Twisted Soul (Cursed Legacies #3)

33. Maven

33

MAVEN

The sudden sting makes me jolt. I push on his chest, blinking up at him in shock.

What the fuck?

“Did you just…claim me?”

His pupils are shifted into vertical draconic slits, traces of my blood around his lips that he licks with an animal growl. But half a second later, he snaps out of it. His eyes return to normal—then widen in complete horror when he realizes what just happened.

“Oh, my gods. Gods —I didn't mean to… fuck ,” he swears, sitting up and covering his face.

It takes me a fraction of a second to adjust and become more than okay with this.

So what if he marked me? I’m his mate. Honestly, it was about damn time, even if it was his dragon who forced it.

“Baelfire.”

He’s spiraling, his shifter emotions taking hold as he panics, speaking quickly. “I am so fucking sorry. I swear I didn't mean to do that, and—gods damn it, I wasn't paying attention when we were on the run. I didn’t even fucking think to take any with me when we left the university?—”

Any what? What is he talking about?

“Bael, it's okay.”

I sit up, too, moving his hands away to frame his face between my fingers. Even that tiny amount of touch has him shuddering again. I realize he's covered in a thin sheen of sweat, his pupils blown wide as he nuzzles my hand like he can't help himself.

Oh, shit.

Suppressants. He was talking about not taking any suppressants.

“You’re going into a rut,” I realize.

Baelfire grimaces and nods, moving off the bed. Dragging his hands through his damp hair, he paces back and forth in the room like a pent-up animal, still breathing raggedly.

I knew little about heat and rut cycles until I met Kenzie, who told me more about what shifters go through. Human women undergo a monthly estrous cycle, but all shifters undergo a more extreme version of that cycle. Certain types of shifters experience it more frequently than others—but with modern magic and medicine, most can get away with taking suppressants to calm down their primal needs.

Kenzie described it as ovulation on “mega steroids.” She said if she ever missed taking suppressants, it left her in a brutal, all-consuming heat that always led to bad decisions because she literally couldn’t think like herself.

It doesn’t seem like Baelfire has reached that point yet, but I assume it’s coming.

Bael interrupts my thoughts when he braces his hands at the end of the bed and hangs his head.

“Fuck. Gods, I can’t—Maven, you need to get out of this room. Have Silas spell it shut to lock me inside so I can't get to you, okay?”

“I'm not going anywhere,” I decide.

“Raincloud,” he rasps, looking up at me pleadingly.

Gods. His gaze dragging over me as he grows overheated and desperate makes me squirm with building excitement, which just makes him curse more.

“Why should I go?”

“Baby, I'm going to lose my fucking mind. I'll be insatiable—already, literally the only thing I can think about is claiming and fucking the living hell out of you. Gods, I just want to covet and mark and fill you until you can't fucking move,” he grits out, palming his erection roughly with a wince.

It’s difficult to breathe, but I shrug. “I fail to see a downside to any of that. If you’re trying to convince me to leave, you're doing a terrible job of it.”

Bael’s gaze is searing as he gets back on the bed and prowls toward me.

“Ruts can sometimes take days. It's said they burn faster with mates, but I've never gone through a rut with anyone —I’ve always just taken suppressants, so I have no fucking idea what to expect. Meaning, I have no fucking idea if you'd be safe in here with me.”

He's never gone through a rut with someone?

Knowing I get one of his firsts makes me smile.

“I’m your mate. This was always going to happen. Unless you don’t ever want to experience a rut with me?”

“You have no idea how much I want you in here,” he whispers, kissing slowly up one of my bare legs and sending more tingling excitement fluttering in my stomach. I’m glad I wore such short shorts to bed earlier. “I’m just so fucking worried?—”

“I can handle this.”

“Can you?” Baelfire pins me with a half-miserable, half-starved expression, shaking his head. “Maven, what if you get overstimulated and need a second to breathe? What if I’m getting too aggressive and your touch phobia comes up and…damn it, what if I can’t stop? I won’t be in control. I refuse to do that to you, so please just?—”

I lean down, capturing his lips in a kiss. He immediately crawls forward to press me against the bed, shuddering as he grinds roughly against me.

Holy fuck, he's hard. And huge.

He’s also trying to protect me from my own sensitivities, but that’s not fucking happening. Not when Kenzie told me that going through a heat or rut completely alone can be agonizing for shifters.

I break away for air, meeting his gaze. “I want this. Let me help my mate through his rut, okay?”

Bael moans, grinding harder against me. “You really can't keep calling me your mate, or I swear I'm going to fucking lose it.”

“Lose it, then.”

He shakes his head, grimacing. “But if it’s touch overload for you?—”

“How about this? I’ll use a stasis spell on you if it becomes too much for me. Then, once I calm down, I’ll just undo it. It’ll be like you blinked, and we’ll go back to fucking the hell out of each other.”

He swallows hard, nodding. When I caress his strong shoulders, he groans again. “ Gods . Every single touch is so fucking intense. Pretty sure I’m not going to be able to think clearly soon, so…”

“So?”

I’m surprised when he pulls back again. But this time, he gets on his knees beside the bed, panting as he looks up at me with blazing desire written all over his body, his hard cock jutting out with need.

“You said you’d make me crawl if I was good,” he whispers, stroking himself like he’s desperate for relief. “Was I good enough for my reward, baby?”

Gods.

He looks so fucking good on his knees.

I scoot to the end of the bed until he’s between my thighs and tilt his chin up, arching a brow.

“You were until you started touching yourself without my permission.”

Baelfire’s hand immediately drops from his erection as he bites back a grunt.

“Fuck, baby. Anything you want. Just please fucking use me until I can’t control myself anymore.”

I study him, twisting my fingers into his damp, dirty blond hair so I can guide him to look up at me. His eyes are hooded, and he’s still shivering slightly as his rut builds—but knowing how badly he wants me in charge is…really fucking hot.

“Stand up.”

He obeys, and I’m glad he’s so tall because sitting on the edge of this bed gives me a good enough height to begin slowly stroking his already-leaking erection. Baelfire tenses, his hands balled into white fists at his sides as he struggles not to move without my permission.

Leaning forward, I lick the heady, hot wetness from his tip.

“My mate tastes so good,” I sigh.

“Fuck. Fuck,” he pants, shutting his eyes.

I slowly lick around the head of his cock, enjoying each tremor and swear as I take his incredible thickness into my mouth and begin to lavish it. I really fucking enjoy this—teasing and sucking as his desperation grows. I try to take more and more of him into my mouth and down my throat, enjoying the sensual sensation of his slick hard erection gliding deeper until I nearly fucking choke while he moans.

It’s so good that I start to squirm, becoming aware of the greedy throbbing between my legs.

Finally, he can’t stop the instinctive little thrusts of his hips.

“ Maven ,” he gasps. “Gods, baby, please?—”

I pop off of his dick, licking my lips and looking up at my needy shifter. “Crawl to the other side of the bed and lay down for me.”

He swallows hard, holding my gaze as he lowers to his hands and knees. I watch the gorgeous muscles on his body work in tandem, smooth and tantalizing, as he obediently crawls to get on the bed and lies down on the other side of me.

His golden gaze is deliciously pleading as he waits to see what I’ll do next.

I slowly straddle his stomach, tracing the powerful contours of his chest as I admire my mate. Then I slide back until I can feel his hot erection against my ass.

Gods, he’s so hard that my stomach flips with anticipation.

“Such a good pet for me,” I murmur, leaning down to kiss his warm lips.

Baelfire moans into my mouth, kissing me back ravenously as I cup his jaw. He’s trying to rub himself against my ass, panting in gloriously frustrated desperation.

When I feel the slight trickle of blood on the crook of my neck from him biting me on accident, I break away from the kiss, an idea crossing my mind.

“Bite me again,” I order gently.

He’s so far gone to the lust clouding around us that it takes a moment before he can focus on the bite wound. He shakes his head, fisting the sheets beside us to keep his hands to himself like a good boy.

“You’re already bleeding. I don’t like that.”

“I want your claiming of me to be intentional. If you don’t bite me again on purpose, we’ll always remember it as an accident.” I kiss his chin and turn my head so he has better access. “Make it real, Baelfire.”

He’s gentle at first, dragging his lips against the injury on the left side of my neck until he finally bites me again—hard.

Claiming me.

It’s a sharp pain and pleasure at once, but nothing like when Silas bites me. This isn’t feeding—it’s marking. It’s meant to leave a beautifully savage scar I’ll carry to show I’m his mate.

“Just like that,” I praise.

Baelfire’s hands go to my hips as he laps the sting away from my neck, his breathing growing more uneven. His cock glides against my ass through my pajama shorts again, more insistently.

“You’re mine,” he growls. “All fucking mine. My mate .”

I nod and try to kiss him, but suddenly, we’ve flipped. Baelfire pins my wrists over my head, his expression ferocious and lust-filled before he begins licking and kissing his way down my throat.

Sensual adrenaline spikes inside my veins when his teeth close around my jugular for a moment. He doesn’t draw blood, but the primal gesture is startling enough that I gasp.

“Bael,” I whisper.

“Why the fuck are you still in clothes?” he demands hungrily, dragging his face against my chest before sitting up and literally ripping my loose pajama shirt off of me.

Before I can try to wriggle out of my shorts to speed this process, he rips those off, too—along with my panties.

Then his tongue drags roughly against my dripping pussy, making me arch and cry out in surprise. He holds my hips in place as he devours me, his fingers pressing almost painfully hard into my hips.

He’s losing control.

I’m fucking loving it.

“Bite me again,” I demand, twisting his hair hard in my hands as I grind against his face.

Bael growls and turns to sink his teeth into my inner thigh. My mouth drops open at how brutally delicious it is. And when I look down to meet my mate’s gaze, I see it—golden pools of violent, animalistic need as he’s lost to the rut.

Baelfire might like me in charge, but right now, his beastly instincts are calling all the shots—and those instincts drive him to flip me over before he thrusts so deep and hard into me that I scream into the mattress. His cock pounds into me without mercy as he swears and snarls, spreading my legs wider.

He places a big hand against my upper back, pressing me further into the mattress but keeping my ass high as he savagely takes what he needs from my body, rutting like an animal. I moan and swear into the blankets, so awash with sharp, relentless pleasure that I’m not surprised when an orgasm sweeps over me out of nowhere.

“Fuck me,” I gasp, pushing back into him as my insides clench and my toes curl. “Yes, gods, fuck ?—”

Baelfire snarls and pushes deep one more time, coming hard. I startle at the sensation of his warmth filling me, but I barely have a second to catch my breath before he flips me over again, kissing a path up my stomach.

Then he slides into me again. He pins my hands to the bed, moaning as he thrusts slow and really fucking deep, setting a pace that is both languid and demanding.

“Bael,” I rasp, my pulse still humming as I still haven’t come down from my release.

He bites my lip, licking away the pain as he grows rougher—pressing one of my legs up until my knee is next to my head. I groan at the new angle while he growls savagely and fucks me harder, clearly unable to stop ravishing me even for a moment.

Oh, gods.

This rut is going to be brutal.

I smile.