Braiden
Ava’s gone.
Samuel’s words echo down the mind link just as I throw another wolf to the ground, my large paw on his windpipe.
I didn’t want to kill Alpha Nial’s wolves. They were acting on instinct. It couldn’t be helped. Even he had not
bothered getting in volved in the fight.
There was no point. If they would not listen to me, they would not listen to him.
Though he was standing to the side with a medical team, helping wolves who had been tranquilized or hurt.
He had his mated warriors trying to restrain those wolves they could get their hands on in the fray.
The wolf under my foot passes out, and I shift, running to the spot where Ava was last standing. Her scent leads
inside.
I run to the front door, but it is locked. The door is reinforced, so instead of wasting my energy there, I throw my
shoulder against the large window next to it, crashing to the ground while some glass shards stick into my arm.
I pull them out as I follow Ava’s scent upstairs, hopeful that she is just hiding.
Hope dies when my foot hits the flooring upstairs as I smell another scent —a male wolf.
And then I hear it. A growl. My girl. I know it.
Following the sound takes me to one of the bedrooms littering this floor.
It is a mess.
The reason is standing on two opposite sides of the room.
Ava, partially shifted, is standing closest to me. The white hairs that have sprung forth and cover her forearms and
hands are red with blood, as are her razor-sharp claws. Her fur bristles as she growls again, her eyes locked on the
wolf on the other side of the room.
The other wolf is fully shifted, its brown eyes matching its fur, though now it has missing patches and blood
ruining that pelt.
I can’t help but smile.
Ava has put up a fight. The room looks like a storm has passed through.
Feathers from the ripped pillows are still drifting to the floor even now. The bed is in pieces, with splintered wood
and springs lying all over. The chest of drawers closest to the door is cracked down the middle. Even the chandelier
in the center of the ceiling hasn’t been spared. Its sway and dropped wire indicate it might fall any minute.
The brown wolf’s gaze snaps over to me, a look of what can only be described as anger crossing its features.
Surprisingly, instead of staying and fighting, this wolf has a sense of preservation, and before we know what is
happening, he throws himself through the window.
Glass cracks, and I run over, watching as he limps off into the bushes, marking the edge of the property. I would
have to find out from Alpha Nial who he is. I knew this could happen, but still. I wanted to know who was in this
room with Ava.
My Ava. Mine.
I turn around slowly, Ava’s presence behind me, soaking into my body.
Along with her scent.
She is completely back in her human form, though her eyes are still white. And they are filled with hunger,
traveling my very naked form. Bare and aroused.
Her eyes linger on my almost painfully stiff cock, then travel up my torso, pecks, and neck before finally meeting
my gaze.
Damn, she is gorgeous. Her heat is in full swing, her scent so intense that I growl possessively.
I can’t help myself. I close the distance and capture her lips with mine.
Sparks fly at the contact, and then our tongues meet. It’s exquisite.
Glorious. Intoxicating. The next moment, I have her pushed up against the wall as she straddles me, my hard-on
between us. She grinds against it, moaning into my mouth. She is wet and hot.
I have only ever heard about the effects that one's mate can have on you when they are in heat. It isn’t just
one-sided. Both partners enter a kind of frenzy at the height of her heat.
One that was fast consuming me, too.
If we weren’t careful, we would end up marking one other. But I also couldn’t pull away. Ava’s tongue wars with
mine, our need making the kiss rough and all-consuming.
So much so that it is only when Samuel clears his throat rather loudly that I realize we are not alone.
“Ke ep everyone out,” I order through mind-link before marching out of the room and towards the main bedroom at
the end of the floor.
I push the door shut with my foot and then stalk towards the bed, dropping Ava on it.
She moans in protest, not happy with the lack of contact.
I grab her legs, pulling her towards me.
With our eyes locked, I hook my fingers into her shorts and panties.
“Do you want me to help you, little minx?” I ask her, tugging to indicate my intention.
She doesn’t hesitate but nods and then lifts her ass so that I can pull her shorts off with more ease.
I don’t rush. I inhale de eply as her shorts slowly reveal that sweet, wet epicenter of her scent. That decadent pussy.
Fuck. Ava was driving me crazy.
Once her shorts are off, I hold her left leg up, lapping a line up the inside of her calf, her thigh, where her desire has
left a trail as I have pulled her shorts off.
Ava is moaning loudly, boosting my ego as I think about how I am doing this to her. I'm drawing those sounds out
of her. My cock hardens further as I stare at her beautiful, pink, glistening pussy, and then I lean forward, sliding
my tongue between her folds.
That taste. In this state, it is so erotic, and her essence on my tongue so decadent that I worry I might come just
from eating her out. Only pride
stops me. This was about Ava, not me.
My tongue delves into her warm d epths, and she bucks into my face, looking for more. I remove my tongue, insert
two fingers and then suck on her clit.
“Oh my god, Braiden, I can’t... I can’t. I think I am going to come.”
I pick up my pace, thrusting my fingers into her as she meets my rhythm, fucking herself onto my fingers until I am
de eper than I have ever been.
With one last flick of my tongue over Ava’s clit, she unravels, screaming out my name as her walls clench around
my fingers. It’s sensational.
I love how she looks when she orgasms. Her eyes shut tightly, her bottom lip caught between her teeth, her cheeks
the color of roses freshly plucked.
Uninhibited. Free. And I made her feel this.
I leave my fingers in her until her shivers abate, her breathing slowly returning to normal. Her eyes open when I
remove them, the hunger in them and the smirk telling me we are far from done. This would be an all-night session.
Fuck. Days even.
But then I stiffen. That smell. Blood.
“Blood.” On my fingers. Not a lot. But definitely there.
I pull back, feeling sick to my stomach.
“I hurt you.”
Ava shoots up, closing the distance between us.
“Calm down. You didn’t. It was amazing. Phenomenal. Mind-blowing.
This is nothing.”
“Are you fucking kidding me right now? I was too rough with you, Ava.”
I shake her hands off me, the shame engulfing me as I head towards the door. I need to get out of here.
“Stop it, Braiden. This isn’t about you. Please. Don’t leave. We're not done, and I need you.”
Ava’s pleading cannot undo the absolute mortification I feel right now. I hurt my mate. My Ava.
As my hand touches the door handle, Ava shouts, her words halting me in my st eps.
“Stop, My King! You probably just tore my hymen. It happens, Braiden.
To virgins.”