"I dislike that I feel pity," Claire breathed, eyes full of sorrow, "for you."
The way he watched her, the slow move of his analyzing gaze, it was if he already knew everything she confessed. "Little one, it is merely an indication of your nature to feel compassion-even for me."
Her brows lowered, that little line forming between them. "Is this where you call me a coward or a fool?"
Shepherd smirked. "You are somewhat foolish, but you are not a coward-simply naïve. What you are is innocent."
But that was not true. Disappointed in his answer, she rose from her chair, hands tugging the straps of her dress so the fabric could whisper down her body. Eager to finish the final requirement to leave the room, she moved, naked and expressionless, to stand before the Alpha.
He took in the secret places of her body, but did not touch.
Voice harsh, Claire felt the guilt, the anger, the fear eat her up. "What do you see now?"
Slowly, Shepherd met her indignant expression, softly purring, "My mate."
The thrum was deep in her chest, something it took a great deal of focus to recall was unwelcome. Confused, she watched him, unsure why he wasn't touching her. Unsure why they were not already on the bed, or table, or floor?
The moment was growing into something it was not meant to be.
Just as she was about to turn, to just walk away from him, the growl was made. It was loud, expectant, and brought with it a small pleasurable cramp as her body instinctively responded.
Slick came thick and copious at such a call, dripping down her leg. Shepherd watched the little trickle, captivated.
Rising slowly, he pulled his clothing over his head, stripping down to only flesh until he stood before her in an equal state. He was beautiful and grand; all the glorious epitome of Alpha physique in the control of a man who used such strength ruthlessly. Claire had to crane her neck to look up, to keep her eyes off his marked body where she could focus on his face and those hated eyes.
"What do you see when you look at me, little one?"
A monster, the man who had ruined her life, the little boy raised in hell whose mother had performed unspeakable acts just to secure him a knife, a former prisoner who had dedicated his love to Svana, a man with twisted faith, the male who had betrayed their pair-bond and caused her great pain, her jailor, the father of the life growing inside her, a creature she could not trust … Claire drew a deep breath and said the only thing she could. "I see the Alpha pair-bonded to me."
"Can you not see more?" Shepherd hinted, trying to draw out the proper words.
Her reply twisted in the thread and tore out her heart, but Claire stood still, her face a mask, and spoke the hated truth, "I see my mate."
"You are doing exceptionally well today," the Alpha claimed, but still he did not move.
And Claire understood. Shepherd wanted her to initiate sex, he was pushing her boundaries, seeing how much she was willing to exchange for what she wanted.
She let out in a low whisper. "I can't."
"You can." Shepherd was confident, nodding for her to try.
Already half-high, drugged in scent and the call, Claire knew in truth she wanted it. She wanted him to fuck her so hard that she forgot herself, that Claire disappeared. It had been her only respite since their deal had been struck; her only succor the distraction of sex. In a sick way she almost longed for a heat cycle, a mindless source of existence that shut off her thinking until all that mattered was physical gratification. But she could not allow herself such a thing if Shepherd didn't force it or take it; it would make the act of mating something she could not bear.
Clenching her fists, she glanced to the side and shook her head belligerently. "I. Can't."
Another of those powerful growls, so loud it was almost a roar, and her pussy clenched, more of that damn slick spilling down her leg.
Shepherd persisted. "You can."
She knew how very easy it could be, how falsely fulfilling his arms would feel-the decadence of fornicating with such a creature, to hear his whispered words at her ear … the culmination of the moment when her world burst apart and everything bad was forgotten. Had she not felt it a hundred times? But Shepherd had to inflict it, if she took that fateful step and admitted that she desired such a thing, it would ruin her.
Crumbling, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his chest, doing nothing more than pulling in deep breaths of what nature told her was hers, but what experience had taught her was far from the case. Lightly her fingertips came to his torso, running upward, delicately tracing over his nipples in their journey to reach around his neck.
Claire froze. She could not sell herself for the sky or oblivion.
"What more do you want from me, Shepherd?" Frustrated, desperate, she whined, "Just fuck me already!"
She felt him bend to reach her ear, knew the press of scarred lips. "I want everything."
The massive male tugged her towards the bed. Claire was spun about and pressed down on her belly, her legs left dangling towards the floor. A hand raked almost too hard down her spine, the pulsing head of his cock positioned at her folds. He did not press in. Instead, Shepherd slapped her; his palm met the full roundness of her ass and left it red and stinging as she cried out in surprise. His hips surged, and in the midst of her yelp he speared her with the entirety of his girth.
"You are so fucking wet, yet still dare to pretend that you don't want this? That you need to be forced?" he roared, gripping her hips even as she presented, arching her back in instinctual invitation. Roughly, he pulled her back to meet each thrust, Claire mewling into the covers, falling into the drugged delirium where she could fade away and forget.
The second her mind grew free of petty feeling and thought, Shepherd took his cock away, flipping her over.
Blazing silver eyes met hers. "Do you want me to continue to fuck you?"
Her eyes glued to the shining, throbbing thickness that he should be burying inside her again and again and again, she snarled, "Yes!"
The man stood there, panting, eyes blazing, with her slick all over his groin … and simply did nothing.
Claire pounded her fist against the mattress and looked up with furious, half-dilated eyes. There was a snarl, her own version of the growl, and she launched herself at him to take back the only thing she had left to ease the pain. The sound of her demand inspired the man manipulating the situation to his liking. Shepherd took her in his arms, plunging his cock slow and deep where she ached, and watched Claire's silent pleas for more.
Kept just at the border of the insensibility she craved, like he knew her game, Shepherd moved with decided cunning in the dissection of her avoidance of what they were and why he mated her-forcing Claire to recognize who offered her carnal satisfaction, what he felt like against her, and how much she loved it.
Without the frenzy there was no void, there was no loss of self. Claire knew in her bones that he was knowingly denying her the only escape she had left by making love when she only wanted to fuck.
Shepherd smiled like a man standing in the bliss of heaven, whispered to her so she had to recognize his voice, and controlled every thrust no matter how she squirmed or rocked her hips. There was no escaping him or the pleasure.
Her mind grasped the irony with each tender stroke that the one thing she'd fought to preserve when Shepherd first took her had been her sense of self … until he broke her. Now all she wanted, now that her world was so dark, was to forget that identity and waste away.
"Faster," she breathed on a lengthy moan.
There was such pleasure in his voice, Shepherd gently rocking his hips to fill her cunt in slow measure. "No, little one."
It went on for hours, until she was shuddering and cooing small sounds of pleasure. This was how it had been in those first weeks, but the underlying distress was different. She was no longer afraid of what he could do to her; she was far more afraid of her mutilated sense of self and what she very much wanted from him.
A warm hand stroked from hip to breast, over and over, leaving a trail of soft tingles and ending with a little squeeze of her tight nipple until she whimpered for more and spread wider in invitation.
"Open your eyes."
How many times had he already commanded her to do so? Why did he have to make her look? Complying, her green eyes met beautiful silver. She saw her palm cradle his cheek, she saw him kiss the tip of her thumb.
A catch of breath and a long shuddering sigh came from the Omega. "I can't … I need … "
The purr built from deep within Shepherd's chest, the Alpha observing each minute reaction of pleasure on her face. "Soften, little one. Let it happen this way. There is no more need to fight what we are."
He wove his fingers into hers, his sweat slicked muscles moving over her entire body. Each time he had her stuffed full, he'd grind his groin in a tight circle to tease at her clit, drawing sounds from the Omega that made his balls tighten.
Shepherd's name came to her lips when she felt that first fluttering of the hours long building climax, a name she never wanted to call out in passion again.
There was not even a hint of a veiling fog in her mind when she felt tears leak from her eyes and her cunt squeezed like a fist around his swelling knot. Claire orgasmed completely, powerfully aware of Shepherd, her insides vigorously milking his cock, drawing out every last drop of his come as the man groaned in his own ecstasy.