Chapter 32

My heaving breaths echoed loudly in the darkness of the cave. My legs burned from running on the sand—something I hadn’t done since college and volleyball training—and the orgasm Vaughn ripped from me like it was nothing.

I splashed through the puddles on the rocky floor, shallow since the tide was out. It had been years since I was in these caves, but I still knew them well enough. The pitch black would help conceal me. Hopefully.

Lowering myself down on the ground, I spread some of the water on myself. I didn’t have much time. Vaughn was fast, and he was probably already on his way, but the water might dampen the scent a little.

Outside the caves, I heard his voice in a singsong that gave me goosebumps. “Isolde.”

I pushed forward, dragging my hands on the rock wall until I felt what I was looking for. A little passageway between two of the caves, small enough to fit through for some. I could, but I doubted Vaughn would fit.

Back deeper into the cave again before doubling back and crossing into the third and final one—the one closest to the mansion. A corner I’d used for hide and seek for years hid back here, within viewing distance of the entrance, but no one would be able to find you if you didn’t already know where you were.

Or if they were hunting you.

Steps scraped on stone, a low purr echoing through. “Smart girl,” he chuckled. His voice was louder. So he’d found the passage. “I’ll still find you.”

He would, but I wasn’t going to make it easy. I waited until I couldn’t hear him anymore before I backtracked. A wave of delicious orange and cream washed toward me from the entrance of the second cave. My heart kicked into high gear, and I pressed myself back through the crack in the stone. I only had seconds or he would find me. Quickly.

Quickly.

There. I breathed out in relief, pressing close to the crack and listening for the barest hint of a step on the other side.

“Nice try.”

I screamed, turning and running straight into Vaughn’s chest. “Quiet.” His mouth slammed over mine while he shoved me against the stone wall, tongue invading before I could stop him. So I bit him, making sure not to break the skin.

Vaughn jerked back, smiling. “Wanna make me bleed, sweetheart? Be my guest. It’s not going to change anything.”

Pure, sultry heat swept through me. Why did I like it when he said things like that? Why did I crave knowing he was going to take what he wanted no matter what?

Because I knew he would stop.

With one little word, this would end. It was all a choice, and I chose him. He hadn’t taken my hands yet. “Fuck off.”

A hand circled my throat, pushing me into the stone and stealing my air. “Sure that’s the way you want to go? I can be nice to you. If you’re nice to me.” His lips brushed mine. “If you get on your knees and say you’re sorry.”

I couldn’t breathe, air scraping through my throat where he squeezed. “The only way I’ll ever kneel is if you make me.”

All he did was smile. My stomach tumbled with want and the barest hint of fear. I loved the edge of it, making everything sharper.

“Careful what you wish for, sweetheart.”

He didn’t release my throat. I clawed at his hand, unable to move him, unable to focus on what he was doing. The sound of tearing fabric reached my ears, my skirt splitting, the damn ocean air hitting my legs once more. The sleeves torn off and discarded.

Everything blazed to life. The world poured back in along with my air. I coughed, dizzy and blind and not fighting back because I couldn’t. Vaughn grabbed my hands and turned, pinning me against the wall of the cave with his back. He had my wrists and was tying them together with the ripped cloth.

I tried to pull my hands apart, but they wouldn’t move. And now they were tied. Around his body.

Vaughn turned back with victory in his eyes. “Get on your knees, or I’m going to put you there.”

I straightened to my full height. Hell, I went on my toes in defiance. He caught me, but I wouldn’t go down that easily.

His hands landed on my shoulders, and with one push, his strength overcame mine. My legs, weak as they were from running, buckled, skin scraping on the stone, my hands still bound around his legs. He widened them too, making sure they couldn’t move as he lazily undid his belt. All that was left of the skirt were filmy scraps clinging to my legs.

“I didn’t have to make that pretty cunt come, you know.” The words were dark. “I could have fucked you. Put your face in the sand and made you mine until you passed out. Serves me right for being nice.”

He gripped my jaw, fingers forcing my mouth open. “No more.”

I only caught the barest hint of his cock in the darkness, but I saw he was thick, and the moonlight glinted off a piercing. Then he was in my mouth, pushing deep. Metal studs grazed my tongue and the roof of my mouth before he hit the back, making me gag.

Vaughn gripped my hair with one hand, the other coming around my throat again as he pulled back and thrust in again, further. It was too much. My body rebelled against him, and at the same time, my nipples hardened and slick gathered between my legs.

Something in my mind clicked, sinking into a place of nothing more than obedience and submission. It yawned open in front of me, a delicious void of nothing but pleasure at his hands. I should fight back, but with his cock pressing at the entrance of my throat, his gaze burning hot, I didn’t want to.

He felt the change, the air going tight between us.

Vaughn stopped holding back.

I didn’t even know he had been, and suddenly he was fucking my mouth, pushing past it into my throat like it was a mold made for him. Rumbling growls filled the cave, the back of my head hitting the wall as he held me there. Ruthless. Relentless. Stroke after stroke getting deeper. His piercings were a marker, and one by one, he worked them into me.

When he wanted me to breathe, I did. When he didn’t want that, I didn’t. The whole world was hazy and soft at the edges, tinged with moonlit silver.

“Take it.” His hand tightened in my hair. “Take it like your throat is your cunt. All the way.”

Vaughn pushed deep, cock sliding into me until his hips met my mouth, whole body pinning me in place. “God fucking damn,” he mumbled, rocking deeper. “I could knot you behind your teeth and keep you here.”

The world went fuzzy again from the lack of air, but being this full of him felt good. Felt right. I wanted more.

Moving his hands to either side of my head, he gave me more. Vaughn took my throat like a heathen. Wild and barbaric, every thrust pushing in to the hilt, over and over again.

“I’m going to come.” The words lingered in the darkness. “And you’re going to swallow everything, Omega.”

That hand cupped my jaw again, holding it open with a squeeze as he pulled back and came, pouring himself all over my tongue.

Fuck me, he tasted incredible. Like oranges and cream. Like the best ice cream ever. Like I wanted to drink him down and savor him like a gift. Never in my life had I wanted anything more than to swallow.

Which was why I locked eyes with him and spat his cum on the ground, knowing exactly what would happen. Wanting the feral savagery still locked inside him. I was fully gone into my instincts now, and they were in the driver’s seat.

The Alpha looking at me was gone too, the righteous anger in his eyes searing me like a brand. I didn’t wait to see what he would do, lunging, knocking him with the full force of my body. He was off balance, and I pulled, using my bound arms to trip him and make him fall.

Freedom.

I tore my hands from around his fallen legs and sprinted. His roar echoed out onto the beach. There was no way to outrun him, but I still had to try. Maybe I could lead him around the rocks.

The archway loomed in front of me, the first waves of the rising tide pooling around the base of the giant stones. There was a chance I could lose him here. A chance⁠—

He pounced from the other side of the arch, already there, arms coming around me and taking me to the ground. I struggled and kicked, but there was no use. Vaughn wasn’t just Vaughn, he was in his Alpha, strength beyond his own powering his body, eyes nearly black with it. He wasn’t in rut, but he was damn close.

So much like the first time he caught me, he pinned me to the sand and knocked my legs apart. Unlike the first time, he thrust into me with one stroke.

Water swirled up and around our legs, pulling at us, our clothes, the sand, as he stared down at me, the predator. Vaughn’s swollen knot from his first orgasm pushed against my entrance, both a promise and a threat.

“Mine.”

One hand pinned me to the ground by the throat, the other pushing my bound hands deeper into the damp sand above my head. Another wave enveloped us. More, because the tide was rising.

I smiled at him, saying the thing I knew would break him. “I’ll never be yours.”

Vaughn snapped.

He snarled, driving himself into me just like he had in the cave, but this time there was no resistance. My body was made to take him, and those fucking infernal piercings were heaven. Dragging against me on both top and bottom, pressing where I needed him. But I wasn’t there. My clit felt like one brush would send me over. All that sensation coiled and ready to burst.

Something gave way deep inside me. A different kind of submission. Needed something so much more. Needed my Alpha. More than oxygen and more than life. Down in my bones, I surrendered. A delicious fracturing that would last longer than tonight.

“Please.”

I wasn’t teasing him this time. Not begging him to stop. I needed more.

My Alpha fucked me harder. Sweat dripped off his body, mixing with the wave now curling up and over my shoulders.

“Please, I need it.”

His fingers jerked against my throat. “Say it.”

I swallowed and watched his eyes grow blacker when he felt it. “No.”

“I caught you, sweetheart.” Vaughn leaned closer, never stopping, never slowing. “This cunt is mine. I earned it. And you’re not coming unless you admit it.”

My head shook back and forth. I couldn’t do it. Not after fighting him so hard. Everything in me wanted to relent, but I also wanted to be strong enough not to.

He lowered even further, squeezing my throat as the water flowed over it and his hand. “Tell me who this pretty cunt belongs to, and I’ll let you come. Tell me who you belong to.”

“I can’t.” This felt like more than the game. It felt bigger, and there wasn’t a way to stop it. “I can’t.”

The words were so soft, a gentle caress in contrast to the brutality of how he buried his cock in me, filling me to the point of pain. Perfect, beautiful, pleasure and fire and madness. “Tell me, Isolde.”

“I’m yours.”

Vaughn ground his hips downward on the next thrust, dragging over my clit, and I exploded. The wave came, washing over my head while my world went white. It didn’t matter if I was underwater. I was already drowning in pleasure and in him. It didn’t stop, carrying on while he took what he needed.

Finally, as he held me under another wave, he slammed his knot home, heat filling me, mixing with the salt of the sea.

His hand released my throat, and he hauled me upward, wrapping me around his body while he knelt in the sand. The Alpha who chased me was gone. I felt it. Our game was over, and I was knotted to Vaughn, who held me like I was the most precious thing he’d pulled from the sea.

“Fucking hell, sweetheart.”

I laughed once.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah.”

Exhausted, pleasured out, and boneless. But I was fine. More than fine.

Pulling back so he could see me, he searched my face. “Did we cross any boundaries? Are you injured anywhere?”

I shook my head. “I’m good. I promise. Just…”

“Just?”

“Will you kiss me?”

Vaughn smiled. A real smile, and pulled my mouth to his. Soft and gentle. Grounding. Safe.

That’s what I was. We’d just done something most people would consider crazy or wrong, and somehow, I’d never felt more safe than I did now.

“You guys good?” Cade’s voice came from some distance away.

“We’re good. Going to need something to cover us both on the way back,” Vaughn said, standing in the shallow waves. “I’m going to take you back inside and we’ll get you cleaned up, okay?”

“Okay.” The swaying motion of his walking was lulling me into drowsy bliss. “Vaughn?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“Thank you.”

He tightened his hold on me and purred all the way back to the suite.