Bastien’s POV
“You were about to mark me!”
I stumble backward, dazed as Selene’s words pierce through the fog of lust. She was right, I was about to mark her.
My instincts had completely taken over, Axel was urging me to mark her as he had a thousand times before, but my old self restraint is long gone. I thought my mate was dead for three years, kissing her again was too much too resist. If I mark her, make that searing, claiming bite that will forever tie her to me and announce to the world that she belongs to me, she’d never be able to run again.
Even now, knowing how wrong it would be to mark her without her consent, I have to admit the idea is tempting. I watch my mate obsessively, taking in every facet of her expression and demeanor. She’s so beautiful with her wolf alight in her eyes, a wolf that still seeks mine despite Selene’s objections.
I cannot hear the call myself, but Axel certainly can, She’s calling me, He insists, She needs the mark just as much as we do. She’s in pain without it.
I study Selene carefully, reading anger and longing in her stunning features much more strongly than any fear or rejection. I know Axel is right just as certainly as I know the human part of Selene has no intention of giving me permission to mark her. So who should get to decide, the woman, or her wolf?
I cock my head to the side, the scent of Selene’s arousal still heavy in the air. “Tell me not to.” I order huskily.
“What?” Selene falters, taking a step back despite the fact that I haven’t moved an inch.
“If you don’t want me to mark you,” I instruct slowly, “Tell me not to, tell your wolf to stop begging mine for the mark.”
“I– She isn’t!” Selene insists weakly.
“No more lies, little wolf.” I scold, some of my pain and rage over her betrayal bleeding into the words without my permission.
“I’m not.” She shakes her head unconvincingly, then breaks, “You’re doing this! Selene accuses, looking like she might be on the verge of tears. “Tell your wolf to stop calling her!”
She can’t tell you no, because she wants it just as badly as you do. Axel rumbles. This is one of those times that having a wolf is downright inconvenient. He’s ruled by instinct, and instinct overpowers logic ten to one. Still, I can’t help but feel uncertain when her sweet voice insists otherwise.
Look at her. Axel commands forcefully, jolting my hypersensitive eyes to the she-wolf again. She looks just like she did in our early days together, so skittish and overwhelmed with feelings she’s beside herself. Every wave of agitated energy rolling off her calls to me for comforting, and that I cannot deny. Help her. My wolf orders.
Glancing over my shoulder to the slumbering pup on the couch, I make my decision. Scooping up Lila and carrying her to the first bedroom I can find, I tuck her into the thick covers and drop a string of kisses on her sweet-smelling head, feeling a rush of warmth when she smiles and coos in her sleep. Mine. Axel says.
Yes, I heard you the first hundred times. I remind him tetchily.
When I return to the main room, Selene is pacing, appearing as if she’d had to exert all her effort not to follow me. She’s wringing her hands, but when I move towards her, her eyes don’t glance back to the room where I left her pup, they’re glued on me.
“Tell me not to mark you.” I say again, “Make me believe it, Selene, and this won’t go any further.”
For a moment I think she might actually find the will to refuse me, but it would seem rejecting me now is a lot more difficult than it had been when she believed I’d forsaken her. “Why are you doing this to me?” She exclaims instead, “why couldn’t you let me go?
“You know the answer to that.” I prowl forward, stalking her like I did the very first time we ever came together, the day she’d accused me of not being attracted her because I’d overestimated the amount of time she needed to feel comfortable with physical intimacy. I should have known that her wolf was not entirely gone then; she’d always reacted to me differently than she did others. “You’re mine, Selene. You always have been.”
When she still does not protest, I take her hand and lead her into the bathroom, closing the door behind us. I turn on the shower tap, twisting with more strength than was necessary but unable to hold back. The steady pound of cascading water fills the room, and I listen for a moment, deciding that the distance and the noise should provide sufficient buffers to the sleeping toddler in the other room.
Turning on my mate, I pull her body into mine, “Last chance, baby.” I tell her, pulling her top over her head, “Tell me now before it’s too late.”
Shimmering orbs of blue and violet stare up at me helplessly, full of thoughts and memories too complicated to rise to the surface. Emotion clouds her lust-dilated pupils, and with a moan of defeat, Selene leans her head back against the wall and shuts her eyes, surrendering completely.
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Selene’s POV
The ceiling tiles blur as Bastien’s mouth and hands assail me, melding pain and pleasure until I’m writhing in his arms. My back is to the wall and my hands are restrained above my head, wrists trapped in one of Bastien’s massive hands. A rumble of pure male satisfaction reverberates through the shower stall as he sinks his fingers between my thighs and meets the evidence of my desire. ‘Tell me again how you don’t want me.’ He purrs in my ear.
“Shut up.” I snarl, tossing my head left and right as the pleasure begins to build. Oh Goddess, it’s been so long. I think.
I expected a reprisal, just not the one I receive. Bastien’s powerful hand swats my swollen sex, causing me to whimper and jolt beneath him. He emits a dark chuckle, pressing lingering kisses along my throat as he gentles his touch and continues his delicious torment.
Already I can feel my control slipping. Bastien always had this effect on me, the unerring ability to wipe all thought from my brain with a single touch; the infuriating talent to take me to heights I can, and will, never reach on my own. I moan and bring my leg up around Bastien’s back, straining to meet the tortuous thrust of his fingers. Even as I hide behind lowered lashes, I can feel the all-consuming weight of Bastien’s gaze on my face, harsh and unforgiving in it’s reverence.
This is my only escape now; my only defiance. I’ve never been able to resist my mate and no matter the cartwheels Luna is performing in my heart, the new me can’t help but some small show of resistance. I discovered a strength I never knew I possessed when I left Elysium and as desperately as I need this, I’m terrified to give up that part of myself. I don’t want to go back to the way things were.
I squirm as my inner muscles clench and spasm, and Bastien’s deep voice breaks through my conflicted rapture. ‘Look at me, Selene.’ I ignore him, gasping and moaning as my muscles clench again, only to feel his pumping fingers slow to a standstill. The shock snaps my eyes open, but the sight of Bastien’s glowing silver irises mere inches away, boring into me with an intensity I cannot allow, forces my gaze down to the point where our bodies connect. I watch my hips rock unsuccessfully against his hand, frustration at being pulled back from the edge fraying at my senses. ‘Bastien, please.”
“Goddess,’ He growls triumphantly. ‘I’ve missed hearing my name on your lips.” His nose nuzzles mine, coaxing. ‘Eyes, baby.’
The message is clear, I’m not going to get what I need, until I give him what he wants. Every thought in my mind shouts defiance, but every nerve in my body screams louder, begging for release. With a grumbling moan, I raised my eyes to Bastien, hating how exposed I feel. He gazes down at me with raw adoration, the muscles in his jaw straining with the effort of holding himself back.
The moment I comply his hand begins moving again, wrenching the pleasure out of me with a merciless determination that would have brought me to my knees if the wall wasn’t holding me up. As I near the edge again, my lashes start to shutter reflexively, but a sharp yank on my restrained wrists jerked them back up. There’s no escaping this. I’m past all point of thought or reason, and so I let him witness every vulnerable second of my undoing.
A cry bursts from my lips and I finally crest the tidal wave of pleasure Bastien created, shuddering and shaking in his arms. Still he does not let up, continuing to taunt and tease me until I’m at the precipice of another peak. This time instead of drinking in the sight, he lowers his mouth to my neck, to those sacred veins reserved for a mate’s mark – an Alpha’s mark.
Luna’s chants become my own, “Please, please, please.”
Bastien growls in triumph, or maybe it’s his wolf.
Just as I tumble over the edge, I feel his fangs pressing into my skin, preparing to bite.
