Taming the Queen of Beasts

AARYN

The elders and alphas hadn't left the cave until well after high moon. Aaryn had been held up last, giving orders to a messenger from the Protectors about allowing many of the new tribe members to bed down in the old cave, where there was space for them to stay together.

He'd agreed with the decision and told them to send a messenger anytime there was an issue. That he and Elreth would address it.

They were both exhausted, but Aaryn rushed back to the bedchamber to find Elreth standing at the end of the sleeping platform, her hands at her buttons like she was undressing, but she wasn't moving. Staring at the wall.

"El?" he whispered from the doorway, hesitating in case he'd missed something.

Elreth twitched, then turned to look at him over her shoulder, smiling absently. "I'm fine. Just tired," she said and started working on her buttons again.

Aaryn's heart—and the rest of his body—leaped at the sight of her opening her blouse and pulling it off her shoulders and down.

"How tired?" he murmured, walking up behind her, pressing himself into her back, leaning over her. "Too tired?"

"No," she whispered, pressing back into him.

"I need you," he croaked.

"That's good. Because I need to be needed right now."

With a whine of anticipation, Aaryn opened his mouth on her neck, and let his hands stroke up the outside of her thighs, and her sides.

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Elreth sighed and leaned back into him, letting one hand trail up to fist in his hair and hold his kiss against her skin.

Desire, fear, and urgency made a heady mix. His teeth almost pierced her skin, he tasted her so deeply. But she only let her head loll back against him, her breathing going shallow.

"El," he rasped, clutching breasts and kneading them. "I—"

"Me too," she gasped, tearing at the buttons of her leathers and shoving them down her legs. She kicked them away across the room. "Please, Aaryn. Quickly."

He'd barely gotten his leathers undone, but she was naked, had both hands up and back, in his hair, and she'd arched her back, pressing her breasts forward and letting her backside nudge and press against him.

Aaryn groaned the mating call. "El, are you sure you don't want to—"

"I'm certain," she gasped, tilting her head and arching her neck into his kiss, like a cat arching into a stroke.

Aaryn's breath huffed, fluttering her hair, and her skin pebbled. She shivered and bumped him again, dropping one hand to reach between them and stroke him.

A growl of approval puttered in Aaryn's throat and he sucked at the spot where her neck met her shoulder while he explored her body, then let his hand slide down between her legs to find her silky heat.

"Oh, fuck, El," he groaned, finding her already ready for him.

But El had tensed, both hands up again and clutching his hair, her body beginning to writhe into his touch.

She purred and Aaryn almost plunged into her there and then.

Forcing himself to control, he began to stroke her, drawing his fingers from where they would join, up to that bundle of nerve that always made her shake.

Again, and again, and again, he stroked, locking his teeth on her shoulder, but not biting down, to keep her in place.

When her breath came in gasps and she jolted every time he passed over her he raised his other hand from her breast, pulled all her hair to one side, and kissed the skin under her ear before whispering, "Are you ready?"

Elreth answered with a high keen and he chuckled. But his breath was already rasping.

She whimpered when he took his hand away, but grasping her hips he walked her forward a step, towards the bed, then nipped at her earlobe. "Bend over."

He went with her when she obeyed, letting his chest rub on her back, stroking her sides, and his kiss still on her neck.

Elreth shivered when he took himself in hand, and with a shuddering groan, entered her in one long slide.

They both stopped breathing when he pulled back, almost the whole way out, then plunged into her again, the mating call tearing from his throat.

Blind with desire and unaware of anything but her, he slid his hands down her arms to twine his fingers between hers and grip the furs.

"Hold on."

She fisted the furs, his fingers pinned between hers, and she gasped as Aaryn moaned, then began to thrust.

Elreth arched to meet him, throwing her head back so their cheeks brushed with every thrust. His entire world became the pleasure of her body, the shining, glittering wave that beckoned him as their skins prickled and tingled wherever they touched.

She called his name over and over again, and he cried hers when he could, when he could force a word past his teeth, still grazing her neck, her shoulder, his tongue tasting her skin. But he was quickly losing control, praying she'd come with him because he knew he wouldn't last long.Â

The sound of their bodies meeting only spiked his desire, then he tilted his hips, pressing Elreth onto her tiptoes with each trust, the angle changing so that she stopped breathing.

"El, I—"

She answered with a tiny, beautiful cry, then tipped forward, face to the furs. He grieved the loss of her warmth at his chest, but she arched her back to take him deeper and he was lost. Lost. Overwhelmed.

"Please, Aaryn!"

With a guttural moan, he tore his hands from hers and grasped her hips, holding her in place to give himself better resistance, and then he leaned back and began to pound.

Elreth's cry rose and fell with the assault of him, barely ceasing for her breath. Aaryn was mindless for her, the entire world disappearing in the beauty and heat of her. In the sound of her cries, and the rhythm of their bodies meeting.

He began to shake and Elreth's breath began to catch, long and longer, until she barely breathed, but let her breath rush out, then in quickly every time he drew out.

"El… Holy… El—"

She was crying for him, her body tightening around him, muscles in her legs trembling, but she hadn't found her peak and he needed her, needed her.

"El!"

Then he lifted her off her toes, grasping her thighs to open them further, taking her weight and pulling her onto him.

Elreth screamed his name into the furs, then held her breath as her body tensed and rippled, then clenched around him, her skin pebbling from her shoulder to her knee.

Aaryn roared her name as his release washed over him and he plunged into her again, and again, before slumping forward onto the furs, his knees trembling and hands grasping, stroking up her sides, to take her breast and hold her to him.

She was sprawled on the furs, breath heaving, Aaryn covering her back, both their toes just barely on the floor.

He began to shift, to take some of his weight off of her. But she whispered, "No," and turned her head so she could meet his eyes.

He lay there, slumped over her, her face bare inches from his. There were tears in her eyes.

"Did I hurt you?" he whispered, suddenly afraid.

She bit her lip and shook her head. "No, I just… I love you so much. That's all." Her eyes pleaded with him to understand.

He brought the hand up to grasp the nape of her neck and pull her into a soul-searching kiss.

"I love you more than my own life, El," he whispered against her lips.Â