30. Cress
Phaeron whisked me away in an embrace of shadows. By the time I blinked away the dizzy spell that followed my sudden relocation, I noted that he’d placed me on the couch in one of the library’s private rooms. It was his room at this point, with the tatters of the clothes he’d shredded off me still lying beside the bed and his night air scent lingering around us.
I took a deep breath and released it in a happy sigh. That smell clung to his skin, magic and man combined.
It took me a heartbeat longer to realize there were bags cluttering the floor by my feet. Phaeron had an odd expression, something like chagrin tugging at his dark gray lips as he looked at them. I recognized that he was about to apologize about something, so I stood and kissed him before he could.
He cupped the back of my neck and stroked down the sensitive column. His lips caressed mine at a slow, measured pace, at odds with the frenzy that usually lit in him at the brush of my mouth. It was such a small tell, but also an immediate neon sign that suggested something had changed. He was in control, just as he’d promised, his soul healed.
So that meant…maybe this really was the moment he’d claim me in the ways he’d promised. Pulling back, he met my gaze. Warmth danced in the otherworldly facets of his eyes, and I stood mesmerized by them.
“Can I tell you something?” he murmured.
He could tell me a lot of things with that voice of his. By his serious tone, I had the feeling this wasn’t a sexy kind of something and sobered myself. “What is it?”
He smoothed his thumb down my cheek, tender despite the weight of what he was about to share. “My brother showed me a memory as he was dying. A prophecy of Myuna’s fate that he bore witness to,” he said.
“Was it an accurate prophecy?” I asked, huskier than I intended. The roughened textured of his callused fingers brushed featherlight down my jaw and the tender skin over my throat.
A hint of pain sparked in his gaze. “It was told by the Void, so it has the chance of being accurate one day. Listen to this and tell me if you think you know who it speaks of…” He took a breath and intoned it from memory. “Another shall ascend to rival you, and she will bring about your death. She who would mate the son of night and fight you alongside his daughter. She will defeat you before you have a chance to spread your influence on a new world.”
There was a knot where my heart should be, beating erratically against my ribcage. “Wait…no,” I said. His touch under my chin tilted my head up so I would notice the way he was looking at me. “It couldn’t be me.”
“It could be you,” he echoed.
I considered the prophecy’s wording again. There was one step I hadn’t taken, one close enough that I felt my toes resting on the precipice, itching to take the plunge. My heart thudded. I wanted to be the one to kill Myuna. Why would I back away from my destiny just because a dimensional had seen it in the Void?
“Keshora and Ravai died because of that prophecy. Myuna has been sure of my identity as ‘the son of night’ before I even knew what Earth was,” he continued, like he mistook my pause for doubt.
“It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Myuna is causing it to come true because of her reaction to it.” If only he could feel how much I wanted to take care of her menace once and for all. Not only for my own sake, for things to go “back to normal,” but also to give him the closure he so clearly needed with this goddess who had ruined his old life. “She meets her death here, on a new world, at the end of my sword.”
He released me and stepped away, working the buckle of his belt. Was he getting naked already? He went for that fast!
Phaeron pulled his sheathed swords free from his hips and sank to his knees in one graceful motion, laying them at my feet. He cupped my right hand with both of his, brushing a kiss over my fingertips. “Cressida Rollins Darkmore,” he began. “From this moment forth, I swear my blood, blades, and magic to your service.”
There was adoration in his gaze as he said this oath. I reminded myself to breathe, caught up in how special it was to see such a private glimpse of his culture. Of course he wouldn’t immediately undress and take me to bed. He was an old-fashioned prince first, and I loved that about him.
“You have captivated me from the moment we met. For what is a soul but a manifestation of a person’s core truth? How radiant you are, my True Light in the purest sense. I swear to be your Shadow, a loyal protector. The one to come running to fulfill your every need.” He ended this with a suggestive lift of his brows, and I shivered with awareness.
But he wasn’t finished speaking. He gestured to the pile of bags by the couch. “Though I have little by way of material wealth, I have found for you a patchwork gift. I hope you will accept a more proper offering that I will make for you by hand when we are again in a period of peace.”
I wanted to say that he didn’t have to give me anything, but this was a dance I was just learning the rhythm to. Perhaps all shadowborn made their mates custom gifts. Ah, shit. I didn’t have anything to give him in return. “Phaeron, it’s okay, I—”
“Let me finish,” he whispered. “If you accept me as your mate, it would mean everything to me and my new life here. Your family and friends will be mine too. Your other mates will be my brothers. But you, Cress, shall be the only goddess of light I answer to. Will you wear my mating mark openly, without regret?”
He waited expectantly for my answer, and I bit my lip. I hadn’t gotten him anything or prepared any fancy words. If I was going to be a good mate, at least I could try to offer the latter. Phaeron watched my expression and smiled wide enough to show his fangs, amusement creasing around his otherworldly eyes. “A simple yes or no will suffice,” he added.
“Yes,” I rushed to say. “Of course it’s a yes. I’ve wanted this since…” A dark containment room in Moongrove Library. I pictured the viciousness of his desire when he let it off the short leash of his self-control.
I would’ve walked out of that room as his mate if circumstances allowed, but there hadn’t been a moment between us yet where he could fully trust himself. “You don’t want to take a bite of my soul anymore, right?”
“Not in the slightest,” he said. He took my free hand and pressed a kiss to the mark of protection on the inside of my wrist. There was a prick of pain, soothed by the brush of his tongue, and then that bit of magic was gone.
“Hey!” I protested.
“I will replace it with something better,” he said. His hands moved to my hips, nudging me closer. A coil of his tail drew his weapons out of the way. “With the mating mark, I will always know when you need me, and in what way.”
“Will it work the other way around?” I asked. He flicked open the button of my jeans, dragging the zipper down with the tip of his claw.
“I only know one answer, based off the experience with a different human mate. Shall we see what happens with us rather than look to the past?”
“Okay.” Cool air hit the damp fabric between my legs when he nudged my jeans down, and I trembled with anticipation. It was finally happening. I could have Phaeron without fear of his control snapping at the wrong moment.
He hooked his thumbs through the thin straps of my panties. “I think I’ll begin my worship of you here,” he said, dragging them down ever so slowly.
“You should try me in your other form,” I suggested. My cheeks heated as he paused and tilted his head.
Then a grin split his face. “Naughty witch. I know what you want,” he teased. With a murmured word in his native language, his features shifted into the alien angles of Soiluire. He flicked his forked tongue out with a wink.
I nodded eagerly. When he’d been stuck like this, I couldn’t help but wonder what he could do with that tongue and how the rest of his body differed under his clothes. Maybe he’d indulge my every wicked thought as soon as today.
Solid shadows unfurled around us, helping him angle and anchor my legs. My knees rested on his palms, and his claws dimpled my skin while he held me spread open for him. He laved his way up my inner thigh and peppered the path with grazes of his sharp teeth. I was already moaning for him before he reached my aching center and delved between my pussy lips with one stroke of his tongue.
I nearly jolted off him from the shock of pleasure. That tongue was a lot longer than I expected, and its forked end fluttered over my clit just so. His answering growl vibrated through me, his grip on my knees tightening. I felt him mumbling against me, and it became English halfway through, “…Don’t move, Cress. My horns.”
He tilted his head an inch to the side, and the hard point at the end of his spiraled horn jabbed in a sensitive spot close to my ass. “I won’t,” I yelped.
He answered with a Soiluirian purr and tugged my thighs just a bit wider. Now I noticed the ridges of his horns against my skin and the occasional brush of the tips, but with me as still as I could bear, there were no more unwelcome pokes. Only the glide of his tongue and lips as he feasted on me.
I would’ve expected him to need a bit of time to get used to his old body since he’d been modified to be more human-like centuries ago, but he used that tongue like he’d never been parted from its length and flexibility. By the time he wiggled it up my channel and stimulated every inch, I was trembling in place.
Shadows held my hips steady, and when he noticed how close I was, he circled his mouth to mimic how I’d chase the high of pleasure. His horns were the most natural handhold, so I clutched them with both hands as I came hard, back arching and toes curling.
He cleaned my pussy with slow, sure strokes and a rumble deep in his throat. It seemed he genuinely liked the taste of me, and I flushed pleasantly at the thought. When he retracted his magic and placed me back on my shaky legs, my bare soles hit the carpet, and I glanced down, impressed. He’d worked off my shoes and bunched-up jeans while I was otherwise distracted, leaving me bare from the waist down.
For the moment, he remained on his knees, licking the glistening remains of my pleasure from his face while adjusting the impressive bulge that tented the front of his pants. His toothsome grin put his usual viciously pleasure-filled smile in context. This was who he was, the wolf-like shadowborn that lurked below his princely manners.
“You’re incredible,” I told him.
He shifted, blunting his sharp alien features back into human-like ones. “What was that, bright soul?”
I pulled off my shirt and bra. “Come and get me,” I invited instead.
His gaze brightened with predatory interest. It wasn’t really that far from the couch to the bed, but I walked backward to the edge and sat while he prowled after me, shedding clothes on the way. He slid his arms on the bed, leaning in to cage me with his body. I ran my hands up his chest, feeling soft skin and dense muscle. Several lifetimes of fighting scars patterned him, faded by time but still notable to the touch.
He was a breath away, the heat of him resting between my legs. “This is permanent, Cress. You’ll wear my mark for as long as we both live,” he said against my lips.
“Are you asking if I’m sure?”
Instead of a kiss, he rested our foreheads together, gaze soft on mine. “You must understand this is a lifetime of devotion I promised you. Some may find that…” He circled a hand, searching for a word. “…intense.”
Maybe it was. By most metrics, our relationship had been a whirlwind, but I didn’t need more time. No matter how unlikely our pairing was, we fit together. “We’re meant to be, literally light and dark,” I murmured.
He brushed a hand through my hair, breathing out his lingering tension. “You complete me, bright soul.”
The next thing I knew, he was lifting me to carry around the bed and laying out so I straddled him. His shadows were reaching for the bedside lamp. “Could you keep it on? I want to see you,” I said.
“Not the request I expected.” But he retracted his magic, his pupils slitted in the golden light. His hair pooled over one shoulder, dark and glossy as ink.
I ran my nails over his chest, earning a soft, approving hiss. “What where you expecting?” I caught his throbbing length between my cheeks, rolling my hips to tease him through my slick folds. One of the hard bumps that gave it unusual texture caught against my sensitive flesh, feeling like the press of a fingertip.
He bared his fangs in a grin. “I will fulfill anything you desire. You need but ask.”
“Well, I was curious…” I drew out another stroke against him.
“If I’ve learned anything on Earth…” He rested his hands on my hips, nudging me onto the crown of his cock. “…it is that curiosity is utterly human.”
I sank down onto him slowly, savoring how he stretched me. “Is your dick any different in your other form?” I asked.
He held me flush against him, head tilted at a coy angle. “Let’s find out,” he purred. In a few seconds, he’d transitioned to his alien form, all sharp teeth and lengthened claws that rested ever so carefully on my skin. Something else had changed about him, but I felt it inside me as a slight thickening when he was already a snug fit.
I lifted and popped my mouth open with a shocked cry. The discovery was immediate, an unusual but an intense starburst of sensation. He watched my reaction with a pleased expression as I sank onto him again for more. Like his vampire-like fangs were remnants of a whole mouth full of them, the few nubs on his length were a hint at the full texture he had in this form.
He stimulated every inch of me even on the way down, hitting that sensitive inner patch for a gush of liquid warmth. His shadows piled pillows behind him, and he propped up his shoulders, crooking a finger in a come-hither gesture with a literal smolder in his eyes. I saw the Iorsio tribe in him, a hint of yellow flame, as if he didn’t already have the most beautiful eyes on this world and the next.
I leaned in as he’d beckoned and felt him shift, taking control. His fangs grazed my lips, his kiss hungry but measured. With one hand, he helped me ride him as fast as I could stand without coming on the spot. He’d cupped the back of my head and ran gentle pressure down my jaw with strokes of his thumb.
My body tightened as I sped toward release…and then he slowed and stopped, holding my hips to his. Huffing out a frustrated breath, I wiggled, and that release slipped away one second at a time. “Phaeron,” I groaned.
He took his time shifting back to his human-like form. “I made you something like a promise before…this.” He gestured to encompass the room.
“You did?” I couldn’t think of anything. Not when he’d thoroughly scrambled my brain and was still nestled within me, hard as iron.
“Mmm. Perhaps it will come to you soon.”
He caught my lips, this time hardly holding back with only two fangs to navigate. During that savage kiss, he started to move again, reawakening my body. But this time, I ached for that release I’d been denied and started to tremble as we approached it again.
I expected him to stop again when I was on that edge but breathed a vicious “Fuck!” when he did.
“Now, now,” he teased, a growl edging his tone. He wasn’t unaffected by his own game.
I worked my jaw, finding it harder to talk. “What was the promise?”
He shook his head minutely. “Trust me, you’ll remember,” he rumbled.
When he thrust again, the rise and fall of pleasure to frustration took even less time. “Please,” I breathed. He wanted me to beg. Oh! He wanted me to beg him to bite me.
One day, you will carry my mating mark. You’ll beg for it.
I felt his cock kick within me as he clamped down on his release too. He met my gaze and sighed, filtering a few locks of my hair through his fingers. Speaking Soiluirian, his cadence rose and fell in waves. Like music or poetry. Words of love. Words to soothe.
“I trust you,” I answered. My tongue felt too big for my mouth. “I love you. I want to carry your mark forever. On my skin and my soul. I want to be yours. Please, Phaeron.”
His hold on me tightened. When he lifted me and thrust deeply, I knew. We were speeding toward the end this time. He skimmed his lips down my neck, and I was wound so tightly even his hot breath was erotic as it washed over my skin.
“It will hurt, but you will barely feel it,” he promised. He used his free hand to angle my head, placing his fangs in just the right place, in the hollow where neck and shoulder met. I was already unraveling, coming so hard my eyes rolled back.
He inhaled and then bit me. I screamed, pleasure and pain flaring and entwining for several heartbeats before he exhaled. He’d swapped a tiny piece of our souls, and I felt the pressure of memories that weren’t my own all crowding in as my body surrendered to unconsciousness.