****
Keira was more than halfway to wakefulness when she realized that she didn’t hurt. Her back tingled slightly, and she could feel the heat of supernatural healing, but the pain that had wracked her for what had seemed like months was gone. Images flickered through her mind—moments of brief and fleeting coherence in a long span of blackness: seeing Raul and another wolf she didn’t know walking into Harold’s garage, lying on her back and hearing Raul’s voice, the low conversation between him and someone else. Keira smiled slightly to herself, remembering, vaguely, the feeling of comforting, warm water sluicing down her flogged back, washing away the bitter pain of the oils her wounds had been treated with.
“If you want to start acting like you’re awake, I have food,” Raul said. Keira opened her eyes and carefully turned over onto her back, yawning. For a moment, even remembering the way she did, Keira couldn’t quite believe that the man in front of her, smiling ever so slightly, was actually Raul.
“How long have I been out? And how the hell did you get me?” Raul sat down carefully on the bed—at which moment Keira realized that was what she was lying on—and brushed a lock of hair off of her forehead.
“Breaking out was the hard part,” he said, smiling wryly. “But Cam—he used to be my second in command in the Pack—came over to my side.” Raul sighed. “He snuck into the shed Reginald was holding me in and…” Raul shrugged. “The rest of it isn’t all that important.”
“They were starving you,” Keira said, frowning as she remembered the gnawing hunger she had felt through their connection. Raul nodded.
“And your people flogged you. What did they use?” Keira grimaced, remembering the punishment.
“Willow,” she said curtly. “And they dressed the wounds with violet oil.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t have a miscarriage,” Raul said quietly. Keira’s eyes widened.
“You know?” Raul nodded.
“Your pheromones are different,” he said. Keira blushed, though she wasn’t sure what she had to be embarrassed about.
“It’s really early days,” she pointed out. “I don’t think anyone in the clan smelled the difference on me.”
“No one in the Clan is mated to you,” Raul pointed out. “I am.” His fingers brushed the spot where he’d blooded her.
“I felt the connection—the bond—sort of…” Keira frowned, trying to think of how to describe the sensation she’d felt in her mind.
“It sort of broke, didn’t it?” Raul grimaced. “At least for a few moments there.”
“I didn’t even feel you coming though,” Keira said. She closed her eyes, remembering the despair that had flowed through her. She pushed it away—it didn’t matter now. “So, you brought me to wherever it is we’ve ended up, and bathed my back I guess?”
“And let you sleep—and slept myself,” Raul said, nodding. He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, and Keira felt a deep-down jolt of heat that was as comforting as it was startling. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Raul’s shoulders, pulling his body down against hers. After days of separation—how many she couldn’t say—Keira craved the feeling of Raul’s skin against hers, the sensation of him inside of her, more than she had ever craved anything in her entire life.
Raul broke away from the kiss after several moments, looking down into Keira’s eyes with more than a little concern. “God, woman, I’ve missed you,” he murmured, dragging his lips along the line of her jaw. “Do you think you’ll be able for…”
“If you don’t have sex with me right now I’m going to kill you,” Keira told him, clutching his body more tightly against hers. Raul chuckled and his hands began to wander all over her, caressing and teasing. He cupped her breasts, giving them a careful squeeze and rolling her nipples between his thumb and forefinger until Keira gasped and shuddered underneath him. She writhed and twisted, uncaring for the moment about the lingering tenderness in her back, the weakness of her body in the aftermath of her punishment from the panther clan; all she wanted, all she could think about, was Raul—and how much she craved him.
Raul slipped one hand up between her thighs, tickling the sensitive skin there, and Keira growled as he teased her, barely brushing his fingertips against the already slick folds of her labia. “Why did I ever let you mate me? You’re—fuck—such a damned tease,” she told him, twisting her hips for better contact. Raul’s fingertips slid along her labia, gradually pressing deeper, barely missing her clit as Keira shivered and squirmed underneath him.
“You agreed to submit to me,” Raul murmured, nipping playfully at the pulse point just below her ear with sharp teeth.
“Should—should have done it…in reverse,” Keira said, growling lowly as Raul continued to tease her. Raul chuckled, his voice taking on a low, gravelly tone as he lapped at the sweat that had started to form along her throat.
“When you’re better you can challenge me,” he told her. “And if you best me in challenge, I’ll submit to you.” Keira purred deep in her throat as Raul’s touch finally grazed her pleasure center.
“Fine,” she murmured, pushing her hips down to meet Raul’s fingers as he began to stroke and rub her clit. She fell into his rhythm, feeling the bond between their minds beginning to deepen as they both became more and more aroused, more connected to each other; it was difficult for her to tell where her arousal ended and Raul’s began. She could feel the feverish heat of his skin against hers, the hardness of his erection digging into her hip. “You aren’t mounting me this time, though,” she told him breathlessly.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Raul said, kissing her quickly on the lips before beginning to move down over her body slowly. He lingered at her breasts, worshipping them with lips and tongue and even—carefully—his teeth before moving down along her ribcage, tickling her with his hot breath, his fingers working all the while. By the time he reached the curve of her hip, Keira was moaning and purring helplessly, twisting and arching without any thought to her injuries, her animal consciousness taking over.
Raul buried his face against her soaking wet folds, and Keira clawed at his back, throwing her head back against the pillows and moaning out as he sucked and licked. The roughness of his tongue against her labia, against her clitoris, sent crackling jolts of pleasure through Keira’s body, and the vibration of his moans against her sensitive flesh made it harder and harder for her to hold back as every moment passed. Keira lost herself in the sensations coursing through her body, tension mounting with every beat of her heart, like a knot somewhere deep down between her hips that pulled tighter as Raul’s tongue and lips worshipped her.
When Keira was so close to climax she could almost taste it, Raul broke away, licking his lips to catch every last bit of her fluids. Keira let out a warning growl and Raul shifted on top of her, covering her body with his own, pinning her against the sheets and blankets. “Patience,” Raul murmured against her lips. He rocked his hips against hers, and Keira bit back a moan at the feeling of his hot, hard cock rubbing against her labia.
“Of course you want a bone, Fido,” Keira muttered. Raul laughed out loud, reaching one hand between their bodies to guide the tip of his cock against her. He stroked her clit with a lingering touch, and before Keira could complain any further, he thrust into her all at once, filling her up with his heat and hardness.
Keira wrapped her legs around Raul’s waist, pushing her hips down as he began to move inside of her. She kissed him everywhere her lips could reach, nipping and licking the salt-sweet taste of his sweat-drenched skin as they fell into a rhythm together. Keira forgot the disappointment of her delayed orgasm as Raul pushed deeper and deeper inside of her, the tip of his erection rubbing against her g-spot with every second or third thrust.
Keira cried out, almost howling in feline pleasure as the tension deep down between her hips broke all at once. Wave after wave of pleasure washed through her, and she clung to Raul as if for life itself as he continued to move inside of her, riding through her orgasm until he couldn’t hold back any longer. Keira felt his cock twitching inside of her, and then heard the deep, throaty howl that erupted from his lips as he threw his head back, thrusting a few final hard, fast times into her as he reached his own climax. She pulled his face down and kissed him hungrily, taking everything Raul offered, slipping quickly from the bone-deep satisfaction of sex with her mate into a contented doze as they both slowed to a stop.