Page 31 of Marked
With a low, guttural snarl, his bodybroke. At least, that’s what it looked like. His spine arched, his shoulders snappedforward, and his skin rippled as if something beneath it was shifting, fighting to be free. A sickening series of cracks echoed through the cave, bone rearranging, muscle expanding, his veryformtwisting into something impossible. He staggered back against the cold stone wall, gripping it for balance as his hands contorted, fingers elongating into claws. His face stretched, his jaw widening, his teeth sharpening into deadly points.
A wolf. A massive, terrifyingly real wolf now stood where Alaric had been.
His thick fur was pitch black, as dark as midnight. His deep blue eyes burned in the firelight, locked onto something unseen, somethingnotme. And yet, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. He shook himself once, a slow, deliberate motion, and the sheersizeof him was staggering.
I had seen a lot of shit in my life. I had fought. I had survived. But nothing—nothing—had ever made me feel this small, thishelpless, as the massive predator in front of me turned and kept pacing, his sharp claws clicking against the stone floor.
I had known there was somethingdifferentabout him, I just hadn’t expected this. Notthisdifferent!
Now, he was entirely fixated on the three Ghengrills that were studying my naked body. He stared like he wanted to rip them apart piece by piece until there was nothing left of any of them.
Attitude reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out what looked like a piece of fabric. I realized it was Alaric’s shirt. The Ghengrill laid it across the front of my shoulders, and I stiffened, but then Alaric’s scent surrounded me. My body reacted almost violently. My spine arched involuntarily, and my muscles stiffened. I cried out as a lightning bolt of desire shotstraight down to my core, as sharp and painful as the cruel twist of a knife stabbing deep into my belly.
Everything hurt, but the sheer volume of arousal contained in my small form was crippling. Had I been standing up on my own, I would have surely fallen to the floor. My arousal had never been this intense before. I’d never felt like I was burning alive from the inside out. Whatever was happening to me, it felt like my survival was not a certainty.
I was hot. So fucking hot that I felt like my skin was going to boil right off. I whimpered as I tried to fight back against the onslaught of passionate need coursing through me, but I didn’t stand a chance. It was far too powerful, and I felt myself losing the battle even before it truly began.
I couldn’t speak, could only cry out.
Pain. Desire. Every hot pulse felt like it was crippling me, and I screamed.
“Her temperature has spiked several more degrees,” Attitude observed.
“She should be entering full heat any minute,” Needle said. His usual arrogant tone sounded excited now.
My fingertips buzzed with electricity. My toes curled with it. Every muscle in my body tightened with need, and I cried out as the pain from whatever was happening cut through me even more harshly. It hurt. Oh, gods, it hurt so much.
My core twisted in on itself, squeezing hard as the extreme arousal I’d been fighting for months finally took hold all at once. Nothing could have prepared me for agony of this magnitude,and I was only vaguely aware of the tears dripping down my face. Sobs started to rack my body, and I was powerless against them.
I struggled against the forces holding me prone, but it was no use.
I cried. I begged. I called the only name that could help make it stop.
“Alaric,” I sobbed. “It hurts. I can’t. Make it stop. Please make it stop.”
I heard the cage rattle once more. And then again. And again, as Alaric slammed into the walls of his prison with his body.
The three Ghengrills around me shifted nervously.
I couldn’t focus on what they were doing, but when something pressed against the place in between my thighs, I was forced to center my attention away from Alaric and back to them.
“Let test number one commence. Should she experience orgasm, then this is not a true Lupenii heat, and she should be disposed of. If she doesn’t, we should begin serum sample collection immediately. A slow steady draw will ensure maximum volume,” Attitude instructed.
A hideous buzzing sound started, and I screamed as a steady vibrating sensation pressed against my clit. My nipples hardened into tight, painful little buds, and my core seized even harder. I tried to fight the horrible vibrations, but I knew I was lost the moment my hips started rolling involuntarily toward them. Even though I wanted them to stop, my body had a mind of its own. It betrayed me in the most brutal, humiliating way possible.
I hadn’t orgasmed in months. I hadn’t experienced any semblance of relief since Alaric’s hard cock had fucked my little bottom hole so very long ago. I was wound up so tight that I could feel all sense of reason leave my body.
Every inch of my body pulsed so hard with desire that it bordered on excruciating agony, and I sobbed, my body jolting with ragged, uneven gasps. I felt the ache deep in my bones, and I moaned as the tiny little vibrations pushed me closer and closer to the edge of orgasm. His scent only served to heighten my need for him, and I soon found myself trembling from the intensity of it.
This was hell, and I was quite sure I was in the deepest pit of it.
The vibrations never stopped. I begged for them to stop. I pleaded for them to turn it off, but they didn’t listen. Instead, the vibrations only seemed to grow stronger and more powerful with every passing second.
I drew closer and closer to orgasm. Every nerve in my body screamed with it.
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t, even though I tried so hard, and rivers of tears started to pour down my cheeks.
That same barrier that I had struggled with before halted my release in its tracks, and no matter what I did to fight through, nothing would let me get past it. I was left wet, needy, and incredibly desperate.
