Chapter Thirty-Seven #2
The pull of the bond is impossible to resist, and the manticore is savage beneath my skin, growling for completion .
. . howling to claim what is ours. Hearing her desperate moans, seeing her beautiful face contort with so much bliss even as she chokes on my cock while Acharia takes her to the brink, is like nothing I expected.
I have to give credit where credit is due. The young buck knows how to wring every drop of pleasure from her, and for that alone, I am mollified. If he had been a selfish lover, I would not have been so kind.
The manticore would have devoured him.
Maybe.
Thankfully, the look of radiant satisfaction on her face is a thing to savor.
Her movements over my cock are sloppy and uncoordinated, her eyes glassy with tears and her chin wet with drool, but she has never looked lovelier.
I ease my crown from her mouth and pass my thumb over her swollen lips, wiping the saliva away.
“Are you all right?” I ask her, pulling her into my arms and kissing her softly on the mouth. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I pull her onto my lap and stroke her hair gently, my magic trailing over her body and checking in with hers. “Too tired? Sore?”
Her smile is so bright and beatific, it’s almost blinding. “Not at all.”
She reaches for Acharia, who is lying on his stomach across the bed, and feathers her hand through his damp hair.
He lets out a soft sound of contentment that I, strangely, don’t even feel jealous about.
Nor about the fact that he’s the reason my wife is so sated and boneless right now.
I stroke a fingertip down her bare body, circling the tight buds of her nipples, enjoying the way she arches in my arms.
“You’re a vision, Starbright,” I whisper softly, my fingers trailing down each rib and over the luscious curve of her hip.
Her thick lashes rise to reveal shining gray eyes lit by haloes of her iridescent power. “I want to seal the bond, Dare. I’m ready. I want to feel you deep inside me and deep in my magic. I want us to be one.”
Are you certain? I ask carefully, my rigid control fraying. It will be rough. The manticore . . .
She silences me with her mouth. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. And I can handle everything you are, Dare. Just give me all of you, that’s what I desire. I need the man, the god, and the monster.
“Say stop if you want it to end,” I growl, watching her eyes dilate as I place her on the bed and loom over her with one knee on the mattress like a vengeful beast about to take his prize.
The king of Oryndhr moves to prop himself against the headboard, his eyes fastened to our stunning prize, whose body is shaking with desire.
I fist my cock as my shadows writhe with anticipation.
Her beautiful gray irises blow out with lust, her stare fastened to my hand while I brutally work myself.
I swipe the drop of pearlescent fluid at the tip with my thumb and coat it across her bottom lip, my hunger deepening as she licks it off with a moan.
“Dare . . .”
My mouth twists with ruthless purpose. Time to see my wife beautifully bound, begging for release, and at my mercy.
I set my shadows free, watching as my magic glides up her body, savoring the soft satiny feel of her skin, nestling into every nook and hollow, and coasting over every succulent peak and slope.
And when they’ve painted every inch, then they start to wind and tighten in a series of intricate knots and patterns.
I take my time, relishing every moan over each sensitive point, the bond open and mirroring every sensation.
She squirms when my shadows outline the edges of her sex, and I shiver.
It’s fucking torture, as though I’m the one tied in place.
Two thicker tendrils are held aloft by my will, hoisting my masterpiece a few inches off the bed while the rest gather below, lashing over her breasts and pulling tight enough over her nipples that she moans.
Her wrists are layered over each other behind her back, shadows binding them in elaborate loops, and her ankles are cinched to the backs of her thighs.
Dual coils hinge her knees apart to her elbows, leaving her beautiful sex bare, parted, and glossy with arousal.
She is art in motion. Magical.
And she is mine.
Well, ours for as long as she decrees it to be so.
I glance at Acharia, who is watching us with interest, his expression fascinated at the display of magic and the gratifyingly submissive position my stunning Starkeeper finds herself in.
Admiring my handiwork, I spin her for our perusal, her rich, luminous brown skin blanketed and crisscrossed in obsidian lines.
I move beside her to where she is suspended in the air by my magic and draw a fingernail down her arched throat as her pretty bound thighs come to my eye level.
My gums ache as the manticore’s fangs push through. He wants to bite—to mark.
“Do it,” she whimpers, and I realize his need has trickled down through the bond.
Soon.
Roughly, I fist her loose hair that is hanging down nearly to the bed and bend to crush my lips to hers, delving deep into the sweetness of her mouth.
Her tongue duels with mine, swirling and sucking me deeper.
Splayed wide as she is, she’s desperate for the connection, for the friction, anywhere she can get it, even if it’s just from my tongue lashing against hers.
“So beautiful,” Acharia murmurs, shifting close enough to stroke a finger over the inky bindings across her plump ass.
“She’s a fucking goddess like this,” I agree and loosen the ties over her legs just enough to pull her knees apart.
Suraya whimpers a needy whine as my shadows draw her to me, spreading her wide over my hips.
To my satisfaction, her exposed folds glisten with desire.
I knew she would love it! Gratified at her body’s response, I stare down at my work of art, appreciating the sublime flow of those generous curves and the swathes of smooth, kissable skin punctuated by my glimmering bands of onyx, all laid out like the most succulent offering.
To her god . . .
To me.
Kneeling, I situate myself at her entrance and slam home in a single thrust, my eyes nearly rolling back in my head at the exquisite snugness of the cunt that was made for me.
Her scream of pleasure edged by pain fills me with savage delight as I start to move.
The arched position makes me hit a spot inside of her that causes her body to contort even more.
Her eyes snap open as her core starts to flutter, her thighs straining and trembling.
“I’m going to . . . Darrius . . . fuck . . . I can’t . . .”
“Let it happen, Starbright, I have you,” I purr.
Her body tenses, blood flushing every inch of her skin as her magic lights up every single rune, and then I release each of the knotted tethers at once.
The rush of both her blood and her orgasm floods the bond as she splinters apart, and gods, the feeling of her climax echoing through me transcends anything I’ve ever felt.
Lowering her to the bed, I fuck her through it, her body thrashing beneath mine as the orgasm rolls into another. My eyes flash and my mouth crowds with teeth as I feel the beast, and in a panic, I force him back.
“No, let him through,” she says, wrapping her legs around me. “I need all of you.”
The shift is partial, but I can feel the fur sprouting as my fangs lengthen and my buried cock thickens. Suraya writhes, her body stretching to accommodate us and her reassurance flowing through the bond. I can take you, don’t stop.
“What the fuck?” the king of Oryndhr blurts. Through the manticore’s otherworldly sight, I can see his body outlined in a curious film of gilded radiance.
“It’s all right, Roshan,” my wife says. “He’s mine, too.”
I fuck her faster and meet her eyes. “He wants to bite.”
“Then bite,” she pants, head falling back in bliss.
She reaches out blindly for Acharia, her fingers tangling with his as she yanks him toward her to claim his mouth. The bond is wide open, her deep-rooted emotions for him also flowing down it, and oddly, I don’t feel any rancor.
Her love is pure and beautiful and real.
But I can also feel her love for me, and that remains undiminished and true.
“Páti,” she whispers, and I shiver at the claim. Her eyes are glowing with silvery filaments, the streaks through her mass of dark hair luminous with iridescence. I can feel my thundering pulse everywhere—in my chest, in my head, in my cock—as our magic intertwines.
“It’s time,” I tell her.
***
SURAYA SAAB, STARKEEPER
Gods, I have never felt so full.
The pressure of my king’s half shift is otherworldly. Somewhere deep down, I’m aware that I’m fucking a monster, but he’s my monster and that’s all that matters.
I reach for Roshan, who is still staring with wide eyes at Darrius’s sharpened face, the sprouted mane, and the mouth full of fangs, though his expression has morphed from concern to interest, more so because of my enthusiastic participation.
Grinning, I pull his mouth to mine and bury my tongue inside, coaxing his out to suck on it.
Stars, he tastes so good, like honey and iron, making me think of delicious desserts and hot forges.
He kisses me back, hand moving to fondle my breast. With a moan, I reach for his hardening cock and pump my fingers from root to tip.
Between the marvelous efforts of my two lovers, the sensation is nearly overwhelming, my mind already starting to fracture with bliss.
I can’t recall how many times I’ve climaxed.
There was one point where my orgasm seemed unending, one flowing into the other.
Darrius quickens his pace, rolling his thumb over my clit, and everything starts to ratchet anew between us. He fucks me harder, and I pump Roshan in time with his thrusts. There’s a synchronicity to our movements, the cadence of our breaths, and our magic dancing in a play of light and shadow.
“Harder, starling,” Roshan moans, and I squeeze firmly just as Darrius snarls and hitches my leg high to claim an extra inch, slamming so deep my vision wobbles.
He leans over, eyes gleaming bright gold, one strong arm planted on the bed beside my head, and I feel the graze of sharp teeth where my neck meets my shoulder.
I bare my throat in perfect trust. Mate.
Everything happens in glorious succession.
Fangs sink into me, the bite of pain preceding an obscene rush of pleasure that obliterates me as I bear down on Roshan, who comes with a savage snarl, his gaze never leaving mine.
Darrius’s filthy groans are a balm to my heart when he explodes with a roar, the sound multilayered with man and beast, spilling his seed into me as his shadows devour the entire room.
Whimpering at the onslaught of my endless orgasm, my magic erupts through his darkness like a maelstrom of shooting stars, and as he collapses on the bed next to me, the soul bond seals between us—the beautiful tether glittering like a piece of the night sky.
But that’s not what makes me gasp in wonder.
It’s the shadows swirling with stardust and edged by the golden light of the sun that surround the three of us.
I’ve never seen anything so ethereal, so godsdamned magical.
I turn to Roshan, who is glowing with lambent golden light .
. . a light that winds up my forearms to coil with the black and silvery runes already embedded there.
The interplay of the three—shadow, starlight, and sunlight—takes my breath away. My two halves . . . my two loves. At the realization, something vital locks into place, a feeling of completion in my soul. A sense of rightness.
Only now do I understand the prophetic words of my simurgh: We are the passage between the earth and the sky, a conduit between the bright of the sun and the dark of the moon—both of your halves will be loved and anchored by kings.
Darrius, the darkness of my night sky, and Roshan, the radiance of my rising sun.
My soul-fated and my chosen.