Prime Claiming (The Prime Chronicles) Read online

  “I have something for you, karote.” Glim lifted his body until he straddled her hips and then sat back on his heels so his body weight kept her legs trapped against the ground. He pulled his pants down to his thighs, releasing his tumescent cock. He stroked his erection with one hand as he tore her leggings open at the seam to expose her vulnerable sex.

  Scared out of her mind, Cheri struggled and screamed. “No … no…”

  This can’t be happening. It’s not real.

  But it damn well felt real.

  “Zaek!” she screamed as she scratched and bit. Wiggled and cursed. Nothing she did moved Glim off her. He was too strong.

  “Silence, woman.” He rubbed his erection over her dry labia.

  Everything in her cringed with revulsion as she quivered with fright.

  Don’t just lie there. Fight, dammit. Help will come.

  Zaek would never let his woman be violated. Not in either reality.

  “Fuck off, asshole.” Cheri lifted her head and bit him on the chin. She spat out the blood and a chunk of skin, then gagged as she realized what she’d done. Her sim-persona was a blood-thirsty bitch.

  Glim shoved her head to the ground with a forearm across her throat.

  She couldn’t breathe. Terror swamped her senses as sickening heat engulfed her body and blackness swirling with white, red, and yellow dots threatened to overcome her vision. She was on the verge of blacking out when a roar unlike anything she’d ever heard echoed around the glade and then burrowed into her very bones.

  Then Glim’s oppressive weight was gone—and male screams of pain filled the air.

  Lying bonelessly in the dirt, she gasped for breath and took a quick mental inventory of her condition. Assured everything was in working order, she sat up to see what all the screaming was about.

  Cheri sighed with relief at the sight of Zaek the Destroyer as he slashed and hacked his way through her would-be rapists. The sim-Cheri thrilled at the ease and blood-thirstiness of the warrior who’d rescued her. But Cheri turned her face away from the bloody violence and barely managed not to throw up.

  One man cried out, “It is The Destroyer. Run!” Three men ran past her and managed to escape. The three left behind, alternately moaned, cursed, and pleaded for mercy.

  After a while, an ominous silence settled over the glade. Well, silent but for her labored breaths as she struggled to get enough oxygen through her too-tight airway.

  “Look at me, woman.” Zaek’s tone was stern, forbidding, and very unlike the man she’d known for three days.

  Cheri decided disobeying wasn’t a good idea. She turned her head and was relieved to see that only Glim’s body remained in the clearing. At the periphery of her mind, the sim-Cheri still lingered and wanted to spit on the man’s body.

  Then Cheri focused on her Prime warrior, the man who’d soon claim her in every way a Prime male could claim a woman destined to be his gemate.

  Zaek stood tall, dressed in leather battle-gear that emphasized his strong body. The wind tossed his dark hair about his starkly handsome features. With a battle-blade gripped in his hand, he looked like a god of war from ancient times on Earth. She sighed. This man was hers. How had she gotten so lucky?

  He checked her out, his golden gaze molten with lingering rage. His lips firmed and his nostrils flared as he slowly scanned her from top to bottom. When he spotted her torn leggings, he let out a battle cry. She looked away as he turned toward the man on the ground and raised his battle-blade.

  Cheri mentally bitch-slapped the sim-Cheri who wanted to watch Zaek finish off Glim.

  “No one touches what belongs to Zaek Magga.” His tone of voice chilled her to the bone, and she vowed never to make him that mad.

  Then she heard the sound of his battle-blade hitting the ground with a clang and saw it land away from where Glim lay in the dirt. She didn’t have long to wonder what Zaek was up to when she heard Glim beg for mercy. The man’s pleas were cut off by a gagging sound, followed by a noise which sounded like a bundle of twigs breaking. Her mind’s eye created an all-too-real image of Zaek breaking Glim’s neck with his bare hands.

  Not real. Not real. Maybe if she thought it enough, she’d believe it and stop shaking.

  Several seconds passed before Zaek said, “You can look now.” His voice was warmer, calmer. Almost too calm.

  She turned her head. The clearing was empty, but for the two of them. It was as if the battle had never happened; the men had never existed.

  “Zaek?” She couldn’t keep the quiver from her voice.

  “Hush, woman. I will wash the blood and dirt from battle off before I come to you.” He glared at her. “I wish to let my temper cool before we discuss your actions.”

  Shit, he’s still playing the damn game. The sim-Cheri cheered. God, she couldn’t get rid of the crazy bitch.

  Zaek walked to the stream she’d crossed before being cornered in the small clearing. He stripped off his battle leathers until he stood gloriously nude. Her mouth went dry at the sight of his dark golden all-over tan and the muscles that flexed as he moved. Then she zeroed in on his perfect ass as it flexed and relaxed as he walked into the stream where he sluiced off the blood and gore. All thoughts of battles, blood, and almost rape fled from her head. At that moment, her head and body was all about sex. She wanted to bite that ass and find out how he’d react. Then she imagined him using all his strength to fuck her senseless,

  After shaking off excess water, Zaek strode to where she sat. The front view was even more impressive than the rear. His semi-erect cock indicated he wasn’t as unaffected as he acted.

  He dead-lifted her into his arms. She sighed with pleasure at his show of strength and nestled into his hold. His damp skin was hot to the touch and warmed her to the bone.

  Zaek took her lips in a quick, rough kiss. She moaned in pain as his lips rubbed over the bite mark on her lip.

  “Are you hurt?” His gaze fierce, he examined her face closely. When he noticed her mouth, his eyes gentled with what looked and felt to her heightened senses as concern and regret. He touched the tip of his tongue to bite mark. “Did the bastards harm you in any other way?”

  “No, you came in time. And I’m the one who bit my lip.” Cheri would’ve added a teasing “my hero,” but the sim-Cheri wouldn’t let her.

  He frowned and a guttural noise came from deep within his throat. “The apayebote will all pay. Your father and I will hunt them down and slay them for even daring to touch what is mine.” He tightened his hold on her and frowned. “Now, explain why you ran and placed yourself in danger.”

  Yielding to her role in the game―since it looked as if Zaek wasn’t ready to stop―she shoved away from him and struggled to be let down. Fighting him was the same as attempting to fight a titanium steel bulkhead; he was just as strong and immovable.

  Finally, she slumped against him, exhausted, frustrated, angry, and ready to cry. “I didn’t choose you.” She sniffed back tears. “And even if I had, I deserve to be courted…”

  The irony of her argument didn’t escape her or Zaek; she was positive she spotted a glint of amusement in his eyes and his aura.

  “…for all the wealth you’ll gain from taking me as your mate. If you take me back home and try to rush me into the bonding ceremony, I’ll just run again.

  “You won’t have a chance. We aren’t going back to your father’s house,” he muttered against her hair. “Now, sleep.”

  Zaek did something to her neck and she lost consciousness.

  When she roused, she lay on a mound of soft furs on a rustic wooden bed near a roaring fire. The firelight was the only light in the space which appeared to be a cave. She tried to sit up, but couldn’t. Her wrists were cuffed together and attached over her head to the headboard. She lifted her head from a pillow and peered down her body
. She was naked. Her legs were spread apart with her ankles also cuffed and tethered to the foot of the bed.

  She shivered with a mixture of excitement and dread.

  Now, the final stage of bonding would begin. It had been a long, sexual dry spell for her, and she was so ready to be taken by Zaek. The only fear she had was that she wouldn’t be able to handle all she’d asked for from him.

  Prime males were reputed to be tireless lovers. Her previous lovers while liking dominant sex games had been dilettantes with average stamina. None of them had ever come close to pushing her limits. She sensed Zaek could—and would.

  “Good. You are awake.”

  She turned her head toward the sound of his deep, raspy voice and found him standing in the shadows, a large, dark male shape set off against an even more velvety darkness.

  “Untie me.” Her voice wavered since she really didn’t want free. The sim-program was messing with her head again. But it proved to be a delicious dilemma as both fear and anticipation of what Zaek would do to her colored her every thought.

  “No.” His voice was harsh and unyielding. This side of his nature, one he and all Prime males thinly disguised under a veneer of civilized rules and procedures, made her wet. She was so aroused that even the slight breeze in the room brushing over her exposed clit was unbearably stimulating.

  Play the game, Cheri. Move it along. Faster.

  “Please … don’t hurt me.” She pulled at the fur-lined leather binding her wrists. A sensual bondage. A tight, inescapable bondage. She was helpless. He could do anything to her, and she couldn’t stop him.

  Primal instincts urged her to cede to the dominant male, to assuage his anger in any way she could … to reach for the man who could make her fevered sexual dreams finally come true. “I promise not to run. I’ll suck your cock. Do anything you wish. Let me loose … please.”

  “No.” Zaek stalked toward her.

  The firelight limned his gloriously naked body. She could barely swallow; her throat tight from nerves and anticipation. She couldn’t tear her gaze from his fully roused cock. His cock head was purple and glistened from precum in the flickering firelight. The tip of his erection touched just below his navel. He was even larger and thicker than she’d guessed.

  “I don’t think you’ll fit.” She forced the words past what felt like a boulder in her throat. When she’d voiced her concern in the dining area, she hadn’t really known, couldn’t have conceived, how long and thick he really was.

  “By the time I take your body, you will be more than ready to handle my cock.” He loomed over her and stared at her body. His eyes glowed red in the reflected light of the fire. “But first, you must be punished for running from me … for putting yourself in danger. Then I will take what is mine.”

  Cheri moaned. Just his words, his musky male scent, the physical evidence of his desire for her—had aroused her beyond anything she’d ever felt before. Her nipples were budded painfully tight. Her clit throbbed in time with her too rapid heartbeat. She couldn’t even close her legs to take the edge off. “Please … I ache.”

  Zaek sat next to her and stroked a thick finger through the wetness at the vee of her legs and smiled. “Ahhh, so ready for me, little one.” He sucked the evidence of her raging desire from his finger and hummed. “You taste sweet.” He leaned over her mound and inhaled. “You smell like the ocean and a field of Cejurean lollyflowers.”

  His pleasure in her body excited her. His words touched her heart and soul.

  The sudden alertness in his body and a murmured, “Lubha,” told her he read her emotions as easily as she read his.

  Zaek ran his warrior-toughened hands up and down the sides of her torso and legs in a gentle, sensual massage. Gooseflesh covered her skin wherever he touched. “I will taste you, worship your body—later. But first, I will show you the mastery you desire.”

  “Oh lordy.” She tossed her head from side-to-side as he played with her clit for several seconds, stopping when she arched into his touch.

  “Not yet.” Zaek spanked her clit. Hard.

  She hissed at the sharp pain. The sting was momentary, but was followed by lingering ripples of burning pleasure that rolled through the small bundle of nerves. She moaned and lifted her hips. None of her previous lovers had ever done that―and she wanted more.

  “Liked that, did you?” Zaek chuckled.

  She nodded. Speech was beyond her capabilities at the moment.

  “That’s nice to know.” He released her ankles and then massaged each one, ending with a light kiss over the top of each foot. Her toes curled at the sensual feel of his lips, and she shivered at the tenderness conveyed by his loving touches.

  Zaek reached over her head and did something to release her bound hands from the headboard, but kept her wrists cuffed together in front of her.

  Standing, he picked her up and then sat on the edge of the bed. In a move that proved how strong he really was, he flipped her over his lap—her head hung down, her arms cuffed together over her head, and her naked ass vulnerable to his will.

  She squirmed and wiggled and only stopped when he spanked her low on her butt at the juncture of her thighs. She squeaked. She felt the slap in her clit which still burned from the slap he’d given it.

  “Stay still or I will add to your punishment. Understood?”

  “Yes.” She liked being spanked under normal sexual circumstances. But nothing about her relationship with Zaek had been normal to this point. In fact, every look and the few touches he’d given her over the last few days had kept her in a constant, elevated state of arousal. She might not survive the painful pleasure he was about to provide.

  At least, she’d die happy and satiated.

  “You will not come until I give you permission.” He cupped her pussy from behind and pinched her clit.

  She inhaled sharply, then hissed out a breath as she tried to pull away.

  “Stop,” his voice was stern and brooked no opposition, “this is punishment for leaving the safety of your father’s house and not meant to arouse you.”

  Bullshit game. It was foreplay, and the damn man knew it. It would be next to impossible for her not to come; she was so close already. She whined and wiggled in an attempt to rub up against his hand. Just a little bit more friction or pressure and she’d come.

  “It’s not going to be that easy, little one.” Zaek pulled his hand away from her needy clit.

  She mewled with disappointment. “Zaek…”

  “You are not the one in control here.” He slapped each ass cheek then massaged them firmly, spreading the heat over the surface. “I am.”

  Zaek read her needs and wants better than any man she’d ever met. She chalked it up to his damn Prime empathy and the gemat-gemate bonding. While she didn’t have the battle-mate allele, which allowed a bonded couple to speak telepathically, she and Zaek would—once they were fully bonded—be connected heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul and have an even more heightened awareness of the other’s emotions.

  This could be a good news-bad news situation: good, if he followed through and gave her what she needed; bad, if he denied her.

  Zaek’s next slap on her ass was much harder than the first two and startled her out of her thoughts and centered all her attention on what was happening to her bottom.

  “You will never”—whap—“ever”—whap—“run from me”—whap whap, whap whap—“or put yourself in danger”—whap whap whap, whap whap whap—“again.”

  He held nothing back. Her ass felt on fire. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move away from the punishment he meted out. She’d never felt so helpless, so alive, in her life. No man had ever come close to pushing her limits, but Zaek had managed it the first time and walked the tightrope perfectly between her pleasure and pain.

  Tears leaked from C
heri’s eyes even as she moaned at the pleasure zinging its way to her clit and fought to remain still. It would be so easy to rub her needy clit over Zaek’s hair-roughened thigh. But he hadn’t given her permission to come.

  “Am I getting through, little one?” Zaek cupped her bottom, one cheek in each large hand and gently squeezed.

  Cheri squeaked as the sensation went straight to her core, then stifled a moan. She was so damn close. Blinking away tears, she gritted her teeth against the urge to get herself off on his leg. “Yes. I’ll n-n-never run away again. I p-p-promise.”

  Zaek rubbed the burning skin on her bottom with firm, circular strokes. She didn’t bother swallowing her moans this time. The massage of the heated skin added to her arousal. Then he spanked her even harder―ten more times, five on each ass cheek.

  Shit. Ow, ow, ow.

  She cried in earnest now. Her sobs echoed loudly in the cavernous room. Her face wet with tears which dripped onto the floor.

  “And you will never doubt I love and need you.” His voice was rough with hurt.

  The knowledge that she had the power to wound this man shocked her.

  Zaek loved her. Loved her enough to give her not only the kind of sex she needed, but also the words. If she hadn’t been sure of her feelings before, she was now―she loved him.

  “Never. I promise.” She sniffed. “Please … Zaek … darlin’ … I love you … I need you.”

  ****

  Cheri’s declaration of love warmed his heart and soul and threatened to send him to his knees in front of her. Her emotions were strong and true. Her expression of need wasn’t a mere side effect of her arousal, but went to a deeper need to be a part of what they would become once they were fully bonded. He gave silent thanks to the One for sending him this precious woman.

  But first, he would finish the game. His adora liked being dominated, and he liked doing so. It would make their final joining special for both of them.