The Second Covenant

We stopped by Nikki’s for burgers, and got them to go. I smiled at the pack as they filled into the apartment. I wiggled my fingers and the letters disappeared from Dax’s shirt. “Woman, you do that again and I’ll bite you.” He snapped and I smiled back at him. “Tease.” I drawled and Druex curled his lip at Dax. “You know, I was thinking about this Shakespeare play Midsummer’s Night Dream, any of you know it?” Most of them nodded. “Yeah well there’s this part where the king of the fairies casts a spell on his queen. Makes her fall in love with the first creature she sets her eyes on after waking from an enchanted sleep.” Dom was grinning around his beer, the twins were snickering, and Dax looked horrified. Daire was just shaking his head in bemusement. Druex kissed my throat. “Could you do that you think?”

I shrugged and looked up at the ceiling in thought, munching on a French fry. “Maybe. I mean, it’d be pretty funny if say, I smeared shaving cream all over someone’s hand. Then put that lust spell on them and tickled their nose with a feather, they smacked their hand on their face and woke up. Fell in love with…their hand…Could be really funny.” Mouths were dropped in utter horror. Man, call me the Wicked Witch of the East. “Course, I’d never do something like that to nice boys like you.” I batted my lashes and they shuddered. Druex was laughing behind me.

We were lying in bed, his shirt off, me in my pajamas. Touching very chastely, kissing, snuggling. Until I couldn’t take it anymore and framed his face to keep his mouth on mine. “You think I’m ready yet?” I asked and he smiled, shifting over me with his elbows braced on either side of my head. “Maybe.” I moaned into his kiss, shifted to spread my hands over his arms.

I wanted to touch him so bad, stroke all those iron hard muscles, feel his naked skin on mine and like he was reading my mind, my camisole got tossed away into the darkness of the room. I ran my hands down his back, feeling his body flex and tighten, felt him shudder and moved back up to his shoulders. I cupped the sides of his neck, felt the muscles working with every shift of his kisses. I murmured happily when he moved over me to lie between my thighs, lay all his hardness along the soft curves of my body.

He growled when I slid one leg over his hips, spearing my hands up, from his neck into the thickness of his hair. “Distracting me.” he growled and took my hands, pinning them above me with one hand. I smiled evilly and curled my other leg around his back, rubbing myself over the impressive rise of his erection. The next kiss was so…hot, that I melted and wasn’t able to think at all.

But as soon as his lips left mine, and at the insistent press of his body, the thrust of his hips into mine, thought returned, so did terror. I struggled as the old memories built, barely feeling the sharp rasp of his teeth along my throat. “Wait, please Druex.” I felt a shudder flow through him, but he lifted his head and let my hands go. He looked down at me, his expression worried, struggling with his arousal. “I’m not going to hurt you Cherish.” He said softly and I felt my eyes well up, but I nodded and sank my hands into his hair, pressing my nose to his strong shoulder.

He rolled to the side and hugged me to him gently. “I’m sorry, god don’t cry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” There was hurt in his voice and I couldn’t bear it. “It’s isn’t your fault. It’s me, everything was fine until you stopped kissing me.” He held me while the tears leaked from my eyes, stroked my hair. He let me go and stood up, reaching for my hand he asked me this. “Do you trust me?” I nodded and took his hand. “Let me make this go away. You won‘t ever get over this unless you let go.” I didn’t know what he meant but I followed him, into the bathroom.

He gently pulled me up on my toes and shaped his mouth over mine, kissing away the tears from my cheeks, kissing me until my body lit up again. “Tell me what he did.” What Taylor did. Oh shit. I opened my eyes and looked at his, feeling the weight of his fury, his need to protect me. “I can’t.” I whispered and he kissed me, deeper, stroking his tongue along mine until I moaned. “You can. Trust me.”

I wanted to tell him, but it was so humiliating. He pressed his forehead to mine and pulled my arms around his neck. “Cherish, tell me so I can make it go away.” I bit my lip, trying to stem the words, but he bent and ran his tongue along my lower lip, soothing the pain of my own bite. I trembled, let him tighten his hold on me, mold my body to his. “One step at a time.” I nodded and his fingers slipped the clasp of my bra. “You were taking a shower.”

He said and kissed me as we backed up into the huge stall, pulled my bra from me and hugged me, our skin sizzled on contact and I heard myself whimper. “Trust me.” He said, tugging off my soft flannel pants, drawing my underwear with them.

Druex kept kissing me, distracting me from the awful memories, stroking my bare skin with just his fingertips. I clung to the kiss, wanting the pleasure, needing it. He reached behind me and turned on the hot spray of water. “Now what?” I swallowed and looked into his eyes, seeing only desire, only the protective need to fix whatever was wrong with me. I didn’t understand, but I trusted him. I needed him. “He pushed me back against the wall and pinned my hands.”

I saw the flare of fury that shook his shoulders. “Like this?” he skimmed his hands down my arms, lacing our fingers as he backed me up against the chilly shower tiles, looked into my eyes as he raised my arms up, the water cascading over both of us now. In the back of my mind was the fear, struggling to break free, but this was Druex, not Taylor. My wolf. I took a good breath, inhaling his scent, felt my wolf calm inside us, sigh. Mate. Pack. Safe.

My eyes closed when his hand circled both my wrists; let my mind focus on how gentle the grip was, I wasn’t trapped. If I said stop, he would. He nuzzled my throat, right over the pounding pulse. “Now what?” his free hand was resting on my hip, no demand, just there. I turned my nose into his hair and breathed in his scent, the maleness of him. “He wanted me to scream. He couldn’t rape me unless I screamed.”

His teeth scraped over skin and I shuddered. “What next?”
“He touched me.” My face was flaming with humiliation, that I hadn’t fought harder, done something. Druex’s hands flexed on my wrists and I could tell from the rigid set of his shoulders he was so very angry, but determined to erase the horror of that day. He pressed gentle kisses against my throat and trailed his fingers up and down my side, leaving chills behind. Blazing, aching chills. Such an aching need for something I couldn’t name. He shifted and slid his palm across my belly, making the muscles flex and coil. Just the tips of his fingertips grazed the top of my curls. “Here?” I nodded because I was so focused on what he was going to do, eager even. I could feel my body’s welcome, feel the pulse inside me.

I gasped in shock, in bliss when his finger circled my clit, stroked me lazily, spreading the moisture. I was shuddering by the time he asked the next question. “Did he touch you here?” his hand slid lower, dipped inside me, pressed his finger deep and I bucked, not expecting such a sharp stab of pleasure. Taylor had touched me there, yes, but not like that, never like that. “Cherish?” He swiped his tongue around my ear and my body clenched around his finger. “Yes, but not like that.”

“It hurt.” He stroked me gently, pressing and retreating, adding another finger and wiggling them in a way that had me gasping for air. “Yes.” He kept his face buried in my throat, licking and nibbling anywhere he could reach. “But you didn’t scream.”
“N-no.” My cheeks heated now, flushed not with shame, but with pleasure. And now I understood what Druex was doing. He was taking my dirty, terrible secret, my memory and replacing the pain with pleasure, with gentleness.
“Now what?”
“He wanted me to scream, but I wouldn’t, so he bit me.” He did something with his hand, flicked inside me just as his thumb swiped over my clit, I jerked a little, the pressure in my belly spearing higher. “Where?” His voice was a dark whisper, rough with his own desire. Just the sound made me whimper and he pressed deeper inside me, my fear was pretty much gone at this point. “Where Cherish?”
“My…ah, left breast.”

He shifted and I caught a glimpse of his expression. His eyes were blue fire, blazing with animalistic heat, lines etched at the corners of his lips as he fought to give me what I so desperately needed. His fingers never stopped moving as he stared at my bare chest, at the faint white outline of teeth marks above and below my peaked nipple. “He marked you.” The fury was there, behind the desire, so hot an inferno of rage for what Taylor had done to me. “I wouldn’t scream.” I panted and his eyes lifted to mine, just that and my body began to quake, shudders rolling up from my toes. He watched me while he bent his head and took my scarred breast into his mouth.

The breath slammed out of me and I saw pride in his eyes, pleasure that he was giving me mine. He suckled, rolled and swiped his tongue over me. The sensations between my thighs, at my breast made my spine arch, I started to see white at the corner of my vision, and when he bit down, I came with a shocked cry that echoed off the tiles. It felt like an implosion of pleasure inside my stomach, low, rippling until I couldn’t see anything but the fire in Druex’s eyes. The shudders began to ease, but Druex didn’t stop, he pulled another orgasm from me and I cried his name.

His mouth sealed over mine and he kissed me as the second orgasm ripped through me. “No more fear.” He rasped. “No more.” I answered, he growled in triumph and let my hands go. I buried them in his hair, sifting the silky strands, gripping them when his hands went to his zipper. Druex was going to finish was Taylor never got to do. Would never do. He splayed a hand on my low back, pressing his erection into my tummy. I murmured a sound and he took one of my hands from his hair, moving it between us, showed me how to curl my hand around him and give him the same kind of pleasure he’d given me.

He was thick, hot and throbbing in my hand. I stroked gently and he moaned into my mouth, tightening his hand around mine to the kind of pressure he wanted. His kiss turned more demanding, desperate. The tension in him now was not from rage, but from iron control. I let my head fall back, surrendered to him and he made a low wolfish sound in his throat. “No more fear.” I panted and he brushed my hand away from him. “Thank god.”
He gripped my thighs and lifted me up, pressing me back against the tile.

There was no panic now, just need as I wound my arms around his shoulders, wrapped my legs around his hips. The pain of his penetration was brief, a small sting that faded almost instantly. The little cry I gave was more from surprise than pain. “It’s over, it won’t hurt in a minute.” He panted. Buried inside me, so thick and long filling up every crevice, I could only try and think past the unbelievable completeness. The burn and throb of him, the awe of being joined like this.

I lifted my hips against his and he let out a hiss between his teeth. “It doesn’t hurt.” I told him. He kissed me as he pulled back, caught my gasp as he lunged forward. Sliding deep, slowly, hard. “Oh god, Druex!” I writhed as much as I could, my nails biting into his skin as the pleasure grew, spiked up my spine. He panted against my throat, pressed open mouthed kisses along the arch of my shoulder, each stroke drawing a wail from my lips.

The orgasm took me by surprise, bursting through me, sparkling along my skin like champagne bubbles. Druex cursed and moved faster, fighting past my clenching muscles until he stiffened and pressed deep. It was such a profound and perfect moment that tears slipped from my eyes. Druex licked them from my cheeks. I took his face in my hands and kissed him, tried to put the words I couldn’t form into the kiss.

He stayed inside me while he kissed me, stroking my hair back, holding me up with just his hips pressing me back into the wall. “Next time,” He said roughly, “I’ll roll my beast through you while I’m inside you.” I thought of that rapture, of feeling him truly inside and out and shuddered, my body gripping at his flesh, still so hard, buried deep. I gulped and he grinned.