Page 16 of His Secret Mate

"Never," he whispered fiercely, his lips inches from hers. "You're mine, Lara. And I'll prove it to you."

Before she could protest, Orion's lips crashed down on hers with a ferocity that took her breath away. She tried to resist, but the intense connection between them was overpowering. Her body betrayed her, responding to his touch with a need she couldn't deny. The kiss deepened as his tongue tangled with hers. A wave of desire surged through her, erasing all thoughts of anger and betrayal. Orion's hands roamed over her body possessively, igniting a wildfire that raged through her system.

Orion swept her up in his arms and carried her back to the bed, quickly discarding his own clothes until he was as naked as she was, her body arching towards him as if drawn by an invisible force. Orion's eyes blazed with a primal hunger as he positioned himself above her.

"You're mine," he repeated, his voice a low growl.

Lara tried to push him away, but her inner she-wolf was making her first appearance and wanted to be joined with her mate. She howled in the deep recesses of Lara’s mind as heat rolled off her body in waves. She could feel her slick as it eked out onto her thighs, her pussy throbbing in anticipation—not just of his cock claiming her wet heat as surely as he had claimed her with his bite, but of the knot she could feel at the root of his cock. She knew there would be no stopping his breaching of her with it. She had overheard a number of she-wolves describing the experience, and there were any number of romance books that described it in detail. She reminded herself she was furious with him, and he had no more right to knot and tie her to him than he had turning her without her consent. But she couldn’t seem to retain the anger she felt she should have.

“Orion, no,” she moaned with little to no conviction.

“Lara, yes,” he growled, the sound reverberating not only within her body, but within her soul. So, she’d been out of it long enough for the bonding link to have formed.

Orion parted her thighs, settling himself between them before he slammed into her, stopping just short of breaching her with the knot. She felt herself come undone as she raked his back with her nails, all primal instinct and red-hot desire. She was pinned beneath him, and god help her, she reveled in it. Lara buried her face in his neck, filling her nose with his rich, musky scent.

With both of her wrists in one of his huge hands, he pulled her arms over her head, holding them tight. Orion took advantage of her immobility to press his nose into the crook of her neck and inhaled. After he filled his lungs with her scent, he growled again, then left a trail of wet, open-mouthed kisses across her skin, drowning her in his own musk. She could feel her sex swelling and softening, readying her body for his complete possession.

He pulled out, dragging the length of his cock down her crease. Still pinning her to the bed, ensuring she knew who was dominant and who was not, he guided his hard staff with the other hand. The hot, velvet skin of his crown teased at her lips, making her cry out when he didn’t press in. Instead, he used himself to smear her slick over more of her skin, his chest rumbling with a pleased purr at the sight.

Lara bucked her hips up, begging for something more—not exactly sure what, but pretty sure it was the hard knot where his cock joined his body. Orion held her still. He was immovable, and she could do nothing more than to lie there and take whatever he chose to give her. She tried to find some sense of calm and control by soothing herself with how he surrounded her: his scent, his touch, his body, all of it like a powerful, sensual cage holding her tight.

When he finally thrust up into her, she moaned. His cock was thick and long, but her body opened up to him greedily, needing to be filled. Her inner muscles clenched around his shaft, attempting to pull him deeper, clutching at a knot that seemed just beyond her reach.

She could feel the anger fall away as acceptance and surrender filled her, making her feel whole for the first time in her life. There was no time to adjust to his size as he began to thrust into her, but she didn’t care. It was pure, unadulterated bliss. She needed it. His knot bumped against her entrance as he continued to drive her to the brink of ecstasy. Orion pounded into her, going a little deeper with each thrust. The room blurred around her as her body seemed to dissolve into a wave of heat and pleasure as she felt her soul fly free when she climaxed beneath him.

He rode her through the first orgasm and drove her toward the next before she could even catch her breath. His thrusts became faster, harder, deeper until she cried out a second time and felt him drive deep powerfully, forcing the knot past her entrance until he stopped, allowing her body to accommodate this new and all-encompassing feeling as the knot became even more engorged, sealing her to him. He began to rock within her—slowly and gently at first and then more vigorously and quickly. Lara’s body tensed, her inner walls bearing down around him and holding him tight as he pulsed inside her. The splash of his hot seed filled her exactly where her heat-soaked body needed it, setting off a chain reaction of pleasure and rightness through every cell in her body that made her cling to him.

Her body continued to work on instinct as she lay there, tied to her mate. Her pussy spasmed, milking his knot for every drop of cum that she could drain from it. There was something peaceful in the wake of the almost violent breaching that was accentuated by his groans and rumbling noises as he traced the curve of her neck with his tongue.

Clasping her to him, Orion rolled to his back so that she was lying prone on top of his body. Lara could feel the heat and desperation lessen, but not fade. For now, the satiation that she felt was not better than being knotted, but far more intimate.

As the aftershocks of their union abated, Lara's mind cleared, and the reality of their situation settled in. She looked down at Orion, her emotions a tumultuous mix of anger, bliss and a kind of reluctant acceptance of the undeniable connection they shared.

"You may have claimed me, Orion," she whispered, her voice trembling. "But this isn't over. We have a lot to figure out."

A week later, Lara sat hunched over her computer, the flickering screen casting a pale glow across her tired features. Outside, the storm had returned, thunder rumbling ominously as lightning sliced across the sky. She’d been working tirelessly on her research for a cure for DFTD, but now, as she stared at the corrupted files, despair clawed at her chest.

She hit a few more keys, trying in vain to open the damaged documents. "No, no, no," she whispered, her voice cracking. The storm must have caused a surge that corrupted her data, and the backup she thought she had set up had somehow failed.

"Months of work," she muttered, her eyes brimming with tears. "All gone."

A knock on the door broke through her desolation, and she looked up to see Orion standing there, his broad shoulders blocking the doorway. His expression softened when he saw her distress.

"Lara, what's wrong?" he asked, crossing the room in a few quick strides.

"My data," she choked out. "The storm—it corrupted my files. Everything I've been working on for DFTD... it's all gone."

“But the Resistance’s main frame has it…”

“Only the research I’d done before I came up here. I haven’t been able to transmit anything back. I thought I had it backed up, but those files are damaged as well. And you said the plant didn’t survive.”

He nodded as he knelt beside her, his hand gently resting on her shoulder. "It will most likely be back next year, but I don’t think the year’s bloom survived the storm. Here, let me see."

Lara hesitated for a moment, then nodded, allowing him to take over the computer. Orion's technical skills were formidable, a surprising contrast to his otherwise primal nature. He started typing rapidly, his eyes scanning the screen with an intensity that gave her a glimmer of hope.

"I've seen this before," he said after a moment. "It’s bad, but not necessarily hopeless. I can try to recover the files, but it’ll take some time."

Lara watched him work, her anxiety easing slightly as he delved deeper into the system. He spoke in low, reassuring tones, explaining his process and what he was trying to achieve.

---