Chapter 45: When Is Marcus Bringing Her Back?
Nicholas sat with his head in his hand, and tried not to think about his cock.
Which was impossible. Because his cock was all he could think about. It had been all he could think about for the past eight hours, through the full moon, through the forced shift, through the entire night of chaos and howling and the kind of feral existence that usually consumed all rational thought.
Except this time, even in the depths of his wolf form, Kael was thinking about her.
About Lilith.
About her pussy.
Nicholas had survived twenty-six years of the Blackwood curse. Twenty-six years of managing wolves that wanted to devour the world. Twenty-six years of learning control, of mastering the feral beast inside him, of maintaining composure even when the lunar pull was at its strongest.
But in all of those years, in all of those full moons, he had never experienced this.
This aching. This burning. This absolute need to bury himself inside a woman until he couldn’t think anymore.
His cock was hard. Painfully hard. The kind of hard that came from hours of sustained arousal with no release. The kind of hard that made his balls ache like they might actually rupture if he didn’t get relief soon.
He was sitting behind his desk, his head resting on the heel of his hand, and trying to do work. Paperwork. Estate business. Things that required mental engagement and strategic thinking.
None of it was working.
All he could think about was her.
The way her body felt under his hands. The way her pussy tightened around him. The way she looked when she was trying not to come, trying to maintain some semblance of control even as her body betrayed her.
Nicholas shifted in his chair, and pain lanced through his groin. His cock pressed against the zipper of his pants, and it took everything he had not to reach down and adjust himself.
This was insane.
He was Nicholas Blackwood. He was in control. He was the one who managed his brothers. The one who made decisions. The one who didn’t lose himself to animal need.
Except he was losing himself.
He’d spent the entire full moon in his wolf form because it was easier than staying human. Because Kael wanted something that Nicholas didn’t quite understand. The wolf wanted her in a way that went beyond the simple animal drive to mate. Kael wanted her like she was necessary. Like her absence was creating some kind of void that nothing could fill.
And Nicholas didn’t have answers.
He stood up and moved to the window.
From here, he could see the gates. Could see the long drive that led away from the estate and into the forest. Could see the road that Marcus had taken Lilith down eighteen hours ago.
The sun was high now. Past noon. The instruction had been simple: back before noon. But it was now 12:47 PM, and there was no sign of the car.
Where the fuck was she?
The thought was aggressive. Possessive. Not like him.
But then again, nothing about the last twenty-four hours was like him.
His hand moved to his chest, and he could feel his heart racing. Kael was restless inside him, pacing like a caged animal, demanding.....
The door to his office opened without warning.
Sebastian walked in without knocking, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "When is Marcus bringing her back?"
Nicholas turned around to look at his brother.
"It’s past noon already," Sebastian continued, his voice tight with frustration. "The instruction I gave was that she should be back before noon."
"I’m aware," Nicholas said quietly.
Sebastian dropped into the chair across from Nicholas’s desk with the kind of aggressive force that suggested he wasn’t in control of his own body. His jaw was clenched. His eyes were burning with a gold tint that suggested Rhen was close to the surface.
"Don’t look at me that way, brother," Sebastian said, and there was something almost defensive in his tone. "You and I both know that you can’t wait to be balls deep inside that omega’s pussy. And what I don’t understand is why the fuck we are feeling this way."
Nicholas finally turned to look at him.
"This has never happened before," Nicholas said. His voice was controlled, but there was an edge underneath it. "In all the years we’ve been managing the curse, in all the full moons we’ve survived, it has never come with this. This sexual...." He paused, searching for the right word. "This need."
Sebastian leaned back in his chair, and his hand moved to his trouser. He traced the outline of his visibly hard cock through the fabric, and there was no shame in the gesture. Just acknowledgment.
"Try to reason with this," Sebastian said, pressing the heel of his hand against his arousal. "Tell me how you explain eight hours of unrelenting hardness. Tell me how you rationalize a cock that refuses to soften no matter what you do."
His hand stayed there, and Nicholas could see the tension in Sebastian’s jaw, the way he was clenching his teeth.
"I’ve been in the library," Sebastian continued, his voice dropping lower. "I’ve been in the training room. I’ve been doing everything short of fucking a hole in the wall to try to relieve this, and nothing works. Because my body doesn’t want anything except...." He cut himself off, but the implication hung in the air between them.
Except her.
"This doesn’t make sense," Nicholas said. He moved back to the window, looking out at the gates again. Willing the car to appear. "All pussies are the same. The animal satisfaction should be...."
"Should be what?" Sebastian interrupted. "The same? You know that’s not true. You felt it. You know that pussy is different."
Nicholas’s hands clenched into fists.
"It’s the thrill of it," he said. His voice was rough. Defensive. Like he was trying to convince himself as much as his brother. "We haven’t had a pussy that came to us as payment before. A pussy that belongs to us by contract. That has no choice. That has to take whatever we give her. Our wolves are exited by the power dynamic. The dominance. The fact that she’s ours to use."
