Chapter 5:
"I'll be gentle, Elena," Kade promises, his forehead pressed to mine. His weight is a delicious, grounding pressure that anchors me as the world spins.
"Don't," I gasp, my nails already digging into the hard muscle of his shoulders. The heat is still raging, burning me alive from the inside out. My skin feels like it's vibrating with a need so sharp it borders on agony. "Don't be gentle. Just make it stop. Please, Kade."
Something feral flashes in his eyes—the last thread of his iron control finally snapping. "Tell me if it's too much. Promise me, Elena."
I can only nod, a frantic, desperate movement.
His hands move down my body, peeling away the sweat-soaked nightshirt. The cool air hits my overheated skin for a fraction of a second before his rough palms cover my breasts. His thumbs brush over my nipples, and the sensation is so intense I cry out, my back arching off the mattress.
"So beautiful," he murmurs, his voice dropping into a guttural register. "So fucking perfect. And all mine."
His mouth follows the path his hands made, worshiping every inch of my skin with kisses that burn and small, nipping bites that make me whimper. When he reaches the apex of my thighs, I try to close my legs on instinct, a last remnant of the girl who spent years hiding.
Kade pins them open with his massive hands, his fingers digging into my inner thighs. "Let me taste you first, Elena. Let me make sure you're ready for me."
"I'm ready," I sob, my head tossing on the pillow. "Please, I'm—"
His tongue drags through my slick folds, circling my sensitive clit with a predatory hunger. The world explodes. I come instantly, violently, my body bucking as pleasure crashes through me in waves. But even as the climax ripples through me, the heat demands more. It demands him.
"Alpha," I beg, my hands fisting in his dark hair, trying to pull him up. "Inside. I need you inside."
Kade crawls up my body, settling his heavy hips between my thighs. I feel the thick head of his cock pressing against my entrance, slick with my own arousal. Even through the haze of the fever, a flutter of fear runs through me. He is massive, built of stone and violence, and I am small.
"Look at me," he commands, his hand cupping my jaw. I meet his burning gold gaze, seeing the monster and the man warring for dominance. "This is going to hurt, Elena. You're a virgin, and I'm... I'm not small. But I swear to you, I'll make the pain worth it."
He pushes in—just the tip. The stretch burns. I gasp, every muscle in my body tensing until I'm as rigid as a board.
"Relax, Omega," he murmurs, distracting me with tender kisses against my jaw and neck. "Breathe for me. Just breathe."
I try to exhale, my chest heaving. He pushes in another inch. Tears stream down my face, the sensation of being stretched to my limit overwhelming my senses. But beneath the pain, the mate bond is singing, finally getting what it has craved since the moment he ripped off my collar.
"Keep going," I whisper, clutching his forearms. "Don't stop."
Inch by agonizing inch, he works himself deeper. When he's halfway in, he pauses, his entire body trembling with the effort of holding back his own release.
"You're doing so well," he praises, his voice a low vibration in my ear. "Taking your Alpha so perfectly."
The praise does something to my soul. My inner walls flutter around him, adjusting, accepting the impossible fullness.
"More," I whisper, shocked by my own boldness. "I want all of you."
His control fractures. Kade pushes in fully with one deep, claiming thrust. I cry out—not in pain, but in overwhelming relief. He fills me so completely I can't think, can't breathe. There is no more Elena. There is only the sensation of him.
"Fuck," he groans, his forehead dropping to my shoulder. "You're so tight. So wet. So perfect."
He starts to move. Slow, deep strokes that make my toes curl. Each thrust hits something deep inside me that makes stars burst behind my eyelids. The pain is gone, replaced by a building tension that demands release.
"Harder," I gasp, my nails raking down his scarred back. "Please, Kade. Harder."
Something feral takes over. His thrusts become brutal, rhythmic, and demanding. He isn't just making love; he is claiming territory.
"Whose are you?" he growls, his hand wrapping around my throat—not squeezing, just holding, a heavy reminder of who owns me now.
"Yours," I moan, my body arching to meet every strike. "Yours, Alpha."
"That's right. Mine. Every inch of you belongs to me."
"Touch yourself, Elena," he commands, his breath hot against my ear. "Your clit. I want to feel you come around my cock."
My hand slides between our sweating bodies, my fingers finding the swollen bundle of nerves. The dual stimulation—his thick length pounding into me and my fingers circling my core—is too much for my mind to handle.
"Kade," I sob. "Kade, I'm—I can't—"
"Yes, you can. Come for me, Omega. Come for your Alpha."
I detonate. The orgasm crashes through me so violently I scream his name, my inner walls clamping down on him like a vice. I feel his knot beginning to swell at the base of his cock, expanding and stretching me wider than I thought possible.
"My knot," he pants, his voice barely coherent. "It's going to lock us together. So full, baby. But you can take it."
The knot swells fully, and the sensation of being completely, impossibly filled triggers a second, even deeper orgasm. I'm sobbing and shaking, completely overwhelmed by the biological claim.
He comes with a roar that seems to shake the very stone walls of the fortress. I feel the heat of his release flooding me, soothing the inferno that's been raging in my veins. His teeth sink into my shoulder—not the mating gland on my neck, but close enough to mark me as his for the rest of the pack to see.
The pain is sharp, but it grounds me. It marks the end of my life as a ghost.
We collapse together, his heavy weight pressing me into the mattress, his knot keeping us locked. He rolls us carefully so I'm draped across his chest, my ear pressed to his thundering heartbeat.
"Sleep, Elena," he murmurs, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my spine. "Your heat won't break for days. But I'll take care of you. I promise."
I drift into sleep, exhausted and sated, my body finally quiet after hours of agony. But just before I slip under completely, I feel him press a kiss to the top of my head.
"Mine," he whispers into the darkness. "And I'm never letting you go."
Somewhere deep inside, beneath the exhaustion and the confusion, my wolf purrs in contentment. For the first time in twenty-three years, I'm not running. And I'm not sure if that terrifies me... or if it's exactly what I've been searching for all along.