Chapter 36 Wanton Rights
❀ Maeve ❀
I paced the room, rubbing my arms for warmth even as the hearth burned hot.
That roar was the scariest I’d ever heard in all my life around wolves, punctuated with so much rage and hate.
Despite Bastian’s order to stay in the clearing, I’d snuck back into the fortress to our chambers, relieved to find out it hadn’t been an external attack.
I’d waited for hours. When he didn’t return, I left. Even though I now had my wolf, I knew I was still young and inexperienced. It would’ve been foolish to remain out in the open like that.
The golden rays of the setting sun poured into the room, and I moved to the window to take it all in.
The stone felt warm under my palms as a surge of feelings crowded my heart.
Mother was still out there, and I still couldn’t understand why she’d forsaken me, assuming Nikolai was telling the truth when he said Sorin had taken her away.
Either way, I couldn’t give up on searching for her, the variables were just too extreme. If Nikolai was wrong, she could be in danger this very minute—
The doors burst open.
I spun, my heart in my throat.
“Bastian…” I breathed.
I hurried forward, my eyes widening at the state of him.
Blood streaked his skin, dark and sticky, and rivulets ran over torn flesh. Small bits of tissue clung to his shredded pants. His skin was ripped and scarred, still knitting itself back together.
“What happened to you?” I whispered.
My wolf whined at his obvious pain. I ached to soothe him, but I didn’t know how. As a lycan, he should have healed faster.
He was even limping, every step strained.
My gaze rose to meet his scowling one.
Back to the scowling, I see. Sigh.
“As if you care.” He muttered.
“What? Of course I do.” I followed his slow gait to the bathroom. “Let me run you a bath.”
I skipped ahead of him, fussing with the water pump to draw heated water from hot pools beneath the fortress.
He entered the space, leaning against the wall with a grimace on his face.
Jaw clenched, he hooked his thumbs into what was left of his pants, and tugged them down.
Heat rushed through my veins at the sight.
Even injured and bloody, he was heart-stopping.
I turned away before the fabric dropped to give him privacy, the events at the stream rushing to the fore.
After shaking bath balls into the quickly filling water, I stirred the tub with my arm, testing the temperature and calming myself at the same time.
I jumped when a heavy palm landed on my shoulder, gently pushing me away.
Bastian slid into the tub with a low groan, his head falling back immediately he’d settled in.
My shoulder still tingled from his touch as he said, “Check the shelf up there, bring me the half empty black bottle.”
“Right.”
Energized from just being of help, I fetched the bottle and handed it over.
I stared as he uncorked it, arm muscles rippling. My cheeks heated, and I shuffled on my feet in the silence.
What was wrong with me? The man just had what looked like a near death experience and I’m slickening for him.
Now that the water had dissolved most of the dirt and blood, his scent wafted deliciously. I discreetly inhaled deeper than necessary, almost moaning at his magnetic, virile scent of dark cocoa and pine.
“I told you to remain at the stream,” he began, “But I guess I can’t fault you for returning since it got so late. Next time though, do not return to the fortress if I warn you not to.”
He tipped back the black concoction, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he drank more. I just stood there, mesmerized, my skin tingling, my mouth watering.
I would never stop slobbering over him, he was too handsome, sculpted and ragged.
Before my eyes, his flesh regenerated with increased speed. Within moments, he was good as new.
Devastating.
He handed me the bottle, and I returned it.
“What happened? What was that roar?” I asked when I faced him again.
His neck muscles looked knotted and corded. Like metal to a magnet, I moved behind him and pressed both palms into his well rounded shoulders.
He tensed, but didn’t say anything.
“The Alpha, he has anger issues. So don’t be tempted to taunt or provoke him in any way.”
“He did that to you?” My brows furrowed as I wondered what on earth would provoke the Alpha to brutalize his nephew this way.
Bastian didn’t respond. He didn’t have to, because I’d gotten lost in him.
He was hot under my hands, his flesh giving as I pressed my thumbs, massaging softly.
Soon, he relaxed under my ministrations.
I held my breath, enjoying it too much.
Over his shoulders, I peeked down the planes of his chest, my bottom lip trapped between my teeth.
“Just avoid him.” Bastian said, his voice so husky my heart tripped.
He pulled the tub’s plug to send the dirty water rushing down. Then he turned on the tap once more to refill it.
The last time we’d been intimate, he’d left angry. But I couldn’t wait any longer, my wolf purred and I concurred. I needed my mate.
I should seduce him into marking me, into soothing this ache between my clenched thighs.
In a bold, desperate move, I slid my palms from the dips of his shoulders down his chest.
I let my soft breath fan his ear, and just like a wolf’s, it twitched. His hands flew to grip the edges of the tub, churning the water.
My stomach fluttered with triumph.
“Maeve.” He gritted.
“Do you want me to stop?” I whispered, even as I gently brushed both his nipples.
He hissed, his chest heaving under my touch.
Mine.
Emboldened, I rubbed my face into his neck and trapped his earlobe between my lips, panting with raw need. I breathed him in, licked his neck, marveling at how a person could taste so good.
When his hips bucked, his fingers digging furrows into the tub, I froze.
I’d seen a glimpse. A precious peek of that plush, rounded tip. I groaned, imagining how perfect it’d feel inside me.
My core tightened. Hungry. Empty.
Before I could delve in further, Bastian grabbed my arm. With a powerful twist of his body, I went splashing into the water.
My dress, thin as gossamer, soaked instantly, molding to my skin. My nipples pebbled painfully.
I straddled him, one hand grasping his shoulder as I wiped my eyes with the other.
“This is the second time you’ve tried to drown me…” I gasped, my pulse racing.
“For every burn you cause me, I’ll douse that stubborn fire within you tenfold.” He hissed, brows drawn in a tortured breath.
He cupped my nape possessively, drawing me in for a kiss.
Lips frantically sliding, parting, sucking, he wrapped a hand around my waist to press me to him. Our bodies trapped his cock between us. Hot and rigid like iron, it jerked against me, hitching my breath.
His deep groan reverberated in the kiss, my whimpers filled the bathroom.
Whatever this was, I wanted it to myself. Forever.
“Make love to me. Please Bastian… fuck me.” I begged, my hands grazing every inch of his hot skin.
He parted our kiss with a harsh, backward tug of my hair. My chest bowed, causing my nipples to rub against his. I made a miserable sound of pure hunger, my spine tingling, the ache in my trembling depths overwhelming.
“You think I don’t know your games. You’re trying to seduce me into marking you,” he growled, kneading my breast in wicked circles.
He trapped a nipple, flicking and twisting.
“Oh… Ooh!”
My hips moved in the water, grinding on his shaft in desperate rolls. My body burned, heat thrumming as my nails dug into flesh.
Bastian’s eyes glowed and waned as he fought for control. Jaw clenched, his gaze slitted with malice.
“Yesss. That’s… exactly the plan…” I purred wantonly.
I knew he was avoiding fucking me cause he didn’t trust his beast to not mark me, but I was done waiting.
Surging forward, I claimed his lips once more, rising on my knees in the process.
I grabbed his hair just as harshly, hissing in his ear, “When your mate wants this cock, she gets it.”
I sank down his length in one smooth motion.
My back arched in a scream from the sharp sting, “Ahhhh!”
His hands seized my waist, pushing me down even deeper.
“Fuh huh hhuk!” He roared to the ceiling, shaft pulsing.
I trembled, breathless, as his cock filled me perfectly. His fat tip dragged against my molten core, slick and hot.
Sparks flared in my vision, blinding me.
Then he began to move—