Page 78 of Feral

Gently, he pulled her in against his chest, placing her cheek where his bond hooked. The purr flowed easily from his chest, rumbling into her in powerful waves until she slowly began to relax. He knew why she was scared, knew into his bones why the wordheatbrought nothing but terror for her.

All she’d experienced was the twisted version the doctors had put her through, and all the pain, humiliation, and fear that came with it.

“Lillian,” he murmured. “Look… at me.”

She lifted her head, and despite her dazed look from his consistent purr, tears dripped down her cheeks. He wiped them away with the pad of his thumb.

“I…. will…. protect.Always,”he said, ensuring she understood his absolute conviction in every word. “Don’t cry. Don’t… fear. Justmehere. Just us.”

“Just us,” she whispered, swallowing thickly. There was still hesitation in her gaze, but the panic in their bond was easing.

He held her against him, petting her hair and her back as he did his best to ignore the painful throbbing in his cock at her increasingly mouthwatering scent, until finally she began to fidget. Her body was hot and slick with sweat, and soon her annoyance flared in their bond again.

“God, I’m so fucking hot!” she hissed, squirming out of his grasp. “I know they call it‘heat,’but this is ridiculous.”

Zach reached for her top, wanting to ease her suffering, but she smacked his hand away. Shooting him a dirty glare, she turned back around to stare at the misshapen nest. “And this is all wrong!”

“Again,” he said, even though he was more than happy to mount her on top of the mismatched pile of curtains and sofa cushions. But she needed this—he knew that with every throb of the bond in his chest.

Lillian huffed, a frustrated little sound, and attacked the bed again. Every scrap of fabric landed on the floor and she began anew, starting with the blankets that smelled like him.

It tookthree more tries before his mate was content with the nest of blankets she’d built for them, and by that point, Zach’s resolve to allow her the time she needed was crumbling. His skin was too hot and tootight,his cock ached for relief with a deep, throbbing pain that went all the way into the marrow of his spine, and every breath perfumed with her scent was torture worse than any he’d experienced at the hands of the doctors.

He paced back and forth behind her, rolling his shoulders and flexing his hands to ease just some of the tension pulling at him like a howling hurricane. He’d long-since abandoned his clothes, and his swollen cock bobbed with every step he took, precum leaking from the bloated tip in a steady stream.

His head throbbed in sympathy with his aching dick, a red haze of need clouding his vision, vivid fantasies of rough-fucking the damned female who was making him wait flickering before his mind’s eye. But still he held on, clinging to the singular strand of sanity that remained in his hazy mind.

She needed him to wait.

“Alpha.”

The soft sound of her voice, like a hot breath brushing against his eardrum, made him snap his head toward her.

His mate stood by the side of the bed, clothes soaked through with sweat and eyes wide and unfocused as she took in all his naked glory. Her gaze darted down his strong body, her pink tongue peeking out to wet her lips when she reached his crotch.

And the last vestige of his self-control snapped.

She shrieked when he threw himself at her, clawed at him as he shredded her clothes, but the bite of her nails only fueled his need.

He tossed her on her back in the nest she’d built, growling low in his throat, reminding her of his dominance.

“I need…” she croaked, crawling to the edge of the bed, reaching for him. “I need you!”

He pushed her back down again, following this time. She swiped at him, clawing bloody streaks into his chest until he forced her onto her stomach.

Snarling, fighting him for dominance, she tried to resist, but he pinned her neck to the mattress as he climbed between her thighs. She needed him to prove his strength, prove that he would be a worthy father of their offspring—and he was going to do just that.

His mate kicked, but he pushed her legs wide with his knees, forcing her to show her flushed and pouty pussy to him.

The scent of her slick hit him fully in the face, and he groaned, his cock weeping. He wanted to bury his mouth there, lick every drop of her desperation from that beautiful little snatch, but he didn’t have enough strength left.

Lillian snarled like a wild animal when he forced her up on her knees, trying to twist around to bite and claw at him, but he kept her in place, head down and ass up. Ready to take her alpha.

Wet heat met met his cock as he pressed it up against her opening, shooting electric jolts up his spine. Lillian froze beneath him, her angry snarl dying to a series of needy whimpers. On instinct, she widened her knees and pushed her ass up, submitting her swollen sex to him.

Zach pushed through her tight opening with a hoarse cry, the pleasure of her slick walls so intense it bordered on pain. That first push inside of her was always overwhelming, all his focus centering in their carnal connection the moment she surrounded him, butthis—this was something more.

She didn’t cry out in pain when he penetrated her anymore; their many matings in the months they’d been together teaching her body how to open for him properly. But now, in the throes of her heat, her every nerve ending was overcharged with sensation, and they both howled when he bottomed out deep in her cunt.

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