Page 49 of The Warrior's Captive

He caught her up, looping a hand around her waist, and walked her to the bedroom. This was the first night they’d spend together in a cabin that was no longer hers. It would be theirs. Everything she had was now to be shared with him. It might be difficult at first. He was used to living rough and more than independent, and she’d spent many years on her own in this place.

“Promise me,” she rasped as they cleared the bedroom door. There was something she needed. One vow before all the others. His hand slid to the back of her neck and his fingers caressed the muscles there in a pinch that felt like heaven.

“What is it?” His eyes burned bright and serious, silver stars in the dark.

“The past is what it is. What’s already been done can’t be changed, but I want you to promise me that you won’t kill anyone ever again.”

She didn’t want to believe it was an impossible ask, and for a second, the silence shifted, growing menacing. “I can’t promise that. You know I can’t. If anyone threatened you or the baby…”

“Kieran makes the decisions as to how things are handled. He would never send you out like your last pack did.”

He picked her up and sat her down on the bed and then he fell to his knees. She’d left enough lights on in the cabin that it wasn’t true dark around them, and she could see the honest way he struggled with his thoughts. He wasn’t used to expressing them. He’d had no one to communicate like this with. He was seeking clarity, ordering his words, and she gave him time.

“I’m not a man who can own to the sentiment of many emotions, let alone love. I don’t know the half of it or even where to start. What I do know is that I can claim, with my whole being, that I feel an utter certainty that I was made for you. I was made to walk beside you in this life, and if love can grow from that, and I hope it can because you’re a woman who was made to be treasured, then I will make no effort to stop it. It’s no weakness. It’s a necessary thing to feel alive and live. I promise you that I’m leaving the past behind. The old me died with those wounds. That part of me is over. I swear that I will never hurt another being again unless it’s in just and true defense of my family.”

She kissed the tips of her fingers and brushed them over his lips. “Alright. I understand.” His lips parted and he lapped at her fingers, drawing them into his velvet mouth. Her heart tripped and upended itself, then kicked into a brutal run.

It only intensified when Castor’s hand traced down to her throat. His fingers curled around, tightening, but not like before. He leaned down, lowering her to the bed with him. He caged her in with just his hand alone. She inhaled and felt her throat rise against his fingertips. It was all him she smelled. A little like sweat and blood and fresh herbs, but like himself as well. Lemon and licorice. Fresh air and homegrown mint. Like the man and like the wolf.

As her nostrils flared, he took his hand away, but replaced it with his mouth. He trailed his tongue down her neck, over to her shoulder. He didn’t stop until he reached her nipple, and of course he wasn’t gentle. He bit her like he wanted to leave his mark on her for days. She was wild, her hips trying to arch up to him. If he was bursting with need, then so was she.

He tore his shirt over his head and stripped away the jeans. Clothes that weren’t his. She watched every move. He didn’t even act like it hurt. A layer of bandages was still wrapped around his chest and back. He carefully removed those as well. They were more to protect the salved, healing wounds. They’d ceased bleeding and weeping. She was still afraid to touch him.

“Castor. You’re—”

“I need to be with you. My wounds will be fine.”

She’d tried to get him to rest, to get him to heal, to talk reason into him, but the only thing he wanted was her and he wanted it with a barely restrained sort of violence. A wolf already unleashed on her.

He covered her with his body, doing nothing but surrounding her. She was so ready that she was making a mess of the bed. There wasn’t going to be a lot of begging or commands like the first time. She’d already given her permission and he was going to take her and own her. He was going to brand her skin, mark her with his body, claim her as his.

She didn’t expect him to kiss her right then. She wanted him to slam into her, to fill her up until she couldn’t take more of him. He took her mouth instead, claiming her there. His kisses weren’t gentle. Neither were hers. It was a battle, and she drew first blood, biting down on his bottom lip until she tasted the salt of his blood.

“Is it safe to take you from behind?” he growled. She could feel his cock throbbing against her belly. Wetness was pooling there. It made her want him inside her until the want of it was so brutal that she felt like she’d come with zero stimulation at all. “Safe for the baby?”

“Right now it is.” She searched his beautiful, scarred face. “Will you be gentle?”

His gaze caressed her back, frozen over blue pulsing with life just below the icy surface. How had she ever thought those eyes were dead? They might be cold, but they were far from devoid of life. “I’ll be as gentle as you want me to be. You can guide me the entire way.”

He knew. He knew that after a certain point, she wouldn’t want him to be gentle. She’d seen how careful he was with her after the first time. How tender. He acted like nothing more than a warrior going to battle all the time, but he was so much more than that too.

Castor arranged her on the bed, flipping her until she was face down in the blankets. His hand traced under her hips, lifting them in the air. He spread her legs, and she felt his rough hands stroking her thighs and up to her ass. Suddenly his hand came down on her ass cheek giving a sharp slap.

She gasped and bit down against the sting, and then against the warmth that made her even wetter and hotter between the legs. The ache got even worse when Castor wrapped his hand around her hair, twisting it until he could hold it, easing her head back and up.

She’d never wanted anything so badly in her life.

He didn’t get her ready with his fingers or tongue. He brought his cock to her entrance.

“Guide me in.”

It was hard to reach down between her legs and take him in her hand when her head was cranked so far back. Hard and awkward and she was sure Castor enjoyed every second of it. Maybe there was something wrong with her, the thrill she got when he commanded her in bed sent an electric shock to her clit seemed almost sinful in its intensity, but she honestly didn’t care. Everyone had their kinks, and she knew that the way Castor dominated her in the bedroom, didn’t extend outside of it. Outside, he offered her respect and his protection. He said he didn’t know how to care and how to emote, but she could tell it was there inside him. She’d just have to pull it out of him, and with time, she knew it could happen. It was there, just waiting for her, like a shining star too far out in the night sky to be seen with the naked eye, just waiting for discovery.

She brought his cockhead to her entrance. This time, she didn’t tense. She knew it would hurt, but she craved that stretch. There was no fast and hard thrust. Just a slow press forward, and she was more than prepared for. She panted through it, keeping her thighs so wide apart, eager to take all of him.

He let go of her hair and smoothed his hand down her ass. She gasped in surprise when he parted her ass cheeks with both hands. She was so open to him now, stretched wide. She couldn’t imagine what he was seeing, her hips in the air, her tiny hole stretched around his massive cock.

“I approve of your headboard, little wolf. It’s perfect. Grasp the slats and hold on.”

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