Chapter 65
CHAPTER 65
Rosalina
I t’s too hot. I love Summer, with the sun, the beaches, the golden sand. But it’s too bloody hot. Sweat drips down my brow and I clutch my pillow tighter as my stomach cramps. How much longer can this last?
After Dayton and I returned victorious from our battle, we were greeted with cheers and applause from the other gladiators. Tilla pulled us aside and told us how seeing Dayton in the arena had spread a wave of hope through the captured warriors. She knows we have intentions to defeat the Green Rule, and she assured us that when we move against Kairyn, there are those who will fight with us.
Then, during training, in the combat pit, this happened to me, and I returned to my small room to lie down. I’m not sure how long ago it was now, only that if it doesn’t stop soon, I might die.
A knock sounds on my door. “Who’s there?”
“Day.”
“Come in,” I groan, not bothering to change into my siren form. Keeping the form up isn’t exactly hard—more of an unconscious action, like breathing—but right now all I can concentrate on is this agony.
Dayton closes the door behind him. He’s holding a tray of food and places it on the floor beside my bed. His hair is damp from washing off the blood, and his bare chest glimmers with a light sheen of sweat. Around his waist, he wears a simple white wrap, showing off the muscles of his long legs. Watching how that powerful body moved in the arena this morning, and now seeing him clean and nearly bare …
It’s torture.
“I’m not hungry.”
He kneels beside the bed. “Come on, a little posca never did any harm.” He holds up a brothy soup with herbs floating on the surface. “Besides, a gladiator has to eat.”
“I’m hardly a gladiator.” I force myself to sit up and gingerly take the bowl of soup.
“You won a match in the Sun Colosseum. Even Keldarion can’t say that. Imagine the look on his face when we tell him.”
At the thought of my mate, a wave of agonizing heat ripples through me. The spoon drops into the soup, splashing liquid over us.
“Rosalina!” Dayton cries, taking the soup away. “What’s wrong with you? I thought you were just tired, but what is this? Venom? Did the gorgon bite you? Tell me.”
His teal eyes blaze with worry. But how can I tell him this? It’s embarrassing . I clutch my blanket around my shoulders and squish myself into the corner of the bed. “Don’t worry about me. This will pass. I’ll be okay for tomorrow’s match.”
“Dammit, Blossom, you’re burning up.” He touches my forehead, and then he’s sitting on my bed, pulling me into his arms. “I can go look for some medicine.”
“It won’t help.” I know I should pull away, but instead I find myself leaning my head on his chest. His heartbeat is so fast. “Not with this.”
“What is this ?”
I squirm against him, feeling a sudden wave of relief. “I think my wilde courtship is affecting me. Did you ever hear Farron talk about it?”
“A little maybe,” Dayton says. “I don’t remember what he said.”
I let out a sigh, my hand curling into a fist over his hard stomach. “It’s a physiological response from being away from my mates. Specifically, Kel because we’ve never completed our bond. Basically … my body craves him. Last time this happened, my mind even brought me to Kel in my dreams, but I think he’s too far down in the Below now. There’s no relief unless—”
“Unless you get some icy dick?” Dayton laughs.
“Hey! You have no idea how uncomfortable this is.” I smack his chest and raise myself up to look up at him.
Bad idea.
In the candlelight, he doesn’t even look fae; he looks like something more, a sculpted god made of shadow and light. Burnished golden hair, piercing eyes, full parted lips.
“Think of a time when you desperately craved something, craved it so badly your whole body ached,” I say. “But you knew you could never have it. You’d just have to live with this feeling until it consumed you. Can you imagine that?”
“Yes, Rosalina, I can.” His grip tightens on my arm. “I can very much imagine that.”
I shut my eyes and it floods into my mind: a vision so vibrant and real it doesn’t even feel like my own. Dayton closing the distance between us, devouring me with an open-mouthed kiss. Our flimsy clothes are ripped off when we break away for air. There’s no foreplay, no touching, no time for any of it. He takes me, fast and urgent, in a desperate, animal way. His hard cock stretches my inner walls, pounding faster and harder with every stroke. Our hands claw at each other, hair pulled, lips bitten. Until … until I explode around him, and he fills me deep with what I so desperately crave.
“Day.” A whimper slides out of me before I can stop it. Wetness pools between my legs, my whole body rippling from my imagination.
Except it’s not just my imagination. We’ve been together twice. I almost wish we never had, that I never knew what it felt like. Wish I didn’t know his kisses taste like sunlight and his body inside mine feels like being tossed in a glorious storm.
One of his hands cups my face, and the other lightly grazes my back. I open my eyes, his face right before mine. Has he bent closer?
“You should go,” I whisper.
“I’m not leaving you like this.”
“There’s nothing you can do to help.”
A strange mix of sadness and anger crosses his features. “Look, I might not be able to help you the way one of your mates could, but I can’t leave you. Don’t ask me to.”
What about Wrenley? I want to ask the question. But at the thought of her, anger surges through me, and I snag his arm, holding it hard enough to bruise. “Then don’t.”
“I’ll stay.”
“I guess your presence is sort of distracting.” I need him to stay, but it can’t be in the way that I want. Not when he has a mate. “Will you tell me a story?”
“If you eat your dinner.” He hands me the tray.
Grumpily, I take it and dip a slice of bread spiced with dill into the soup. The broth has a vinegary taste to it, but it’s refreshing. While I eat, Dayton recalls a story of the time his family took a ship to the Moon Coral Isles. Memories come alive from his words: diving to watch the fish with his brothers, creating animals out of sand with Delphie, and bonfires on the beach roasting beets and pineapple.
His deep voice is so soothing, and it’s not often that I get to hear him speak this freely about his family with such a happy cadence. He takes my bowl when I’m finished. I can’t help but lay my head on his chest as he starts a new story of the time his fathers and brothers pranked him by placing him in a small schooner when he was asleep and letting it drift out with the tide.
“Joke’s on them.” He smirks. “Woke up in the middle of the sea, but it was the first time I met a siren. We had a lot of fun before she brought me home. Which also reminds me of the time Fare and I first met a selkie.”
“I want to hear that,” I murmur, lips moving against the salt-kissed taste of his skin. “Just remember to leave before sunset.” There are no windows in the room to tell the time, but it can’t be past late afternoon yet.
“Of course,” Dayton says and continues with the story.
His presence has eased my discomfort for now, and I find myself drifting off to the soothing sound of his voice.
“It’s okay, Baby. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Another moan ripples through me, pain clenching in my stomach, body burning. My eyes flutter open. My head is on Dayton’s chest, his arms draped around me.
“I must have fallen asleep,” I croak.
“So did I,” Dayton says, handing me a glass of water from the tray. “Woke up to you, uh, writhing.”
I take a sip, heat flushing my cheeks. My wilde courtship is back with a vengeance.
“Look, you really should go. I can manage.”
“We’ve been through this. I’ll stay as long as I can.” He leans closer. “Now, tell me where it hurts the most, Baby.”
I gesture to my stomach. He pulls me so I’m sitting between his legs, then lifts up the simple white shift I have on.
“Wait, I’m not wearing, uh, I’m not wearing anything underneath and—” I cut off, and I can practically hear Caspian’s laugh in my head, An aversion to underpants, Princess? But it just so happens, there is limited clothing given to the gladiator contestants of the arena, and I have to ration what’s clean.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I’ll be the perfect gentleman, and not touch you anywhere else, all right?”
“Okay,” I say. But it’s hard to believe when I feel the hard shape of him against my back.
“Just relax,” he tells me.
I lean against him as one of his large hands comes to cover my stomach, and he begins to rub soft circles. I remember Kel did the same thing when my mate bond brought me to him in the north through my dreams. But that had a different ending, one where we got carried away. I can’t let that happen here … I can’t …
But oh , his hand feels so good, soothing the ache inside of me. His other hand wraps around me, rubbing my shoulders. His lips are by my ear.
“How’s that feel?” he asks, continuing his caresses. “Does it help? I can’t stand seeing you in pain. I want to help you, Baby. I want to help you so damn much.”
“I feel so good.” My whole body relaxes against his chest, and my bare legs fall open, brushing against his.
He inhales sharply, a deep rumble sounding in his chest. Is my wilde courtship making him able to smell my arousal? He shouldn’t be here …
“This is a bad idea, Day.”
“You know me, I’ve never been one for a good idea.” His circles around my stomach get larger, fingertips brushing the top of my center.
A wave of unabashed pleasure courses through me, and I dig my heels into the mattress and buck against him, feeling him. Feeling his need.
His other hand caresses my face, pushing the hair back, before grabbing my jaw. The move screams possession as he pulls me back against his muscular chest. His wet lips brush my ear. “Tell me to stop, Rosie. Fucking tell me to stop.”
I bite my lip, my mind muddled with an insane amount of pleasure. Every sweep of his hand is like fractured stardust across my skin. Every sweep is more and more dangerous as his circles get larger and larger. He slows each time at the base of my belly button, rough fingertips brushing my midriff. Each small movement has my body convulsing with ecstasy.
He spins me, and I steady myself on his forearms, eyes whirling with stars. His golden hair falls in thick waves over the pillow. His chest heaves, dotted with sweat. My fingertips dig into his skin, nails scratching pink lines. I’d crawl inside him if I could. My hair falls loose, a dark curtain over my face.
God, I hope it’s concealing my face. I know my expression is nothing except pure desire and want and … love.
“Rosie, don’t you feel this?”
And I do. His desire through the thin wrap. The desperation in his voice. It echoes in every part of me.
“Dayton, we can’t.”
“You think you’ll die without Kel tonight?” he growls, golden hair wild, eyes a storm. “That’s how I feel about you. It’s how I’ve felt about you every damned day since you were taken. It’s tearing me apart.”
I need to stop him, stop this. But I’m barely tethered to the earth. I’m swept away by every piece of him. “Day …”
“I’ve never felt more at my beast’s mercy than when I’m around you.” He tosses me onto my back, fingertips digging into my shoulders, pressing me deep into the bed. “The wolf inside of me is desperate to claim you.”
My shift rises up, revealing every part of my body. My legs brush his. I need to push him away.
He grabs my calf and runs a hand up my leg to my inner thigh where he drums his fingers. His other hand brushes my stomach, up to my ribs and below my breast, which heaves up and down in a desperate cadence. His large hand caresses my face, parting my lips, cupping my jaw, as if he’s trying to memorize every part of me.
Then he leans closer, and the feeling of his chest pressing against mine is the most intense sensation of my life. I feel his heartbeat reverberate in my own chest.
“Even if it’s not right,” I whisper, “Day, there’s a part of my heart that will always belong to you.”
Tears pool in his eyes, and he smiles. It’s so beautiful, like the sun breaking through the clouds.
“Stars, I know, Rosie. I fucking know. I want this. I want you. I choose you.” His eyes shine. “It’s why I saved you instead. Why I saved you in the storm.”
Something shatters the fogginess in my mind. “What?”
He dips his head to my neck. “It’s why I saved you in the storm.”
I push against his chest until we’re sitting up. My shift falls back over me. “You said instead. Instead of who ?”
His face blanches, but then turns into a challenging smirk. The same one he gave to Kairyn earlier in the arena. “Wrenley fell in, as well. I knew I could only save one of you.”
He states it like a fact, no remorse or regret.
“You saved me instead of your mate?”
“And I’d do it again.” He clutches my hand, holding it tight to his chest.
My heart rages, mind spinning. He saved me. He chose me.
“Dayton, what if she had drowned? You’d be your wolf forever. What about Summer? What about your curse?”
“I—” His breath is heavy, chest heaving. “She’s fine.”
“You didn’t know she would be, though!” I cry. It now makes sense how upset he was on the beach. “Day, tell me, please. Tell me you saved me because of who my mother is. Tell me you saved me because I’m the only one who has wielded the Bow of Radiance and survived. Or for stars’ sake, tell me you saved me because of your vow to Ezryn.”
He’s silent for a long while, calloused hand still gripping mine. All I can hear is the thump, thump, thump of his heart. “I can’t.”
Tears run across my cheeks. “Leave my room.”
He stares me down, a storm swirling in his eyes. For one wild moment, I think he’s going to reject everything I said. He’s going to kiss me despite it all. I don’t know how much longer I can stay afloat before it pulls me under.
“As you wish,” he snarls and finally lets go of my hand.
He takes a few steps and then clutches the wall. A rippling courses through his body and he transforms into his wolf. It’s so big, it crashes against the basket of my things, snapping it.
“The sun must have just set,” I gasp. He can’t go outside now.
A growl emits from the wolf. He circles once before throwing himself down on the floor. “I’ll sleep here.”
Agony pulses in my throat. His golden fur is tangled with shells and seaweed. Slowly, I reach a hand down to him, but when I get close, he growls again.
“Get some sleep, partner,” he snarls. “We’ve got a big match tomorrow.”