Chapter 3: Deadly Desire

My heart thumped wildly against my ribs, echoing in the heavy, suffocating silence that fell between us. I could die if I said yes. A Lycan's heat was no joke. Most of the time, she-wolves ended up dying. But a part of me wanted to give in to him.

Salvatore’s massive chest rose and fell in jagged, violent heaves, his burning amber eyes searching my face with a terrifying mix of feral hunger and desperate restraint. His broad, calloused hand remained pinned against the small of my back, his long fingers biting deep into the full, soft flesh of my hips as if he were afraid I would dissolve back into the thick forest mist if he let go for even a single second.

He was giving me a choice. The deadliest Lycan in the entire realm, a monster who could snap my neck with two fingers, was trembling beneath the crushing weight of his own heat, waiting for my permission.

In my first life, I had spent years begging an insecure Alpha for breadcrumbs of affection, apologizing for taking up space, and punishing my own body to fit a tiny, delicate mold. But standing here beneath the silver canopy of the royal sanctuary, wrapped in the suffocating, addictive warmth of a king, I didn't want to shrink. I didn't want to hide.

I wanted to be consumed.

I leaned up on my tiptoes, sliding my arms up his broad, sweat-slicked shoulders, and whispered straight into his hot lips, "Don't stop."

That was all it took.

Salvatore let out a dark, guttural roar that shattered the last remnant of his control. His lips slammed onto mine in a kiss that was raw, possessive, and completely intoxicating. It wasn't gentle. It was a collision of ancient forces, a storm of wild heat and long-buried hunger. I gasped into his mouth, and the moment our tongues touched, a wave of intense, golden fire erupted in my veins, intertwining with the liquid gold magic radiating from his glowing skin.

He ripped my dress from my shoulders as it lowered down, revealing plenty of my heavy cleavage. His eyes darkened at the sight; he pulled me flush against him, lifting me off my feet as effortlessly as if I weighed nothing at all. My thick thighs wrapped instinctively around his broad waist, my emerald dress tearing down the side under the desperate, possessive grip of his large hands.

"F*ck! You are so tempting!" He growled lowly.

Where Alpha Brandon had viewed my thick frame as an awkward flaw, King Salvatore looked at me with reverent, wild worship. His large, feverish hands roamed relentlessly over the flare of my hips, squeezing the deep dip of my waist, and crushing the heavy, aching swell of my breasts with a breathless, awe-struck intensity.

"Look at you... Goddess, look at what you do to me," Salvatore growled, his voice thick, heavy, and dripping with raw fascination. His broad palms smoothed over the rich, plush curves of my thighs, his thumb digging into my hip as if trying to memorize every inch. "So thick... so soft... built like a true Queen. F*ck, you're driving me crazy."

He buried his face into the crook of my neck, kissing down to my collarbone, his hot breath searing my skin. "Every inch of this body is made for a Lycan King. You were built to hold my weight, my magic, my entire soul."

"Your Majesty..." I gasped, my skin flushing as his words hit me harder than the physical touch. No one had ever spoken to me like this. No one had ever looked at my curves as if they were holy.

"Every curve... absolute perfection," he growled against my jaw, his teeth grazing the sensitive skin beneath my ear, sending a jolt of pure electricity straight down my spine. "You are so alluring, my precious."

With a low grunt, he yanked the hem of my dress down roughly, revealing my heavy bosoms. His eyes darkened, and his lips parted at the sight of my pink nipples and heavy mounds.

"F*ck me!" He growled, grabbing my soft bosoms in his rough, calloused hands as he squeezed them hard before taking one in his mouth and sucking on it like a hungry beast as I cried out in ecstasy. My body was on fire, and I needed him as much as he craved me.

He carried me backward toward the edge of the Whispering Pool, sinking us onto the thick bed of glowing, iridescent moss. The cool water lapped softly against our bare legs, contrasting violently with the scorching heat radiating from his broad body. The entire world shrank down to the thunderous thrum of his heartbeat, the intoxicating scent of pine and heavy ozone rolling off his shoulders, and the blinding burst of heat every time his feverish skin pressed into mine.

I shyly peeled my eyes open, and an instant spark flooded my body as I watched him devour my bosoms as if they were some fruit he couldn't get enough of. More wetness pooled between my legs as he shuffled with his trousers, and then my eyes widened, feeling something huge and hard rubbing against my entrance as he had bunched my whole dress up to my waist.

"So f*cking wet." He growled, and my cheeks flared a bright shade of red.

He kissed me savagely, and then he drove his massive length into me at once; it felt as though the heavens had split wide open.

A high, breathless scream tore from my throat, my back arching violently as my fingers dug deep into the dense, flexed muscles of his shoulders. A blinding surge of golden and silver light erupted from our joined bodies. The Whispering Pool flared with brilliant, multicolored light, ripples of ancient magic expanding across the liquid surface like shockwaves. It wasn't just physical lust; it was a sacred, ancient fusion.

Salvatore groaned, a low, reverberating sound that vibrated straight through my bones, his eyes flashing pure, blinding gold as he slammed his fingers between mine, pinning my hands above my head against the cool moss. His hips moved in a rhythmic, deep, and relentless pace, driving the fever from his blood into mine until we were both drowning in a sea of breathless, frantic ecstasy.

Even in the deep grips of his feral state, his gaze stayed locked on me, his eyes mesmerized by the way my soft body moved beneath his broad, powerful frame.

"Ah... Salvatore!" I gasped out, my vision blurring as heat pooled in my belly, my entire frame shivering uncontrollably under the sheer force of his possession.

He bent down, capturing my gasps with his mouth, his hands sliding back down to grip my thick hips, pulling me tighter into every deep, possessive thrust. He whispered endless, breathless praises against my lips, worshipping the weight of my breasts in his hands, tracing the curve of my waist, completely intoxicated by every curve of my body.

"Mine," he growled low into my ear, his broad chest shuddering against my bare breasts, shattering the very last of my doubts. "All this beauty... all this power... mine."

"Ahhh!" I moaned out, my hips arching up desperately to meet him, surrendering completely to the wild heat taking over us both as wave after wave of intense pleasure crashed through my body.

Yet beneath the searing waves of pleasure, my dark reborn blood thrummed with a secret instinct. As our bodies fused, my body didn't fight his royal Lycan essence, it absorbed it, weaving his raw power into my  core. For a fraction of a second, the blurred memory of the silver-eyed figure in the ocean depth flickered across my consciousness, a faint, cold whisper echoing in the quiet void of my mind: Let his power anchor you... until the blood moon rises.

With every stroke of his hips, the glowing golden runes on his chest began to alter, duplicating themselves and flowing down his massive arms onto my skin like liquid ink. Beneath my left collarbone, right above my pounding heart, a sharp, searing mark began to burn, an intricate crest of a crowned Lycan surrounded by glowing crescent moons and subtle, dark thornlike runes. The permanent, undeniable mark of the Lycan King, bound directly to a hybrid soul.

My heart trembled, and shock coursed through my veins realizing that he had marked me.

We rode the wave of the heat through the deepest, darkest hours of the night, lost in a whirlwind of absolute surrender. Salvatore claimed my lips, my hips, my breasts, and my soul over and over again, leaving no part of me untouched and unpraised. Every time my body trembled on the edge of exhaustion, his beast pushed further, pulling breathless, broken cries from my throat and anchoring his spirit to mine in the dark forest.

The Feral Heat consumed us entirely, locking us in an endless cycle of raw desire, heavy gasps, deep groans, and burning skin beneath the starlit sky, far away from the world we left behind.