Karizma: Reborn
Chapter 21: Ryleigh

Ryleigh cried out as the ice water penetrated through the heat waves that encompassed her skin. Slowly, she stretched out in the bathtub, wincing as her stretching opened more crevices for the water to invade and chill. She gasped as the frigid water flooded vagina, and the throbbing that had started again began to dull. She heard Lukas’ dark growl in the other room, and she quickly bit her lip as another gasp threatened to evacuate her throat.

As soon as Lukas realized that her heat cycle had begun, he had taken Ryleigh home and, quite literally, tossed her into the bathtub. He ordered her to run a cold bath and locked the bathroom door behind him upon his exit. That was three days ago. Ryleigh had not left the bathroom in three days, and she doubted that she could even if she wanted to. The pain of the heat cycle was unimaginable. Her ovaries felt like they were being torn apart, and her magic felt like it was an acidic viper, biting every single inch of her skin as it slithered up and down it. She felt like she was being ripped apart from the inside out, every second of every day. She had barely slept, if it all; she would sleep for maybe twenty minutes at a time, before the next round of the heat cycle would thrust her into consciousness and right back into the cold water.

She was still wearing her dress from the pack meeting and decided against removing it; it absorbed the cold water and carried it with her whenever she braved leaving the bathtub to stretch her legs, or to sleep. She believed that the sleep that she was able to achieve was a numbness from her clothing, and that the heat cycle ripping her from dreamland was just the cold water warming against her skin. What little sleep she had accomplished did not compare to Lukas’; she was convinced that the man had not slept since locking her in the bathroom.

“Try to sleep,” Ryleigh croaked out. “I’ll be okay for a little bit.”

“Not a chance in hell,” Lukas’ voice rumbled against the door. “We will suffer through this together.” A loud thud against the door signaled that Lukas had returned to his new spot; his back against the bathroom door as he sat on the floor. “I am not sleeping again until you are no longer in pain.”

“That is four more days,” Ryleigh said. She hissed lightly as she rolled on to her side in the bathtub. “Please, get some sleep, Lukas.”

“I will sleep after this cycle,” Lukas growled. “Or with you during it. Your choice.”

Ryleigh bit her lip and felt her face flush with heat. She slowly lowered her face under the water and fought against her instinctive inhalation of relief. Lukas’ mention of sleeping with her during the cycle told her that this was affecting him as well. She was in physical agony, and the cure for it was on the other side of the bathroom door. She could only imagine what he was experiencing right now, holding the key to her pain, and waiting to unlock her pleasure. She heard a loud pounding through the water, and her face quickly broke the water’s surface as she sat up.

“What?” Ryleigh snapped as she rubbed the water off her face.

“What happened?” Lukas demanded. “You stopped talking.”

“I went under the water. Sue me for wanting to cool off my face,” Ryleigh barked. Her wolf growled at her for her outburst, but she shrugged it off. Her wolf had been pushing for control since the heat cycle started; if it was up to her, she would have been under and over Lukas more times than she could count. A purr resonated in her throat, and she cursed herself. Lukas’ dark purr shook the bathroom door, and his claws scraped at it desperately. She could sense that his self-control was wavering; whatever self-control he had maintained was enough for him to lock her away from him during the heat cycle.

Ryleigh cried out as heat waves ignited her nipples and shot a bolt of electrocution down to her core. Lukas’ hand pounded against the door with a snarl. “Sorry,” Ryleigh said breathlessly, which only elicited another snarl from her mate. “I’m trying,” she whispered.

“I…know,” Lukas said through gritted teeth. “I am, too. But, fuck, it’s hard to not react to you when you make those delicious sounds with that intoxicating scent pouring from your cunt. I just want to drink it and fuck it until it’s all I smell and taste for the rest of our lives.” Ryleigh slapped a hand over her mouth and swallowed the moan that threatened to burst. The throbbing in her core became a convulsion that possessed her entire body. She gripped the bathtub to steady herself, but she failed miserably; the bathtub itself began to shake. Such a reaction with just his words. Imagine him following through on that wish.

Ryleigh quickly removed herself from the bathtub and curled up next to the bathroom door where she had slept. Lukas growled darkly, his claws scraping against the bathroom door again. “Mine,” he rasped, his voice thick with lust. Ryleigh cried out as her body bucked at the claim, at the desire in his voice. He growled again and sniffed at the door. His dark purr shook the door. Ryleigh audibly whimpered and flickered her gaze back to the bathtub but knew that it would be useless. Her convulsions had only increased in intensity, to the extent that she felt like she was freezing from the vibrations of the convulsions. Yet, the heat waves exploded in bursts on her lips, her tongue, her nipples, and deep within her vagina. So deep within that only Lukas would be able to quell the ache.

Ryleigh’s hand gripped the doorknob tightly. “Do not open that door unless you are certain,” Lukas’ deep voice ordered. “Fuck, I want you more than anything, and I will take you if you come out here. You need to be certain that you can live with that.”

“I’m not certain that I can live without it,” Ryleigh whined. Her magic becoming boiling lava on her skin was one thing; she knew how to calm her magic. The heat cycle tearing her apart so violently, so desperately, was something different entirely; the only cure was Lukas.

“Don’t whine, baby,” Lukas purred. “We both know that this door is nothing compared to me. If you keep whining, I will tear this door apart and fuck you until your pain is a dull memory.”

“But you can feel it,” Ryleigh whispered.

“I haven’t stopped feeling your pain, but whenever you whine and beg like that, it drives me that much closer to ripping this door from its hinges.”

“What does yours feel like?”

“All you have to do is mark me and replace out,” Lukas purred. “And then I will make you feel what I feel.”

Ryleigh’s canines descended, and she moaned. She had not realized how painful her gums were at her restraint to her wolf. A new ache consumed her; the ache to bury her canines deep into her mate’s neck to brand him as hers for eternity. Lukas’ hand pounded against the door as he released a guttural snarl. Ryleigh’s grip tightened on the doorknob, and her finger toyed with the lock. “All I want to feel is you,” she whispered. Fuck this. She was tired of fighting herself about Lukas; not just for the heat cycle, but for everything. The Lycan in the other room had done everything possible to help her, to make her transition into a Lycan and now a Luna as smooth as possible. He had been nothing but patient with her, and she had begun to fall in love with him through all of it.

Ryleigh flicked the lock on the door and threw the door open. Lukas’ eyes were gold fire as he stared up at her on his hands and knees. She knelt before him, and he remained locked in his position. “It’s time that I felt it,” she whispered. He titled his head to the side, and Ryleigh buried her canines deep into his neck.