“This will make you mine,” I growled out. “You run, shut me out, hold out on me, and I’ll track you down and force you open. You keep nothing from me anymore.”
I didn’t wait for his answer, I was done waiting. My jaws opened, and my teeth sunk themselves into his flesh to the sound of his gasp, to the feel of his arms around me.
“And so it is done,” Ulfric said, staring down at me as I marked my mate.
Chapter 44
“Time to get out of those damn clothes, Mason,” I growled out, getting to my feet and stripping mine away. “We’re formalising things now.”
He hesitated for a minute, no doubt considering what happened all the other times we connected. It was madness for sure, but somehow, as I looked around the circle of men, my men, my pack, I felt it would be all right. Then I saw him step free of his shorts, hard and ready for me.
I took my time. Part of me couldn’t let go of that feeling that this would all be snatched away soon, so while I had him, I was determined to explore. He watched me trace the hard lines of his chest patiently, right up until I got to his abs. His hand wrapped around one wrist, then the other when I insolently decided to cop a feel with it. He just stared at me for a second, a small smile forming when he shook his head, then he pulled a yelp from me when he swept me up into his arms, my thighs wrapping around his waist on automatic, before he laid us down on the padded mat floor.
“I’ve watched them please you,” he said, trailing a possessive hand down my throat, partially collaring my neck before pulling it away when I growled. “I’ve learned your reactions and your responses. Now it’s my turn.” He reared back, looking down at me with a catlike smile before grabbing one ankle, stroking a thumb against its inside edge, then hauling both thighs open wide.
“Beautiful girl…” I arched up into his caresses, just a broad palm tracing the contours of my body, but not where I needed him the most. He didn’t relent, making a study of my body with stroke after long stroke, making my skin sing.
My little grunts of pleasure had become some kind of continuous stream of consciousness. I was caught up in a daze of sensation, unable to track what he did, how he moved, until finally, I pushed him away, not able to stop from rolling up, meeting him on my knees. We knelt there, face to face, a war waging on his.
“You want to look after me, shield me, please me.” I whispered the words, but they hit him like blows. Something soft and molten shifted in his eyes, the deep brown surface glistening. His brows creased, as if that were enough to brace him, protect him from this. But there was no protection, he had to know that. Taking a mate, making them yours, it was a suicidal swan dive, one you dove into without a net and were thankful for the ride.
“Always,” he growled, tugging me closer, the depth of his tone and the strength of his grip communicating how much.
“That’s not what this is,” I replied, feeling it right now. “Other days, other times, we can spend days doing just that, teasing each other.” A rumble from the group drew our eyes up to meet the silver ones of my pack, making it clear that they liked that idea, and everything in me hoped we would have a chance. “But it’s not what I need right now.”
I shook my head, as if that would stop my eyes pricking, aching. I might have been flooded with memories, the pain of the past, and a dark god’s agendas, but underneath it, I was still that girl. I might’ve been sure I could punch Mason through a wall, but he was still the man uniquely able to break my heart in two. Even now, part of him expected…what? My aunt to come swinging through the door, some sort of earthshaking situation that had to be dealt with now, now, now. Even Ulfric, who stood behind my pack like some kind of creepy arse dude in a live porn booth. Something that would take him away from me again. My thighs were slick, my cunt and my heart ached, and all I wanted was him, so I told him that.
He smiled, an honest-to-goodness, unguarded Mason smile, which was worth the price of admission, let me tell you, and then he scooped me up, much more gently this time, laying me back down on the ground as the tears started to well. My mates dropped down to their knees, then hands reached out and took mine, holding them tight, as if knowing I’d need their support to get through this. Mason didn’t pause when the first sob came, seeming to know, always know, when I was hurting the most what I needed.
I needed him.
He wedged himself between my thighs, rubbed the head of that hard cock through my slick, and then placed a hand on the ground by my shoulder and shoved himself deep.
It felt like this with all of them, but sometimes, I got too caught up in the physical pleasure their bodies provoked. When they speared into me, they drove themselves into my heart, deeper and deeper with each stroke, so that by the time their knots bumped up against me, I opened. Of course I did. I couldn’t keep any of them out, needing it, needing that physical locking inside that replicated the one I felt in
