Page 146 of Griffin Food

And then it just slides in. Pulsing, pressing those hidden pleasure centers inside my core. His wolven lips are against my throat. His fangs penetrate my flesh.

The gate is lifted.

Light and rapture flood me.

My body contorts as my climax rolls through me.

A cry leaves my lips as he empties his seed into me. So deep. So perfect.

He purr-growls low, worrying at my throat, claiming me.

My mind is spinning, circling outward and upward, rushing.

I witness myself from above. A young woman spread out upon a platform. Around her, her mates. The werebeast crowds over her, his great bulk almost hiding her from view.

A man lies upon a litter beside the group. And as I look down through the eyes of the many griffins upon a face much changed and yet achingly familiar—Rafe opens his eyes.

My eyes roll back, and darkness comes for me. I’m aware of movement around, of low voices and gentle hands as though from a great distance.

“Open your eyes, lass.”

My eyelids are heavy, but that voice—rougher and a little deeper—calling me in my mind helps me push through. I blink slowly. The others have moved a little aside, making space for a huge alpha who is leaning over me with a stern expression on his handsome face.

Rafe.

“I feel as though I have slept a lifetime,” he says, his voice a low rasp of gravel, yet it is still his. “That was quite a scene to wake up to.”

He smiles. Little crinkles appear at the corners of his forest-green eyes. So much of him has changed, but I grasp these anchors.

“I believe it is my turn,” he purrs. His smile drops, and he bestows me such a hot look that I swear a mini climax goes off inside my womb. “My turn to love the Griffin Queen.”

I tilt my chin and give him my best former princess-now-queen look of challenge. The effect is spoiled when I nip my lower lip to hide my growing smile. “What are you waiting for, mate?”

His low, husky chuckle melts me. “As my Queen commands.”

Then he lines up and fills me with a single thrust. His knot is halfway formed. He is big all over, and assuredly, there, and even after all my loving… and Lark, I experience a delectable stretch.

“Still a hussy,” he whispers against the shell of my ear. “Already fisting my length, encouraging me to knot your needy cunt.”

I groan in bliss as he begins to move, hips working, the delectable push and pull and soaring pleasure.

“This won’t take long, lass,” he grits out.

His familiar term of endearment, one he has used since the very beginning, makes love bloom anew and wondrous in my chest.

I nearly lost this man. Saw his absence and the great hole it would leave in my mind’s eyes. Now he is inside me, loving me, whispering filthy words and making my body sing.

A sweet, joyful climax captures me, tearing a wild cry from my lips.

High above, griffins cry and take to flight. I only have eyes for the man who, but for a miracle, I might have lost.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Rafe

Iam back in my allocated rooms within Atlas’s palatial suite. Darrion, Fenix, and Lark have already left for patrols. Alone in the accompanying bathing room, I stand before the full-length, gold-framed mirror and stare at the man who might as well be a stranger. My face is broader, cheekbones sharper, my jaw stronger, and my neck the size of a fucking bull. I must have grown a foot in height. And while I considered myself a strong man and a soldier, this is something else entirely.

I flex my arms slowly within the armor. It is gold-plated—every bit as fucking fancy as this room. Apparently, it belonged to some long-forgotten alpha warrior and consort to a former Pride Queen five hundred years ago. It was the only thing that they could find to fit me on short notice. Apparently.