Chapter 9
“Ethan?” Miguel said quietly.
I was lying on him, inhaling his scent, kissing the smooth skin behind his ear, loving that he was letting me.
“Yeah?”
“I’m warmer,” he said as he covered my hand with his and pushed it firmly against his chest. “Can you feel that? We’re usually cold. Vampires. Right after we feed, our temperature rises slightly. But it’s never been like this.” He shuddered. “It feels good. I feel good.”
“I feel good too,” I said. “Healthy.” I licked at his neck. He tasted so fine.
“You shouldn’t.” He looked back at me over his shoulder and frowned. “With how much I fed from you—” He shook his head. “That was more than I should have been able to take from half a dozen men without weakening them.” He flipped over, and suddenly, I was on my back with my mate pinning me to the bed as he looked into my eyes. “I never would’ve hurt you, wolf. I didn’t lose control. But you had so much blood. More than any other, human or shifter. Did you know that?” His voice caught and his nostrils flared. “I could hear it, feel it, pulsing strong and hot.”
I licked my lips and then chewed on the side of the lower one, my gaze not moving away from his.
“The first time I ever shifted was that night we met,” I said. “Your, uh, friend had clawed me, remember? He had me pinned to the wall, and I’d lost so much blood, and—”
Miguel wrapped his arms under my shoulders and pulled me up against him, holding me tight, so tight. I didn’t want him to stop, loving the feel of his body pressed against mine, reveling in the idea that he wanted me. But when I found myself gasping for air, he loosened his grip, apparently realizing my predicament.
“I’m sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I don’t know what came over me.” He closed his eyes, took in a calming breath, and then looked at me. “Please, continue. You were saying that you only recently started shifting. But I thought shifters took their wolf forms from a very young age.”
“We surely do,” I said. “The males. All but me, I mean. I never could. But, yes, male shifters take their wolf form young and lose their hold on their human side as they get older, so they need to tie with a female to secure it. Female shifters have a strong connection with their human side, so strong that they can’t shift until they accept a tie from a male.”
He scoffed. “Damn, your kind is superstitious. So many rules to keep everybody in line.”
I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”
“Never mind.” He shook his head. “Go on. You were saying that males shift young but you couldn’t. Why?”
“I’ve been sickly all my life, so we reckoned that was the cause.” I shrugged. “We figured I wasn’t strong enough to take my wolf form.”
He ran his intelligent eyes over my face, and then he dipped down and sniffed my neck. “You look good, wolf. Healthy. I can’t scent any illness in you.”
“That’s the funny thing about it,” I responded, chewing on my lower lip again. “Like I said, I do feel healthy. Now.”
“Now?”
“Yes. What you did to me earlier…” His gaze turned carnal, and my cheeks heated yet again. “Not that,” I clarified. “I mean when you fed from me.” I trembled and my voice turned husky. “It was so good, like you were drawing out the weight and the pressure, like you were making everything fit. I don’t hurt no more.”
He furrowed his brow, contemplating what I’d said. “So you were able to shift for the first time when Ralph injured you. And you cut yourself, made yourself bleed because you hurt so much. And now, after I fed enough to drain another man, now you feel healthy?”
I nodded.
“That’s strange,” he finally said. “I know a healer who can come take a look at you, try to figure out what’s going on.”
“I reckon I know already.”
“You do?” he asked, sounding surprised. “What is it?”
“You’re supposed to feed from me,” I answered.
“I’m supposed to feed from you?” he repeated, enunciating each word slowly.
I nodded. “It makes sense, right?”
“How does the idea that a vampire is supposed to feed from a shifter make sense? Your kind is poisonous to mine.”
“But I’m not poisonous to you, right? I mean, that’s what you said. You fed from me and you feel good now, better than before you fed from me. So you see? You feel better. I feel better.”
Miguel peered at me again, giving me that piercing stare of his. I got the sense nothing passed his notice, and I wondered whether his wisdom came from his age or if he’d been this way before he was turned.
“And you’re thinking this is all because of that mates thing,” he said. “Am I right?”
“True mates,” I answered firmly. “We’re true mates.”
“What exactly does that mean?”
“I told you already,” I said. “True mates are connected deep inside, at the heart, at the soul. We’re two halves of a whole. That’s why we have to tie with each other. Nobody else will do.”
With as often as Miguel gave me that wicked grin, it was amazing that it still made me squirm, but I gasped and wriggled under him when he did it again.
“Is this all an elaborate story concocted to get me to turn over for you, wolf? Because you need to work on the contradictions. Besides, it isn’t necessary.” He reached between us and circled his big hand around my pecker. “I’d love to feel this thick dick deep in my ass.”
I moaned and thrust up into his hand. “That’s not… I didn’t…. What contradictions?”
“You said male shifters have to tie with female shifters, right?” he asked. “That whole business about females being connected to their humanity and males being connected to their wolf. But then you said true mates can tie only with each other.”
He was stroking me in slow, even pulls, his hand warm and right and perfect. It was hard to concentrate. “Yes,” I said. “That’s right.”
“If I’m your true mate, Ethan,” he whispered into my ear, his hot breath making me tremble, “that means you can’t tie with anybody else.”
“Can’t,” I said. “Won’t. Promise.”
“Well, then, how’re you going to hold onto your human half, wolf?” He rubbed his thumb over my crown, spreading the early seed that had formed there. “I’m not a female shifter.”
I tangled my fingers in his hair and pushed his head up so I could look into his eyes. “I told you already, I ain’t never been right. In my human side, I hurt. My wolf couldn’t come out. But when you fed from me, everything got better.”
“Yeah, I got it. You have too much blood in your body, and it kept your wolf down. But what does that have to do with your true mate tying rule?” he asked.
He was too big, too strong for me to flip him over, but I managed to get out from under him and climb onto his back, tucking my chin over his shoulder and speaking directly into his ear.
“We tied together in the way of your kind, vampire,” I said. “You pierced me with your fangs, drew out my blood.” I trembled with the memory of how good that had felt, him feeding from me. “Your tie healed me, released my wolf. And you said it helped you too, said you feel better, warmer.” I rubbed my erection against his backside. “Will you let me tie with you in the way of my kind? I know you don’t need it to take a wolf form. I can’t rightly say that I need it to hold my human, but”—my voice shook with desire—“will you let me inside, Miguel? I want you.”
He stretched out and started moving off the mattress, so I thought he was denying me. But then he fumbled on the floor and reached back, thrusting something in my direction. I picked up what he held in his palm and squinted in the low light, trying to make out the words.
“It’s cream,” Miguel said. “With what you’re packing, too much will be barely enough.” I had no idea what he meant, so I stayed as I was, perched on his back looking at a container of hand cream. Miguel looked over his shoulder and met my gaze. “I know you’re new to this, wolf, so take my word for it.”
Then he turned back around and wiggled until he was settled comfortably on his belly, resting his head across his folded arms. It was awe-inducing, having such a strong, large man lying before me, putting himself at my mercy, in my care.
I knelt above him, straddling his hips. With my free hand, I caressed his skin reverently. It was cooler than mine, but not cold, definitely warmer now than he’d been when we’d necked in the street. I scooted down as I touched, running my hand over his broad shoulders, his muscular back, his rounded backside.
When my fingers came close to the crease, he spread his legs and pulled his knees underneath him, holding his body like a frog. That position raised his behind higher and spread his cheeks, leaving what was usually hidden to the world exposed to me. I trembled as I moved my hand into his trench, fingering the hot skin gently, getting closer and closer to the puckered rosebud in the center. When I gave a barely there drag with one finger, he moved and canted his backside even higher.
I kept my finger on that target, rubbing circles around it, wanting to push inside. That was when I remembered the cream I’d been handed, and its purpose became apparent. I fumbled in my initial attempts to open the lid, my hands shaking so hard in anticipation of what was to come that I couldn’t get a good grip. Eventually, I managed to pry the lid off the blasted container and coat my finger with the thick, slick substance inside.
“Fuck, yes, Ethan,” Miguel moaned when I coated his entrance with the cream. His crass words caused a tightening in my lower region, ramping up my arousal. “Feels good,” he added breathlessly. I dropped the cream, whimpering as I rushed to squeeze my erection in order to keep myself from spilling in reaction to his heated tone, to the knowledge that I evoked those feelings in this intimidating, powerful, stunning man.
Brown eyes looked at me over a muscular shoulder. “Are you okay, wolf?” Miguel asked.
I nodded, my head bobbing quickly. “Want you so much,” I gasped. “I’ve never—” I gulped. “Never felt like this.” I blushed. “Sorry,” I said. “I know I’m inexperienced and—”
“I’ve never felt like this either,” he confessed, his eyes softer, his smile warmer. “C’mere, baby.” Miguel gestured with his chin, indicating that he wanted me to lie on top of him once more. I did as he asked, and he reached for the discarded cream, dipped his fingers inside, and scooped out a generous portion. Then he straightened his left arm, supporting all of his weight on it, and reached back with his right, coating my throbbing prick in the cool, slippery substance.
“Miguel!” I shouted and shook, instinctively thrusting forward into his fist.
“Shhh,” he whispered and pushed back as he encouraged me to move forward, not stopping until the smooth, rounded head of my penis pressed against his inviting entrance.
He moaned and rocked back, circling his pelvis, then moved his hand to my hip and pulled me forward, and before I knew it, I’d pressed through a tight ring, and I shouted and cried and begged until I was completely connected to my mate, buried in silky, tight heat.
“Oh,” I gasped. “Oh, Lord.”
“Good?” he asked, his voice rough.
I collapsed on top of Miguel, pressing my chest to his back and circling my hips against his firm globes. I brushed my lips against his nape, tasting his sweat-slick skin. “So good,” I whispered.
He stroked my thigh and then raised himself to his hands and knees beneath me. “For me too. Now show me what you can do with that monster, baby.”
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do anything but spill my seed, but the need to thrust was undeniable, leaving me unable to stay still. I moved my hips back, shivering at the exquisite pleasure of hot skin dragging across my hard length, and then I shoved forward, gasping along with my mate, the pleasure nearly overwhelming.
Somewhere along the way, my brain shut down and instinct took over. I slid in and out of his channel at a frantic pace, grunting and gasping, and Miguel met every pump, pushing back, begging for more.
“Yeah, baby, like that. Damn, you’re huge, stretch me so good. Yes, Ethan. Yes!”
“Ugh,” I groaned, mindless with need and desire.
My already impossibly hard rod swelled further, getting thicker, longer, and then, just when I thought I couldn’t take another moment of pleasure, I felt my mating knot pushing against Miguel’s pucker.
“Holy fuck!” Miguel cried out. “What is…what is…” I shoved forward and circled my hips at the same time, wedging my way inside my mate’s body. “Ahhh,” Miguel shouted, never slowing his movements. If anything, he pushed back harder against my prick, locking the mating knot within his warm channel.
That desire, that need in my mate was my final undoing. I opened my mouth wide and clamped down on Miguel’s shoulder, close to his neck, my sharp canines breaking skin and claiming the vampire as my mate. My body stilled, breath caught, and I pulsed long streams of hot ejaculate into the warm body cradling me. With my last rational thought, I slid a hand around for Miguel’s prick and stroked him once, twice, a third time, and then his hot release coated my hand as he cried out my name in bliss.
His arms gave out and he collapsed on the bed with me on top and still inside him. Both of us gasped for air as our hearts raced, keeping the same rapid beat. Miguel managed to move his arm back and patted my leg.
“Damn, baby, you’re incredible,” he said.
I kissed his back, feeling warmed by the endearment and the praise.
“Yeah?” I asked shyly. “That was okay?”
“No.” He shook his head and then looked back at me over his shoulder, his gaze connecting with mine. “It was much better than okay.” He clenched his passage around my still buried prick, locked in place by the knot at the end. “So this is what you meant by tying? Much as I know about shifters, I didn’t realize your bodies, uh, changed this way during sex.”
“Does it bother you?” I lowered my eyes as I asked the question. “It’ll pass right soon.”
“C’mere,” he said, moving his hand to my bottom and nudging me up as he stretched his neck toward me. Our faces met in the middle without our bodies separating. He touched his lips to mine, flicking out his tongue. “When it passes, I’ll just want you to do it again,” he mumbled against my mouth as he tilted his hips and ground his backside against me. “You feel good inside me, baby. Perfect.”
I sighed and settled on top of him, resting my cheek against his back, feeling relaxed and settled. “Miguel?” I said.
His body felt loose beneath mine, his breathing slow and steady. “Yeah?”
“I’m glad it was you,” I whispered, not knowing whether he’d understand what I meant. I was glad he was the one I could touch, the only one who’d ever touch me. I was grateful beyond measure that Miguel Rodriguez was my true mate.
He was quiet for several minutes, still and solid beneath me, so I thought he’d fallen asleep. I closed my eyes and felt myself drifting off to dreamland with my mate’s body beneath mine, his scent surrounding me. I’d never been more comfortable, more content.
“I’m glad too, Ethan,” he whispered quietly. “More than I know how to say.”