Chapter 51 Chapter 51
Tiana
His palm was warm against my skin. His fingers wrapped around my ankle completely while his thumb brushed against the bone there.
“Alpha, what are you doing?”
“I said don’t move.”
His hand slid higher. Slowly. Up to my calf, tracing the curve of muscle with deliberate precision.
My breath came in short, shallow gasps. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to do something—pull away, sit up, insist on knowing what he was doing.
But I couldn’t move.
With every inch his hand travelled, my wolf stirred, practically purring with satisfaction.
“You don’t understand, do you?” His voice was barely above a whisper now. “What it does to every man. Seeing a woman like this.”
His hand reached the back of my knee then paused there.
“Or seeing the way you smiled and laughed with him.”
Wait!
Was this about… Kaius?
This was about Kaius.
“I wasn’t—” My voice cracked. “He got injured. I was just helping him take care of it.”
“Helping him as what? The healer?” His fingers traced higher, along the sensitive skin of my inner thigh.
“No. But it’s something I could handle.”
“Interesting.” He replied quietly.
Zane took a pause, his hand moving along my inner thigh before he continued. “Tiana, I believe I have made my stand clear about your relationship with my nephew. Have I not?”
“Yes, you have.” I swallowed.
“Then why is it so hard for you to listen?”
“Do you not notice how I have not fucked any of the wolves I would usually call? If you have not noticed, let me make it clear to you.
It is because I am trying to respect this thing we share, at least till we get what we want and go our separate ways.
But why are you making it hard? Am I asking for too much when I say I don’t want to stain the Alpha and Luna bond with any rumors?”
“No, Alpha.” I stuttered. “But I promise, there’s really nothing going on with me and Kaius. He is just a friend.”
Silence fell for a beat. Then his grip on my thigh tightened—not in a painful way though, more of possessive.
“A friend.” His tone had shifted into something darker. “Is that what you tell yourself?”
Before I could answer, his hand moved higher.
“Do you think I did not notice? The way you looked at me that night when I was with her. The way you tried to maintain a composure like it didn’t affect you.”
He leaned closer, his breath hot against my ear.
“But it did, didn’t it? Just like this does.”
His fingers brushed higher, and I bit back a whimper.
“Your body doesn’t lie, Tiana. Even when you do.”
Heat already filled my face as I struggled to make a response and if there was one thing I was grateful for, it was that my face was turned away from him.
“That is not true.” I managed to croak out.
His hand squeezed my inner thigh, firmly enough to make his point. “Your body betrays you, Tiana. Even now.”
He was right.
I could feel it. The way my skin flushed under his touch. The way my breathing had turned ragged. The way heat pooled low in my belly despite the fear and confusion.
My wolf wanted this. Craved it.
And goddess help me, so did I. Which was demeaning, happening in a time when I should be angry at the things he had just uttered.
“You belong to me,” he commanded.
“Whether you like it or not. Whether I like it or not. This bond—” His hand moved higher still, pushing the hem of my nightgown up. “—it doesn’t give us a choice. And you have to act under my control.”
Cool air hit the back of my thighs as the fabric bunched around my waist.
I wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
His sharp inhale told me he had noticed.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered.
Then both of his hands were on me.
One gripped my hip, holding me in place. The other traced along the curve of my ass, fingers splaying possessively across my bare skin.
“Is this what you wanted?” His voice had gone hoarse. “When you told ‘someone’ to come in? When you left yourself spread out like an offering?”
“No. I didn’t—”
“Didn’t think about who might see you?”
His fingers dipped lower, brushing against the apex of my thighs.
I bit down on the pillow to keep myself from making a sound.
“You’re wet,” he said, and there was something almost accusatory in his tone. “Already.”
Shame and arousal warred inside me, twisting together until I couldn’t tell which was which.
“Alpha—”
“I am going to give you a chance.” His fingers traced through my folds, barely touching, just enough to make me ache. “If you don’t want this, tell me to stop.”
I should. I knew I should.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Because some traitorous part of me had been waiting for this. Dreaming of it. Even as I had told myself I didn’t want him or need him, my body had been screaming the opposite.
“That’s what I thought,” he murmured.
Then he pushed one finger inside me.
A sound escaped my throat—half gasp, half moan—and my hands fisted in the sheets.
“Quiet,” he commanded. “You don’t get to make noise. Not yet.”
He withdrew his finger slowly, then pushed back in. Establishing a rhythm that was deliberately measured enough to drive me insane.
“Do you know what it’s been like?” His voice was rough, strained. “Knowing my Luna would not obey a simple instruction of staying away from another male wolf?”
He added a second finger, and my back arched involuntarily.
His fingers curled inside me, finding a spot that made stars burst behind my eyelids.
“But you didn’t think about that, did you? When you were laughing with him. When you probably let him touch you in the private lounge, late at night.”
“He didn’t—” I gasped out. “It wasn’t—”
“Shut up.”
His thumb found my clit, and my rational thought fled entirely.
He worked me with ruthless precision. Like he had studied exactly how to break me apart. His fingers pumped in and out while his thumb circled that sensitive bundle of nerves until I was trembling, gasping, completely at his mercy.
“You feel that?” His voice was dark and possessive. “That’s the bond. That’s your body recognizing who it belongs to.”
I wanted to argue and clear him that I wasn’t his possession.
But who was I joking with? I liked this part of being his possession.
“You’re going to come for me,” he said. “Right here. And you’re going to remember exactly who made you feel this way.”
Zane’s fingers moved faster and harder.
The pressure built impossibly high, coiling tighter and tighter in my core like a spring wound to its breaking point.
“Please…” The word escaped before I could stop it, muffled against the pillow.
“Please what?” His voice was commanding. His fingers never stopped their relentless rhythm. “Use your words, Tiana.”
“I can’t… I need…”
“You need what?” His thumb pressed harder against my clit, circling with devastating precision. “Tell me.”
“I need—” My voice broke. “Please, Alpha—”
“That’s better.”