The scent of her, dear Goddess. It was like nothing he’d ever smelt before, and yet, it was one he’d known for so long.

Even with the birth control, he’d always noticed how delicious she scented. Of course, because of the hormones he’d never wanted to act on the scent, but now he knew he could drown in it and die a happy man.

“Are we just going to stand here in the hallway?”

He wanted to smile at the giggle in her voice. Cinda was not the kind of woman who giggled, and hearing that lit him up from the inside out.

There was nothing more that he wanted than for her to be happy. Not just with him, but with life in general.

She’d been so scared for so many years that he’d want to take over, that he’d try to ruin her life by not allowing her to accomplish her goals, that she’d felt that way made him want to ensure he never held her back. That he helped her with all of her goals, enabled her to reach all of the targets she’d set herself.

His mate was an ambitious woman and rather than resent that or find reason to feel fear, he wanted to help her succeed.

The wash of feelings overwhelmed him, and he sucked in a shaky breath, not to suck in every ounce of her he could, but simply to stabilize himself.

She seemed to sense that because she nuzzled into him, her forehead brushing against his throat where his own scent would be strongest.

He didn’t reply to her question, didn’t even bother laughing, just strode into her room.

This place hadn’t been used much in the past two decades. The TVs were still plasma—high technology at the time, but way out of date at the moment. The furniture was that bizarre minimalist style that looked kind of elegant to the eye but also looked like it could belong on a mission to Mars.

At that moment though, he didn’t care. All that mattered was the bedroom had a bed in it. One that was relatively comfortable and large enough to fit him.

He had to wonder if she’d bought the damn thing with that in mind because it was definitely a ‘special’ bed. Customized for his length. And she was an itty bitty thing. No way did she need one as long as this.

They’d been sharing the bed for the past ten days, but had done little more than cuddle in it.

Jarvis would never have imagined himself being a cuddler, but hell, a mate had a way of changing a man.

The curtains were still drawn and light was dim in here even though it was just before midday. He didn’t bother switching on the overhead lamp; just took a seat at the edge of the bed and let her find her stability afterward.

Cinda pressed her knees into the mattress, then used the base to power up a little so she could sit with more comfort on his lap.

She moved away from him and stared him square in the eye as she cupped his chin. Bringing her mouth closer to his, he let her make the first move and sighed with delight when she let their lips drift together.

With a moan, she settled harder against his lap, wriggling as sensations began to bombard her.

It was hard to believe she was a virgin. In her own way, she was a sensual creature, but he knew he had to be careful. Knew he had to let her find her own path where this was concerned.

It was unusual for a Shifter male to let his female rule the roost when it came time to the Claiming, but his Bear was still reeling from the myriad times she’d pulled away from him, flinching here and there, wincing or avoiding him. The beast was pouting, to put it frankly. Couldn’t understand why his mate, who had denied him her presence in his life for so many years, was suddenly there but not facilitating the Claiming.

It had taken a few hours for Jarvis to figure out what his Bear couldn’t. He’d put the pieces together and had realized she hadn’t told him all the details of what had happened with her near miss with the rapist.

It made sense. Why would she share information like that with him when the bare bones had had wrathful feelings raging through his system like an inferno.

It would take time for her to trust him, and he realized that the major way to achieve that end goal was to go at her own pace.

It killed him. And that in no way described his Bear’s confusion, but for Cinda, he’d do it. He’d suffer.

With a groan, he let her nip his bottom lip before she plunged her tongue into his mouth. This certainly wasn’t her first kiss, and though his Bear rumbled his disapproval of just how many males she’d practiced on that weren’t him, the man didn’t care. Just reveled in her taste, loved that she could seduce his mouth.

He let his hands move forward to cup her butt. She moaned, wriggling deeper into him, and the action let her pussy brush against his belly and rock against his shaft which had risen for the occasion

Hell, it was ready to do more than rise. Only Jarvis’s self-control was holding him back.

His Bear leaped forward when her hand burrowed between them to shape his shaft through his jeans. It manifested in his pulling away from her mouth and biting down hard on her bottom lip.

She winced, but didn’t moan in pain. If anything, the moan that escaped her was breathless with want. Need.

She hadn’t been lying earlier when she’d said she was horny.

He supposed she’d been waiting for this moment for forty years, and nothing was going to stop her from exploring every moment of it. Not even her brush with a rapist.

At that moment, admiration for his female raged through his system, warring with the desire and arousal she was inspiring in him.

His mate had hurt him. She had denied him. She had lied to him and hidden herself from him, but she was a female to be proud of.

His Bear roared its agreement with that belief.

He reached for the hem of her shirt and she pulled back to let him drag it up overhead. She’d only been wearing some short shorts and a thin tank, but it could have a lacy, black negligee for all he cared.

When her tits bounced free from the confines of the stretchy top, he moaned and dropped his head. Letting his mouth settle on one of her nipples, she groaned, dragging her nails through his hair as he teased and taunted the bud, raking it with his teeth before torturing it with the tip of his tongue. She began to rock her hips, riding him without riding him.

He felt her urgency as these new sensations overwhelmed her and reveled in the sting of her nails dragging into his scalp as she scratched him there.

When he laid kisses over one crown then moved onto the other, she whimpered when he suckled at the nipple, tugging and pulling at it in a way that had one hand of hers dropping from his head and diving down between her legs.

She didn’t even have the wherewithal to bury her fingers down behind her shorts. No, she just rubbed herself through the gusset. Touching her clit and teasing herself.

The scent of her arousal had been a heady perfume in the bedroom before, but now, after those frantic fingers of hers got to work, it flooded the room like a haze of weed, sending him straight toward a high the likes of which he’d never experienced before.

It was so powerful that he almost reached for her hand and dragged her to a halt but he liked that she was confident enough to touch herself in front of him.

Sure, she was nervous. Sure, that put her on edge, and that was without all the other shit that had happened with that bastard on death row, but she was at ease enough with him to explore herself. To allow herself to feel pleasure.

That, at that moment, was all that mattered.

“More,” she begged, her lips frantically kissing his temple before they dove down and began sliding along his jaw, over his nose, not stopping until she was bent awkwardly, her mouth exploring his shoulder and the parts of his ear she could reach.

When she bit down through his shirt, not hard enough to mark but enough for his Bear to feel the pinch, the animal roared into action, ripping through every level of Jarvis’s hard won control.

But she didn’t flinch back in fear.

Oh no. Her Sow roared back. Not verbally. Neither of them made a sound, but suddenly, they were rough with one another.

She tore at his t-shirt, nearly ripping it as she dragged it overhead.

He stood, grabbed a hold of her ass to keep her in place, then dropped her down onto the mattress. A low grunt escaped him as he watched her tits wobble and wave with the ripple of the mattress, but his hands were at work on his jeans. He tore at the fly, ripped at it, then watched as she soared up into a bridge and used the freedom of the move to drag down her shorts.

When she bared herself, he snarled at her. Again, there was no flinch. No nervous retort. No, she snarled back, then slipped her hands between her folds and began to stroke herself again.

This time, it was unlike before. She didn’t do it out of desperation, out of need. She did it to taunt his Bear. To make him act.

And boy, did his Bear react.

With a moan, she watched as his Bear took control of his eyes until they flashed gold with the beast’s presence.

He kneeled on the bed, grabbed a hold of his cock, and watched as she licked her lips as he jacked himself off. They both teased each other like that. Taunting the other with touches they longed for the other to take control of, but their beasts were playing. Messing around with one another in a stupid play of dominance that even though the human part of their nature could understand, they wearied of quickly.

“Oh my Goddess,” Cinda cried. “I need you inside me. Why is She doing this?”

He blinked at her, feeling his breath panting from between his lips as his Bear ramped up his arousal to never before experienced levels. “They’re playing,” he gritted out.

“Fuck that. Fuck me,” she wailed. “I need you, Jarvis. I need you,” she finished, her begging doing something to the Bear that had Jarvis roaring in earnest as he threw himself at her.

He caught his weight at the last minute, pinning his hands either side of her head. Her eyes widened at him, and her upper lip curled at the dick move. “You’ll pay for that later,” she warned him, but before he could do more than growl at her, her hand was at his cock and she was spreading her legs to catch his hips. With strong thighs and calves, she dragged him down, not stopping until all of his weight was on top of her, until every inch of her was covered by him or surrounded in some way by him.

He groaned, long and low, as the lips of her pussy, so wet and juicy, parted to cling to his shaft, and he rocked his hips, enjoying the slick sensation as he tormented her clit with each thrust of his hips.

Her breath was agonized as she panted out the feelings he was making her experience, and he rejoiced in each sound that was torn from her lips.

She wanted him inside her, but equally, she loved the sensations he was dragging from her.

At that moment, though she knew they were usually equals, he dominated her. He controlled her pleasure, and her Sow reveled in that domination.

It didn’t mean that in real life, she’d get off on him telling her what to do. Hell, no. But her Sow needed him to be in charge. Needed him to show her his strength because only then could she submit to his needs. To his demands.

And Jarvis answered that call. With each rock of his hips, he dragged her to a precipice she’d never known before. One she longed for, with all her being, to explore more.

She knew they had years and years, decades, centuries even to discover all the other’s secrets, but at that moment, none of that counted.

She was greedy. She wanted it all. Wanted everything he had to give.

He laughed, his head falling back as he gloried in the moment.

She felt him then, felt his hand shift between them as he grabbed a hold of his cock and placed it at her gate.

She tensed, knowing what was coming next, but he stunned her. He didn’t move. He just stayed there, letting her feel the thickness of his shaft. Then, his torso dropped down until his weight was on her, until her breasts were pressed against his. The hair on his chest, while thick, wasn’t repulsive and it felt like silk against her chest. She whimpered as with each dragging breath he inhaled, it raked those tiny follicles against her nipples, hypersensitizing the delicate area of her breasts.

Her head rolled back at his proximity. She loved his heat, his heaviness. She reveled in his being there like a weighty blanket. She’d never felt so secure in all her life, Cinda realized at that moment.

He’d never hurt her. He’d never allow her to be hurt. She was safe. Forever safe.

With a groan, she looked at him and whispered, “Please, mate. Claim me.”

His eyes were all Bear, and she looked deep into the amber glow. The ocean blue had been eaten up by the beast and she knew that she was speaking to both of her mates at that moment.

He flexed his hips, jerking her attention back onto his cock and her pussy. She let out a long gasp as the thickness penetrated her a few inches more.

She closed her eyes at the tightness, and when she opened them to the sight of his face clenched as though in pain.

“You feel like fucking heaven,” he mumbled. “My heaven. Perfect for me. My paradise. So tight. So fucking wet.”

His groan ricocheted through her like nothing else could have done. It set fire to her nerve endings and lit her up from the inside out. She felt herself growing wetter, her pussy relaxing at the hard presence at the entrance to it, but still, he was big. She was small.

She knew it was going to hurt.

Her Sow wanted that pain though. To her, it was proof positive that her mate had Claimed her. Cinda, on the other hand, wasn’t so happy about the situation. Cinda knew what was going to come and tried not to tense up, but it was hard.

The cry that escaped her as he thrust deeper into her had him freezing.

“Mate?” he demanded, his voice hoarse.

His breath washed over her. Making her skin dewy. She shivered a little, loving that he paused, that his concern had him asking after her even in this, the most intense moments of their first time together.

“I’m fine,” she whispered, but her hands, which had lightly clasped his hips, were digging into him now. Her nails bit into his skin until she could scent his blood, and though she winced at the scent and wanted to apologize, he flung his head back and groaned so deeply she felt it inside her pussy.

Dear Goddess, he liked that?

Her eyes widened, and she stopped digging into him, making her hands move until they were clasping his shoulders. The last thing she needed was to make him hornier.

He blew out a long breath and then murmured, “Just a few more inches, baby.”

A few more? Hell. She gulped. How big was he?

Wanting to look down between their bodies to see exactly how much he had left to somehow get inside her, she was stopped at the first hurdle thanks to the way he was resting on her.

It was almost like he knew she’d want to look.

She frowned at that, then felt nerves hit her.

Had he felt big in her palm?

Surely that was a joke about men’s shoe sizes and their cocks being similar? Because if that was the case, then holy shit, her pussy was in for a rough ride.

Before she could panic, before those nerves turned dark, he rocked his hips again. She cried out as he claimed more of her, and that pesky barrier, that bit that proclaimed her virgin, disintegrated with his presence. He roared again, but this time his Bear was in charge as he scented her blood, rather than his own.

He liked that. There was no other way that could be misinterpreted.

All Bears were chauvinists, but she’d hoped Jarvis’s was enlightened enough to be different.

Wanting to snort at that vain hope, she wriggled underneath him, trying to accommodate him. But not only was he apparently long, he was fucking wide too.

Her pussy lips were spread apart, and her clit was peeking out, rubbing against his pubis bone in a way that was sending electric shocks up and down her body. It was enough to have her twitching in reaction. Her left foot was juddering at the sensation in a way that was more irritating than pleasurable.

The promised ecstasy of before had dissipated now and nerves were back. She knew he was big. Knew it because his hips still weren’t flush to her. She also knew that the promise of pleasure would return, but until then, she had to relax enough to get all of him inside her.

If that was even possible.

She’d once watched a documentary about big dicks, and how sometimes they were so big no woman’s pussy could ever accommodate them.

That was with humans though.

Not Shifters.

Shifter mates were tailor made for one another. Which meant there was no way she could tap out. No way she could say he’d never fit because her pussy had been made for his cock.

And sure, ten years down the line she was certain she’d be so fucking grateful for that fact. Hell, maybe ten days down the line. But at this moment, she dreaded the next ten minutes!

“Are you ready?” he said softly, and she realized his head was pressed into the cushion beside hers.

They’d yet to bond, so she couldn’t truly sense his emotions, but she didn’t have to know what was going through his mind.

He was in agony.

This pace was hurting him.

Her Sow didn’t like that. The She Bear knew she was supposed to be her mate’s everything and so, against Cinda’s express wishes, she took charge of the situation.

She propped her feet up on the bed, then rolled her hips up, not stopping until their bodies were flush together.

The scream that escaped her couldn’t be mistaken for pleasure. All she wanted to do was tell him to get the fuck off her and cross her fucking legs.

“What the hell did you do that for?” he snarled at her, leaning back and removing his weight from her chest. He pressed his hands to her waist though so as not to push harder into her.

She whimpered. “My Bear did it.”

He let out a long breath. “Dear Goddess, spare me from the logic of She Bears. Are you alright, baby?”

“No,” she mewled, tears forming in her eyes at how full she felt, how thick he was, and how she felt like she was being torn apart.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he whispered, sorrow lacing his tone. “I’m so mad at your She Bear right now.” He followed that statement up with a roar that came right from his Bear. Her Sow froze, then scurried away, tucking herself up into a small ball.

Cinda’s mouth began to tremble. “She’s sorry.”

“That doesn’t take your pain away, baby.” He blew out a deep breath, then reached between them. She froze when his fingers found her clit, then he stunned her even more by lifting his hand and raising it to her mouth.

“Lick my fingers,” he told her, the command traveling layers deep until her Sow peeked out again.

She fluttered her tongue along his digits, and watched as he moved them between her legs once more. This time, when he touched her clit with slick tips, she moaned as he began to caress her there. Not to tease, not to entice, but to straight out assault her clit until it surrendered defeat to him.

It didn’t take long, which was a fact that astonished her. The pain of taking his full length inside her had yet to dissipate, and yet he was able to make her rock her hips, have her shuddering on the mattress, head rolling from side to side, tits quivering in reaction to her harsh breaths as she let the glorious sensations wash over her.

This was like nothing a BOB could ever gift her. Dear Goddess, her fingers were nothing in comparison to his. The magic he could weave was like something from a fairy tale and when she climaxed, her Sow and the woman were in complete agreement as they rumbled out their satisfaction with a cry so loud. It hurt their own ears, never mind Jarvis’s.

Her pussy was fluttering around his shaft by this point. And his presence deep inside her felt like a taunt rather than a promise. She whimpered, rocking her hips a little, needing more from him now that he’d soothed her pain.

The pleasure had washed away all discomfort had gifted her with her desire for more again.

She moaned her delight when he came over her once more and began to slowly rock his hips. Dragging his shaft back and forth, barely moving but dragging nerve endings to life that had never been explored before, and she cried into his mouth as he took her lips.

His tongue matched the pace of his shaft and he suffocated her in him. In everything he had to give, in everything she needed him to offer.

This time, when her hands fell down to his butt and her nails dug down deep until blood beaded and fell, they both growled at the sensation and he began to move faster.

She whimpered as he dragged her to the precipice he’d revealed to her before. She danced on the edge, almost like a trapeze artist as she hovered there, until he thrust hard and deep and made her explode.

As she came, his teeth nestled against her throat, and then, as he bit down, the pleasure she’d felt mere moments before was superseded by a glory so indescribable, she felt sure she was about to burst.

No human form was capable of experiencing these emotions, the sheer delight and wonder of what he was making her feel as he Claimed her and made her his.

The colors that flowed behind her closed eyes outshone even the most beautiful of rainbows. Her ears twitched with a white noise that consisted of nothing more than their heart beats which, at their hard pumping, began to entwine until eventually they’d beat at the same rate.

Her skin prickled with the delicious sensation of his hairier body rubbing against hers, her mouth watered with the pheromones he released that hit her square in the gut. And her nose was in paradise as she reveled in their essences which were joining and, after a few days, would mingle. Declaring to one and all that they were Claimed and that they had mates to whom they belonged.

Every sense she had was on fire. It was the only way to describe it. It ratcheted up her need. Made her all the more aware of her body until it began to hurt. Until she was so highly aware of everything going on within her body, the pleasure he was making her feel took on a deep, dangerous edge.

But, because she was so highly aware, the release that followed should have been obvious to her. When he came, she felt him. His seed branding her womb, Claiming her inside and out. Once that happened, it was like a key to the door.

Those glorious sensations went away. The remnants she could still feel, and knew they would always be imprinted on her memory banks, but they released her from the prison of pleasure he’d trapped her in.

She didn’t feel his heavy weight slump onto her, didn’t hear his groans of delight as her body milked him of everything he had to give. Instead, the same body that pleasured him wandered off to sleep.

Rest, it needed rest. To assimilate, to come to terms with what had just happened.

Because Cinda was no longer one person anymore. She was more than just a female.

She was a mate.

And even though she couldn’t think, her mind wouldn’t let her deep inside, so deep it was in her DNA she knew that at last she could rest because she was his. He was hers. And nothing else mattered.