A raw whimper rushes from my throat as I quake with want and hunger. And my now soaking wet pussy clenches with a need more intense than anything I’ve ever felt before.
But then my nose gets hit with something even worse than the scent of my heat.
Fire and smoke and rich cologne.
No, no, no…I find myself once again following the she-wolf denial script. I argue, I demand, I plead with the universe.
But when I look up, naked and shaking with my sticky heat running down both thighs, there’s Damianos. Somehow even larger than I remembered him from just a few hours ago.
Chapter Fifteen
I try to swallow but end up making a choked horrified sound instead. There is no liquid to be had anywhere above my waist.
There is only the heat below. Pulsing and concentrated. On him.
But it can’t be him. It can’t… “Please, please, you’ve got to help me.”
A small smile crawls across his face. Like a deadly black spider. “I see you are already begging. Just as I said you would.”
Evil-ass motherfucker.
I grit my teeth to keep the curse from escaping and instead force myself to go against my promise of just a few hours ago and beg some more.
“Please, you’ve got to help me. Call the kingdom house and have them send a wolf doctor to stop this heat.”
He stares at me, his expression cold and unreadable. “Why would I do that?”
“Because if I don’t get the heat patch, then I’ll die unless I’m mated.” A very, very bad thought occurs to me.
Every word of Aunt Alisha’s book comes back to me. How she’d been forced to wait so long for Rafe Sr. that she’d gone through a terrifying list of everything that could possibly happen if she wasn’t mated in time. From her forcing herself on her gay co-worker to dying of heart failure.
And I have to ask, “Is this why you brought me here? To kill me in the most horrific way possible?”
He tilts his head dragon slow to the side. “I would see why you would think that. But no, that is not why I brought you here.”
Then he reaches behind him and closes the door.
I…
I…
“I don’t understand,” I say.
“Neither do I.” His expression is dark and bemused. “But it would seem you and I are sexually compatible. And after being stranded here for so many millennia, I find myself unable to ignore the opportunity to continue my family line. As the former drakkon king has apparently done.”
“The former drakkon king…” I repeat, only to trail off when I realize he’s talking about Xenon. The cousin he kept chained up in his villain lair for hundreds of years after he helped my dads and grandfather win the Great Serpent War. The cousin who mated my twin sister after she went into heat. Twice.
“You—you plan to mate with me?” I ask, my voice little more than a whispered shriek.
“Yes,” he answers, his own voice still perfectly calm. Like we’re making plans for what to eat tonight.
“Like, you’re going to force yourself on me when I’m weak?”
The idea shocks me to the core. But the lust, it surges. Not caring about his reasons. Just wanting to be claimed.
“Of course I will not force myself on you, Ola. I am a king. A true king. Not the silly powerless kind your ilk pretends to be. There is no need for force. What I want… whoever I want, I assure you; I will receive.”
With those words, he pulls out the chair Kirk was sitting on earlier and turns it to face me. He takes a seat, leans forward, and, I swear to God, steeples his freaking hands. Like evil fucking incarnate. “I’ll wait, Ola. As long as it takes for you to submit to me.”
I stare at him. Unable to believe what he’s proposing.
And he stares right back at me. Like he’s waiting for me to catch up.
No, no, no…
Those useless words stomp through my mind again. What can I do? What can I do?
I’ve got to fight him. Get out of here and find a doctor.
I make a run for the door. He doesn’t stop me. Just turns his head as I rush past him. That spider’s smile still on his face. “I’ll remain here until your return.”
No, no, I won’t come back. I’ll find a doctor. Or another wolf. Anyone. I’ll mate anyone but him. My fathers’ worst enemy, my kidnapper who kills on a whim.
I push through the door and head toward the stairs, only to stumble when a new wave of arousal crashes over me. Stronger than before. Crippling.
My legs give out and I fall to the floor before I can reach the steps.
I can’t get up, can’t even crawl. At least not in the direction of the stairs.
I feel an urgent force inside of me. My wolf, I dimly realize. My wolf tugging my attention away from the stairs, back to the room with the dragon inside of it.