Chapter 66

The pain I was feeling was far more intense than anything I’d ever felt in my entire life. It burned, it ripped. I felt like my bones were changing shape, breaking into new forms that would leave me disfigured.

I cried and I screamed. I begged Ethan to make it stop. At least, I think I did. I wasn’t sure if there were actual words coming from my mouth, or if they were all grunts and whimpers of pain. It felt like my body was a shell and something was trying to break out of it.

I felt pressure around my back and against my neck. It was separate from the pain in my body, I think it was Ethan trying to hold me and comfort me. I wasn’t sure.

I couldn’t even remember where I was, my eyes were screwed shut and I was in too much pain to even use my eyelids.

My muscles tensed and seized against Ehtan’s body as he held me. I curled in on myself, fetal position until the pain gave way and blossomed into the warmth of relief.

The convulsing subsided, and a warm, full feeling filled my stomach. It felt like I was never complete all my life. Every year, I was empty and only growing more and more vacant. Suddenly I was full, I was myself.

My eyes were still closed when I saw it in my mind’s eye. Flashes of the forest appeared behind my eyes. Running in the forest. Then, a wolf. Large and white, beautiful golden eyes. She was looking at me, and I realized she was me.

I was the wolf looking at the reflection of a pond.

I had finally found my wolf.

I opened my eyes, not able to contain the beaming bright grin on my face. I met Ethan’s concerned stare, and as our eyes met the flashes of images began again.

I saw his wolf in his eyes. Larger than mine, black with icy blue eyes. Our wolves ran together, and there was a pang in my heart.

A feeling of attraction bubbled up in my chest, boiling over. It was far more than I had felt the entire time I’d been around him, and I knew that he felt it too. It’s inexplicable, incredible, almost painful.

“Can you see it too?” I whispered. My voice was hoarse from screaming in pain just minutes before.

Ethan nodded, pressing his forehead to mine, “I see us.”

Our breaths mingled together, hot and heavy. I couldn’t stand the warmth in my core, I needed some sort of release. My wolf needed release.

I captured Ethan’s lips with my own, biting his bottom lip to elicit a small gasp from him. Normally, he was so much more in charge, and I was the meak girl. I wanted to show him I’d learned a thing or two from him.

I swiped my tongue against the flesh of his lip, asking for permission to go further. Ethan didn’t even give me the chance.

He shoved his tongue in my mouth, deepening the kiss and pulling my tired body into his. Our chests were pressed together, no space in between us, as he explored my mouth.

I pulled away for air, looking at him in the eyes. His pupils were blown, lust-filled.

“I want to go further,” I panted, playing with the hem of his shirt and lifting it as much as I could.

“Are you sure?” Ethan asked. He did it to be gentlemanly, but I knew I was ready for it. I was beyond ready, I needed it.

I nodded my head, helping him pull his shirt off. Ethan bit back a grin and grabbed the lower hem of my sweatshirt, gently yanking it over my shoulders and exposing me to him.

“You’re beautiful,” He breathed, pressing wet kisses to the mounds of my chest, paying extra attention to the sensitive peaks.

“Ethan, I need more,” I shifted the two of us so that I was straddling his lap. I ground my hips against his, begging for the tiniest bit of pressure in between my legs. Ethan bucked up to meet me, rubbing his half-clothed body against my own.

“Are you sure?” He panted in between kisses along my neck.

I hummed a yes, whining as he placed his hands under my thighs to pick me up with him while he stood up.

He turned and threw me on the bed. I landed on my back, looking up at him giggling. I propped myself up on my elbows to watch as he expertly unbuttoned my pants and slid them down my legs. Once the jeans were off, he ripped the underwear away immediately.

I lay beneath him on the mattress completely bare and vulnerable, but I wasn’t scared or shy like I would have been before.

The connection that formed between me and my inner wolf healed my insecurities, fixed the shame I felt every time Ethan looked at me a little too long.

His eyes raked hungrily across my body, like he was trying to commit every inch of it to memory. He ran his hands up my bare thighs, one settled in between my legs, the other continued up to palm my neck.

He dipped his fingers into my most sensitive area, swirling around the bud, eliciting gasps of pleasure from my mouth.

I’d never felt pleasure like that before. My hips bucked into his hand, instinctively searching for more friction, more pleasure.

“Don’t stop,” I whined and bit my lip to stifle a loud cry as Ethan picked up his pace.

A lava-like heat pooled deep in the core of my abdomen. It swirled lower and lower, and my body felt more frantic as I put my own hands over Ethan’s to push his fingers deeper into my folds.

“Ethan! I don’t-” I gasped as I felt my muscles start to spasm. I felt a strange urge to let go, but I knew it would lead to something else. I couldn’t tell if that was supposed to happen. It felt so wrong and so right at the same time.

“Let go, it’s okay,” Ethan growled, his fingers moving faster and more rhythmic. “Show me how pretty you are when you come undone.”

A moan escaped my mouth as fireworks went off behind my eyelids. Like a dam had been released, the heat that pooled in my stomach flooded through my body and relinquished the pressure in my muscles.

Ethan removed his hand, reaching up to grab my head and pull me in for a kiss.

“You’re so pretty, and all mine.” He smiled against my lips.

I couldn’t reply. My brain was too foggy, my limbs too tired. And yet, I wanted more.

Ethan pressed chaste kisses along my throat as he unbuttoned his pants and slid his jeans completely off.

“Can you keep going?” His eyes were half-lidded and dark, in a way that was more sexy than threatening.

I looked up at him as he centered his hips between mine. He didn’t do anything, though, until I gave him the okay.

“Please, I can go all night.” I smiled, satisfied and tired, but nowhere near ready to stop.

Ethan grinned like the cheshire cat, and he slipped his boxers off his body as well, revealing the part of a man I’d never actually seen before. Except, of course, for science textbooks.

“I’ll be gentle,” He smoothed my hair on my forehead, and I felt a pressure poke at my entrance. “I promise.”

His hips lurched forward, skin meeting skin, and I cried out.