Waltz of the Lioness

Cora

The last of the tremors left her feeling exhausted.

Once her heat had allowed her to take a breath, she tried to move away from the man that still filled her in the most intimate of places. When he frowned, she went rigid.

“I’m sorry, your highness. You have been kind to offer your…help.” The blush swept over her as she suffered through apologies and gratitude for what had transpired between them.

She kept her eyes averted from him, blushing profoundly at the memories of their intimacy. Then and now. “I’ll just show myself out. I didn’t mean to…inconvenience you, sire.”

There were no right words for her to find for what just happened. Do you even thank someone for that?

If nothing else, the expectation to remain polite and respectful no matter the circumstances was drilled into her from such a young age that they managed to surface even under her humiliation.

However, even to her own innocent ears, they seemed so off here. Like they did not belong.

When she tried to move out from under him again, he growled at her.

“And what will you do when another heat strikes?” he asked intently, watching her expression a little too closely and causing her to forget her own composure.

She turned blinking eyes on him. Those dark eyes held hers and nearly stole her breath, not to mention any thoughts that might have existed only moments before. “Another what?”

“Heat. That which your lioness triggered when she commanded to be tamed after finding her mate.”

He watched her closely with that same intensity, letting his fingers trace a pattern across her shoulder. “You do know what that is, don’t you, Cora?”

Her head shook violently. These were definitely unusual circumstances.

She was never meant to mate naturally.

Her life was meant to be merely an existence of her human half being granted the fortunate occurrence of a husband that was approved of by her adopted parents.

She couldn’t have asked for a better outcome than that which they were granting her…not as an omega. At least, that was what she had always been told.

Her face twisted as she chanced a glance at him. “There will be another?”

His laughter made her flinch, feeling the humiliation of it all running through her veins, even as his throaty laughter made her body hum.

“Someone has done you a huge disservice, my sweet.”

He paused, his fingers tracing the beautiful contour of her collarbone. When his touch slid just above it, she was startled by the sensitivity of the skin there.

“You will continue to go into heat until five days have passed, or you have conceived. It is the whole purpose of your heat.”

Her eyes grew wide and her mouth went slack. The tender flesh on her shoulder was no longer on the forefront of her mind.

“But…I am not meant to bear children. I am just an omega. I’m not worthy of such an honor, your highness.”

The frown on his lips buried his face in deep puzzlement, and his eyes wandered across her as if seeking answers. Her face blazed with heat as he inspected her.

She had offended him, disgraced him even. To think that his highness could have mated and bedded with a lowly omega would have to be devastating to him.

When he finally spoke, she closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for the berating she felt sure would come.

“Before we continue, we need to dispense with one thing. I will not be called your highness or ~sire~ by my own ~mate~.

“You will refer to me as Brock, or you will find some other term of endearment that will suffice. Understood?”

His fingers once again picked up the light touch he had been caressing her body with, and a small tremor ran through her.

She nodded, her lips pressed thin, not really liking the idea of addressing royalty by their first name.

There was something tender about his touch, but beneath the surface she could sense a strength and anger that he withheld from her. Maybe from his indignation at her audacity.

It stung to think she had caused him to be annoyed, and she needed to splash water on her face. It would help her to refocus her attention from being here with him to finding a solution to her dilemma.

Okay, so more like splash water on her face to alleviate the heat that he was spreading through her with every stroke of his finger across her skin.

His dark hair spilled over onto his forehead, nearly long enough to create a mask for those beautiful brown eyes that were dark and heated.

The fingers that danced on her skin were strong, tapered, and long, which matched the rest of him.

Though she had never seen a naked man’s body, she had to believe that his would make most men’s pale in comparison. It was finely chiseled, not an ounce of fat anywhere on him.

With sensual lips, he could make her feel beautiful, desirable and naive at the same time, and it made her belly heat with a sensation she had never known before.

Maybe he was right… Maybe someone had done a huge disservice to her.

“May I please be excused?”

The silence encroached on her, unnerving her and her resolve.

There was still time for her to get home before her parents discovered her betrayal. The problem would be showing enough contrition for missing her introduction to her betrothed.

That and knowing that she had lost her virtue…and bedded the king.

Her head swam, the recklessness of her lioness creating so many hurdles to her current situation. Getting out of this mess was certainly considerably harder than it was for her lioness to get her into it.

His breathing was slow and purposeful as he let a finger glide over her exposed flesh to the curve of her breast, his eyes still holding hers.

Her breath hitched as she closed her eyes against the sweet torture of his touch, her control nearly spent as she fought against the urge to experience pleasure within his arms once more.

Instead of responding to her question, he shifted off her to release her from his capture. She felt bereft of him once his weight was no longer atop her.

Pulling her robe back over her shoulders, she covered herself from his view. With deft fingers, she secured it in a vice-like grip, scooted off the bed, and started toward the door.

“Where do you think you are going?”

There was a threat in his words that she could hear as well as sense. His eyes were dark, but she couldn’t quite understand the edge in his voice.

Her whole body cringed with anxiety, looking from him to the door and finally back to him once more.

“I just need some water,” she said quietly, uncertain.

The flush was all over her body, and she could not look at him.

He did not try to hide his nude form as he sat up in the bed with his hand dangling from a drawn-up knee, and it was too exquisite to consider.

When she had glanced briefly, his softened phallus was still more than she thought she would be able to handle in her inexperience.

She could feel a pool of liquid forming between her legs, and it worried her that he might notice.

He casually flicked his wrist toward a closed door that was at the other end of the room from where they had entered.

“That is our personal facility.” Though his voice was tender, there was a warning within his words.

“You may not want to traipse around in your robe to find a different one. Not with your pheromones soaking the air that surrounds you.

“Your lioness is strong, but you have yet to harness her power.”

It felt like a slap in the face, like he was insulting her for her lack of awareness. Like he detested her innocence.

She tucked her head toward her chest and moved toward the door he indicated. “Yes, sire.”

The growl from him was a reminder of her pledge to him, a pledge she had hoped to be able to avoid. However, it had slipped out, and she had managed to once again offend him.

There was no way she was going to repair it, so she clutched the robe at her chest and went through the door.

“Cora!” His voice was sharp and stopped her in her tracks just before she shut the door. “You will want to make it fast.”

Why did it matter if she spent a few minutes or a few hours letting her emotions settle and the heat that flooded through her recede?

She did not bother to look at him. It just made the heat unbearable, and she was struggling against it already.

“Yes, si—Brock.” The door clicked into place, and she leaned against it to borrow its strength. Maybe a cold shower is more of what she needed.

The bathroom looked more like the spas her adopted mom would take her to visit from time to time when Anton was away.

There was a huge shower made of glass that occupied a large section in the middle of the room.

Inside, there had to be ten or more shower heads that would hit her body at every angle imaginable, and it was big enough to house five others comfortably in its immensity.

A tub was raised on one side of the room, a picture window running its expanse.

Cora could never imagine a time when she would want to bathe in front of a huge window such as this one.

When she looked outside, it overlooked a private garden that was enclosed by the quarters that she currently shared with this man.

It was a small slice of heaven on earth with its greenery and pops of color that littered the area, and the lights that lit the area gave an ethereal romantic feel.

The garden was larger than the one that her adopted parents had at their own residence, although she imagined that there were larger ones than this on the grounds.

Two sets of sinks and counters were separated by a door that she presumed led to a wardrobe, but she was taught better than to be a curious child.

Instead of exploring the room as her lioness was pushing her to do, she shuffled toward the shower and turned the knob.

Each of the showerheads sprung to life, and sprayed over the entire space contained within the glass. She turned it so that it would be a lukewarm temperature, then dropped her robe.

The warmth had started to course through her once more. The tepid water would hopefully be what she needed to satiate the fire that was building.

It made her uncomfortable, provoking an ache deep in her womb.

She stepped in and let the water coursed over her. Tilting her head back in the deluge of water forced the pale strands to cling against her, each strand contouring against her flesh as a second skin.

The water flowed over her, finding each crevice and divot in her flesh to cleanse with its crisp, refreshing spray.

She let her body turn slowly in the jets, small murmurs of pleasure escaping as she indulged in its fondling of her body.

The shower pummeled over her for a long while, time lapsing without a thought. More than thirty minutes had passed as she stood and rotated slowly, willing it to rinse away all her troubles and cares.

It felt good to let it go for that moment, and it helped to quench the heat that continued to creep over her.

For a moment she marveled that the water was still warm, expecting that the hot water would have been used up already.

The temperature held steady against the odds. She knew that, at her house, she would have been given a cold douse by now.

A citrus and vanilla shampoo sat on a small glass shelf almost eye level with her, the clear jar with the silver tap inviting her to sample its goods.

Dispensing a small amount in her palm, she inhaled it deep in her lungs. Pure indulgence! What would her parents say when she came home smelling of such luxuries?

The moon was yet high in the sky, and she should have time to get home before they woke. Would they still be downstairs? Maybe even out looking for her?

The last thought worried her the most. In her heart, she was hoping to prevent Darcy from having to protect her once more from Anton’s fiery temper.

With deft fingers, she lathered the shampoo in her hands and then massaged it into her scalp. When her scalp was a froth of tiny bubbles, she leaned back into the stream of water.

Those tiny pops of scent ran over her entire body as it finally found its freedom down the drain.

The foam cascaded down her, touching her intimately as it ran over the small crevice in her tiny ass to just touch her sensitive lips.

In a momentary loss of her senses, she parted her legs ever so slightly to allow the foam to caress her on its pilgrimage.

The intensity of her need started to alarm her. Her lioness paced inside of her, rumbling at her to satisfy her. She wanted her lion, her mate.

“No,” she whispered to herself. “You can’t do this to me…not again.” She pushed back, hard.

Grabbing a loofah from off its peg, she felt the urge to scrub her body clean.

It was not that she did not revel in his scent and flavor all over her, because that was far from the case. She was drunk in it, and it made her body crave things it would never have wanted before.

No, it was not that at all. It was on the account that it made her lioness crazed, and Cora had to fight her for control.

The scent of citrus filled the space as she scoured her body, leaving red skin in its wake.

When she ran it over her breasts, her nipples hardened. It spiraled vibrations to her core, and she continued to rub it briskly across them to extend the sensation.

Instinctively, she let her hand slide in the lather of soap that fell from her breasts onto her abdomen.

Her mouth opened as she let soft whispers of a moan that would be contained in the pelting water, or at least she hoped they would not carry any further.

When her hand reached the edge of her small curls that would lead her to that pleasure button that was begging to be touched, she balked.

What was she doing? Her body was behaving in such lewd ways, and she was encouraging it.

The first pangs of aching burst through her, and she whimpered.

Trying to ignore them, she disregarded the strength of them, refusing to take into account what Brock had told her…failing to realize the control they had over her.

Focusing on her task, she rinsed off the suds from her skin. Another hunger pang crashed into her, and she muffled her cry. It was getting worse.

Turning off the water, she stepped out onto her abandoned robe and grabbed a towel that hung nearby, still feeling the beast’s demands heavy against her.

When the next pang struck her, it caused her to fall to her knees and double over.

She curled up on the floor, pulling her knees tight to her chest. Roll after roll of lustful pangs pulsed through her, making her weak against her beast.

“No, please,” she begged. “Not again,” she pleaded to her lioness. But her beast had waited long enough. She was rumbling against her, nudging her to sate her.

Her breathing was ragged, but she worked to try to steady it with deep breaths, inhaling the citrus scents that mixed with her flavor that had erupted from her core.

“I can’t do that…’’ A tear fell over onto her cheek as she tried to fight against her inner beast, but she was losing the battle.

Her body was shaking, and she let each pang hit her as she squeezed her thighs tight against the ache and pain each one caused.

She lost track of time as she lay balled up, rocking herself against the violation on her body.

From somewhere deep inside, she heard him knock on the door, heard him call her name through the door, but she got no other notion from it.

There was no distinction in her head whether he was worried or concerned, angry or annoyed.

There was just a voice at the end of a pinpoint that she could not discern anything from, but that it was from him.

That was all it took for her lioness to break free from those last threads that Cora held. Rolling over onto all fours, she knew there was nothing she could do.

Her teeth gritted together as she tried to keep her in the cage, fighting with what she had left. Claws already eked through, and pale gold shimmers covered her skin.

The lioness was coming to claim what was hers.