“We don’t have time,” Arit panted. “We should return to Benjic’s chapel before the alarm over our absence is raised.”
Cocking his head, chest heaving, Nick concentrated on the distant, muffled noises in the nave. He shook his head. “They’re still arguing over seating and the order of the processional.” He firmed his grip in Arit’s hair. “And if they weren’t, am I not their crown prince? They will wait.” Desire setting him ablaze, Nick lapped at Arit’s frowning mouth. “Help me forget the pain and suffering of what I lost. Of what will come. Run away with me a while longer. I need you.”
Moaning, Arit opened his mouth to Nick, but rather than letting Nick take as Nick wanted, Arit marauded. Nick shivered at the urgent stab of Arit’s tongue, the mastery and control in his mate’s claim. Nick’s pulse roared in his ears, overwhelming the bustling noises nearby. He shuddered as his wolf’s canines pushed through his gums, this time welcoming the sign of his lust for Arit as natural, proper, and endlessly pleasing to him. When Arit’s sharp wolf’s teeth emerged to roughly scrape Nick’s lip, Nick trembled. He traced the points with the tip of his tongue and gladly swallowed his mate’s hungry growl.
“I have to—” Arit yanked and, nearly spilling the both of them to the dirty and dusty floor, he dragged Nick onto his lap.
Nick spread his thighs to make a home for Arit close to his body, eager for whatever Arit had in mind. When Arit thrust up, the hard length of his dick ruthlessly concealed behind frustrating sturdy denim, Nick greeted him by grinding down. The tingling want at Nick’s crotch redoubled with the friction of his mate to rub against. Sweat beaded Arit’s neck as they grinded their hips together, a temptation Nick could not resist. He dipped his head to sample salt and the musky tang that was wholly Arit.
“Stop,” Arit said and reached for Nick’s zipper.
Happy to comply, Nick, too, freed Arit’s beautiful cock from his jeans and then slammed his eyes shut, blowing out a hiss of pleasure when Arit released Nick from his pants as well. Arit shoved Nick’s grip aside and, urging Nick closer still, Arit mashed their cocks together. His fingers wrapped around them like a vise and he pumped.
Nick whined at the zing of wanton heat searing through him.
“Bite me,” Arit commanded as his skillful hand stroked them both into madness. “I want them to see your mark on me and know whose claim I bear.”
Senses whirling in a passionate fog, Nick could no more refuse Arit’s invitation than deny his next gasping breath. He sliced his sharp canines into the meat of Arit’s throat and growled his greedy delight at the first salty splash of blood hot on his tongue. His balls drew up close to his body, tightening. His heart pounded like war drums, the cadence of his labored breaths matched by his mate’s every dizzying stroke.
Arit reached orgasm first. He grunted, and Nick’s desire soared at the gamey scent of semen. It spurted from Arit’s cock pulsing beside Nick’s in Arit’s fist to coat Arit’s shirt in thick ropes. Arit’s tight grip didn’t slacken, nor his taunting pumps slow. He quickened, driving Nick up, up, up. Over the edge.
Clamping his teeth into Arit’s throat, Nick snarled. His world exploded, pleasure overcoming him in intense waves. His muscles bunched. The enervating scent of their sex filled his nose while the satisfaction of his release dazzled his every nerve ending. He gulped Arit’s rich blood, because his mate had offered it to fulfill Nick’s craving. Nick could make a banquet of Arit, take his essence deep inside his own body, and when Arit jerked Nick’s arm to Arit’s mouth, a hot puff of Arit’s panting breath warming the skin of the forearm Arit bared, the burst of satiation burning through Nick redoubled. The pain of Arit’s bite meant nothing. A trifle, soon gone and forgotten. What mattered was the blood in his veins seeping down Arit’s throat to his gullet. The only thing that was important was his mate strengthening Nick’s mark by sucking at the wound. Nick’s cock pulsed and spit, sending Nick into sweet oblivion.
When his thunderous heartbeat slowed its wild gallop, as soon as Nick could stand the idea of separating from his mate, he relaxed the clench of his jaws. He slid his teeth free of the raw, ferocious wound, trying and failing to tamp down his pride that the mark he’d made must surely scar Arit. This time, the wolf within his mate wouldn’t heal the tracks Nick had left in Arit’s skin, and Nick hoped against hope the pain radiating up his arm meant Arit’s bite would leave traces in his flesh, too.
Their mating would be completed, wholly and irrevocably.
Nick longed for it, craved the end of his restless need to bind Arit to him today, tomorrow, and for all time. The yearning sparked by their mating heat at the train station had built to a wildfire inside Nick with their every touch, every word, with each moment they shared together. Nick had desired him from the first, Arit above all others. Though he’d rejected the trappings of aristocracy offered by his sire, Arit’s nobility and innate strength beckoned to Nick. Taunted him. Nick thirsted for the visible signs proving their mating had been settled between them more than he even wanted to retain his crown.
When Arit released his bite and skated a drugged kiss over the ragged wound he’d torn, Nick shuddered. Smears of glistening red painted Arit’s mouth and chin as he turned toward Nick, who could not deny him, could never refuse the rich wonder of his mate’s kiss salted and coppery with Nick’s own blood. Arit groaned, angling his jaw to one side so he could lick Nick’s lips, slick with blood, too. Arit’s blood.
Stirred by lust, sealed in blood, and witnessed in the marks born in their flesh, they two became one.
Tempered now, at least for a while, Nick’s desire finally gave way to affection. He grinned against Arit’s mouth, wishing they could prolong their coming together, though knowing they didn’t dare. The busy noises from the nave as elders and dignitaries streamed inside had slackened. Arit’s disappointed sigh told Nick that his mate had noticed the slowing of activity, too, but when Arit squared his shoulders as though to pull away, Nick clung tighter.
“A few more minutes,” Nick said.
“You’re covered in blood and semen.” Nick swept his gaze down their chests to their cocks softening in his grasp. “And due to stand before every shifter VIP in the capitol at any moment. Shit.”
Laughter bubbled out of Nick. He’d rarely felt as light and free. “You’re a mess, too.”
Arit rolled his eyes. “I’m not their emperor.” He harrumphed, his mouth twisting in distaste. “Maybe if I zip up my leather jacket. We can use my shirt to mop up the worst of—”
Both Arit and Nick winced at a piercing whistle, building painfully as it rapidly neared.