Page 36 of Venomous Heart
Ava shuddered, wetness spreading between her legs, as sudden as it was strong. She knew her body was answering the Mating Venom, that her response was a complex array of biological imperative summoned by the chemical compounds in his saliva, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the way her skin prickled with every touch, that the pulsing need between her legs was getting more demanding by the second.
Her body needed Arlen’s touch like it needed oxygen. She had no more choice in responding to his demand than she had a choice to breathe, or to allow the blood to flow through her veins.
“Do you want it, Little Wonder?” His voice slid across her skin like the caress of a tongue, humid and hot. “Do you want to belong to me as much as I want you to?”
She tried not to answer, not to surrender to the way her back arched in her desperation to get closer to him. She needed to touch him so much it hurt.
Arlen’s hand closed over her throat and he lifted her head gently, tilting it to the side. His hot mouth settled on her taut skin and Ava’s entire body shivered. His heat blazed through the fine silk at her back and as he massaged more Mating Venom onto her skin, her nipples hardened and the need radiated from her core, taking control of all her senses.
Arlen’s mouth opened until he could grab her pulsing throat between his powerful jaws, like a large cat. Fangs dug into her skin as his tongue licked slowly between his teeth. Ava began to pant and she realized, mortified, that her hands were creeping up to the front of her dress.
She was going to touch herself in front of everyone because of the Mating Venom. She could never look anyone in the eye ever again.
She was saved from embarrassing herself forever by two hands closing around her wrists like vise grips. The fangs at her throat pushed harder, breaking the skin, and a sharp pain shot through her. Sudden panic overtook Ava’s lust and she whined in fear.
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Please don’t bite me there. You could kill me.”
His jaws loosened, but his grip on her wrists didn’t. Instead of speaking, he began panting, too. Ava turned sideways to see him gulping air in a fast and frenzied fashion. His pale blue eyes gleamed, but not in the usual way. They were glowing, as though they weren’t eyes at all, but beacons lit from within. The light intensified until it was enough to cast shadows across his high cheekbones, and still Arlen was panting.
He looked more and more terrifying by the second.
Then, all of a sudden, Arlen tugged her arms straight out until she was stretched and exposed, like some sort of primitive presentation to the crowd.
No, not a presentation. A claiming.
Then he opened his mouth and a song like a brand blanketed the night. His voice was deep and pleasant as the notes grew and grew, floating through the still air as his chest vibrated. He didn’t pause, didn’t take a breath, just kept singing without words. That song didn’t need any lyrics.
Somewhere inside her, she understood what this was on an instinctive level. This song was a claim, a proclamation that she was his. That she now belonged to him down to her very core. Still, Arlen held her, her arms open, him standing behind her as he sang, the strange possessiveness of his song humming into her mind. She didn’t dare move, didn’t dare speak as he went on.
Then, just when she thought he would drop from lack of oxygen, Arlen stopped.
And a pain mixed with the most exquisite pleasure exploded in the curve of her shoulder as he bit deeply into her flesh. Mating Venom rushed into her bloodstream, releasing a storm of sensations all the way to her core. Her body rocked back and forth, an orgasm shooting through her body like an explosion.
In that moment, as she screamed her pleasure for all to see, she knew that she would never belong to anyone else but him.
11
Arlen
Take her. Take the female.
The thought shot through him as Mating Venom flowed steadily through his mouth, entering her bloodstream. Ava screamed, the pleasure induced by the complex array of hormones and chemicals binding her to him, sending her body into overdrive. The impulse to take her body under his and seal their union was like a tide, his seed stem pulsing with the need, making him ache painfully.
It would only grow. It would rise and rise until he united their bodies and sealed their union.
Finally, Arlen released her, his fangs leaving her flesh. The taste of her blood mixed with the aftermath of her pleasure. His mind was foggy with lust as she collapsed in his arms.
I need to calm down. I can’t take her like this.
But his arms closed around Ava’s limp body and he lifted her, cradling her to his chest possessively. In a remote corner of his mind, he recognized the Prussian blue warrior walking toward him on the platform. It didn’t matter. He had his mate, and no one was going to take her from him.
“Brother.” The warrior lifted a hand in an appeasing gesture. “You can’t take her with you.”
Arlen hissed, vaguely aware of the terrified faces in the crowd. Somewhere in the distance, a large insect-like creature watched, mandibles clicking with displeasure.
“Arlen. Your mind is gone to the lust.” The warrior spoke again, but through the feverish fog of Arlen’s lust, his words barely made sense. “Give her to me. Give me Ava.”
Arlen roared, his talons shooting out as the feral instinct overtook him. Humans turned to run away as the Prussian blue warrior kept moving toward him, his hands extended.
