Rising slowly, he pulled his clothing over his head, stripping down to only flesh until he stood before her in an equal state. He was beautiful and grand; all the glorious epitome of Alpha physique in the control of a man who used such strength ruthlessly. Claire had to crane her neck to look up, to keep her eyes off his marked body where she could focus on his face and those hated eyes.
"What do you see when you look at me, little one?"
A monster, the man who had ruined her life, the little boy raised in hell whose mother had performed unspeakable acts just to secure him a knife, a former prisoner who had dedicated his love to Svana, a man with twisted faith, the male who had betrayed their pair-bond and caused her great pain, her jailor, the father of the life growing inside her, a creature she could not trust… Claire drew a deep breath and said the only thing she could. "I see the Alpha pair-bonded to me."
"Can you not see more?" Shepherd hinted, trying to draw out the proper words.
Her reply twisted in the thread and tore out her heart, but Claire stood still, her face a mask, and spoke the hated truth, "I see my mate."
"You are doing exceptionally well today," the Alpha claimed, but still he did not move.
And Claire understood. Shepherd wanted her to initiate sex, he was pushing her boundaries, seeing how much she was willing to exchange for what she wanted.
She let out in a low whisper. "I can't."
"You can." Shepherd was confident, nodding for her to try.
Already half-high, drugged in scent and the call, Claire knew in truth she wanted it. She wanted him to fuck her so hard that she forgot herself, that Claire disappeared. It had been her only respite since their deal had been struck; her only succor the distraction of sex. In a sick way she almost longed for a heat cycle, a mindless source of existence that shut off her thinking until all that mattered was physical gratification. But she could not allow herself such a thing if Shepherd didn't force it or take it; it would make the act of mating something she could not bear.
Clenching her fists, she glanced to the side and shook her head belligerently. "I. Can't."
Another of those powerful growls, so loud it was almost a roar, and her pussy clenched, more of that damn slick spilling down her leg.
Shepherd persisted. "You can."
She knew how very easy it could be, how falsely fulfilling his arms would feel—the decadence of fornicating with such a creature, to hear his whispered words at her ear… the culmination of the moment when her world burst apart and everything bad was forgotten. Had she not felt it a hundred times? But Shepherd had to inflict it, if she took that fateful step and admitted that she desired such a thing, it would ruin her.
Crumbling, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his chest, doing nothing more than pulling in deep breaths of what nature told her was hers, but what experience had taught her was far from the case. Lightly her fingertips came to his torso, running upward, delicately tracing over his nipples in their journey to reach around his neck.
Claire froze. She could not sell herself for the sky or oblivion.
"What more do you want from me, Shepherd?" Frustrated, desperate, she whined, "Just fuck me already!"
She felt him bend to reach her ear, knew the press of scarred lips. "I want everything."
The massive male tugged her towards the bed. Claire was spun about and pressed down on her belly, her legs left dangling towards the floor. A hand raked almost too hard down her spine, the pulsing head of his cock positioned at her folds. He did not press in. Instead, Shepherd slapped her; his palm met the full roundness of her ass and left it red and stinging as she cried out in surprise. His hips surged, and in the midst of her yelp he speared her with the entirety of his girth.
"You are so fucking wet, yet still dare to pretend that you don't want this? That you need to be forced?" he roared, gripping her hips even as she presented, arching her back in instinctual invitation. Roughly, he pulled her back to meet each thrust, Claire mewling into the covers, falling into the drugged delirium where she could fade away and forget.
The second her mind grew free of petty feeling and thought, Shepherd took his cock away, flipping her over.
Blazing silver eyes met hers. "Do you want me to continue to fuck you?"
Her eyes glued to the shining, throbbing thickness that he should be burying inside her again and again and again, she snarled, "Yes!"
The man stood there, panting, eyes blazing, with her slick all over his groin… and simply did nothing.