"Baby&baby," he whispered. "It's gonna hurt if you fight it."
"Harder, Nikolas," I panted. "Please."
His next thrust was so hard and fast it would have shattered any normal human into pieces. But it was what I needed. It sent me closer to the edge and I felt the beginnings of my orgasm settle in. My claws dug into the flesh of his hip and the scent of his blood filled the air.
"Fuck!" Nikolas grunted, trying to keep his rhythm.
"Oh, God&oh, God&"
I came so suddenly that it felt as if the orgasm would turn me inside out. And then I realized that it was my wolf, and I just let go, let the change come. But it never came. Nikolas shoved into me another time or two and then came, filling me with himself.
And time stood still, as if my orgasm and his were just going on and on.
I felt the bond between us; felt it stronger than I ever had before. It was as if any barriers that had remained between us were now gone. I saw flashes of his past, and a wealth of emotions washed through me all at once.
There was joy, pain, happiness, anger, despair, darkness&
It was too much to take in all at once and I tried to close off the connection. Nikolas growled and held me where I was, not letting me move. He shook above me and cried out and I whimpered, feeling as if my entire body was about to shatter into a million pieces.
The orgasm finally began to recede, and I felt a warm sensation from head to toe. I felt Nikolas' emotions in that very moment and his joy was so pure, so right, that it gave me goose bumps. Any walls that had been between us before were now gone.
I sank down onto the bed, unable to hold myself up any longer. Nikolas went down with me and hugged me up tight against him. He pressed a kiss just below my ear.
"My wolf, my mate&my love."
I barely managed a nod. "I am."
* * *
When I woke, Sabaan was curled up next to me, purring in his sleep. Nikolas was at my back, Lucien at his back, and Lucien's arm was thrown over me and Nikolas. The last thing I remembered was passing out after Nikolas fucked me. If something else had happened after that, I either didn't remember, or didn't participate.
Hell, I might have gone furry after I'd come. If so, I'd been asleep a lot longer than just a few minutes. Shifting twice in one night was a little too much for me to handle sometimes.
Lucien moved his fingers back and forth over my hip. "You awake, lover?"
"Yeah." I slowly got up, careful not to wake Nikolas and Sabaan, and moved over to lie beside Lucien. "How long have I been out?"
"A couple of hours." He kissed me on the forehead. "You missed me fucking Nikolas through the mattress."
"What?" I rose up, shaking my head. "Are you serious?"
Lucien laughed and pulled me against his chest. "No, I'm teasing."
I smacked him hard. "Bastard."
"You went furry and passed out and the rest of us just lay here talking."
"Talking?"
"And touching," he added. "Nikolas was too tired to be fucked. What happened between the two of you was intense and filled the room with such energy and love. It was beautiful, lover."
"Yeah?" I looked up at him, needing to see his words reflected in his expression. And they were. He was genuinely at ease, happy. As if he finally understood that it was love, but it was different from what we had. "Felt pretty good, too."
"Is the bond between you and he strong now?"
I nodded. "Like it was that last step we needed to tear down the walls between us. I saw a lot of his past, and so much into his head&"
"Scary place?"
"You know, it was&but it's not quite that way anymore. He's changed so much."
"As I said before, I do not know him as I thought I did."
"Trust me: I don't even know this Nikolas as well as I thought."
Lucien was silent for a little while, and a little bit of tension started seeping into him. He sighed and rested his chin on my head. "Do you feel like talking, lover?"
"What's on your mind, baby?"
"Our conversation in the kitchen before all of this happened."
"Oh." That was, in fact, the last thing I wanted to talk about right now. With Nikolas and Sabaan sound asleep, it would be me that had to break the news to Lucien. But& Better me than someone else, I guessed. "Let's move to the couch."
Lucien grabbed his robe and I wrapped a sheet around me because my robe was in my own room. It was soft, but not quite soft enough. I dropped it and went for one of the towels, choosing to sit on it instead of wrap it around me.