Forbidden Mate, Fated Sin

Chapter 18: One Hour

Wren's pov

Nearly half a week slipped by before Odette permitted Kade to leave the mattress for anything beyond brief intervals, and even those she granted only while grumbling about pigheaded Alphas convinced recovery obeyed whatever timeline they preferred to dictate. Those days found me shifting constantly between the kitchen boards Vivian still demanded stay immaculate and the cramped guest chamber where Kade mended, snatching whatever stolen minutes the chores allowed so I could remain near while Odette swapped out the dressings.

Grier offered no further remarks concerning Celeste after the blaze itself. Still, I noticed how his gaze tracked her during every meal, that measured silent doubt aimed squarely at her every motion. He made no effort to conceal it from me, though he kept it hidden from the rest.

When the fifth morning arrived Odette at last softened her stance. She pronounced him steady enough for measured steps provided someone remained near in case his legs failed. Maribel nominated me before I managed to speak up, insisting the kitchen still held far too many unfinished tasks for her to abandon, yet the glance she shot my way afterward revealed how little that claim actually concerned the work.

I located Kade already stationed by the side entrance. For the first time in days he wore proper clothes, one arm still bound in Odette’s ointment drenched wraps, his pace far slower than any I had ever witnessed from him.

“You need not accompany me,” he murmured. “I realize Odette placed this duty on you from need rather than preference.”

“No one ordered me anywhere.” I matched his stride as we left the house behind. “I simply needed proof with my own eyes that you could manage a path without collapsing.”

“Only just.” A weary half smile touched his mouth, the first genuine one since the flames. “Each pace drains reserves I barely possess anymore.”

Our progress stayed unhurried along the trail bending clear of the practice fields and toward the stream that formed the pack’s eastern boundary. The water moved shallow and soft across rounded stones. Kade eased himself onto a downed trunk beside the bank, a grimace flickering as his scorched ribs met the rough surface.

“Grier repeated to me what he already shared with you,” he said once his breathing evened. “The patrol path. Celeste.”

“I refused to accept it.”

“Same here.” His jaw clenched, though fatigue dulled the hardness. “I watched Celeste grow from a wild child racing through these very trees. Imagining her on the far side of a border, feeding Ronan Voss our secrets, feels nearly impossible.”

“Yet you picture it all the same.”

“I fight the image.” He stared at the current for a long stretch of silence. “Her words to you that morning keep returning, how everything she had ever been selected for slipped away. Sorrow drives people toward choices they would never otherwise entertain, Wren. I understand that more sharply than most after everything I chose once the ceremony ended.”

I settled onto the log beside him, near enough that our shoulders almost brushed. “The council left you no real option.”

“I spoke vows I never felt before the whole pack and watched your expression shatter while the lies left my mouth.” His tone roughened. “I have relived that instant a hundred times, hunting any path where I might have rejected their command, and none appears. That knowledge fails to ease the damage I inflicted on you.”

“Kade, stop.”

“This needs saying.” He shifted fully toward me, gray eyes steady despite the lingering pain still faintly scored around them. “Out in those flames I believed death had found me. In that instant the single truth that mattered was how I never confessed the rejection for the falsehood it was. Every syllable belonged to law, never to me.”

“I understood that already.”

“Understanding and hearing differ.” His knuckles traced lightly along my jaw in the familiar gesture, cautious even with the wraps still binding his arm. “I love you, Wren. Not the bond. Not the statutes. I love you, and I almost perished without once voicing it.”

Air snagged in my throat. Warmth and ache unfurled through my chest together. “You cannot drop words like those so freely. Not after all we have endured.”

“I finished with caution.” His thumb drifted slowly across my cheek. “Caution delivered us to this point. Caution forced me upright in that hall to speak the sentences that fractured us both. I refuse caution any longer.”

“Kade.” My reply emerged scarcely louder than breath. “If Celeste truly channels information to Ronan, the peril only intensifies from here. For us both.”

“I realize that.” He drew nearer until his brow nearly rested against mine, breath warm across my skin. “I am asking only for this single hour regardless. Ahead of the council, ahead of Celeste, ahead of whatever follows. Just this hour beside the water, with you.”

Words proved unnecessary. I closed the final gap, fingers finding the front of his shirt, mindful of the injured side as I drew him in. The first kiss stayed slow, gentle in recognition of every bruise and burn still mapping his body. I answered with equal care, aware of his wounds even while urgency and hunger gathered low inside me.

Golden late afternoon light cut through the leaves along the bank, heating the grass beneath us as we lowered ourselves together. We stayed cautious of the bandaged arm, cautious of everything except the sharp want that still bound us despite every obstacle the world continued to manufacture.

His mouth deepened against mine. A low sound escaped him when my tongue met his. I felt the hard length of his c**k already thickening against my thigh through the fabric of his trousers. My hand slid down carefully, cupping him, squeezing once. He groaned into the kiss.

“Wren, f**k, your hand feels so good.”

“Tell me the second anything hurts,” I whispered against his lips. “I will slow down or stop the moment you need it.”

“Nothing hurts enough to make me stop touching you.” His free hand pushed under my shirt, palm rough and warm across my ribs, then higher until he found my breast. He thumbed my n****e through the thin binding cloth until it peaked hard. “Take this off for me. I need your skin against mine.”

I sat up just enough to strip the shirt and binding away, careful not to jostle him. Cool air touched my bare breasts for a moment before his mouth closed over one n****e. He sucked hard, tongue flicking, teeth grazing just enough to make me gasp. My fingers threaded into his hair and held him there while he switched to the other side, licking and biting until both tips were wet and swollen.

“Kade, yes, just like that. Your mouth is perfect.”

He released my n****e with a wet sound and looked up, eyes dark. “Your scent is thicker now. You are already soaked for me, are you not?”

“Check for yourself. Feel how ready I am.”

His hand slid under the waist of my skirt and straight into my underthings. Two fingers parted my folds and sank into the slick heat of my p***y without hesitation. I clenched around them and moaned loud enough that birds startled in the branches overhead.

“f**k, Wren. You are dripping. Your cunt is so wet it is running down my knuckles.” He curled those fingers and rubbed firmly against the front wall while his thumb found my c******s and circled with steady pressure. “Listen to those filthy sounds your p***y is making for me.”

I rocked against his hand, chasing the pressure. “Do not tease me any longer. I need your c**k inside me.”

“Not yet. I want to feel you come on my fingers first. I want to watch every expression on your face when you break apart.”

He worked a third finger inside me, stretching me open, thrusting slow and deep. The wet sounds of my p***y filled the quiet air between us. His thumb pressed harder on my c******s, rubbing tight circles while his fingers f****d into me with increasing purpose. Heat coiled low and tight in my belly. I grabbed his good shoulder and rode his hand, hips snapping forward.

“Kade, oh f**k, right there, do not stop, please.”

“Come for me, Wren. Let me feel that pretty p***y squeeze my fingers. Give it to me.”

The climax hit hard. My walls clamped down on his fingers as pleasure ripped through every nerve. I cried out, body shaking, juices soaking his palm and wrist. He kept working me through it, slower now, drawing every last tremor out until I slumped against him, panting and trembling.

He eased his fingers free and brought them to his mouth, licking them clean while holding my gaze. “Sweet as ever. I could taste you for hours.”

I shoved at his trousers with impatient hands. He lifted his hips just enough for me to drag them down along with his underclothes, mindful not to twist his injured side. His c**k sprang free, thick and flushed, the head already glistening with precum. I wrapped my fingers around the shaft and stroked once from base to tip, feeling him throb heavily in my grip.

“Wren, gods.”

“My turn to take what I need.” I shifted carefully so I straddled his thighs, keeping all my weight off his burned ribs. I guided the broad head of his c**k between my folds, rubbing it through my wetness until he groaned low and deep. Then I sank down in one long slow glide, taking every inch until he was buried to the root inside my p***y.

We both stilled, breathing hard. The stretch burned in the best way. I could feel every ridge and pulse of him deep inside me, filling me completely.

“You feel massive,” I whispered. “Your c**k is stretching my p***y so wide.”

“Your cunt is gripping me like a fist. So hot and tight.” His uninjured hand clamped onto my hip. “Ride me, Wren. Use my c**k however you want. Take everything you need from me.”

I rose and dropped again, setting a steady rhythm. Each downward thrust forced a wet slap of skin and a broken sound from both of us. His c**k dragged against every sensitive place inside me. I braced one hand on his good shoulder and used the other to rub my own c******s in tight frantic circles.

“That is it,” he rasped. “Play with that swollen c**t while you f**k yourself on my c**k. Look at you, t**s bouncing, p***y stretched around me. You are perfect.”

“Harder,” I demanded. “I can take more. Give me more.”

He thrust up to meet me as much as his injury allowed, powerful enough that the impact forced sharp moans from my throat. The wet sounds of my p***y taking him over and over mixed with our ragged breathing and the soft rush of the river.

“Tell me how it feels,” he ordered, voice rough with strain and pleasure.

“Your c**k is so deep it is hitting places that make me shake. My p***y will not stop clenching around you. I am going to come again already.”

“Do it. Soak my c**k. Let me feel you fall apart on top of me.”

I slammed down harder, grinding my c******s against the base of him on every stroke. The second orgasm crashed through me without warning. My walls fluttered and seized around his thick length as I cried his name. Pleasure flooded every nerve ending. I kept moving through it, chasing the aftershocks, my juices running down his shaft and onto his thighs in messy trails.

When the tremors eased I lifted off him slowly. His c**k glistened with my release, still rock hard and twitching. I guided him to lie fully on his back, then carefully turned so my back faced him. I straddled him in reverse, reaching back to position his c**k at my entrance again.

“This way I can control the depth,” I said over my shoulder. “You just lie still and feel me.”

I sank down once more, taking him deep in a single smooth motion. The new angle made him press against different places inside my p***y. I began to rock, rising and falling while looking out at the water, one hand braced on his thigh for balance.

“f**k, Wren, the way your cunt looks swallowing my c**k from this angle. I can see everything.”

“Does it feel good? Tell me.”

“It feels like heaven. Your p***y is so wet I can hear every stroke. Bounce on me harder. I want to watch that ass move while you take me.”

I obeyed, increasing the pace, slamming my hips down so his c**k speared deep each time. My breasts swayed with the motion. I reached between my legs and rubbed my c******s again, moaning freely.

“Kade, your c**k is so thick. It is stretching me open so perfectly. I love how full you make me.”

“Keep talking. Tell me how much you love riding my cock.”

“I love it. I love the way you fill every inch of my p***y. I love feeling you throb inside me when I squeeze. I am getting close again.”

He groaned and gripped my hip with his good hand, helping guide my rhythm without forcing more than his body could handle. I came a third time with a broken cry, p***y pulsing hard around him, more slick pouring down over his balls.

I lifted off once more, turning to face him. My legs felt weak but I needed more. I helped him sit up carefully against the log, then straddled him again facing forward, wrapping my arms around his neck while keeping pressure off his injured side. This time I sank down slowly and stayed close, chests nearly touching.

“Like this,” I whispered. “I want to feel your heartbeat while you are inside me.”

He kissed me deep and hungry. I began to roll my hips in tight circles, grinding my c******s against him with every movement. His c**k stayed buried deep, rubbing constantly against the most sensitive spots inside my p***y.

“Wren, you feel incredible. Your cunt is so soft and hot around me.”

“Stay right there. Let me f**k you like this. Nice and slow and deep.”

We moved together in a steady rocking rhythm. Sweat slicked our skin. His free hand stroked up and down my back, then cupped my breast, pinching the n****e until I moaned into his mouth.

“I can feel every pulse of your c**k,” I gasped. “You are getting even harder. Are you close?”

“Yes. Your p***y is milking me so well. I do not want this to end yet.”

“Then do not come yet. Hold on for me.”

I increased the pace just enough, bouncing gently while still grinding. Another climax built fast. I clung to him and came hard, walls rippling around his shaft, crying out against his shoulder.

Before the pleasure fully faded I eased off and guided him to lie on his uninjured side. I lay facing him, lifting my top leg over his hip. He slid back into my p***y from the side, the angle tight and intimate. His good arm wrapped around me, holding me close while he thrust in short deep strokes.

“This way nothing hurts,” he murmured against my lips. “I can still f**k you properly.”

“Yes. Fill me. I want every inch.”

He drove into me steadily, the wet sounds quieter now but no less filthy. I reached between us and rubbed my c******s in time with his thrusts. Our faces stayed close, sharing breath, sharing every soft moan.

“Your c**k feels so good like this,” I whispered. “Deep and thick and perfect. My p***y is yours.”

“And my c**k is yours. Only yours. Forever.”

The tenderness mixed with the raw pleasure until I came again, softer this time but no less intense, shaking against him while my cunt squeezed rhythmically around his length.

He rolled me carefully onto my back once more, bracing himself on his good forearm so no weight pressed on the burns. He hooked one of my legs over his elbow and thrust deep, the new position letting him bottom out completely.

“Look at me,” he ordered. “I want your eyes when I come inside you.”

“I am looking. f**k me, Kade. Give me everything.”

He pounded into my p***y with powerful controlled strokes, the head of his c**k kissing my cervix on every drive. Sweat dripped from his brow. His jaw clenched with the effort of holding back.

“Your cunt is perfect. So tight. So wet. I am going to fill you until it leaks out of you.”

“Do it. Come in me. I want to feel your c*m flooding my pussy.”

His rhythm turned erratic. He buried himself to the hilt and held there as his c**k pulsed hard, thick ropes of c*m pumping deep inside me. The hot rush triggered one final climax; I clenched around him, milking every drop while I moaned his name over and over.

He stayed inside me through the aftershocks, both of us trembling, breathing in ragged unison. Eventually he eased out with a wet sound. I felt the gush of his seed leaking down my thighs and onto the grass. He collapsed carefully onto his back beside me, drawing me against his uninjured side with his good arm.

For a long time neither of us spoke. The river kept whispering over the stones. Late sunlight painted everything gold.

“One hour,” he murmured against my hair, voice spent but steady. “I am keeping it.”

I pressed a soft kiss to the unscarred skin of his chest. “We will take whatever hours we can steal. Together.”