Chapter 11 Confessing Under Ruin
Aurelia
I jolted awake with a violent start, my body lurching toward the edge of the bed. The world spun, the furs sliding beneath me. I would have crashed to the floor if not for the iron grip that clamped around my ankles.
Strong unyielding hands prevented me from rolling off the bed.
Alpha Zhayad’s scent hit me like a physical blow. He always smelled like smoke, pine, dark musk, and raw, barely-leashed hunger.
It flooded my lungs, sank into my skin, and arrowed straight between my thighs. The ache that had been simmering since the ceremony roared back to life.
I clenched hard, my thighs trembling, fighting the humiliating flood of heat that threatened to soak me.
“Lilith poisoned the tip of the blade,” I rushed out in a hoarse voice, desperate to explain before he could speak. “I wouldn’t have acted like that, begging and grinding against you in front of the entire pack. It wasn’t me. I—”
He didn’t let me finish. Still holding my ankles, he flipped me over in one brutal motion. My stomach hit the mattress, my cheek was pressed to the soft furs with my ass suddenly high in the air.
The sheer dress I'd worn at the claiming ceremony rode up my thighs, leaving me bare and exposed for him.
“You tempted my wolf beyond reason,” he growled fiercely, his voice vibrating through the bed and into my bones. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to stand there, in front of my entire pack, while you rubbed yourself against me like you were starving? How close I came to throwing you down on the ground and taking you right then?”
The confession was both shocking and liberating. I knew now that he wanted me. The ruthless Alpha, my captor, my tormentor, the man who called me his bait, had been fighting the same fire I had.
And he hated it.
“Lilith—” He didn't let me finish.
His palm cracked against my bare ass, the sharp, stinging sound echoing in the quiet room. I bucked forward, my hips jerking, a choked moan slipping past my lips before I could bite it back.
“Do not,” he snarled, “say another female’s name while I’m touching you.”
His hand lingered on the heated skin, his fingers spreading possessively over the curve he’d just struck.
Then he lifted the ruined hem of my dress higher, bunching it at my waist, leaving me naked from the hips down.
“Did you know your father murdered five pups from my pack?” The words were ice-cold, each one slicing through me like a blade. “Children. Barely old enough to shift. Burned alive while they screamed for their mothers.”
My throat closed, unable to summon the right words to say.
He burned them alive? I always knew there was no ounce of goodness inside him, but burning children alive?
“My father is heartless. You, of all people, should know that.”
I jerked forward from the force of the second crack against my ass. He'd hit harder this time.
Fire bloomed across my other cheek. I gasped, my hips twitching involuntarily, shame and need twisting together until I couldn’t tell them apart.
“Wrong answer, little witch.” His voice dropped lower, darker. “Your father sent word to the Shifter Council. He claimed I kidnapped you and convinced at least half of the council that I forced the mate bond against your will. That I’m holding you prisoner.”
He leaned over me, his chest pressing to my back, the hard ridge of his cock grinding against my stinging ass through his pants.
“You sent word to him, didn’t you? You’re trying to run. I know you are.”
“I didn’t—” The denial died as he fisted my hair, yanking my head back until my throat arched painfully.
The rustle of fabric filled the room. I swallowed dryly when I heard the sound of his belt buckle clinking and his zipper dragging down,
The hot, heavy weight of him sprang free, brushing the backs of my thighs.
Everyone always described cocks as ‘thick and hard’, but Zhayad's was massive for some wicked reason.
The length of him caused me to grab the furs as I tried to wrap my head around the fact that he was going to slide inside me with that weapon of mass destruction.
He pressed forward for a second, not quite entering but letting me feel every inch of what he’d denied us both in the claiming ceremony.
His blunt tip nudged between my folds, slick and ready despite the tension.
“You think you can play me?” he murmured against my ear, his fangs grazing the shell. “You think you can whisper to your father and slip away while I’m distracted?”
“There are so many things you need to know about me, Aurelia, but let's start with this; I don't get distracted.”
His free hand slid between my legs, his fingers parting me roughly, finding me drenched.
“Look how wet you are,” he taunted. His words were laced with disgust and hunger. “Even now. Even after humiliating me in front of my pack. Have you no shame, Aurelia?”
Two fingers plunged inside me without warning. They went in deep, curling, and stretching me open.
I cried out, my back bowing, the burn of the stretch mixing with the sting on my ass and the mate bond roaring in my blood.
“You’re not running anywhere, little witch,” he growled, pumping his fingers slowly inside me.
His thumb found my clit, circling once and hard before withdrawing just as I was about to climax.
He seized my hips with bruising force, his fingers digging into the soft flesh just above my pelvic bones, anchoring me in place.
Then, without warning, he drove into me in one savage, unrelenting thrust. The stretch was blinding and raw. A scream ripped from my throat as pain and shock collided, tears stinging my eyes.
I fisted the midnight furs beneath me, my body bowing under the sudden invasion.
He froze deep inside me, buried to the hilt, halting completely inside me. The stillness hurt worse than the thrust.
“You’re a virgin?” His voice came out rough, strained, as if he didn't believe it.
I laughed, a bitter, breathless, sound that cracked at the edges. “Does it matter now? You’re already punishing me for things I didn’t choose. Punishing me for how the serum made me behave. Punishing me for my father’s crimes. So finish it. Finish what you started.”
A low curse hissed between his teeth.
Then he withdrew, only to slam back in, harder, deeper, claiming every inch I hadn’t known I still had to give.
“You’re right, little witch,” he growled, his voice thick with something darker than anger. “It’s only fitting I punish you for your father’s sins.”
Each word was punctuated by a punishing thrust, stealing the air from my lungs. The rhythm built, every slide stretching me wider, filling me fuller than I thought possible.
My body fought and welcomed him at once, my walls fluttering helplessly around his thickness.
“Take it,” he ordered. “Take every inch like a good little witch. Swallow me down. That’s it.”
The pace shifted, faster, harder, his hips snapping against mine with bruising force. The bed creaked beneath us. My breasts scraped against the furs, my nipples still raw from when he'd used his claws to tease them, every movement sending sparks of pain-laced pleasure racing through me.
Suddenly he leaned over me, one hand fisting my hair to yank my head back until my throat arched painfully.
“Now tell me,” he rasped against my ear, “where is your father’s domain?”
“I told you before, I don’t know.”
“Liar.” He drove into me with punishing force, his hips slamming forward, his cock hitting so deep I saw white behind my eyelids.
I shattered then. The confession tore out of me between sobs and moans. “The White Mountain Peaks. That’s where it is.”
There, I’d said it. There was no taking it back.