C2

"Axista," Riven growls, his deep tone vibrating directly against her chest. "Get back here."

She freezes, clutching the silk sheet tight against her throat.

"Where did you go just now?" he asks.

"I think your tongue is like moon-fermented berries," she whispers.

He lets out a dark, rumbling chuckle, his sharp canine teeth scraping lightly against her collarbone. "You will have to explain that one to me, little wolf."

"It feels so addictive it must be dangerous," she confesses, her throat tight as his claws trace her inner thigh. "Like something that will eventually ruin me."

"Let me show you how fast we can burn," he murmurs.

The heat of his palm hits her wet center again, and her wolf lets out a desperate, submission-hungry whimper.

This time, the peak starts deep in her lower belly, a visceral, thrumming ache that makes her claws slip out and dig into the heavy headboard of the Silver Fang Lodge.

When she crests, her body convulses, pouring her slickness onto his fingers.

"By the Moon, Axista," he groans, licking the sweet moisture from his hand. "You taste like pure temptation."

He does not give her a second to breathe before shifting his heavy, hard body over hers.

His silver-gray eyes lock onto her dull brown ones, his gaze intense enough to make her want to look away.

Her sister Calista has those striking, crystal-blue eyes that every Alpha in the Black Hollow Dominion fights over.

Axista has only ever had her father Caelor's ordinary, dark eyes—unfit for a true Luna, or so her mother Orielle always claimed.

"Keep your eyes on me," Riven commands, his Alpha aura flaring, demanding her total attention. "I want to see the exact moment you break."

She cannot look away even if she wants to.

"This is going to hurt," he warns, his thick, knotted shaft pressing hard against her entrance.

She arches up, her inner walls pulsing in desperate anticipation of the pain. "Do it. Please, Riven."

He seals his mouth over hers to swallow her cry as he drives inside her in one heavy, unforgiving thrust.

The blunt force of his size tears through her innocence, making her body go rigid beneath him as hot tears slip down her temples.

"I am sorry, sweetheart," he grunts, his breath ragged against her lips. "I am sorry."

"Do not stop," she gasps, her hands gripping his scarred shoulders. "Do not stop."

He holds still for a moment, letting her small body stretch and adapt to his thick girth, before he begins a slow, agonizingly deep rhythm.

"You are so incredibly tight," he groans, his jaw clenching as he buries himself to the hilt over and over. "I am going to claim every inch of you."

"I need you to knot me," the wild, primal words slip out of her mouth before she can stop them, driven by the ancient breeding urge she has never felt before.

He growls, a deep, predatory sound that echoes in her chest, and begins to pound into her with relentless, bruising force.

"No other beast has ever touched you," he snarls, his grip on her hips tightening until his claws leave red marks. "You belong to the Thornevale Pack now. Say it."

"I am yours," she gasps, her world spinning into darkness as his thumb finds her swollen clit and pinches hard.

Her core spasms around him, clamping down so tightly that Riven roars, his own climax overtaking him as he floods her with his hot, thick seed.

When her mind finally clears, the heavy silence of the bedroom returns, and Riven is already pulling away from her.

He stands up, completely naked, his face cold and devoid of the passion that just consumed him.

"Go clean yourself up," he says flatly, pointing toward the stone bath.

She wraps her arms around her bare chest, her heart sinking as she watches him walk away without a backward glance.

The heat of their sudden bond is already cooling, replaced by the crushing weight of reality.

He only took her because he was drunk and desperate to forget Calista.

By the time she emerges from the bath, the blood-stained sheets have been replaced with fresh, clean linen, and Riven is standing by the window in nothing but black trousers.

He holds a small wooden vial and a cup of spring water out to her.

"Drink this," he commands. "For the soreness."

She takes the cup, her fingers trembling as she swallows the bitter herbal draft.

"I should go back to my own room," she murmurs, looking around for her torn linen dress.

"No," Riven says, opening the wardrobe to reveal a soft, dark silk tunic. "Sleep here. It is our wedding night."

His voice is hard, sounding more like an obligation than a desire.

She pulls the silk over her head, feeling the expensive weave against her skin—a luxury she could never afford on her own.

Her family has power, but all of it belongs to her mother and Calista, who run the Silver Pelt Atelier, crafting sacred garments for the high-ranking nobility of the Black Hollow Dominion.

Axista is just a low-ranking artisan, struggling to get her landscape paintings noticed in the small, dusty shops along Moonstone Passage.

She was supposed to take a position restoring ancient scrolls at the Hall of Lunar Relics, but her mother demanded she put her dreams aside to help run the family trade.

She did it hoping they would finally see her, finally love her.

Instead, she ended up in the bed of the most powerful Alpha in the territory.

"Axista," Riven's voice cuts through her thoughts as the first rays of dawn hit the balcony.

She looks up, her heart leaping into her throat. "Yes?"

"When does your carriage leave for the Black Hollow Dominion?" he asks coldly.

"In three hours," she whispers.

"Get ready then."

"Riven... we need to talk about what we did at the Moon Oath Sanctum," she says, her voice trembling. "We can get the High Council Advocates to dissolve the blood oath before anyone finds out."

Riven turns to her, his silver eyes narrowing into sharp slits. "Dissolve it?"

"You were drunk," she says, swallowing hard. "You want Calista. Let us just fix this so your pack never has to know."

"It is a blood covenant, Axista," he growls, stepping closer until his shadow completely envelops her. "It is already registered with the pack laws."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"I will see you in the Black Hollow Dominion," Riven says, his voice cutting like ice. "Come to the Ironmoon Keep tomorrow at ten. We will figure out how to handle this mess."