Chapter 10 #3
I hooked my hand on the balustrade of the royal viewing box and swung myself up. I didn’t spare the royals in the viewing box more than a cursory glance.
I rose from my crouch to face the crowd, who shouted and stomped at my daring. My back was to the demon king, who sat in his usual throne directly behind me.
I shot the tiniest tendril of power left to me into my voice. “Oyx Wehy!”
Silence fell over the crowd like a blanket. Had they ever heard me speak? Perhaps not.
The arena rumbled and swayed as they renewed their screams and shrieks and leaping.
Hell yes. Carmine’s subjects were mine.
I turned and jumped down, then crossed to where Carmine was sprawled on his throne.
His sprawl was a lie he wished others to believe.
His sprawl likely covered everything he had feared while watching me fight.
But like me, the demon king was covering his weakness as though his life depended on it.
Because for a demon, life did depend on the illusion of power.
I leaned on the armrests of his throne and let my hair swing forward to block his mother and sister’s view of my face. Carmine’s gray eyes locked on mine, and I let my exhaustion show.
His jaw tightened, and he took my hand before rising. I’ll help you.
He pulled me to the balustrade to face his royal minions. “My mate-intended has fought well today, as only a queen could. I must reward her.”
I’ll help you, but not without something in return.
His comment earned a smattering of smirks and chuckles. I was too worn out to do anything other than go along with things.
He opened a portal and swept inside, dragging me with him. And when the portal closed and the screams of the crowd snapped off, my knees buckled.
I fell forward into Carmine’s arms, and he sucked in a breath as our bodies aligned. His ink designs were under my cheek. My palm was against his chest.
“I can’t stand,” I whispered.
“Are you injured?” he hissed.
I shook my head. “Just weak.”
“I gather,” he said after a beat. “Where shall I carry you? To the shower?”
I would love nothing more than to wash chunks of flesh off my body, but a shower wasn’t an option.
A woman’s body changed after giving birth and feeding a baby, and though brutal, unhinged training had sculpted my body so much otherwise, it couldn’t hide the changes to my boobs.
My nipples had changed in pregnancy, and for feeding Adeuto too.
Carmine might guess the truth if he saw them.
Though that was less and less of a consideration as fire lit my body.
I gasped against the lust that gave me the strength to lift my head and gape at Carmine. “Get away.”
“I won’t take advantage of you,” he said calmly.
So calmly.
Too calmly.
Lust crashed on me in waves, one after the other, a vicious storm. I couldn’t get my head above water. My hands roamed over Carmine as a foreign strength filled me, and I was able to claw my way up to hook my hands around his neck, and my legs around his body.
He strode down the hall with me in tow. Walking with me but otherwise ignoring my groping.
This wasn’t normal. The denied mating affected us both. But the part of my mind that whispered such things was distant.
I moaned and set my lips to the base of his neck. His smell, his taste. I licked a trail up his neck, and the demon king went rigid.
I smirked.
“Enough,” he growled.
I set my teeth against the edge of one of his crimson scales. I’d never thought to do such a thing, but the challenge felt natural. I released his scale to moan, “I want you.”
Mother be, but I was panting with how much I needed from him.
Carmine set me against a wall and captured my gaze. “You don’t want me. You hate me.”
“I want you more than I hate you,” I snarled, and tears squeezed from my eyes too.
I’d never wanted him more.
Carmine grunted and pressed his forehead to mine. “You would regret this, Syera.”
The change in movement had pushed me lower. On to the very thing that I wanted.
My hips were grinding on his rock-solid erection before I’d had the thought to do so.
“Syera.” Carmine pulled my hands from around his neck, but I quickened my grinding movements, sensing that he was about to draw this to a close.
He inhaled sharply, and his gray eyes locked on me, finally glazing over to reflect mine.
Carmine settled a hand under my ass and pressed his cock to my core.
“If you want it. Then take it,” he said.
He shoved my hands against the wall, locking them there, and then pressed his forehead to the wall next to my head. Carmine remained frozen in place, unspeaking and unmoving as I whimpered and moaned and sought my end.
I’d been deprived for three years and tortured by lust too.
This was never going to take long.
I screamed in agony at the intensity and force of the pleasure. And then my release was all pleasure. So much pleasure that I screamed in fear of being consumed. So much that I could only give up and be swept away.
Destroyed.
Left utterly weak and defenseless, especially after the expenditure of power used in the arena.
When Carmine stepped back, I slid down the wall and crumpled in a heap.
I listed to the side, and the floor rushed to meet me.
And as black smoke crept across my vision, I watched the blurry form of Carmine stride away down the hall.