*Isaac*
I pick her up in one swift motion, clutching her body to my chest. I’m not doing this on the couch in my office like she’s someone I brought home after a rowdy night at one of the bars downtown, no.
This woman is going to be my wife in a few days. She’s different. She means much more to me that I’m even willing to admit.
Unlooking the office door, I quickly move through the second floor of the house.
“Isaac,” she pants, gripping my shoulders. “I can walk–”
I turn a shadowed corner and walk down the hallway that leads to my room–soon to be our chambers. The full bedroom suit and adjoining sitting room.
I do my best not to kick down the door in my haste to get inside, driven mad by the feel of her in my arms. Her scent is everything I love and everything I find hard to explain. Like a fresh, clean spring day mingled with a warmth that reminds me of sitting by a fire with a drink in hand after being outside in the cold for hours. Her touch sends ripples of heat through me that I’ve never experienced before, something deeply primal.
It makes sense now why my wolf is always clawing to the surface in her presence, begging to be released. I want her. I’ve always wanted her. Since the second her hand slid into mine, and I swept her into a dance on my twenty-first birthday, I’ve wanted her.
Now, she is mine, and nothing has ever felt more right even though everything else in the world is wrong.
I kick the door closed, locking it firmly before letting her slip from my arms. Moonlight drifts through the windows, casting silver light across the floor and my bed on the far side of the room. She backs away from me, pulling her sweater over her head as she steps into the moonlight. The silver rays stretch over her skin, illuminating the gentle curves of her breasts and narrow shoulders.
She’s incredibly small, which makes a pang of regret echo through my chest. I’m easily twice her size, and I just told her I wouldn’t hurt.
Now, I’m not sure that’s even possible.
She reaches behind her back and unclasps her bra. It falls to the ground. Any rational thought leaves my body entirely as I watch her unclasp her jeans and pull them down.
Goddess, give me strength.
Dressed in nothing but lacy red underwear and bathed in moonlight, she looks like something out of my wildest dreams. Her hair is loose and tumbling thickly over her shoulders, the deepest shade of red, like a fine, vintage wine. And her eyes… like smoke. Like the sky being ripped apart by lightning. A perfect, stormy blue.
She is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
And she’s mine.
* * *
*Maddy*
He stands there with his back against the door for what feels like an eternity, just watching. Watching me undress, watching me run my hands up my belly to cup my breasts. I wonder, briefly, if he’s having second thoughts, because he’s not approaching me. In fact, he seems to be somewhere else entirely.
“Isaac,” I say in a voice that feels like it belongs to someone who knows what they’re doing in this situation, “come to bed.”
He lets out his breath in a rush, like he’d been spellbound. His eyes glint with desire in the moonlight as he stalks toward me, muscles ripping and face intent on mine.
I’m trembling. I wonder if he can tell this whole act is borne from false confidence. He could crush me between his hands with ease. He could pick me up and throw me a great distance as well, I’m sure. Watching him slowly, deftly, taking off his belt has my mouth going dry with sudden nerves as I imagine what he could do to me with his cock.
Standing in only his boxers now, we face each other, letting the moonlight bathe us in silver. I scrunch my toes into the carpet, trying to keep a firm grip on my resolve, but every second that passes is chipping away at whatever seductive mask I’ve put on in his office when I purred, “Make me yours.”
He caresses my face, his thumb trailing down my cheek. His touch is enough to burn through any doubts and fears clouding my mind and draw me back into this moment and the ache beginning to blossom between my legs.
That feeling only intensifies when his fingers move down my neck, then to my breasts. I suck in my breath as his large, calloused hand cups one of them. His touch is warm, and firm, and wanted. Desperately wanted.
I close my eyes, moaning softly. His touch intensifies, one hand on my back to pull me closer so our bodies are touching.
“You’re freezing,” he whispers against my temple, dropping his head to nip at my ear. I rest my hands on his broad upper arms, thankful he’s holding me upright because my knees are threatening to give out.
His lips meet mine, his tongue running over my lower lip until I open up to him, letting him kiss me fully.
If the way this man kisses is any indication of the kind of lover he is, well, I’m about to experience something I’m not prepared for in the least, something magical. Wonderful.
But that thought doesn’t do much to quell that fear of the pain I’m sure to encounter. That’s what I’m used to–pain. Pain, rejection, and loneliness.
Will this change the bond we already have? The budding friendship I’d felt blossoming over the past few days?
His hand leaves my breast and trails lower over the curve of my hip, and then lower, slipping into my underwear and between my legs.
“Isaac,” I moan, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back as his fingers slide over my clit. A flicker of electricity shoots down my spine and settles low in my belly.
No one has ever touched me like this.
He holds me against him, his breath coming in steady rasps. I jerk when he slides a finger inside me, filling me, stretching me to the point of pain. His hand on my back curls, pulling me closer. I can feel the tension in his body and the way his heart is hammering in his chest. He’s holding back. I know that now. That glazed look in his eyes when I’d undressed was him… him going through the same worries and doubts I’ve been going through.
He’s afraid to hurt me as much as I’m afraid I won’t be enough for him.
He picks me up and lays with me on the bed, lowering himself on top of me. He pulls my panties down my thighs and over my knees, each touch gentle, careful, and slow, like he’s giving me time to tell him to stop, to change my mind.
All I can think about is the way his body feels against mine, and how warm he is, how big he is. Propping himself up on an elbow, he looks down at my totally naked body, his free hand grazing down the slope of my stomach to the apex of my thighs.
And then, before I can react, the Alpha of King drops his head.
I buck against the sudden intimacy of what he’s doing, but he pins my hips to the bed and brushes his lips just below my navel.
“Isaac,” I pant, gripping his shoulders. “What are you doing?”
He grips the back of my thigh and forces me to bend my knee, a low chuckle sending a tremble through his body. “I’ve been dying to know what you taste like.”
Oh, Goddess, this man is going to kill me. All rational thought and protest dissolves the second his tongue slides over my clit and down, parting me. I arch my hips into the feeling involuntarily, driving my knees up. He growls low in his throat, pleased, it seems.
I’m more than happy. I think I might be about to pass out, actually. My eyes are squeezed shut and I’m shaking, my fingers tangled in his hair. The coiled tension in my lower belly suddenly snaps, and I cry out his name in both surprise and desperation and a flood of pure, white-hot pleasure rips through my body and causes me to buck against him.
Then I’m floating, riding an unfamiliar high, and the Alpha King of Crescent Falls is hovering over me, his thumb tracing my jaw.
He slips off his boxers and reality rushes back. I glance down, then back up into his eyes.
“It’ll hurt for a minute or two,” he says, and it sounds like he is using some serious control to keep his voice steady. The look behind his eyes is absolute feral, and a fresh rush of desire licks down my spine and settles low. My legs open on impulse, and I arch my hips to meet his. “Maddy,” he groans as I grind against him.
“Please,” I beg. I’ve lost my mind completely, that’s clear. Why stop now? Every fiber of my being is pleading to be claimed by him, to have him take and conquer me. He rests a hand on my thigh and keeps his eyes on mine as he slides his cock against my entrance, then presses into me.
I gasp, then grit my teeth.
He pulls out slowly, every muscle in his body tight as the leash he has on his control. I look up into his eyes and see the feeling behind them. He wants this to be good for me, and it has been.
“I’m not afraid of you. You said you wouldn’t hurt me, and I trust you,” I whisper even though my voice trembles. “Please, Isaac. I want you. All of you. Please, take me. I’m yours.”
I feel his relief. It echoes through the room before he kisses me with everything he has to offer and drives into me in a single thrust until he’s buried in me. I cry out, gripping his arms. It hurts, but not like I expected it to.
As he begins to move again, there’s nothing violent about his touch. Each stroke is firm and deliberate, stretching me to fit him, and I do. The ache between my legs turns to that deep, throbbing, delicious attention, and soon I’m canting my hips against his, arching into his touch and moaning. I lose myself to him and the way our bodies meld together, the way his skin feels against mine and the taste of him on my tongue.
He reaches between us and strokes my clit, panting and groaning as I tighten around him and fall over the razor sharp edge into a pleasure I can’t even put into words. He pours himself into me and gathers me to his chest, holding me close as we both come down from the same high.
The Alpha King just took me to bed. He laid with me, claiming me as his.
And it felt right. It felt natural.
Like he’s the man who's supposed to be touching me like this.
He pulls me against him so my back is flush with his chest and lays an arm protectively over my waist, and promptly falls asleep.
I don’t move. I don’t want to break this moment and whatever power it has over us.
I start to close my eyes, sleep overpowering me, I feel a slight flicker of something that feels both new, and familiar, in the back of my mind.
Something that I haven’t felt in years.
And then a scream pierces the halls of the castle.