He shook his head, clenching his jaw tight enough to be painful, but I forced his eyes down to me with a palm on his cheek to guide him. They glowed a beautiful shade of yellow with flecks of bright, glowing gold.
“You’re not making my control any easier,” he gritted out between clenched teeth, yanking me flush with his body until I could feel every hard inch of him through the thin fabric of my gifted dress. “I want to fuck you. Hard. So hard you'll feel me for weeks, and it's taking everything in me not to sink into you here and now.”
Fuck, I wanted that too… I ached for it.
There was a growl underneath his words. Something feral prowled under his skin, scratching to get out. At this moment, all I could think about was watching it happen.
Remus as a human was already a wildcard with his sly smiles, wit, and sharp tongue. But as a shifter, he was nothing short of lethal and alluring, and I’d never been the kind of woman to deny myself my own needs or wants.
“Why don’t you then?” I challenged him. My tone was low and teasing, contradicted by the slide of my fingers up the side of his thick arm. I was walking a very fine line here; one, if snapped, would be nearly impossible to mend.
“Because if I do, you’ll be mine entirely. You’ll belong to me in a way no one else ever could. I don’t know if you’re ready for that.” The hand that toyed with my hair had moved to caress my shoulder, snaking over my collarbone until he gently wrapped those claw-tipped fingers around my throat. “I would own you in every way, Mara. Your body and your soul. Cats are very possessive creatures. We play with our toys before we snatch them away and hide them.”
I swallowed roughly at the threat and promise of those words, wondering why they were suddenly so enticing.
All my life, I'd belonged to someone, yet never to myself. I was finally free of Waylan Bane. Could I so easily hand over my soul to this man?
“And others?” I whispered against his lips, which were much closer to mine than seconds before. My breathing was ragged, and I could feel the anticipation swallowing us both whole, but it couldn’t be stopped. I shook my head. “I won’t be owned, Remus. Never again. I’ll die before I ever allow myself to become another man’s property. Caldor and I…”
I still wasn’t sure what was happening between Caldor and me, but I wasn’t ready to forget what happened. After a decade of dreaming about the man I’d once loved and had to walk away from, I couldn’t turn a blind eye to the very obvious feelings that still existed somewhere deep inside both of us. Whatever I felt for Remus was brand new, and I could stoke that flame if I wanted to, but I wouldn’t snuff out the other so hastily.
Our heartbeats were in sync, and the cold chill in the air only encouraged me further into his arms. His eyes studied mine, growing brighter by the second.
“I’m a generous male, too. I have no intention of caging you. As long as you understand that if I take you, you will become my mate. Our souls will merge, and you will become a part of me in every sense of the word. Shifters don’t take husbands and wives as the humans do. We mate for a lifetime.” His fingers sifted through my hair, and I nearly purred. “That means you’re going to get fucked the way shifters fuck. Fully. Completely. Wholly.”
I sucked in a breath, the answer immediately in my eyes as his lips crashed on mine. I opened without hesitation. Our tongues tangled together, and my hands shot forward to his shoulders, finding their way up to his neck and wrapping into his hair.
I shivered when I felt claws gently move down my back towards my hips.
“Remus,” I mewled, my body begging for him to come closer. Everything felt too intense.
Lifting me, he sat me on the ledge overlooking the garden, still in the comfort of the shadows, but we could easily be caught in the open if someone were to wander through the double doors, but I didn’t care about any of it. All that mattered was Remus being inside of me right this second.
A force inside me snapped as I let my legs wrap around Remus, his lips cascading down my neck as he loosened his trousers, bunched my dress to my thighs, and shoved into me fully. Our movements were hurried because at any moment we could be caught.
I gasped as he groaned; it was like the stars aligned the moment he was inside me. Things clicked into place, every emotion heightened. For a moment, I couldn't remember why we were even here. Why did it feel like there was something pressing we needed to do?
“Fuck, you feel like home,” Remus murmured before he forced himself all the way out and shoved back into me, his eyes closed tight.
Raw pleasure covered his face, and I couldn’t stop watching him. My own pleasure wracked my entire body as I gripped him tightly, unsure how he could breathe.
I felt every inch of him, and suddenly, the thought of how he must have been made just for me filled my body and mind until all I could think about was the feel of him everywhere. Suddenly this felt so right. Suddenly I couldn’t think of him with anyone else without boiling rage overtaking me. It was as if another entity had taken over my mind.
“Feel me, little assassin,” Remus grunted as he slammed into me. I wondered if anyone down below was looking up. “Give me what I’ve been craving since the moment we met…”
“Then be a good kitty and let me cum,” I murmured against his ear, my breath coming out in pants. "Make me hurt, Rem. I need it…"
Remus chuckled wickedly before he nipped my ear. “I don’t meow when you call for me, little assassin. You’ll cum when I say you can but not before,” he purred.
I closed my eyes and let myself feel how he pumped into me faster and faster, the way his thick throbbing cock pushed so deeply I could feel him in my belly. An urge to bite down came over me. It was undeniable, pulling at me and filling my mouth with saliva.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew what this was. I wasn’t a shifter, but the Source wouldn’t care. If he wanted me for a mate, the bond would take me over too. The question was…did I want this? Or was this just a moment of weakness?
I tried to think fast, to answer my own nagging questions, but it was hard to see past the fog of lust and need that gripped me. The truth was, I did feel something for Remus, and I think it’d been growing since the beginning. If I gave over to this feeling, it would solidify a bond that would last a lifetime.
But hadn’t I been shackled already? To a man who never truly wanted me? Was it such a bad thing to crave one who did? One who made my body come alive? I didn’t have much I could truly call my own in this world…but perhaps it was time I took it for myself.
Remus growled low in his chest, his claws flexing on my skin, breaking the hold I had on my control. I clawed at him, tilting my head before sinking my teeth into the sweat-slicked skin of his neck, right as he did the same to mine. Together we hit the crescendo of pleasure as his seed filled me, his cock throbbing as I tightened around it.