Page 42 of The Red Moon

Nik nods a few times, his mouth thinned to an uneven line. “When you say it out loud, it sounds a lot worse.”

“You think?”

Nik gives a small apologetic laugh, and before I can lie down fully, he’s standing over me, hands clasped to the back of my neck. Pinpricks trickle up my arms and leave goose bumps in their wake. I tilt my head to meet his eyes, and he stares for a moment, inspecting every inch of my face. “I’ll make it right, Natalia.”

“Good,” I challenge him, listening to the way his heart flutters at first and beats with the intensity of a hunter cornering their prey. “And what was Clément talking about when he said the real war was coming?”

Nik sighs and shakes his head. “You caught that too, huh? He’s convinced there’s something else out there that’s a threat to our kind. A myth passed down from the alphas before him, and Clément was somehow the first Duval wolf to actually believe it. Being cooped up in this castle has clearly done a number on him.” He glides his fingers down my shoulders, thumbs grazing my collarbone.

I see the way he’s looking at me. That glint in his golden eyes. How his jawline tightens. The way each inhale becomes rampant. “Nik?”

“Yes, Natalia?”

I draw an unsteady breath. God. My blood isn’t simmering. No, it’s fucking boiling. “I thought you wanted to make sure I could control myself first?”

He smirks, and I despise him for it. “You made something very clear in that council room.”

“What—what was that?” I sputter the words out, his touch forcing my thighs to clench tight.

“That you are dangerous,” he says and kisses my forehead. “And stubborn.” Another kiss, this time to my cheek. “And best of all,” Nik pauses, bringing my face into his large palms. “Even when your deadly impulses take over … You still listen to your fucking alpha.”

His mouth clashes to mine, swallowing the moan leaving my lips. Our tongues swipe together. Soft and gentle grazes at first. Then, he sucks my tongue into his mouth and any control I might’ve had before breaks free from its chains. I dig my nails into his back, forcing his bare, scalding chest to my mine and invite the warmth to radiate through me. There’s something ravenous about our embrace. An intense hunger building within me that seems impossible to satisfy. Not with just his lips. His tongue. His hands roaming my body. There’s only one thing I want right now, and my center doesn’t throb but quakes at the thought of it.

“You know how much I care for you, right?” he asks, his breath tickling my ear.

I nod enough times to lose count and drag my hands down his arms, my breath hitching.

His eyes narrow, and what I see in them now is nothing short of a god who has forgotten mercy. A monster preparing itself for the kill. “Good,” he rasps. “You are everything to me, Natalia. And tonight … I’m going to fuck you like you aren’t.”

Nik drives me into the mattress, his body positioned over me while straddling my hips. He drags his mouth over my neck, sucking and nipping at the tender flesh as each carefully constructed thread of my resolve begins to unravel. I don’t try to stop him. No, I arch my neck to the side and submit to the animal claiming me. He attacks me again, and I fucking relish it. With each kiss along my throat, his pleasure-filled moans vibrate down my ribs to my stomach. I welcome every bite. Every clawed hand shredding my shirt to ribbons. And when only strands of cotton remain between us, he tears off what’s left.

“Fuck,” he growls, inspecting every inch of my exposed skin. Gliding a single claw down my breasts to my abdomen, he stops when he reaches the waistband of my sweats. “You know, I can hear everything happening inside you right now. Every heartbeat. The blood pumping through your femoral arteries. You want to know what that sweet little pussy is screaming?”

“Yes,” I whimper.

One side of his face tilts up in a devious smirk. “My fucking name.”

My breath catches. I try and suppress the moan ripping from me but can’t keep it down. One leg at a time, he yanks at the sweatpants, leaving my ankles bound in bundled fabric. After he studies me for a moment, his finger finds the exact spot it left off. Just below my navel. Now, he inches it lower. And lower. And lower until a strangled cry is the only sound I produce.

I bite my lip, teeth piercing the skin. My entire body convulses at his hand hovering over me, fingers grazing my flesh and the spot utterly dripping for him. My heartbeat triples. The muscles in my legs lose all their strength. It doesn’t matter how tight I clench my thighs, the pulses at my core won’t stop. No, the sensation grows stronger with each teasing swipe of my clit. He was right about one thing. My pussy is screaming, and it is screaming his fucking name.

He lifts my bound feet to the ceiling and wedges his head between them, letting the sweatpants rest at the back of his neck like shackles locking our bodies in place. Nik pulls me toward him using his shoulders, bringing the most vulnerable parts of me to rest against the hardest parts of him. We moan in unison. Him, a rough gasp, and me, a lust-filled plea. I can’t escape. No, I’m bound to this bed, my arms the only thing unrestrained. I’m at his mercy now, and as the tip of his throbbing cock grazes my center, I claw at the bedding with salacious anticipation.

Something builds in my stomach. It’s not human, though. No, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. It’s deeper. A pressure I can’t quite describe. I don’t know what it is but I’m certain there’s one thing that might fix it. Him. I need him. His body tied to mine in the most satisfying way. I’ll howl. I’ll howl at every goddamn moon if I have to. If it means he will cure this incredible desire torturing my insides.

“Mmmm,” he growls. “You might be able to stay silent but your body can’t.” Nik removes the military jacket from his waist, unsheathing himself and letting his hard cock slap down against me with a thud. “It’s a good thing your healing has started. You’re going to need it.”

I don’t move. I don’t speak. I simply wait for a monster in the form of Nikolai Vostik to give me the one thing I’d gladly claw out my own eyes for. He grabs his cock at the base, driving it toward my center, spreading me open inch by satisfying inch. I scream with indescribable bliss, feeling the way my walls stretch around his length the deeper he shoves himself. Pain spikes when he’s fully engorged inside me, his thighs clapping against the backs of mine. And when he slides back, I pray to every god, every pack, he doesn’t stop there.

He doesn’t. Oh, no. Nik slams into me with the force of a battering ram, painting this guest room in the Duval den an explosive color palette. Blues. Pinks. Purples all burst in my vision. Another thrust, bringing greens and different shades of red while using his hands to brace my hips. I don’t scream. I cry at each fulfilling entry, begging for another to follow. Dragging my nails down his chest as he threatens to unravel me, something drips between my fingers. And when I peer through clenched eyes at my hands holding onto his waist for dear life, I see the sharp, uneven incisions trailing down his chest. My nails are gone, and in their place … claws.

Nik buries his cock inside me again and again, seemingly unbothered by the blood trickling down his defined torso to a red pool at my stomach. What have I done? The gashes are thick and slice through the hardest part of his abdomen, revealing layers of skin down to the sharp white of bone.

I gasp and cover my mouth with both hands, smearing copper to each cheek. “I—I didn’t mean to⁠—"

“Taste it,” Nik cuts me off and slams into me again. Once. Twice. Three more times, his eyes glowing in the same, arterial shade. “Taste me.”

That’s when I smell it. The blood coating my knuckles. It isn’t off-putting. It’s different. Sweet, almost. I bring my index finger to my mouth, hesitantly at first, and when I lick it clean on impulse, the rest of my hand is next on the menu. An insatiable urge takes over, desperate to lap up every bit of him I can. One taste isn’t enough. No, I need more if I’m ever meant to survive this delicious punishment he’s inflicting. And thank god, he doesn’t stop on my account. If anything, he shoves himself deeper, pace quickening. I’m not sure if it’s his blood or my arousal dripping down his cock now, but it’s the least of my concerns. All I know is I’m being dragged to the brink and this wolf is my only anchor.