Chapter 38: Forged in Blood: Chapter 36

In all my two hundred and forty-seven years on this earth, I have never felt even a sliver of what I feel right now. A heady mix of power, euphoria, and contentment courses through my veins, combined with an animal lust that’s oddly contained around her. When she walked into my room earlier, the beast inside me wanted to rip out her throat and feast on her until there was nothing left. But at the same time, her presence soothed him, turning him into little more than a purring kitten.

“Why did he ask them to leave?” she asks, her dark lashes fluttering.

I press a kiss to the corner of her mouth and rest my lips lightly against her skin. “Because you don’t need an audience for your first time.”

“My first time? What makes you think I want to do anything with you?” she snaps, but she makes no attempt to move from beneath me. Not that I would let her.

“The way your heart’s racing.” I trail my fingertips between her breasts where it pounds against her ribcage. “Your heavy breathing.” I kiss across the seam of her lips. “The way you were grinding against me while I was feeding.” I rock my hips, finding a little relief for my aching cock against her pussy. “And you’re soaked, Pyro.”

A blush colors her cheeks. “That doesn’t mean I want you. Those are purely physiological reactions.”

Trailing kisses along her jawline, I growl as her scent floods my senses once more. My fangs protract and my cock throbs at the thought of being inside her. “You do want me, Ophelia. And make no mistake—I am going to fuck you the next time I feed on you.”

Her tits shudder against me as she takes a deep breath, but she still doesn’t try to move away. “But this was all about you getting what you needed. A guy like you would never be interested in a girl like me, right?”

The ache in her heart feels like a hot knife slicing through my chest. It’s incomprehensible to me now that I could ever want to hurt her, and the memory of how cruel I was to her has guilt eating away at my insides. “I know I pushed you away. Partly because I enjoyed seeing you in pain, but also because it was easier to keep my oath if I pretended you were nothing.”

“You made me feel like less than nothing.” There’s a tremor in her voice, and she inhales another shaky breath. “And you enjoyed that?”

Her eyes are so full of pain, and I want to look away from her, but I can’t. “I’m a fucked-up guy, Ophelia. But you already knew that.” I run my nose over her jawline. “You know that, yet you want me anyway.”

She shakes her head. “No. You were … All of you …”

“I know what Xavier and Malachi told you, princess, but you have to know they didn’t mean that either. They were just following orders.”

She blinks back tears. “I don’t know that at all. What they said was cruel and …” A sob catches in her throat. “I’m not here for your amusement, Axl. Now let me go and we can all get on with our separate lives.”

That knife slices deeper. “There is no me without you, Ophelia. There is no separate. Not anymore.”

She shakes her head. “You only want me because my blood is vampire catnip.”

“No, princess. I wanted you before I ever tasted you. I will still want you if I never get to taste you again. I’m going to show you how much.” I grind myself against her and smile when she whimpers. “Let me fuck you, Ophelia.”

“N-no.”

I arch an eyebrow at her. “No?”

She presses her lips together and shakes her head.

We’ll see about that. I drag my lips down her throat and over her collarbone, working my way down her body until I’m kneeling between her legs. Pushing up her plaid skirt, I expose her pink panties and the cute-as-fuck strawberry-shaped wet spot at the apex of her thighs. I run my nose over it. “So motherfucking sweet, Ophelia.”

“Axl!” she says, half warning and half encouragement.

“How about we get these off you, princess?” I hook my fingers into her panties and pull them off before she can protest. Caught by the incredible sight of her bare pussy, I stare at her glistening arousal and slip one finger inside her. Her back bows off the bed.

“Oh, you like that, don’t you, Pyro?”

She presses her head back against the pillow, her pretty lips parted, but she refuses to give me an answer, so I pull out and slide back in. “Oh, hellfire,” she whimpers.

“I fucking love that I am the only man who’s ever been inside you, Ophelia.” I drop to my forearms and suck her swollen clit into my mouth, sucking and licking while I finger-fuck her. And when her legs are shaking and juices are dripping down into my palm, I add a second digit, stretching her wider until she mewls like a kitten and her back bows off the bed.

I lap at her sweet release, letting it flood my senses the same way her blood did, knowing that the power of coming inside her while I’m feeding on her is going to be overwhelming and extraordinary and the wildest ride I have ever known. Feeding from her might not happen now, but it will happen again. As sure as night follows day.

“Come for me, princess,” I growl against her wet flesh, twisting my fingers inside her to prepare her for my cock. I can’t recall the last time I fucked a virgin, and the thought of being the first to fuck this magnificent woman is only adding to the painful need to take her.

“Oh, crap. I’m gonna …” She tosses her head back and cries out my name. Her entire body pulses with the strength of her climax. My own head spins, and I slip my fingers out of her, fall onto my forearms, and line my cock up with her slick entrance.

Her eyes focus on mine, and for a split second, the whole world stops turning. This isn’t right though. The first time I take her, I want to feel nothing but her skin on mine. “I want you naked, princess.”

She offers no resistance when I pull off her clothes. Once she’s naked, I pull off my sweatpants and boxers and settle back between her thighs.

“Do you have any protection?” she asks, her eyes wide and innocent.

“Vampires don’t need any. We don’t carry any diseases, and I can’t get you pregnant.”

“Oh.” She chews on her lip. “You’re sure?”

I take her hand and place it over my heart. “Yes, I’m sure, and I would never ever put you at risk, princess.” I grin down at her. “One of the perks of being a vampire is not needing condoms, so I can fill your tight pussy with my cum and watch it drip out of you afterward.”

The blue of her eyes intensifies with desire, and I place the crown of my cock at her entrance and edge inside, drawing a harsh gasp from her. Falling forward onto my elbows, I dust my lips over her cheek. “It will hurt a little, princess, but I promise I’ll make it feel good, okay?”

“I know,” she pants.

I sink deeper, pressing my face into her neck. “Dammit, Ophelia, you feel so good. So goddamn tight.”

Pain and pleasure burn through her, and she sinks her fingernails into my shoulder blades and whimpers. I slowly pull out and push back in, her wet heat slicking my cock. “You’re doing so good, princess.”

She blinks up at me, her eyes damp with unshed tears. “I am?”

I drive in a little harder, stretching her tight channel wider with each stroke. “You’re taking my cock so fucking well.”

Her emotions are so connected to mine that the rush of pride and happiness she feels at my praise washes over me too. She rocks her hips, taking more of me. I press my lips to her ear and growl. “That’s my good girl.”

“Oh, hellfire.” She wraps her legs around my hips and groans, “More.”

Growling, I graze my fangs over her fluttering pulse. “More?”

“Please. I want all of you.” She arches her neck into my mouth, and I sink my teeth into her skin at the same time I bottom out inside her.

She screams my name, the perfect combination of pleasure and pain searing through her body and into mine. And I take my fill, feasting on her blood and claiming her innocence, and I have never felt more alive or more sure of anything in my life as I am of the two of us and this moment right here. I drive into her harder, letting her blood fill my mouth as I fill her with my cum, and I’m certain I’ve discovered a new high that I will never be able to top.

Ophelia was meant for me. Meant to be mine. And the bliss of that discovery is dampened by the knowledge that my brothers will want her too. They’ll feel her connection with me through our bond, and if they experience only a fraction of what I’m feeling right now, I have no hope in hell of keeping her for myself.