CHAPTER 2

Clara’s POV

The heavy sound of Alpha Garrick’s boots faded down the hallway toward the master suite. A distant door clicked shut, followed by the turn of a heavy lock.

Silence settled over the second floor.

I pressed my trembling shoulders against the wall beside my bedroom door, holding my breath. My core was still pulsing with the sudden heat Damien had awakened outside the bathroom.

I thought the danger had passed. I thought Damien had gone back to his own bedroom down the hall.

Then my bedroom door swung open.

Damien stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He reached down and turned the brass lock on the knob until it snapped into place. In the quiet room, that metallic sound was as loud as a gunshot.

Silver moonlight cut through the window blinds, throwing sharp lines of light across his face. His golden eyes were fixed on me, dark with an intense hunger.

"You need to leave right now," I whispered, pushing myself off the wall. "Damien, if your father comes back out and finds you in here with me, my mother and I will be thrown out onto the street."

"My father is asleep," Damien said, his voice a low, gravelly rasp. He crossed the floor in three long strides until he stood directly in front of me. "And I am not leaving this room."

"We cannot do this," I said, though my voice lacked any real strength. "You heard what Garrick told you in the hall. The council is finalizing your mating contract with the Redmoor Pack tomorrow morning. You belong to their Alpha family now."

"Do I look like I care about a contract right now, Clara?" Damien asked.

He reached out and grabbed my waist with both hands. His large fingers sank deep into the soft curve of my hips. With effortless strength, he lifted me off the floor and sat me down onto the edge of my wooden dresser. He stepped directly between my parted knees, trapping me completely.

The heat radiating off his bare chest was scorching. His scent filled my nose, rich with cedarwood, smoke, and pure male musk.

"Damien, please," I gasped as his large palms slid up under the hem of my thin cotton shirt.

"Tell me what you really want, Clara," he murmured. His face dipped down until his warm lips hovered barely an inch above mine. "Tell me to stop touching you. Tell me to unlock that door and walk away."

I looked into his golden eyes, searching for any reason to push him away. For three long years, I had hidden my feelings behind polite nods and lowered glances. I had spent countless lonely nights touching myself in the dark, wishing he would look at me with something other than cold indifference.

"I cannot tell you that," I confessed softly. "I have wanted you for so long."

"Good girl," Damien growled.

He grabbed the fabric of my shirt and yanked it over my head in one swift motion, tossing it onto the floor. The cool night air hit my bare breasts, making my nipples tighten instantly into hard peaks.

Damien’s breath hitched in his chest as his eyes dropped to my skin.

"You are so beautiful," he rasped, his voice thick with raw hunger. "So fucking perfect."

He did not give me time to feel shy. He leaned down and took my left nipple into his mouth. His hot, wet tongue swirled around the tight peak before he sucked hard.

A loud gasp tore from my throat. My back arched off the dresser, pressing my chest deeper into his mouth. Damien let out a low groan of approval. His free hand reached over to cup my other breast, squeezing and kneading the soft flesh with possessive greed.

"Damien," I whimpered, my fingers tangling in his short, dark hair. "It feels too good."

"I am just getting started with you, Clara," he muttered against my wet skin.

He moved his mouth across my chest, leaving a trail of hot kisses over my collarbone before sinking his teeth gently into the crook of my neck. He licked the spot, claiming every inch of my skin while his hands moved down my sides.

Damien pulled back slightly, his eyes glowing in the dark. He reached down and hooked his thumbs into the waistband of my shorts and underwear. With one firm pull, he dragged them down my legs and kicked them aside onto the floor.

He grabbed my bare knees and pushed them wide apart, stepping in until his hips were pressed firmly against my entrance.

"Look at you," Damien whispered, his voice dropping into a dark purr. "You are completely soaked. You have been dripping for me since you stood outside that bathroom door, have you not?"

"Yes," I admitted, unable to hide the truth any longer. "Yes, Damien."

He dropped down to his knees on the floor in front of the dresser.

Before I could comprehend what he was doing, his hands gripped the tops of my thighs with bruising strength, and his mouth pressed directly against my swollen clit.

A sharp cry caught in my throat as his warm tongue dragged upward across my sensitive center. My hands flew to his broad shoulders, my fingernails digging into his skin as he began to lick and suck with ruthless precision.

"Damien, wait," I cried out, my hips bucking against his face. "I am going to lose control."

"Lose it for me, Clara," he growled against my wet folds, his tongue swirling faster and harder against my swollen nub. "Let me feel you fall apart in my mouth."

He slipped two thick fingers inside me, stretching my tight entrance while his mouth continued its assault on my clit. The sudden fullness, combined with the ruthless pressure of his lips, pushed me instantly over the edge.

My entire body went rigid. A violent orgasm ripped through me, causing my inner walls to clamp down tightly around his fingers. I cried out his name into the quiet room, my thighs trembling against his ears as wave after wave of intense heat washed through my veins.

Damien stayed right there, drinking down every drop of my release, his throat bobbing as he swallowed.

When my trembling finally began to slow, Damien stood up to his full height. His face was flushed, his lips slick with my moisture. He reached down and shoved his gray sweatpants down his legs, stepping out of them completely.

The moonlight illuminated the massive, thick length of his erection. It stood rigid and proud, pulsing with thick veins, heavy with pre-cum glistening at the wide tip.

My breath caught in my throat at the sheer size of him.

Damien lifted me off the dresser in his arms and carried me across the room to the bed. He laid me down gently on the white sheets, crawling over me until his heavy muscular frame pinned me down. He settled his hips between my parted legs.

"Look at me, Clara," he commanded, his voice shaking with the effort of holding himself back.

I looked up into his golden eyes, my heart beating frantically against my ribs.

"You belong to me tonight," Damien whispered, pressing the wide head of his cock against my dripping entrance. "No one else gets to touch this."

He pushed his hips forward.

The thick head breached my opening, stretching me to an absolute limit that made my breath hitch painfully in my throat. Damien paused for a second, his jaw clenched tight, before driving his hips forward in one deep, forceful thrust.

A sharp, tearing pain ripped through my core as he broke completely through my virgin barrier.

I let out a pained cry, my eyes squeezing shut as hot tears leaked onto the pillow. My nails dug deep into the hard muscles of his back, leaving bright red marks.

Damien froze instantly, buried to the hilt inside me.

His entire body went rigid, his chest heaving against mine as his forehead dropped onto my shoulder. His breathing was ragged, his thick cock buried deep inside my tight, burning warmth.

"Clara," he rasped, his voice tight with shock. "Did I hurt you?"

"It just hurts a little," I whispered, trying to steady my shallow breaths as the burning sensation slowly began to settle into a deep, heavy fullness. "Do not pull out."

"You are so impossibly tight," Damien groaned, his hips trembling as he fought the urge to move. "You are squeezing me so hard I can barely breathe."

"Move," I whispered, opening my eyes to look at him. "Please, Damien. Move."

He lifted his head, his eyes blazing with an animalistic intensity that took my breath away. He pulled back slowly, almost entirely out of me, before sinking all the way back in with a heavy, deliberate thrust.

The pain completely vanished, replaced by an overwhelming, intoxicating friction.

Damien began to move with a steady, punishing rhythm. Every deep thrust hit a spot inside me that made my toes curl and my back arch off the mattress. He grabbed my hips with bruising strength, anchoring me beneath him as he drove into me over and over again.

The wet, slapping sound of our bodies colliding echoed softly in the quiet room. Damien leaned down, kissing my mouth, my jaw, and my neck, licking away the salty tears on my cheeks with a hunger that felt almost desperate.

"You are mine, Clara," he chanted between heavy breaths, his pace turning fast and ruthless. "Say it. Tell me you are mine."

"I am yours, Damien," I cried out, wrapping my legs tightly around his waist to pull him even deeper. "Only yours."

The heat inside me coiled tighter and tighter, burning hotter than before. My core clenched frantically around his thick shaft, matching every brutal thrust he delivered into my body.

"Clara, I cannot hold back," Damien growled, his voice breaking into a harsh rasp.

"Do not hold back," I sobbed, my climax crashing over me like a tidal wave.

My inner walls clamped down on him with crushing force. The sheer tightness of my release shattered the last bit of Damien’s control. He buried himself to the absolute hilt, his hips snapping forward one last time as a guttural roar tore from his chest.

He pumped his hot seed deep into my womb, his entire body convulsing as wave after wave of his warm release filled me to the brim.

For several minutes, neither of us moved. Damien collapsed on top of me, his heavy chest rising and falling in exhaustion, his face buried in the crook of my neck. I ran my fingers through his damp hair, feeling a profound sense of peace wash over me.

Then, right outside my bedroom door, the brass handle jiggled violently, followed by the scraping sound of a key sliding directly into the lock.