22. Shade
SHADE
Aflora washigh on our bond, her pupils blown wide with lust.
It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to take advantage of the situation and fuck her the way her body begged me to.
I needed her mind to catch up with the emotions, for her to realize what she demanded of me.
“Will you bite me again?”
Those words were music to my ears when she uttered them, but I couldn’t be sure she actually meant them. Not in her current state.
I leaned down to kiss her again, my muscles tensing with restraint as she rubbed her hot center against my groin.
Shit, I thought, my heart threatening to burst out of my chest from beating so hard. I really shouldn’t have unfastened my pants, but fuck, I needed to breathe. She was killing me.
“Aflora,” I whispered, fighting for control. She bucked against me in response, her skirt pooling around her hips.
“Take me,” she breathed.
“I want to,” I assured her, my lips trailing down her neck to her breasts. “You have no idea how much I want to.”
It physically hurt not to bite her, to not finish our bond, but everything else had been forced upon her. I wanted this final step to be because she truly desired it, not because she was lost in our connection.
The only way to ground her was to give her an outlet for the power mounting inside her.
And I knew just the way to do that.
Her bra disappeared with a snap of my fingers, revealing her pert tits to my mouth. I took a nipple between my teeth while I palmed the other one.
She hissed, her arousal perfuming the air in a luscious scent of need. I’d only ever tasted her in our dreams, not in reality. And I longed to rectify that now.
My palms slid down her sides to her skirt, my fingers finding the zipper and dragging it down. When it hit the end, I ripped the rest of the fabric away from her, earning me a moan from my little mate.
Her fingers threaded through my hair, holding me against her breast. I responded by taking her other stiff peak into my mouth and twirling my tongue around the tip.
“Shade…” She uttered my name like a plea, her skin heating beneath my touch.
She wasn’t cold now, but hot.
Energy sizzled beneath her skin, seeking an escape. She didn’t seem to notice, too lost to the sensations and drunk on the way they made her feel.
I continued my path downward with my lips, stopping to dip my tongue in her adorable belly button before situating myself between her thighs. Her lacy white panties were soaked through, leaving nothing to the imagination. I took the bands on either side of her hips and yanked on the fabric, snapping it with ease and leaving her naked on the bed.
Well, mostly naked.
She still had those adorable ankle boots on.
Her fingers tightened in my hair as she tried to guide my mouth to the place she wanted it, causing me to smile against her slick folds. “You’re in a demanding mood, aren’t you, pet?”
“Please, Shade,” she whimpered, her limbs trembling with the electricity humming through her veins.
Whatever had happened with the rock, coupled with me yanking her out of the enchantment, had awakened her Quandary Blood with a vengeance. That paltry collar around her neck would do nothing to help her now.
But I would.
“I’m going to make you come, Aflora,” I told her softly. “I want you to give me everything and let it all go, okay?”
“Yes,” she groaned, her nails digging into my scalp.
My cock pulsed in response to her throaty moan, my mouth aching to taste her. I needed this almost as much as she did, but for entirely different reasons.
She was mine, and I wanted her to know what that meant.
So I showed her with my tongue, licking her deep and thoroughly and fully introducing her intimately to my mouth. She sucked in a surprised breath and released it on a sound I wanted to hear from her again and again and again.
I hummed in approval against her slick flesh, then slid two fingers inside her. She bowed off the bed on a cry of pleasure, her cerulean flames glimmering across her skin.
Beautiful, I thought, adoring this unrestrained side of her.
No concerns.
No distrust.
Just lost to the heat of the moment and allowing her mate to take care of her in every way. I fucking loved it and wanted to stay in this place with her forever, but I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. She needed her mind back, and there was only one way to return it to her.
“Come for me, Aflora,” I whispered, laving her throbbing clit.
She whimpered, her grip tightening in my hair as she chased her pleasure against my tongue. “Shade!” she cried out, her power erupting in a hot wave of energy that illuminated our bond.
I growled at the onslaught of electricity thrumming through my veins, my incisors aching to bite her and absorb as much of her as I could.
Not yet, I told myself, my muscles tensing in protest.
Our bond was on fucking fire. Her other mates had to feel it, but I couldn’t think about them right now, not with her quivering with rapture beneath my mouth. I feasted on her essence and vitality, driving her to the edge again with a few clever swipes of my tongue and groaning with her as she came again.
Glorious, I thought, marveling at her display of ecstasy. She reminded me of a goddess with her blue-black hair spilling across the pillows and her creamy skin highlighted by enchanting blue flames. Aflora didn’t seem to notice, too lost in her oblivion to realize she’d lit herself on fire with her outburst.
I crawled up and over her, reveling in the heat pouring off her and into me, and took her mouth in a passionate kiss underlined in possession.
She owned me as much as I owned her.
Fate put me in her path, and duty forced me to remain despite the rocky course ahead. And this moment made that all worth it.
Every secret. Every choice. Every dark doubt. All of it disappeared beneath a cloud of rightness as I parted her lips with my tongue and devoured her.
She wrapped an arm around me, her opposite hand still in my hair. “More,” she whispered. “Give me more.”
“Aflora,” I replied, my voice harsh with my necessary restraint.
But she seemed oblivious to it, her mouth trailing along my jaw to my neck in seductive little caresses I couldn’t ignore. I palmed her cheek, then slid my hand back into her hair, intending to pull her lips back to mine, when her teeth pierced my skin.
An inferno blazed across my conscious, my heart thundering in my chest.
Aflora had just bitten me.
Tasted my blood.
And swallowed.
Her moan of approval shattered something inside me, spurring me into motion. My fingers tightened around her dark strands, holding her to my neck as she ingested more of my essence.
It was so fucking wrong yet felt too damn good to stop.
I’d never been bitten before—the action was typically reserved for mates during sex—and damn, I was glad I’d waited for Aflora. She could sink her teeth into me anytime she wanted.
“Fuck, little rose,” I groaned, my shaft aching with the desire to slip into her velvety heat.
I released her hair to work on shucking off my pants and then my boxers. There’d been a reason I wanted to wait, but hell if I could remember it now.
Her legs parted from my hips, her teeth releasing my neck as she tossed her head back on a throaty demand to take her. I lined myself up and drove inside her to the hilt, our cries of satisfaction mingling in the air.
Home, I realized. I’m finally fucking home.
And what a place it was because I’d never really had one. In all my years, I stuck to the shadows, lurking and playing the games set out before me. How fucking appropriate that the biggest task of all was the one writhing beneath me and welcoming me into her with open arms.
“You’re everything I didn’t know I needed,” I breathed, completely lost to the beauty unraveling in my arms. My heart beat for this woman and this woman alone. She was mine, and I never wanted to let her go.
“Bite me,” she begged. “Finish it.”
“Yes,” I agreed. It was time. Our vows were incomplete, and that needed to be rectified.
I pressed my mouth to her throbbing pulse and licked the cerulean magic heating her skin. Mmm, she tasted like power and sex and everything I could ever desire.
Our connection hung in the balance, a weight on both our spirits, waiting for this final thread.
And I granted it the climax of our lives by piercing her vein.
She screamed, her hips driving upward to meet mine, our pace becoming frantic as we both fought to find our release in a wave of insurmountable gratification. Time fucking stopped. Yet our hearts continued to beat, her blood pouring into my mouth as I took her with brutal thrusts that she responded to in kind.
It was animalistic.
Hot.
Ferocious.
Fucking.
No, a claiming. Her nails scraped down my back, drawing blood and causing me to hiss against her neck. I bit her again, her essence giving me the gift of life and completion and binding us on a path to insanity.
We were one.
Together.
Forever.
We were destined to overcome the agony of our existence, to fight in a war neither of us had signed up for, or to die trying.
Every thought, emotion, concern, sacrifice, and sensation traveled from my mind to hers, igniting a marathon of information for my mate to access.
She trembled beneath the onslaught, her eyes widening in shock as her pussy spasmed around me on an incredible climax that I felt through my own spirit.
I tumbled into oblivion after her, the orgasm ripping a hole through my chest and damning me to hell in the space of a breath. Everything burned in the best way, our powers dancing on a plane we could sense without seeing.
Our mating was complete.
Done.
Embedded in our spirits for eternity.
And I’d never felt more alive.
Aflora shook beneath me, her blue embers starting to fade as the heat of the moment began to subside. I pulled away from her neck to stare down at her in wonder. None of the prophecies prepared me for this intensity or the feelings that followed.
Pride.
Adoration.
Fear.
Because I knew what lay ahead of us. I knew what we would have to face together. And I knew what decision she would eventually have to make.
What if she chose him?
What if she followed the path fate originally set out for her before I stepped in the way?
There were so many unforeseen consequences of altering someone’s destiny, but I had to try. It was the only way for us to pursue the alternative future, the one Midnight Fae kind required of us to survive.
Her palm pressed to my cheek, her gaze searching. “There are so many secrets in your eyes right now,” she breathed, her voice a rasp against my lips. “I can sense the burdens you carry.”
“It’s all for you,” I admitted softly, my throat working to swallow. “No one should have to know what I know. And to tell you could alter everything.”
“Who are you?” she asked, her tone one of fascination, not displeasure. “I feel you inside me, Shade. A mix of fae. And so much pain.”
I grimaced, not wanting anyone to ever experience the weight of my emotions but knowing it was the price she had to pay for our mating. “I’m sorry,” I told her, pressing my forehead to hers. “I’m so sorry, Aflora.”
“Don’t be,” she said softly, her arms wrapping around me. “Share with me instead. Let me help you.”
I shook my head slowly. “I can’t. Not yet.” Not until you choose, I wanted to add but didn’t. Because it was unfair to lay that burden at her feet now. She wouldn’t understand it, not until Zakkai decided to reveal his true intent.
And then the future would realign again.
More prophecies would be born.
Allegiances would change.
Fae would die.
I closed my eyes and pressed my nose to her neck, inhaling the sweet scent of my female. One breath calmed my mind. A second drew me back to her and the reality around us. The cabin I’d built for her. A safe haven no one could find.
How easy it would be to just remain here, to keep her all to myself and let everyone else fend for themselves.
But that wasn’t me.
Everyone thought I only cared about my personal satisfaction. Little did they realize how much I’d sacrificed to be where I was today.
Yes, I took Aflora.
However, it was done with a purpose—to protect those I loved. Including her. An impossible claim, but I’d known about her for years, been aware of our intertwined fates, and had fallen for her after seeing dozens of prophecies all revolving around her fate. Our fate.
I couldn’t even begin to explain that to her.
All I could do was continue to guide her and allow her to make her own decisions. Like she did tonight when she bit me.
I drew my mouth to hers once more, kissing her thoroughly and thanking her with my tongue for the gift of her bond. She would never know how much it meant to me. Or maybe she’d sense it.
Regardless, it was done.
We belonged to each other.
And I intended to spend the rest of the evening thanking her for accepting me.