Aiden's Charity

Chapter Twelve

She was breathing through the contractions ripping her womb apart. Aiden watched from the doorway, his mind consumed with such contradictory impulses that he wasn’t certain if he should leave, or if he should go to her. His body demanded he go to her. Every bone and muscle in his body, not to mention his traitorous cock, demanded that he take her now.

His control, so fiercely won after she had taken it from him, demanded that he run. Run hard and fast, as far away from this woman as he could get. The emotional threat she represented tore at him. The mating to come terrified him. Already he could feel the aggression, the dominance roaring within his body.

Wolfe and Aiden had warned him of what was to come, but had anyone warned her? No one had, he knew. Hope and Faith hadn’t been with her long enough, and he knew her earlier fear of their mating would only magnify if he explained the full details of it to her. Anal sex would frighten any virgin in such circumstances. To be taken in such a manner by a Breed male would be terrifying at first.

He pushed his fingers through his hair, fighting himself, fighting the urges running through him. How was he supposed to steel his heart against her? She had known rescue was coming, had fought to save him when he would have willingly died to escape the hell he knew was coming.

Had it really been her fault…his loss of control?

She moaned weakly, curling tighter into the fetal position she had assumed, holding a pillow tight to her stomach. Cian had told them that her pain had only grown worse over the months. Each injection had pushed her closer to insanity as she fought the changes ripping through her body. Changes that were slowly preparing her for him.

His hands went to his shirt, releasing the buttons slowly as he fought to maintain control of his breathing. Her scent was rich and evocative, filled with the power of a mountain storm, the heady fragrance of honeysuckle. His cock was like a staff of burning iron, throbbing beneath the restriction of his jeans, pleading for the tight confines of her honey-rich cunt. She would be wet, slick and hot. Her channel would clasp him like a wet velvet fist, dragging over his sensitive flesh as he thrust in and out. He swallowed tightly at the thought.

It only took moments for him to undress. He left his clothes where they fell then padded slowly to the bed. She was his mate. God help them both, but he couldn’t leave her in pain, nor could he bear his own any longer.

“Charity,” he whispered as he moved onto the bed behind her, reaching out to draw her hair back from her perspiring face.

“Go away, Aiden.” Her voice was strangled, thick. “I can’t think while you’re here.”

He frowned down at her. “You aren’t thinking, Charity, you are in too much pain to think.”

“The contractions are worse,” she gritted out. “The heat is worse, when it should be leveling off. There’s a difference to it now. It has to be because of the transfusion. I need a fucking lab.” She was almost crying now. “How am I supposed to figure this out without tests? Without equipment? Goddammit, get away from me.” She was panting for air now.

Aiden shook his head in confusion. She seemed more concerned with testing her damned reactions than she was with alleviating the pain. He lay down beside her, his arm hooking over her waist and pulling her back against his body.

She gasped, her body stiffening before a moan escaped her throat.

“God, you’re so warm,” she whispered, burying her head in the pillow beneath her. “How am I supposed to fight this when you’re so damned warm, Aiden?”

He closed his eyes. He couldn’t halt the need to kiss the soft shell of her ear. Her breath caught as a shiver trembled over her body.

“I’m scared, Aiden,” she whispered, her voice sounding lost, lonely. “I don’t know how to fight this when you’re so close to me. And I don’t think I can bear your hatred when it’s over.”

He breathed out roughly. “If only I could hate you, Charity.” His hand moved beneath the pillow she had gripped to her stomach.

The contractions were harder than they had been before. He moved his hand beneath her shirt, beginning a gentle massaging motion with his fingers as her breathing began to deepen, roughen.

“Feel good?” he asked, noticing her reaction as his breath whispered over her ear.

“Too good,” she moaned. “I can’t think, Aiden.”

“Do not think at all, Charity.” He closed his eyes, drawing in her scent, becoming nearly intoxicated on the sweetness of it.

His body was clamoring now. He clenched his teeth as his lips smoothed over her neck. Her blood beat hard and fast beneath the tender skin as her body tightened further.

She swallowed tightly. “What you said earlier…” He could hear the fear in her voice.

“Neither Hope nor Faith have known any pain from the dominance of their mates, or the matings themselves, Charity. Your body is ready for me, and what is not yet prepared, will be prepared in due time.”

His cock was pressed against the crease of her buttocks. Below, the small tight hole of her anus awaited him. He hadn’t believed Wolfe and Aiden when they warned him of that overwhelming desire to possess that dark, forbidden spot. But he believed them now. His throttled growl shocked them both as he fought to deny himself. She was already frightened, he knew. To take her there, to force himself into the narrow depths of her anus, could very well terrify her. Yet, the need was like a fever flowing hard and fast through his veins.

Prepare her. He had to prepare her. If her arousal were high enough, her needs overwhelming even her fears, then she would be ready for him.

“Come here to me, Charity.” He pulled the pillow from her grasp then rolled her over to her back.

She stared up at him, her brown eyes dark, dazed with her arousal as he stared down at her.

“See how your body eases for me,” he said gently, his hand pressed to her stomach, easing the knots from the muscles of her abdomen. “It knows I can relieve the pain, the arousal. Only my body can do this for you, Charity. Only my touch.”

He pushed the T-shirt up her body, remembering heatedly how he had torn the other one from her. He undressed her quickly, tossing the fabric from the bed as he stared down at the beauty displayed before him.

Her breasts rose and fell in a hard, fast rhythm. Perspiration glistened on the silken skin, emphasizing the swollen curves and dark, elongated nipples. He tore his gaze from the ripe mounds, meeting hers as he fought for control.

“I’ll conceive,” she reminded him again, tears glistening in her eyes. “I don’t want a child, Aiden. I don’t want to bring another into such a hopeless situation.”

His lips quirked at her accurate description of the Breeds’ lives to this point. It was often a hopeless battle they fought.

“Nature will do what it must.” He pulled her slowly into his arms then. “Our concern, Charity, is to aid it as best we can. No matter the cost. We survive, because we must.”

He gave her no chance to answer or to argue. His head lowered. The temptation of her lips, swollen from the sensuality of her arousal, was too much to resist. Like the sweetest fruit, demanding that he taste of its erotic perfection.

She whimpered when his lips touched hers, opening to him, her hands moving timidly to his shoulders as his fingers continued to stroke her tightened abdomen.

She was as intoxicating, as he knew she would be. Aiden allowed his tongue to stroke over her trembling lips, ignoring her soft entreaty as they opened for the silken feel of the plump curves beneath his tongue. She was moving against him slowly, her nipples raking over his chest like little brands of need.

Control was a tenuous thing at best, but he found pride in the fact that he was holding onto his. Until she arched against him, a hungry moan breaking from her throat as her tongue reached out to lick back at him.