Page 25 of Protector

His mate needs him.

Curse it all to goddamn hell!

He doesn't manage to hold back his rumble of frustration this time, ignoring how she tenses at the sound, and reaches around her hip to brush through the thatch of matted hair covering her pubic bone.

Now she's the one jerking to separate their joined bodies."N-No."

Her pleading rasp is so soft, sobroken,he can barely recognize the woman who has controlled his existence with an iron fist for as long as he can remember.

"It'll help with the pain," he murmurs, voice softened by the dark despair flirting with the edges of his conscience.

He doesn't wait for approval he knows won't come. Using his weight, he rolls them to the side and secures her body with an arm around her waist and a leg across her ankles. Before she can do more than draw in a breath, he lets his fingers slip through her pubic hair to her swollen flesh.

Her clit throbs under his fingertips, the small button fully exposed from their coupling, and his light touch makes her jerk hard and whimper a wordless protest.

"Shh." He dips lower, brushing against their joining to gather some of the fluids that escaped before his knot plugged her opening. She is tight as a bowstring when he returns to her clit, and the barbs of agony in their bond nearly make him relent—but his newly awakened instincts know that this is the only thing that will settle her.

He is gentle when he strokes his thumb over her nub of nerves, but she still jerks in his grasp, sucking in a sharp breath. An echo of pleasure runs up their bond, quickly drowned out by revulsion and despair.

He strokes her again, letting the pad of his thumb settle more firmly on her clit. And again—tight circles that drag his callused skin over her tender spot.

Slowly, her breaths turn deeper and her pussy grips him more deliberately, its slick muscles fluttering on his knot with every pass of his thumb.

“That’s it,” he grunts, unable to fight a groan as her body coaxes another spurt of semen from his. “Let it happen.”

She lets out another breath, almost a moan, and he squeezes his eyes shut and buries his nose in her tangled hair, inhaling her.

Fuck,she feels so good. Her skin is soft, her body warm from their mating despite the bunker’s chill, and when she slowly softens in his arms and the burn of pleasure begins to consume her trepidation, his relief is as powerful as a climax.

He moans against her neck and rubs her faster, the warm urgency of working her toward release curling in his abdomen as powerfully as if he were chasing his own. Nothing has ever felt like this, likeher.Nothing. And right now, while her fingers dig into his arm and her pussy massages him in maddeningly tight spasms, while she is soft and compliant andsubmitting,he can’t bring himself to remember why he should loathe every second of this.

“Oh! Fuck!Fuck! Oooh!”Her cry of completion rings through the room and sinks deep into his marrow, and he groans at the endorphin-addled flood of pleasure swarming their bond, blind to anything buther.

“Good girl. That’s it. Good girl.” He pants the mindless praise against her ear, gentling his circles on her trembling clit until she is spent, boneless in his arms.

For several long moments, there is nothing but the pleasant buzz of afterglow humming through their connection. His sweat soaks her skin, drowning out the other alpha’s scent, and for those blissful minutes, her rapid heartbeats thump in tune with his own.

One.They are one.

TWELVE

ADDIE

Cold air brushes against my skin. My mind snaps back from the fog of nothingness just in time to let me feel it when the alpha pulls his cock from my body, and my reality sets back in.

I choke on a sob at the burning pain between my legs, the sensation of warm semen leaking out of my too-open core and trickling down my thighs the last thing I register before numbness sweeps me away.

I am screaming.I don't know why.

Fabric pushes against my flailing arms, large hands grabbing me to still my thrashing.

"No! No! No! No!" The one word, repeated with high-pitched desperation, sounds like it comes from far away.

The hands on my body still for a long moment, then release. A growl rumbles through the room.

He is angry.

I whimper and curl in on myself, clasping a hand to the back of my neck and one between my legs, even though I know it's fruitless.Too powerful.

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