Three - Five Years Earlier

The flashing lights of the city below were more beautiful to her when she was little. Even starving her younger self managed to somehow stare up into the twinkling lights above and imagine they were wishes fulfilled, and one day she would have one of her own.

Now she stared down from the very top of them. She was in the tallest building of them all packed right into the center, the newest staple of the city that would be replaced once another young rich trillionaire decided he wanted to have his own phallic landmark in the city run by men just like himself.

Her ring, her dress, even her face was the very symbol of exorbitant wealth she hated to look upon. Disguising herself as an upper-class naïve virgin to seduce men was one of the few parts of her job she truly hated. Even looking like those people who were responsible for her those around her's suffering made her want to claw her skin off and run far, far away.

She couldn't though. Not after all the work she put into this. Into him, Lucian Sax.

He was a good man, as good as someone like him could be. Their time together for the last two months had been hugely enjoyable, a far cry from her last old rickety score. Not only was he more gentlemanly, only a couple of times trying to seduce her past her no sex rule, but he was twice as wealthy as well.

He'd taken her to the tallest of towers, the glitziest of restaurants, and into the very stars themselves. It was her first time in space, the first time she saw off the old rock below her, and the addiction was already in place.

She wanted to go further, to reach heights she and her kin would never have imagined they could ever reach. This was her one and only chance.

Tonight it would end. Right after she slipped the last of his money from his bank account and disappeared with her friends out into the stars. Goodbye Planet Luck, hello to a relaxing new future in the stars.

For as long as the money stretched anyway.

Their plan had been executed in three steps. Infiltration, seduction, and finally the swindle. It was a marriage of a lifetime, a true union between a loving wolfish alien, and the secret swindler human. It was of course a cover for the real operation.

While he was distracted with her, the rest of them could infiltrate and conquer, draining his funds for his shiny new hotel and funneling them into their own pockets. It had been more than difficult getting him to approve and hire her friends for the required job, but with a couple of heated touches and sad looks he relented, giving her all she wanted so she would give him in turn what he wanted.

She'd never see that isle, no matter how much she liked the man who would be at the end of it. He was merely the face of his bank account, no matter how much her guilty conscience tried to tell her otherwise.

On the lower floors, two things were happening. The guests were slowly filing into the building and corralled within the venue her faux fiancé had been setting up for the past month, and her crew was busy hijacking his world-class ship to secure their escape. As time slowly ticked past, the deadline grew ever closer.

She didn't hear Lucian enter. Her only clue before he struck was his arms reflecting in the dark glass before they closed around her. Too startled to make a noise, she only submitted back into his grip, watching his grinning face as it appeared beside her own in the reflection.

"I caught you," he growled into her ear, laughing darkly as his hands moved sensually across her torso to caress her breasts through the thin fabric of her gown.

The feeling of his warm breath made her entire body shudder in delight, but still, she forced herself to twist in his hold and push lightly at his shoulder to put distance between the two of them. She was too weak to truly move him, but he went with it anyways, ever the gentleman. Looking into his near-feral eyes, several R-rated scenes flashed in her psyche, her arousal making it hard to even fathom rejecting him.

"It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding."

He snorted, pulling her flush with himself once more. "It's probably bad luck to ravish her in the aisle in front of the guests as well, which will happen if I don't get my hands on you right this moment.

Her mind played out the scene in her head, oddly aroused by the thought of such a public show of passion. If she wasn't turned on before, she was then. It was as if a tidal wave hit her, rocking her right to her already compromised core.

Ruby had to get herself in check.

Part of a honeytrap was tempting a man with sex until you had gotten what you wanted from them. Classically it was marriage, so you could control half their assets, but for her it just a distraction to get the money. Lots, and lots, and lots of money.

Giving in was the death of a honey trap. The excitement of the chase, and thus the chase itself, died like a candle that's wick burned too quickly. She had built this passion for months, culminating in the shiny ring on her finger and the borderline unhinged man before her.

This was the end though. There was no reason to deny him now. She could have her cake and eat it too, just as a last goodbye. A sign off bonus you could say.

Her and the beast, one final tryst.

"Then take me."

He didn't even take care enough to undress either of them before he hooked her legs over his arms and backed her into the glass behind them. His mouth was on hers, tongue pushing past her lips to tangle heatedly with her own as one hand moved to the front of his pants, undoing the clasp there and freeing himself onto her pristine white dress.

Out of habit she reached down to protect the fabric but was stopped as he batted her away and instead hiked the skirt up over her hips. He bit her lip as he pulled away to look down at where his sharp claws sought between her thighs to deal with her coverings.

She thought he was just going to move the thin scrap of silk to the side, but the distinct sound of ripping met her ears as one claw traced a path up through her folds.

She shivered at the dangerous contact, rolling her hips forward without thinking. His nostrils flared, scenting the air in a deep inhale before meeting her eyes and jerking her now bare flesh forward until their heats collided.

The fact that he was giant was not news to her, as there were several occasions where she had handled him to pump up the heat for this very moment, but feeling and holding were two very different things.

Between his size and his obvious uncontrollable need she almost feared what it might do to her. The feeling of his shaft rocking needily over her changed that fear into something far more delightful. Far more sinful.

Her team would kill her for this, but she didn't care. She wanted him inside her, and she wanted it now.

"Taking your time?" she asked mockingly, tilting her head to one side.

His chest was heaving, jaw clenched as he took in every inch of her body. She was entirely clothed, dressed in the finest jewels and gown, yet to him, she might as well have been naked. He looked at her like a starving man and she was the finest feast in the world.

"I'm savoring the moment," he murmured, continuing to drink her in as if he didn't have her there and ready to take in whatever way he pleased.

The intimate way with which he looked at her, filled with an emotion entirely alien to her, made a sudden pang echo in her heart. Like the trained thief she was, she crushed it almost immediately, turning her emotion to lust.

Using her own hands for the first time, she ran her nails over his fine suit, trailing upwards until they wrapped around his thick neck. Pulling hard, she forced his head to the crook of her neck, breaking his stare and almost moaning with pleasure as he took the hint and began to work his hot mouth over her pulse.

Lucian had gotten the memo that she was done with the foreplay. It had gone on for far too long for either of them to wait any longer.

It was here and now, and though he did not know, or never.

He aligned himself with her body, pushing forward until she hovered on his tip. Holding her as he was she could not move further, held entirely immobile by the feral beast. His lips kissed a path up the sensitive column of her neck before making a home just beneath the lobe of her ear.

"Mine," he snarled as he drove himself into her in a single thrust.

She almost climbed out of his arms. The fullness, the impossible length. Her body went into fight or flight mode almost immediately, nails sinking into his neck.

He full-on laughed, pissing her off, but erasing her anger as he began to slowly rock into her. She could tell he was leashing himself for her, and appreciated the consideration as if he had begun to take her as she knew he wanted to he might have broken her entirely.

In his arms she found it far too easy to devolve into a meek submissive girl, gasping under his rough touch and bending to his whims. She was anything but, however with him who she was ended up being nothing like her real self.

If she closed her eyes she could just enjoy the feeling of it, enjoy the idea of being nothing more than the shy quiet girl he thought he had stolen right out of that ballroom.

She melted into his grasp, moving with him as he began to slowly pick up speed. First, it was slow, then passionate, then full-blown dirty. He moved his hips in a way that spoke of pure unadulterated experience, culminating in to what would surely be her mind-blowing orgasm.

As his thrusts grew jagged and more animalistic she feared he might spend there and then but was surprised as his hand firmly grasped the bottom half of her face and drew her to fully face him. Yellow eyes bored into her own, hypnotizing as they bored into her very soul.

"Who do you belong to?"

A cry at his sudden hard thrust cut off her response, but his demanding look told her he wasn't going to let her go anywhere until she said what he needed to hear. What he assumed to be the truth.

Leaning into his grasp, she clutched him tighter to her with her legs around his waist and smiled wickedly. "I don't know, why don't you show me who I belong to."

Fire to fuel. Blood to a beast. If she thought his lovemaking before was passionate, what she provoked within him then was downright criminal.

He lit into her like a beast unchained, thrusting so roughly her teeth near clattered in her skull. Perhaps she should have feigned the ashamed virgin she pretended to be during their courting, but it was too good to worry about her masks.

She rode him like it was their last day in the universe, moving with him until her orgasm lifted her into another realm. She melted into the glass, screaming into the ceiling as he continued to take her, uncaring of her twitching and shaking below him.

Lucian was in full rut, taking her as he pleased until his head threw back and he howled out his pleasure. She thought it might shatter the glass behind them and pitch them both to the streets below, but she didn't care.

In her high she clung to him, enjoying his continued phantom thrusts. It was as if he never wanted it to end, holding her there and breathing in her scent. When he stilled he drew away, placing a soft kiss on her mouth that rivaled the brutal rut from moments ago.

It was sweet. Almost too sweet.

She had no words for what had just happened, and neither did he. They simply sat there, her still in his arms, and him inside her. Something in the air had shifted between them, something she feared more than anything else.

"The wedding," she finally managed to say after collecting her breath. "It's in a few hours, We both should clean up."

His groan reverberated into her chest. "I'd rather stay here and finish what we started."

Finish? Started? If that was his idea of a beginning session, she feared what the main course might be. Her thighs ached just at the thought.

Ignoring his protest, she used her arms to attempt to climb out of his grasp, only to find something tugging uncomfortably as she attempted to pull him from her. Ruby noticed then the odd fullness she felt at his base, eyes widening with sudden realization.

"Oh!" she gasped. "So your kind do that."

His already pinkened cheeks flushed further, eyes moving anywhere but her own. "It happens when we… consummate a mating. It can take anywhere from a few seconds to twenty minutes to dissipate."

"Every time?" she asked in disbelief.

He chuckled. "That wouldn't be very efficient. Only when the tensions are high enough. Full moons, and long-anticipated occasions."

She batted his shoulder playfully. "So I brought this on myself is what you're saying?"

They both shared a laugh, which was promptly ended as the distinct clicking sound of the door opening behind them sounded through the quiet room. Lucien immediately moved to shield her with his body, head snapping around to snarl at the intruder.

"I thought I told you to knock."

"I-I'm sorry!" squeaked a small feminine voice, one the both of them knew almost immediately to belong to none other than Lucien's sister, and her bridesmaid. "I was supposed to help with the dress. I didn't-"

The girl must have decided her embarrassment was far too strong to continue speaking because the door clicked once more and the room went silent. She had gone as quickly as she entered, leaving them back in the darkness.

"Well I suppose that is our cue to disband this little tryst," she said with a shocked laugh. "Can't risk traumatizing any more of your family, might make the future unbearable."

The intrusion had apparently been enough to make him soften enough to pull from her and set her gently down onto the ground. Her legs felt like limp noodles, so she had to grasp onto his chest to hold herself upright. Quickly putting himself away, he helped her fix her dress, grinning at the wrinkles now bunched around the waist.

"I don't think anyone will notice," he reassured her, but the twinkle in his eye told her the opposite.

"Yes well, they might if you dwell here any longer. The guests won't be happy if their host is not present before the ceremony."

Time was ticking for her as well. She could see the blinking communicator screen across the room on the table, a signal that the message from her crew was finally sent. All that was left was the escape.

Lucian made his misgivings apparent as he fixed himself to leave. Twice she had to push him away to refocus on the task at hand, both times equally hard for herself. Despite being a giant beast, he was near irresistible. Seeing him finally give in and head out the door was both a relief and a disappointment. Before he fully left the room, he paused in the doorway, turning to look over her once more.

His gaze was tender as it met her own. "I love you, jewel."

There that pang was once more, only this time she could not quell it with her lust. It was left to fester within herself, turning from a feeling into a darkness she would never quite pull herself from.

Money was money, and a score was a score. By the time they came looking for her, she would be gone, and his feelings for her would fade.

"You too."