She collapsed forward, her chest hitting the duvet, just as the tip of his cock teased her throbbing clit, sliding against it. Alexius moved her legs, closing them, and proceeded to fuck the space on her crotch, wet with her cum.

“Shall I give you a minute, sweet?” he asked, leisurely thrusting, a hand tight on her ass, the other caressing her back.

She could use a minute. But there was a dare, a smug note to his tone, so the stupid dominant inside her balked at the thought of admitting any weakness.

“Why, are you tired? I’d understand. You’re elderly, after all.”

His hand slapped her butt cheek and she laughed. Then the next moment, he’d pulled his cock out of her thigh gap and thrust it inside her wet heat in one stroke. Fuck. Though she was soaking, his sudden entrance stretched and filled her so much she yelped.

He gave her a moment to adjust. A moment she needed. Yet, still willfully working against her best interest, she wiggled her ass and looked back over her shoulder. "So what now, old man?"

To say he pounded her hard was the understatement of the century. She moved to meet his thrusts, but only caught one out of three at most; then she stopped moving back at all, concentrating on anchoring herself, in vain. Her hips fell down to the bed. She was lying on her front, taking more, and more, and more, screaming loud in a voice that didn't even remotely sound like her own. Begging. Panting, like she was running a triathlon. Her orgasm took her by surprise, hitting her unexpectedly, out of nowhere. She just clasped against him and rode the wave in a numb stupor, and he kept going, fucking her harder. Harder. Faster.

"I feel you tightening on me, crazy wolf. Are you going to come for me?"

Was she? She had no idea what her body was up to anymore.

"Come with me, sweetheart. I want to feel you." His hand circled her waist and dipped to her clit, pinching it between two fingers.

She moaned louder. Okay, so she definitely felt something. Her insides were going to explode. So fucking hot and tight.

"Yes. Oh, please, yes."

He squatted over her, changing the angle, hitting her right on the bundle of nerves that sent a spiral of feeling all over her flesh. Her toes curled; her hips lifted.

He entered her harder one last time, and she let go, her mouth opening in a soundless yell as she fell over the hill again. Third time. Damn.

Human males, werewolves, witches, they didn't even compare. The fate of her vibrator wasn't looking too great either. She doubted she could ever be satisfied with anything less ever again. Just Alexius.

Note to self: taunting vampires? Recommended.

A Mess

Avani might have skipped her classes, if she didn't suspect that Fin Varra would have come up Night Hill and dragged her down if she dared. She had to be reasonable and go to statistics. She was late enough. But the stunning, ripped, naked man bearing her mark asleep next to her was a temptation she wasn't inclined to resist.

She crawled her way down to his hips and wet her lips before wrapping her mouth around his shaft. An hour later, she was running as fast as her human legs could carry her to make it to class on time. She'd planned to just play a little. Alexius had other ideas.

She would have been faster if she'd run as a wolf, but she didn't feel like carrying her school bag and some clothes in her mouth, so her human shell had to do its best.

She arrived just as the last bell rang.

"You have something right there," Fin, in his child-like form, told her as she sat at the desk she'd claimed the previous week. He pointed to the corner of her mouth.

She blushed. "Toothpaste!" Avani almost yelled, loud enough that their immediate neighbors turned to them.

"Or something."

Shit.

She pulled her phone and looked at her reflection on her portrait camera.

There was nothing at all. She turned to glare at the fae, who smirked, eyes fixed ahead.

"Very funny."

"I thought so. Your professor's here. Pay attention, if you can."

Preventing herself from skipping had been the right call. She doubted Fin would have taken her actual death as a good enough reason for missing a class.

To her surprise, she got in the swing of things pretty fast. Her mind adapted to her classes by the end of the week. She started to use the library on the bottom floor of the castle every night to work on her assignments, because after trying to do them at her dorm, or Alexius's place a couple of times, she learned how foolish that endeavor was. He joined her wherever she was when he was done with his research and classes. Though he tried his best to "let her work," he was, well, there. He touched her ever so subtly, or whispered in her ear, or kissed her head, or was just standing there, looking so very decadent and delicious that the next moment, without explanation, she was straddling him and dancing a wicked rodeo on his cock.

By Friday, she was leaving some clothes that he washed and folded for her. By Tuesday, he emptied a drawer. When her order of spring and winter clothes arrived, he cleared up a side of his wardrobe for her, and she was only stopping by the dorm for a minute or two before heading to the hill. Her actual home.

It wasn't just about Alexius; Chloe and Cat were always on the hill, and Greer, Gwen, and Blair joined them there more often than not.

They started alternating cooking duties. She took Mondays and Tuesdays, when Alexius taught later classes; he did Wednesday to Friday, and they often ate out on the weekend—either at Levi’s, Cat’s, or Chloe’s.

Cat held another tea party the weekend before the full moon, inviting the entire town of Adairford and all the Institute to her place. Designed like an antique Roman palace, it was large enough to receive that many people, and then some. When she said tea party, she meant six hours of gorging on cake, sandwiches, and very little tea; people got tipsy on champagne more than anything.

Avani would have liked to relax with the rest of them, but the fact that she would be fighting for her life in six days was making it hard to relax. Alexius could tell, she felt it. He touched her in a way that she knew was meant to reassure her, squeezing her shoulder, kissing her cheeks and forehead to show his support.

He wasn't the only one who had her back; Ruby had started training her. Though Avani was tough, fast, and vicious, she lacked actual technique, which meant that she used up more energy than necessary.

"You win in ten hits; if you knew what you were doing, you'd win in three," the slayer had said.

A couple of weeks of sparring wasn't going to make a huge difference, but she'd take whatever edge she could get.

When they'd discussed the contest three weeks ago at Levi's, she'd explained the problem.

"Shifter law says only females can fight females and males can fight males; unless they’re sparring in a friendly way, it's very rare that a male shifter would lay his hand on a female for whatever reason. It's seen as weak."

Blair had tsked. "Women can kick ass just fine."

Avani concurred. "Be that as it may, they won't make me fight a guy. The problem is that not many females in the pack could take me. Some are more experienced, and even physically stronger—I'm faster. I used to spar with the boys for that reason. The alpha female would be the obvious choice. The thing is, Draiden's mate, Talula, isn't very active in pack politics. She takes care of children and the mothers. She'll fight to defend her title when she has to, and she’s won each time, but she isn't one to volunteer for a pointless fight. She'd also see it as a potential way to lose her status—if I won, not only would they need to drop all quarrels with me, I'd also have a right to be alpha female if I wished." She'd explained that with a grimace betraying her thoughts on the subject. No way.

"So, you don't think that Talula would try to fight you?"

She'd nodded. "I think they'll invoke one of their werewolf rules, to get a substitute fighter from one of their allies. I'm not too familiar with shifter laws. I mean, I was told most of them; I just didn't pay much attention to what wasn't applicable to me. I could be mistaken…if I remember correctly, when a pack member has committed a crime, the alpha may call upon any werewolf they want to fight their challenge. Like, if there's no one suitable in the pack to take me on, they can name someone else. It's just not usually done. Wolves like to fight their own battles."

Levi had sighed. "In your case, it makes sense, however. Which means that your adversary may be stronger than you, and that you don't know their style. It could go wrong, Avani."

She'd managed to put it out of her mind for a few weeks, but six days away from the contest, those words were playing in her mind.

It could go wrong.

Everything she'd gained on the hill, she could lose. Her friends. Her school work. Her hilarious, incredibly infuriating mentor. Her Alexius.

Next Saturday, she could return to dust and be nothing more than a memory.

On Monday, she couldn't sleep. Tuesday, she didn't hear a word of her professors' lessons. By Friday, she was a mess, sick and sweaty. Not wanting to disrupt Alexius's sleep, she stayed at the dorm.

Avani drew a bath and stayed in until it grew cold. Then she stayed in a little more because she didn't have the energy to move quite yet.

She was shivering in the tub, her fingers wrinkled from her two hours in the water, when she suddenly breathed out, deeply, feeling a little peace. She hadn't even realized how erratic her breathing had been until then. She opened her eyes to find Alexius crouching next to the tub.

"There's my crazy wolf." One of his fingers dipped in the water. "That can't be nice."

She smiled weakly. "I didn't want to bother you."

One of his hands reached out to her throat, and he turned her head so she'd face him completely, forcing her to look into his eyes. When he spoke, he did so slowly and intently. "You could never bother me, sweetheart. When something is on your mind, you can tell me. I can carry it with you. Maybe the load won't be too much to bear then."

She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but her throat tightened. If she didn't watch it, she'd just cry like a damn idiot, and she couldn't.