Chapter 25

I lit an aromatherapy candle and lowered myself into the steaming hot tub. Oh God, this was ~exactly~ what I needed. I just wanted to relax and—

“Ouch!” I gasped and winced as the heated water lapped over the sensitive flesh between my legs. Spreading my legs, I examined myself carefully, noting that the soft lips of my sex were slightly swollen and red. And I was ~really~ sore. It wasn’t surprising considering what I’d been through the night before, but I still had no idea how I was going to explain it to Charles. Well, maybe I could plead wedding day exhaustion and he would leave me alone at least for our first night as a married couple. I just hoped my condition would improve after that or I was going to be in a world of trouble. The absence of a hymen could be explained away as an accident with a fence post or riding a boy’s bike when I was a girl, but the fact that I had been so obviously and thoroughly taken might be harder to pretend away.

“I can’t think about that now,” I told myself, sinking lower in the bath until the hot water lapped against my chest. “I’ll worry about it later, after the wedding.”

My skin was finally used to the heat of the water, and I felt my tense muscles begin to relax. The knots in my shoulders eased, and my eyelids began to feel like they had been dipped in lead. The weariness and tension of the night before seemed to seep out of me, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

I had the dream again—the boy, the moon, and the statues. Only this time when the wolf appeared, it changed into Richard. He was holding me close and our bodies fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, my head tucked neatly under his chin and his muscular arms wrapped around me. I sighed in contentment because it felt so good. Richard was telling me that everything was going to be all right from now on. That we were bonded for life and he would never leave me. That he would always protect and defend me and love me.

His hot mouth trailed down my neck, and he sucked gently at my tight pink nipples. I felt a wave of pleasure take me, and I moaned and opened my arms, welcoming his advances, offering myself completely for his love…

The next thing I knew, strong arms were lifting me out of the tub, and someone was patting me dry with a soft towel. I moaned in contentment as he considerately blotted the beads of water from the tips of my sensitive breasts and spread my legs wider so that he could pat my vulnerable sex dry as well.

The dream was still so strong in my brain that at first I wasn’t even surprised when I opened my eyes and saw that it was Richard who was drying me off. He was shirtless as he had been the night before, but the blood had been washed off the tan expanse of his broad chest. All he was wearing was a pair of tight blue jeans that defined his narrow waist, and he looked damn good. I could feel myself wanting him, wanting to be closer to him, to feel his lips on my skin… Suddenly the reality of the situation rushed back, and I pushed against the muscular planes of his chest, trying to get away.

“Hold still, Rachel, and let me examine you.” His deep voice was stern, and I saw that he was still looking carefully at the swollen lips of my sex.

“Richard, no!” I was almost too tired to fight him, but I knew I had to try. “What are you even doing here?” I demanded. “I thought I told you we were through.”

“I had to get my things,” he said absently, still looking between my legs. “God, Rachel, I really hurt you, didn’t I?”

I blushed, remembering the way I’d incurred the injuries. “I’m just a little tender, that’s all.”

He shook his head. “No, I was rough with you. Really rough. I’m so sorry, the beast must have gotten out of control.”

“A…a little,” I admitted, remembering the way the thick cock had filled me to the limit, the way the beast had forced its broad knot into my tight sheath until I moaned and cried and came and fainted.

“I’m sorry, Rachel,” he said again, looking at me. “The first breeding is always a little rough. There’s this instinct a Lanor-zor has to fuck hard and deep, to get as far into his Lana-zeel’s pussy as he can before he releases his essence. It makes for a better, stronger bond.”

I blushed even harder. “I sensed something like that,” I admitted. “You, uh, were pretty wild.”

“I wish I could remember it.” He sounded wistful. Then his voice dropped into a lower, more intimate tone. “Did I…was my knot all the way inside you or just partially? Breeding is possible either way but it’s better when the knot goes all the way in.” His big hand touched me lightly, tracing the slit between my pussy lips as though illustrating his point.

I shivered and pressed my thighs together tightly. “No, you…you got it all the way in. All the way inside me before you came. You…you filled me up completely,” I admitted, my stomach fluttering at the memory. Then I reminded myself that I was supposed to be getting ready for my wedding. I looked up and forced myself to meet his eyes. “You should be proud of yourself, Richard,” I told him, my voice hard and cold. “You fucked me hard and bred me well. Now can we stop talking about this so I can get dressed for my wedding?”

His face paled but his voice was calm when he answered. “If you think I’m here to stop you, Rachel, you’re wrong. I can see you’ve made up your mind. I just came to collect my things and I promise I’ll leave and get out of your life forever if you’ll just let me do one thing.”

“If you think I’ll let you ‘breed’ me again you’re mistaken,” I said flatly, even though my heart skipped a beat and my sex was instantly wet at the thought.

“No, nothing like that.” Richard shook his head. “I don’t want to breed you, Rachel. I just want to heal you. I want to heal the damage I caused before I go.” His fingertips brushed against the swollen lips of my pussy lightly and I bit back a moan. “Will you let me at least do that?”

I remembered how he had healed my arm the night before, lapping at the long gash in my arm with his tongue. I opened my mouth to tell him no way in hell and shut it again abruptly. Hadn’t I just been thinking that there was no way I could explain the way my sex had obviously be opened and used to Charles? I needed a way to get rid of the evidence of what had happened between Richard and me the night before and Richard was actually giving me the perfect answer.

Still, I didn’t know how much I trusted myself around him. I had allowed him to do unspeakable acts to my body last night and still I was craving more. If I let him start by ‘healing’ me between my legs, where would it stop?

“I won’t go too far,” Richard said softly, as if reading my mind. “I won’t breed you without your consent and I won’t come in you either, Rachel. I just want to heal you. My jeans will stay on the entire time.”

“Well…I guess as long as it doesn’t take too long,” I said stiffly, glancing at the clock on the bathroom wall. “I have to be at the church in a couple of hours and I still have to get dressed.”

“It won’t take that long,” he promised, taking me by the hand. “Come on, Rache, let me heal you one last time.”

I sighed and allowed him lead me into the bedroom and position me on the bed so that my legs were hanging over the side. He got on his knees before me on the floor and gently spread my thighs. As his dark head bent to the barely-there blond fuzz that decorated the top of my mound, I reached out a hand and stopped him.

“Rache?” He looked up at me uncertainly.

“Just…just heal me, Richard,” I said, my heart thumping in my chest. “Nothing else, okay?”

He nodded gravely. “I’ll only put my mouth where you need to be healed,” he promised softly.

“All right.” I didn’t know if I trusted him or myself for that matter, but I knew how much I wanted him. ~This is the last time,~ I promised myself. ~The very last time and then I’ll never see him again.~ I didn’t want to think how empty and sad I felt about that, so I made myself concentrate on the physical instead. On what he was doing between my legs.

He had his large, warm hands on both my inner thighs, holding me open, and I knew that even if I tried to shut my legs I wouldn’t be able to. So I didn’t try. Instead, I let him spread me as wide open as he wanted without protest. Even when my pussy lips parted, showing the ripe, inner part of my cunt to him, I didn’t complain.

“So soft,” Richard breathed, his breath tickling my blonde curls. “So beautiful. Hold still, Rachel. I want to do this right. Want to show you how much I love you one more time.”

“All…all right,” I murmured, the words catching in my throat.

“Good girl,” he whispered, and then he went to work.

First he dropped tiny, soft kisses all over my trembling pussy, and then he started licking. He lapped gently at the outside of my cunt, bathing my outer pussy thoroughly with his tongue. I felt a soothing warmth as he licked and kissed, and I wondered if I was healed already, but I didn’t say anything. I was ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t want him to stop.

But he did stop, long enough to look up at me and ask another question.

“Did I hurt you here, Rachel?” he murmured, tracing the length of my slit with one fingertip.

“What…what?” I almost gasped at his intimate touch.

“When I was fucking you…breeding you.” Richard’s fingertip circled my sensitive clit, stroking expertly as though he knew my body better than I did. “Did I hurt you here?” he asked again.

“I…yes,” I breathed, even though it wasn’t strictly true. The beast he had become had spent much more time making sure its cock was buried completely in my cunt than it had on foreplay. But somehow I couldn’t forbid him to stop.

Richard didn’t wait for me to change my mind. “All right,” he murmured softly, and then I felt his lips on me again. He sucked my clit into his hot mouth and laved it gently with the tip of his tongue, teasing me, making me crazy.

“Oh, God, Richard!” I groaned as he continued to work on me with his tongue. I could feel the swelling and tenderness going away, but a new swelling was taking their place. It was as though my body was blossoming under his mouth, opening for him in anticipation of a much deeper connection. It was all I could do not to wrap my thighs around his head, grab his thick black hair, and thrust up shamelessly to meet him. But somehow I restrained myself.

“God, you taste delicious.” Richard looked up again, his mouth wet and shiny with my juices. “Are you hurt inside, Rachel?” he asked me, as two long fingers entered my wet cunt. “Deep inside here, where I put my cock?”

I nodded, almost unable to speak. He was asking if I wanted his tongue inside me and the answer was God, ~yes~. But still, I couldn’t let myself react.

“Spread a little wider, baby,” Richard told me in a hoarse voice. “Let me get all the way inside your pussy. Let me heal you with my tongue.”

I bit my lip so hard I nearly bled as he tilted my pelvis and spread my legs wider for a better angle.

~He’s healing me,~ I reminded myself even as I felt his tongue slide down from my clit and begin to enter my wet pussy. ~I just have to lie here and take it until he’s done. ~I gripped handfuls of the bedspread as Richard pressed closer to me, forcing his tongue deeper and deeper into my open cunt, healing me, loving me, tasting me.

Richard seemed to sense my determination not to react because he looked up for a moment and met my eyes. “You’ll heal better if you let me make you come, Rache,” he said matter-of-factly. “Come on, just let yourself go. Let me make you come one more time.”

I didn’t know if I believed him or not, but the pleasure building inside me was too great to deny. As his tongue plunged deeply into me, I felt the broad pad of his thumb rub firmly over my clit, and then I was coming, coming so hard I felt like I might pass out from the intense sensations.

Richard guided me through my orgasm and then kissed me once more, gently at the top of my slit. I took a deep trembling breath, trying to come back to myself. The orgasm had been so intense I almost felt like I was floating on a cloud of pure contentment. It was hard to want to do anything but just lie there, but I knew it was time to get up. Time to get ready to go.

I sat up reluctantly, but just as I was about to get off the bed, a wave of longing hit me. I gasped and fell back as the physical need assaulted me, a need that demanded that I be filled here and now, that I spread my legs and allow myself to be fucked, to be bred.

“God!” I moaned, grasping handfuls of the coverlet and arching my back. The hunger inside me was so great it was almost a pain. “God, what’s wrong with me?”

Richard looked concerned. “Your body must be reacting to your orgasm with a biological need for a second breeding. Sometimes it happens when a first breeding is especially deep and intense and the bond between the Lanor-zur and the Lana-zeel is unusually strong.”

“You…you did this on purpose!” I accused him. Part of me wanted to kill him and part of me wanted to fuck him, it was confusing to say the least.

He shook his head. “Not entirely. It doesn’t happen every time, although I admit I was hoping it would. I was hoping you would see how much we need each other.”

“You bastard!” I swore at him. “There’s no way I’m letting you breed me again, so what the hell am I supposed to do about it?” I arched my back again as another wave of need came over me. I was desperate to have him between my legs, but I was damned if I would give in to the sudden rush of lust that was possessing me.

He frowned. “I hate to tell you this, but you’ll just have to let it pass. It shouldn’t take long, and it will get better once I leave.”

“What do you have to do with how long it lasts?” I glared at him.

He shrugged, looking unhappy. “I make it worse just by being around you. Your body is fertile right now, and it wants me—it wants its mate.”

“You’re not…my mate,” I ground out, fighting another wave of desire as it rippled through me. God, I was so wet and ready I felt like I could even take Richard’s beast again with no problem. In fact, the thought of that huge cock with its swollen knot forcing itself up inside my cunt made me hotter than ever. Which made me madder than ever at my body for wanting such perverted things. What was wrong with me?

Richard shook his head. “You can deny it all you want to, Rachel, but we’re bonded now. As far as your body is concerned I ~am~ your Lanor-zur—your mate. Even if we don’t act on it.”

“Is this going…going to be a problem in the future?” I demanded angrily, panting. I could just imagine being slammed with waves of lust at inconvenient and inappropriate times—like when I was pleading in court.

“No,” he said in a low voice. “You won’t have it anymore after I leave. Eventually the bond will fade and we’ll go back to the way we were before I met you.”

“Meaning?” I asked, gritting my teeth.

“Your need for me will evaporate and my self-control on the night of the full moon will disappear as well. You’ll stop wanting me and I’ll start killing again.” He said it simply and quietly, and I could tell he was just stating a fact, not trying to make me feel guilty. But that made me angrier than ever.

“I don’t want to hear about it,” I nearly shouted at him. I forced myself to get off the bed even though my legs were weak with lust. I kept my distance from Richard even though I needed him so badly I was shaking. Staying away when he was within easy reach was like being an alcoholic and having a full bar right in front of me.

“Fine. I’ll leave.” He looked at me so sadly that I was tempted to give him a hug goodbye. Richard had only been in my life for a little over a month, but he had changed me and the way I lived completely. Hot tears stung my eyes at the thought of being torn away from him, of never seeing him again. But as another wave of lust passed through me, I knew I couldn’t afford to get anywhere near him. If I hugged him, I would fuck him. It was as simple and as crude as that.

“Please, Richard, just go,” I croaked, holding on to one of the posts of my bed to anchor myself. To keep from going to him.

“I love you,” he whispered. “I’ll always love you, Rachel.”

“Please…” The tears were pouring down my cheeks now, making me feel weak and helpless. In another moment, I would be in his arms, my wedding plans and promises to Charles completely forgotten.

Richard gave me one last longing look from those pale green wolf’s eyes, the eyes we shared. And then he turned and walked out of my room. I heard his footsteps in the hallway and kitchen and then the sound of the door opening and closing.

He was gone.