Helen

Quinn leaned against the wall, arms crossed. The bed loomed large between us. Untouched. He was on the other side of the room, nowhere near me, for while we’d intentionally riled Zee, hopefully to the breaking point, he’d said he didn’t want to get hurt. Or die.

I knew Zee was a possessive mate and when the door flew open, slamming against the wall and bouncing off, I knew Quinn’s measures for personal safety were reasonable.

Zee was all but resonating with anger. His muscles were taut with it, his square jaw clenched. His breathing was ragged, his fists clenched. Handsome in his anger. And the knowledge that I’d made him this way made me feel so powerful.

His head swiveled from Quinn to me. His eyes, so dark, burned with intensity.

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. I wanted to drop to my knees before him, to wait for his command, to feel all of this power unleashed on me.

While he was practically unbridled in his anger, I knew he would never harm me. He’d turn all this wicked energy into the final claiming. My pussy ached and my nipples hardened beneath my gown at the possibility.

“Are you unharmed?” he asked.

I nodded, licked my lips. “I’m fine.”

“Good.” He turned away from me so I could see the hard lines of his back, the taut curves of his butt. “You, friend, will not be so lucky.”

Quinn grinned and held his hands up, as if in surrender. “What’s the matter, Zee?”

Zee took one step closer as if prowling his prey. “You dare to claim my mate?”

Quinn shrugged. “You haven’t done so.”

I watched the exchange, my breath held.

“I have. I’ve claimed her mouth, her ass. She’s mine and you fucking know it.” While Zee still faced his friend, he reached his arm back, pointed at me.

I was embarrassed, the two friends speaking of me so intimately, and yet as if I weren’t in the room.

“Then why doesn’t she know that?” Quinn asked.

“Because—” Zee didn’t finish because he realized then what he’d done. How he’d given himself away.

Quinn stepped up to Zee, slapped him on the shoulder. “My work here is done. My lady.” The Hunter bowed to me before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Zee hadn’t moved, didn’t turn to look at me.

The only thing I could hear was his ragged breathing and the frantic beat of my heart.

“Master,” I whispered.

He flinched, the subtle ripple of his muscles bunching his shoulders. He still didn’t move.

I walked around so I stood before him. My eyes were uncovered. My head was lifted, my gaze on him. On him. On his face. His scars.

“Master, I see you. I saw you in the other room when you spoke with me. I saw you when you asked me if I was fine. I see you now. I haven’t flinched, haven’t been repulsed. I want to see you.”

His eyes blazed with fury, a vein pulsed at his temple.

“No. Don’t look.”

The grating words were a knife to my heart.

“I can’t look away,” I replied.

Slowly, carefully, I lifted my hand toward his face.

He leaned back slightly, but I didn’t relent. With my fingertips, I touched the red, raised skin. A breath hissed between his closed lips.

“I see you,” I repeated. “I want you.”

“Why?” he growled, stepping back as if the touch burned him.

“You are my mate. The only one in the universe for me. The testing has never been wrong. Neither has a mark.”

“No.” He shook his head.

I was determined to get through to this hard-headed warrior. “Are you telling me it wasn’t you who touched me in my dreams? That the mark on your palm isn’t throbbing right now to touch me? That it wasn’t your commands that had me on my knees? Had me bent over the bed to take your cock in my virgin ass?”

“Why?” he repeated, although I saw heat mix with the anger in his gaze. “Why would you want me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

I stepped forward then, closed the distance between us. Pressed my body against him, my hands cupping the sides of his head. I had to go up on tiptoe to do so, he was so big.

“Look at me,” he said, his voice rough with pain.

“I am. I don’t see scars. I see badges of survival. Of honor. I see the mate who’s captured my heart. Who’s in my soul. Who’s done things to me only a mate can. Who I love.”

His eyes narrowed and his hands came up to cover mine.

“You are too beautiful, Helen. You should want Quinn. If I were a female, I would find him appealing.”

His words made me laugh. Zee? A female? He was so virile, so male, the idea was ridiculous. And that big cock he wielded between his legs? Pure male perfection.

“I don’t want Quinn. I want you. I’ve only wanted you. While you are listening, you are not hearing me.”

“Mate,” I heard the warning tone of his voice and I shuddered. My nipples were almost painfully hard. “Careful what you say to me. Did you lure me here under false pretenses? Recruit my friend and fellow Hunter into your scheme?”

I wouldn’t deny the truth.

“I want you, Hunter Zee.” My hand came up to the clasp on my dress and I undid it as I continued. “My mark aches for you. My pussy aches for you.” The gauzy fabric slid down my body and pooled at my feet. I stepped from the circle of fabric and then dropped to my knees. Instead of lowering my eyes, I kept them fixed on his, my chin titled up. “Claim me, Master. Make me yours forever.”

His gaze roamed my body. I’d dressed with care, wearing ruby red garters and stockings this time. My breasts spilled from the top of the red, demi-cut lace bra and the G-string I wore was completely translucent, embroidered with red roses. Translucent not only because of the fabric, but my copious need for him. Even my shoes were made for sin, with four-inch spiked heels. Katie had let me use some bright red toenail polish. I looked like a vixen, like a woman I hardly knew. But I wanted to be this…for him. I wanted to drive him crazy. Out of his mind.

I wanted to be his.

When he held his hand out to me and helped me stand, to lead me to the bed, I eagerly followed, sure that I had won. That I was about to get exactly what I wanted.

Alarm bells didn’t start to ring until he sat and pulled me down to lay, face down, over his lap. My head was close to the floor on one side of his bent legs, my toes barely touching on the other.

“You lied to me. You misled me. You caused me to feel rage at a friend and worry for your safety.”

His palm came to rest on my bare bottom, exposed by the scant covering of the G-string underwear. “I’m sorry. I had to. You wouldn’t tell me who you were.”

As his palm petted my backside with the softest caress, I realized my mistake. This was his game. His rules. If I really wanted him to be my master, if I really wanted to serve him, I should have waited. I was impatient. Selfish, especially since it had taken such a ruse to get him to give over to the truth.

“I warned you, mate, what would happen if you lied to me or deceived me about your needs.” His hand landed on my bare bottom with a sharp sting and I gasped as he spanked me again and again. The sting was sharp, but it morphed, spreading to tingly pleasure throughout my body. “Why did you lie to me?”

Every second his hand swatted my bottom, over and over, it left a growing heat behind as the truth built up inside me like a volcano about to erupt. The fire spread, and my pussy was wetter than it had ever been, the ache there becoming acutely painful as my arousal grew. “I…I didn’t feel safe. I needed to know you were going to claim me, Master. I didn’t feel safe.”

The truth burst from me on a sob and his hand stilled immediately.

“Helen.” There was agony in his voice, and I felt even worse for causing him more pain.

“Please, Master, I was weak. It’s my fault. I should have waited for you to be ready. It wasn’t my place.”

“No, love,” he all but groaned. “It’s my fault. I was a coward. So many have rejected me, feared me because of the scars. I should have believed in the mark, in the power of our match. In you.”

I slid from his lap and knelt on the floor before him, my body between his parted knees, looking up into his eyes. The darkness there was edged with regret and pain. I could not allow either. It was over. The truth was out. There was nothing between us now. Perhaps only my G-string. “Master, please, may I kiss you now?”

His hand reached out and cupped the side of my face. “Of course. I am yours, Helen. Body and soul. I will give you anything you need.”

Remaining on my knees, I leaned my face into his touch, hungry for more. But I had a plan in mind now, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. “May I remove your clothes, Master?”

He nodded and I rose. I started with his shirt, pulling it off over his head. I leaned forward and traced every scar, every inch of him with lips and tongue and teeth. This is what I’d been waiting for. What I needed, for him to know I would not ignore this part of him.

Zee held himself rigid as I explored; his hands fisted at his sides on the bed as I worked my way down his abdomen to his waist. Making quick work of the clasp, he lifted his hips off the bed to assist me as I yanked his pants down. When he was gloriously naked, I stepped back and admired what was mine.

“You are beautiful, Master.”

His gaze was on my breasts. My stomach. The dark red scrap of fabric covering my sex. “Have you taken what you need, mate?”

Slowly, I shook my head. “No. Not yet.” There was no way. I wasn’t finished with him. I knew as soon as I admitted I was feeling better, secure, he would take control again and I’d lose my opportunity to touch him. Learn him.

Slowly, to tease him, I worked the scrap of lace down over my hips and off, kicking the miniscule garment aside. Reaching behind me, I released my bra and slid it down my arms as well so I stood before him in garters, stockings, and high heels.

His huge, rigid cock surged toward me as if it had a mind of its own and I laughed, pleased that his pulse raced at the base of his neck, his breathing hitched. His hands clenched into fists, his knuckles white against the blanket covering the bed.

Without warning, I dropped to my knees once again and took him into my mouth, swallowing him down, sucking, licking, driving him mad until his hand fisted in my hair and he forced me to release him. I’d taken him deep before, but this time I could see every pulsing inch, put my hands on his thighs.

“Enough.”

“Not enough.” I held his gaze as I climbed onto his lap, my knees straddling either side of his waist and resting on the bed beside him. I settled with his cock at the entrance of my virgin pussy. I was so close I could see the dark color of his eyes, the stubble of his jaw, the slight crook to his nose. “I want you inside me, Zee. I want you to be mine. Forever.”

“Gods, Helen.” His dark eyes flared. “Yes. You are mine.”

I kissed him as I slid down onto his hard length, taking him slowly into my pussy. My body was ready for him, all but dripping with my arousal. I ignored the burn, the pain as he stretched me, filling me for the first time. I pressed down, wiggling and moving until he finally bottomed out inside me. Until he was mine. “I’m claiming you, Hunter Zee. I claim you. You’re mine now.” I whispered the words against his neck, against the very scars that had nearly kept this wonderful warrior from me. I breathed in his scent, licked his hot skin.

With a groan, he shifted, lifting me and twisting us both so that he came down on top of me on the bed. We faced one another, and he took my hand, palm to palm, mark to mark as heat burned through me. This was it. The claiming. There was no going back for either of us. I welcomed the heat, the pulsing pleasure that rushed through my body. Only he could do this to me. My Marked Mate. He gazed into my eyes as he began to move. In. Out. Slowly. So slowly I thought I would die from pleasure. This was fucking. Making love. Passionate. Dark. Freeing. Lovely.

I pulled his head to mine with my free hand, kissing him with all the love I felt bursting through me as he reached between us to stroke my clit.

My pussy went into spasms and I arched against him, crying out as I exploded, milking his cock as he followed me over the edge.

He didn’t move for a long while and I held him, his forehead pressed to mine as I stroked his back, his sides. His scars. He was fierce and strong and mine.

“I love you, Master.”

“And I love you, mate.”

“Forever?” I asked, even though my pride demanded I hold my tongue.

“Beyond death, Helen. I’ll never let you go.”

And that was exactly what I wanted to hear. So I kissed him again.

And again.

And again.

Until his cock grew thicker and longer inside me. His control had snapped, his need too great for him to last. I didn’t mind because this was the most amazing pleasure ever. I’d loved the way he’d taken my mouth, the way he’d fucked my ass. But this…god, this was everything. We were one, joined and connected in the most elemental of ways. And the mark, the heat of our two touching, almost seared my skin. He moaned my name as he came, and he took me with him. I milked every drop from him, took his seed into my body.

And all at once, the marks went silent. The pulsing was gone. The heat was now only in my pussy. The mark had brought us together and was no longer needed. The claim was complete.

“The first time was too quick,” he said once he caught his breath. “Yet you are no longer in control. I gave you the power you wanted, but it is mine once again. Do I need to tie you up, mate?”

I grinned up at him, thrilled he was finally mine. Body and soul.

“Yes, please.”