Chapter 61
Rune
The mountain inhaled with Rune, fire and shadow bearing witness as her permission settled heavy and irreversible in his blood. Something feral uncoiled inside him with a soundless snarl.
Alora had no idea what she had given him.
The thought burned as Rune watched her in the steaming water, the scent of minerals and oil thick in the air. Her soft words echoed through him like a command carved into bone. He took her chin, thumb stroking her swollen lips that had already finished him.
She looked up at him with those lustful eyes. Her skin was already flushed, already sensitive, already his. And any hesitation he might have held vanished.
Rune hauled her up, mouth crashing into hers. Alora’s arms locked around his neck as he took her hips, slowly grinding herself on his erection. Her core slid over him like soft silk, and he was already feral at the thought of being that deep inside of her.
They were a tangle of wild breaths, lips, and clutching hands. His mouth nipped down her throat to her chest, twirling his tongue over her sensitive peaks. She moaned, head falling back.
The water sloshed around them with their frantic movements. Steam veiled the cavern, the chamber echoing her soft panting.
She rose on her knees, and he guided her over him as she sank onto his ridged length. He cursed at the tight feel of her soft warmth. Rune closed his eyes, jaw clenching. Seven Hells, she had a perfect cunt.
Immediately, her power merged with his, feeding the fire in his bones.
She truly was magnificent.
He slid his hands up the curve of her ass, fingers teasing against that second seam.
Alora’s breath hitched, gripping his forearms as a helpless sound slipped from her throat.
He was aching to sink into her with a feral need.
But it took effort enough to fit himself into her as it was.
That other sweet center might be more difficult.
“This is not a small thing you ask of me,” Rune grated against her temple, his voice roughened by restraint. “I may harm you.”
Alora turned her head to meet his gaze, eyes bright, defiant, unafraid. “You won’t,” she said, her fingers brushing the imprint she had marked him with. “And you know it.”
The certainty in her voice made him smile.
“Stubborn,” he muttered, licking the racing heartbeat at the base of her throat. “Brave.”
She always had been.
He again summoned the diamond vial, glittering with liquid gold.
Rune’s thumb brushed Alora’s jaw. “We can stop at any moment,” he said softly, “Simply say the word.”
She nodded.
Rune searched her eyes again, making certain she wanted this.
“I do.” Alora held his gaze, opening herself fully to the bond so he could feel how much she meant it.
She wasn’t only surrendering her body, but she was offering her soul, her light, the very thing he had coveted since the first moment he had glimpsed it in the river of starlight.
For a breath, he could not move. Untamed desire tore at him, demanding he seize her, devour her, bury himself so deep she could never be parted from him again.
Yet restraint clawed as fiercely, because if he broke her now, if he ruined the trust she had given him with those four words, he would never forgive himself.
“Very well.” He forced himself to pull out of her. “Stand for me.”
Because he needed her to actively choose this, to taste the agony of his own patience.
Alora rose on the stone seat beneath the water and stood bare before him, water lapping around her knees. Breasts full, curves perfectly formed. Her bright eyes were warm and heady, the scent of her arousal carrying in the steam.
Rune’s throat worked, his claws digging into the stone.
She was light incarnate, and she had laid herself at the mercy of his darkness.
Rune rumbled, “We will need to prepare you again, songbird.”
The pupils in her eyes dilated and a blush colored her cheeks. Alora approached him and watched as he summoned the golden potion again and poured it into his palm. He took her mouth in his as he applied it to her wet slit.
Her breath trembled against his touch. Fingers working her, watching as markings flickered white and red. Then he gently prodded her rear entrance and she tensed.
“It’s all right,” Rune murmured.
Alora inhaled a shaky breath. The shadows took the shape of his smallest finger and gently slid in. At first, she flinched, the bond flooded with the overwhelming strangeness of it.
“We will go slow,” he promised her. “Trust your body.”
At his reassurance, Alora’s tension bled away and she relaxed with another breath.
“There you go.”
After another breath, Rune slid his hands up her waist. His shadows stayed behind, keeping that tight little hole open.
They were gentle, coaxing her open, slowly easing her body into the shape of taking more. Alora trembled, but she arched into it instead of away. She trusted him. She trusted him with this.
“Rune,” Alora moaned.
The plea made his chest constrict. He drew her mouth to his, devouring her mouth in a kiss. He retracted his claws and slid his fingers through her trembling folds, gathering her arousal to spread over her delicate bud.
Her hands clutched his shoulders as he rolled his thumb over the little bundle, a whimper slipping from her lips. The potion must have worked fast because her core was already throbbing.
Rune chuckled and took her chin, pressing his thumb to her lips. “Are you feeling good, my dangerous little flower?”
Her pink tongue darted out, sucking it into her mouth. His cocks twitched and it did not go unnoticed.
Alora gave him a lustful smile. She reached for the bottle and held his gaze as she poured the cool liquid over each one. Then those sweet pink slips closed over him again and his entire body shuddered with a low curse.
The world narrowed to their heart’s rhythm and the slow unraveling of his control. Every breath she drew sent an electrical current through him, every meeting against the back of her throat echoing straight through his spine.
Abyss take him. He was a slave to her splendor.
Intimacy so complete it stripped him of pretense and left him exposed in ways battle never had. His wings twitched, shadows flaring and recoiling, every nerve singing her name.
Then at his silent command, his shadow-self appeared and lowered between her knees, spreading them open. Alora gasped around his length, the sensation nearly making him spill. She met his glowing gaze. He said nothing but she understood what he wanted.
Rune turned up her chin, making her dazed eyes meet his.
Take a seat, songbird.
Holding his gaze, her hips lowered. At the first stroke of that smoke tongue, her body bucked and her whimper was muffled with his shallow trust into her mouth. Her fingers dug into his thighs to brace herself, lips trembling around him as the shadows pleased her.
The bond was wide open with everything Alora felt, her feverish thoughts following through Rune.
She shouldn’t want this—gods, she shouldn’t—but every flicker of pleasure ignited sparks that lit her veins from the inside out.
Her body bowed, her chest heavy, as they had their way with her.
Every shockwave of exhilaration and rapture took over them in waves.
Then Alora took him in her hands, and he groaned as her mouth worked him in a frantic rhythm, torn between wanting to drag her away from his own creations and wanting to memorize the sight of her surrendering so completely.
His red eyes burned like coals in the dark, unblinking, his chest rising with ragged breaths. A single thought burned in his blood.
Even when they touch her, she is mine.
Taking hold of her neck, Rune guided her mouth over his second cock.
Her lips stretched wide around his girth, and he groaned as the silky warmth slipping over the sensitive ridges.
His tiny mate choked on what little she could take, the throbbing head hitting the back of her throat.
She was doing so well. Her eyes rolled when the shadows pleasured her throbbing bud in turn.
She looked so fucking stunning like this.
Such a pretty little mouth. But he couldn’t plunge in deeper as he wanted. His body vibrated with the urge to bend her over here and now.
The bond opened, everything Rune felt pouring into her, raw and unshielded. His craving, his feral, aching need. Alora’s eyes opened when she sensed his desperate effort to stay seated while his shadow-selves had their way with her.
Beneath it all vibrated something darker.
The shadows were a part of him. He enjoyed watching her take her pleasure, yet he burned with envy all the same, furious and enthralled that she yielded to it.
Abyss damn him, he was starving for another taste of her.
He could drink her nectar for an eternity and never tire of it.
Alora released him with an audible pop, giving the tip a small kiss. Then are you going to let them drink from me instead of you?
And that was all the invitation he needed.
Rune snarled. His shadow-selves dissolved away as he bent Alora over the edge of the spring. Her shock hummed like a string pulled taut, but beneath it was anticipation, burning hot.
“That privilege belongs to no one but me.”
A black mist whisked them away to his bed and he found himself in his favorite position, laying beneath her with her thighs wrapped around his face, facing away from him. A cry tore from her lips as his mouth pressed against her folds, devouring what was meant only for him.
Her thighs shook, her moans echoing as she bounced on his face. Rune cupped her soft ass in his hands, devouring her fully.
Her body was his addiction. Her screams his sanctuary.
If it all ended in ash, he would fully live first.
Then she leaned forward and took him in her mouth again and it was more than his sanity could endure. That clever little tongue swirled over the tip, and he spilled down her throat.