Chapter 179: Losing The Fight II (18+)

Calis did not remember when exactly he had decided to leave the stream, and he wasn’t sure how far he had run.

Anything to get away from those eyes.

Still, he did not get far.

The second the denser shadows closed around him, his control snapped.

His back hit a tree hard enough to knock a rough breath from his chest. The bark bit into his skin, but he barely felt it. His cock was aching, still wet from the stream, and so hard it hurt.

He had gone into the water to clear his head after having done a lot of thinking about the things Tera had revealed to him. The water had been soothing until... her eyes.

Calis dragged in a breath through his teeth and wrapped a hand around himself.

The first stroke dragged a low, broken sound out of him.

His palm was rough and still damp, and the friction made his hips jerk forward helplessly. He braced his free hand against the tree and stroked again, harder.

He should stop.

He did not stop.

In his mind, she was still lying there on the bank. Hair loose, mouth soft, and eyes dark with something he had no business wanting from her. She had looked at his cock. He had seen it. Seen the way her gaze dropped and lingered, the way her thighs pressed together, the way her breath changed.

It was the second time he had gotten a scent from her.

She had gotten wet for him.

And at that moment, the control he had maintained for days crumbled to nothing.

His grip tightened, and he stroked faster, thumb dragging over the swollen head to smear the slick bead that had already gathered there.

His stomach clenched, his thighs flexed, and every muscle in his body was wound too tight, straining around the same unbearable fact.

He wanted her.

He wanted her under him. He wanted to pin that sharp-tongued, fearless female to the ground and bury himself so deep she forgot the names of her other males.

His head dropped forward, and his claws extended to dig into the bark as his breathing grew heavier.

His fist moved with the desperate, punishing rhythm of a male who was trying to purge something from his blood before it consumed him entirely.

A growl ripped out of him, low and ragged as his fantasy shifted and took shape.

Her small, furless body stretched out on the bank, her hair tangled in the grass, her legs wrapped around his waist. The way her lips would part. The sound she would make when he pushed inside her. The heat of her closing around him, tight and wet and—

A ragged groan tore from his throat before he could clamp it down. He bit the inside of his cheek so hard he tasted blood.

He imagined her moaning his name.

Calis thrust into his fist, the wet sound loud in the quiet around him. His cock throbbed violently in his grip, heavier with every pass, and he could feel the pressure building at the base.

Calis let out a low, bitter laugh. His knot pulsed at the base of his cock, swelling alone at the thought of her.

His body was responding to a female who wasn’t even there.

It was not just release he wanted. His body wanted to lock into her. Hold her there. Fill her. Keep her.

"Tera..."

He groaned, hips jerked forward into his own fist as his breathing dissolved into harsh, ragged gasps.

His whole body seized, and a broken sound tore out of him as thick ropes of cum spilt over his fist and onto the earth, pulse after pulse.

His knot swelled fully in his grip, and the aching fullness that was designed for a mate’s body was instead locked in his own empty fist.

His legs nearly gave out, and he leaned into the tree, his chest heaving.

Even after the last shudder left him, his cock twitched in his messy grip, still half-hard and sensitive

Calis’ crimson eyes unfocused in the dark.

What was he supposed to do now?

- ※ - ※ - ※ -

Tera crouched at the stream, scooping handfuls of cool water over her arms and legs.

The mud from where she had fallen asleep on the bank had dried in patches across her skin, and she washed it off until the last of it flaked away into the current.

Her body felt loose and calm after she had taken care of her raging arousal.

Tera splashed water over her face and exhaled slowly, letting the cool air settle against her damp skin.

Calis was attractive. She wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. And watching him in that stream had made her pent-up body react the way it had.

That was just it.

Though she hoped she hadn’t spooked Calis.

He must think she was a pervert.

Tera sighed and splashed her face again.

She missed her family.

Her cubs especially.

She missed Xavi’s warmth at her back and the rumble in his chest when he slept. She missed Ermin’s tail wrapping around her ankle in the dark like a reflex he couldn’t control. She missed Nadia’s chubby fists gripping her finger and Althea’s small, fierce face pressed against her chest.

Tera smiled at the water.

She had been here long enough. The pen was done. Maybe she could take a brief break back in the Dow clan before returning to help the wolves with the farm. At the very least, her absence would help Calis. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable with her being here.

Though the male would need to suck it up or just give in.

Tera chuckled, her thoughts straying back to her home in the clan.

She needed a well-deserved break at least.

A week with her family, holding her cubs, sleeping between her mates, and eating food she didn’t have to cook over an open fire while wolves stared at her like she was performing miracles.

Tera also felt silly.

Having to sleep on fur laid on hard ground could not compare to the comfort of the soft floor of her shelters.

With the teleportation portal, Tera could even spend her nights back in the clan.

She needed it.

And some distance from the wolf alpha wouldn’t hurt either.