Craddling Ylva in his arms was no strenuous feat. He lifted her, dug his fingers into the firm muscles of her backside and nipped sweetly at her throat as the she-wolf's wet sex delicately teased the shaft between his legs. The alpha closed his eyes as Ylva kissed him, sending violent currents of electricity racing down his every limb, enlivening him. "If I am to be the river you drown in," he whispered, his lips quivering against her mouth as he yearned to taste her once again, "then promise me you will be the endless night sky I fall into, forever mesmerized by your infinite beauty."<br/><br/>Though every fiber of his being ached to penetrate his alluring bride, hastiness seemed inappropriate here. He wished for Ylva to remember their mating with tenderness, to recall the moment in time her lover had taken her with a calculated softness, the moment showed her with his body that his burgeoning love and adoration for his mate, his alpha, his lupine queen was genuine, was irrefutably real. Mating between his people could be violent, and he did not doubt there would be plenty of opportunity for he and Ylva to make love in an aggressive, ardent fashion, but that would come later. Perhaps after a satisfying hunt, or a raucous pack celebration, or after they disposed of Antony...<br/><br/>As he held her, aching, Valko padded his way through the yielding grass to the river's edge. The Kriki owed much to the river and its gods, the waters giving life to the pack's aching lungs. Ritual dictated any alpha of Kriki would mate close to it, to consummate their relationship with their toes quivering at the water's icy licks.<br/><br/>He had planned to gingerly lay her elegant body along the water's edge, but the moment his feet kissed the river's mouth he found himself overwhelmed with the urge to feel her, as if the river itself compelled him to take her. He licked at her neck possessively, adjusting her in his arms and pressing her down onto his throbbing, neglected cock, growling as he felt her wetness and warmth encompass him.<br/><br/>"How am I supposed to control myself?" he whispered, grinding his hips into her as he held onto her with greedy hands. "I already want to sink my teeth into you."