Bonds Eternal (Fae Hearted #4)

21. Connection

21

CONNECTION

ELDRIN

O nce I realize that Mage Neven won’t budge on the timeline for my plan to invade Ryven Castle, I courteously offer my arm for Wyn to take as we leave the mage’s office.

Neven follows us out. “Rest and take time to connect. You will have challenges ahead, and you will need all your strength and resolve to get through them. I sense a solid bond between you will be the key to winning.”

Without a word, I lead Wyn and my guards down the corridors, back to the room Wyn used the night before. Once there, Corwin zips ahead and checks the room for intruders. “All clear.”

“Any candles in there?” I ask before Corwin exits.

“A few on the altar.” Corwin asks, “Would you like me to light them?”

“Yes, thank you.” I turn to Daylor, who has joined us from his rest. “Could you get us some provisions? Food. Water. Find out where we can wash?”

“Of course.” Daylor hurries off while Baelen waits for instructions.

“When Daylor returns, let us know. Until then, Wyn is going to rest.”

Corwin slips out before Wyn and I enter the small room.

I close the door slowly, resistant to face what might happen now that we are alone. Apprehension claws within my chest. Does Wyn really love me after all? Am I worthy of her love? After losing Jaden and Oakes, I don’t feel that I deserve this precious time with our princess—if I ever did.

Without turning around to face her, my forehead presses to the door. I breathe out, “We don’t have to… reconnect .”

“Oh… you don’t want to?” Wyn sounds hurt.

I spin around, my eyes darting up to take in the sight of her, illuminated by the warm candlelight. She’s breathtakingly lovely, apart from her red-rimmed eyes. Even that draws me in, since it reveals how deeply she loves and misses Jaden and Oakes. My inner senses traveled down our weakened bond, and I feel her pain.

I rush forward to hold her, one arm wraps around her waist. My free hand settles on her cheek. “Stars! All I want is to be with you. Well, except I also wish Jaden and Oakes were here, safe and showering you with their love, too.”

I feel her lips quivering with sadness.

“Do you really doubt how I feel about you ? Do you believe your nightmare is true?” I ask, completely baffled that she doubts my love for her. I’m willing to risk my life, my status, and kill my own flesh and blood for her.

“Yes, of course. But it isn’t just about you,” she says quietly, hesitant to admit her fears. “I doubt everything. From the beginning, I’ve worried that your interest in me was only a novelty—a fling. But then to have not one but three gorgeous elves interested in me? That thought was absolutely absurd. When you claimed you wanted me, a human servant, as your mate… all of you… together ? Ridiculous. It sounds like a sad joke.”

“You were never a joke to any of us.” I catch her chin when she tries to look away. “Hear me. All I have done since I’ve met you is to learn how to love you properly, and then hopefully, keep you loving me. I would give my life up for your happiness. It might actually come to that, and I would willingly sacrifice my life so you can be with Jaden and Oakes. Goddess knows they deserve you more than I do.”

“What?” Wyn takes my face in her hands and forces me to look at her now. “Never say that. I won’t have you dying on me. And you deserve love… my love just as much as they do.”

“I’m not as good as them.” I close my eyes, and a tear falls from my long lashes. “In any way that matters.”

“Shut your mouth,” Wyn growls. “Better yet, let me do it for you.” She stands on her toes, pulls my head forward, and her mouth crashes against mine.

My heart bursts with love and pounds erratically. My mate loves me. A wave of euphoria smashes my doubts and fears and depression aside. “Stars, I love you so much it hurts.”

“Same for me,” Wyn murmurs as she caresses down my chest, then pulls me closer to her. “I’ve missed you.”

“I need to be inside you,” I whisper and nibble along her jaw.

Wyn’s head falls back, exposing her throat and tilting her chest up to me. Her full breasts are barely contained within the neckline of her dress. I accept the offering and pepper kisses down the column of her neck. When she squirms with delight, I nip the top of her breast with my sharp canines, almost breaking the skin, but not quite.

She squeaks at my bites and thrusts her hips toward mine. “I need you inside me. Now.”

I pull off my shirt and drop my trousers. I love the wicked glint in Wyn’s eyes as she inspects my naked form. Her hand automatically reaches out and strokes down the length of my cock.

“Fuck!” I hiss my pleasure, grab her waist, and pull her against me roughly. “I will rip this dress off of you unless it’s gone in the next few seconds.” I would tear it off, but the tiny speck of sanity I have left remembers we have no extra clothes for her to wear.

Fortunately, it’s not a tight-fitting bodice dress and easily lifts over her head. To my surprise and delight, she isn’t wearing a breast binding, and my hands graze over her hardening nipples.

Only her undergarment remain. Wyn pulls at the waistband ties of her underwear, but I stop her. “Get in the bed first.”

She hurries over and falls back onto the bed, looking at me with hooded eyes. Her need burns within her. Her arousal scents the air like sweet smoke, making me dizzy with desire.

I must fix everything—for her. She is my center, my guiding star.

I need to remind her why I’m fighting so hard. Words aren’t enough. She must feel it in my touch and taste it on my lips.

Stalking across the room, I approach her, my stormy gaze locks onto her golden-brown eyes. Bending at the waist, I lean over. Placing a knee between her legs and bracing one hand near her shoulder, I hover above Wyn’s reclined body. She tentatively reaches up to touch my bare chest to close the distance, but I catch her hand and bring it to my lips for a kiss on her wrist. Then my hand drops to her waistband, tugging gently.

Wyn lifts her hips in hopes of me pulling them down, but I don’t make use of the effort. She wiggles to encourage me.

“Patience, princess,” I say with a playful smirk, and then watch as another wave of arousal washes over her. I slip my hand down and skim over her center.

I move to both knees off the side of the bed, which brings me between her spread legs. I place a kiss on her inner thigh.

She shivers with expectation.

I give her other thigh the same attention and finally reach up to slowly draw down her underwear. My fingers lightly dance over her hips and thighs, leaving a trail of goosebumps along the way.

Once the fabric is down to her knees, I quickly pull it off and turn back to admire my mate’s beauty.

Out of some instinctual need for modesty, she attempts to close her legs.

“Don’t you dare hide yourself from me,” I growl. “I’ll have none of that.”

I take hold of her knees and slowly separate them. She allows me to do so and opens, revealing herself completely for me to gaze upon.

When I lick my lips, she whimpers with need.

“You have the most beautiful body and soul in any realm.” Leaning forward, I scrape my sharp canines over her sensitive flesh. As I slowly nip at her inner thighs, moving toward her center, she gasps at the predator hunting her pleasure.

I lick the flesh at her center lightly.

Wyn moans, “More.”

Sliding my hands up her legs, I bring my thumbs to her slit. In tandem, I run them up and down through her slick folds, spreading her wetness.

“Eldrin!” Wyn bucks, trying to get me inside her. “More, please.”

Hearing her desperation, I oblige and take a swipe of her entire seam with my tongue.

When I latch onto her fleshy button and suck, she cries out, “Stars!”

With two fingers, I enter her and watch as my mate falls into a blissful state, undulating into my thrusts.

My mouth releases her clit, and my hand takes over the stimulation.

I watch Wyn’s face, lost in my touch. Through our bond, I know a release is imminent. Her pleasure is a responsibility I don’t take lightly—especially now, when she needs this so much.

With a strained and gravelly voice, I ask, “You feel that? That desperation to feel complete? This is how I feel about you… every fucking blessed second. You are my other half. Fated to be with me. Do you understand?”

Wyn nods emphatically, looking up at me. Her eyes meet my intense gaze as I thrust my fingers deeper and with more force.

“Do you understand how much I love you?” My voice is heavy with authority, demanding that she lose any doubts. I need her to believe.

“Yes!” Wyn cries out, feeling the beginning of an orgasm cresting inside her. “I need you too! Now.”

I had hoped to give her several rounds of pleasure before entering her, but with the awareness that the bond provides, I know how much she wants me inside her—she needs us to be joined together. And I want to be buried inside her, too.

Crawling up onto the bed, I move her knees up, slide my throbbing cock down her slit, then notch myself at her opening.

“I love you,” she promises, staring up at me with her flushed cheeks and sex-glazed eyes.

Thrusting forward, I take her. With only a few strokes, I’ve seated myself completely, our flesh connecting. My hips spread her wide, and I admire the sight of my mate taking me so deeply.

“I love you,” I gasp out. “Wyn. You have to live forever, so I can have you like this for eternity.”

My hand slides back to her changeling mark, and I press my chest against her heaving breasts, continuing my rhythm.

With the touch of my hand on her mark, our mate bond flares in our senses. I feel her love, and she can feel my unconditional love for her, too. Reflecting our feelings for each other, it only fuels our passion until we are crying out unintelligible words and bucking wildly together.

I have never come so undone during our lovemaking. We are possessed by every emotion we have ever experienced. Of course, the primary emotion is our love, but we are also rutting our insecurities into oblivion. With each crash of our hips, we abolish another fear.

Then bliss takes us. Wyn falls first, and I quickly follow. Our bodies arch and tremble. We have a mutual climax that seems to echo on for eternity.

At some point, I must lose consciousness. I collapse on top of Wyn, probably crushing her. I lift my body to take my weight off her. Then I lift my head from the bed and look down at her radiant face.

She looks thoroughly pleasured, with flushed skin and a dizzy expression. Then suddenly, she catches my face with both hands and kisses me, plunging her tongue into my mouth.

Still deep inside her, with her tongue penetrating me, I feel my heart pulse with love again. If I were to die in her arms, then I would die happy.