(This is a mature chapter. Feel free to skip if that does not appeal to you!)

"Not a fucking chance." Verando exhales, dropping me back onto the bed, and smacking me sharply on the ass. The feeling of his palm sends a jolt through my body, a delicious reminder of just how dominating he could be.

My wolf rattles its cage, begging, pleading, the cuff making my arm feel impossibly hot.

I practically yelp, shocked by the retaliation. "Wha.. wait, what?" I manage, gasping as he leans over me, grinding against my ass as his full lips place slow, impatient kisses on my neck. I shiver at the weight of him pressing me into the mattress, folding my arms in front of my face, I grip the sheets with a desperate groan as he rolls his hips against my backside. 

Every inch of him was cool against my hot skin, a marble statue against my inferno, how we had switched from our first few days when I felt like the heat of him would overwhelm me. Yet, lying here, I couldn't help but feel the pain creeping into my chest.

I would never feel that mutual warmth again. I would never touch him and marvel at the fact that were, finally, the same. It was just a reminder that he was dead, or at least- by some stretch of the imagination, no longer living.

I'm impossibly hard, straining against the panties that weren't meant to confine for long periods of time. "What the hell are we doing?" I murmur, tilting my head back as I feel him grin against my skin. Tempting him with my hips, I sway side to side beneath him. "Dry humping like a couple of teenagers?"

Verando kisses down my neck, from my ear to the point of my shoulder, before sinking his teeth into my skin with a rumble in his throat. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, my body is rigid as the alpha in me fights for dominance, and yet, here I was begging for him to take me. When it came down to it, this was where I belonged, what I preferred. Being under him, having him tease and worship me. 

He's painfully silent as he kisses in between my shoulder blades.

I growl back in response, attempting to shake him off, "Hey, what did you mean? No? I thought- you made the deal with Bastet? I don't know if you remember this but making a baby means we have to have sex." I demand from him, his jaw tight as he glances away from me yet I grip his chain, jerking him back into my field of vision.

"I made a deal that she would see me in a year to collect on the rest of her years, that gives me three months to make sure you're sound of body-" Verando kisses my shoulder, "And mind." Ending at the top of my head, I roll my eyes as he presses his hips against me once more with a shakey groan. "I just didn't expect you to make it so difficult, I figured that you wouldn't want this.. that you'd need more time."

He put on a good show that he was playing the marauder, that he could tame the beast we were both afflicted by and yet he was the one desperate to grind against me. I allow for an airy moan to leave my lips, tempting him as much as I dared. 

"And go through three more of these heat cycles? Yeah.. go fuck yourself, or better yet, fuck me..." I manage, gasping as he smacks my ass again. 

Bucking my hips back against him, I curse under my breath at my state of arousal. The pit of my stomach ached, and my loins throbbed uncomfortably with the flood of images I'd compiled of this gorgeous man over the years. I knew exactly why and how I wanted him, he just needed to succumb before I took matters into my own hands.

I wasn't ok, neither of us were, but if I wanted this I couldn't wait around for my mental health to catch up with what I knew would make me happy in the long term.

"You also seem to think that you're going to knock me up on the first cycle, maybe we just got lucky last time? You're getting pretty old, what are you, about to be 50 now?" I attempt, rolling my hips against any part of him that would touch me. This wasn't going to work, I could feel my body threatening to get close, and yet, I knew this wouldn't be enough. 

It was more so hormonal desperation that pushed me to the edge. "Randy I can't stand it, I need you to take me."

My naked warlord, his damp skin glistening in the lack of light, I can only shiver at the feeling of his quickened breath against my neck.

"Who keeps track of something like age?" Verando growls, unimpressed, "Don't forget this whole thing started because of your daddy issues. So this is your plan? Appeal to my better nature? Did you forget there is a distinct lack of anything good within me anymore?"

Flipping me over, he slides me roughly to the edge of the bed, taking me into his mouth as he kneels between my legs, possession in every fiber of his being. The wetness of his mouth, the chill of his tongue against my blazing skin, I thrust against his mouth despite the smirk I'm met with in return.

Arching my back, wanting to rid myself of the smug man's expression, I grip his hair with a low moan to give him something else to focus on. "Didn't I say no foreplay?" I manage, unhinged, writhing with the feeling of him swallowing me, he was at his wit's end, too.

He was just better at hiding it than I was.

Verando's cheek dimples, relentless with that sinister tongue stud as he licks over every inch of me, savoring it with long, slow passes. "I can't help it, you taste so good. Serving you is my favorite pastime, you're going to have to do better than that to convince me out of foreplay."

My body surrenders to him, and he brings me to the edge only to let me fall off once again as he kisses and nips my inner thigh while lazily stroking my manhood. 

"You're such an asshole." I moan as he toys with me, so clearly amused at the heightened tone of my voice.

"You also said no rubber, darling. I'm only a man, and this is quite the experience for me, as well. I must say, it's a new one. How you keep finding firsts for me, given my past, is quite impressive."

"Never had a woman throw herself at you in the throws of her carnal nature?" The words slip out with a hint of venom, he was being cruel. One of his hands slides up my body, groping my chest as he twists my nipple between two fingers. I rake my nails over his forearm, relishing in the feeling of the cords of muscle under my fingertips.

The scent of him filled my nose, I was so close.

"Randy-" I plead, teetering on the edge, my thighs trembling as I chase my release, only to forget what a horrid human my husband was.

Releasing me from the torture of his mouth as I near completion, he kisses up my thigh to graze his teeth against the inside of my knee, snagging the sheer fabric of the thigh-high stockings with a smirk.

Verando tilts his head, resting his stubbled cheek against the material there as my knee hooks over his shoulder. "I love watching you get close. You're so beautiful when you come for me, I'm not quite ready to let you unravel. I don't think I'll be able to keep you off of me once that happens and this is fun. Today really has been terrible, darling, and while I question your motives and your sanity... I do think I needed this."

Those light eyes glimmer, illuminated in the dimly lit room, watching me with a sinister expression.

I could tell my thighs would be littered with bites and bruises from his lips and teeth, the thought making my heart rate spike, making me pant as I writhe against him.

"Prick." I spit back, gripping my hair as my chest heaves and I uncurl my cramping toes. "You got what you want, give me what I want."

"You're cheeky when you don't get your way." Verando muses, trailing his fingers up and down my thigh as he skirts his nose over my stocking with a slow inhale. "And... what you want is- a baby?" 

Verando begins to make his way up my body once more, kissing from my navel up to my chest, passing his tongue over my skin with painfully slow dedication to each piece of me, "Knowing that I could do it again? Knowing that I could fuck it all up and..." He finds my collarbone, setting my skin on fire with his lips as I hook my legs over his hips.

"You're a goddamn romantic." I retort shortly, shoving two of my fingers into his mouth with the insistence that he do some good rather than try to talk me out of it. "Baby, I know the consequences if it happens again but I can't live with myself, either, if I don't at least try. So.. I'm begging you, stop trying to talk me out of it and let go."

He's hard against me, making me whimper as he hovers his mouth over mine, dazed and disorientated from the way I tease him, keeping a breath's distance between us. Pinning one of my hands over my head, he curses under his breath, leaving another mark on my neck as his lips brush over my skin and those prominent canines pierce my skin. 

"Do you think I don't have this-" Thrusting against me, sliding his cock against my panties, I almost yelp from the surprise and opt to moan instead. "Insatiable urge... to take you to bed, to bury myself in you? But over all of that-"

Capturing my face, he kisses me, more chaste this time. "I think I'm going mad. It feels like a disease, rotting away at me. What if this Horseman's curse does something terrible to our child? To you? What if I'm dooming another child to be a successor as was done when Whitewind split?"

He didn't want to hurt me or our family. 

His loins, his depravity, his sanity or lack thereof, every last inch of him belonged to me. I shove him off of me, crawling over to the nightstand to grab the lube, I look over my shoulder at him. On my hands and knees, I pour some of the contents of the bottle over the string of my thong, hearing his breath catch as I drag my fingers past my entrance, pushing the thin piece of material aside.

"Mad? You seem quite tame, I've seen you at your worst, you don't scare me, Mr.Mercer. I regret to inform you you've been a lunatic the entire time I've known you and it's never stopped either of us from doing what we want."

Meeting my gaze, I wonder if I should be worried, if maybe I pushed him too far. 

"You asked for it." Verando exhales, grabbing me by my ankle to drag me down the bed, leaving me sprawled as he rolls me onto my side, straddling my leg and stretching the other one to put my ankle by his shoulder. My cheeks flush as I lay exposed beneath him, shivering at the feel of his cock sliding against mine as he strokes them together, holding them in one of his hands.

The expression on his face, the looming darkness of desire, raking his eyes over every inch of me, sent a chill down my spine. I reach between my legs, tempted to shred the thong.

"Let's see you prepare yourself, use your fingers.."

With a shaky sigh, I slid two fingers inside, flinching at just how tense and tight I was. Verando cocks an eyebrow, making me roll my eyes. I wanted him so badly, the thought of prep seemed unnecessary, despite the frustratingly slow progress of my fingers.

"Shut up." I snap at him, my cheeks growing hotter as he watches me with parted lips. I was at least succeeding in turning him on, the gorgeous man before me drags his tongue over his canines as if he intended to devour me. 

His hand never stops stroking, slow and methodic as our breathing quickens, . I match the pace with my fingers, frustrated that there was a perfectly good cock within reach and he was wasting his time stroking it against my own. "Maybe I need to go get a sex toy if you're going to keep me waiting?" I exhale, earning a hard look from my warlord.

"You look like you might come just from this and you're threatening to go find something else?" Verando teases lightly, flashing me my favorite look that is nearly my undoing. "You're awfully greedy today. Your orgasm is for my pleasure, Nic. This is for me, not for you, so be a good boy and come for me."

"Randy-" I gasp, panting, wishing he'd release me, wanting him to take me, I was so painfully close. "I don't want to finish with your hand." I manage to gasp, jerking at the intensity, hissing through my teeth at the fact he seemed pleased with himself for the position he put me in.

"I'd say that's not up to you, love." He smirks, circling his thumb over the sensitive head of my manhood. After multiple ruined orgasms, I can't help the incoherent cursing I assault him with as I find completion; grinding against his hand as he follows after me. I was at his mercy, to please him, and I couldn't help but despise just how turned on that made me.

Panting, my body covered in a thin layer of sweat, I'm not sure if I'm on the verge of passing out or if I'm blinded by lust as I drag my fingers over the sculpted plains of his abdominal muscles. "That all you got?" I scoff, earning an amused, boyish grin.

Verando kisses my ankle, "Unfortunately as my body loses its humanity, so goes mortal limitation. I hope you did a good enough job preparing that ass for me." He manages, applying lube to himself only to thrust inside of me. The first stroke makes him sink his teeth into my calf as he curses low in his chest, struggling to give me time while my entire body locks down. 

His hand grips the top of my hip, pulling me against him, I might have screamed if the discomfort didn't feel so damned good. I can only moan embarrassingly loud, like a cat in heat, in the way that I cry out for him. 

Arching off the bed, I lose myself again, convulsing as he stills and allows me to ride out the waves of a second orgasm. 

"Ah!" I manage, torn between the incredible fullness and the sharp discomfort of my lack of effort in preparing myself. "I think I did a bad job." I gasped, unable to keep the grin off my face as he thrusts into me, making a point that I was, indeed, correct. 

Pressing my palm to his stomach, as if somehow that would stop him from going further, yet I wanted to beg him for no mercy. 

"Fucking hell, Nic. I thought you were going to snap me in half." Verando exhales, rolling his hips into me again as I whimper. Running a hand through his hair, this glorious man towering over me like a symbol of my every desire, Verando seems to be weighing his options as he gauges just how coherent I am. 

How could one man be so attractive? 

"Well, you better loosen me up then, I was promised rough treatment and I'll accept nothing less." I remind him, flinching as he withdraws from me only to push my legs up towards my chest, returning to me deliciously slow. "But... I like that, too." I manage, tilting my head back as he groans low in his throat.

"Gods I have missed you." He murmurs, obediently setting a pace that made me question who my body thought I was. Yet, watching him lose himself, seeing his teeth grit as he struggled to keep it together, my heart hammered in my chest and I surrendered to whatever he wanted to give me. 

"Use me," I beg, knotting my hands in my hair, rocking back against him, desperate for more. "Pretend I'm that pretty little prince in the castle again and defile me. You're so damned hot when you take me like this."

Caught off guard, he scoffs. "Is that a command from the one who holds my heart?"

I almost scream in frustration before he fills me despite my pleas for mercy. We were depraved, him and I.

My mind went to my darkest parts as I dug up all of my pain, all my resentment, and laid it out for him to help me forget. I wanted him to insist himself upon me, to take the decision out of my hands and reassure me that my pleasure was his and his alone. I needed him to take charge again, to tell me what I needed, to fix me in whatever way he could.

"It's too much." I manage, gasping as he grips my wrists, holding them firmly in place at my navel for leverage. I couldn't roll away to ease the depth, I was pinned here to take everything he gave me. 

"You can take it. You're doing so well." Verando assures me, making my cheeks flush as I stare up at him wide-eyed. In one quick maneuver, I snake out of his grasp, leaping up onto his body to hook my thighs over his hips, allowing him to support me as I lower myself back onto him. Ignoring the scoff he responds with, I rock against him as I dig my nails into his shoulders and those strong hands grip my hips. 

I was getting used to it again, relishing in the feeling of being pushed to my limit, of my body being a vessel for his enjoyment. Whatever piece of him I could cling to, I scratched, clawed, and bit my way onto. Raking my nails over his back, gripping his shoulders, biting those delicious pectoral muscles, all to relish in the moans he rewarded me with.

"Just like that," I plead, flinching as he drags his teeth over my lower lip.

"However you want me, baby." He exhales, kissing me, tangling his tongue with mine as he growls low in his throat. "I've got all night."