Andie stared at her hand on Kragen’s ruined shoulder. Underneath her palm, his silvery skin had started to glow, and a warm current flowed where her body met his. She could feel it, working its way down her arm, across her shoulders, down into her very center. Her body was coming alive.

This isn’t ok, she told herself. You are not done with him. This is just so you can have a healthy, working Leonid to yell at.

Never mind that the thought of an injured Kragen made her sick to her stomach.

And the longer she touched him…

She watched in fascination as the light under her palm began to spread outward, over the massive bulk of his bloody shoulder, tendrils of it reaching down his injured arm, his wounded back. She couldn’t look away.

Neither could he.

“Lubcha,” he rasped.

“You still haven’t told me what that means,” she said. But she wasn’t really listening, even to herself. Andie’s eyes had found Kragen’s, and now her entire awareness was slowly shrinking, until all that was left was the place where they touched.

The current between them kept flowing. Kept filling her with liquid heat. It was almost unbearable.

And it wasn’t enough. Through the heat, the pull of the charge between them, she could feel his injuries. Kragen was really, really hurt. His breathing was uneven, his strong body racked with pain.

“I want to heal you,” she whispered.

“You do not know the cost,” he said.

“I don’t fucking care.”

With her free hand, Andie unzipped the hoodie she was wearing. A sound rumbled in Kragen’s chest as he looked at her breasts, barely contained in the tank top she was wearing underneath. It’s going to get a lot worse than that, she thought.

And she took his hand, and slipped it under her top, onto the soft skin of her belly.

Andie’s inner muscles fluttered under his touch, her eyes half closing at the jolt of pleasure that arced through her.

The current between them doubled. The pressure between her legs tripled. Kragen’s rumble became a growl.

She closed her eyes. It felt like they were spinning together, the rest of the world falling away, picking up speed until everything would fall apart…

With a snarl, Kragen yanked his hand away. Andie opened her eyes, ready to protest, and saw his face.

And then his giant hands were on her ass, lifting her up, her legs wrapping around his waist, her arms around his neck. He crashed through the cramped hallway of his lair, tossing large pieces of furniture behind him as though they were made of paper, cracking the walls around him. In another moment she was flat on her back on his bed, her legs spread, her Leonid towering over her.

Andie moaned. The sudden break in contact was painful. She wanted him. Needed him.

He stared down at her with glowing, hungry eyes.

“I will not claim you,” he said. “I will not.”

Andie propped herself up on her elbows, angry all over again.

“Are you asking?” she said.

All she wanted was Kragen on top of her. Inside her. And at this moment, she hated him for it.

Another snarl, his fangs exposed.

“You will know when I demand your submission,” he said.

When, she thought. Not if.

Her fingers dug into the sheets beneath her as she fought not to writhe, not to move. He didn’t need to know how much she needed him.

“You need me,” she reminded him.

“No,” Kragen growled, and he prowled onto the bed, his arms like silver cables, his eyes glowing white-hot. He rested his huge hands on her hips, then dug his fingers under the waistband of her sweatpants. “I need you to come,” he said.

In one motion, he stripped her of her sweatpants.

Andie had left her grandmother’s house in a hurry. She’d packed a bag, but she’d only thrown on the barest necessities. She didn’t normally wear underwear to sleep.

She was completely bare.

Andie held her breath. Her body was on fire, the mark on her breast burning brightly in the dim room. She was completely exposed.

Kragen stared down at her, breathing hard. The mark on his chest burned the same white-hot color, pulsing in time with hers. She could feel it…everywhere. In every cell, every nerve, every muscle fiber. The surface of her skin danced with it, her nipples hardened under her tank top, her pussy ached.

If he didn’t touch her soon, she was going to lose her fucking mind.

Andie took a deep breath, and looked into his glowing eyes, the molten silver transfixing her like it always did. But there was more there. He wasn’t touching her anymore, but the bond between them flared high and hot, and suddenly she saw the struggle going on inside him. Felt it. Through her mark, she felt it.

The Dom Kragen was fighting the Leonid beast within him. The Dom who promised not to claim her, who would not hurt her. Fighting the beast who was mad with hunger, who would kill to bury himself in her.

The thought made Andie groan, and she knew, right then and there, that if he demanded her submission, she would do it. She didn’t have that self-control. She wasn’t a Dom.

She was a sub.

She was his sub.

All she wanted was to please him.

Kneeling over her, Kragen reached down, and wrapped a huge hand around each of her ankles. His eyes never left hers.

“Remove your remaining clothing,” he ordered. “Now.”

Wordlessly she shimmied out of her hoodie, pulled the tank top over her head. She was naked now.

Naked, throbbing, desperate. Andie knew there was a reason for this, knew she was supposed to actually be accomplishing something with this, but it didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was the Leonid who could claim her at will.

Kragen pinned her with that gaze, one more time. And then he slowly began to spread her legs.

Andie dug her fingers into the mattress beneath her as she felt herself spread, the hot, slick wetness between her legs exposed to the cool air. Exposed to him.

She bit her lip and moaned.

“Female,” Kragen snarled. His upper lip curled over his fangs while his eyes blazed, and for a second the beast flashed across his face. Then the Dom returned, and he was in iron control.

Andie writhed, twisted in the goddamn wind, turned on past the point of sanity with no relief. What was he doing? He needed to heal. She needed to heal him.

No. He’d said he’d needed her to come.

“Female,” he said again, “you will pleasure yourself for me. Right now.”

Andie’s eyes opened wide, but she couldn’t move. She suddenly knew she couldn’t even avert her gaze without his permission. And she’d never, ever done this before.

She’d never let someone watch her. She’d never been that vulnerable. Another growl rumbled in Kragen’s chest, and she knew this was not negotiable. This was what he demanded: all of her. Not just her body, but her pride. Her most private moments.

All of her.

“Now,” he growled.

The mark on her breast throbbed a rhythm as she moved her fingers between her legs. The lightest touch was almost too much, and she gasped as she grazed her clit, and then moaned as she felt how wet she was for him. Kragen watched her like a starving animal. As she started to circle lightly, delicately, around her clit, unable to take more than that, she saw their marks pulsing hot in time, like a shared heartbeat, and it pushed her even higher.

Every stroke, every touch, she could feel something flow between them. She felt him getting stronger. She felt herself going higher and higher.

She started to shake, her thighs shuddering as her pelvis jerked up and down, her body not built for anything this powerful. She grabbed at the sheet, at the mattress, at anything with her free hand, and suddenly knew what she needed.

“Touch me,” she begged. “Please.”

Kragen’s eyes blazed, his chest heaved. Then with a grunt he threw one of her legs over his shoulder, one hand coming up to grab her hair and expose her neck, the other moving between her legs.

And then he was inside her, his finger in her pussy, his fangs in her neck.

Andie screamed.

Ruthlessly he drew an orgasm from her body as he held her down and drank her kuma, his huge finger stroking her g-spot as his palm covered her clit with pressure in rhythm, in time, with the glowing circle on her breast that marked her as his. She shuddered into a wave of convulsions, her back arching, her body giving up anything and everything he could take from her as she screamed his name into the dark.

She didn’t have words anymore. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t think. She lay back, slicked with sweat, her awareness orbiting around the sensation of his finger inside her.

Andie cried out, softly, when he removed it. Then she saw his face.

Kragen looked down at her like he was going to devour her. All at once she saw the tortured beast in his eyes again, and she thought, This is it. Doesn’t matter what we said. He’s going to claim me, and I’m going to submit.

And then with another growl he lifted her hips to his face and drank directly from her pussy.

Kragen had her orgasming again, screaming, in what felt like a moment, in what lasted for a lifetime.