5. Alira
Alira
Kalel’s lips are hot against my neck. Gold streams down my chest and bleeds into my gown, turning the beige lace fabric metallic and shimmery.
He has me pinned on the bed, our hands pressed together fiercely against the sheets, fingers delicately intertwined as he devours me with long, languid gulps that consume my every thought.
His teeth are ruinous aphrodisiacs the moment they enter my bloodstream.
Like a snake’s sharp fangs or a lover’s intimate kiss.
It’s sensual, and I yearn for him to touch me like this every night.
Our chests are melded together, breaths fluttering in and out as if we can only take in shallow sips of air when we collide.
Sips of him are enough to entirely infatuate me—to be my utter undoing.
Kalel retracts his teeth and sets his attention to my throat, dragging his tongue across my skin and licking away the blood that escaped his ravenous gulps. He dots my breasts with kisses, gliding his hand along my thigh and pulling up my nightgown.
He lifts his head and sets those dreary golden eyes on me.
“I’m afraid I’ve made a mess of your gown, little godling.
So it wouldn’t be the worst thing if I ruined it completely, would it?
” His gaze is filled with lust and filthy thoughts.
There’s no possibility of evading his charm, his lewd lips, and how he always seems to draw more need from me.
My core aches to be filled by him, to be connected to him.
“What am I to do with you?” I whisper over his lips, tasting my blood.
Kalel lets out a small groan as he leans into the kiss, threading his hand through my hair and letting the other slide my undergarments down. “You’ll have to train me better, one might advise,” he murmurs into our heady kisses.
I inhale sharply as he pushes two fingers inside me.
My back arches, and a cry escapes my parted lips.
I swear to the gods, I’ll never adjust properly to the sheer size of him.
All of him. His fingers, his height, his teeth, his cock.
My eyes shut as I feel his length growing and pushing needily against my thigh.
“I will never not love the sounds you make. I will never not take them from you and steal them for myself.” His voice is just above a whisper as he does exactly as he says and steals each moan from me as he thrusts his fingers into me, building my orgasm closer and closer to climax.
Kalel pulls his pants down and frees his pulsing cock. It’s hot, and precum is already beading at the tip, making me lick my lips. He rubs the head of his dick at my entrance, giving extra attention to my clit and making me writhe beneath him desperately.
“I miss you, Kalel,” I murmur against his neck, inhaling his smoky scent as much as I can to satiate my senses.
He presses into me harder until his tip is spreading me open and he’s filling me to the brim. Any words I had on my tongue get caught in my throat, and a wave of ecstasy overcomes me as he pumps his hips into mine.
Kalel hooks his arm beneath me, wrapping it around my lower back and holding me close. “You will have all my attention soon, I promise. I long to be nowhere but by your side, Alira. Everything I’m doing and sacrificing is for us.”
I bury my face into the crux of his neck, taking in his words and closing my eyes as we moan softly together.
I want to believe him. How could I not? But there’s a nagging string of doubt that will not stray from my mind.
Worse. I cannot seem to let it go either.
I return to the uncertain feeling often and try to poke holes into everything around me.
Because if something is too good to be true, well, then it must be, surely.
Kalel’s knot grinds at my entrance as he thrusts himself into me. His back is slick with sweat, and the moans he makes only cause my muscles to squeeze around him tighter.
He hasn’t knotted me since the night after our wedding. I know he’s trying to be respectful of my hesitance to have children right away, but sometimes I long for that filling sensation again. To have him swelling so big inside me that we can’t part.
A deep groan vibrates from his chest. “I want to knot you so fucking bad.” He sounds like he’s physically in pain, and as he stops thrusting his hips and pulls back to look at me, I can see the agony in his eyes.
I suck in my lower lip. It’s still not a given whether or not we can even produce children together since he’s a demon and I’m a demigod. Even so, the likelihood is minimal.
Kalel stares down at me, dark strands of hair stuck to his forehead with sweat.
His brows are knitted together with need, lips parted just enough to show his sharp fangs.
My eyes drift to the mark on his chest—a mirror of the one on mine.
The sacred oath bond. For a split second, I forget what it even does, then it comes back to me.
It’s an oath for trust, one that tied our lives together in case I attempted to kill him.
While the bond ties his life to mine, it doesn’t protect me from him in case he tries to kill me, but it can tie aspects of ourselves to one another. Like strong emotions…guilt. It’s become this heavy weight on my chest where the mark lies. Is that why I’ve been having so much doubt with him?
I push away the worry and try to stay in the moment.
Kalel reads my expression and smiles. “Don’t worry, I won’t knot you again unless you want it, little godling.” He bends down and presses a kiss to my forehead.
I’m glad he thought that’s what I was worried about and not something deeper. Part of me does want his knot, though.
I let my hand glide down his back gently and study his features as he does mine. His dick throbs inside me and makes my eyes shut with pleasure. “I want it. I want you,” I murmur over his lips.
His eyes widen a fraction before he lowers into me more, filling me completely and making me cry out as his knot starts to stretch my entrance.
Kalel’s groan rumbles through me as his knot slowly seats itself inside me and starts to swell so much that it makes my stomach feel like it will burst.
I bury my lips into his shoulder to muffle my scream. He starts purring from deep in his chest to soothe me.
“You take my knot so perfectly, little godling,” he murmurs against my forehead as his cock starts to throb deep inside me, pouring his come into my womb.
The pain slowly subsides and is replaced with pleasure that spreads through my entire body. Kalel’s knot keeps us locked together, swelling and pulsing in tandem and making my stomach swell with his seed.
I moan with each wave of him, and he kisses me tenderly, wrapping his arms around me and adjusting us to lie on our sides so the knotting is more comfortable. His chest is warm against my back, and he rubs my abdomen soothingly to ease the pressure building inside.
Our breaths start to sync up as they slow. Kalel nuzzles his face into the back of my head, inhaling the scent of my hair before letting out a content breath. I can feel his lips pull into a smile over my neck as he murmurs, “I think I might be in love with you.”
My chest warms, and I slide my hand down to his. “I think I might be too.” I whisper the words as if they are a mortal sin.
He only holds me tighter, possessive and unwilling to part. We remain this way, tucked into one another and content. Sleepy and satisfied. Talking softly about what we’ve been doing during the days.
As Kalel tells me about the supposed “training” he’s been doing beyond the veil, an apprehensive emotion coils in my chest. He doesn’t say much after that, and he’s cold when he retreats from me, pulling his hands away from my hips and finally unknotting us.
His eyes have returned to his somber thoughts.
“You would tell me if the war wasn’t over…wouldn’t you?” I ask. I hate how sheepish my voice sounds.
He looks at me for a few moments, an empty and hopeless stare, before nodding. “Of course.”
It’s then that I decide I can no longer trust him.
I’m relieved when I find Nikolai waiting for me outside my door today and not Tessa. He’s dressed in a uniform similar to the one she wore yesterday. A navy paladin jacket with the collar up and a shoulder armor plate with a half cape that extends down his left side, meeting his heels.
“Nikolai, you’re okay!” I throw my arms around his neck, and he chuckles as he sets his hand on my back.
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” he says casually as he smooths down the fawn strands of hair from his eyes. The small horns on his head prick through and catch a few locks.
I help him untangle them and get them out of his face.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because Kalel keeps coming back to the palace late at night with blood all over him.
I was so worried you were being worked to the bone healing or fighting or…
I don’t know.” My perplexed tone has Nikolai assessing me, making me feel even more unreasonable than I already felt.
His expression is relaxed, and he doesn’t have that anxious energy around him like Tessa did yesterday.
But then again, he rarely ever does. “We train like this regularly, Alira. Maybe being fit for battle isn’t something the demigods do, but we have to be ready for anything.
King Achill and Kalel both take it very seriously.
” He taps my shoulder three times in reassurance, a gentle smile accompanying it.
But I can’t shake the way Kalel acted last night. The fact that he’s hiding something from me.
I blow out a sigh of relief. “Well, thank gods. I was worried when you were swapped out with no notice. It wasn’t the same without you.” I cross my arms and give him a look.
“Sheesh, was Tessa that much of a bore? I was only gone for a day.” Nikolai grunts out a laugh that makes me smile.
I shake my head. “No, she wasn’t. She just had this…ominous energy around her, you know? Like she’s scared of something…” I pause and consider my words before hesitantly bringing my gaze up to his.