Chapter 50
Axel
Gabrielle had a roguish, cheeky nature she never dared show anyone else. It was definitely the first time she let me in enough to see what she hid underneath all those layers of poise and politeness. I guess it made sense. She was the Alpha’s daughter and only heir to Dire Mountain. She had a certain role to play and certain duties to fulfil, given her title. And being a naughty little minx was certainly not part of it.
For a moment, I couldn’t help thinking how many people had actually seen this side of her. How many boys. No. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things, besides, I have been with numerous women over the years, and not once had it ever bothered me, why now? Sure, she was my mate, but she was also just another unmated female and a gorgeous one at that.
Her smooth skin was beckoning me, entwining me into a web of lust and euphoria. I was well aware of the spell she had me under, the dangerous game she was playing, yet I found myself all too eager to play along, completely indifferent to the consequences it might have.
I had no intention of becoming the next Alpha and no intention of getting mated. I only wanted her. No strings attached. No complications. Just her. Just for tonight.
And for once, I had no objection in kicking the door shut behind me while I stepped into the stranger’s living room, finally crossing that invisible line that had been drawn in the sand between us.
I had held back for so long, denied my attraction towards her, why do it still? She was a female just like any other I had courted over the years. Yes, she was my fated mate, but that didn’t have to change anything. Why should it? Why suddenly grow a conscience now? If she had been any other woman, I would have been down her panty’s weeks ago.
Both me and my wolf were at the forefront. He watched and delighted in whatever dirty thoughts was running through my mind and even tossed in a few of his own. I was surprised he hadn’t tried to take over complete control yet. No doubt he must be aching for a turn behind the wheel.
Between the two of us, he had been the one who suffered most when I had rejected Gabrielle all those months. Pining after her like a lovesick pup day in and day out until he had finally sunk down deep into my subconscious, waiting for his end and nature to take its course.
From the very start, he had wanted her badly and now, when we were about to have her, he seemed just a little too patient. What was going on inside that head of his? I couldn’t understand it, but then again, he had always been a bit unpredictable.
As she lay sprawled out on the couch in a very provocative pose, I prowled towards her with predatory intent and a wicked grin on my face, one she matched easily with her own mischievous gaze. Her eyes told me exactly what she desired, what she craved. An unspoken command which I intended to fulfil with every bit of my accumulated yearning.
Her eyes burned with undiluted fire as I slowly knelt before her, prying the shiny black high- heels off her feet with unhurried, wicked charm.
After unceremoniously discarding them onto the floor, I ran a warm, calloused hand purposefully up the outsides of her silky legs, savouring the softness of her skin, the heat beneath my palms and every racing heartbeat which pulsed between us.
The festival’s music faded into mere muffled background noises while the temperature around us rose, and my lips met her skin, along the inside of her calves.
It started off as slow and deliberate light feathered kisses, combined with long leisurely strokes of my tongue over every dent and curve of her beautiful legs. But the moment quickly grew into something much more. Something heated and hungry, when I moved up towards her face, bringing the hems of her dress with me and pulling it up to her chin.
She unhoocked her arms from the fabric while my eyes racked over her body. She was exquisite. Perfect.
My fingers brushed over her stomach, her navel and she arched into my touch. A calmness fell over us and my eyes met with hers once again. She looked back at me with an expression I have never seen on anyone before. Not like this. The way she looked at me was so-so intense, vulnerable.
I swallowed thickly and ripped my own shirt over my head, discarding it onto the floor in a crumpled mess. Slowly, I positioned myself over her and leaned down to claim her lips once again, but this time it was different. Meaningful, intentional and sincere.
The festival commenced all around us and somewhere during the night, we became one in flesh. Our breathing laboured, our bodies entwined, and skin brushed against skin. An entanglement of limbs and two hearts beating together as one. Our backs curving off the upholstery in pure ecstasy. Roars of pleasure rippling through the darkness and a bond being mended that had once been so severely damaged it had almost shattered completely.
In the hours which followed, a sense of peace washed over me like no other. A welcoming quiet after a long and violent storm.
I felt no pain.
I felt no guilt.
I felt no more weight pushing me down into the depths of despair and hopelessness.
No. For the hours which I had surrendered myself to her unreservedly, she had fulfilled me. She took away all the self-hatred and evil within the hollowness of my chest and filled it with her warmth. Her love and her passion.
She made me feel weak and incredibly strong at the same time. She tended to my ugly, hateful soul with such tenderness, that I thought I might break down into a puddle of mutilated fur and guts. But she was gentle and the antidote to the poison that had been pestering me for so long embedded into the very fibre of my being.
She was my liberator, whether she knew it or not, and as she fell asleep in my arms, her body still entangled in the yellow-coloured string of fairy lights, I couldn’t stop staring at her. The lights kept on flickering and dancing upon her skin, throwing beautiful shadows over all my new favourite parts.
Feeling completely content, I burned the angelic picture of her, naked and exhausted in my arms, into my mind, hoping that it would stay there forever. That it would never fade.
Moments such as these made my miserable existence worthwhile.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her, even when the midnight hours turned into the early morning and I was still enchanted by her beauty.