A Hunger Like No Other

on his knees. 'Mine,' he growled with a brutal thrust.

As though out of his body, he heard the low, guttural sounds erupting from his chest, the snarls that accompanied each frenzied thrust. Her breasts bounced, and his eyes were riveted by the tight, hard points, wet from his furious suckling. He felt her claws dig into his skin as the pressure in his cock built and built. Her head thrashed.

'Mine…' She thought to leave him? He fucked her with all his strength.

She accepted it, trying to meet him.

He cupped the back of her neck, yanking her up to him. 'Surrender to me.'

Her eyes flashed open when she came again. Dazed. Mirrors. He could feel her squeezing around his cock, milking him.

When he followed, yelling out, his seed shot from him, pumping into her…hot…relentless. All he comprehended was that she arched her back and spread her legs wider for him as though she loved the feeling of it.

At moonset, when she could come no more, she fell limp. With a last shuddering groan he fell on top of her, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

Finally he planted a knee and raised up, turning her to face him. He lay on his side and brushed her hair from her lip. Now that the night's frenzy had passed, she felt an overwhelming joy that he'd claimed her, as if she'd waited as long as he had.

She turned to her back and stretched, gazing up at the sky, then to the trees just beyond them. The grass was cool beneath her and the air was as well, but she felt burning hot. As if her eyes couldn't stray for long, she turned back to stare up at his face once more. She felt connected to everything, as though she belonged, a feeling that had always eluded her.

Contentment surged through her, and she wanted to weep with relief that he'd caught her and still wanted her. She found she couldn't stop touching him, as if she feared he would disappear, and wondered how she could possibly have acted cruelly toward him.

She recalled that she'd been angry with him and had run, but couldn't quite recall why. She could never stay angry with a man who was looking at her like he was.

He stared at her as though awed.

'I dinna want to hurt you. I tried no' to.'

'It was fleeting. I tried not to hurt you, either.'

He grinned, then asked, 'Did you hear something inside you? You knew things…'

She nodded. 'It was like…instinct, but instinct I was clearly aware of. It scared me at first.'

'And then?'

'And then I came to understand it was, I don't know how to put it, but it was guiding me…rightly.'

'How did the moon feel on your skin?'

'Almost as good as it felt to run. It was like…heaven. Lachlain, I felt scents.'

His body was shaking and he sank back, pulling her over him to lie on his chest, straddling his hips. 'Sleep.' His lids were heavy, but he kissed her. 'Tired from sating my young mate. And from your trick.'

Now she remembered the night before, and stiffened. 'I only retaliated against yours.' If he took her to task about her actions—

'Aye. I like that you give as you get.' His voice was drowsy as he said against her hair, 'You are teaching me, Emmaline.'

At that, the outrage she'd wanted to feel at his actions—or felt she should feel like other, stronger women would—deflated to nonexistence. She was a spineless wuss, she knew it. Because after one mere cataclysmic night in the grass, her first through fifteenth orgasms, and a couple of awed looks, she was tempted to latch on to this strong, bighearted Lykae with two hands and fangs and never let go.

As if reading her mind, he murmured, 'Need to sleep. But when I get my strength back, I'll be able to give you this'—he thrust into her, still semihard—'and all the blood you can drink.'

Her flesh spasmed around him at the thought.

He grinned. 'Every night. I promise you.' He kissed her forehead. 'Rest for a while.'

'But the sun will be up soon.'

'I'll have you in our bed well before then.'

Her body was warm and relaxed under his hands, but her mind was in a panic. Yes, she wanted to rest in an open field on top of him near the earth they'd torn apart during hours of sex. But an open field—like a parking lot or a football field or, God forbid, a plain—was a death trap. Sleeping under the stars? Avoid at all costs. She craved cover, thick canopy, a cave or some way to get lower in the earth, farther from the sun.

And still the pull to remain here was strong, conflicting with her need for self-preservation. The Lykae Instinct he'd given her was beautiful, compelling, but there was one problem.

She was a vampire.

He rolled over in sleep, tucking her into his side. He put his knee over her to pull her close and then crooked his arm around her head. Protectively. All around her. Better. Maybe just surrender.

'Mine,' he growled softly. 'Missed you.'

Yes. Apparently she'd missed him, too.

Surrender. Trust him. Her eyelids drifted closed. Her last thought was, Never knew day. Or night…

27

In their bed, Lachlain lay on his side, stroking the backs of his fingers from her navel up between her soft breasts and down again. He felt electricity charging the air and after last night, he now knew it was for her.

He didn't understand how she could still desire him or why she seemed so pleased with him. He'd woken with a heavy regret for his actions. She had been more than he'd ever dreamed, so beautiful, so passionate, and he'd finally claimed her. Again and again. Beneath the full moon, she'd given him unimaginable, mind-boggling pleasure —and a soul-deep feeling of connection with her.

She'd given these things, but he'd taken her virginity on the ground in the woods like the beast she thought him, shoving into her delicate flesh. He thought…he thought he'd made her scream with pain.

Then he'd marked her neck savagely. She could never see his mark—no one but a Lykae could—or feel it, but she would carry this frenzied brand forever. The Lykae would forever know upon seeing it that he had been out of his mind with lust for her. Or they would reason he'd done it to such a degree as an overtly hostile threat to other males. Both would be true.

Yet in spite of all this, the lass seemed pleased with him, chattering happily, reaching up with a dreamy expression to caress the side of his face.

'You have no' drunk today. Are you thirsty?'

'No. For some reason, no.' Then she smiled brightly. 'Probably because I stole so much yesterday.'

'Saucy lass.' He leaned down and nuzzled her breast, making her jump. 'And you know it's freely given.' He grasped her chin and met her eyes. 'You do know that, do you no'? Anytime you need to drink, even if I'm asleep, I want you to take.'

'You really like it?'

'Like is no' the word I'd use.'

'You'd heal faster if I didn't.'

'Maybe, but my recovery would no' be so sweet.'

Still she was insistent. 'Lachlain, sometimes I feel like a ball and chain around your ankle.' Before he could protest, she said, 'You asked me the first time I drank if I thought you would turn me to a Lykae. Could you?'

He tensed when he saw she was serious. 'Emma, you know no living being can change without dying first.' The catalyst for the transformation among the vampires, the ghouls, the wraiths, among all of them, was death. 'I