Mated to the Warrior Beast

*****

~ HARTH ~

She looked up to check that she wasn’t hurting him, but even though he growled, he was smiling. The look in his eyes threatening to make her pay for this drawn out tease… his eyes still flashing to his lion. But he didn’t stop her.

So she released his hands and trailed her hands down his sides to his hips, then his strong thighs—the line of muscle there was impressive and so deep she could press a finger into it. But there was more than one scar, and she frowned when her fingers ran over those puckered, lighter stretches of skin.

“Hurt so many times in the service of others,” she whispered, blinking back tears—half glad she hadn’t had to see him hurt, half desperate to have been there to comfort him.

She dropped then, letting her hand trail down to his calf that felt like steel under her palm. Then she traced the lines from his toes to his ankle, then stood, letting her fingers trail up the insides of his legs this time.

His long, thick legs.

Until she reached the top of his thigh and very gently cupped him.

.....

He’d told her to always be very careful with his testicles. She was surprised, now, to find them high and tight. She hadn’t realized they could move or were even involved in the rest of this dance they were doing.

She cupped them gently, then ran her hand up again.

Tarkyn’s hand shot out to grip her wrist and stop her before she could circle him and stroke again.

“Please… Harth…” he croaked. “Please… let me touch you now.”

“Just a minute longer,” she breathed, wide eyed at watching his body respond. Because she’d been so focused on each part of his skin as she touched it, she hadn’t paid attention to the way it was affecting him. All of him.

He was trembling. Her big, strong mate shook with pure desire and restraint. Her Alpha brought almost to his knees. Weakened by her touch.

She stroked him once, watching his abs ripple and flex, tightening. And when she laid a kiss right at the center of his heaving chest, he growled a growl that he seemed to draw up from the earth under their feet. But then it rolled off in a resonant mating call and her stomach clenched.

“I love it when you make that sound,” she whispered, pulling him close, kissing her way up his chest, then opening her mouth to receive him when he descended on her with a searing kiss.

*****

~ TARKYN ~

Watching her discover his body was both touching and inflaming at the same time. She was so delighted when he reacted to her. He stifled every instinct to grab and take and possess so he didn’t interfere with her joy. But the truth was, his body grew tighter and tighter with need.

And something else was building in him. Something his beast demanded.

He wanted to claim her. Needed to mark her as his own.

As she touched and stroked his stomach twisted, driving him to take her—but he had to step so carefully. She was still so new to all this, and he’d already frightened her once that day. He didn’t want to do it again. He couldn’t claim her until she was ready.

Surrendered.

But desire pulsed in him. Deep, resonant calls breaking his chest as she ran her hands all over him, exploring his body.

“I love it when you make that sound,” she whispered, her scent drenched in desire almost as acute as his own.

Then she leaned into him and the leash he’d been holding on himself snapped. He gripped her chin and turned her face up, taking her in a kiss that plundered.

On and on, delving, plunging, he used the kiss to show her what his body yearned to do with hers—and he pulled her against him, her warm skin a tantalizing joy in the cooler air of the valley.

He broke the kiss before he lost control completely, his hands tight on her, not allowing her to move away.

She looked up at him, her forehead lined. “Are you okay?” she asked—then gasped. His eyes must have changed when that jolt of desire speared through him.

But before he could reassure her, she smiled and her eyes changed too, flickered to her wolf’s.

His entire body quivered. He couldn’t resist. He pulled her up into a kiss, wrapped his arms around her and pinned her to him.

Harth held his face as if she was afraid he would pull away too. Her heavy breathing a seductive rasp.

“Harth,” he panted into her mouth. “God…”

He reached down to tear at her buttons, to shove her leathers down, then finally, finally touch her, sliding his fingers between her thighs and almost roaring when he found her, already slick and hot.

Deepening the kiss and bending her backwards into his hand, taking her weight, he took his turn to touch and stroke until Harth’s mouth was open, not even kissing him anymore, and her cries were swallowed by the call of the Riverbirds, startled when she began to keen.

For a moment he almost discarded the idea of claiming her, almost forgot everything but the need to plunge into her.

But as he drew back, intending to press her to the grass, her eyes opened and his heart swelled.

Swallowing hard because lust pressed at him from every corner, he caught his breath and held her chin. “Can I interest you in… bathing?” he asked hoarsely.

Harth’s eyes widened. “Can we do this in the water?”

Tarkyn spluttered. “Yes. Yes we can.”

“Then lead the—oh!”

He swept her up, carrying her at his chest, groaning when she recovered from her shock and immediately threw her arms around his neck and began nibbling at his ear while he carried her.

Tarkyn was practically running when they reached the shore of the river. Harth quickly threw her shirt aside on the banks as he carried her into the water, which was shockingly cold against his hot skin, but he plowed in, carrying her until his momentum carried his upper body past his feet and they plunged under the freezing water together.

They both broke the surface a moment later, gasping. Harth was already out of her depth and treading water, water droplets glittering on her lashes.

But she smiled as he reached for her and pulled her close, wrapping her legs around his waist until they bobbed in the water together.

He kissed her again and his body trembled. He’d intended to speak to her, to explain, but seeing her skin glowing in the water, her nipples peaked and hard against his chest, to feel her goosebumped skin under his palms…

Tarkyn groaned and kissed her as if he would die if he didn’t.

And she responded in kind—no longer hesitant or innocent, no longer drawing it out to tease. She gave a little cry and climbed him, her arms wrapped around his neck, her hips rolling as she rubbed herself on him.

Tarkyn dropped his head back and made the mating call, and she didn’t miss a beat, opening her mouth to his throat.

Desire and heat enough to evaporate the river sizzled through him and he grabbed her, rasping her name.

Something had shifted between them.

It was time.

*****

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