Chapter 21
There was no sound explanation as to how I’d found my inner vixen.
All of Jack’s forms were gorgeous—the fae, the man, the icy parts of his creature.
The anticipation of what was to come, now that I had started it, had me in a tantalizing mix of excitement and trepidation.
The warm water was a delicious embrace to my skin, the coldness of my magic reacting to it, creating floating ribbons of steam.
I turned in time to see Jack naked, standing at the pool’s entrance and watching me.
My gaze unabashedly roamed his chiseled, muscled form, starting at the sleeve tattoo wrapping his right arm, the carved chest muscle, six-pack abs, and that thick, intimidating cock.
It appeared the same as the male I’d been with all those years ago, another fae, but Jack’s glowed with bright blue veins that matched his eyes.
I sank into the water up to my breasts, letting my nipples peek above the surface.
Jack took calculated, slow steps into the spring, pressing his hands to each side of the stones surrounding me.
He lowered his face to mine and kissed me—hard, deep, and with such ferocity I could tell he’d been holding it in for centuries as he claimed.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, my own impatience wearing thin, I kissed him back—feverishly, ravenously.
With my touch, he could withstand the heat from the hot spring to enjoy its warmth.
His icy beard pressed against my chin, cooling my face, while my legs remained warm from the pool.
Jack curled an arm around my lower back and carried me to the edge, resting me on the snow-covered moss.
Snowflakes fell around us in droves, collecting in my hair and eyelashes.
Jack lifted a finger, his magic surrounding it, turning it into shimmering ice.
He dragged it between my breasts, the chilled sensation calling to me as a winter faerie, making my wings go taut.
Jack moved to one nipple, flicking it, and making me moan before sliding his finger down my stomach.
He paused above my clit, teasing me there, gliding back and forth before pressing against it.
The intensity had me writhing, but Jack kept a hand at my back, steadying me.
When he moved his finger lower still, I sucked in a breath, realizing what he was about to do.
Flashing my eyes open, I gazed between my legs, watching his icy digit slowly slip inside me. My head rolled back and I dug my nails into Jack’s shoulders, panting at the icy hot bliss surging through my core.
Jack growled, pumping in and out of me now before lowering his lips to my ear. “You’re chilled perfection. Not warm at all.”
Blinking, unsure if I could manage a coherent sentence, I peered at him. “Not warm? Is that a bad thing?”
A second icy finger slipped in, filling me more, and I whimpered.
“It’s an amazing thing, faerie. Heat makes me uncomfortable.
I hate it.” Jack fucked me with his fingers, his bicep bulging with every thrust. “It’s always been a need to satisfy my creature, and it’s always nearly driven me mad.
But not with you, Sylvie.” Jack kissed my jaw, my cheek, my nose, before feathering his lips against mine. “Not with my mate.”
The euphoria built and built until reaching its peak. I cried out, shuddering through my release. A whimper bubbled at the back of my throat when Jack removed his fingers, the emptiness devastating.
I traced my fingers over his ice beard, fighting the urge to slump to the ground in a satiated heap. “I never knew it could feel that good.”
“Sylvaria,” Jack whispered, gravelly and rough. “You have no idea.”
Wrapping my hand around the back of his neck, I pulled him to me, kissing him, devouring him, hungry for more and more and whatever else he could give me. “Show me.”
A wicked grin slid over Jack’s lips, and he grabbed both of my calves from the water, propping them on the moss.
He took one of my legs and stretched it to one side, pulling the other in the opposite direction so it dangled in the pool.
Jack cupped one of my ass cheeks, kneading it, before lifting it to reveal my pussy to him.
A guttural groan escaped his chest as he ogled me.
I leaned back on my elbows, furiously biting my bottom lip.
Jack positioned himself at my entrance, and I stared at the glowing cerulean veins pulsing faster, matching his racing heart.
He slowly pushed inside me, locking his gaze with mine, watching my every reaction, my body language.
I winced when the head went all the way in, partially from the momentary discomfort, but mostly because I didn’t want it to happen to him. Not Jack. Not my mate.
Jack paused and tilted his head, waiting until my expression relaxed before he pushed more of himself in.
He massaged my ass, the other hand squeezing my breast and tweaking the nipple.
“Relax, Sylvie.” He circled a thumb over my cheek, dragging it past my bottom lip, and catching on it.
“You can’t give frostbite to the winter king. ”
Jack drove the rest of the way into me, and my back arched, wings flapping so fiercely they fanned my hair.
He held onto my hip for purchase, thrusting slowly at first, letting me get acclimated not only to having a male entirely inside me for the first time, but to the sheer girth of him.
The chill from his cock sent jolts of icy bliss through my core.
I’d been gripping tightly around him, but when I eased up, allowing the sensations of him rocking in and out of me, rubbing that sensitive spot at the center, Jack picked up the pace.
He slammed into me now, his hips slapping against my ass, over and over.
I reached for his corded forearm, digging my fingers into it, my breath turning into gasping pants. When the now more familiar sensation built this time, it shot so far as my toes, making them curl. I was so close—right there, and Jack, with a devilish smile, stopped.
“What are you doing?” I breathed out, my chest heaving, and I fought the urge to strangle him.
“Not yet, my little arctic fox,” he crooned, spreading me wide and settling between my thighs.
Lying back to enjoy the view, I scraped my nails down his stomach. “You’re not the boss of me.”
“Don’t act as if you don’t like it,” Jack snarled, pushing into me to the hilt again.
He hitched one knee by his side and rolled his hips—and winter’s blessing, the friction, the ever-tightening tension building in my core, had me groaning.
“In fact, I think you’ve liked my commandeering attitude from the beginning. Haven’t you?”
Jack asked a question, I heard him, but this felt too fucking good to miss even one delicious moment of it. Moaning, digging my nails into his chest, I replied with a breathy, “Yes.”
“And my creature,” Jack continued, lowering his head to suck on my neck. “You like him too, don’t you?”
Fucking goddesses, I did. His creature was all-powerful, monstrous, protective, and all mine.
“Yes, Jakzair,” I moaned, moving my hands to his muscular, plump ass and squeezing it. “Yes.”
Jack let out a relieved sigh into my hair. “You’re perfect, Sylvie. Fucking. Perfect.”
Tears filled my eyes at that. Having lived so many years being told I was anything but perfect and more of a liability and a threat, Jack didn’t know how much those words meant to me.
“Use your magic.” Jack grazed his canines over my nape, and I stilled, wondering if he was going to bite me there. Was I ready to be claimed? To fully see this through that fast? “You can’t hurt anyone or anything in these woods. Use it.”
The last words weren’t a question, they were a fucking command. One, I was more than willing to follow. I’d never let loose with my powers, never explored what they could do for fear of destroying everything.
When Jack flicked his thumb against my clit in tandem with his ferocious thrusts, I came completely undone.
Screaming through my release, my magic responded with me, ice spires plunging from the earth around us and rising so high they pierced through the tree branches.
Jack pumped three more times, his cock suddenly thickening inside me, sealing us together.
I never thought I could feel this full. When Jack spilled himself, his back arched, head tilting back to let out his creature’s roar.
The sight of it made my magic flutter over my skin, patterning glowing ice chips down the length of my body. Additional patches formed on my cheeks, neck, and forehead, chilling my skin and soothing me.
When he came down from his high, Jack peered at me with those ethereal, icy eyes.
His brow bobbed at my magic had done—the deadly spires, the new skin.
Jack gripped my chin with one hand and bent to kiss me, pooling his own wintry magic into me and adding to my icy patterns, blue snowflakes, and silver dust.
“I curse myself for ever questioning you as my mate, Sylvaria.” Jack searched my face as if he feared I’d despise him for that.
Pinching my knees against his ribs, I pulled him closer, the water from the hot spring sloshing and steaming. “You have a long time to make it up to me.”
Jack nodded, his hand gliding down my neck until it rested on the crook, his finger lazily tracing over my skin, mesmerized by it. “And I see no reason why we should wait on me claiming you.”
Sudden panic tore the euphoria from me like a snapping twig. “Wait, what?”
Jack arched a brow and frowned before slowly pulling out of me. He said nothing and grimaced at the heat wafting from the pool.
Slipping into the hot spring and resting a hand on his shoulder, I gulped. “Jack, we just got together. We just got over this hurdle of accepting we’re mates. Why do you want to rush this?”
Jack still kept silent, his hands wringing together, icy barbs forming over his knuckles.
“What aren’t you telling me? And I want the truth, Jakzair.”