Chapter 2

ELOWEN

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The cracked mirror on my wall didn't give me much to work with, but I made do.

I had a stub of eyeliner worn down to almost nothing and a lip tint I had been rationing for weeks, saving it for an occasion important enough to justify using the last of it. Tonight was that occasion.

I leaned close to the mirror, careful with my hand, trying to make the little I had go as far as it could.

The dress I laid out on the cot was the best one I owned, which wasn't saying much. It was a simple fitted thing in a deep burgundy that I had found folded at the bottom of my bag from what felt like another lifetime. By the standards of what the other girls in the pack would be wearing tonight it was nothing, and I knew that, but Dorian had never once looked at me like what I was wearing mattered. He had seen me in worse. He had seen me in the aftermath of bad days with puffy eyes and dirty clothes and he had still pulled me close, still said my name like it meant something, and that had always been enough to quiet the part of me that worried.

I pulled the dress over my head and smoothed it down, then I looked at myself properly for the first time all day.

My body had always been a complicated thing to live in. I had curves that other girls in the pack had spent years mocking me for, like the shape of me was something I had done deliberately to offend them. But with Dorian's hands on me and his voice low in my ear, I never cared to think about what anyone else said at all.

Our first time had been about three months into whatever we were. We had been in our spot, the abandoned section of the pack grounds that nobody used anymore.

When he kissed me it was slow at first, almost like he was giving me time to decide.

What came after was nothing like I expected and everything I didn't know I had been wanting. His hands knew exactly where to go and he moved like he had all the time in the world, like there was nothing outside that abandoned room that mattered more than the sounds I was making and the way my body responded to every single thing he did.

It had been like that every time since.

I stopped rationing the lip tint entirely and used the last of it.

I wasn't going to need to ration anything after tonight.

I checked the mirror one more time, smoothed the dress, and left.

The route to our spot was one I could walk blind by now. I knew which way got me there without passing anyone who would ask questions or remember seeing me.

My heart was already beating faster than usual.

He wasn't there when I arrived.

I stood in the middle of the small room, listening to the quiet. The last of the evening light came through the gaps in the boarded window in thin pale strips. Our spot wasn't much, but it was the only place in Blackthorn where I had ever felt like I was allowed to exist without apology, and I loved it for that alone.

Then, out of nowhere, hands landed on my shoulders from behind and I jumped hard enough to spin around with my heart in my throat.

Dorian stood there laughing.

"You always fall for that," he said.

"Why’d you always do this?" I laughed, pressing my hand to my chest. "One day I'm going to actually hit you."

"You'd miss." He smiled, and for a second he was just him, the version of him that existed only in this room, easy and warm and entirely different from the composed, untouchable future Alpha that the rest of the pack saw.

I closed the space between us. He opened his arms and I stepped into them, and for a moment I just stood there with my face against his chest listening to his heartbeat.

"I missed you," I said. "It's been two weeks."

"I know." His arms tightened briefly. "It's been a lot. The succession preparation takes more than you'd think."

"I know it does. I just miss you when you're gone." I mumbled.

"I know you do." He pulled back to look at me, one hand coming up to my face. "But it's almost over. What we talked about, Elowen, it's coming. We just have to wait a little longer."

He sounded certain but there was something underneath his eyes that I didn't recognise and didn't know how to read.

I almost said something about it.

Then he kissed me and I stopped thinking about it entirely.

We moved to the mattress, our mouths never leaving each other. Dorian kissed me deep and slow, like he wanted to taste every moan I made. His hands slid down my sides and pulled the burgundy dress up over my head, leaving me in just my panties. He groaned at the sight of my heavy breasts, cupping them immediately, thumbs brushing over my stiff nipples.

“Fuck, Elowen… your tits always drive me crazy,” he muttered, voice low and rough. He bent his head and sucked one nipple into his hot mouth, licking and biting gently while his hand kneaded the other.

I arched into him, whimpering.

He laid me down on the mattress and peeled my panties off slowly. Spreading my thighs wide, he stared at my dripping pussy like he was starving. “Look at this wet little pussy. Already soaked for me.”

Dorian settled between my legs and dragged his tongue up my clit in one long, slow lick. I cried out, fingers tangling in his hair as he licked me again and again, teasing my clit with lazy circles before sucking it into his mouth. He pushed two thick fingers inside me, pumping them slowly while he ate me out, curling them against that spot that made my toes curl.

“Oh god, Dorian… your tongue feels so good,” I moaned, grinding against his face. “Don’t stop, please… fuck, I’m so close already.”

He pulled back right before I could come, smirking at my frustrated whine. “Not yet, baby. I want you dripping down my cock when you cum.”

He stood and stripped quickly. His cock sprang free, thick and hard, the head already glistening. I reached for him, stroking the heavy length as he knelt over me.

“Suck it,” he ordered softly.

I took him into my mouth eagerly, swirling my tongue around the head before sliding him deeper, sucking with wet, filthy sounds.

Dorian groaned, hips rocking gently as he fucked my mouth.

“That’s it… good girl. Take your Alpha’s cock down your throat.”

After a few minutes he pulled out, flipped me onto my hands and knees, and rubbed his cock against my soaked entrance. He pushed in slowly, inch by inch, stretching my pussy open until he was buried to the hilt.

“Fuck… so tight,” he growled, gripping my hips. “This greedy pussy was made for me.”

He started fucking me with long, deep strokes, building the rhythm gradually. The sound of skin slapping skin filled the small room. I pushed back against him, moaning loudly every time he bottomed out.

“Harder— please, Dorian. Fuck me harder. I need it,” I begged.

He gave it to me, slamming into me faster, one hand reaching around to rub my swollen clit. Then he pulled out, sat on the mattress, and pulled me on top of him.

I straddled his lap and sank down onto his cock with a long moan, taking every inch.

“Ride me,” he commanded, voice husky. “Ride my cock like the dirty little slut you are for me.”

I braced my hands on his chest and started bouncing, rolling my hips in filthy circles, my tits jiggling with every movement. Dorian sucked on my nipples while I fucked myself on him, his hands gripping my ass hard.

“I’m gonna cum— fuck, I’m so close,” I whimpered, moving faster.

“Not yet.” He grabbed my hips and held me still, buried deep inside me. I whined in frustration, clenching around him.

He flipped me onto my back, threw my legs over his shoulders, and drove back into me hard. This angle let him go impossibly deeper. He fucked me relentlessly, pounding my pussy with deep, powerful strokes while his thumb rubbed my clit.

“Cum on my cock, Elowen. Let me feel this tight cunt squeeze me,” he growled.

I shattered hard, crying out his name as my orgasm crashed through me, walls pulsing and milking his cock. Dorian kept thrusting through it, then pulled out and flipped me onto my stomach. He spread my legs and entered me from behind again, fucking me even harder, chasing his own release.

“Fill me up,” I gasped, still trembling. “Cum deep inside my pussy, Alpha Dorian. I want to feel it leaking out of me.”

With a deep groan, he buried himself to the hilt and came, thick ropes of hot cum flooding my clenching pussy as he kept thrusting through his orgasm.

When it was over I was still catching my breath, still warm all the way through, and I reached for him the way I always did after, expecting his arm to come around me, expecting the quiet that always followed.

Instead he sat up.

I watched him reach for his shirt.

"Hey," I said. "Where are you going?"

"I have to get back." He didn't look at me while he dressed, his movements quick and efficient.

I pushed myself up onto my elbow. "But you always stay after."

"I can't tonight." He stood, pulling his shirt on. "There's too much happening."

"Dorian." I sat up fully. "It's a few minutes. Just stay for a few minutes."

He finally looked at me and there it was again, that thing in his eyes I couldn't understand, heavier now than it had been before.

He leaned down and pressed his lips to my forehead. Not my mouth anymore.

Then he was gone.

The door closed behind him and I sat on the mattress alone in the thin strips of dying light with my dress on the floor and that cold feeling still sitting in my stomach where the warmth had been.

I got dressed slowly.

I told myself it was the pressure of the succession. I told myself tonight was a big night for him too and that explained the strangeness in his eyes, the quick exit and the forehead kiss instead of a real one.

By the time the pack hall began to fill with wolves and the noise of the ceremony carried through the walls, I had talked myself all the way back to steady.

Tonight he was going to choose me, and our relationship wouldn’t have to be a secret anymore.

I was finally about to be lucky for once in my life.