Maddox's eyes narrowed. A dangerous intensity fired up their dark depths. Hope knew she should be afraid, but she wasn't. Instead, a now-familiar warmth started in her core and radiated out to every inch of her body.
"No, you're not," he growled, dragging her back inside the house.
Hope tried to wrench her arm away, but he held her fast. "I might be stuck with you as my mate, but that doesn't mean that you can tell me what to do."
Maddox's growl turned into a roar. The waves of sound shook everything in the house, making the crockery stacked on the freshly washed shelves clatter.
In an instant, he picked her up and carried her to the far side of the room. He pressed her back against the wall, cupping her ass as he ground against her. She spread her legs for him almost involuntarily, wrapping them around his waist.
Maddox's gaze held hers, hot and fierce. "You're wrong," he muttered in a voice like iron. "I'm the only one who can command you. And your body listens, whether you like it or not."
He slipped a hand beneath the waist of her pants. Hope gasped as his fingers slipped past her aching clit and plunged into her.
When he removed his hand to show her, his fingers were dripping with slick.
"This is mine," he said before sucking the slick from the tips. "All mine. No one else's. Do you understand?"
Hope nodded before she realized what she was doing. He was right…she couldn't help it.
Despite her anger and her frustration, her desire for him was winning out. Just like it always would, she realized.
Maddox ripped open her shirt, freeing her breasts. He flicked one nipple with his tongue, then drew the other deep into his mouth, sucking with a ferocity that made Hope cry out.
She pivoted her hips against him and felt the sweet friction beneath her soaking wet pants.
"Never talk about another alpha again," he demanded. "You don't need anyone but me. There's no else. Do you understand?"
She nodded again. Frantically this time, even as her fingers tangled in the fabric of his shirt, desperate to peel it from his body. To feel the heat of skin next to hers.
But he didn't want a nod. He wanted her words. "Say it."
"There's no one but you," she whispered.
No one had ever made her feel the way Maddox did. No one had made her feel so alive. So vital. So important.
As if she was the only thing holding him together.
Then they were kissing. Hope could taste what it cost Maddox to try to explain things to her. He was primed to act, not talk.
But he was filled with conflict. That, too, she tasted in the brutal kiss, his frustrated groan.
Hope knew that Maddox didn't want to want her this much. Didn't want to be filled with jealousy when she brought up another alpha's house or threatened to ask another alpha for help.
Hope understood because she felt it too. She hadn't chosen any of this. She'd won her freedom and planned for a life of her own.
But somehow, all her plans fell to pieces the moment Maddox touched her. He was the only thing that mattered. The only thing that was real.
Hope clawed at his pants, hungry to free his cock. To stroke it and feel the weight of it in her hands.
Maddox's tone changed, his groan becoming a growl of approval, and he set her down just long enough to pull her pants down. And then she was up against the wall again, the tip of his massive cock pressing against her pussy.
"Mine." He growled one last time before entering her with one insistent thrust.
Hope howled in pleasure, her body accepting him totally.
He rode her without mercy, hard and fast, until she was screaming to the rhythm he set. Orgasms came and went like waves. One after the other, until Hope lost count. Until she lost track of time and rational thought, and simply gave in to the barrage of bliss.
And when his knot swelled, she let finally let go of her old life.
Chapter Eleven
Hope's head was pounding.
So was every inch of her body. In fact, even the mattress was shaking with a rhythmic thunk thunk.
What the hell?
She forced her eyes open and sat up in the bed. Sure enough, she hadn't been imagining anything. The floor itself was vibrating. But this wasn't an earthquake. It was too steady and constant.
It had to be Maddox. He was the only person she knew who had the stamina to pound on something that long and that hard.
Just like he did to her. Hope's cheeks heated at the thought.
She had no idea what he was doing out there. She only wished he could have waited just a little longer before getting started.
Hope had always been an early riser. You had to be when you were responsible for making breakfast for six children and two adults. But after a night like the one she'd had, she could have used a little extra sleep.
She had no idea what time she'd finally fallen asleep. She'd been consumed with round after round of lovemaking.
They hadn't stopped once they were done against the wall. Oh, hell no. They'd gone from the wall to the bed to the porch, where Hope had ridden him under a blanket of stars.
All she knew was that at some point, Maddox had carried her back to bed.
Somewhere in the marathon session, something had broken between them. They weren't just fucking. They were communicating in a way they couldn't with words.
Before, whenever they talked, they always ended up shouting.
But their bodies knew better.
Their natures knew how to ask for what they needed. How to give it in return.
It was almost enough to make Hope forgive Maddox for his macho demands.
Or at least it would have been if
