Chapter 4
Four
Iguess the Isiriel don’t have mirrors. It’s not something I ever noticed before, not really much concerned with my appearance when I was just going to work in the sun all day, but now that I’m standing in Annaleigh’s room, preparing myself for my wedding to the king, I’m very aware that I have no idea what my hair looks like.
There’s a gentle knock on the door to the bedroom, and I open it to find Kale on the other side.
“You hardly have to knock in your own quarters,” I tell him, stepping back to let him in.
Damn, he’s big. I know all the Isiriel males are big, and I’ve seen plenty that are bigger than Kale, including the king, but it’s not something you really notice until they’re standing right next to you in a small space.
One side of Kale’s mouth lifts. I can see why Annaleigh was so attracted to him when he showed up in her bedroom and asked her to marry him. There’s something so primal about Isiriel males that’s rather irresistible.
Hence why I’m about to go out there and marry the king of the fire monsters.
“I didn’t want to interrupt you if you were having a private moment. The king has requested that I come in here and explain to you what will happen during the mating ceremony.”
“I already know what’s going to happen,” I tell him.
“Annaleigh explained it to me. We just have to have sex in the throne room, right?” I try to sound casual about this, as if I’m not absolutely trembling over the fact that I’m about to fuck King Cage.
I’m about to fuck a guy who has fire for eyes and lava for cum. Yep, totally casual.
Kale’s mouth twists in a strange way. “Yes, but the mating ceremony will be different for you than it was for Annaleigh. Traditionally, an Isiriel couple would be taken before the king. The king would ensure that the female is there of her own free will.” When I glance sideways at him, he says, “There was a dark time in our history when females were often kidnapped and forced into mating ceremonies. This is to ensure that no longer happens. As the king is the one getting married, during the ceremony, I will be the one to ask. In a traditional ceremony, the couple then mates before the king. However–”
“The king is the one getting married. So, we just have sex in an empty room, right?”
He frowns. “Not exactly. There must be a witness for the mating ceremony. It is tradition that the king mate before the court.”
Silence falls on the cave. And then the question bursts out of me. “He what? The whole court? How many people is that?”
Kale puts up a gentle hand that I know he means to be comforting, but it really isn’t. I’m already going to have sex with someone I barely know and be married to him forever, and now I’m learning I have to have sex with him in front of an audience?
“Not nearly as many as you’re probably imagining. Annaleigh and I will be there, as well as all the other speakers and ambassadors. If I had to put a number on it, I would say thirty people.”
Thirty people. Okay. Thirty people are going to see me naked. Thirty people are going to see me fuck the fire monster king. Thirty people are going to witness the most awkward moment of my life.
“Great.”
Kale offers me a gentle smile and then the crook of his elbow, like he’s my father, getting ready to walk me down the aisle. “You will do well, my queen.”
The way he says it startles me. I’ve heard him say that to King Cage so many times that to hear it turned in my direction makes my stomach clench. I settle my hand into the bend of his ashen elbow and let him lead me from his quarters.
When we get to the throne room, I feel like I’m going to vomit. There are definitely more than thirty people in the room, a mixture of humans and Isiriel, but I suppose, at this point, it doesn’t really matter. It could be ten or a hundred, and I would be equally as petrified.
Kale leads me to the throne. Once I’m standing before King Cage, he sets my hand at my side and takes a step back, taking his place beside the throne. There’s another guard on the other side, an Isiriel female that I don’t recognize. When she sees me looking, she smiles comfortingly.
King Cage stands, towering over me, and I realize just how much bigger he is than Kale.
Taller and with wider-set shoulders. He comes to stand in front of me, and as I tremble, he reaches out and wraps a lock of my hair around his clawed finger.
I look right into his fire eyes, flames slowly but surely crawling higher as I look at him.
“You are breathtaking, my bride,” he says, and the words send a shiver through me. Is Annaleigh right? Is he really doing this because he wants me?
“Thank you, my king,” I say back, not really sure what else to do.
And then Kale’s voice breaks through the room. “Before we begin,” he addresses everyone, “Alice, I must ask you, are you here of your own volition? Have you chosen this male as your husband of your own free will?”
“Yes,” I say, without looking away from Cage, and I swear, I see a shiver run through him, too. The next time his fingers touch me, they’re sliding slowly over my lips.
And then his hands move down to the robe I'm wearing. I’m not even fully positive where it came from.
It might have even been made specially for me.
All I know is that it was waiting for me when I got to Annaleigh’s room to prepare for the ceremony, a silky thing with a golden pattern across its black fabric.
Cage slides his finger under one side and pulls it open.
The two sides part, and he lets them fall, until the whole thing slides off my body and to the floor in one quick movement, and I’m left naked before him.
I don’t know what to do, other than stand here.
I can’t really tell if his eyes are taking me in or not, but after a moment, his hand reaches out, and he slides his rough palm down my shoulder and then my chest and then along one of my breasts.
I suck in a breath, and Cage’s eyes burn a little brighter.
The flames are taking up the entirety of his eye holes now, and I can’t tell if that’s a good sign or not.
“Exquisite,” he says, and just before he pulls his hand away, the tip of his claw brushes the hardened end of my nipple.
I bite back a moan. He offers me his hand, and I follow him over to the throne.
This close, I can’t help but glance over at Kale, but his face is pointed forward, deliberately not looking at us.
I wonder if everyone else in the room is doing the same thing, but I refuse to look and find out.
Cage sits on the throne and then subtly pats his thigh. Oh, God. This is it. We’re going to do it right here, on his throne. It’s time for me to find some courage.
The king doesn’t look away from me as I set one knee beside his leg on the throne and then the other beside his other leg. I’m completely exposed now. My boobs are in his face, my legs are spread for him, and I’m trembling. Why did I agree to this?
I feel something brush the inside of my thigh, and I look down to see Cage undoing the knot on the piece of fabric slung around his waist. Every time I’ve ever interacted with Cage, he’s always been wearing pants, just like all the other Isiriel males.
But this must be some sort of tradition thing because there are intricate designs all over the clothing he has tied around his hips.
And then the knot comes undone, and Cage is completely naked.
He lets the fabric fall open onto the throne, and I let my eyes travel down to that part of him that I’m about to have inside me.
I gasp. Holy shit. It stands to reason that if Isiriel males are so much bigger than human males that their reproductive anatomy must be bigger, too, but someone should have drawn me a fucking diagram.
Because not only is Cage much bigger than any guy I’ve ever had sex with, but his dick also has…
ridges? It’s standing straight up, which is honestly pretty flattering.
“Don’t worry,” Cage says, clearly mistaking my surprise for worry. “I will make you ready for me. It will fit.”
And without waiting for me to respond, he reaches between my legs and settles his fingers right over my opening, already pretty wet, if I’m being honest. When I gasp again, Cage leans forward and takes one of my nipples into his mouth.
I whimper, and the flames in Cage’s eyes spark high enough that I feel the heat of it on my skin.
This is supposed to be a transaction. It’s not like I thought I was going to hate it, but I thought it would be awkward and kind of stiff.
But Cage is running his hot fingers back and forth across my pussy, and his hot tongue is lapping at my nipple, and this is definitely not awkward.
I’m so wet that in the silence of the throne room, I can hear the squelch of Cage’s fingers between my legs.
He slips across my clit, and I keen. Cage’s mouth tilts into a smile, and he finds the spot again, rubbing it and rubbing it until I have to grab onto his shoulders so I don’t fall over. My hands come away black with ash, and something about it is so sexy that I want to rub it all over my body.
Instead, I reach down and wrap my hand around Cage’s cock, feeling those ridges against my palm. He groans, and I watch my hand move up and down across the dark skin, interlaced with lava-colored veins.
Oh, fuck. I’m so turned on by King Cage.