He began to move, pulling almost all the way out before he slammed home again, and each time she was rocked forward hard enough that she thought she’d go shooting across the cave. But his fingers, digging into her hips painfully, yanked her back again.

She had no idea how long it lasted. Seconds, minutes, hours? There was no way of knowing. She was lost in a haze of pure pleasure and need. When it finally crested, every muscle in her body tightened. She was frozen in time. He was deep inside of her and she clenched around the length of him with a strength that demanded he release into her body.

It was one order he couldn’t reject, and she felt the flood of his seed pouring into her. That was what she’d needed. It was the only thing that could satisfy the demands of her body. With his climax came her own, and it seemed to go on forever. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her until she was writhing mindlessly in the bedding without a conscious thought in her head.

He collapsed next to her with a groan and she didn’t even look at him. There was no energy left for that. She only whimpered and tried to pull her scattered senses back. They slept, sprawled next to each other, and not even being uncovered in the chilly cave was enough to wake them.

But towards morning her body began to stir again. She couldn’t believe it at first. It has to be over, she thought. But it wasn’t and it continued to grow worse until she was pawing at him needily. “Please, Jahk. I need more,” she said, humiliation colored the words and she couldn’t even look at him for the shame.

He came awake immediately, and with one questioning look, he knew exactly what was needed. He pulled her into his arms and forced her to be still while he kissed her thoroughly. She enjoyed it but it didn’t help and soon she was squirming against him, practically humping his leg.

He laughed and gave in. He thrust into her without any more foreplay and that was the only thing that soothed her. Whatever variations he tried over the next couple of days didn’t matter. Nothing helped but for him to take her hard and spill into her. The pheromones she was putting out had the effect of an aphrodisiac, so he was able to meet her demands, but it was a grueling time for both of them.

Every few hours her body would demand to be serviced. He forced her to wait, asserting his dominance and making her eat and drink. But her heat didn’t just affect her, it spurred him on too and the cycle continued. When it finally ended, they were both too exhausted to move, and stayed in bed, cuddled against each other recovering for almost a full day.

She tried to imagine what it would have been like to go through that on her own, and she shuddered and clung to him. He was her mate now, and not just temporarily. After what they’d endured together, she couldn’t imagine leaving him and doing that with another man. The primal feelings that had been invoked were possessive ones too, and the very thought of him being with another female made her growl low in her throat.

The civilized veneer was very thin, it seemed. She’d learned plenty about herself since her exile, and not all of it was comfortable to know. But she would live with it. Jahk thought he’d claimed her, but she’d claimed him too. The surging hormones of her heat hadn’t made her want children. It had only made her want him. If there were children…

Well. Maybe breeding with him wouldn’t be so terrible. He would be a good father, a good protector. But she still hoped that there wouldn’t be a pregnancy. She didn’t feel ready to raise offspring, and more importantly, she really wanted Jahk to herself for a while.

She’d learned a lot about herself; now she wanted to discover more about him, and what they would become together.

The End