Enthralled by Tiffany Roberts

Chapter 23

Ketahn snarled,forced the door fully open with a groan of metal grinding metal, and lunged through the doorway. Ivy didn’t have time to think. She completed the motion of her hand, grabbing the front of Cole’s jumpsuit, and tugged back with all her strength, swinging him around so she was between him and Ketahn. Were he not caught so off guard, she doubted she could’ve moved him.

The maneuver spun Ivy so her back was to Ketahn. She turned to face him and threw her arms out, making herself as big as possible—which was laughably small compared to him. He skittered to a halt, spindly legs darting out to either side of Ivy.

“Oh fuck,” Cole breathed.

“Move, Ivy,” Ketahn growled in vrix. His blazing violet eyes were fixed on Cole, and she knew he could easily reach around her to get at the human if he wanted to.

“No. I’m not going to let you kill him,” Ivy said.

Ketahn’s mandibles spread wider, but he lowered his gaze to her. A rumbling sound pulsed out of his chest as he cupped the underside of her jaw with one hand and tipped her head farther back, leaning down to examine her—to examine her lips, which still throbbed with the lingering, unwanted sensation of Cole’s kiss; to examine her chin, which was irritated from the scrape of Cole’s stubble.

The words he spoke were so guttural, so bestial, that Ivy nearly shuddered. “You chose him.”

Ivy flinched as though something had pierced her heart. Did he really think so little of her? Keeping her eyes locked with his, she poured all the fierceness of her love and conviction into her voice. “No, I chose you, Ketahn.”

His hold on her jaw tightened infinitesimally. “You protect him. Why?”

“To protect you.”

“He cannot harm me.”

Ivy brought her arms in and circled her fingers around his wrist. “If you kill him, all the trust the humans have in you will be gone. They will fear you. They will fear the others. And none of this will work.”

Ketahn moved his face closer to hers, drawing in a deep breath. “You say you did not choose him. But his scent is on you.” His thumb brushed across her lips, shaken by a faint tremor. “His mark is upon you.”

“He kissed me. He tried for more—”

Somehow, Ketahn’s already rigid body tensed further, radiating heat and fury. Ivy braced her hands against his chest before he could charge forward.

“But I already took care of it!” Ivy rushed to say. “I fought him. I fought him because I am yours.”

Ketahn’s eyes lingered upon her for the space of a few thumping heartbeats before shifting up to look beyond her. He dropped his hand from her jaw, took hold of her upper arms, and lifted her off the floor effortlessly, setting her aside. Before she could move back, he blocked her with one of his long legs.

“Ketahn, please…” Ivy pleaded.

He stepped forward, and Cole backpedaled—but his retreat was halted by the wall.

Cole put his hands up. “Look, Ketahn, this was just—”

Faster than Ivy’s eyes could register, Ketahn’s arm darted out. The cabinet behind Cole buckled with the force of the blow. The man started, his wide eyes shifting from Ketahn’s huge fist, which had landed barely an inch to the side of Cole’s head, to Ketahn’s face.

Ketahn leaned down slowly, placing his head just above Cole’s, with his mandible fangs almost close enough to touch the man’s cheeks. “Ivy is mine,” he said in English, his accent thicker than normal. “Do not touch. Do not look with want. Do not even think. Understand?”

When Cole just continued to stare, another of Ketahn’s hands rose, this one wrapping around Cole’s throat and shoving him back against the already damaged cabinet door. Ketahn growled, “Touch again, and it is done. You are done.”

“I-I got it!” Cole rasped, his hands clutching Ketahn’s arm. “I won’t!”

“Now go.” Ketahn dragged Cole away from the wall, releasing his hold as he shoved the man toward the door.

Cole stumbled and pitched forward, preventing himself from falling on his face only by briefly planting a hand on the floor. Before he was even fully upright, he scrambled through the doorway, disappearing into the corridor without a backward glance.

Ketahn’s attention was already on Ivy. He strode toward her, closing the distance between them like it had never been there at all and driving her backward until she bumped the wall. His mahogany and spice scent filled her nose, and his hungry growl vibrated into her.

“Ketahn, I—”

He caught her chin, making her breath hitch, and forced her face up. “Mine.”

Ketahn’s hard mouth came down upon hers. The brush of his rough flesh, the insistent press of his tongue against her lips, and the heat he emanated burned away the memory of Cole’s unwelcome touch. Ivy parted her lips with a heady sigh and welcomed Ketahn’s alien kiss, winding her arms around his neck to pull him closer. Heat flowed through her and pooled between her thighs.

His fingers slid along her jaw and delved into her hair to cup the back of her head, anchoring her in place while he ravaged her mouth. He seemed determined to blast away all traces of Cole. And Ivy returned the kiss in full, offering everything. Her sex clenched with need as the emptiness within her core expanded.

Mine.

The echo of that claim sent a delightful shiver through her, making her moan.

A low vibration rattled in Ketahn’s chest, a lustful purr and a possessive growl blended into one hungry, thrilling sound. It was the only warning he gave for what came next.

With the same speed he’d used to lash out at Cole, Ketahn hooked his lower arms under Ivy’s knees, caught her wrists in his upper hands, and lifted her. He pressed her against the wall with her hands over her head, pinning her in place with his body. Cold air caressed her bared sex as his claspers curled around her ass.

Spreading his other legs to brace himself, he bent his forelegs, brought them in close, and brushed them along the backs of her thighs. When he angled his hips up, the tip of his cock bumped Ivy’s already slick pussy. Her nipples hardened, aching to be touched, to be caressed, amplifying her need for him more.

Trapped in place and softly panting, Ivy looked up and locked her gaze with Ketahn’s. The lantern light behind him only enhanced the darkness of his hide, making his many violet eyes glow amidst the shadows on his face.

He was that shadowy monster all over again—her shadowy monster.

And God, it turned her on.

“Do it,” Ivy breathed. “Fuck me. Claim me. Take my body.”

Like you’ve taken my heart.

Ketahn’s fingers flexed, and his claws prickled her, sending exquisite thrills along her flesh. With a snarl, he thrust into her the same instant he slammed her down on his cock, forcing her to take all of him.

Ivy’s cry was short and sharp. She tilted her head back against the wall, but kept her eyes locked with his. Her hands clenched against the pain of his entrance, against the slight burn as he stretched her, as he filled her to the brink and beyond. But there was a restless energy thrumming inside her—a craving for more.

He lifted her, shuddering as her sex gripped his thick cock, and drove back into her with equal force to that of his first thrust. This time, he did not stop. His body surrounded her utterly, keeping her trapped, ensuring she was his to use, to take, to claim. Ketahn’s frantic, merciless rhythm blasted her with waves of heat and pleasure that ebbed and flowed with each movement of his hips, always building higher and higher.

The room filled with her moans, her cries, her panting breaths, filled with his grunts and growls. She was vaguely aware of the open doorway, aware that anyone could pass at any moment and see them, but she didn’t care. She wanted them to see. Wanted them to know without any doubt that she belonged to Ketahn—and that he belonged to her.

The claws at the ends of his legs scraped the floor, and his rhythm grew more frenzied. Dipping his head to her shoulder, he ran his tongue along her collarbone and neck to lick away her sweat.

“You are mine,” he rasped in her ear.

“Yes,” she moaned.

He growled and pressed his headcrest to her forehead. Their eyes met again, narrowing the world down to just the two of them. “My nyleea. My heartsthread.”

“Yours, my luveen. I want no other.”

“Shaper, unmake me,” Ketahn groaned.

He released her wrists to cup Ivy’s face between his palms. His hard mouth met hers as he adjusted the angle of her hips, making his thrusts strike her in a new way. The altered sensation rocketed her to the verge of climax. Her entire body strained for that last nudge, that final spark to finish her off. Ivy whimpered against his mouth and looped her arms around his neck.

Snarling, Ketahn slammed her down upon him, driving himself deeper than she’d ever thought possible. He held her there as his body tensed and his cock swelled. The heat radiating from his hide intensified, seeping into her, just before his seed—even hotter still—erupted inside her.

That was all it took. The pleasure that had been escalating within her burst, overcoming her completely. Ivy’s cries were drowned out by Ketahn’s roar of release.

Her fingers delved into his hair, grasping the strands; she needed something—anything—to hold onto while wave after wave of euphoria consumed her. He clutched her, his claws digging into her skin, his claspers gripping her ass, and all Ivy could do was succumb as Ketahn’s curious, fluttering tendrils pushed her to new heights.

And when Ivy finally floated down and regained awareness, Ketahn was there, holding her, cradling her in his arms as though she was the most precious thing in all the world. He brushed the seam of his mouth over her lips in the lightest of caresses, and his hair, now loose from its tie, fell forward to brush over her skin.

She opened her eyes. The intensity that had burned in his gaze had softened but had not diminished, and she knew there was nothing and no one else in all the universe he looked at the way he did her.

You make it sound like we’re soulmates.

Maybe you are. How else could you have found each other?

She had no idea if soulmates were real, if fate existed, if everyone in the universe had one person they were meant to be with. But she knew with all her heart that she had chosen Ketahn to be her forever—and he would be imprinted upon her soul for all eternity.

Ivy softly smiled and caressed Ketahn’s jaw. “My heartsthread.”

With a gentle trill, Ketahn tipped his headcrest against her forehead. “My Ivy.”