Chapter 61
sixty-one
Alain
Iwoke to the strange, pulsing heat of the claiming mark on my shoulder.
It hadn’t been there yesterday. At least not visibly, but now it burned like a brand, a perfect circle overlapping with three others at its center.
The sensation wasn’t painful, just... present.
Insistent. Like Isabeau’s magic had sunk into my blood and bones, rewiring me from the inside out.
Her naked body pressed against mine, warm and soft in all the places I was hard, and my cock responded instantly to the memory of being inside her.
God, I needed her again. Needed to feel that connection, that moment when she’d claimed me and I’d felt not just her pleasure but the presence of three others.
Her beasts were watching, feeling, accepting me into something I couldn’t fully comprehend.
Dawn light filtered through the living walls of our tree sanctuary, casting everything in a soft, amber glow that matched Isabeau’s eyes. She slept peacefully, her auburn hair spilled across my chest, her full lips slightly parted with each breath.
The sight of her being vulnerable, beautiful, and powerful beyond measure made my heart clench in ways I’d never experienced before. This wasn’t the carefully calculated courtship rituals of Durand’s nobility. This was raw and real and terrifying in its intensity.
I trailed my fingers down her spine, marveling at the softness of her skin. She stirred against me, making a small sound of pleasure that shot straight to my groin. My cock hardened further, pressing insistently against her thigh.
“Mmm,” she murmured, her eyes fluttering open. Those amber depths focused on me, recognition followed by something warmer, more primal. “Good morning, my prince.”
The possessive pronoun sent a surge of pleasure through me. My prince. As if I belonged to her now, which, if I was honest with myself, I absolutely did.
“Good morning, my beauty,” I whispered, sliding my hand lower to cup the perfect roundness of her ass. “I dreamt of you, but you did not join me this time.”
Her lips curved into a smile that held both innocence and newfound confidence. “Did you?” She shifted, deliberately rubbing herself against my hardness. “And what was I doing in this dream without my consciousness present?”
I growled low in my throat, rolling her beneath me in one fluid motion. Her legs parted instinctively, cradling me between her thighs where I could feel the wet heat of her desire. “Much the same as what I’d like you to be doing now,” I said, my voice rough with need.
Isabeau arched beneath me, her hands sliding up my arms to grip my shoulders. The claiming mark throbbed at her touch, sending waves of pleasure radiating outward. “We should be leaving,” she said, though her body contradicted her words as she opened wider for me. “The hunters—”
“Will be slowed by the forest,” I finished for her, dropping my head to taste the sensitive skin of her neck. “We have time for this. For us.”
She made a sound of delight as I nipped at the pulse point below her ear, her hips lifting to seek more contact. “Just... quickly then,” she breathed, her fingers digging into my shoulders.
I laughed against her skin, the sound vibrating between us. “A quick fuck before we run for our lives? How romantic of you, my sorceress.”
Her eyes widened at my crude language, but her pupils dilated with arousal. “I’ve never heard a prince talk like that before.”
“I’ve never claimed a witch before,” I countered, positioning myself at her entrance. She was already slick, ready for me, her body remembering what we’d shared just hours earlier. “But I find myself inspired to all sorts of impropriety when it comes to you.”
With that, I pushed forward, sinking into her in one smooth thrust that had us both gasping.
The tight heat of her engulfed me, squeezing perfectly around my length.
I had to pause, forehead pressed against hers, fighting for control.
This connection, it was more than physical now.
Through the claiming mark, I could feel echoes of her pleasure feeding back into me, multiplying my own.
And beneath that, the distant but unmistakable presence of three others, linked to her and now, impossibly, to me.
“Can you feel them?” she whispered, her eyes locked on mine as if she could see into my soul. “My beasts?”
I nodded, unable to find words for the sensation.
It wasn’t like hearing voices or feeling foreign emotions.
It was subtler than that. A resonance, like plucking one string and feeling others vibrate in harmony.
Their presence wasn’t an intrusion but an amplification.
What had been incredible with just Isabeau now had additional dimensions I couldn’t fully comprehend.
“It’s... fuck, it’s intense,” I managed, beginning to move within her. Each thrust sent shockwaves through the connection, pleasure reflected and multiplied between us. “Is this what it’s always like for you?”
She shook her head, her hair spreading across the moss beneath us like spilled wine. “No... it’s new. Different. More complete now that you’re part of it.”
The thought should have disturbed me. Sharing her, sharing this connection with three monstrous princes trapped in another realm was madness by any rational standard.
I was a prince of Durand, second son to a king who executed women for far less magical transgressions than claiming multiple mates through supernatural bonds.
If anyone discovered what had happened here, what I’d become part of, I’d be stripped of my title and likely my life.
And yet, as I drove into her willing body, as I felt her pleasure spiral through our connection and back, I couldn’t bring myself to care. Whatever this was, magic or madness or both, it felt right in ways nothing in my life ever had.
“Alain,” she gasped, her inner walls beginning to flutter around me as I increased my pace. “Oh, Alain!”
My name on her lips was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
I shifted my angle, driving deeper, hitting that spot inside her that made her back arch and her breath catch.
Through our connection, I could feel exactly what she needed, could feel the building pressure of her pleasure as if it were my own.
“That’s it,” I encouraged, reaching between us to circle her sensitive bud with my thumb. “Let go for me, Isabeau. Let me feel you come apart because of my cock.”
Her eyes widened, locked on mine as the first wave hit her.
“Alain!” she cried out, her voice echoing in our wooden sanctuary as her inner walls clenched rhythmically around me.
The sensation, amplified through our bond, nearly pushed me over the edge, but I gritted my teeth, determined to draw out her pleasure.
I kept moving through her climax, each thrust sending new ripples of ecstasy through her that I could feel echoing back to me.
And beneath it all, that strange triple-presence, watching, feeling, participating in a way that should have felt intrusive but instead heightened everything to almost unbearable levels.
As her orgasm began to subside, I finally allowed myself to chase my own release. My rhythm faltered as the pressure built at the base of my spine, coiling tighter with each thrust. “Isabeau,” I groaned, her name like a prayer or a curse. “I’m close.”
“Inside,” she demanded, her legs wrapping around my waist to hold me deep like she was just as addicted to our bond. “I want to feel you.”
That was all it took. With a final, powerful thrust, I buried myself as deep as possible and let go.
My release tore through me with an intensity that bordered on pain, wave after wave of pleasure flooding my senses as I emptied myself inside her.
Through our connection, I felt the moment her body accepted my seed, felt something click into place like the final piece of a puzzle I hadn’t known I was solving.
For an endless moment, the world narrowed to just this. Our joined bodies, our synchronized heartbeats, and the claiming mark pulsing in time with both. Even the distant presence of the beasts seemed to recede, giving us this moment that belonged to just us.
When I could think again, I carefully shifted my weight to avoid crushing her, though I remained inside her, unwilling to break our connection just yet.
Her face was flushed with pleasure, her eyes soft as they met mine.
Something in her expression made my chest tighten with emotions I wasn’t ready to name.
On impulse, I lowered my head, intending to kiss her. But as my lips brushed hers, she stiffened slightly, uncertain. I pulled back enough to see her expression. Curious but hesitant with a tinge of fear, as if this simple intimacy was somehow more foreign to her than what we’d just shared.
“You’ve never been kissed properly, have you?” I asked, the realization hitting me with a pang.
She bit her lower lip, looking suddenly younger, more vulnerable. “The beasts licked but their snouts,” she started before tensing. “Gaspard never... it wasn’t about that for him, and when he did, it was to hurt me.”
The rage that swept through me at the mention of his name must have shown on my face, because she reached up to stroke my cheek, soothing.
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “I’m free of him now.”
“It’s not okay,” I growled, the protective instinct surging through me so powerfully I wondered if it came from me or from the beasts now connected to me. “None of what he did to you was okay.”
Rather than argue, she simply waited, her eyes steady on mine until the worst of my anger receded. Then, with a vulnerability that broke my heart, she whispered, “Will you show me? What a real kiss is supposed to be?”
The trust in her question undid me completely. This woman who commanded magic beyond mortal understanding, who rode unicorns and conversed with forest creatures, who had bound herself to four different men from two different realms, was asking me to teach her something as simple as a kiss.
My voice turned gentler than I’d thought possible. “I’d be honored.”
I lowered my head again, but instead of capturing her lips immediately, I brushed my nose against hers, a soft nuzzle that made her smile. Then I pressed my lips to her forehead, her temple, the curve of her cheek, building anticipation with each gentle touch.
When I finally met her lips with mine, I kept the pressure light, letting her accustom herself to the sensation. Her hands came up to rest on my shoulders, steadying herself as if she might float away without the anchor.
“Like this,” I murmured against her mouth, demonstrating with gentle pressure, coaxing her lips to move with mine. She was a quick study, mimicking my movements with increasing confidence. When I traced the seam of her lips with my tongue, she gasped, giving me access to deepen the kiss.
The first slide of my tongue against hers drew a soft moan from her throat, the vibration passing between us. I took my time, exploring her mouth with thorough attention, showing her with each stroke and caress how a kiss could be its own form of lovemaking.
By the time I pulled back, we were both breathing heavily, her lips swollen and her eyes glazed with renewed desire. “Oh,” she breathed, looking at me with wonder. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”
“It can be so much more,” I promised, pressing one more gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth. “And I will spend as long as you’ll let me showing you.”
The sadness that flashed across her face reminded me of our reality.
We had no guarantee of time together, no promise of a future beyond this quest. The hunters pursued us.
The evil witch waited ahead. And even if we succeeded, our paths were destined to diverge.
She to Eldagh with her beasts, me back to my duty in Durand.
But I couldn’t bear to acknowledge that now, not with her warm and willing beneath me, our bodies still joined. Instead, I carefully withdrew from her, both of us wincing slightly at the sensation of separation after such closeness.
“We should get ready,” she said, practicality reasserting itself as she sat up, her hair falling in a curtain around her naked form. “Gaspard won’t stop hunting us.”
The name brought reality crashing back. I nodded, already reaching for my discarded clothes. “How far to the witch’s lair from here?”
“Not far, according to the raven.” She began dressing efficiently, though I noted with satisfaction that her movements were languid with post-coital relaxation. “Maybe half a day’s ride, if the forest cooperates.”
I pulled on my trousers, wincing as the fabric scraped against the claiming mark on my shoulder. The sensation wasn’t painful, just... present. A reminder of what I’d become part of, what I’d allowed her to make of me. What I’d chosen, with eyes wide open.
“Alain?” Her voice pulled me from my thoughts. She stood fully dressed now, her pack already slung over her shoulder, watching me with concern. “Do you regret it? What happened between us?”
I moved to her, taking her face between my hands with a gentleness that surprised even me.
“Not for a single heartbeat,” I said, and kissed her again, pouring every ounce of my conviction into the contact.
When I pulled back, her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
“Whatever happens, whatever comes after, I will never regret this. Never regret you.”
She nodded, blinking rapidly. “Then let’s go kill a witch and free my beasts.”
I grinned, feeling the weight of the crown and all it represented fall away from me for perhaps the first time in my life. “As my lady commands.”
Isabeau lifted the amber gem from the ground as she opened an entry to the outside for us. She then gently placed the amber gem in the center of the tree’s hollow. She blushed when she stood and saw me watching. “I want to leave a piece of us here, where our magic was created.”
My heart warmed, and I hugged her to me. Isabeau was everything I had to lose, but I couldn’t cage her. No, I learned my lesson. I would be her mate and defend her as I could.
Together, we gathered our remaining supplies, checked on the horses in the corner.
Her unicorn and my mare were awake and staying close to one another, ready to leave with us.
We prepared to face whatever waited beyond our temporary sanctuary.
The claiming mark pulsed steadily on my shoulder, a reminder that whatever battle lay ahead, we wouldn’t face it entirely alone.
But my heart knew I would be alone after this, after saving her beasts and her soul. Still, her freedom and happiness was worth the price of my future solitude.