Chapter Five: No More Distance

Liana

POV

Kael kissed me like he was angry at both of us.

There was nothing careful left. One hand tangled in my hair and yanked my head back. The other gripped my thigh and hauled me up until my legs wrapped around his waist. He carried me to the bed and dropped me onto it hard enough that the breath left my lungs. Clothes came off in rough, impatient pulls,  fabric tearing, buttons scattering. When he finally got me naked he just stared for a second, chest heaving, eyes pure gold, like the sight of me was actively destroying him.

“Last chance,” he said, voice wrecked. “Tell me to stop.”

I reached for him instead.

He shoved my thighs apart and pushed into me in one deep, brutal thrust. The stretch tore a raw, broken sound from my throat. There was no adjustment. No slow build. He fucked me like something in him had finally snapped  deep, hard, punishing strokes that forced the air from my lungs every time he bottomed out. The wet sound of it filled the room. His mouth found my neck. His teeth scraped over the place where a mark would go, not quite biting down.

“You’re mine,” he growled against my skin. “Say it.”

“I’m yours—”

He drove harder. “Louder.”

“I’m yours,” I gasped. “Fuck—Kael—”

“That’s right.” His voice was rough, obsessive, almost unhinged. “Taking your father’s best friend’s cock like you were made for it. Look at you. All that defiance and you’re dripping down my dick.”

Shame and hunger crashed together so hard I moaned. I dug my nails into his back and met every thrust.

“Don’t stop,” I choked out. “Harder—fuck, don’t you dare stop—”

A dark, broken sound left his chest. He pinned both my wrists above my head with one hand and fucked me deeper, rougher, losing rhythm as his control continued to collapse.

“You keep pushing me,” he rasped. “You kept standing there offering yourself like I wouldn’t eventually take it. Now you get to feel what happens when I stop holding back.”

“I’ve wanted this,” I gasped. “I’ve wanted your cock since the clearing—stop pretending you didn’t know—”

“I knew.” His teeth scraped harder over my throat. “I knew every time you looked at me. Every time you challenged me. My wolf has been losing his mind to bury himself inside you and claim what’s his.”

He shifted the angle of his hips and drove even deeper, forcing a broken cry out of my throat. The stretch burned in the best way. Every thrust dragged against a place that made my thighs shake. I could feel how wet I was, could hear it, could feel his cock dragging through it with every hard stroke.

“You feel that?” he growled against my ear. “How easily you’re taking me? How fucking wet you got just from being told you’re mine? I can feel the bond locking deeper every time I bury myself in you.”

“Mark me,” I begged, voice cracking. “Bite me—just fucking make me yours—”

“Not yet.” His grip on my wrists tightened. “When I mark you, it will be permanent. When I mark you, everyone will know I took my best friend’s daughter and made her mine. You’re not ready for what that costs.”

“I don’t care about the cost—”

“I do.” He fucked me harder, almost punishing. “And I’m still not stopping.”

The words hit as hard as the thrusts. My body clenched around him in helpless response. The sound he made in answer was almost painful.

“Fuck—Liana—”

“Don’t pull out,” I gasped. “I hate how good you feel—don’t you dare pull out—”

That broke whatever was left of his restraint. He drove into me with short, brutal strokes, chasing his release while the bond roared between us. The pleasure turned sharp and overwhelming. When I came it ripped through me with enough force that I cried out his name, legs shaking, vision blurring. Kael followed with a guttural, broken sound, burying himself to the hilt as he spilled inside me in thick, pulsing waves.

For several long seconds neither of us could move.

Then the weight of it landed like a blade.

Kael

POV

I stayed braced over her, still buried deep, trying to remember how to breathe.

The bond was no longer just a pull. It sat in my chest like a second heartbeat, her satisfaction, her shock, the fine tremor still running through her thighs. I had taken my best friend’s daughter in my own bed. I had fucked her like an animal and come inside her while the promise I made her mother burned to ash in the back of my mind.

Self-hatred rose so fast it made me nauseous.

Alongside it, stronger and more terrifying, was the absolute refusal of my wolf to regret a single second.

I pulled out carefully. She flinched. My cum leaked out of her onto the sheets, mixed with her own wetness. The sight of it sent another dark, possessive pulse through me that made me sick with myself. I sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, head bowed, hands still shaking.

“This changes everything,” I said, voice rough.

“I know.”

“Your father—”

“I know.”

I dragged both hands down my face. “I swore I would protect you. Instead I dragged you into my territory and fucked you like I owned you.”

“I wanted it,” she said. Quiet. Steady. But there was a slight tremor underneath the words now. “Stop trying to carry this like you took something I didn’t give.”

I looked at her then. Naked. Bruises already forming on her hips and wrists from my hands. Breathing still uneven. There was no real fear in her expression, but there was the first flicker of understanding of what we had just done. The same understanding that was currently trying to carve me open.

“I won’t let you go back,” I said. “Not after this. Not while there are still people hunting you. And not while the bond is already this deep.”

Liana held my gaze. Her voice was quieter when she answered.

“I didn’t ask to go back.”

The finality in it settled something dark and irreversible in my chest.

There was no more pretending.

There was only what we had done, and the cost that was already coming for both of us.