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She began to come back to life as he released her bonds. Though he freed her hands and feet, he left the slender vine wrapped about her wrists and ankles. He found he quite liked the look of the bindings at her limbs, whether they were left free or not.
They were a reminder of her status as his plaything, subject to him in all things.
Selena murmured wordlessly against his chest, half-asleep in her exhaustion, as he cradled her in his arms. He made his way further downriver, to a place where the water cascaded down a piled jumble of massive boulders, then plummeted into a deep, wide pool. Mist shrouded the base of the falls, and he followed the path along the perimeter of the water, bringing her to a smaller cove near the base of the waterfall.
He took her into the pool, and she hissed and tensed as the cool water contacted her punished flesh.
“Just relax, Selena... it’s all right now.” He stroked her brow, as she grimaced. “Poor little human.”
He took great delight in the way her generous breasts floated, bobbing in the rippling waters, the nipples hard and prominent.
Being as careful as he could, he kept her afloat with one arm under her back, easing her thighs apart, cupping his hand and pouring water over her mound. The dark, silky curls there clung to her skin and he couldn’t resist stroking his fingertips through them, loving the feel of them.
“So beautiful,” he murmured to himself. His cock was already beginning to stir under the surface of the water, but he ignored it. She had been pushed far past her limits, and now was the time to bring her back to life, not use her body still further.
In her post-orgasmic lassitude, her limbs floated upon the waters, loose, carried to and fro by the gentle currents and eddies. Her gorgeous hair was a wild, almost primitive-looking fan across the surface, strands of it plastered to her cheeks, her forehead, her throat.
He gently pulled them away, caressing her face as he looked down upon this impossibly stunning human, his mate perhaps more beautiful now in her pose of helpless abandon than he’d ever seen her before.
The possibility that he might have taken her too far was a faint whisper in his mind—and it was something else completely new to him. For so long, his concerns were focused on him, on his world, on finding that which he needed most in this life.
His mate, his love.
Now that he’d found her, finally, the feeling and emotions whirling within him surprised and delighted him with their profound power.
She needed him now. Selena had to know that he would never, ever truly hurt her, that protecting her, caring for her were duties he relished, ones that gave him just as much pleasure as he gleaned from punishing and taking her.
Perhaps even more so.
Little Selena may have been his... but he was coming to understand now the subtle duality of the pull.
In a way, he was becoming hers too.
For already he could not possibly envision—not without a striking, pained sorrow—going on without her.
Not for one minute. Not for one second.
She might fight, but her heart’s desires were as obvious as the sunrise. Her need for him was as strong as his for her.
In her case though, she needed to be shown that surrender, submission to one’s needs was in itself freedom—even if the doubt and fear in her mind tried to convince her otherwise.
He would make it his mission to dispel those fears and doubts, until all that was left was lust, and desire, and obsession, and devotion.
And eventually? Perhaps even love.
Her lush eyelashes fluttered several times, and she opened her eyes. They focused on him as he touched her cheek.
“You’re back, sweet Selena. How do you feel?”
A deep crease formed at her brow, then it smoothed as she gave him a faint smile. “Tired, so tired. But...”
“Are you in pain at all?”
She nodded slowly, her teeth showing as she dipped her head back into the water more fully. “But it’s... not bad. It’s more tingly now.”
“The fhirulae reacts with water—amplifies the sedative effect, and neutralizes the burning.”
It was a miraculous substance, both easing the passage of his cock into her incredibly tight bottom, but punishing her well with its urticant value, burning her well, a lesson to her about doing as she was told.
But it was filling her with a dreamy euphoria now, the reward for the trials he’d put her body through. Soon enough, the pain of her correction would be submerged beneath a rising tide of arousal and need.
“Let it work within you, little human. The pain will disappear soon. In its place... desire.”
“Mmm, I like the... sound of that.” She closed her eyes, her nostrils dilating as she took several deep breaths, the fhirulae working upon her with a vengeance now.
While she sank further into the arms of its euphoric embrace, he washed her as gently as he knew how, taking great care with her sensitive sex and anus, cleaning them well. She only winced once or twice, even when he had to ease back the hood of her clit and clean that hard-used flesh as well.
“All done,” he whispered, pulling her from the water and hugging her tight to his chest. He stroked a palm down her smooth back, the water running in rivulets between his fingers, her skin smooth and warm to the touch.
“Thank you... thank you, sir.” She said it breathlessly, but she was much more coherent, her full consciousness seeming to be dawning once more. “What happened to me?”
“You atoned for your offenses, Selena.” He tipped her back so he could meet her gaze. “But it’s all over with now, washed away.”
She nodded once more, a hint of color playing high at her cheeks. “I’m sorry for what I did. I truly didn’t realize. I’ll... never do that again.”
But the question in his mind was, what? Would she never defile his valley again, or never flee from him again?
In truth, he knew it was the former—and a part of him hoped she’d never stop doing the latter.
Chasing and conquering her all over again was proving to be an increasingly addictive pastime for him.
Her punishment, the rightful discipline for her misdeeds was complete. Now, he needed to make sure she knew she was forgiven.
“I know you won’t, Selena. I can feel it, your heart’s desires, your true motivations.” He caressed her jaw. “You harbor no ill will—and neither do I.”
“I don’t understand any of this, why I’m feeling like this.”
“Tell me.”
He set her on her feet, and took her by the hand leading her around behind the roaring falls. There was a massive hollowed-out area beyond the base of the falls, the sound of the water echoing in a haunting way he always found almost magical.
Selena looked around in awe, blinking several times, her hand over her mouth. “This is... unbelievable.”
The air was humid with the spray, but rather than chilly, it was actually quite pleasant.
“This is one of my favorite places,” he said, never tiring of looking upon the incredible sight. “It brings me... peace.”
“Malcolm.”
He gazed down upon her. “Yes, Selena?”
“I... I really am sorry. For everything.” Her eyes were bright and wet, as if she might begin to weep. “I will never understand what I’m feeling—not truly. But I know now that what I did was wrong. You... shared a part of yourself with me. Showed me something beautiful. And instead of enjoying it for what it was, I was... only focused on myself. That was wrong.”
“I’ve demanded so much of you.” He played with the ends of her hair, just now beginning to dry. “So, it’s me who needs to be more understanding. I want you to know—to really see—that I’ve never meant to harm you. That I will protect you... even if it means letting you stray from my side.”
Her mouth opened, her eyes wide, but she said nothing.
“As I said, I know your heart’s desires.” He drew her close, submerging a hand in her hair, but not harshly, his grip more passionate than cruel. His lips whispered against hers as he said the words. “I will not keep a slave. I will only keep a mate.”
“But what about—”
He pressed his lips to hers then, but rather than pull back from him, she melted into his embrace. Taking her face in his hand, he kissed her deeply, tasting, taking, imparting his ownership in a more tender way.
This... this was when he was most grateful for chance bringing his mate to him, for giving him the opportunity to truly feel.
For perhaps the first time in his long, long life.
“I don’t know”—she spoke the words between fevered kisses, sucking and gently biting at his lips, wrapping her arms tight around him, her legs clamped to his hips—“how you’re doing this. But I don’t care anymore.” She pulled back, her eyes flashing. “I want you, sir. I need you.”
He growled deep in his chest, his cock hard and bobbing against her bottom as he held her, plunging his tongue deep into her mouth. “You’ll have more than you can handle—and you’ll love every moment of it.”
She tensed as the head of his penis teased the cleft of her bottom.
“Please, sir, I can’t”—she kissed and licked at the corners of his mouth, her voice low, almost a whisper—“not this soon. I’m... still sore.”
“Then let me make it better, little human.”
He carried her to a broad, flat rock, close enough to the falls that it was coated at one end with a fine layer of mist.
He laid her down upon it, on her back. He pulled her arms up above her head, drawing them against the rock. “Keep them there. Don’t move them, no matter what happens. I’ll take care of you.”
Her hands gripped the edge of the rock, her breathing quickening, her round, luscious breasts rising and falling with her breaths.
Easing her thighs apart, he caressed the curve of her mound with his palm. “You have no idea what you’re in for, little human.” He dragged his tongue slowly through the slit of her sex, tasting the tang of her juices, the scent of her surrender all around him. “I’m going to be inside you constantly. You have no idea.”
She moaned as he spread her sex wide open, exposing the dark pink of her inner flesh to his gaze. Her clit was generous, already very erect, and almost visibly pulsing. He touched it with a fingertip, and she arched up with a hiss.
“This is going to have to wait. I’ll get to it when I’m ready.”
Her thighs began to tremble as he plunged his tongue deep between her lips. She was extremely wet, and her taste was equal parts musky and sweet.
“Oh... I’m still... go easy. Please, sir.” She tensed then, her thighs going taut. “Oh, my... what are you...?”
He extended his tongue, far deeper than any human male could possibly reach, and found the spot within her sex. She began to writhe as he stroked it, over and over, her breath coming in great, panting gusts.
“Fuck! How are you... doing that?”
He stilled his tongue.
“No! For the love of God, do not stop.”
Smiling against her fragrant sex, he resumed the torturous rasp of his tongue against that deep spot within her. In little time, she seemed to moan with each lick, beg with each stilling of his tongue. He was playing with her as much as he was pleasuring her, and she was helpless against his tune.
He hummed then, imparting an energy to it that transmitted itself down his tongue, even as he continued to lick her so deep inside. She froze, her breathing now tiny, panicked gasps.
“Fuck... how... oh, my God, I’m...!”
She shrieked, as if the action of his tongue was drawing her very soul from her body. Her fluids flooded down over his tongue and into his mouth, and he drank greedily of them.
“That’s only the beginning, slut. Just a taste of what I’ll do to you.”
“Oh, yes! More... fuck, more!”
“I’ll breed you soon. You’ll take me several times a day, in your cunt, in your mouth, in your ass. You’ll have my seed across those tits—and across your face too. You’ll swallow it whenever I demand. I’ll fuck you until you’re swelling with my child.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ, yessssss!”
“There won’t be a time you won’t have my seed leaking from your sore, stretched cunt, or your bottom throbbing from bending and taking me deep there too. That will be your life—to please me, to submit to me, to bear my offspring. Over and over and over again.”
He kept at her, resuming his licking, pinning her thighs apart, alternating long, slow strokes of his tongue across and around her swollen clitoris, then searching for that deep spot again, working it until she exploded anew.
Moaning continuously, her naked body trembling and quivering, he brought her over that precipice again and again, until she pleaded with him to stop, that he really was going to kill her.
One last time he brought her to orgasm, her spasming and pained grunting feeding his need to conquer her, to take her far beyond anything she thought was possible.
Then, he was quiet, laying his cheek against her inner thigh, breathing in the scent of her pleasure, of her surrender. He lapped at her pussy gently, soothing it, imparting both his ownership of it and expressing the tenderness and affection he felt for her.
He licked her until her moans became tiny whispers, her writhing down to twitches and subtle trembling. Until she could barely stay awake.
Then he laid down upon the stone next to her, curling his massive body around hers, making sure she stayed warm as she tumbled off into the refuge of slumber.
As he held her though, the truth of what he knew must be done weighed upon him, for he knew the pain it would cause him.
He had to give her one more choice, one that—if he were very lucky—would be the last one she would ever have to make.
The prospect of what happened if she didn’t make the choice he hoped... it was too terrible to contemplate, that pain.
It hurt him in a way he’d never experienced before. But for her? It was worth it.
He wanted—he demanded—all of her.
And in the end, keeping her as his captive only meant he could keep her body.
When it was her heart that mattered to him most.