Moon Raven Rising (The Moon Raven Trilogy #3)

49. Raelle

Chapter forty-nine

I wake to the beat of a war drum. The steady rhythm is fierce yet oddly calming, causing my body to stretch and latch onto the warmth it’s bringing on reflex.

“Careful, love. You keep rubbing on me like that, we will have an audience when I take you.” My eyes snap open at the rumbling voice, and I scoot up, burying my face into the crook of his neck.

“Would you be mad if I said I didn’t care?” I whisper into his ear, and he growls in response. His hand coming up and threading through my hair at the nape of my neck.

“Furious.”

“I missed you,” I say simply in response. He growls low in his throat and tilts my head so he can see my face.

“There will never be a moment too short to not miss when you aren’t at my side.” Butterflies erupt into flight in my stomach, and he drops his lips to hover over mine. “My love,” he kisses me soft and slow, and I relish the taste of him. The smoky flavor that has always been Dax.

“Are the others here?” I ask moving to turn to look around, but he stops my advance with his thumb. My lips part, and I smile at the devilish look on his face.

“How are you feeling? Better?” His hand drifts from my face along my shoulder and down my spine. He traces small circles along my hip; the tickle and tightening of my muscles there causes a fire to begin at my core.

“Much better, thanks to you.” My heart continues its fluttering dance in my chest as I drink him in. Finally.

“I would do it all again. I owe you my life, once again.” He kisses me slowly once again. Movement catches my attention, and just as I am about to call out to Cano and Osiris, I gasp as Dax’s hand comes up under my skirt and between my thighs, meeting the warm wetness already gathered there. “Don’t even think about it.” He growls into the hollow under my ear, causing goose flesh to pepper my skin.

Cano and Osiris disappear from the cave, and as soon as we are alone, he rolls his fingers through the slippery wetness, and a moan escapes while my body arches. Searching for more friction from my mate and needing to feel him even closer than he already is.

“I love the sounds you make for me.” Dax’s breath is intoxicating as it fills the small space between us. I whimper, and he bites my lip, pulling it into his mouth. “I could live on devouring the sounds coming from your mouth.” His tongue dives deep into my mouth, making my body catch fire. His shadow magic bursts from him, deepening the already dark cave to pitch, and as much as I want to climb onto him right now and take him, I know that we have too much to discuss. Not only that, but I need to know how much time has passed since I passed out. I need to know how close the others might be.

“Dax,” I whisper his name breathlessly between kisses and nips. He groans, further entranced by the sound of his name coming through the husky sound of my voice. “We have to go talk to the others.” A moment of silence passes as his hands still explore my body, but he finally relents. Tilting my head up so our gazes lock.

“One of these days, I will wake up with you and won’t have a world to save. One of these days you will be at my mercy, and there will not be a god who can keep me from having you.” He promises, causing the flame within me to grow.

“I can’t wait until that day,” I press my lips to his. The kiss is more chaste this time. Within it, a promise— that day will come. Reluctantly, I pry myself from him and kneel at his side, brushing off my dress. I smile down at him. “How is your injury?” I ask, needing to know that he is truly ok.

He lifts his tunic, and the now staunched stab wound is crusted black with clouds of purple and gray surrounding it in an angry bruise. My fingers instinctively brush over the marred skin, and though he tries not to show it, he winces just enough that I take notice.

“Is your magic continuing to heal it?” I ask as I scour every bit of exposed skin for the answer to my own question. Unsure of the effects the dark magic might have on him.

“It’s fine.” He grunts, pulling his tunic down to cover it once again. He grips my wrist, making me fall over his chest. “Don’t start your fussing over me, wife. This time it’s my turn to fuss over you.”

“But I’m not—” A screech of surprise comes from me as he flips us so his arms cage me underneath his body.

“Oh, but you are…” His tongue scores a line up the column of my neck. Pleasure skitters across my skin and pools between my legs before his teeth snag the lobe of my ear, and he tugs lightly before following the same path his tongue made with light kisses. “You are everything that matters right now.”

“Dax,” I breathe in the scent of him as he consumes more of my skin with light lingering kisses, licks, and nips. Slowly, he removes any fabric that separates our bodies. “We can’t.” The words leave my mouth as a weak protest that not even I believe, and he chuckles darkly.

“The realm can be serviced after my wife.” His fingers dip in between my legs, and I am defenseless to him. Every protest drops free of my mind, and I bury my hands into his overgrown hair. The hair on his face longer than usual is rough against my skin, causing over-sensitive skin to burn with every brush.

He stills when his hand roams over the bond mark at my side, and I cup his face with my hand. Our eyes clash, and so many unsaid questions and promises flash between us. I know that he is wondering what my bonds mean to me, but he has to know that the bond we share is different than any other. Not only given by the gods, but both of us chose to seal the bond in life and death—body and blood. There is no bond that goes beyond that.

Slowly, his body parts my legs as he settles himself between them. His eyes greedily take in all of me bared before him. Every bond visible, every scar, valley, and curve on display for his consumption.

“You are a goddess. Though I am not worthy, I will do everything I can to worship you for the rest of my days.” My lips part about to argue that he is worthy of everything and more, but before I can, he presses into me, slowly filling me with his hard length and warming me from the inside.

My back arches on its own accord as he becomes flush with me. His hips roll, and the friction and pressure inside causes my eyes to roll back. His lips cover my nipple as he continues the deep rolling pressure, slow and deliciously torturous.

His forehead presses to mine, and when I open my eyes, his are aflame with his raven and desire honed in on only me. His black wings spread wide from his body like a cloak of wickedness surrounding him in an exquisite darkness.

Lifting from my body, he keeps himself fully seated within me, and the angle he presses in causes me to cry out at the fullness and the new and increasing pressure at that spot deep within. The shadows that cascade from his wings dance across the taut muscles of his stomach.

As they reach for me, he watches for my reaction. Gripping onto his sides, I try to encourage him to keep moving, but he is frozen, letting only his shadows twist and tease across my skin in a tantalizing dance of pleasure. I writhe and moan, and just when I think I can’t take any more he slowly retreats. I whimper at the loss of him inside me, and he laughs, pushing forward just as slowly.

“A trembling goddess?” He growls the challenge. My eyes flare, and I wrap my legs around him, pulling myself up so I am now in control of the depth his cock reaches inside me. With him on his knees and me wrapped around him, I roll my entire body against every hard plain of his. My wings flutter from my back in a cascade of snow-white feathers illuminated by an internal moon. Each one emits its own glowing white light that battles with his deep rolling darkness. The perfect storm.

The groan that comes from him is nothing but encouraging as I take control. Lifting my body, riding his cock—every movement I latch on to another piece of him. Our bodies collide in a rhythmic slow dance, and our magic twines all around us in ropes of blinding light and deepest night.

Our ecstasy within each other explodes around us as we both lose the fight against release. My name roars from Dax’s throat as he throws his head back at the same time I do. A scream of pleasure bursts from me too. Our magic for a moment lost to the same frantic buzz of elation rips through us like a shock wave. The ground, the mountain, the very air that surrounds us ripples with power. The sword Dax had propped up against the cave wall glows brightly in its scabbard. The light explodes into fragments of nothing as the magic carves the mountain in two.

“What was that?” Dax asks, panting still as he holds me protectively. His fingers brush through the soft feathers on my back.

“I don’t know, but do you feel that?” I swallow, looking down at the fissure in the stone. The endless chasm radiates of old magic.

“I think it’s time for more of that hero shit,” Dax whispers, still staring at the gaping crack, and I nod. Standing, he pulls me to my feet, and together we dress. Each of us keeps an eye on the break in the earth, as though at any moment something will come walking out.

We leave the cover of the cave, and snow now blankets the ground anywhere there isn’t tree covering, and I realize that I am severely under-dressed, having left our cloaks on the ground. As the wind blows and my hair whips around us, Dax points to an area in the treeline that seems darker than everywhere else.

“They found us.”