Savage Prince by Alison Aimes
10
“You think I don’t want that fucker's claim out of you?” Skolov’s roar shook the room. “I want that so fucking bad I can taste it on my tongue. I can feel my claws punching against my skin, twitching with the urge to rip that tracker out myself. But I never fucking would.” He leaned closer, his nose inches from hers. “Because I’d never hurt you like that. I’d never hurt you at all.”
His surge of emotions triggered her own.
“You’re hurting me now! Confusing me! Saying nice things that can never be. Making me hope when that’s the last thing someone like me should ever do! Just…” she shoved uselessly at him, “just let me go.”
“Never!” Nostrils flaring, his gaze bore into her as if he could see to her soul. “You’re hissing and scheming, making plans to escape, searching for any excuse to see my words as lies.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “What the hells are you so afraid of?”
“Nothing!” Everything.
“Liar.” He reared back so quickly she had no time to respond.
His big body slid down hers as his knees hit the floor. In the next heartbeat, his arms wrapped around her thighs and jerked her to the edge of the bed.
She gasped. Scrambled to her elbows.
Only to find him between her legs, his jaw tight, his usually perfect, dark hair ruffled, his golden eyes streaked with red and wild, raw lust. “You think I’ll only bring you pain, but your body knows differently.” He growled low. Nipped at one inner thigh. Then the other.
Her body shook. Slick pearled on her folds.
Inhaling deep, his stare flared with triumph. “Your body knows I can give you what you need.”
Her wrists and throat throbbed.
“You want to pretend this is nothing but hollow manipulation?” His lips ghosted along the sensitive crease of her inner thigh, so gentle in contrast to the harshness of his words. “You want to tell yourself my claim means nothing more than another bout of servitude under a cruel master? Go ahead and try.”
Enraged, exposed, she tried to shove him off her.
Red eyes glittering, he pinned her wrist to the mattress, keeping her right where he wanted her. “You can shut me out. Attempt to retreat. It won’t work. I’ll drag you to the point of pleasure, to the edge of need, as many times as it takes for that stubborn, scared mind of yours to understand. You belong here. With me.”
Without warning, he buried his face between her thighs, his tongue stroking over her clit.
Her hips jerked, her moan so loud it echoed through the room.
A rumble of approval thundered from his chest. The flat of his tongue licked along her slit.
Her body burned.
She fought it.
He kept up the same maddening, steady rhythm, his tongue working her tight bundle of nerves until, unable to resist, she lifted her hips, grinding into his mouth.
He hummed in approval.
She mewled in need.
Shifting his hold, one massive hand landed on her belly, keeping her pressed to the mattress while the other hand slid between her thighs.
A single finger thrust inside her.
She cried out, pleasure slamming through her.
So wild. So fierce. So good.
She’d never known an Alpha could give, not just take.
“P-Please.”
“That’s right, beautiful.” His hand worked her faster. “No pain. Only pleasure. Show me exactly what you want. What you can’t live without.”
Panting and writhing, she bent beneath his will, soaring as that single finger worked her harder, the friction just right.
Her body clamored for more. “Oh, gods. Please. Please.”
He growled again, this one heavy with satisfaction. “This is only the beginning, omega. I’m going to shower you with every luxury. Desserts almost as sweet as the taste of you on my tongue. Colorful, silk underthings almost as pretty and soft as the pink little slit gripping my finger tight.”
She moaned his name, lost to the spell he was weaving.
“Look at those marks on your wrists and throat. Growing a little darker with every touch. I told you our interests, our needs, were aligned. You are fucking mine.”
Alarms whispered through her. She tried to think past the lust. Was what they were doing somehow affecting the fated bond in ways she didn’t intend?
Panting, she tried to think.
He added another finger, her pussy so wet his finger made a squelching sound. Her thoughts splintered. “Maxheim!”
“Fuck, yes. Scream my name.” He pressed kisses to her mound. Dragged his teeth against her inner thigh. Lapped at her clit. “Such a sweet, dirty girl. Such a tight little hole. Can’t wait to fuck it again. Knot it hard. Spread it wide for me and me alone. Over and over again.”
“Yes!” Every other thought vanished.
Her acquiescence unlocked something inside him.
“Good girl. No more fighting it. Give in to me.” He dove between her legs once more. Devouring her. Consuming her. Making it impossible for her to pretend that this was just some form of self-sacrifice. Or that all Maxheim Skolov would bring her was pain.
His tongue speared in and out.
Her body jerked beneath the force of his exquisite savagery.
His tongue shifted, flattening as it slid upward, lapping in broad strokes that rocketed her higher, while his finger came out of her with a pop, only to slide lower, his fingertip circling the tight ring of muscles between her bottom cheeks.
She froze. Moaned. “I don’t—”
He growled low. “What I want. When I want it.” His finger massaged the tight rosebud and then pressed down.
She gasped. It was the shallowest of penetration, and yet she felt it to her core.
“Maxheim!” She shattered, screaming his name while her hips bucked and he held her down.
“That’s right, omega. All mine. Because you might not believe it yet, but I know what you need.”
His tongue flicked in and out of her pussy. His finger fucked her bottom hole.
It was a full-on siege. An all-consuming claiming.
She shook. Clawed at the sheets.
He bounced her on his tongue, her body his to do with as he would.
“Don’t need a fucking tracker to realize to whom you belong. This tight, sweet pussy and ass know. The bond knows.”
Head thrown back, she screamed as another wave of pleasure hit and her core spasmed. Pure rapture ripped through her.
She flew.
Higher than she’d ever thought possible. Unbound. Set free.
She knew Skolov had intended to impart a lesson, and he had succeeded.
She’d always feared submission and the price of her surrender, but in this moment with him, it felt far less like capitulation and more like victory.
The golden tendrils of her gift vibrated around the room while her body glowed with incandescent pleasure.
It was several long moments before the euphoria melted into satiation and her mind started working more fully.
Her chest was still rising and falling fast as he pushed from between her thighs to loom above, a droplet of slick pooling at his jaw.
Tension vibrated between them.
She tried to think past the aftershocks rippling through her, past the ache in her pussy that wanted more, past the way she felt stripped bare at how easily she’d given herself into his keeping yet again.
All she wanted to do was bask in the force of his strength. In the way he kept breaking her down and showing her parts of herself she’d never known existed.
Would he fuck her again now? Gods help her, but after what he’d just done, she wanted him to.
Because a part of her was actually coming to believe he meant what he was telling her. She didn’t know why, but he truly wanted her—her—as his prime omega.
But nothing else about their circumstances had changed. She was still the killer his Brotherhood was after, and her friend was still the male Skolov wanted to hunt down. She was still omega property with a gift good for only darkness and pain.
Their gazes locked.
He still looked fierce, but there was no anger in his stare now. “You taste like every good dream I’ve ever had.”
Something that felt dangerously like tenderness welled inside her.
“You make me want to dream too,” she confessed, her hand lifting from the bed to cup his square jaw.
His lips titled upward. Her lungs stuttered at the sight of the smile.
Like a rare sudden meteor storm, it took her breath away.
The comms at his wrist crackled.
They both startled.
“Maxheim?” It was a brother again. “You need to get here now.”
“What is it?” His gaze stayed locked with hers, but a switch had flipped, his expression harder and colder.
But still intense. Always intense.
“You’ll want to hear this for yourself,” came the response. “We’re getting some conflicting reports—and some resistance. Your brand of persuasion could be helpful.”
He cursed and pushed off the bed. “I’m on my way.”
Ignoring the idiotic surge of disappointment, she shoved to her feet right behind him. “Wait. Who are you questioning?”
Could it be Rav? Had he been caught and brutalized while she’d been writhing in pleasure under Maxheim’s tongue? Her stomach twisted at the thought.
Skolov didn’t answer.
With his usual insane speed, he’d already moved to the sink and begun splashing his face and hands with cleaning fluid and water.
She didn’t care that she was naked, her folds still shiny from his saliva and her slick, the insides of her thighs raw from the stubble at his jaw. Or that she’d just helped strengthen a bond she could not allow.
Stiffening her spine, she spoke once more. “If it’s Rav, you need to leave him alone. I told you, he’s innocent. Take me to the Brotherhood. I will pay for my crimes and I will tell them about Aldar, but I don’t want you or your organization hurting anyone else.”
“He’s not fucking innocent!” Skolov’s roar shook the room.
He was in front of her in the blink of an eye.
Palms gripped her upper arms as he lifted her to her tiptoes and dragged her close enough that their noses almost touched. “What exactly is Byrel to you? Don’t just say friend. I can sense he’s far more than that.”
Her heart beat fast, Skolov’s sudden rage frightening. “Not in the way you’re thinking.” Rav had tried several times over the years to be more, but she’d rebuffed him, and he’d backed off. The danger of her gift and the threat of Aldar had been convenient excuses, but the truth was she’d never felt that way about him.
But Rav was important to her, nonetheless.
He was the reason she’d survived. The reason she never gave up hope. The reason she hadn’t forgotten she was more than just merchandise 101.
She raised her chin higher. “He’s the only family I have.”
“Family?” Skolov’s fingers clenched tighter around her skin as he laughed, though there was no humor in it. “Fucking perfect. It’s even more fitting that I take you from the bastard since he took my family from me.”
Horror slammed through her.
Oh, gods, what had Rav done?
She opened her mouth to ask, but she never got the chance.
With a push, Skolov shoved her back onto the bed. “You’re not sacrificing yourself for anyone. Time to break that little habit. I’ll deal with the Brotherhood, you hear me?”
Limbs flailing, she bounced once more against the mattress.
Only to feel something hard clamp around her ankle.
In shock, she looked down.
A padded black manacle and chain were now cinched around her ankle.
The other end emerged from a hidden panel in the bed platform.
With a cry of fury, she tried to rip it off. It didn’t give. “What is this?”
He unfolded to stand above her. “You’ve got runner written all over you, omega.”
Turning away, he grabbed a new shirt from one of the drawers.
Enraged, she pulled at the shackle, trying to tear it off.
“It won’t work. Like everything else on this ship, it’s coded to my palm print.”
He turned around, smoothing his hair back into place.
She shoved to her feet and discovered she could only move a few steps before the leash went tight.
She glared in outrage.
He returned to the sink and calmly finished cleaning up. “I’ve got no problem chasing you, but I can’t waste the time right now. I need you to stay put.”
She snarled back at him. “I thought you said we didn’t have to be on opposite sides.
“That’s up to you.” Pivoting, he strode toward the door. “Behave yourself, hellion.”
The door slid open—and then shut.
Never!She would find a way to break the restraint and then she’d wreck his place before disappearing for good.
“You bastard!” She screamed the words at the door, braver now that he was out of sight. “I—”
Her voice cut off as the lights did.
Like everything else in the room, the illumination was tied to his palm and retinal scan. Now that he’d gone, they’d automatically shut off.
With the privacy window shields also engaged, she was engulfed in complete darkness—and a host of ugly memories she hadn’t expected.
The remembrances crashed over her before she could defend against them.
Her bravado crumbled. “Wait! Come back.”
But just like before, there was no one around to hear. She was alone.
Sinking to the ground, she scurried back until her spine hit the wall and the chain stretched tight.
Burying her face in her knees, she struggled to breathe. She tried to remember that she would be alright. That she wasn’t little anymore, stuck in the dark forever. That this wasn’t the small crate Aldar had shoved her inside so many rotations ago.
She was older now. Stronger. More resilient. But the thoughts wouldn’t hold. They crumbled under the weight of the darkness. Impenetrable and inescapable.
No food. No water.
Forgotten.
She’d been locked in the crate for so many rotations she’d lost count. Like an animal, she’d clawed at the walls. All that did was make her bleed—and bring the other feral, forgotten beasts out from their dark hiding places. The scurrying of their claws and her growling stomach were the only sounds she’d heard for so long.
She’d screamed for the guards, Aldar, Rav, and then even her dead mother.
No one had come. Even when she’d stopped screaming, too exhausted to keep her head raised.
Forgotten. Alone.
In the place where she would die. Never having lived. Never having been loved. Forgotten by all. Abandoned by all.
Except, when she’d almost given up, her crate had been split open, and Rav’s panicked face had appeared.
He’d saved her. Lifted her out of the dark and shown her she wasn’t entirely forgotten.
But Rav wasn’t here now. Skolov wasn’t, either.
No one was.
Burying her face into her knees, she rocked and rocked.