I watch Marshall with his hand on the door, and I know I'm not going to let him go.
"You'll be safe here while I run to Kier's cabin. I'll call Luka to come and pick you up, then I'll wait outside until he gets here," he says.
"No."
Marshall pauses. "I won't wait outside if you want, I'll just-"
"That isn't what I meant." I steel myself for what I hope isn't a stupid idea that'll blow up in my face. "I meant, no, I don't want you to leave."
He sighs, his back still to me. "It's for the best, jellybean."
"Then maybe I should find a mate who will fit me better."
Marshall's back tenses, and he tightens his grip on the door handle. "Fit you better?"
Even though he can't see me, I nod. "Yes, maybe the problem is that you're too dominant. Maybe I need a mate who is more… in control of his wolf. Not Kier, since he's alpha." I get up from the bed.
He tilts his head a little but still doesn't turn to face me. "What do you mean, and where are you going?"
I keep talking as if he didn't interrupt, "Maybe someone like Luka. I know he's dominant as well, but… no. Maybe Nathan. I know he's always liked me."
I hope this doesn't get Nathan killed.
The fury I feel building in Marshall tells me my plan is working. After a pause, I grab the hem of my shirt and lift it over my head.
"What are you doing?" His voice is a growl.
"Shifting so I can go back. Since Nathan lives in town, I thought I would-"
The next moment I'm back on the mattress wondering how the hell Marshall got from the door and back to me that fast.
His face is a snarl of fury. "You're not going anywhere near him," he growls. "Mine. You're only mine."
I should be afraid because Marshall is one of the most dominant wolves in the pack, and he's snarling at me…
Only, I'm not. This is Marshall and I could never be afraid of someone who loves me as much as I know he does.
I curl my legs around his hips and stroke my hands down his back. "So, maybe you should-"
Marshall doesn't let me finish my sentence, nor my caress. Moving faster than I can track, he has my wrists pinned above my head with one hand as his other closes tight around my hips, holding me still beneath him. He gives me no warning.
He drives himself so deep inside me that I throw my head back and scream as my body ripples around his, fighting to adjust to his sudden entry. It's an agonizing pleasure that has me unable to keep still as I wriggle and buck beneath him.
"Jenna," Marshall gasps. "God, baby, are you-" I cut him off with a hard kiss that has him groaning into my mouth.
His hand tightens around my pinned wrists a heartbeat before he breaks our kiss and starts moving. When he does, it's with a level of fury I've never felt from him before, making me cry out at each driving thrust.
He edges out almost all the way and hammers into me as if determined to penetrate every single inch of me. His hips touch mine, and I feel him throbbing deep inside me.
When he stills above me, I open my eyes to the sight of him with his head tossed back, eyes closed, and every muscle tensed. On his face is an almost pained expression. The sight of him so lost in his pleasure has me desperate for him to move.
I tug at my wrists. "Marshall?"
His eyes open, and he lowers his head, offering me a brief flash of light green. His wolf's eyes. But before I can react, Marshall is jerking his gaze away again.
"I need you deeper." The growl emerging from his throat is more wolf than man, but I'm not afraid. Confused, but not afraid.
I'm struggling to understand what he means when he releases my wrists and shifts to his knees. He slips his arms under my knees and raises my hips. When he eases out and powers back in, I cry out as I grab at the sheets with desperate hands because this new position is a thousand times deeper.
He groans at the apex of each hard thrust, the sound so guttural I feel the impact of it hitting me in my core. My back arches as I fight back my looming release, because I want more. More of Marshall's thrusts, more of his growls, more of the pleasure he's giving me. I never want it to stop.
At every thrust, he drags my body back against his, forcing himself even deeper. I try to focus on him kneeling in front of me, his sweat-dampened muscles gleaming under the candle and firelight, straining with effort as he impales himself in me.
A woman is crying out, begging for more, and it takes me several minutes to work out that person is me. I close my eyes as my cries grow louder, and my needs sharper, feeling like I'm burning up inside and out.
When I next open my eyes, my vision has changed and so have my needs.
I sit up so suddenly that Marshall's eyes snap open, and his expression is startled when I shove his hands away and practically crawl into his lap.
"Baby?" he growls.
Although his wolf is in his eyes, this time I'm meeting his gaze with no need to look away. Maybe it's because my wolf is in my eyes, I don't know, and right now I don't particularly care. I tell myself I'll puzzle over it another time. Just not now, now I have other needs. Other wants.
My hands smooth over his sweat-slicked body, as his glide over my curves before settling on my ass. He lifts me and sets me on top of his throbbing erection, making us both groan. For several seconds, his lips cling to mine, making me almost forget what I want. But then the need reasserts itself and I break the kiss.
Marshall doesn't have to ask what I want. It's clear when I wrap my arms and legs around him and turn my attention to his throat.
He buries his hand in my hair, gripping me and holding me there. "Fuck, I should stop you. I shouldn't…" His voice trails off and ends in a growl as I trail a line of kisses over his throat.
"Baby…" his voice is a husky growl, as needy as I feel. I nip his throat, and in response, he thrusts hard enough for me to lift my head and cry out. For a single breath, I don't move as my stomach tightens, warning me how close I am to finding my release.
Not yet.
I peel my eyes open and kiss the spot on Marshall's neck that I want to bite. Marshall's grip on me turns almost painful. I lap at his pulse, and my wolf growls her pleasure at the taste, the scent, the feel of her mate. Already, before he's even bitten me, he feels like mine.
How can that be?
My wolf refuses to let me ponder it for long. She growls again. Is surprisingly vocal about her desire, about her need. This time she's no cowering wolf deep inside me. She's determined to claim her mate.
I bite down hard.
With a roar, Marshall throws me on the bed. He slams my wrists down and proceeds to lose his mind.
There's nothing I can do under the unrelenting power of his hungry thrusts. My release crashes over me after the second, and I scream my pleasure as I writhe beneath him. But he's only just gotten started.
His lips take mine with a possessiveness that makes me feel owned. I rise to meet it and him, wanting more, craving more.
Marshall has awakened a need in me that only he has the power to feed, and I need.
When he rips himself away and puts me on my knees, I fight to catch my breath. It's a struggle to stay up when I want nothing more than to sink to the bed as my body works itself down from my last climax.
After positioning me, Marshall uses a thigh to widen my stance before draping his body over mine. His hands curve around my front, one caressing my breasts, and the other delving between my legs.
I cry out. A sound that's immediately cut off when he jerks my body back as he hammers forward, reentering me in one fierce surge. I shatter around him, screaming as my muscles clamp around him, trying to hold him inside me. His harsh growl in my ear tells me he felt it.
Something about the powerful strokes he's delivering warns me his own release isn't lurking far behind. His hand slips from between my legs, and his other strokes from my breast and up my shoulders. When he leans over even more and I feel his lips touch my throat, I feel myself tensing.
This is it. Marshall is going to bite me, and we'll be mates. Bitten mates.
In time, we'll be able to read each other's thoughts and emotions. There will be no walking away from each other. Marshall and I will be tied together forever.
Marshall slows his thrusts and kisses me on the throat. "Baby?" His voice is harsh with strain.
I think about my life without Marshall in it. I think about all the happiness and pleasure I have with him and because of him, and I know I would be miserable every single day of my life without him.
I love him. There is no one I want more. No one I will ever want more.
I turn my head around and sweep my hair away from my neck. Then I meet his eyes. "Do it. Make me your mate. Forever."
His eyes spark before he lowers his face to mine. He kisses me with a slow tenderness that's at odds with the hard length of him throbbing inside me, bearing testament to him once again putting my needs before his.
This time it's me breaking the kiss to turn back around. But instead of staying on my hands and knees, I lower my front to the bed and rub myself against him.
From Marshall's strangled moan, he likes this position. A lot. I don't understand why until he shifts back a little before slowly sliding back inside me. "Baby, you're so beautiful. Watching you take me in your body is killing me here."
After pillowing my head on my folded arms, I turn and meet his eyes. "It's yours. I'm yours. I'll only ever be yours."
I had no idea biting him would provoke the response that it did, but it's nothing like the effect of my soft words.
For one second, he completely stills, and then he falls over me with an urgency, a fury that has me gasping out another release a heartbeat later. This isn't sex, or even making love. This time, it's Marshall claiming every single part of me with a determination that leaves me hovering on the edge of a gaping abyss.
With my body struggling to absorb any more pleasure Marshall is giving it, I come close to fragmenting as I whimper under his heaving body.
Again, my breath catches, and I sob out my release. The moment I do, Marshall's lips trail over my neck, in almost the exact spot I bit him, but he doesn't bite. Not yet.
I tilt my head a little in case he needs more space, and his lips descend as if he were waiting for that one last signal. His teeth clamp around my neck and I cry out as he breaks skin, forging a new connection between us. A closer one.
The forever kind.
After lapping at the already healing bite, Marshall lifts his head and returns to his heavy thrusts. He clasps me against him, holding me still. I feel him swelling even more inside me as with one last desperate thrust, he groans harshly as his body strains against mine, filling me with heat.
As I'm still shuddering from the force of his release and mine, exhaustion sweeps over me. Slowly, Marshall lowers us to the bed, his cock still jerking deep inside me. My eyes close as his hips continue to work against mine until, with a low groan, he stills.
Even though I'm close to sleep, when Marshall lifts his body from mine, I make a sound of complaint and try to stop him. But he's not going far. He shifts us so my head is pillowed on his shoulder and his arms wrapped snug around me.
"Marshall," I murmur tiredly, burrowing deeper into the heat of his body.
"Sleep now baby, sleep… mate."
My eyes close. "I love you."
I feel his smile against my brow. "I love you too, jellybean. Now, sleep."
And I do, with my lips curved in a smile because I'm sleeping with Marshall, my mate.