered them together.I sobbed when his voice cracked as he tonelessly described shifting and killing his brother.And when he talked about confronting, and ultimately killing her… I could barely
~ CASIMIR ~I was pretty sure if I didn’t get inside her, I was going to eat her alive.Scooting with her in my lap, still straddling me, I got her so both my knees and her back were flat against the wall. Then I flipped open the wide, leather cuffs that had been secured directly to the wall and first lifted one of her hands, to strap it in so her hand was levered above her shoulder, but with her arm comfortably bent so she could relax. Then I did the same with her other hand on the other side.So I straddled the banana-seat, while she straddled me and her hands were secured to the wall behind her.Her breasts rose and fell with her heavy breathing, and her eyes were bright with desire.Overwhelmed again with how much thought she’d put into this, for a moment I just took her face in my hands and kissed her. But that drew us together—my cock pressing against her, and I couldn’t resist rolling my hips, teasing
~ CASIMIR ~“I made a new Den,” Jesse whispered, her hands over her mouth, staring up at me—those beautiful eyes wide, but also a little fearful. “I know it’s not the same, but I got Ghere to help me because he remembered what things you’d had before and… I hope you like it.”Like it? Was she serious?My heart was slamming against my ribs, and I was having trouble breathing.The room seemed smaller than I remembered because the walls were painted a dull black. But the tighter space than what I’d had down next to the Den just made it feel more intimate.There were two lamps, one on each end, and a chandelier high above. Candles everywhere, though she hadn’t lit mo
~ JESSE ~It was Cazz’s turn to plan the monthly date. But I was humming about this one. Things were finally ready, and impossibly, Ghere had helped me successfully pull off the surprise. But I still had to figure out how to get Cazz there without ruining it.He’d taken me out to the meadow again—my favorite date. Though we’d enjoyed several others now too—and we’d just finished eating. He was leaning back against the cab of the truck, looking out at the city lights, his brows a little heavy.“What are you thinking about?” I asked him, though I had a hunch.He had his arm around me and I was leaning on his shoulder. His hand trailed up and
~ CASIMIR ~I came out of the bathing room after a long bath rubbing my hair with a towel, to find my mate standing in the middle of the chamber with her arms folded and looking sternly at my daughter, who sat on the floor in nothing but a diaper, with her chubby legs straight out. She, too, had her arms folded and her lips pursed in the perfect reflection of her mother.The two glared at each other and half my heart went cold, while the other half wanted to splutter with laughter.“Abigail, I have told you—”“No!”Our daughter could only get her tongue around a few words so far, but
~ JESSE (a few weeks later) ~I had just finished nursing Abigail and was holding her on my lap while Reeca sat with me on the couch.Her eyes were bright and she was beginning to smile, so I was tickling her cheeks to see if I could get her to do it. But she was sleepy because she’d just eaten and only yawned and cooed.“She’s a very calm baby,” Reeca commented from the other end of the couch, smiling. She loved babies, and had been so helpful when I was tired—and just for reassurance for me.She was a calm presence in any room, and with Abigail, she showed a lot of delight and joy that she seemed to stifle in other areas of her life.“Reeca,” I said carefully, because I’d b
~ JESSE ~I was too tired to do more than lift my hands to his neck, so I just curled my face into his chest and let him settle us into the chair, cradled in his arms with my ass in his lap.When he’d sat, I had my head resting on his shoulder and my body curled in his arms.“Do you hurt?” he asked quickly.“No, just tired, like I said.”I felt him relax a little then and another chill started in my blood.“Cazz… what’s happened?” I asked quietly.He turned his head to meet my eyes and lifted his hand to comb hair back from my face. His throat bobbed, but his touch was g
~ JESSE (Hours later) ~My dreams were disturbing—my body in pain, screams of terror, darkness, the floor shaking, the mountain falling, humans fleeing and wolves…I tried to break free, tried desperately to open my eyes and to speak, because I knew I was asleep. But all I did was fade… in and out. The nightmares, or nothing.And through it all, his voice.“Heal… live.”My heart ached. My body hurt. My chest didn’t want to expand. It was as if my flesh fought his words, and I didn’t understand.But finally, the dreams faded and I could hear a heartbeat. Little, and quick. And feel warm flesh. And the breath of my m
~ CASIMIR ~I felt the moment the power went out of Jesse. The entire mountain felt it.I howled with triumph and shifted, sprinting towards the room, ecstatic when there was no sense of Maya gripping my mind or stealing anything from me. But of course, there was no power left for her to steal.I prayed and pleaded and ran, Rory and the others coming in my wake. And the moment I broke through that door in my wolf—the only power left to me anymore—everything slowed. Though my body whipped and my mind was singularly focused, it was as if everything happened in slow motion.I caught a bare glimpse of Jesse on the bed, and at first my heart leaped. She was moving, awake, aware,
~ JESSE ~Maya had me sitting up in the bed, curled forward, gripping my knees. Reeca on one side, helping prop me up, a guard on the other.My body was nothing but a conduit for pain. Wave after wave, my entire lower body condensing, contracting, pushing to get this baby out. I could barely think.Cazz was there, so quiet, so distant, but there, calling his encouragement and pushing love at me through the bond.There was a moment when I thought I wouldn’t make it, when I thought my body would give and I would just drift away.But then I caught Maya smiling. Leaning forward between my legs, reaching, grasping, for