Bonus Epilogue
RUSH
Elowyn lay atop our bed in nothing but her crown. I’d considered removing it after stripping her clothes from her body, but she was my queen too, not just the kingdom’s.
She had become my everything .
As the days had rolled by, cementing the danger to my mate was eradicated, my bond-beast had gradually settled. I no longer remembered what it felt like to share my body with another female—I certainly didn’t want to. The feel, scent, taste, sound, and sight of Elowyn had imprinted onto my essence.
Hers was the tune I found myself humming. Her ready smiles lit me from the inside. I found myself longing for the warmth of her skin against mine practically in every moment she was away from me.
She lay on her stomach across our large bed. The enticing swell of her perfectly round ass, the feminine dip of her waist, the long line of her elegant spine, the lean muscles of her legs … they all competed to draw my eye. She tossed her head, and my attention followed the silky wave of her long, dark hair. When she bent a leg, pointed a toe, and swung it coquettishly, I tracked the movement of her rounded calf too.
“Whatcha waitin’ for, handsome?” She licked her lips suggestively; my cock gave a jerk that she surely caught even though it was subtle. “You look ready for action to me.”
I licked my own lips, counseling myself to have patience when her mere proximity was enough to send my body into immediate readiness, ready to pounce.
“There’s something I wanna do first.” My voice eked out rough and stilted from my restraint. Elowyn was fragrant, juicy, succulent meat laid out like a feast for the beast inside me.
She tsked as she swung her leg some more. “If you’re trying to get me to give you your gift early, no way. You’re gonna have to earn it.”
I arched a single brow though the precision required focus. But there was something about the look she found irresistibly sexy. Her stare took in my look , and I had to suppress a triumphant grin when she squirmed. It wouldn’t do for her to realize she held all the power, albeit she likely had already.
“Haven’t I already earned it?” I asked.
“Well, yes.” Her eyes trailed from my face down my body. She licked her lips again, only this time I didn’t think it was for effect. “You have, but…”
“But what?”
“But I don’t want to wait for”—she rose from one of her elbows to wave in my general direction, encompassing my entire body—“you know, you . Half the time Hobart was talking I busied myself fantasizing about you.”
“Oh yeah? Tell me more.”
I knelt onto the bed, which put my dick at the height of her gaze. She dragged herself across the silk coverlet. Her hand was already reaching for me when I pulled back.
“Wait.”
“Why?” she whined, her fingers circling around my erection anyway.
“‘Cause I wanna revisit our vows. From our mating ceremony.”
“Now?”
I nodded. My hair had grown past my shoulders; I’d tied it back at my nape.
She sat back onto her knees and my gaze immediately found her plump, pert breasts. “Okay. That sounds … nice.” I felt her smile, and dragged my eyes up to her face. No matter how many of them she offered me, they felt like a special gift each time.
“I’ll say them fast though,” I offered. My desire pulsed through my body; my bond-beast was awakening. Soon it would push me to claim our mate.
She chuckled. “Yes, please.”
I settled back onto my knees as well. When she drew closer still, my hands couldn’t help but land on her thighs .
“You remember them?” she asked.
My chin jerked back into my neck. “Of course I do. They marked the most important day of my life.”
“Mmmm. That’s nice.”
Both brows arched. “Do you not remember them?”
One side of her mouth ticked up. It was one of her many mischievous looks. “Remind me.”
I clasped her hands atop her thighs and forced my attention to her eyes. They glowed a violet identical to olvidian’s pale flower—apropos, since she was as addictive as the drug distilled from the flower’s juice.
“Elowyn Xiomara Ashira, you are both mistress and queen of my heart. You are my mate, the essence that was designed to complement my own since the beginning of time. I will honor you today and forever with each of my thoughts, words, and actions. I will love you until the end of time.”
Her eyes shiny, the dewy luminescence of her skin a warm silver, she beamed back at me. Her voice was thick when she clasped my hands harder and intoned, “Rush Vega, you are both master and king of my heart, so you leave your crown on too. You are my mate, the essence that was designed to complement my own since the beginning of time. I will honor you today and forever with each of my thoughts, words, and actions. I will love you until the end of time.”
I took in the beauty of the female across from me until my vision blurred and my heart felt as if it had swelled to ten times its natural size. “Never has there been a more fortunate male than I. I’ve truly been blessed by the Ethers with the fortune of dragons.”
She chortled. “Well, now that the fortune of the dragons has been reversed so completely, I can agree with you. We’ve both been blessed with the fortune of dragons.”
I leaned forward, pressing my lips ever so gently to hers so she could sense how much of a treasure she was. She kissed me back, and just as the kiss was deepening, our bodies heating, our chests starting to heave, she pulled back, leaning her forehead against mine. Our crowns tinged like musical instruments as they brushed together.
“What is it?” I panted, her lips so close to mine.
“I changed my mind. I want to give you your gift now. Even joking, I don’t want you to think you have to do a single thing more to earn my appreciation.”
“I don’t.”
“Then let me give you my present.”
I inhaled, exhaled, dragged my face from hers, my chest away, struggling as if she were magnetic ore. “Let’s have it, then.”
“Well, don’t go sounding pushy now or I might change my mind again. It’s a fe?—”
“It’s a female’s prerogative. Yes, I know.” It was a lesson I’d learned well by now.
She gave me a narrow-eyed look of warning, but I was too busy admiring her back, ass, and legs as she stalked across the room to her armoire for it to land properly .
She returned with a slender black box and offered it to me with another of her mischievous smiles. This one made her eyes sparkle.
I ripped off the silky black bow, popped off the top, and stared into the box.
I blinked, then blinked again, before removing the item from its bed of silk, also black. I held up the band of shiny gold, encrusted in red gems that must have been rubies.
I shook my head in disbelief. “Is this…?”
“A magnificent, bejeweled crown for your even more magnificent, bejeweled wand? Why yes, yes it is.” Her grin was proud.
Pinched between my finger and thumb, I turned the small crown around so that it would catch the sunlight filtering through open windows.
“Oh fuck,” El groaned. “I went too far, didn’t I? The whole bejeweled wand banter was just supposed to be a joke, and I went and commissioned the realm’s most gifted jeweler to make a crown for him.”
Working very hard to restrain the mirth that wanted to dance across my face, I extended the crown to her.
Her shoulders slumped. “I’ll give it back to them. They can pluck off the rubies and melt down the gold to use for?—”
“Put it on.” My command was a growl.
Her eyes jumped from the crown in her hand to mine, her forehead furrowed a bit. “Put it on?”
“Aye, mate . Crown him. ”
“Really?”
“Do you not want to?”
“Oh yes. Oh fuck yes, I do.” Her response was husky. Yet again, she licked her lips.
I rose to my knees. My cock was stiff and proud, bridging the distance between us.
“Fuck, how am I ever gonna focus on anything Hobart says from here on out? This is all I’ll be able to see.”
The primitive beast inside me preened like a fucking dragon strutting to entice his mate.
“Hobart who?” I asked. “I might never be able to hear another word anyone else says for the rest of time.”
Her stare trained on my cock, she hummed appreciatively, nibbled on her bottom lip, pulled it into her mouth…
She lowered to her elbows though she didn’t need to, but it pushed her ass up into the air above her knees. When she looked up at me from under her lashes, her olvidian eyes bright, I understood she was positioning herself intentionally. She was anticipating that in seconds I’d be pouncing on her and shoving inside her from behind, thanks to her ass waving in the air.
She leaned forward, gripped my dick with one hand, his crown in the other. When she licked his proud head, my entire body shuddered, and I almost crested right then and there.
“El,” I groaned, part warning, part pleasure.
“What?” she asked innocently while she closed her lips around my shaft and sucked up and down the length of it.
My hips bucked.
I sucked in a hard inhale through gritted teeth. “Crown him now. Or don’t. But I’m not gonna wait any longer.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked in that same innocent town as she swirled her tongue around the engorged, swollen tip. “Whatcha gonna do?”
I jerked my head down so my mouth was next to her ear. “I’m gonna shove this rock-hard dick so deep inside you that you’ll forget where you end and I begin. And I won’t stop till you’re screaming my name and you’ve lost count of all your ethercrests.”
She whimpered. “I see.” The two short words were shaky.
Her fingers ran up and down my cock once more, then she slipped the crown around his head.
“It fits perfectly,” she whispered, still shaky. “I had to give them dimensions”—she shuddered, her eyes drinking in the sight of my crowned dick—“from memory.”
The reminder that my crowned cock was the only one she paid attention to, the only one she’d ever ridden, broke the rest of my composure.
“Thank you for my gift, El. My cock loves it.”
She leaned back onto her knees, her stare still fixed on my erection, standing by my waist … and slowly, like she was revealing the gate to the Etherlands … spread her legs .
“Take it off him,” I growled like a beast.
She swallowed, her mouth dropped open, and she slid the crown from his head.
I assumed she’d toss it onto the bed. But my mate never did things exactly the way I expected. She was a continual series of … intoxicating … exhilarating … erotic … surprises.
She twirled the small crown around her finger, waggled her brows in another sign of tantalizing mischief, and lowered herself slowly down to the bed. When she placed the golden circlet around one of her hard nipples, I didn’t think—it was possible I was incapable of it. The bond-beast deep within me flexed its big muscles and I descended on my female I could never get enough of as if my beast were famished.
With the crown circling my mouth, I sucked hard on her nipple.
Her back arched off the bed as she moaned like an animal herself.
Her thighs wrapped around my waist, pulling me toward her hot, molten center.
I slid through the welcoming, slick gates—straight into the heart of the Etherlands.