Claim the Wolf King Read online

  Then again, Fia—possibly the most powerful witch in the universe—was here as well.

  “How do you know its name?” Marrok asked.

  “The Eshmaki is one of the demon species I learned about in a textbook,” I said. I wouldn’t tell him that this Eshmaki had been hunting Fia and me. I wanted no complications from Marrok. “I thought they were myth. Although, I also thought shifters were myth until I saw your kind.”

  Marrok snarled. “We’re very different from demons!”

  “Of course.” My gaze involuntarily dipped to his broad shoulders, hard chest, muscled stomach before I realized I was staring at his naked form. I tore my eyes up to his face and willed them to stay there, but my face flamed from my lapse.

  An amused and pleased smile curved Marrok’s eyes into a sultry look.

  There was nothing refined about the wolf alpha; he was rough around the edges. But that didn’t diminish his wild attraction. His perfect, pure male body made my blood rush with drunkenness.

  I wondered if he had been born with that quality, or if Pandemonium had made him that way. I knew nothing about the man, and none of the wolves were the chatty type, especially not to an outsider, and especially not when it came to their powerful alpha.

  Damn it to hell, I was immensely aroused again!

  I had fought in two battles today, and the Eshmaki had almost gotten me, yet now, seconds later, I wanted sex?

  Though killing on Pandemonium wasn’t any different from breathing, I’d been proud of being the only reasonable person on this planet.

  Not as sane as I had liked to believe, especially when I felt the lush wetness on my panties.

  Marrok’s nostrils flared, and his heated eyes grew hooded.

  “You should put some clothes on,” I hissed.

  “Does my nudeness bother you that much, Kaara?” he asked with laughter and lust in his eyes, intentionally walking round me in his nakedness as he tore a scrap of fabric from the she-demon and wiped the blood clean from his body.

  How could he shift from a vicious fighter to a playboy within half a second? The Eshmaki’s corpse was still warm!

  Despite my embarrassment and exasperation, my glance dipped lower. He was well hung, and that excited me. My pulsed rocketed. I licked my lips. “Maybe you should remain a wolf if you don’t like clothing yourself?”

  He laughed. “You’ve never seen a naked man before?”

  I flushed, and mentally kicked myself. I was Kaara Nightshades, for fuck’s sake. When had I become shy?

  “I’ve seen plenty and tried an army of them,” I said, completely recovered now. “All types and sizes.”

  Marrok growled, no longer laughing.

  I smirked at the blatant jealousy I could feel coursing from him.

  “Are you hurt, Kaara?” he grunted in a rough voice, his playful mood gone.

  My ribs ached, but I could tolerate it. I could still manage to walk. I had to. I wasn’t going to let the wolf alpha carry me off the ship and further my humiliation.

  “I’m okay. I might have some bruises.”

  “I’m going to look you over. Your species don’t regenerate like mine.”

  “I’m not undressing in front of you!”

  “Why not?”

  “Are you serious?” I half-snarled.

  “I am when it comes to your wellbeing.”

  My empathic sense told me he wasn’t lying or joking.

  “Forget it,” I said. “I’m going to check the ship’s supplies. I found the mark before you and delivered the last blow to it. I’ll claim two-thirds of the inventory.”

  I doubted this assassin ship would have any decent goodies other than the Eshmaki’s corpse and his food. Thinking on it, I realized the dead alien beasts in the containers were the Eshmaki’s food.

  “There is no winner or loser in this contest,” Marrok said. “From now on, you’ll always get half a share from whatever my team gains, as long as you and your team also contribute.”

  He couldn’t be that nice. No fucking soul in the City of Nine was kind.

  But I wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip away.

  “Will your pack agree?” I asked, mildly challenging him.

  “I’m Marrok,” he said. “My word is law.”

  So it was true that the alpha ruled his pack with an iron fist.

  “What’s the catch?” I asked cautiously.

  He had to want something.

  As I fixed my attention back on him, the intense heat in his teal eyes made my blood boil. My body was more than willing to get down and dirty with him, but my mind hissed. If he thought I would whore myself out in exchange for food, he could go fuck himself for all I cared.

  I would never sink that low, even on this planet where it was a victory just to keep breathing.

  And again, as if having perceived my thoughts, his look darkened like midnight. “I’ll never force to you do anything you don’t want to do, Kaara. And from now on, it’s also my job to make sure no one forces you into anything. Here’s the catch: hold my hand, but only if you’re willing.”

  “Like shaking hands to seal the deal?”

  “Like we’re going to be friends. We’ll get our teams to unload the supplies in the ship. You and I don’t do the chores. Our time should be better spent.”

  Doing what? But I wouldn’t ask him. I knew what he wanted and what I wanted, but it wasn’t going to happen.

  He stretched his hand toward me.

  I wondered how it would feel to touch him. But one thing would lead to another. I would want more.

  I needed to be smarter than to succumb to my every whim. I wasn’t just living for myself. My devotion had been to Fia since the day I’d been born.

  “I’ll take your hand after you have your clothes on,” I said.

  He shook his head and laughed, but grabbed my hand anyway. Electric pleasure buzzed through my skin at the contact.

  “I’m harmless, Kaara,” he said. “Help me find my clothes.”

  He led me toward another hallway.

  “How did you find me so fast?” I asked.

  “That demon concealed her scent from me, but I was following yours. I was never too far from you. You think I’d let you wander alone when you convinced me there was something alive in this ship? Not a chance.”

  If he hadn’t followed me, if he’d been just a few seconds late, I would have been dead.

  We walked silently for a minute or two, both of us deep in our own thoughts, until I spotted his clothes piled under the archway.

  Did I really want him to put them on? It felt so good to be clasping his hand, my fingers brushing against his naked torso every so often.

  “Do you really want me to put on the clothes, Kaara?” Marrok echoed my thoughts. “I think you like me naked.”

  “I like you to be more civilized.”

  “There isn’t a single civilized person on this planet,” he said, raising his eyebrow at me. “You’re probably the only one that’s close to civilized. If you want me to be more like you, you’ll have to give me something to encourage me.”

  “How can I encourage you?” I purred. I shouldn’t have done that, but I wasn’t in total control of myself. It hadn’t been easy to walk with a naked, gorgeous guy all the way here.

  The heat just kept building up.

  Marrok spun me and pinned me against the wall, his hands planted on either side of my head, trapping me.

  “A kiss,” he said, his face inches from mine. “As you promised.”

  His male scent—dominant, territorial, and luscious—wrapped around me. The aching need between my thighs throbbed with liquid fire.

  “I promised nothing,” I breathed, my heart racing erratically.

  Marrok had to have heard that, and I sensed his heartbeat pick up, ricocheting off mine.

  “I don’t owe you a kiss,” I whispered brokenly.

  Dark amusement waltzed into his lust-laden eyes. “Then I owe you a kiss. How’s that?”


  What kind of fucked-up logic was that?

  “I have no intention to claim it,” I said.

  “But I don’t like leaving a debt unpaid,” he said and slanted his mouth over mine.

  His hand moved away from the wall and held the nape of my neck, anchoring me.

  The kiss grazed over my lips, burning like fire. Pleasure and excitement rolled through me, curling my toes. I opened my mouth to take in his demanding tongue.

  His hardness dug into my belly. My blood raced faster than when I had faced the she-demon. I let out a moan as the delicious sensation seized me.

  Marrok ground his hips against me, his cock gliding along my abdomen.

  A hunger I hadn’t known clutched at me and an inferno erupted in me.

  The intensity was more than I could take, especially as an Empath.

  I broke the kiss to get air, and then I glanced down at his cock.

  It was heavy, light brown, and silken. The delicate veins across its length made it look mightier and wilder than any cock I’d seen. The wolf alpha was utterly male and more, different from the men I’d dated in the Lithuaria Empire. Even Lithuarian soldiers were polished and poised. But here, in front me, stood a true warrior.

  Perhaps that was why my body responded vehemently toward Marrok, toward his rough charm and big, hard cock. Deep inside, every bone of mine was feminine, and my body wanted a devastating male to conquer me.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d wanted a cock inside me so badly.

  I needed a man’s touch to feel like a woman again. This alien planet had been stripping me of everything I was. If I hadn’t had Fia to guard, a vow to fulfill, and an honor I’d fought to hold on to, I’d have been no different than any monster here.

  Before today, before Marrok, I hadn’t realized I’d barely been hanging in there.

  And now, just when I’d thought Fia’s and my salvation had finally come only to have my hopes dashed by the Eshmaki, I needed comfort and distraction more than anything.

  But when had I ever needed a reason to have sex before? I used to see men and sex as a sport.

  “Like what you see?” Marrok smirked.

  I gasped at his size. “It looks . . . above average.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Above average? You’ll soon know what’s above average.” His sensual lips traced a line along the column of my neck, sending a new wave of shivers down my spine. His hand, rough and powerful, slid inside my shirt and cupped my breast.

  A moan tore through my throat. “I don’t need foreplay, Marrok,” I breathed, resting my hands on his massive shoulders.

  We were inside a crashed ship; we didn’t have a whole day to fool around.

  “I need your cock inside me now,” I said, and his need for relief burned through me as well.

  He pulled my pants and panties down. I waited, but he simply stared at my bare pussy, swallowing hard. “Beautiful,” he said in awe.

  I propelled my hips toward him, need smoldering through me.

  He could no longer wait. He lifted me up against the wall, aiming his steel-hard cock at my entrance.

  My folds quivered in need, liquid fire twirling inside me, yearning for him to penetrate me.

  Marrok lifted my leg and hooked it over his arm, and with a powerful thrust, he slammed into me, burying himself in my pussy.

  A scream of pleasure rippled through me and I threw my head back.

  It felt like the last time I’d had a man inside me was a century ago.

  Marrok sucked in a short, sharp breath and pulled out, then thrust into me, repeating the movement. “You’re so hot and tight, Kaara. Your pussy clenches my cock like it won’t ever let me go.”

  “I’m not a virgin,” I gasped between my moans. “I’ve had tons of lovers.”

  “No matter how many men you’ve had in the past,” he said, his eyes a dark fire, “you’re tight. After me, you won’t remember any of them.” He pulled out of me again, then rammed back into me in one sharp movement. My body writhed in bliss as he pounded into me with long, hard thrusts, and my mind escaped the harsh reality into the land of lust and mindless pleasure as he reached between us and circled his thumb over my clit.

  Marrok drove into me again, his body completely caging me. I wasn’t going anywhere, at least not at the moment. I breathed only for my exiled future queen. But in this moment, I lived for myself.

  I moaned louder as each merciless thrust sent a jolt of pleasure to every nerve ending. The hard, silky steel pounded inside me without any reservation.

  Marrok’s wild eyes pierced into me. His face twisted in ecstasy, which only excited me more.

  I’d never experienced such intense pleasure.

  If I’d known fucking a shifter would make my every cell burst alive, I would have tried a few of the wolves long ago. Except, I hadn’t felt the same heat—or any heat—toward anyone on this doomed planet before setting my eyes on Marrok.

  I had been too busy keeping Fia and myself alive.

  My eyes glazed over as his thrusts increased in rapidity. Now that I experimented with one of them, I could cast a wider net next time. Since Marrok had opened the flood gate, I could—

  “Don’t even think about it,” Marrok snarled menacingly. “I don’t share.” He speared into me as if to punish me, dominating me, claiming me as his territory.

  I cried out from both shock and pleasure, then stilled against him.

  He’d been answering a lot of my thoughts from the moment we’d met.

  Had he actually read my mind? He wasn’t a mind reader. As an Empath, I’d know if he were. Maybe for some reason, my wavelength was in his receiving range, so he could easily pick it up. No one could sense my true mood, but he was tuned in to me. It was like we had a connection that went beyond the physical level. I put my shield up again, and immediately felt a searing pain in my head, but it was necessary.

  I didn’t want Marrok, or anyone for that matter, to get into my head. What happened in my head was my own business.

  Luckily, the pleasure was so intense it drowned out my headache.

  “Anyone touches you, I’ll tear their fucking throats out,” he growled as if it were the only law on Pandemonium.

  Despite the pleasure numbing my mind, I mustered the will to form a retort. “You don’t own me, Marrok. No one owns me. No one will ever own me. This is just one fuck, and fucking means nothing. So back the fuck off.”

  Not even my future queen completely held me, for she had no knowledge I’d vowed my blood oath to her by using her reserved blood sample kept in the Lithuaria royal house’s most sacred vault. That had been the only way I could trace her on this planet when I’d first come to this forsaken place.

  Marrok bared his teeth into a threatening grin. “Back the fuck off?”

  He drove into me with one slick, powerful thrust, no longer holding back.

  Something between a groan and a scream left my mouth, and I felt myself sinking into white-hot bliss.

  His mouth found mine, and his tongue thrust in me, in sync with the movement of his hips.

  I had never expected anyone could mate with such ferocity. His power surged into me and shielded me. How could this be? Who was this man? With each ram, he took me higher.

  My hands curled and then unfurled.

  I’d never fucked like this.

  The sound of flesh slapping flesh reverberated through the ship; the wall Marrok was slamming me into rumbled under his attack.

  My legs trembled as the pleasure plunged into my core, and Marrok continued driving into me, demanding my full attention and devotion.

  The heaviness of his cock stroked and filled every inch of me.

  I wrapped my legs around his waist, as he threaded his hand into my hair, grabbing a fistful and twisting it around his fist. The slight, pulling pain added to the intensity of the moment. And my reaction to the hair-pulling and his dominance fueled his lust.

  “Nice color,” he said in appreciation, glancing at my hair be
fore piercing my eyes again.

  “It’s natural,” I breathed.

  Marrok was in total control. He slowed down a beat and thrust in lazy, languid strokes, tormenting me with the change of pace.

  Even though I’d shielded my mind, he was still attuned to my wants and needs. Lust and awe at our coupling turned his blue eyes to gold.

  “Please,” I pleaded.

  As soon as the word left my mouth, he stopped the torture and resumed his frenzied plundering.

  As his movements blurred, my vision blurred.

  His guttural groans of pleasure joined the delighted whispering I uttered in my native tongue.

  My hands left his shoulders and found his thighs, my nails sinking into his flesh, feeling his hard muscles rippling as he drove into me incessantly.

  When his next thrust hit my depth, a vast wave released within me and rushed to meet him.

  Just like that, I lost control. The muscles of my inner walls convulsed violently, milking his cock. I looked into Marrok’s eyes. They had turned wild, half mad and drunk on lust.

  He rode wave after wave of my orgasm, then a strong pulse throbbed through his cock. He was about to come.

  I stiffened in the midst of my shattering pleasure and pressed my hands in his chest, ready to shove him away with all the strength I had left.

  “You’ll have to ejaculate outside of me,” I ground the words out.

  He gave me an incredulous look.

  “I won’t risk you knocking me up on this hell hole.”

  It would be completely irresponsible to bring a child into this hostile planet. He should have realized that instead of putting me in jeopardy.

  “This is killing me, Kaara,” he grunted as painful understanding glistened in his lust-filled eyes.

  I glared at him. I was still wading through the waves of my orgasm, but my eyes had grown harder, colder. I’d never allowed passion to override me, and I wasn’t going to cave now.

  Just as I was about to curse him and shove him off me, Marrok pumped hard in me with two more thrusts and yanked his cock out of me with a short, rough groan.

  My body protested at the sudden emptiness.

  Marrok ground his cock hard against my belly, his hot seed shooting out and pooling on my skin. It took a while for him to stop shuddering.