Chapter 13
Tenebrys didn't like leaving Felix alone with Delphi, but he had to get out of there before he did something irrational. She was going to drive him insane with her soft hands, and by the gods, her smell. He wanted to pin her to him and bury his face in her neck and soft hair.
Tenebrys managed to keep himself together until he got back to the privacy of his own wing of the chateau. As soon as the door closed, he put his thumb to his mouth and licked the taste of Delphi off it. He groaned.
He had done so well to sit still and not react to her touch as she soothed his wounds and spoke to him so freely.
She had been too close. The heat and smell of her had distracted him from any pain from his wounds.
That kind of pain he was used to. The pain of his dick thickening every time she drew near him was problematic, however.
He had never been like this before over a female. It was beyond irrational.
Tenebrys huffed in frustration and went to his bathing chamber. He needed to wash his hands, or he would be smelling the scent of Delphi's skin on him all night.
The light in his chambers suddenly flickered to life on its own, startling him. He paused, staring at the delicate glass lanterns. They hadn't worked since the curse either.
"By the goddess, is it really her causing the magic to return?" he muttered.
Tenebrys went into the bath room where the lanterns warmed the space. He looked down at his trousers and the obvious outline of his still hard cock. He untied them, ridding himself of the too-tight pressure, and let his large dick spring free.
"Stop getting me into trouble..." Tenebrys froze. His shaft was different from what it had been that morning. "It can't be."
He stroked his cock, and his eyes weren't seeing things. Toward the base of his shaft was a knot. He carefully felt underneath it. The spur that was between his dick and balls was so sensitive to touch that he hissed.
"This can't be happening to me. Not now." He gripped the edge of the cast-iron bath and tried to breathe. Shifters only ever had their knot appear when they had found their mate. "Not her."
Tenebrys had always been attracted to Delphi despite who her parents were because she was a beautiful woman, and he was still male enough to admit it.
He thought he had reacted to her in the dreams because he hadn't touched anyone for so long. He had marked her as his, and it had remained because she was his mate. The magic had known the truth and made it so. He was such a damn fool.
Tenebrys touched the knot again, closing his fingers around it so he could feel the lump underneath that pressed into his spur.
"Fuckkk," he whispered. It felt so good.
He couldn't remember when he had last given himself any relief at all. Maybe that was why a knot had appeared and why he kept getting hard whenever he got a nose full of Delphi's scent.
Unable to control himself, Tenebrys jerked himself harder, his eyes almost rolling into the back of his head at how amazing it felt.
He thought about holding Delphi in the dream, how she had been so soft in his arms, delicate and curvy with a wicked, smiling mouth. Her blue eyes had shone with want in the kitchen just now. She hadn't been afraid, even with his big paw around her throat.
How could she still want him now that she knew exactly what he looked like?
Would Delphi still moan for him if he played with her sweet cunt? Would she be able to take his knot? His spur?
Tenebrys imagined the wet, tight heat of her locked around him, and he shattered with a broken gasp of her name. Come splattered against the bone plating on his chest and covered the fur over his abs.
After his breath evened out again, Tenebrys turned on the taps to wash himself clean. A few moments later, the water began to get warmer.
"This is impossible. The wards haven't been charged. The house magic is gone," he said to his reflection in the broken mirror.
He glanced down and felt like he was losing his mind. His knot wasn't from lack of relief. It was still there. "It can't be her. Not my enemy's blood."
Tenebrys never thought he would have a mate. He wanted to kill Narcisse and then himself. That was all he'd wanted for decades.
Delphi was human. Well, mostly. The witch blood in her meant there was fae somewhere in there.
Tenebrys's mother had been fae, and she had mated with his father just fine. It was why he was a shifter who could also do magic. Not much, he had never given himself over to his studies, preferring to be a warrior like his father.
Tenebrys cleaned himself up before going back into his rooms. He lay down on his stomach on his massive bed, carefully trying not to jostle his wounds. He tried to think rationally through the panic coiling inside of him.
Delphi had enough magic that some high fae asshole could feel it all the way into another world.
Whether it was her magic or her physical presence itself, the magic in the chateau was also coming alive again because of Delphi.
Now, he had a fucking knot telling him that Fate had chosen her for him as his mate.
Tenebrys knew that allowing any hope to creep in was a bad idea, but could Delphi break the curse on them after all? She had the magic, just not the knowledge.
She said she needed books... An idea flashed through Tenebrys's mind, and he managed a smile despite his rising panic.
It would seem that he had the perfect way to get her books and confirm if the chateau was waking up because of her, all in one move.