Wicked Wolves, page 18
"Beautiful," he declares, his breath skimming my thighs. "I promise to draw it out slowly."
As he presses a kiss to the inside of my thigh, his beard brushing my skin, I whine. There's so much arousal pulsating between my legs. My pussy clenches with desire, my clit throbs with need.
"I want your mouth," I tell Thale, reaching down to twine my fingers in his hair and gently tug. "Now."
Chuckling, he moves his mouth between my legs and parts his lips. Flicking his gorgeous pale grey eyes up at me, lays the flat of his tongue against my wet, aroused pussy.
He doesn't even move it, but just that is enough to get me hot and bothered. I clamp my thighs around him and press up against his mouth. Humming with pleasure, he pulses the flat his tongue against my clit, the tip dipping between my folds.
Throwing my head back, I pant and whimper with arousal. I tighten my legs around him and jerk my hips upward until I feel the pressure I need. His beard rubs against my thighs, his tongue pulsing and flicking into my hot, aroused folds.
I feel like a teenager masturbating for the first time as I rub myself against him. I've used the shower head plenty of times, even my fingers and palm, but it's never been like this. He moves in ways I couldn't imagine, and just the smell of him turns me on more.
It doesn't take long for me to reach the edge. Thale flicks his tongue on my clit until I come, gasping and whining, clenching around his face. As my climax drains out of me, he draws his mouth down and presses his tongue inside me, licking my arousal.
"You taste amazing, sweet thing," he says, swallowing with a purr in his chest. "Like cinnamon rolls baked in sunshine."
I blush. "Thank you."
As he pulls back, he puts his hand on his cock, which is dripping with arousal. He starts to jerk himself off with one hand, reaching for my pussy with the other to slick his fingers. Precum drips from the head of his cock, slicking the shaft all the way down to the hardened knot.
"Wait," I tell him, reaching out to stop him before he can go too far. "I want to repay the favor."
Chapter 49
Rina
"Iwas hoping you'd say that." Taking my hand, he puts it between my thighs, next to his. "Use the slick from your pussy to jerk me off. I want to smell you and feel you all over me when I come."
I blush at the dirty talk, wriggling against his fingers, my entrance clenching greedily as he presses them inside me. I join his digits with mine, amazed at how slick I am, the wetness inside me and between my folds like nothing I've felt before.
Once my hand is coated in slick, he puts his big hand around mine and guides me on the shaft.
"Right here," he says, showing me how to put pressure near the head. "And here."
Drawing my other hand towards his knot, he groans as I touch them both with slick fingers.
"Massage my knot. Right there, good girl."
I bite my lip, aroused and shuddering at the pleasure in his half-lidded eyes. I stroke him steadily, the barbs on his shaft softened from his arousal, his knot taut and heavy. Our scents fill the air as precum slides from the uncut head of his cock, his foreskin pulled back to reveal it in its full, massive glory.
As I speed up, Thale leans back and thrusts his hips, rubbing his cock between my hands. I whimper at the flex of his muscles, the shine of sweat on his tawny skin.
"You're a good girl, Caterina," he says, voice rough. "It feels so fucking good, your hands on my cock. That's it—put your little fingers on my knot. Imagine it inside you."
I whimper, pressing my thighs together as another spasm of desire goes through me. My nipples ache, my pussy clenching for a hard length that isn't inside it.
"I want to taste it," I whimper, smelling him all around me. "Just a little."
Reaching out, Thale grabs my head and groans as he pulls my mouth down towards his shaft. I gasp, parting my lips and flicking my tongue out against the shiny head. It tastes like herbs and salt, coating my tongue like a Sunday roast.
"That's it, just like that." Thale groans as I lick him experimentally, my hands coming up to press against my mouth. "Fuck, Caterina. I'm so proud of you. You're so-so special and beautiful... ah, fuck."
With a shudder, his whole body tightens, and his cock spasms against my tongue. I jerk back, watching with delight and curiosity as he comes on my hands. I smell him, so shocking and arousing.
"Keep going," he tells me as my hands stutter to a stop, "milk my knot."
Groaning, I tighten my fingers around his hard knot and jerk him with his cum and my slick on my hand. More and more cum pulses out of him in shuddering waves. He moans, leaning back and thrusting his hips up into the air. His climax seems to keep going and going, the knot softening slowly beneath my hand as he spills himself over and over again.
"That's it." Thale puts his hand on mine and stops me as his shaft begins to soften. "Only an omega's slick could make me come any more than this."
That's saying something, because his seed is on my hands, forearms, his thighs, and the ground. His cock is still pulsing and leaking even as the shaft softens and curves towards his body, the knot subsiding and his testicles drawing up.
It smells so good that I want to drown in it.
Feeling bold and lustful, I draw my hand between my thighs and towards my pussy, enjoying the scent of him on my slick. Gasping, I lift myself up and press my fingers inside, feeling my pussy clench around them.
Then I realize he's watching me and blush. "Am I being weird?"
"You're not." Thale reaches down and pushes my cum-slick fingers inside me, slipping one of his own alongside them for good measure. "You're just being a good little omega."
"Could I—could I get pregnant?" It feels like a distant concept, even as I press his cum up inside me, gasping as he draws me into his lap. "Like this?"
"Not until you're in heat, sweet thing. Once you are, though, I can use my magic to keep anything from taking, if you're not ready."
"Okay." I lean forward, shuddering as my nipples press against his chest, our fingers sliding further inside me. "I want to—could you—"
Understanding instinctively, Thale pushes two more of his fingers into me and rubs his thumb on my clit. I gasp at the touch, spasming around them, loving the feeling of his cum drawing deeper inside me. With a whimper, I put my hand on his shoulder and ride up and down on his digits until my body climaxes again, this time around something.
It feels good, having something penetrate me while I come. I seem to crave it now. As I come down, my fingers slipping out, Thale presses more of his inside and rubs my clit in slow circles. It feels good, little aftershocks trembling through me.
"Never avoid pleasuring yourself to the fullest, little omega." He nuzzles my neck and sucks a hickey into my skin. "It's important that you always be satisfied. It closes the pheromone loop."
"Okay," I tell him, rocking on his fingers. "Can I... nibble on you?"
Thale chuckles. "Yes."
I don't know what, but it's all I want to do. Parting my lips, I bite his neck, digging my teeth in just enough to feel his flesh in my mouth. My canines elongate, pressing into his skin, and I moan at the taste of him.
He bites me as well, harder than he did to leave the hickey. I smell his scent flare around us, and mine as well. It feels... right. Natural.
Afterwards, I'm finally able to relax. Letting go, I look at the tiny indentations I left on his skin and soothe them with my fingertips.
Thale draws back as well, pulling his fingers out of me. My body clenches on them so hungrily that there's almost no cum left on them afterwards. Looking into my eyes, Thale pushes my long black hair over my shoulder and smiles.
Then asks, "Do you want to see more amazing things?"
"I do, but if it's sex, I don't know—"
"That isn't what I meant, I promise." He smiles and sweetly kisses me on the forehead. "I won't mate you until you're ready, and that won't be for a while, sweet thing. I meant something else."
Chapter 50
Rina
What he meant, it turns out, is that he wants to show me more about his powers.
Taking my hand in his, Thale leads me through our territory. With both his hands and his powers, he shows me the beauty in being a wolf. How we balance the ecosystem. How our warriors culling the deer lets nature flourish and changes the direction of streams. How our magic, infusing with the land, brings living things to life and beats back the destruction humanity does to the climate.
"That's not all that mingles with the land, though." Sighing, Thale kneels to brush his fingers across a carpet of dead, brown moss. "Vampires. When they bleed a life dry, or inject their venom into something, death spreads."
"Why haven't you eradicated them?" I ask, sensing their presence just outside our newly-expanded borders, pressing against our wards and testing them. "It's only a matter of time before they get back in."
Even if they don't break through our magic, a werewolf, or even a witch, will invite them inside for an evening. It's a little-talked about part of our society. The venom that vampires inject into their victims incapacitates or even kills humans, but werewolves are too strong to be weakened by it entirely. Instead, it gives them a high—one that an unfortunate few willingly seek out.
Witches, on the other hand, have been known to take vampire lovers. When I asked Ali why, she grimaced as she explains that their "seed" has certain magical properties. That's all I needed to know—and more than I ever wanted to.
Thale says, "All things need to be kept in check, including us. In the old days, werewolves were so strong that we took over too much territory, and wars broke out. Vampires used to be the ones who kept us in check."
"Now that's humans," I point out.
"It is, now that they've developed enough technology to be able to fight us as well. Of course, there are also some humans who discovered witchcraft. Now," he says, "our world is poorly balanced, but it can be restored. We just need to grow things."
"I don't have much of a green thumb," I confess. "The garden at my mother's house can tell you that much. I'm not capable of doing anything except killing green things."
"That isn't true. All wolves have nature within them. Let me show you."
He shifts into his wolf, as do I, and we head back to the mansion. The sun is high in the sky now, as it's nearly noon. The wind rushes through my fur, and I stop briefly at a small pond.
Looking at my reflection, I confirm what I suspected, or somehow instinctively knew. My new wolf form is all white with a black crescent moon on my forehead. I feel a stirring of the past at the sight of it, snatches of memories just out of reach.
When we get to the mansion, it's seemingly empty. Maybe the other gods have their own elements to restore. Thale and I shift back to our human forms, and he leads me around to the side of the mansion, his big hand gently cupping mine.
"Over here—this is what I wanted to show you." He gestured towards an overgrown garden plot that looks like it hasn't been weeded in decades. "It may seem like an impossibility, but in under an hour we're going to turn this into a beautiful garden."
I raise my brows at this declaration. "Show me."
"Oh, I will."
Taking my hands, he leads me to the center of the garden. Brambly weeds with short thorns and curling vines pull at our legs. Shoving aside some dry, dead brush, he kicks his foot into the earth until some of the ground is revealed.
"This is the nexus of the garden—its center, its beating heart." Kneeling, he puts our hands against the dirt, which is dry and crumbly. "All the nutrients have been sucked out of the soil. The only way to get new things to flourish is to replenish them—something we can do by taking the weeds apart and sacrificing their energy."
"You make it sound so easy," I quip lightly, "but I'm pretty sure that if I try, the weeds will just grow faster."
"Which is why we'll do it together. Close your eyes, and breathe with me. On the count of one... two... three..."
I feel his presence, first beside me, and then alongside mine. It makes the little hairs on the back of my neck prickle with awareness, like when an alpha influences me, only far more gentle.
Leading me, he draws my conscious mind down into the earth and trails his magic through the roots of the weeds. I can feel them, greedy and long, sucking everything they can from the earth.
"We start at the roots," he says quietly, "because the base of a plant is its greatest support, and often, the biggest part of it, hidden underground."
No kidding. The root systems are far more vast than the weeds we just walked through. But Thale picks them apart with ease, then disintegrates them, folding their essence back into the soil.
From there, he raises his magic up into the stalks. Those are stronger and thicker, but without the roots they go quickly. The branches fall—I feel stems and leaves brush my skin in the outside world, and shiver. Thale trails his magic into them as well, then picks every bit of their essence apart and folds it into the earth.
Except for one weed. Tugging on my hand, he presses my fingers into the earth and declares, "Now you."
I want it to be difficult, to take a great deal of time. Somehow, it's easy, and that's scarier than anything. With Thale alongside me, pulsing his magic into my hand, I'm able to take the weed apart and return its stolen nutrients into the earth as easy as if it were breathing.
When I open my eyes, he's beaming at me, his face inches away. "Good girl. I'm so proud of you."
Chapter 51
Rina
My breath hitches at the praise, the same sort he gave while he was making me come. "It's all thanks to you."
"Not all of it," he says, leaning back and making my heart drop in disappointment. "Let me show you more."
Now that the soil is healthy and full of nutrients, Thale has me plant some seedlings with him. We gather seeds from plants that we want to grow, including some from the vegetable larder inside the mansion. Thale holds the seeds in his palm and shows me how to push them to grow, little green shoots and white roots trailing out of them.
I follow along behind him with ease, feeling like I barely know myself. I've never performed magic before, much less gotten a plant to grow. With a pair of spades from the shed out back, we make little holes in the dark, nutrient-rich soil, then deposit the seedlings into their new homes.
"Finally, we coax them to grow." He presses my fingertip into the ground and twines his magic around me. "As much as we want, or as little."
Hours pass, it seems, as we make the plants grow. Thale feeds me fresh strawberries and sun-ripe tomatoes that burst from stems. The garden seems to expand around us, holding row upon row of plants.
Pausing in front of a blackberry bush, he draws my fingers to it and makes it burst with sweet fruit, more than any I've ever seen. It feels like a miracle, yet it's as easy as a breath of air.
Looking up into his pale grey eyes, I feel my breath hitch again.
This time, because I can see it: the mating thread between us.
Dark green and vibrant, it's as thick as a plant's stem and glows with the energy of the sun. Even in the early evening, with plenty of light left, it outshines everything around it.
Thale sees it a moment after me, but doesn't react. He just stares at it silently.
A breath later, it disappears.
Because we're not mated. Yet.
Or may never be mated.
Is that why he had me jerk him off? Why he thrust his fingers inside me, but not his cock? Is he afraid that his alpha nature will bring on my heat, and we'll be tied together, not just for his climax, but for life?
I don't know how the old school mate claiming worked, but if it's anything like our ceremonies, oral doesn't do it.
"There are herbs you can put in your windowsill to warn you when a vampire is near," Thale says, trailing his fingers across a row of seedlings that explode into life at his touch, "and certain dried flowers, when twisted together, can make a bracelet that wards off bad dreams. I can show you all of that tomorrow, when the plants are done growing."
"Thank you," I tell him, because I don't know how to ask him more.
"Anytime."
He wipes his hands off and stares at me.
Then puts his hand on my waist and draws me to him. My pulse quickens, and I fall against his chest, twisting my chin up just as he bends down towards me.
We kiss sweetly, softer than I expected. He licks my lips and draws back, sucking gently and lightly, touching me only above my shirt.
As I inhale his scent, I feel the desire to mate with him pulse within me. My body is empty without his touch, yearning for fullness and hardness. I think I'd even welcome the barbs, that my slick walls would soften them, and they'd keep him inside me—where he belongs.
Drawing back, I look up into his eyes to ask him, "How long are you going to stay?"
"I wish I knew, but it's all up to fate," his says, voice rough. "The wellspring may not survive without its guardians."
My stomach twists. "You'll have to go back?"
He hesitates. "We have to fix things up here, but once we do, we may have to go back to guarding the magic. Unless, of course, another option arises."
Another option.
"Like?"
"If the wellspring becomes self-sufficient again, as it was before... or if another guardian or guardians step in to take our place. Both are unlikely."
My heart sinks. All I want now is to explore my true nature, to have a mate and feel the power of the gods I know I'm fated to be with. But if they don't accept the bond, it will wither instead of strengthen, no matter how much destiny intervenes.
I want to be with Thale, but I know I can't bear the heartbreak if he leaves.
Quietly, he tells me, "You can come with me."
"What does that mean?"
"The others—they're likely to stay, except possibly Everett. If I go back, though, the wellspring will need more than just one guardian. You can come with me and become a guardian as well."
