Mine.
My body started reacting on its own once more for what felt like the hundredth time since seeing her just days ago. My chest rose and fell as I tried to take more oxygen into my lungs. My heart was beating harder to pump more blood through my veins. My nails started turning into claws, my body getting bigger, my Lycan rising to the surface as preparation to take the only woman who would ever satiate me.
I’d waited years—centuries—for her, for the moment when I’d part her thighs and slide into her, fill her up, make her take every single part of me. And in return, I’d take all that she had to offer.
She’d never have to want for anything, never have to worry about who would protect and provide for her, who would keep her safe.
That was my job, my pleasure, my honor.
She sat across from me, the table seeming even longer than it was. I needed her closer, wanted her on my lap, feeding from my hand. A low growl erupted from me, and I saw the way her eyes widened.
I sent the staff home after we finished our meal and they served dessert. I wanted to be alone with my female, even if technically we weren’t really alone, not with a Lycan slowly going mad in the basement.
“Did you enjoy your meal?” I tried to keep my voice level, but it was deep, harsh from my arousal, and I could tell it affected her by the way she shifted on her seat. The fire behind me crackled as the flames licked over the wood.
“Everything was incredible. Thank you for tonight.” She brought her hand up and curled her tiny fingers around the stem of her wine glass, bringing the crystal to her lips and taking a long pull of the red alcohol. I noticed her hand slightly shook, her emotions and the sensations moving through her pronounced.
My cock throbbed behind the fly of my slacks, and I reached down to discreetly adjust it, although all that did was make me gnash my teeth from the short contact. When she set the wine glass down, I realized she downed the whole thing. I felt a smile form on my lips. “Another?” I gestured to the crystal, then to the bottle sitting in the center of the table.
“I better not.” Already, her cheeks were pink, her breathing a little increased. She’d had two glasses, and I could see it already affected her.
I tilted my head and picked up my glass, finishing off my bourbon. I really shouldn't be drinking, not when liquor did nothing but inflame my senses even more, and with Mikalina right here, the scent of her desire for me growing by the second, that was a dangerous combination.
I tried to start light conversation, attempting to make her more relaxed, but she seemed tense, and the scent of her confusion, and the fact that she was trying in vain not to let her desire for me consume her, only made me want her more. Which seemed an impossible feat as it was.
“Look at me, Mikalina,” I coaxed in a deep voice meant to stroke along her senses. She lifted her head, her pupils dilated, her lips redder from the increased blood flow. “Tell me what you want, and it’s yours.” I leaned forward, anticipating her response, holding my breath for her.
For long seconds, she didn’t say anything, just licked her lips and smoothed her finger along the bottom of the wine glass. “I can’t,” she whispered.
My heart thundered at those two words. “No?”
She slowly shook her head.
“Just say the words.” My voice was a husky purr now, one that I hoped had any reservations she felt vanishing.
Her chest rose faster and harder the longer we stared at each other.
“It’s too soon.”
I groaned, not even holding off the sound. “Too soon for what, sweetling?”
“To want the things I want… with you.”
I curled my hands around the edge of the pine table, my nails digging into the wood, the force causing a loud creak to sound. I could have snapped the fucking table in half right now.
To want the things I want… with you.
Ah gods, she was killing me with her innocence.
“Come here, my female.” I didn’t hide the roughness in my voice, didn’t try to pretend I wasn't an animal. I didn’t even censor my endearment, didn’t bother stopping those proprietary words, and Mikalina didn’t correct me on it. I assumed maybe she’d instinctively—from her human side—tell me she wasn’t mine. I would have told her otherwise, over and over again, that she was, in fact, all mine.
And when she stood without any hesitation, when she came forward, I all but purred in pleasure and approval.
Mikalina stood before me, and the very sight and smell of her had my eyes dropping to half-mast, had my body tightening further, and caused my cock to thicken impossibly more. The massive, thick length dug against the zipper of my slacks, and I didn’t try to adjust it. Tonight wasn’t about claiming her. No, that would be done on the full moon, when I was at my highest, most concentrated animal form, when there would be no stopping us… when she’d be just as frenzied and mindless with need for me as I would be for her.