Page 12 of Monster's Reward

Since Shadow had deliberately shown herself to Jahrdran, and apparently more than once if he was to be believed, she must trust him not to harm me should he learn what I was.

This made me wonder how that trust had developed and whether she’d been going to Jahrdran each night when she left me.

Though she and I usually fell asleep together beneath the bed, she always left at some point because she was never there when I rolled over in the middle of the night.

I’d always wondered where she went and now imagined her seeking out Jahrdran.

Whether that was true or not, though, I never woke alone.

Shadow told me once that my mind would always reach out to hers when I began to wake and that was how she knew to come to me.

Now I had to wonder.

Had I reached for him as well?

“Mate,” he rumbled, then rolled us so that he settled over me, his weight pressing me into the floor.

I caught my breath, eyes widening, at the feel of his huge cock nudging against my core.

He fisted his hand in my hair, dragged my head back so that my eyes were caught in his, then demanded, “Tell me your name, mate.”

“Kasima,” I managed to say. “I mean Kasi.”

“Kasima,” he rumbled, the word sounding exotic as it tumbled from his mouth. “Kasima, my mate.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think—”

He lowered his head and captured my lips with his and then I wasn’t thinking at all.

Every thought I had was blasted away in the searing heat of his kiss.

My heart pounded as I helplessly kissed him back.

I raked my fingers down his back, clutching, trying to get closer.

I hooked my legs around his hips and ground upward, desperate for something more.

He lifted, but I followed him, holding on as he ripped a claw down the back of my nightshirt, tearing it in two.

Then we were skin to skin.

He rubbed his chest against mine, causing the nipples to tighten.

I whimpered and clutched him closer. “Please.” My head fell back. “Jahrdran.”

He growled and shoved his hips forward, dragging his cock along my core, making it throb and ache.

He did it again and again until I was crying out, in both panic and ecstasy as I tumbled faster toward some unknown cliff.

“Say it again,” he growled in my ear as he surged forward once more, the thin barrier of my panties proving no match for his beast.

The seam tore and then he was right there, every glorious inch of him pressing forward, stretching me to the point of pain.

“My name,” he growled in my ear. “Say it again.”

“Jahrdran,” I gasped. “Oh, shit, Jahrdran.” I wanted to say no more, it’s too much, no more, but the truth was it was just right, just enough, that tiny bite of pain that edged me closer and closer to ecstasy.

And still he pressed deeper, then deeper still.

---