“Vulfen children cannot change from birth. First Change is at puberty, of course, which is somewhat later for us than it is for humans. Fourteen or fifteen is usual, even as late as seventeen for First Change would not be cause for alarm. And our lifespan is correspondingly longer than a human’s would be.” His tone was cool, and she perceived that he was annoyed with her.
“Well, I don’t know any of this,” she said defensively. “An hour ago, I didn’t believe in werewolves—sorry, vulfen—or vampires, or ghosts, or any other mythical beasts!”
She stopped, took a breath, hesitated. Rylek took her hands in his and held them.
“I apologize. Of course you want to learn. You may ask me
anything,” he said magnanimously.
Any other time his lord-and-master tone would have aggravated her, pushed her into a sharp retort, but at this point, she was still too unsettled to quibble. She needed to know.
“Rylek…are there vampires and ghosts, and mermaids, and unicorns and—”
His deep laughter interrupted her rushing words, and he squeezed her hands.
“Ellie, I know most about my own people. Ask me about them. I
do know there are vampires in the world, but they are not as you have seen them in films. They do not bathe in blood, or murder every human they meet for food or pleasure, and they keep very much to themselves, as we do also. As for other ‘mythical beasts’ as you called us—” He nipped her knuckles with his sharp white teeth, grinning at
her alarmed squeak. “I have not seen any. Perhaps they live in the world with us, perhaps not.”
“Well, you exist, so I wanted to know.”
“Ah, so now I exist. I am gratified to hear it.”
Ellie took exception to that note of dark amusement, and tried to pull away from him. He easily mastered her brief struggle and retained possession of her small hands in his large ones.
“Ellie, can you not give me an answer?” He was serious now. “Can you not accept me? I pledge that I will be a good mate to you. I will give all of my soul, my blood, and my body, freely for your happiness and satisfaction. I will give my strength for your protection. I will hunt for you and feed you from my hand.”
His words were unusual, but they almost had the sound of ritual, and Ellie wondered if a vulfen female might expect those very words from a male who was seeking her acceptance.
He waited for her answer, his expression open, his beautiful black eyes gleaming with hope.
Could she accept him? She wanted him, no question. The heat between them was intense. Maybe he wasn’t human, but he was still one of the best men she had ever met. He had already spoken for her and defended her, in a situation where her date was behaving very badly.
She considered. He had the respect of the men who followed him. He was strong and handsome, and so compelling to her that her gaze was drawn to him constantly. He said his life was dangerous, and even though he was surrounded by loyal warriors, he worried for her safety. Her life before today, before him was undeniably boring, but was that enough? She was half in love with him already. Could she take the risk?
“Yes,” she said simply, and then squealed when he lifted her into his arms and fastened his mouth to hers. He whirled her around and around, until she didn’t know whether her dizziness was from the spinning or his hot kisses stealing her wits.
She pulled her mouth away and buried her face in his throat. “Rylek, stop,” she begged. “You have to stop.”
He slowed and stopped their wild revolutions, but when he sat down on the sofa, he kept her firmly in his arms.
Her own arms were clasped tightly around his neck, her legs on either side of his hips, knees pressed into the back cushions as he cuddled her to his broad chest.
“Ellie, my beautiful one,” he murmured, pressing fervent kisses over her upturned face. “Ellie.”
“Does this mean we’re getting married?”
He stilled, his lips pressed to her vulnerable throat.
“A vulfen mating is more binding than a human marriage.” His voice rumbled against her pulse, and it responded by picking up speed.
Ellie wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Did she need to buy a white gown, book a church, what? Would he want to have a priest or would even suggesting that be insulting? Did the vulfen people have a functionary whose position was equivalent to a priest? She knew nothing about his culture.
“Is there a ceremony?” she asked.
“There is the mating between us,” he said deeply, “and the bite I will give you, but that is private. It is not a wedding as you know it, since the joining will already be accomplished. Then, you will be presented to the three clans, and they will accept you as my mate, my other soul, and their Alpha female. They will all come before you and offer their good wishes, seek your acceptance in turn as their leader’s mate. Of course, I will be beside you, but I cannot be seen to tell you how to respond. You must respond from your heart.”
It did sound intense.
“Are you sure that these clans will accept me?” Ellie worried. Rylek smiled against her skin. “They will accept my mate,” he
declared arrogantly, “and their allegiance is forever.” “No divorce, then?”
His expression when he pulled back from her was blank, so why did she get the impression that he was hurt?
“Never.” The word was firm, short. “You would never be permitted to leave me. I could not continue to live with half my soul torn away. I would come after you always.” His eyes were changing, glowing fiercely. “Ellie, we are not yet fully mated. I can still leave you tonight, give you your freedom, and it will be forever. I can give you that gift.”
He grasped her hips and began to push her away.
“Wait, no! I don’t want that,” she protested, clinging stubbornly to his shoulders as he tried to put her aside. “I want you. I want us! I’m not saying no to you. I’m just trying to understand all of this.”
“You are uncertain of me.” “Well, it is a bit of a shock!”
Rylek sighed. “Yes, it is a shock for me as well.”
His tone was wry, and he was no longer trying to lift her off his body where she was holding him strongly. Ellie began to relax.
“Ellie, you must know that I did not expect to find you. Not tonight, certainly, but truthfully—not ever. I had become…resigned to living without a mate of my own. When I first scented you, I doubted the magnitude of the gift that was being offered to me.”
His quiet statement had Ellie wrapping her arms more tightly around his brawny neck, offering the physical comfort of her body to assuage the terrible loneliness laid bare by his revelation.
“This choice you say you’re giving me, it means you’ll leave me tonight if I choose to be free?”
When he nodded, she continued, “Would you offer me freedom if I were a vulfen female whose scent appealed to you? If I were a vulfen female who was your mate?”
“No,” he said flatly, his eyes suddenly fierce and hot, burning into hers. “I would seduce you and give you the mating bite immediately, so no other warrior could steal you from me. I would leave my scent all over you, inside you, as a warning to all other males to keep their
hands off the treasure that is mine alone—if they want to live.” Ellie shivered as his words sank in.
Rylek’s glowing eyes were locked on hers. “So the other males would know who will kill them if they fail to resist your dangerous beauty.”
Dangerous beauty indeed. She almost laughed. Her mirror showed all her faults quite plainly, but if this amazing male wanted to call her beautiful, she certainly didn’t intend to argue the point.
Ellie smiled softly. “Seduce me then,” she sighed in an open invitation. “Be my mate.”
“Ellie! Yes, my beautiful mate.”
The last word was almost inhumanly deep. He wasted no time. His hands roved over her body with devastating precision. His mouth began to taste her skin, openly savoring her essence.
The touch of his lips on her skin was mesmerizing, and she sank into the simple pleasure he offered. She let her eyes close and basked in his focused attention. When he finally took her lips with his, she was smiling, languid and aching to experience the tumultuous power of his kiss.
As their mouths fused, her fingers moved down the buttons of his white shirt, unfastening each one and pushing the shirt off his massive shoulders. She ran her fingers appreciatively through his dark chest hair, exploring his tight male nipples.
His own hands were busy divesting her of her silk robe, turning her so that she was lying on the sofa, stopping only when she was completely bared to his smoky gaze. His eyes were heavy-lidded as they moved down her body, lingering in intense male fascination on her most feminine places until she moaned softly and quivered in his arms. She felt the weight of his gaze like a physical caress. She curled her body against him in a plea he read immediately.
“Your body is begging me,” he said sensuously, and Ellie had no answer except the uncontrollable and deeply luxurious arching of her body.
She watched his hard, hot hands move over her skin, caressing and claiming, molding and squeezing her soft breasts. Her breathing became labored. She couldn’t help but sigh at the arousing sight.
He spent long minutes stroking her, pleasing himself and learning the mysteries of her female response, teaching her nerve endings to leap in anticipation of his touch. Driving her higher and higher while his eyes glowed with an unholy fire, and his face became taut with his own pounding need.
She tried to move, to turn into that masculine body, but his hands held her flat, pressing on her lower belly and causing her body to throb. Her own emptiness was torturing her, weeping and rippling, wanting his heat and power deep inside.
“Please,” she murmured, twisting slowly, voluptuously under his hands. “Please.”
“Ah,” he answered her, “you are ready, beautiful one? You are inviting me in?”
He smoothed his hand down her body, and delved into her swollen folds, rubbing his rough fingertips over her tender clit. The sensation was almost unbearably intense, and she arched then fell back against the sofa cushions with a loud gasp.
“Yes, my Ellie. Yes, whisper to me.” His voice was lower, darker, his accent more pronounced as he stood and removed his trousers, dropping them to the floor.
The first sight of his honed body, muscular and lightly dusted with black hair, was enough to make Ellie’s mouth water. But when her eyes landed on his powerful erection, jutting proudly from its nest of black hair, she was mesmerized. She couldn’t look away, and when she reached out a hand, he threw his head back. He trembled but stayed still, muscles tensed, letting her examine his thick penis with its wet plum tip, his furred balls hanging heavy below. She weighed the twin globes, rolling them in her cool palm, and murmured in awe.
“Ellie,” he grated.
Her name was a plea more than an order, but she reacted to his
desperate tone, leaning slowly forward and gently kissing his cock, sipping at the salty drop of his essence that emerged to greet her exploration. Her curious tongue swirled and dipped into the tiny eye, gathering more of his taste. Her eyes slid shut for a moment, and she hummed her approval of this unfamiliar, profoundly intimate act.
He groaned and shuddered, snapping his eyes back to hers and burying his hands in her hair, but his control held.
Ellie slid her lips over the flared tip, taking the whole head in her mouth and holding it, pressing her tongue to the small indent on the bottom of the crown. She had heard from her laughing girlfriends that it was a sensitive spot, and his involuntary thrust proved it. Caught up in the heat and musky taste of him, she repeated the subtle movements until his hips rocked incessantly and his powerful legs spread and flexed to hold him up.
His lungs worked with loud gasps, his hands clenching rhythmically in her now loose curls. He finally pulled her clinging mouth away with a muttered curse.
She reclined luxuriously back against the sofa and placed her arms above her head, sliding her legs smoothly just a little further apart, letting him see her arousal. Moving her hips enticingly from side to side as his glowing eyes homed in on her gleaming wet folds. Inviting him. Enflaming him.
And then he was over her, pressing her down into the sofa cushions with the weight of his big body, covering her mouth with his, and driving his tongue in deep. His fingers were busy, pinching her stiff nipples, teasing her distended clit, and then pushing inside to test her warm welcome.
When two large fingers pressed in deep and curved, she rocked on his hand, breathless, begging for more, begging to be filled with him, but he only continued to kiss her and toy with her. Moaning in frustration, she wrapped her legs around his grinding hips and pulled at him. It was like trying to move a mountain. She broke away from his mouth and whispered in his ear, “Rylek, I feel empty. Hurry.”
Her words set off a frenzy, and he reared back to position himself. He shoved his massive erection inside her with passionate force. The physical shock of his entry triggered a sharp climax, and she gasped, pulsing around him and driving them both higher.