Unleashed (13 page)

“I’ve little time and less control each day,” he said quietly, anguish in his voice. “The crown prince told me it was time for me to return home. Wulfgar, I tried, but…” Tears were in his eyes. “It would be simpler if you killed me.”

“What?” gasped Bettina, whirling.

Her husband shushed her, then quickly scrawled his name.

“In seventeen days, I reach my twenty-fifth birthday. Four days later is a full moon. I will become the beast inside me. Each month…” He snapped his mouth shut and closed his eyes. “Wulfgar…”

“You need a virgin,” Amanda stated quietly. “Willing to wed and bed you within twenty days.”

He nodded. Amanda caught Bettina’s gaze and smiled.

“My best friend would suit you well.”

Heinrich frowned but his wife smiled and clapped her hands together.

“Elise. Amanda, it would be perfect. For both of them.”

“All well and good,” growled Wulfgar. “But do you mind if I bed
my
bride before you start planning
his
wedding?”

“Not until you’ve had Georg’s wonderful meal,” Bettina told him. “He worked like ten fiends in the kitchen…”

“Fine,” he muttered, then whispered in Amanda’s ear. “Eat quickly, love.”

Laughing, she let him sweep her out of the office. In just a couple hours, Georg and his staff had pulled together an amazing meal, including a cake large enough for everyone to get a tiny piece. The villagers and staff not in the dining room mingled in the great hall. There were meats and vegetables followed by breads, cheeses, and dried fruits, then beaming from the praise heaped on him, Georg proudly carried the cake from the kitchen. Hunter retrieved the baron’s saber from the lord’s suite and handed it to him.

Amanda put her hand over his and they carefully cut a piece free from a corner. Setting the saber down, Wulfgar picked up the cake and held it for her to take a bite. Eyes glowing, she opened her mouth. Her fingers brushed his as she took the piece from him and fed him.

“Just one more thing, love,” she murmured, feeling the beast in him stirring.

“Are you certain?” he wondered.

Laughing, she took the bouquet from Bettina and ran lightly up the staircase to the first landing. Giggling and blushing, the maids and three girls from the village gathered below her. Turning her back to them, she glanced over her shoulder, winked, then faced the steps again. The flowers flew from her hands and the girls scrambled to the far left.

Startled, Melly reached up just before the others could get close enough. Amanda hurried back down to her husband who was chuckling at Jordan’s intent expression.

“Now can I carry you to our room?” he murmured in her ear.

“I’m surprised you’re asking, my lord,” she replied.

“About time.”

He swooped his arms under her shoulders and knees, starting up the staircase before she could put her arms around his neck. Realizing what was happening, the staff and villagers cheered raucously, with a few ribald comments muttered by the men that drew blushes from the women. Amanda rested her cheek against his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart. Her hand moved along his back until her fingers brushed the ends of his hair. At the top of the staircase, he turned and the hall fell silent. All eyes were on them.

“Let the word go forth. This is my lady.”

She let her head fall back against his shoulder. His mouth captured hers as again the hall echoed in shouts. Sure and certain, still kissing her, Wulfgar turned and strode down the hall toward the lord’s suite.

Chapter Eleven

With the door closed behind them, Wulfgar leaned against it, relishing the feel of her in his arms, her lips against his. Slowly he released her legs and her body pressed against his. He could feel her soft curves beneath the silk and his control started to slip. Amanda eased from his arms and turned, sweeping her unbound hair over a shoulder.

“Can you get the buttons, Wulfgar?”

Nodding, he raised his arms and started at the top. After the first few, the material began to fall from her body, revealing smooth creamy skin. Halfway done, he gave in, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back to him. His mouth went to the exposed shoulder and she sighed and relaxed as he made his way to his ear.

“Are you ready for this, my love? I’m holding back as much as I can but, knowing you’re truly mine, the beast is trying to claim you as well.”

Her head turned so their eyes could meet.

“You’ve been preparing me for this in my dreams. I’m not sure I’m ready for your beast form, but…” Smiling, she turned in his embrace. “He might come in handy for warmth when the deep of winter comes.”

Chuckling, he resumed working her buttons. As he reached the end, just above her pert bottom, he realized her hands had been busy as well. She’d unbuttoned his jacket and waistcoat, untied his cravat, and was working on his shirt.

“Mmm,” he whispered in her ear. “Think there’s something under there you might like?”

“I know there is,” she said softly, a huskiness coming into her voice. Her hands went to the small of her back and untied the ribbons of her petticoat. Taking three steps back, she eased the dress from her arms, caught the petticoat with her skirt, and shimmied out of both. “Is there something here you might like?”

He stared at the sight of her in her chemise, stockings, and slippers.

“Wulfgar?”

“What happened to the demure maid?” he murmured, smiling. “She’s been taken over by a wanton lady.”

A log in the fireplace slipped and blazed up, casting her body into relief against the white silk.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Striding toward her, he swept her out of the material, leaving it in a puddle on the floor, and carried her to the bed. Laying her against the pillows, he quickly pulled his clothes off. Not content to stay as he’d put her, Amanda rolled to her side and propped herself up on an elbow to watch him. He heard her breathing grow faster and more shallow as he removed his shirt. Tugging his shoes off, he tossed them to the side.

Straightening, he went to the edge of the bed. Two fingers under her chin lifted her face so their heated gazes clashed.

“Watch me, Beloved. Keep your eyes on me. Don’t close them.”

Nodding, she sat up, following his hands as they worked on the buttons of his breeches. Being to court standards, he had to peel them over his hips and down his thighs until he stood before her with only his loin strap on.

His cock strained to be free of that last piece of material. His hands went to the knot at his right hip.

“Let me,” she spoke.

“Amanda, if you touch me, I won’t be able to hold back.”

A slow seductive smile curved her lips as she swung her legs over the bed and sat on the edge.

“Promise?”

Holding his breath, he took the last step toward her.

Amanda was also wondering where this wantonness was coming from. It had to be because of the dreams. At the moment, she didn’t care. Wulfgar didn’t seem to mind. In fact, from his teasing and his reactions, he liked it. Her fingers followed the material and quickly worked the knot.

The white linen fell to the floor and she inhaled as his long thick cock sprang free, pointing at her as if it knew exactly where it should be. The purplish mushroom head seemed to pulse.

“Amanda?”

All of her dreams flooded her mind. Pieces she’d never understood, sounds, feelings that had confused and frightened her—now they all rushed forward. And she understood them. It was her blood heritage from her mother. She felt her body warm and her loins tighten. Need.

Lifting her gaze to her husband’s, she reached out with one hand and wrapped her fingers around the velvet-wrapped heat of his cock. The words came to her. A timeless chant that was as much ritual as what they had done in the great hall. With a meaning she wasn’t sure she understood yet, she placed her other hand on his heart and took a deep breath.

“This is mine. As surely as I am yours. I need what only you can give me. I give you my heart and body. All that I am—heart, mind, and body—is yours from this moment until my last breath. All that I am, I pledge to thee.”

Releasing her breath, she released her Flaradian side and the golden glow flared around her.

Wulfgar’s hands framed her face, then drifted down her neck.

“Remember the last dream, Beloved?” She nodded. “I will take what is mine. I will protect and guard you until my last breath. And no other woman shall ever warm my bed.”

His hands tore the chemise from her, then lifted her from the bed. As their mouths met, her arms and legs wrapped around him. She felt his balance shift as his left knee rose and then they were falling briefly through the air to land on the bed.

His mouth was already at her neck, his lips and teeth leaving a trail of fire against her skin. His hands were at her breasts. As in the dream, they kneaded the soft mounds, then pinched her nipples. She gasped, her fingers tangling in his hair to hold him against her breast. His mouth captured one puckered tip.

Her body pressed up against him, her thighs parting for him. His hips ground against hers, his cock rubbing against the dark curls that were all that separated them. One hand drifted along her side. As his body shifted slightly, his fingers brushed the silken skin, teasing the folds dripping with her need. A finger circled the opening then began stroking in and out.

“Wulfgar, Wulfgar,” she moaned, twisting beneath him.

One finger became two as he prepared her tight channel for his cock. His thumb found her clit, hard and out of its hood. As he pressed it, she cried out, hips rotating, bumping against him.

“Wulfgar, please.”

His teeth raked over a sensitive nipple and she groaned. Then she felt the fingers push farther into her and gasped. Her eyes flew open and met his knowing gaze. Understanding the why didn’t lessen the burning need in her for what she really wanted.

“Now,” she urged. “For God’s sake, Wulfgar. Now.”

He smiled, taking her mouth with his. His tongue stroked in and out matching his fingers. Some part of her mind realized the pressure was greater. Three fingers. Still not what her body craved. Moaning, growing desperate from the Flaradian power she’d used earlier, she writhed against him.

And was pinned.

“Look at me. Look at me!”

Lust-glazed eyes tried to focus on his face.

“What is this? I’m skilled as a lover but a maid shouldn’t be reacting this wantonly.”

“I…I…don’t know,” she gasped. Then understood some passages of her mother’s journal. “My mother’s people. It’s been building the past few days. After each dream. As if layers inside me were being revealed. Like the shell was being removed or wood being added to the spark of a fire. It’s been easier to communicate with Karl and I’m not as exhausted from it. And today, after I healed Anders, all I wanted was your touch. To feel the release you could give me. As if that would…” She desperately searched for the right word. “As if I would be balanced again. In control again.” He was silent and she became frantic that he would reject her as her father had rejected her mother. “Wulfgar, I didn’t know! She died when I was young and there are things in her journal I couldn’t understand, but now I’m starting to and…”

“Shh, Beloved,” he murmured, kissing her temple. “It’s similar to what I must deal with.” He smiled. “The sexual release, the climax, is balance and control for us both.” His teeth nipped her ear. “You’ve been holding it back for hours, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” she whimpered, her hips shifting under his. “I didn’t know what to do. How to explain what was inside me.”

Wulfgar’s cock slid back and forth against her pussy and she cried out in need, writhing beneath him as if possessed. Her hands clawed at his back as he levered himself on his elbows.

“Please. I feel like I’m going to fly apart.”

“I wanted to go slower for you, but that time is definitely past, Beloved. You’ve gone too long as it is. I know what that is like.”

“Wulfgar,” she was sobbing in her need, her legs wrapped around his waist trying to hold him to her.

She felt his lower body move and then what was definitely not his fingers at her opening.

“Trust me, Beloved,” he whispered. “It may hurt at first, but it’s necessary. Take a deep breath and let it out,” he told her. “Relax, Beloved.”

She obeyed, her eyes never leaving his face. In one stroke, he took her, driving fully into her and breaking her hymen. With a cry, she lifted off the mattress briefly before his mouth covered hers.

Her blood boiled over and the first, small release swept through her.

Wulfgar.

You’re mine, Beloved. Now and always.

Now and always.

His cock stroked in and out of her pussy—hard, deep, and fast.

“Come for me again,” he told her. “Release again for me.”

The fire was building and as he slammed back into her, hitting her clit, the heat engulfed her. Her hands clutched at his back, nails raking in her need as she screamed his name before releasing him, collapsing back onto the pillows. Her legs unwound from him, falling to the sides.

The edge, that tight knife in her mind eased. She sighed and smiled, taking her first normal breath since the men had broken into the manor.

“That’s it, my love,” Wulfgar murmured. “Better?”

“Yes,” she smiled up at him. “But not completely.”

His head came down and his mouth claimed a breast. He sucked, nibbled, and licked first one, then the other. He worked his way down her body and when his tongue flicked her clit, Amanda writhed. His hands gripped her hips holding her still.

And his mouth claimed what his cock had. Her hands clutched the sheet as his lips and tongue teased her pussy and clit. Then one hand left a hip while the other lay across her stomach. Fingers entered her, hooking inside her pussy so she was caught between the pressure of them on the inside and his thumb on her clit on the outside.

“Wulfgar,” she pleaded, coming off the pillows.

Lifting his head, she saw the hunger in his expression.

“What do you want, Beloved?”

“You. I want you, Wulfgar. Inside me.”

“Mm,” he growled. “Shall I show you how the beast releases and regains control?”