I couldn’t stop shaking. My clothes clung to my skin and my breath was thin in my lungs from the cold water. It was worth it to break the trail, swimming up the river away from where I’d entered it, as far as I could stand before becoming too cold.
I’d even gotten out quickly on the other side to give him a false trail before pushing on. But it was only going to last a certain amount of time. Kade would find me.
I was in the woods again, weaving through the trees. But I needed to stop. Find a place to hide and wait. Catch my breath. If he found me and I was entirely exhausted, I wouldn’t be able to run.
By now, he was hunting me. I had no idea how much of a head start he gave, but it had been long enough.
Ahead of me at the top of the hill there was a tree larger than the others—thick enough to hide behind and not be seen. It would be good enough. For now.
I could see in the dim moonlight I’d nearly reached the other side of the woods. They ended and broke out into an open field filled with tall grasses. On the one hand, there was no real cover, and on the other, ducking down in the grass would be a decent hiding place.
If my perfume wouldn’t lead him straight to me.
I shivered with both cold and anticipation.
The water had been freezing, but my core was hot. It was pulsing with need, my deepest instincts dying to be fucked, taken, and knotted. It felt like I was on the verge of heat, though this wasn’t the same. My Omega simply knew.
Pressing myself to the bark of the huge tree, I slowed my breathing. I leaned so I could let my muscles rest and tried not to give in to the shivers. They wouldn’t last forever.
But mostly, I listened.
There were natural sounds, but they were easy to tune out. The unnatural ones were the sounds I was after, the huff of his breath or the scrape of his shoes on the dirt. A misstep on something that cracked.
I listened for the Alpha hunting me.
And there was nothing.
It was like I was alone out here in the woods, but I knew I wasn’t. I knew he was here, even if my senses were trying to trick me.
My entire body went still, instincts reacting before I processed them. Was that a scuff on the dirt? Another slow sound turned me to stone and made me hold my breath. He was close. I wasn’t sure where, but he was coming.
The sound felt like it was coming from the right, so I moved with painful, aching slowness to the left, not making any sound as I circled the tree. I didn’t see any moving shapes in the darkness. Everything was still and silent except for the wind. Another small sound in front of me made me jump, but it was just one branch brushing against another.
I blew out a breath in relief. It was me. I was being jumpy. It hadn’t been enough time for him to find me.
“Hey, baby.”
Kade stepped out of the shadows behind me and I ran without thinking, back toward the river, downhill. The low words pulsed in my mind. Soft and sensual, dark and determined.
He wasn’t hiding his presence now, steps crashing as he chased. I felt his hand move in the air behind me when I whipped to the right, grabbing a tree and using it to propel me in the opposite direction.
Kade cursed and turned to follow. He was fast. So much faster than I was. He hadn’t run to begin with, and I was already tired.
Prey.
My mind was sinking into a base place of both reaction and acceptance. I was going to fight like hell, and I also knew my capture was inevitable, along with everything which came after it.
I dodged him one more time with a sharp turn, but this time he was ready, catching the back of my shirt and tugging me off balance. I stumbled, but caught myself, pushing up to run. There was a crashing sound behind me and a curse a second before a hand circled my ankle.
The dirt and leaves were loose—they gave me nothing to hold on to as I clawed at the ground, trying to stop my momentum backward. Kade was pulling me, dragging me underneath him.
I spun, kicking out only to meet his hand. He was so fucking big and so fucking fast. I was halfway into trying to get up when he pounced, knees landing on either side of my body.
Screaming at him, I clawed, trying to get away. It only made him smile deeper. Dirt streaked his face, hair having come loose in the chase just like mine, and he looked like a monster. An animal. One who wanted to eat me and I wanted to let him.
But I wasn’t going to.
“I caught you.” The words were pure growl.
“Anyone can catch someone. Can you follow through, Alpha?”
Taunting him was foolish, and I didn’t fucking care.
“Not going to give me my prize, Omega?”
I spat at his face and missed. “Never.”
His growl ripped through me. “You’ll pay for that.”
“You’re going to have to take everything,” I told him. “Every inch you want, I’m going to fight you.”
Kade laughed, the sound sinister in the darkness. “Good.”
I threw a punch, and he caught my wrist, pinning it to the dirt. Trying to use my hips, I bucked underneath him, trying to get him off me, but he was too heavy. There was nothing I could do. I was trying to pry his hand off mine when he took the other one, pinning it too.
“How does it feel?” The words were soft as velvet. “Fighting me, and knowing every second you’re going to lose?”
“I won’t lose.”
“You will, baby.” He moved upward, sliding his hips so they rested just beneath my breasts. “You’ve already lost. Keep fighting all you want. It’s not going to change a thing. You’re getting fucked in every hole you have tonight, and you’re going to swallow every drop of cum I give you because it’s a fucking gift.”
Heat crashed over me like a wave, perfume exploding in my arousal, and still I fought him like a cat, because this was the game. He’d caught me, but he still had to take me, and me giving in wasn’t what either of us wanted.
I kicked high, trying to reach him since my hips were free.
“Mmm.” The sound was long and slow. “Since you won’t stay still, guess I need to help you.”
It was impossible. He squeezed my body with his thighs, lifting one knee at a time and dragging my arm beneath them so I was still pinned like a fucking butterfly and now his hands were free.
He lifted my wet shirt, pulling the extra fabric over my head and leaving it there. I couldn’t see him, and the wet, heavy fabric made it harder to breathe.
“That’s what I want.” His hands covered my breasts, rolling my nipples between his fingers to the point of pain. “Look how hard they are. Mmm.” Delicious, wet heat enveloped one of them and a moan escaped me. It didn’t mean I stopped fighting him, but it was hard to fight him when all I wanted to do was submit.
Teeth scraped my skin, and a sharp, stinging slap to the side of my breast, and then the other one. The sound of his belt coming undone drove me to movement. I yanked on my arms, but his weight was too much.
Even pushing with my legs and arching my hips had no effect. He simply had me. Like I was a toy and his plaything.
“Such a considerate Omega, getting these tits wet for me so I don’t have to.”
“Wha—Ohh,”
Kade pushed my breasts together, and the solid heat of his cock slid between them. The studs of his piercings dragged against my skin, and fuck me this shouldn’t be this hot. I was pinned to the ground, faceless, while he slowly fucked my tits, and I was almost wet enough to feel like slick.
“I’ve wanted to fuck these since the first time I saw them,” he growled. “Nothing you can do to stop me, huh?”
I tried, but there was no move I could make. Every twisting movement only made each thrust feel like more. A desperate whine broke free. I wasn’t sure what I was asking for, but I needed more. I needed Kade to give me everything.
“Quiet.” One big hand held my breasts together, and the other covered my nose and mouth, pressing the wet fabric down so there was no air.
Oh god.
I was a creature made of molten metal. Too hot to the touch. I was burning and melting with need, the hunger digging down into my center and unleashing itself.
I fought. I screamed until my lungs were empty, and he didn’t release me, just fucked harder, grunting with every thrust.
The edges of the world faded, and my mind opened. A new level of acceptance and obedience. Kade was in control, and he knew. There was nothing to be afraid of.
Fire burned in my throat as my lungs heaved in air. Kade took the fabric away from my face, brushing my hair away and searching me. His eyes were still hard, and he was still the predator, but I saw the truth there too.
He took my shirt in his hands and pulled, yelling with the effort. The fabric ripped, and he kept going, tearing it open all the way to the neck so it was nothing but tatters.
“Can’t hide from me now, Omega. Even if you escape, I can see all of you, and you’re mine. Now open.”
He shifted, pushing up on his knees so his cock was there, brushing my lips. And further. He stroked lazily while grasping my jaw with one hand. “I said open. I already know how much you like these in your mouth.”
Kade’s fingers pressed, forcing my mouth open, and immediately it was filled with his balls. Full to bursting. They tasted like him, and my eyes fluttered closed. He was right—I loved the taste of them. And I couldn’t admit it now. I couldn’t give him victory this easily.
Fighting every instinct I had to surrender, I spat them out.
Fire burned in what I could see of Kade’s face, and a challenge. Towering above me, his eyes glittered in the darkness. “You’ll fight me for every inch?” With a laugh, he fisted his hand in my hair. “Go ahead.”
The tip of his cock speared between my lips, and I couldn’t fight it. His piercings slid in, one by one, until he was as deep as he could go at this angle.
Still in my throat. Still nearly all of him. Still so much of his cock my mouth stretched.
His free hand closed around my throat, holding me down even more, and I sank into bliss. I was supposed to fight this? He tasted like roasted chestnuts over a bonfire, sweet like kettle corn, and the darker, intangible taste of the night sky.
Kade took my mouth like only he could. He fucked, working his hips and holding me exactly where he needed to drive himself in to the hilt. The sounds of his pleasure echoed off the trees. Raw, savage sounds. Where I was, I was floating in a space of perfect contentment.
Somewhere outside of my own mind I realized how strange that sounded, having my throat fucked in the middle of the woods after being hunted down like an animal.
But fuck, I loved it.
And it wasn’t over. Kade had won this round, but he’d said every hole, which meant there were two more rounds, and I could still win.
“Fuck,” he moaned the word, thrusting faster. “You lose one drop and we do this all over again, understand?”
There wasn’t time to do anything but swallow. Cum splashed across my tongue, rich and hot and salty, the very essence of his flavor, and I didn’t want to fight this. I drank him down, like I would every one of them every single time.
The raw, haunted look in his eyes made me feel powerful. Kade was on top of me, yet I was the one who’d just made him come and swallowed every drop. Arching up underneath him, I licked my lips. My voice rasped from the way he’d used my throat. “Is that all you got?”
Kade moved so fast it stole my breath, ripping my hands free and rolling me face down in the dirt. Now I fought back, scrambling away from him as best I could. I didn’t get far, but every foot was a fucking victory.
He fell on me, pinning me to the ground and we wrestled for my hands. The remnants of my t-shirt were in his hands where he’d grabbed it while I was getting away, and he was too strong for me. I screamed again, twisting to bite him, but he already had my hands tied. One push, and my face was in the dirt, hands outstretched and useless.
“Oh, baby, you don’t have any idea how much more I’ve got.” Fabric ripped, and my ass suddenly felt the air, followed by his tongue, right there.
A hand was in my hair again, turning my face and pressing it harder into the dirt. Déjà vu swam in my head. The heat, when he’d done exactly this, but not in my ass.
It was so much more there. And he took me without mercy.
The thickness of his curve, filling me an inch at a time, I came, seeing stars that weren’t there and tasting dirt on my lips. Pushing up with my knees, I bucked up, trying to tilt him off me.
“I don’t think so, baby.” Another deeper thrust. “Fight me. Go ahead. But I’m gonna be all the way in this ass, and you’re going to take it.”
“Fuck you.”
His dark laughter rippled over my skin. “That’s my line.”
One final thrust buried him to the hilt, the edge of his knot threatening to push inside, and I screamed a different kind of scream. The way he curved, the metal on his shaft, everything hurt and in the best way possible. I always said I didn’t like pain, but this moment was about to make me change my mind.
Kade’s mouth was at my ear, whole body pinning me down. He growled in time with his thrusts, not slowing and not stopping. “Mine.”
I was.
In this moment I was.
He took what he wanted, fucking my ass so deeply I would never forget the feeling. My body was imprinting the feeling of his cock, and I wondered if I’d ever feel whole again once he let me go.
“Right there,” he snarled. “Right, fucking, there.”
He punctuated the words with deep rolls of his hips before pulling back and coming all over my ass. The heat of it dripped down my thighs, soaking into the ripped leggings and mixing with my own wetness.
I yelped when he smacked my ass. Again, and again, and again before ripping the leggings further. “Your body belongs to me, Omega. I want to see every inch of it.
He split the fabric along the seams, tearing down one leg and then the other so I was naked except for my shoes. It was when he tried to pull off one sneaker, I saw my chance.
Heaving off the ground, I shoved my foot into his chest and pushed off him, stumbling to my feet and running. My hands were still bound, hair wild, and I sprinted, not saving any energy. I gave it all to my flight, knowing it was the last chance I had.
Kade roared behind me. Branches snapped and his steps thundered. I pushed myself, cresting the hill and down the incline on the other side, flinging myself out of the trees and into the tall grasses.
He was only seconds behind me. If that. The grass stung against my legs, whipping past my skin. It was a little brighter out here without the cover of trees, but not much.
A snarl was my only warning.
The arm that curled around my waist yanked me down and against Kade’s body as we crashed together. He’d jumped—tackled me. And we were still moving. My hands were tied by the t-shirt, and I had nothing left to fight him with. My strength and energy were gone, my limbs shaking with the remnants of adrenaline.
There was no sky, only him. Pinning me down, holding me by the throat and shoving my thighs apart to drive himself home. I moved, and the growl that met me was different.
Somewhere along the way his shirt had gotten lost, and all his beautiful tattoos were inky stains in the night. Even more a monster taking the maiden. He melded in with the darkness. A shadow creature appearing to hold me down.
His hand tightened on my throat. Not enough to frighten me, but I understood the warning. “Mine,” he said again. But the word was different. It wasn’t conscious. Pure, ruthless, claiming instinct.
“Kade,” I breathed, and he growled, sinking his cock—and his swollen knot—all the way into me. “Oh, fuck.”
The eyes locked on mine weren’t those of my conscious Alpha. They were Kade, but stripped back to the barest hint of humanity. He was in rut.
I stopped fighting.
There was no part of me afraid of him, but I also knew better than to fight back against an Alpha in rut. He wasn’t toward the surface enough to play the game.
Kade would never hurt me. Not on purpose. And even now the way he was fucking me, I was going to shatter into a million pieces of glowing glass and melt back together with the second wave of pleasure.
I looped my bound wrists around his neck and pulled him closer. He was already knotted, and it wasn’t coming out now.
No, he was thrusting deeper, knot pushing against all the delicious places inside me, and sparks were flying behind my eyes. “Kade. Please. Yes.”
His answering snarl wasn’t remotely human, and the next plunge sent me over the edge. I tipped my head back and let go, finally, fully surrendering. The orgasm took me in a wave, breaking me apart so thoroughly I couldn’t even say his name.
I shook, and writhed, tried to lift my hips to meet his only to be held down again.
His hand was still at my throat, and the other was flat between my breasts making sure I went absolutely fucking nowhere. And I wasn’t.
I lost all sense of time and space except the motion of Kade above me and inside me. I lost count of the number of times new pleasure crashed over me or carried me upward like I had wings only to drop me into free fall. My Alpha came and then came again. Another time. Between my legs, I was coated in it where he kept fucking, causing his cum to spill onto my skin and the grass.
“Kade,” I said.
“Mine.” He leaned down, mouth covering the skin where my neck met my shoulder. His teeth were there, holding onto me, but he didn’t bite.
The vibrations between us were somewhere between a growl and a purr. A final orgasm shuddered through him, and his hips finally stopped moving. His mouth stayed where it was, holding onto my neck without fully claiming me. Another place he was holding onto me. Keeping me his.
Kade was still in rut, but we couldn’t stay here until he came out of it. I didn’t know how many hours it might be.
“Kade,” I whispered. “You don’t have to let me go.”
He growled.
“You don’t have to let me go, but you do have to take me to the car. We’ll go home, and you can have me all to yourself in your bed, okay?”
It took long seconds for him to move, lifting me off the ground and keeping me on his knotted cock. I wrapped my legs around him and held on. His teeth stayed where they were. They didn’t move an inch.
Before long, I heard the car door. “Kade? What’s going on?”
Kade’s growl splintered the air, and I pulled him as close as I could given his hold. “That’s Luke. Luke is going to drive us home. Don’t worry, Luke isn’t going to touch me.”
It was enough to get Kade moving toward the car, and Luke caught on. He got to the back door and opened it. “He’s in rut,” I whispered as Kade maneuvered us into the back seat. “Everything is fine.”
“You’re okay?” Luke asked, eyes roving over the two of us.
I realized what I must look like, naked with sneakers, covered in dirt and cum, but I was perfect. “Yeah, I’m okay.” I smiled before he shut the door, easing myself down to lean on Kade’s chest for the ride home.
