14. Raven
CHAPTER 14
Raven
I 'd hoped getting some answers would make me feel a little better, but when I stepped up to the door of my quarters a few hours later, I was filled with frustration and muttering under my breath as if I were Myrr.
How the fuck could someone have slipped bloodworm eggs into the food under the noses of literally dozens of staff and not a single one of them have any clue? Especially if it was someone who didn't belong in the keep. Which brought me right back to square one…
The party responsible was unremarkable, meaning they belonged here. Meaning they were one of Diana's people. Someone she trusted.
Or used to trust.
"Fucking Maverick," I snarled softly. Thank gods she'd decided to leave him in the dark going forward, because nothing would convince me that he had anything but his own best interest at heart.
And anyone who didn't put my queen first in these treacherous times?
Was effectively my enemy.
I turned the knob and then stopped short as a shudder ran through me.
She was here. Not only could I smell her now that my thoughts weren't filled with ways to torture Maverick. But I could sense her, just through this door. My heart thudded against my ribs as I turned the knob, trying not to let hope get the better of me.
For all I knew, she could be pacing on the other side, ready to rip me a new one for something I'd inadvertently done…
But when I stepped inside, all those thoughts faded.
There she stood, Diana, Queen of Werewolves, dressed in nothing but a black, silk robe. The ends of the belt hung to the floor, leaving it wide open, exposing a wide swath of skin that made my cock throb.
"Diana, I?—"
"Don't talk, Raven." She closed the short distance between us and reached behind me to shove the door closed, her breasts brushing my chest…the sweet smell of her hair filling my head. "I don't want to talk. My whole life has been flipped upside down. I'm doubting every decision I've ever made. I'm wondering why I was given that second chance by the sea that day only to have everything I've worked for snatched away…if all this pain and struggle and fighting to prove I belong has been for naught. I'm angry, grief-stricken, and confused." She laid a hand on my chest and searched my eyes with her own. "And when I look for my North Star, just to feel grounded for one fucking second—just to feel like I'm not completely spinning out of control?" Her hand slid up to cup my face. "The only thing I see is you." She lifted onto her tiptoes and peppered kisses along my jaw. "So can we just not talk about…any of it? Can we just be together for tonight and forget all the ugliness and uncertainty?"
"Fuck yes," I rasped, closing my hands over her silk-covered hips. Didn't she know that I would deny her nothing? Didn't she know that, through all the uncertainty, the one thing I was sure of was her? It wasn't the night to tell her. But I would damn sure show her.
I tightened my grip and hoisted her up in one smooth motion, and she instinctively straddled my waist. I knew just from the sudden rush of her lush, earthy scent that she wasn't wearing underwear, but a quick glance down confirmed it, and I let out a growl. "You're so fucking sexy, Frostbite."
She flexed her quads, lifting herself higher and plastering her breasts against my chest, leaning in to take a sharp nip at my jaw.
“Please,” she whispered. Since this had been the stuff of my wet dreams for the past few months, she didn't need to ask me twice.
I covered the space of the large room in six long strides, everything I passed evoking a new image to torture me.
Diana, seated on the edge of my low, mahogany dresser, legs spread wide as I licked her from back to belly.
Diana, bent at the waist, elbows on the zebra print chair in the corner, ass high in the air as I took her from behind.
Diana, in my rainwater shower, water sluicing down her body as I worshiped her with my tongue.
But for tonight, I went for the bed and just had to hope that she stayed long enough for seconds…or thirds.
I turned and sat on the edge of the mattress, sliding my hands from her hips to her ass and grinding her tight against my straining cock. Her robe slithered off her shoulders and down to her elbows, bearing the rest of her torso to me. I let out a long groan as her perfect, round tits came into full view, which made her chuckle.
“Is it wrong that I think it’s kind of hot that you enjoy my pain?” I rasped, not waiting to hear her answer as I dipped my head low and flicked one hard nipple with the tip of my tongue. Her gasp in return as she plunged her fingers into my hair was anything but funny.
My fangs broke free of my gums, and I stiffened, remembering myself. I had to be careful, making every effort to ensure she didn't feel them against her skin. She claimed that I was her safe place, her North Star. But deep in my heart I knew one reminder of what I was—what we were, now—and what I'd taken from her? And that could all go down in flames.
I shoved the thought aside, sucking her nipple into my mouth and batting it with my tongue as she speared her fingers through my hair, her breath catching. I sucked deeper and she began to rock her hips against me, grinding on my cock in a way that made me feel like a teenage boy again.
“Ah, Raven, that feels so good,” she whispered. I flexed my hips against her, damning my stupid pants and the rest of my clothes. But I couldn't quite bring myself to let her go long enough to remove them.
I trailed a hand up her silky stomach and higher to cup her other breast, and she shivered. “Please, Raven, I just need to feel you inside me right now.”
Any thoughts of trying to take it slow sizzled away as my brain short-circuited. I flipped her over in one smooth motion until she was flat on her back, legs dangling over the side of the mattress, robe splayed wide like a silky canvas to the most perfect painting ever created. I snapped my mouth closed, willing my fangs to retract as I stared down at her, etching the image in my mind for all eternity. Her lips parted, black hair spread across the mattress, legs falling open just enough for me to see that silky swath of pink that seemed to call to me.
I yanked my shirt over my head and tore my pants off, leaving myself naked to her gaze. Her eyes went wide as she leaned up on one elbow and reached out a hand to close her fingers over my throbbing member.
I let my head drop back as a hiss escaped my lips. Everything seemed to be in crisp hyper-focus…her lush scent filling my head, the slow drag of her soft hand as she worked me up and down, her breath coming faster and faster. I could even hear the pounding of her heart and the blood rushing in my own ears. The sight of it, her small hand stroking up and down, slow, and then faster, nearly undid me. I could come like this in thirty seconds if I let myself. Instead, I used every ounce of willpower I had and pulled away.
“Not so fast, Frostbite,” I muttered, the sound a guttural facsimile of my normal voice. “I need to taste you.”
Those chilly eyes seemed to shoot with flames as she let herself drop back against the mattress again. “Do your worst,” she said with a feral smile.
I slowly dropped to my knees, savoring every moment as I lifted both of her legs and swung them over my shoulders, spreading her wide before my hungry gaze.
Her pussy glistened in the dim light, pink and slick and ready for my tongue, and I dove in like a man starving, lapping and licking and sucking, losing myself in her. So wet, so hot…
Dimly, I could hear her calling my name as she once again drove her fingers through my hair and clutched tight, alternately pinning me closer, melding my mouth to her clit, and then pulling away, begging for mercy, before starting the cycle all over again. She bucked and grinded, and I held her tight, a port in the storm.
When her legs tightened and I could feel her muscles trembling, I released her, sliding her further up the bed until she was spread-eagle. Then, I climbed onto the bed, wedging my shoulders between her silky thighs. Breath suspended, I slid one long finger deep inside her channel, groaning as the wet heat closed over me like a velvet glove.
“AH!”
I had to block out her cries as I flicked at her clit with the very tip of my tongue, alternating close, long licks, short flicks, and a deep thrust with my finger.
Her hips began to bounce as she whimpered my name. “Raven, please, don't stop. Don't stop, I'm gonna?—”
She broke off as I plunged my finger deep one last time and sucked her clit hard. As she exploded, as she came, hard, her pussy closing over my finger, gripping and releasing, and making my cock flex and bounce in time as I imagined how that would feel around me. I held her through her climax until she shivered and twitched in the aftermath.
It wasn't until her legs went limp, and she sucked in one last shuddering breath that I gently pulled my finger back and lifted my head.
“So fucking perfect,” I murmured through gritted teeth.
Don't think about what it would feel like to plunge those fangs into her thigh. Don't think about how hard she would come if you put that finger back in as you drank from her.
Someday maybe she'd be ready for that, and I would be there. But if that day never came? I took in her glowing skin, flushed cheeks, eyes glassy with desire—this would be more than any man deserved.
I climbed up higher until my body was poised over hers. As weak as she seemed, she managed to lift both hands up and run them over my shoulders and biceps, and she squeezed my muscles.
“Thank the gods clothing is a thing,” she said. “I don't know how the fuck I'd keep the other ladies off of you if they knew what you looked like naked.”
I bent low and touched my nose to hers. “Frostbite, one thing you never have to worry about is other women. I can't see anybody but you.”
And with that, I flexed my hips and nudged at her warm, wet entrance with the thick head of my cock. She froze instantly, and I paused.
“You want me to wait?” I asked. Praying the answer was no, but ready to roll to my side if need be. She shook her head, and her eyes seemed to gleam with a fresh sheen of tears.
“No, I just…It feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this. You know what I mean?”
I knew exactly what she meant. And we both held our breath as I slowly drove my hips forward, taking her inch by inch, deeper and deeper, until my cock was seated to the hilt, leaving her to stretch and pulse around me. Her throat worked as she tipped her head back, nostrils flaring as she breathed in and out through her nose.
“It's like coming home,” she whispered.
In the dim light, I could see the very tips of her fangs poking through her gums. Seeing them, wishing she would latch on to me as I thrust in and out, only made my cock stiffer. And then I was moving inside her, in and out. The hot, silky drag of her flesh working me over and over in a dizzying rhythm. I should’ve savored it. Slowed down and took my time, but the pressure building inside me was like an avalanche. There was no stopping it.
“Frostbite…” I hissed, squeezing my eyes closed as her nails dug into the muscles of my back, driving me over the edge. The taste of her still on my lips, the scent of her swamping my senses. She bucked and stiffened beneath me even as I came in pulsing, hot jets, unable to hold it in a second longer. “Mine!”
But it was in the moments after, as we caught our breath and came back to earth, that the bond between us shimmered with her unspoken reply.
Yours.
I rolled to my side and dragged her with me, blood humming with satisfaction and hope.
She might not have said it out loud…it might take a little more time for her to accept, but something deep inside her knew it too, as surely as I did. We were meant to be. The knowledge only lit a fire under me like never before.
If a life with Diana was even possibly part of my future, I’d tear the world apart to see it happen—Maverick’s smirking face flickered through my mind.
And gods help anyone who tried to stand in my way.