Kragen watched his female shudder with pleasure, her orgasm ripping through her like a force of nature, and felt himself balanced on a precipice.

He was so close to losing control.

Every peal of pleasure she felt, every point of contact, fed him. He was nearly healed.

And he was hungrier than ever.

Every cell in his body roared for wanting her. Every instinct he had told him to hold her down, sink his teeth into her once more, and drive his hungry, hard cock into her soft wet heat.

He could imagine it. Had imagined it. The first drop of pre-cum from his cock would invade her, begin to change her. Her body would change inside, grow and shift to accommodate Kragen’s cock, and only his cock. She would become perfectly molded to him, and no one else, for the rest of her life. She would be truly marked as his.

Any mate of mine only has grief in her future.

Kragen closed his eyes, balled his fist, bared his fangs with the effort of controlling himself. She tasted of lust, and light, and love. Her scent intoxicated him. And it was all over him. All over his lips, his tongue. He inhaled deeply, and his cock throbbed painfully against his leathers.

It was a close thing, but he brought himself to rein once more.

And then he opened his eyes to find Andromeda kneeling, naked, in front of him.

Her hands on his thighs.

Her eyes looking up at his, begging. Begging.

As she brushed against his erection, her fingers searching out the ties that barely contained his tortured cock, he tested himself.

Just her touch was enough to make his cock glow. Just the sight of her was enough to bring him to the brink of madness. The beast inside him roared, furious at being denied, and only the look on Andromeda’s face revealed that he’d roared that frustration out loud.

The rafters shook.

He pushed her away, his need for her becoming a painful knot at the base of his balls, and grabbed for the sheet. With his other hand he tore at the leather ties, freeing his cock. Andromeda watched, her eyes widening as she saw its size.

“Lie back,” he ordered. “And spread.”

She did it immediately. Without question.

For a moment, he wondered if he would do it. Plunge forward, bury himself in her, bind their futures together forever. Take possession of what was his.

No.

Kragen stared into the depths of her as he pumped his cock once, twice, three times. He exploded into the sheet, his vision going black as he slumped forward with another roar. He barely had the strength to hold himself up, but when Andromeda reached for the soiled sheet, he growled.

“Do not touch it,” he ordered. “One drop, and you will be marked. You will be mine, forever.”

Andromeda blinked up at him. She didn’t understand. Was confused.

It didn’t matter. He didn’t have the energy to explain. Everything he had left went into rising from the bed, walking to his supply room, taking the sheet with him.

When he came back, she had covered herself with the other sheet.

His Dom instincts kicked in. She was scared. Unsure. Rejected.

He would fix that.

Just as soon as he made sure she was safe—from him.

“What are those?” she said, pointing to what he carried in his arms.

“Leonid chains,” he said. He dropped them around his feet, took the triple dose syringe of triclosan he carried in his other hand, and forcibly injected it into his thigh.

The look on Andromeda’s face as she watched him nearly broke his heart.

“I don’t want you to do that,” she said.

“I give the orders,” he said simply. “You will put your clothes back on. Now.”

For a second, she stared at him. He raised an eyebrow.

She got dressed.

Kragen’s shoulders relaxed. Her scent still filled the room, and her taste was still on his lips, but this was safer. And in a moment, the triclosan would take full effect, and they would have some relief.

He was not done, however. He would never be done ensuring her safety.

“What are you doing?” she said, now huddled at the end of his bed.

Kragen wrapped the chains around his waist, made another loop, stepped through it. It was a crude harness pattern that he extended around his wrists, made of Leonid chains, but it would do.

He would have to unchain himself if he wanted to ravage her. Enough time to rethink his decision.

He clicked the padlock into place, took the key, and extended his hand towards the only woman who would ever make him feel this way.

“Take this,” he said. “Put it somewhere. Somewhere I will not see it.”

Andromeda came forward, slowly, hesitantly. She took the key.

“Why?” she said.

“I do not trust myself in my sleep,” Kragen said. The hunger was finally receding, like a storm surge that left only destruction in its wake. For the first time he could remember, he was exhausted. “I might dream. If I dream, it will be of you. And I will not risk claiming you in my sleep.”

Andromeda took this information in. He could see that she had many thoughts, many feelings whirling around inside her head—he could feel her ambivalence—and knew she would demand more of him in the morning. But to her credit, she simply nodded now. And she hid the key.

“What now?” she asked when she came back.

Kragen looked at her, for the first time letting go.

“Now,” he said, as he collapsed on the bed, “I sleep. And heal.”

* * *

Andie woke up to what looked like late-afternoon sun streaming in through windows high, high above her, and smiled. She felt amazing.

Then she started to remember. Slowly, at first, and then very, very quickly.

The parking lot. Kragen. The first time he touched her. The woods. That kiss. His wounds. The Leonid who called him a traitor.

The other Leonid—the prisoner—in the basement.

And…healing Kragen. With orgasms.

Andie squirmed at the memory. It wasn’t a normal memory; she thought about Kragen’s fangs on her neck, his mouth between her legs, and she could, for a moment, literally feel it all over again.

She closed her eyes again, and let the small shudder of pleasure spread through her body. She couldn’t even fight it. Resistance was basically pointless. She just had to let it take its course.

Eventually she felt—sane? ‘Sane’ might be a strong word—but she felt almost normal enough to try again. Andie opened her eyes, confirmed that she was, yes, in a freaking Leonid hide out warehouse, that she had slept until late afternoon, and that, yup, there was a giant silvery Leonid with freaking chains wrapped around him sleeping next to her.

Kragen.

Andie shook her head. It was all real. At least she’d remembered to text both Gramzy and Kat before she’d basically passed out next to her outlaw Leonid. So she hadn’t totally lost her mind.

Absently, she touched the silvery mark on her left breast. It was warm. It got warmer when she looked at Kragen.

He was almost entirely healed. It was, honestly, miraculous. There were only faint marks where the raw wounds on his back and shoulder had been, only a few bloodstains on the sheets.

Andie let herself look at him.

Even with his wrists and midsection bound up in chains, he was simultaneously the sexiest and the most frightening thing she’d ever seen. The light reflected the late-afternoon sun in lazy colors that seemed to swirl around his silvery skin, once again reminding her of mother of pearl. His arms were like the steel cables that held up the major bridge outside of town, the one that crossed the actual Silver Creek, and Andie would bet they were at least as strong. His broad, muscled chest rose and fell slowly, in an easy rhythm that made her think of the rhythms he’d set last night.

Andie leaned her face on her knee, unable to look away from him. Thank God his eyes weren’t open. If she looked into his eyes, she wouldn’t be able to think clearly.

That’s what had happened last night.

Actually, a lot of things had happened last night.

She still smiled when she thought about it, but this time it came with a pang of embarrassment, even anger. Kragen hadn’t rejected her, really, but…

Andie had been completely, utterly his. She couldn’t believe how easily Kragen had turned her into a woman with no self-control. She would have done everything, anything he told her to do. All she had wanted was to please him. No, more than that: she’d wanted him inside her, everywhere. She’d wanted him to own her.

Hell, he pretty much did already, if he could get her to act like that. The memory of being so totally at his mercy and loving it both embarrassed her and turned her on. It was like being possessed.

And he hadn’t claimed her. She’d wanted it. She’d wanted him. But he’d kept his word, and had the self-control of a true Dom.

It was almost like Kragen was everything she’d ever wanted from a man, and the mind-melting, miracle orgasms didn’t hurt, either.

Well, everything she’d ever wanted, minus some pretty scary stuff in the basement.

Andie felt a chill run down her back as she thought of what she’d seen down there. She would never forget those eyes. She would never forget that feeling of being hunted.

She looked at Kragen one more time. The truth was, she’d only known him for less than a day, even though she felt as though she’d known him for a lifetime. She knew that was because of the crazy mating bond, but here was the thing:

How did she know she could trust the mating bond?

Andie knew what she’d seen in Kragen’s heart when they’d touched: all that pride and honor, all that moral courage, that fierce love for family. But how could she be sure any of it was real? Maybe the mating bond just showed you what you wanted to see. How could she trust any of it?

Especially when Kragen had a terrifying Leonid prisoner locked away in a murder basement.

She couldn’t lie to herself. Whatever was in the basement, that was part of who Kragen was, too. And Andromeda Knowles was getting tired of guessing. She wasn’t running away from this one, like she’d run away from every other messy man situation she’d ever gotten into. She was going to see it through.

She looked at Kragen. She looked at the chains that imprisoned him. And she remembered where she’d hidden the key.

Andie smiled. She was her grandmother’s granddaughter, after all. And even if she had to take off all her clothes again, Andie was going to get this witness to talk.

“Time to wake up, sleepyhead,” she whispered. “I’ve got plans for you.”