Page 47 of Urban Gladiator

But in the end, I couldn’t maintain this pace. I stumbled over a tree root and landed with a jarring thud. I cried out in pain as my shoulders were yanked.

Rowan stopped and turned. He padded over to me. “Get up.”

“I can’t.” I snapped, lifting my torso off the ground. I rose shakily to my feet and approached him, riding my fury. “What the fuck is the point, Rowan? You’re just going to kill me in a bloodletting ceremony. I heard you. Those are your plans for me. And I won’t go back. I’ll fight you every step of the way. And I’ll keep fighting until my last breath. Please, just let me go.”

During my diatribe, Rowan shifted to human form. He glared, all big and bad and sexy as hell. And my body pulsed with need this close to him. I hated how much I wanted him. How much my body craved him. This man was my doom. And yet my body didn’t give a shit. It wanted him with a desire bordering on obsession.

“I wish to hell I could, but I can’t. You’re mine, Ember. I’ll kill any man who tries to take what’s mine. And you will submit. Your place is at my side as my mate. And I’ll prove it to you.” The last bit he muttered with such violent determination, it left me quaking and on edge.

With a snarl, he yanked me into his arms. My bound hands connected with his naked chest. But instead of pushing him away, I dug my nails in. Even though my brain wanted to deny his statement, I couldn’t ignore that since we first met, he’d been different from every other man.

He sealed his mouth over mine in a brutal, electrically charged kiss. He didn’t ask for entry. He forced my mouth open and plunged his tongue inside, punishing me with his kiss.

My fury mingled with passion, overriding every system in my body. I gripped his chest, holding him prisoner and cursing my bound hands. I ached to touch him. My tongue tangled with his in an angry duel, imparting my fury and my need for him all in the same breath.

I wanted to punish him too.

Because I started to believe there might be more to my life than fighting. That I might have found my place. But then he tore it all away with talk of sacrificing me while still coming to my bed.

I ripped my mouth from his. “I hate you.”

“Hate me all you want. But you know deep down where you belong. That you can’t live without this.” He gripped my hips and pressed his body against mine, letting me feel all his hard inches.

“I could. You’re not the only man in Avalon who wants me.”

“Just because I haven’t claimed you doesn’t mean I won’t kill any man who touches what’s mine. That jinn is pushing daisies because he spoke out of turn about my mate. And the griffin would have followed if he hadn’t flown away. But I would have gouged his eyes out for staring at my mate’s body. For thinking he could touch you in any way. And I’m going to erase them both. No one else takes what is mine. Ever. Not even you.”

Faster than I could blink. He turned my body so my back faced his front. Then he bore me down to the ground. His hands shoved my dress up to my hips, exposing my bottom. The blow landed like a hammer across my ass.

Pain ricocheted. But I wasn’t given the opportunity to recover before he peppered my behind with brutal swats. The loud cracks echoed in the night. I gasped and whimpered. My flesh burned. And those flames slid into my sex and fueled my desire, driving it to epic heights.

And then I felt it. His cock nudged at my entrance. In a single thrust, he buried himself balls deep. It burned, a slice of pleasurable pain as he stretched me. But in the next breath, my body purred, and I moaned.

“See? Your body knows it belongs to me. It knows it wants my cock above all others.” He withdrew and thrust with such force I cried out.

“Say it. Tell me you belong to me and only me.”

“No.” I shook my head, unwilling to surrender.

With a growl, he hammered inside me. His hips pummeled against my backside. And he drove inside with such force I wondered if I would die from the pleasure. Until him, I never would have believed I liked my sex rough and raw. But as he took me with punishing force, my body turned liquid.

It knew he was mine and I was his.

“This is my pussy. I will erase that fucking jinn and griffin from your body.”

“They never touched me,” I wailed, my eyes crossing.

He plunged deep and held himself there, even as I tried squirming on his shaft. He cupped my chin and turned my face toward his. Our gazes clashed. “Tell me again.”

“They never touched me. No one has but you.”

His eyes glowed. I saw the wolf fill his gaze. But then his mouth claimed my lips, his tongue plunging in my mouth as he resumed driving his cock inside me.

He swallowed my whimpers and moans but then finally lifted his mouth. “I’m going to make you come screaming on my cock. And then I’m taking your ass. Until every part of you belongs to me.”

I thought he’d been brutal before, but those thrusts paled in comparison. He was marking me. Branding me with his cock until my eyes crossed and my cries echoed in the night. Until I dug my hands into the earth for purchase, thrusting my hips back as need overrode everything else.

Until I knew deep within my soul that he was right. I was his mate. We were too evenly matched not to be. It was as if we’d been fashioned from the same mold. Two diametrically opposed opposites that shouldn’t fit but, once connected, morphed into a single entity.

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