Sample Chapter 3 for "The Night Goddess" 🍋

It wasn’t often Selene was caught off guard. After the ambush on the manor, she learned to expect anything and everything. The walls she built around herself were ironclad. Not even emotion could fully squeeze between the mortar.
Olwen was looking at her as if she was the answer to all his plights—which weren’t many. Selene liked being looked upon, especially if it was awe and fear. She had a reputation to maintain. But if she was known to fall for a dopey male she’d only known for two months…
Werewolves’ driving force to live was breeding. Breeding and fucking to their wit’s end. Their heats and ruts were overpowering, often driving away common sense and rationality. Selene’s own monthly ruts made her feel like she would implode if she didn’t experience bliss.
But she’d gone almost a year without fucking anyone. Though her body yowled for her to, her cold heart just told her to bear the pain. She almost forgot why.
Unbidden, her core started to pulse. Her urge to rut should come any day now, she realized. Her throat went dry and she clenched her fingers in a fist. She suddenly thought that feeling herself would no longer be sufficient.
Olwen’s idea of love was not Selene’s. She didn’t want love. She wanted lovemaking—but rough enough that her brain went blank and she left her partner with her legs throbbing.
All she could manage was a blank, “Not interested.”
His shoulders slumped. She felt a flicker—*godsdamnit*—of guilt. *Why?* she demanded of herself. *You don’t even like him! His presence alone is irritating!*
Olwen started to rise. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come—”
*Oh fuck, what’s wrong with me?* “Wait,” she sighed. He spun around. She snorted. “Eager bastard.”
“You can call me whatever you like, Selene.”
His tone wasn’t seductive, but she like the way he said her name. She shook her head and stood without looking at him. “There is water stored with the wine in the cellar. Maybe it wasn’t looted. You look like you were dragged through the mud.”
“I *did* stumble into a puddle,” he admitted sheepishly.
Selene unhooked one of the lanterns and padded down to the underground corridor. With each step her memories grew stronger. She shook her head violently. *Just focus on the fact that Olwen is staring at your ass*, she snapped at herself.
“Selene!”
Olwen’s bark stopped her a second before she ran right into the door. Her voice was less a growl and more a rasp. “I’m fine.”
Unlike how it used to be, the door was unbarred and opened easily. Selene heard the scuttle of insects and rodents as the scent of various alcohols hit her nose. The candle within the lantern threw its orange light on the damp rock walls and rows of bottles. Most were broken, liquid long dried within the shards or soaked into the ground.
Along the adjacent wall was the liquid not worth stealing: sealed glass bottles of well water. She tucked one under her arm and grabbed an intact bottle of red wine from the behind a removable rock chunk. It was one of Deimos’ most expensive, a favorite he stored where only he and Shaw knew.
Olwen remained silent until they returned to the foyer though Selene knew he was bursting with questions and comments. She silently ordered him to sit on the couch as she padded to the side table next to the fireplace that, while surviving only on two legs, still had blankets folded inside the small cupboard for when someone Shifted back into their human form and needed to cover themselves.
Selene sat beside him and uncorked both bottles. She took a deep swig of wine before passing it to Olwen, who eyed it skeptically before following her lead. He set it back on the floor and nodded vigorously. “Delicious,” he croaked.
She rolled her eyes, shaking ook out one of the blankets. They were large, so she ripped a small strip and folded it to a square, which she dabbed with water. Chest tight, she made herself look at Olwen and lean forward. “Come closer.”
The male obeyed turning his head to the side slightly to grant her access to his dirty cheek. She focused on that while aware of him staring her down with a much more subdued light. His heart was steady even when she wiped away the blood and dirt. “Thank you,” he murmured.
She didn’t answer, moving onto his neck…which was somehow strong and corded as an Alpha’s, the hollow of his throat also dotted with dirt. *I’ll have to clean that too.*
*Fuck! What is wrong with me?!*
As if reading her mind—she did not appreciate seeming transparent enough to be read—Olwen tugged down the robe over his shoulder, exposing his sweeping collarbones. She moistened the blanket more and took a gulp of wine that made her throat and stomach burn.
When she went to clean his chest, he caught her wrist. In any other situation, Selene would have bit whoever had the audacity to touch her, but this situation…made her only go still.
Olwen murmured, “I want you, Selene.”
Her core tightened and she crossed one leg over the other. She couldn’t take it anymore; she met his eyes unflinchingly. The pale irises reflected the dance of the firelight. There was no trace of an untroubled hopeful. This male knew exactly what he wanted.
Neither of them moved for a second longer than need be. She used it to distinguish his scent from underneath the dust and fire smoke.
Her gaze flicked to his shoulder.
*Oh gods.*
He was in heat.
When his grip loosened, the brush of skin on skin jolted her into action.
Selene dropped the cloth to grab Olwen’s face between her hands. Her lips mashed against his. She swung one leg over his so she straddled his thigh; she felt the muscles tense. His hands fluttered at his sides, unsure what to do.
She fought a smile. “Are you a virgin?” she mumbled into his mouth.
“No,” he mumbled back. I just don’t wanna lose my hands.”
“Smart male.” Selene nudged herself closer, rolling her hips, hiking up her robe. With her hand she moved his aside. Peeking through her eyelashes, she saw his cock harden. Her heartbeat picked up. “Touch me. Touch me, Olwen.”
His palms skated down her thighs, squeezing her hips and pushing up her robe further, before encompassing her ass. Skin warm and rough, Selene shivered at his touch. Gods, she hadn’t even been held in months.
*Now* Olwen’s heart was pounding. Selene broke the kiss so her hands could smooth down his chest, pleasingly muscled and damp with sweat, untying the robe. She forced her gaze to drag up from his cock to meet his eyes, which were seeking for glimpse of her breasts.
“Take it off,” she breathed.
Males didn’t like to wait for things they wanted. His fingers yanked the robe off her shoulders and there Selene perched naked. Olwen swallowed as he took in her body. It wasn’t for the first time, as she had Shifted publicly multiple times, but he’d never had such an intimate view.
Even with the fire, the air was chill, and her breasts were peaked and heavy. Selene was suddenly aware of how skinny she was under his scanning search, with her ribs protruding and hipbones visible. Then she grit her teeth. She didn’t care what males thought of her body, just so long as they worshipped her.
Olwen’s hands smoothed across the slopes of her shoulders, one jumping to palm a breast while the other locked around her torso to draw her in closer—close enough that he could start a trail of kisses that ended at her nipple, which he took inside his mouth.
Her head tipped upward, allowing herself a small moan. Olwen’s cock twitched. She ran her fingers through his silver hair, snagging in the knots, pushing it back to press a kiss to his forehead.
Then their hungry lips were tasting wherever they could reach, messy breaths and scraping teeth and tongues. His skin was burning and she wanted to sink into his warmth. Olwen tasted like sweat and dirt and somehow sweet like an Omega. And when he nibbled the juncture of her neck and shoulder, oh gods, her rut—the overwhelming urge to fuck and be fucked—exploded in her core.
She scrambled at Olwen’s body, positioning hers for him. “Fuck me,” she panted. “Get inside me. Get—”
He seemed dazed with his own heat and it now reacting to her rut. Their desire was blinding them, making them inelegant, but he aligned the tip inside her, and Selene winced. They moved together with their panting loud in each other’s ears and then—
Then Olwen was inside Selene and she whimpered in pleasure and pain. He grunted and grabbed her sides to steady her, watching her breasts bounce as he thrust himself into her. Their hips rolled and bucked and with each inch deeper, Selene felt her self-control diminishing.
“Say my name, Selene.”