If I Let You Go

The music was deafening. It was a relentless pulse of heavy bass and string instruments that vibrated through the polished marble floors of Hotel Montclair. Daniella Sephiroth felt the wrongness before she could fully understand it logically. It crawled beneath her skin like static electricity. It felt like a slow and deliberate fire threading through her bloodstream. The grand ballroom began to blur at its edges. The massive crystal chandeliers above her seemed to bleed their golden light into long, disorienting streaks that she simply could not hold in focus.

Something is wrong with me.

She pressed her fingertips hard against the cold marble pillar beside her. She forced the rough texture to ground her spinning mind. She was here for business and only business. The Sephiroth Company did not run itself. It had not run itself since the sudden and tragic death of her parents. The crushing weight of an entire corporate empire had landed squarely on the shoulders of a twenty-three-year-old woman who had never asked for any of it. She was the first daughter of the Sephiroth family. She was the rightful heir to Pack Ironveil. At her young age, she was already carrying more responsibilities and dark secrets than most people bore in an entire lifetime. The Alpha title that should have been hers by blood now rested comfortably in her uncle's greedy hands. This was simply because her father had produced no sons. Pack tradition was ancient and unyielding. It was sometimes crueler than any feral wolf in the wild. She had spent the last five years proving that a woman in a tailored suit could be far more lethal than a man with fangs. She had transformed her company into an untouchable fortress. She absolutely could not afford to show weakness tonight.

"Come here, sweetheart."

A hand snapped around her wrist. The skin was dry and rough. The grip was entirely too tight. "I will make you have fun tonight."

Daniella's stomach turned violently. It was Mr. Hartwell. He was sixty-two years old and an arrogant billionaire. He was also her uncle's most trusted contact. He was the man who had spent the last hour discussing hostile acquisition terms with her over glasses of vintage champagne. It was champagne she now strongly suspected had been deliberately tampered with. Absolutely nothing else could explain the unnatural heat crawling up the back of her neck. Nothing else explained the terrifying way her sharp and analytical thoughts kept dissolving like cheap sugar in boiling water. This heat was not an ordinary fever. It felt like live and glowing embers had been buried deep beneath her skin. The fire burned from the inside out. It radiated from the center of her chest down to her trembling fingertips. It settled heavily into her joints until the simple act of breathing felt like a monumental physical effort. Every inhale she managed to take came in hot and thick. It burned her throat like pulling dead air from a commercial oven. Inside her head, everything had gone slow and suffocatingly heavy. Her brilliant mind felt completely useless as the world tilted at angles that made no logical sense.

"Let go of me." Her voice came out much steadier than she actually felt. It was the voice of a CEO. It was laced with quiet authority.

"No, let us find a quiet place."

Shift.

She commanded her inner wolf with everything she had. She reached desperately into the deepest parts of her soul for the creature that represented her true power. She needed her claws. She needed her speed. Nothing answered. Her wolf lay somewhere in the dark. It was buried and unreachable like a radio signal completely lost in heavy static. She could almost sense it as a very faint flicker at the absolute edge of her consciousness. But every single time she reached out to grab it, the drug in her veins pushed the creature further away.

What the hell did they put in my drink?

Mr. Hartwell used his heavier body weight to steer her away from the crowded ballroom floor. The old man forced her toward the dimly lit corridor of private VIP suites. Daniella fought him with every ounce of physical strength she possessed. Her designer heels dragged harshly against the polished marble floor. Her free hand pressed forcefully against his chest to create distance. Her mind was screaming. She was begging her wolf to wake up and tear this man's throat out.

God. Please. Anyone.

As if the universe had somehow heard the desperate plea of an Alpha heir, the oppressive air of the corridor suddenly shifted. The heavy scent of spilled alcohol and expensive perfumes vanished completely. Then she smelled it. It hit her physical body like a speeding freight train. It was like walking out of a freezing and abandoned building straight into the blinding heat of a summer sun. It felt like taking the very first breath of pure oxygen after spending three minutes drowning underwater. It was cedar and dark amber. There was something else underneath it. It was something raw and unnamed. It was something that had never been bottled in any designer perfume ever created. The aroma was ancient and precise and devastatingly familiar. It struck her soul so deeply it felt as though some hidden and dormant part of her had been waiting for this exact scent her entire life without ever knowing what she was waiting for.

Her wolf did not wake up gradually. Her wolf detonated.

'MATE. MATE. RUN! RUN TO OUR MATE!'

The voice roaring inside her head was not a suggestion. It was not a whisper. It was an absolute and primal command that bypassed every single rational thought Daniella possessed. She did not consciously decide to pull free from Mr. Hartwell's disgusting grip. Her body simply executed the action. She wrenched sideways with a sudden and violent strength that shocked even herself. She stumbled forward. Her knees nearly gave out, but she caught her balance against the silk-lined corridor wall. She began running toward that intoxicating scent as if it were the only fixed point left in a rapidly spinning and dying universe. She turned the sharp corner of the hallway.

And she saw him.

He stood entirely alone in the quietest part of the hallway. He was completely separated from the noise and the filthy crowd of the ballroom. He stood as still as a renaissance painting. A heavy crystal glass of amber whiskey was held loosely in one large hand. He wore a dark and immaculate suit. The jacket was unbuttoned to reveal a tailored black shirt beneath it. The top button was undone to expose a sliver of tanned and hard skin. He was thirty-three years old. He wore his age and his immense power the exact same way some men wore loaded weapons. It had simply settled into the hard lines of his face and the broad set of his shoulders over time. This made his authority look completely effortless and absolute. He was watching her with an expression she completely failed to read. He was perfectly still and flawlessly composed. He was entirely unbothered. He possessed the exact kind of quietness that very dangerous predators exhibit right before they strike a fatal blow.

Lucas Salvestro.

He was the Alpha of Pack Ravenmoor. He held the most feared name across three vast territories. He was a full decade older than her. He possessed a track record of life that was colder than anyone Daniella had ever had the misfortune of meeting. The stories said he felt absolutely nothing. The rumors claimed he cared for no one.

His dark and obsidian eyes found hers from across the long stretch of the hallway. Something microscopic shifted behind those dark eyes. It was incredibly fast and controlled with strict discipline. It was immediately locked down behind a thick wall of ice. He knew. Daniella could see the exact and precise second his inner wolf recognized hers. She saw the way his entire massive body went imperceptibly rigid. She noticed how the expensive whiskey glass stopped moving completely halfway to his stoic mouth.

Daniella did not stop running.

She collided hard into his solid chest. Both of her trembling arms locked desperately around his thick neck. She buried her face directly into the crook of his throat where his scent was the absolute strongest. This was where her burning lungs finally felt like they were pulling in actual and breathable oxygen. The crystal whiskey glass fell to the carpeted floor somewhere behind her. The muffled thud barely registered in her racing mind. His large and heavy hands caught her waist automatically to steady her frail balance. Yet, Daniella could feel the rigid and violent tension running through his thick fingers. It was a held-back and highly calculated quality. Lucas was a man who was very carefully and very deliberately forcing himself not to react to the mate bond screaming in his blood.

Up this close, his scent was profoundly disorienting. The pure cedar and the dark amber mixed with something much deeper underneath. The aroma felt warmer and darker. It smelled faintly of wood smoke and leather and ten years of a brutal life she knew absolutely nothing about. The unnatural heat scorching through Daniella's veins did not disappear in his arms. If anything, the temperature climbed drastically higher. But the heat was fundamentally different now. This felt like a fire that belonged to her. It was a fire that wanted to exist rather than a toxic fire that was slowly killing her from the inside out.

"Help me." Her voice cracked pathetically on the second word. It betrayed the strong CEO facade she fought so incredibly hard to maintain. "Please help me. Something is wrong with my body. Someone put something in my drink and there is an older man who is chasing me." She exhaled sharply. Her entire frame was trembling against his unyielding chest. "I trust you. Just help me. I will never bother you after this, I swear it."

A heavy and suffocating pause followed her desperate plea. His hands remained completely still on her bare arms. He did not pull her a single inch closer. He also did not push her away. He simply existed there as the most solid and grounding force she had touched all night.

"Every girl says that to me."

His voice was a low and dangerous rumble that vibrated through his broad chest and directly into hers. There was no rush in his tone. He possessed a faint and light Italian accent that had been worn smooth by years of brutal pack wars. It was faded by endless travel and the supreme arrogance of a man who had long since stopped explaining himself to anyone. He sounded incredibly bored.

"And after that," he continued, the syllables dry and cold as ice, "they always crawl to my feet."

"I am not every girl." Daniella forced her heavy and drugged head up. She pulled back just enough to look directly into the terrifying eyes of the Alpha. The ten years of life experience between them had never felt more glaringly visible than in this precise moment. She saw the age gap in the chilling patience of his perfect expression. She noticed it in the detached way he looked down at her as if he were studying a broken toy. He looked as if he already knew exactly how pathetic this night would end. The drug-induced heat beneath her skin had not lessened at all. The physical proximity only made the internal fire worse. It made her pulse pound violently in her ears. It turned her arousal into something with its own distinct and throbbing heartbeat. But she absolutely refused to look away. "I am a Sephiroth." She squared her trembling shoulders. Her voice found a small shred of its usual commanding tone. "We do not crawl for anyone."

Something dangerous flickered in his cold expression. It was microscopic. The emotion vanished before she could even assign a proper name to it. She watched the hard line of his jaw tighten visibly. She watched him calculate complex risks and make a strategic decision he clearly and fundamentally did not want to make. In one clean and fluid movement, he shrugged his dark and expensive suit jacket from his broad shoulders. He settled the heavy fabric carefully around her trembling frame. The dark wool swallowed her delicate ivory halter dress completely. His overwhelming scent wrapped around her senses so entirely that her panicked wolf actually went quiet for one single merciful second. Lucas turned his body. He placed one large hand firmly at the small of her back. He began to guide her toward the nearest wall. His movements were unhurried and completely composed. He smoothly positioned her small body between his massive frame and the cold marble wall.

Mr. Hartwell's heavy footsteps rounded the corner.

Lucas moved. He did not do it dramatically. He also did not ask for permission. He simply lowered his head to block her from the hallway's view. He pressed his mouth firmly against hers.

The kiss was absolutely nothing like what she had expected from a feared Alpha with a reputation for extreme brutality. The kiss was not careless. It was not performative or rushed in any way. It was highly deliberate and terrifyingly controlled and agonizingly unhurried. It was the calculated kiss of a man who had done this exact thing ten thousand times before. He had learned precisely how to dismantle a woman's defenses. His soft lips moved with a quiet and undeniable certainty. He guided her. He led the rhythm and dominated the intimate space. Daniella had never truly been kissed before this moment. She had spent all twenty-three years of her life too busy surviving corporate politics to think about something as fragile as romance. Now she found herself following him helplessly. She learned how to kiss simply from the commanding pressure of his mouth. She learned from the perfect tilt of his head and the slow and sure glide of his lips against hers.

And then, unexpectedly, something in the kiss shifted. A massive and unseen dam somewhere deep within the mind of Lucas suddenly cracked. The clinical and controlled precision instantly melted into something much warmer. The kiss became far less careful. It felt violent and hungry and almost entirely against his conscious will. It was exactly like he had accidentally kicked open a heavy iron door he had sworn never to unlock.

It felt profoundly like finding a way back home.

She heard Mr. Hartwell's uneven footsteps slow down. She heard the old man pause in the hallway. He was likely assessing the large and dangerous man blocking his intended prey. Then the footsteps continued past them without stopping. The sounds retreated safely into the distance.

Lucas broke the kiss immediately.

Daniella opened her heavy eyes slowly. The lavish hallway had finally stopped spinning. But her racing heart had found entirely new reasons to panic. She was currently pinned against a hard marble wall. She was drowning in the jacket of a terrifying stranger. Her hands were still gripping the collar of his black shirt like a desperate lifeline. She was looking directly up at the face of Lucas Salvestro from a highly inappropriate distance of approximately four inches. His expression had already snapped back to its default setting. He looked completely closed off and terrifyingly composed. He displayed an emotion akin to absolute boredom. That is if boredom could possibly possess a jawline that sharp and eyes that dark.

"Who is he?" The words were spoken quietly. They created a low vibration in the empty hall. The words were absolutely not a question. It was a strict demand for data.

"He is someone my aunt arranged." She released his rumpled collar. She forced her stiff fingers to open and drop to her sides. She needed to act like a professional CEO. "It was a business meeting regarding an acquisition that turned into something else. I think my champagne was laced with a drug." She stopped talking. She bit her lower lip nervously. Her skin was still burning fiercely. Standing this close to his immense heat made everything objectively better yet psychologically so much worse. "Something is critically wrong with my body. It is too hot. The symptoms are getting progressively worse."

Lucas studied her flushed face for a long and agonizing moment. His dark eyes flicked to her dilated pupils. He assessed her physical condition with the cold calculation of a medic on a battlefield. Then he stepped back. The rush of cool air that instantly replaced his body heat felt like a harsh physical punishment against her skin.

"I do not do mating." Lucas stated the fact the exact same way a man mentions the daily weather. His tone was flat and final. It was completely unapologetic and devoid of any softness. "I am not interested in playing house. I do not want a bond."

"I am not asking you to do that." Daniella reached out and caught the corridor wall. Another violent and unnatural wave of heat surged through her nervous system. This wave was far more intense than before. It rolled aggressively from her stomach and tore up through her chest. It completely blurred the edges of her vision. "I am asking you to help me survive this drug. Just help me. Tonight. That is all."

"You cannot guarantee that once the wolf takes over your mind."

"I can. I am guaranteeing it right now." She forced herself to stand completely straight. She refused to break eye contact. Holding his gaze took phenomenal effort. There was a crushing weight in his stare. It was a full decade of unquestioned authority pressing quietly outward. His Alpha aura existed in him the exact same way gravity existed in planets. It was silent and invisible and impossible to fight against. "I do not want a mate. I am twenty-three years old. I have a multi-million dollar company to run and an entire pack to reclaim from thieves. I have spent my entire life being told by older men what I can and cannot have." Her voice stayed remarkably even despite the raging fire in her blood. "So believe me when I look you in the eye and tell you that I have zero interest in adding a man who does not want me to my daily schedule. Help me tonight. That is the only transaction I am proposing."

Something dangerous and entirely feral passed through his dark expression. It was much too fast to categorize but far too deliberate to be an accident. Silence stretched agonizingly between them. Ten seconds passed. Maybe fifteen. Lucas looked down at her the way men who had lived through bloody wars looked at explosives they had not expected to find. There was a deep and predatory caution moving underneath his terrifying stillness. Then he straightened his massive posture. He reached one long arm past her shoulder and pressed a keycard against the door of his private VIP suite. He pushed the heavy wooden door open and held it there. He looked completely away from her and stared blankly down the empty hall.

Daniella walked through the doorway without any hesitation. She heard the heavy door close behind them with a quiet and devastatingly final click.

"You are safe in here," he said. His broad back was turned to her as he walked toward the minibar. He sounded exactly like a machine without emotions. "Lock the door when you leave in the morning. I will sleep on the couch."

The raging heat pooling between her thighs said otherwise.

"No." She turned to face his broad back. The distance between them in this smaller and quiet hotel room felt like a completely different kind of battlefield. The air inside the room was incredibly heavy with his pure scent. Her inner wolf was clawing violently at her mind. The creature was demanding she claim him.

'Claim him,' her wolf roared inside her head.

"I need your help," Daniella stated clearly.

"I already told you my terms."

"One night." Her voice was extraordinary steady. This was true even as the blazing embers beneath her skin began climbing again. The fire was reaching aggressively for her rational thoughts. "No bond. No bite. I am absolutely not asking for anything you do not want to give." She exhaled a shaky breath. She let the heavy suit jacket slip off her shoulders and fall to the plush carpet.

Just one night.

She did not finish her spoken sentence. She crossed the luxurious space between them in three fast strides. She kissed him again. This kiss was infinitely messier than the first one in the hallway. It lacked any semblance of corporate composure. It was desperate and honest. It was entirely driven by what the unnatural drug and the overwhelming mate bond were doing to her body. She pressed her aching breasts against his solid chest. She slid her hands forcefully into his dark hair. She showed him exactly what standing in the same room as him was doing to every single nerve ending she possessed.

She felt his entire body turn to stone. He froze completely. One second passed. Then two. And then carefully he reacted. He moved like a brilliant tactician making a tactical error he already knew he would deeply regret in the morning. His large hands gripped her hips tightly. He kissed her back with an intense hunger.

When Lucas finally pulled his mouth away to let her breathe, his voice was significantly quieter. It was raspy and dangerously rough. "One night." The two words landed heavily between them. They acted like a binding contract signed in blood. "No bond. No bite. You do not want anything from me after this, and you never look for me." His dark and predatory eyes held hers without blinking. His thumb pressed hard into her hip bone. "Because you cannot get my heart. You would never get it."

Daniella nodded sharply. She convinced herself that she believed him. And she almost successfully did.

The rest of the night quickly dissolved into blinding heat and consuming darkness. It became a blur of the intoxicating aroma of amber and the quiet realization that she had just opened a door she would never possess the strength to close again. The air between them instantly became incredibly dense. It was charged with a raw and primal electricity that made the fine hairs on Daniella's arms stand straight up. She felt like she was floating above her own physical body. Her senses were drastically heightened yet beautifully blurred by the strong aphrodisiac pumping through her system. Every single brush of his fingertips felt like a localized lightning strike on her skin.

Lucas reached around her waist. His large fingers found the delicate hidden zipper at the back of her ivory halter dress. The metallic sound of the zipper sliding down echoed loudly in the oppressive silence of the hotel suite. The expensive silk fabric slipped effortlessly off her feverish skin. It pooled silently at her bare feet. She was left entirely exposed. She was clad only in scraps of delicate white lace. She trembled visibly beneath his dark and predatory gaze.

Lucas had spent many long years treating women like temporary and disposable distractions. They were a passing carousel of beautiful faces and willing bodies that briefly entertained him. But they never truly satisfied the dark and endless hunger of the massive wolf buried inside him. He was an absolute master of emotional detachment. But as his dark eyes slowly dragged over the flushed and trembling form of Daniella, something inside his meticulously built fortress violently shattered into pieces. The man who was always as cold as ice suddenly felt his sanity evaporating. He did not simply want to use this woman's body. He craved her entire existence. He wanted to consume her completely until nothing was left.

He leaned down very slowly. The tip of his nose brushed intimately against the sensitive curve of her neck. He inhaled deeply. His chest expanded as he drew in her unique and sweet scent. The natural fragrance of her skin mixed perfectly with the cedar aroma of the room. It was an incredibly intoxicating musk of sweet flowers. It directly signaled mate to his most primal and buried instincts. For the absolute first time in his thirty-three years of life, Lucas Salvestro was completely obsessed with a woman's body.

His warm lips found the wildly pulsing vein on her neck. He kissed her soft skin with a sudden desperation that bordered on absolute starvation. He trailed his open mouth down her smooth throat. His teeth scraped lightly against her flesh. He left hot and wet and possessive marks in his wake. As he moved lower and dropped to his knees, a low and guttural growl escaped his throat. The sound vibrated against her ribcage. Lucas stared at the breasts of Daniella with eyes as dark as the midnight sky. His large and long-fingered hands scooped up the soft mounds. The size of her breasts fit so perfectly in the palms of his hands. It felt as if the universe had designed the curves of this specific woman solely to be held by him. His rough thumbs flicked her highly sensitive nipples. They instantly turned into tight and painful peaks. He leaned in and closed his mouth firmly over one breast. He pulled the rigid nipple deep into the extreme heat of his mouth. He swirled his wet tongue around the agonizingly sensitive bud.

A loud moan escaped Daniella and shattered the quiet air. The sound was incredibly high and loaded with pure need and desperation. That sound of her moaning mercilessly stripped away the remaining shreds of sanity Lucas possessed. The man who was always cold now felt his brain boiling with a darkening lust. His hands immediately grabbed the hair at the nape of Daniella's neck. He held her firmly in place as he sucked on her breast even more greedily. Lucas had slept with countless women across multiple continents. But none of them had ever felt this profoundly correct. The massive wolf inside his mind howled endlessly.

'Mate. She is ours,' the wolf of Lucas roared. The beast slammed against the walls of his rational mind.

As his right hand moved lower and slipped past the delicate lace edge of her panties, he discovered she was entirely drenched. Her core was overflowing with slick moisture. The unnatural heat of her body radiated intensely against his knuckles. He pushed one thick finger inside her narrow opening. He stiffened immediately. Daniella was unbelievably tight. Her inner walls gripped his invading finger with a fierce and panicked pressure. It nearly pushed the fragile control of Lucas right over the edge into oblivion. He groaned deeply. His jaw clenched hard. His thumb found her swollen clitoris. He rubbed the highly sensitive bundle of nerves in rhythmic and heavy and punishing circles. He drove her into a complete frenzy. He refused to stop until the spine of Daniella arched backward. She cried openly and begged for more friction. Her hips pushed wildly against his relentless hand.

Lucas stood up abruptly. He stripped off his own clothes with violent and rapid efficiency. When he stood completely bare before her, Daniella gasped sharply. His broad chest was covered in pale scars. Below his waist, his arousal was hard and thick and highly intimidating. A thick and pulsing vein ran along the entire length of his heavy shaft. It strained painfully as he stepped between her trembling thighs.

As he prepared to push inside her, Daniella reached out and gripped his broad shoulders tightly.

"This is my first time."

Lucas froze completely. His entire body locked into solid stone.

"Am I the first?" His voice sounded almost like a rough grate. His inner wolf surged forward violently upon realizing that his mate had never been touched by any other man.

"You are my mate," she whispered back. The undeniable truth escaped her careful defenses. She pulled his shoulders downward and forced him closer. She wrapped her long and bare legs securely around his narrow waist. "Put it in. Stop thinking. Fuck me."

Lucas grabbed her hips tightly. He guided his thick head to her wet opening. He pushed his hips forward with a slowness that was pure torture. Daniella gasped loudly. Her beautiful face contorted in shock as she felt the terrifying initial stretch. A sharp and burning sting echoed through her body as her hymen finally gave way to his immense size. Lucas stopped his forward momentum immediately. His massive muscles locked tight. His veins bulged visibly as he fought the overwhelming and animalistic urge to simply ram his entire length deep inside her all at once. He leaned down and kissed her deeply. His tongue invaded her mouth to distract her from the sharp pain. He moved his hips forward incredibly slowly. The sharp pain eventually faded. It transformed into a heavy and pulsing pressure that stretched her beautifully.

"God. Is everyone this big?" Daniella whined breathlessly against his lips.

Lucas let out a dark and very rough laugh against her jawline. "No, woman. Only your mate is."

"Call me Daniella. Or Dan." She panted heavily. Her CEO instincts still demanded identity and control.

"Then call me Lucas," he growled back. He claimed her name and offered his own in return.

With one final and steady and powerful push, he buried his entire thick length inside her. He sank himself all the way to the hilt. His hips slapped loudly against her thighs. Daniella threw her head back and let out a long and unrestrained moan. Her small body molded perfectly to the massive frame of the Alpha. Lucas began to pump his hips inward. He built a steady and relentless rhythm. Every single thrust felt like his blunt tip was striking a highly sensitive spot inside her that he did not even know existed. The wet and rhythmic sound of their flesh slapping together violently filled every corner of the silent hotel room.

Sweat flooded their hot skin. It glistened brightly under the dim light of the lamps. The air in the room felt incredibly hot and sticky. In the middle of his brutal hip thrusts, Lucas lifted one hand. He wiped the heavy sweat from the temple of Daniella using his thumb. It was an extraordinarily gentle movement. It was a bizarre anomaly compared to the brutal violence he was inflicting upon her lower half. The moans of Daniella grew increasingly shrill. Her inner walls twitched violently. They clamped down on the shaft of the man so tightly that she finally shattered. Her very first orgasm ripped aggressively through her nervous system. It came in devastating waves that pinched the manhood of Lucas. It nearly caused him to explode as well.

But Lucas did not stop. He changed the angle of his attack. He folded the legs of Daniella until her knees touched her chest. This opened her pathway completely for him to dive much deeper. He struck her G-spot without any mercy. The intense tension rebuilt rapidly. Daniella reached her peak for a second time. Her entire body convulsed wildly as it swallowed his length.

At the absolute peak of this incredible intensity, the wolves inside both of them howled uncontrollably.

'Mark her. Bite her neck! Claim her!' the wolf of Lucas roared. The beast demanded that the man sink his elongated and sharp fangs deep into the neck of Daniella.

Lucas fought his primal instinct with every ounce of mental defense he possessed. His square jaw was clenched so tightly that his teeth ground together audibly. His neck muscles strained severely to endure the mental torture. At the exact same time, Daniella was fighting an equally strong instinct. She desperately wanted to bite the shoulder of Lucas and claim him as her own. The woman sank her teeth fiercely into her own bottom lip. She bit down entirely too hard. She was trying to channel the intense pain to distract herself from the overwhelming marking instinct she was holding back.

The skin of her lip tore open. Fresh blood seeped freely from the bottom lip of Daniella. The sharp scent of iron and rust instantly greeted the incredibly sharp sense of smell of Lucas. The metallic scent mixed heavily with the thick pheromones of their mutual lust.

The fragile tension finally exploded completely. Lucas let out a loud and feral roar that tore violently through his throat. He jerked his hips upward for one final and brutal time. His thick manhood throbbed intensely inside those narrow walls as he finally released himself. He filled her completely with a massive burst of his incredibly hot release. Daniella screamed loudly. Her body shook violently with a final and massive orgasm. It robbed her of all her breath and left her trembling helplessly underneath him.

As the wild fog of lust finally began to subside, Lucas gently pulled the nearly unconscious body of Daniella against his broad chest. He rolled her onto her side. He wrapped his massive arms securely around her small and entirely exhausted frame. He hugged her incredibly tightly. The heavy smell of sweat and sex and thick cedar filled the cold air of the hotel suite.

Daniella did not remember the exact moment she finally lost consciousness. She only remembered the profound realization that her skin had finally stopped burning. For the absolute first time in five long years of surviving entirely alone, everything inside her mind was now truly and perfectly at peace

----

Lucas & Daniella