Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
- Psalms 51:5
*****
I desperately needed to piss.
As I stalked into my room, Ghere scuttling in my wake, I took a few seconds to pry my boots off, then made straight for the adjoining bathing room, undressing as I walked because when I returned to the festivities it would be in wedding garb.
Fuck.
I sighed as I passed my huge bed, a stone platform long and wide enough that even the tallest wolf would have plenty of room to sprawl…with friends. The thick mattress was covered in furs and plush pillows.
And my toys.
My stomach began to thrum and I smiled, diverting my path to trail a finger along the lush body of the first—the brunette who was still fast asleep.
She lay on her back, bare to the waist, her full breasts rising and falling slowly with her breath. A few strands of her dark hair lay over her face and fluttered as she snored quietly.
I let my finger trail from her shoulder, down, over her nipple, then along her body. She instinctively arched, then sighed and rolled over without waking, but the movement raised the furs and a waft of her warm scent reached me.
The wolf in me, already tense, woke up whining as I continued down the side of the bed, past the second toy, the blonde, curled like a puppy at the end. I almost reached for her, but my need for the toilet was greater, so I picked up my pace as I stepped away from the bed of sleeping females and strode naked into the bathing room, Ghere at my heels.
The wolf of power plans while his enemies sleep.
My rage sizzled at the sound of my late father’s voice in my head, so I dismissed the thought. But his voice wouldn’t leave me. They should be up. Attending me. Ready…
No.
My toys only purpose was to serve me. They were free to sleep whenever I didn’t need them. It was the rest of the pack that I needed to worry about.
I glanced over my shoulder as I approached the bathing room and gave a grim smile at the sight of Ghere faithfully following.
My servant and Advisor, he was the only other wolf more disciplined than me.
Small and slight, Ghere was the runt of his litter. He should have been nose to the dirt—never hold the ear of the King. But in order to make up for his fine frame and delicate constitution, God had given the fucker a mind larger and sharper than any I knew.
He never failed to step into my room each morning at the exact moment that I arose. And he never shyed away from following me into the darkness…
“Is she preparing?” I asked him quietly.
“Yes, Sire.”
“How did she smell?”
“Nervous,” he said quickly, licking his lips in a anxious habit he had that always made my nose wrinkle.
I stepped into the bathroom, leaving the door open for him so he could follow. I was desperate to piss. The man had shadowed me into far darker spaces than this.
“Will she run before the vows?”
“I don’t believe so, Sire.”
I huffed, uncertain whether that was comforting or not. But Ghere shifted his weight like he had thoughts, and the back of my neck began to itch.
“Then what is making your balls retreat, Ghere?” I asked, sighing with relief as I began to relieve myself into the bowl.
The humans had so many things wrong, but indoor plumbing and electricity were not numbered among them.
“Sire, the Queen… I… I believe she is different than her predecessors.”
“That was the point,” I grunted, guarding against the rush of rage and frustration that always overwhelmed me when I thought of my two previous mates. It wouldn’t do to lash out at Ghere. He was necessary.
For a moment I was transported back to that morning, just weeks ago, when he’d come to tell me the fate of my previous mate.
…He stood in front of me, chin low, but eyes wary on me, holding a piece of paper, a note that had been left by my dead mate.
I snatched it out of his outstretched hand, opened and read it, scanning it quickly. But there was nothing new.
Pitifully weak.
Crying for attention.
Miserable. Depressed. Unable to cope, blah, blah, blah.
Just like the last one.
Fuck.
I crumpled the paper and tossed it at Ghere, who snagged it deftly out of the air, but the tension in his features didn’t ease.
“Sire—”
“She was too weak. Just like the others.”
“Yes, obviously. But—”
“Call the Reapers.”
“Of course, but I just wonder—”
“This time tell them to hunt the poor areas. The trailer parks and slums, Ghere. The women there have suffered already. They’ll be stronger.”
He looked shocked. “But... your offspring must be of the noble bloodlines. Taking a human I understand, but—”
“There will be no noble bloodline if they keep dying before they bear young,” I snapped through clenched teeth. “Find women who have lived in the darkness before. My blood is noble enough for both of us.”
“Sire?”
I was jerked back to the present with a scowl on my face. “What?”
Ghere’s throat bobbed, but he looked out the door of the bathing room toward the bed, then back at me, a question in his eyes.
My toys.
I snorted. “There seems little point in abandoning them when we know she’s a virgin and won’t be up to… soothing all my itches.” I smiled.
Ghere sighed. “Cazz—”
I strode past him, into the bedroom, my body already hard with anticipation of what was to come. Namely, me.
When I reached the bed and shook the toys awake, Ghere sighed again and I had to resist the urge to snarl at him.
Miraculously, the blonde curled at the end of the bed was still wearing the wisp of lace and silk I’d given her yesterday. When she sat up, frowning and blinking, one side of it fell away where I’d bitten through the strap last night.
There were marks on her shoulder, scrapes in the shape of my teeth leading from her collarbone to the top of her full breast.
I smiled and reached for her, taking the weight of that pale globe and teasing her nipple with my thumb until it stood proud.
Flushed and messy from sleep, she still bit her lip, smiling, and leaned back on her hands, pressing her chest up for me.
Good girl.
I put one knee on the bed and her eyes brightened, so I crawled forward to kneel on it, nodding when she reached for me with a question in her eyes, burying a hand in her hair when she leaned down to take me in her mouth.
I let my head drop back and growled my approval of her talented tongue.
My second toy was also waking and crawling over to join us. I cut eyes to her to keep her from interrupting. The blonde was doing her work well. I would meet this dumpster fire of a wedding with my skin thrumming.
“Her senses are dull… she know nothing of this… Just make sure she’s ready… in thirty minutes…” I said hissing and tightening my grip in the blonde’s hair, guiding her as pleasure coursed through me, lighting my veins.
Ghere stood halfway across the room, clearly uncertain whether to leave or speak.
He was threatening to stifle my pleasure, so I let the power rise with the blood coursing in my veins and snapped a thread of compulsion at him—just a bare taste. But his breath rushed out of him and he bowed so low his hair brushed the tops of his feet.
“Yes… yes… of course. I only thought, perhaps when you’re done you should have the toys go—”
“Leave us, Ghere.”
He scurried from the room as quickly as he’d arrived and I turned my full attention to the women.
Or tried to.
Something itched at the base of my skull.
Frustration.
Anger.
And something… shakier. But I shook it off. We’d already been through this twice before.
Women killed themselves every day in the modern human world. If this new one failed me like the others… no. I wouldn’t consider it.
They had been weak. She was stronger. And even if she wasn’t, I wouldn’t let myself be disturbed.
I would not give up. I’d find her, the woman capable of this. I would force her to submit, bear an heir with her and no longer be tormented by the clock ticking over my head. The clock that counted down to my defeat.
“What’s wrong, Cazz?” the dark-haired toy whispered, coming to kneel next to me and leaning in to kiss my chest while her friend continued sucking me.
I hadn’t compelled either of them to reach for me. Yet the blonde was remarkably dedicated to her task.
But despite her talent, my thoughts were too disturbed to let me focus. We’d played late into the night, so I was sleep-deprived. And now I was… tense.
And I had things to do.
Or rather, people.
A new, weak, pathetic mate to train for pleasure.
Rage crackled through me.
“Fucking human women,” I muttered. “You’re always more trouble than you’re worth.”
Thrusting into the blonde’s mouth, ordering her not to gag—her body would obey me, even to the point of stopping her heart if I instructed it—I took a handful of the brunette’s hair and tugged her head back to bear her throat.
“Do you know why I bother?” I whispered to her.
She shook her head as best she could with the grip I had on her. She gasped as I leaned over her, pulling her head back until the tendons on her neck stood proud.
Her breath hissed in and out of her teeth and her chest rose and fell quickly. Unable to lift her head from my grip, she followed my progress with her eyes as I opened my mouth over that vein, pulsing thick, hot blood just under the surface of her flawless skin.
I latched on, sucking hard, needing to leave a mark. But I wouldn’t let her relax into the pleasure of my touch thinking there was no danger. I let my teeth graze her skin and she shuddered.
Then I kissed the skin, laving it with my tongue to soothe the pain where the beads of blood rose.
“Every time a human submits to me, my power grows,” I murmured breathlessly, the combination of the blonde’s attentions and this toy’s fear ensuring that my body was prickling with promised pleasure. I was beginning to sweat.
“I s-submit!” the brunette gasped. “I do!”
I tipped my head, staring down at her and her eyes widened further.
“You do,” I murmured, pretending to soothe her.
“I’ll always submit,” she breathed. “Always. I’m here for you, Cazz. You can trust me.”
A jolt of pleasure from the blonde’s ministrations rocked through me and my eyes closed. I tipped my forehead against the brunette’s, my breath rushing between my teeth and over her face.
“Yet, you human whelps also… confuse lust… with love…” I growled. “Every. Fucking. Time.” I dropped her hair, but whipped the hand around to close it on her throat, squeezing hard enough that her eyes bulged. “I don’t need a lover,” I hissed. “I need a fucking bitch in heat.”
She opened her mouth but no sound came out.
“I didn’t compel you, so why did you ask me what was wrong?” I snarled.
She was trying to shake her head, but I had her neck clamped in my hand, just one hair away from cutting off her air.
“Every fucking one of you decides that you have to give your heart, and then you break, and then you die. I am sick of your failure.”
I closed my eyes as the blonde redoubled her efforts and my body responded. For a moment I couldn’t speak. But then I opened my eyes and caught the terrified gaze of the brunette.
“Good thing you’re delicious,” I rasped.
The brunette gave a little sob and my orgasm detonated at the base of my spine.
~ JESSE ~When Casimir had used the word “Cleric” I’d imagined some stuffy old man in a suit with a black collar—like a priest.Instead, the man—wolf—who showed up was young, handsome, and vital. I couldn’t have picked him out of the guards if they’d lined up.Maybe all the wolves were like that? Big, strong, hot?I’d heard the legends about women having wolf-lovers before, but again, it was always a whispered story at a sleepover, or someone’s fantasy fiction. A naughty, forbidden kind of story. Never something I’d taken seriously.But after I’d hurriedly bathed, surprised by the pleasant smell of the soap that felt different in my hands to what I was used to, and twisted up my hair as best I could with only a small mirror and dim light, and put on the strange-but-beautiful dress that Ghere handed me through the door. When Ghere led me back to the first chamber where Casimir had appeared, it occurred to me that, perhaps, all these stories I’d heard weren’t fiction at all.I couldn’t
~ JESSE ~Behind Casimir, Ghere relaxed, like he’d been holding his breath.The Cleric’s jaw flexed.Several wolves who’d been watching, chuckled or grunted.But then it hit me: It was done. I’d done it. I’d vowed myself to him until the day of my death.Nerves trilled in my chest. Should I be glad, or would I soon want to hurry eternity along?Only time would tell.I was in a fog, barely hearing as the Cleric led Casimir in a vow of protection of my person and my throne, promising to use his power to uphold me as Alpha Female, and to give me the heir.And then…“…And will you give yourself to her as a vessel, your body for hers, serving her pleasure?”Casimir’s eyes narrowed and blazed. “I will.”The Cleric raised his voice slightly. “And do the Witnesses agree and let the vows bind? Do you accept her as his mate? Do you bow to her as your Queen?”“We do,” they growled in unison.And something in my chest flared.I sucked in a breath, swaying forward as something came alive inside me
SOUNDTRACK: Eternal Flame by Atom Music Audio, with Randall Jermaine and Alexa Ray.*****~ CASIMIR ~This was my third vow-forged bond, and it never got easier, feeling my soul entwined with another like that. Each one had made my skin feel too tight, as if I wanted to claw out of it.But this one… Jesse… dear god.The moment the pack leaders acknowledged her as my mate and the bond was forged, I was ripped out of myself. Left flailing.I fought as I’d fight a hurricane, leaning in and forcing my body to weather the pummeling blows that seemed to come from every direction at once.Mate.Wife.Mother.Soul.Twisting, turning me, flipping my heart on its head like a babe in the ocean tide as I fought, wrestling for control of my own fate.Because that was the source of my power—dominance always won. The more I owned, the more strength I gained.That must be the difference this time—she’d come to the vow willingly, choosing it without compulsion from me. And so it struck as true and dee
~ JESSE ~I’d flinched when that wave of power left him, felt the impact in my bones like a sonic boom. And yet, when I took a breath and blinked, I was still myself, while every man around me cowered or knelt, all their eyes on the floor, every head bowed. Except Rake.As if the wolf had seen it coming, he’d stepped back and away, and was obviously untouched. Stunningly, so was I.Cazz hadn’t touched me with it.I looked up at him, trembling. What was he doing?He didn’t even look at me, just swept me up like I weighed nothing and carried me from the room without a backward glance.His breath was harsh in my ear as he stormed through the maze of tunnels and hallways outside. Voices raised in protest behind us. But he ignored them completely, one hand under my knees, the other curled at my ribs, his chin low and brows pinched, eyes glaring—and glowing again.I would have felt afraid because he looked enraged. But from the moment he’d let go of that power, I could feel him again. Could
~ JESSE ~Cazz stood in front of the door for a half a second, hands still on the beam, head cocked as if he was listening to something. There was a strange tension in him that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. But then he turned and found me with his eyes.In that space in my chest where I'd been connected to him, I felt the spear of desire that rocked through his body. It made my breath catch.When he began to walk towards me, it was with the slow grace of a predator, the fire in his eyes burning inside me as he locked on, only the rapid rise and fall of his chest outwardly giving away the tension in him that I could feel. A few strands of his hair fell over his eyes, but he peered out at me through them, like a wolf in the grass and when he spoke, his voice was guttural, so deep it seemed to come up from the stone beneath my feet, and barely loud enough for me to catch the words.“You’re stronger than I gave you credit for,” he murmured, prowling towards me.I swallowe
~ CASIMIR ~Standing behind her as I was, I had a perfect view down her cleavage as her chest rose and fell very quickly. I looked forward to plunging my length down that dark valley.I’d been furling up the skirt of that spider web of a dress and now I set to my task with focus. As the hem drew up to her thighs, I let my fingertips brush her skin as I continued to raise it slowly, slowly, smiling when her skin pebbled under my touch.She shivered when the cool air of the room met her hot skin, then shuddered when I grasped the skirt in one fist and reached for her with the other, urging her to spread her stance a little wider.“Tell me everything,” I whispered in her ear. “What you like, what you don’t. What makes you tremble. Tell me if it hurts or when you want it to hurt more. Tell me when you’re going to come.”She gave a short little huff, but then I slid two fingers into her folds and she tensed.“Relax,” I growled, and had to remind myself not to give her a taste of the compul
~ CASIMIR ~“Quickly,” I rasped. She was keeping her body just clear of mine, reaching up to pop the brass buttons at my chest, but her eyes were on the bared skin at my throat and collarbones.“Tell me,” I whispered. “Tell me while you undress me.”“I-I like the way you look,” she murmured, her eyes flicking up and down between my face and the buttons as she worked them loose.Then my jacket was open and she slid her hands up my chest to my shoulders underneath the stiff fabric, pushing it off and back, her hands following the rounds of my shoulders, then down my arms.I hadn’t told her to take it off, but I was too impatient to correct her—and this first time it was better to encourage her when she was bold.Then she leaned against me to push the jacket off my arms and her body brushed against me and I groaned.Had she been more experienced, I would have had my trousers off in seconds and plunged into her. But it was important to train her body to trust that each new step would be o
~ JESSE ~Somehow, when Cazz kissed me I felt it in my belly. An ache started down low and I didn’t just get breathless, I got a little bit desperate.Then he straightened, locking eyes with me—and his were glowing—and he growled, “Get on the bed. Now,” and his voice vibrated against my chest, but I felt it all the way to the soles of my feet and started scrambling backwards, trying to get my ass up on the high bed.I tried to jump and missed twice.Cazz gave a chuckle and shook his head, dropping to squat, his hands sliding all the way down the backs of my legs, then cupping the back of my calves.There was a moment he just knelt there, looking up at me and I looked down on him and everything in me that was aching gave a stab of desire, right behind my navel. My breath rushed out of me and I started to shake. His eyes flashed and I braced my hands on the bed behind me and heaved, and this time he helped lift my weight until I was sitting on the thick fur, and it was the most luxuriou