Lifting himself off me, he roughly turned me flat onto my stomach and collapsed on top of me. His body quivered over mine as his legs spread mine, and he pinned me down like this, breathing heavily into my ear.

He was right again. We’d made a mess. The wet spot under me spread, and I wiggled a little, trying to find a different area of the bed to rest.

His cock hardened, and he swore softly. I froze under him.

“Again,” he said through gritted teeth into my ear. “Like this. I want to feel you clench around my cock when I reach around and rub that sweet little clit of yours.”

“Fuck,” I whimpered.

“Close. Say it again. Just like before. Tell me what you want.”

“Fuck me.”

His cock slid into me, and I held on for dear life.

4

Rhyson

Her scent clung to everything in the hotel room. The couch where I’d first made her come. The bedsheets where I’d fucked her until well into the night. The shower where I’d carried her just before daybreak because we’d ruined the bed and fucked her against the tile. The towel that I’d laid down on the bathroom counter while I bent her over it and hammered her into it.

We’d finally fallen asleep on the couch, and I’d awoken the second she pushed herself off me, but I didn’t move. Eyes closed, I listened as she crept out of the room. After a cursory inspection, I realized that she hadn’t taken the clothes I’d offered her or the dress. She must have shifted and returned home as a wolf.

I laid the torn dress on the bed and stared at it as if it would give me some answers.

Last night had been…different. I hadn’t fucked like that in…well, ever. I’d lost control. I could have hurt her. She’d been so goddamn intoxicating.

When I could get out of my own head, I made a phone call. Two hours later, Alpha Larson and his new mate were in one of the hotel’s conference rooms. They smelled of each other.

But not of a mating bond.

That wasn’t surprising. Few wolves created mating bonds these days.

“I wanted to apologize in person for not making it to the ball to celebrate your mating,” I said cordially as I gestured for them to sit down. “There was an incident that distracted me.”

“No apologies needed, Your Majesty,” Larson said as he bowed deeply. “I was just honored that you accepted my invitation. I know you are a busy man.”

“I am, but meeting each of the alphas personally is on my agenda, and I had planned to do most of that last night. Now I’ll be inviting them here for the next month as I assess them and their clans.”

“I’m certain the alphas will be as eager to meet the newly crowned king as I am,” Larson murmured, and they both took their seats. Serena’s chair rolled away a few inches from Larson, squeaking, and she mumbled an apology. Larson grabbed the chair’s arm and pulled it closer to his.

“Tell me about the woman you rejected.”

There were more important things I needed to handle. In fact, letting myself get distracted with a woman last night had waylaid my plans considerably. I’d be here for at least two more weeks doing everything I should have done last night. The last thing I needed was to get more distracted by her, but I could hardly focus on anything else. I’d showered several times, fisting my cock raw while thinking of her, and I’d run earlier this morning to ensure that I didn’t smell like her, but she was all I could think about. I needed to focus.

“Maya?” Larson frowned. “She’s the daughter of an alpha, Bruce Callahan. Serena’s cousin, in fact, on her mother’s side.”

“She was your intended before Serena?”

“Nothing was formalized, but her father and I had spoken about aligning our packs through marriage. It’s no secret that I had planned to mate with her, but then I learned of her infidelity. Maya screws anything that moves. That’s not the kind of woman I want by my side.”

My stomach twisted. “By infidelity, I assume you mean infidelity to you. Have you been faithful to her?”

“I have.”

A lie, and not even a good one. His shit-eating grin told me that he expected me to understand.

“So because of her infidelity, you humiliated her at the ball?”