Chapter 7 Gunnarr
GUNNARR
Without hesitation, I laid myself down on my back by their knees, tossing my legs over the unconscious ice man. “Be my guest, my queen. Throat, chest, arms—”
“You don’t have to list your anatomy.” Her alpha grumbled as he leaned them both forward. “She’ll bite you anywhere she wishes.”
“Absolutely, my queen. You can even bite my ass if you want.” My eyes flared with horror, my brain scrambling to come up with something to excuse my behavior. “Not that you would, of course. But you could. You’re the queen, obviously, and—”
She propped her elbow on my chest, her chin in her hand so she could stare down at me. Luckily she didn’t appear to be offended, not if the light dancing in her eyes was any indication. “I can bite your ass if you want, Gunnarr. Is that where you’d like me to start?”
I lifted a trembling hand toward her cheek but then started to lower my arm back toward the bed. She just met you, you big stupid oaf—
She reached out with her other hand and caught my fingers in hers. Then miracle of miracles, she pressed her cheek against my palm, clasping my hand beneath hers. “Please explain to me what tighty-whities are.”
Crimson shame flooded my face. Which unfortunately meant I started to babble.
“I’m so sorry, my queen. I should have simply stayed the bear, though I thought it might be ruder to gobble down my dinner without silverware.
Bears don’t have thumbs. Anyway, I tore my britches when I shifted, and I didn’t think to bring any other clothes except underwear.
You always bring an extra pair of underwear, you know?
I have a pack in the canoe with some spares, but I didn’t want to go so far from your side.
Not after I found you, and then it was dinner time, and I was so hungry.
I’m always hungry, though. Momma always said—”
“Spare underwear? Or clothes?”
“Both, of course, but double the underwear. You never know when you might get wet, especially on the ocean. A rogue wave might catch you unaware. Or once I had a whale tip the entire boat over with a flip of her tail. I swear she was laughing the entire time.”
The alpha made another low grumble sounding like boulders grinding each other to dust. No, he definitely wished for me to be the grist grinding beneath his stone. “She hungers.”
I opened my mouth but caught myself just in time, clamping my lips together. Silently, I turned my head, offering my throat. Even though that meant I couldn’t see her lovely face any longer.
“It’s alright, Dorr. He amuses me. I’ve never heard anyone talk so easily about so many different things.”
Her fingers left the back of my hand, but only to stroke down my cheek to my chin, so she could gently turn my face back to hers.
“When I was trapped in the darkness, I longed for someone to talk to. Anyone. I love hearing your voices, especially when you’re teasing each other. Laughter makes my heart spill over with joy.”
I wanted to ask who dared to trap her, but the alpha gave me a hard mental shove in the bond.
So I simply nodded without words, which was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Not the hardest—when her fangs sank into my wrist, and I had to wrestle the bear for dominance.
She couldn’t feed on the bear. Well, she could.
She could do anything. She was the fucking queen.
But the alpha was right. She wouldn’t want a bunch of fur in her mouth.
Not when she could have my flesh and skin gripped in her jaws.
I shouldn’t have made any jokes whatsoever about the ice man coming so hard. At least he’d managed to wait to get inside her first. At this rate…
:Mayhap you’re unaware, but you’re broadcasting your thoughts down the bonds,: the grumpier Blood at the door said. :All of them.:
My gaze leaped to her face. Her eyes were closed, her throat working as she swallowed my blood.
So erotic. Watching her feed. Her long, graceful neck. Her short hair fluttered about her face. An unusual haircut, not that I had any barbering experience. But it didn’t look evenly textured. Almost like someone had taken a sword—
:Goddess below, would you please shut up?: Svar said.
Huh. I’d pegged him as the nice one. :How? I can’t change the way my brain works.:
Helayna released my wrist. “I’ve got an idea. As long as you don’t mind delaying your own gratification a bit longer, Dorr?”
The alpha backed up enough to pull out of her, making her eyelids flutter. His face was inscrutable. Like a black granite statue. So I wasn’t sure if he was pissed or not. Probably yes. I mean, who wouldn’t be? He’d been fucking our queen moments ago and now she—
Gulp. Evidently, she was going to fuck me.
HELAYNA
I still felt… desperate. Like my nerves and muscles were frayed. There were too many sharp edges inside me, like miniature splintered icicles stabbed through my stomach. Goddess, I’d never been so ravenous. Like I could eat as much as Gunnarr had tonight.
But it wasn’t food I wanted.
Though guilt threaded through the hunger, making me shoot a quick glance over at Lokken. His chest moved, and I could still feel his bond weighing heavy inside my head. He was unconscious but I didn’t sense any danger or weakness in him.
Relieved, I slid my thigh over Gunnarr and took him inside me.
For a moment, my mind froze with shock. I didn’t think I would normally be so quick to take a man, let alone a man I’d just met a few hours ago.
But it felt right, as it’d felt instantaneously right with Lokken as well.
I hadn’t been able to make love with him immediately because we were leaving Minnesota, but I would have gladly taken him by the hand and led him upstairs to my bed if we’d had time.
As I hoped, Gunnarr’s constant stream of consciousness paused, at least for the moment.
“Is this alright?” My voice was husky with rising desire.
Eyes wide open, he nodded vigorously but didn’t say a word. Even his bond hung still, poised and alert as his emotions swelled through our connection.
Gratitude I’d Called him. Joy, because he now had a place to belong. A place to call home.
Not the house.
Me. I was already his home. A place he never wanted to leave.
Where he could be fully himself without fear, despite his exuberance.
In his mind, he felt so inferior he believed he would never be able to serve a queen.
He was too obstinate, unable to curb his tongue, and completely ill-suited for court life.
Luckily for him, I had no interest in formal court either.
I leaned down over him so I could nuzzle his hairy chest, breathing in his scent. Flannel and pine, woodsmoke, salty sea, and pristine white fur. Stirring my hunger to a fevered pitch. He was too tall for me to comfortably bite his throat and still ride him—but I wanted a big, easy vein.
Immediately, he lifted his head and curled up around me, cradling me in his arms. Giving me easy access to his neck.
My fangs pierced him and we both shuddered.
His blood geysered into me, as eager and enthusiastic as his personality, sweeping me out to sea.
Above, a dark midnight sky glittered with millions of diamonds.
Green and pink ribbons wound through the air, always flowing, always moving in perfect, hushed stillness disturbed only by the gentle lapping of the waves on the island of ice.
Drifting ever north. Wrapped in his polar bear’s embrace.
His body rocked beneath me, climax rolling through him. Me. Eddying back to him. A spiraling tidal pool, sucking him under.
No, that was me. Draining him. He slumped back to the mattress with a heavy snore, clearly fine but also unconscious.
A sound escaped my mouth I didn’t like. Broken. Scared. Hunger still crawled through my veins, a black hole demanding more, more, more.
Dorr’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me up into his arms. His wide shoulders and chest, my impenetrable fortress. His essence filled my mouth before I even realized I’d bitten him. Inky darkness mixed with the blood in my stomach, and I growled. Like a beast. With my alpha’s throat in my mouth.
I’d already bitten him several times tonight too, though I hadn’t fed very long…
:Svar, you’re next. Myrk, hold the door as long as you can before you come to her, but don’t make our queen suffer a single moment of distress.:
:Understood,: Myrk replied in the bond. :I’ll kick the ice man out of bed to get at least one of us up for guard duty.:
Worry flickered through me but couldn’t stand against the blazing inferno of hunger. Surely it wasn’t normal for a queen to drain so many of her Blood to unconsciousness? At once? We weren’t under attack, not like with the sunfires at the cabin.
I didn’t want to drain my dark alfar to pale, thin versions of themselves again.
Then an even uglier fear sprouted.
What if I drained them all—and still needed more? Would I turn on the humans in the house? They were defenseless against me. Tears spilled from my eyes, but I couldn’t lift my mouth from Dorr’s essence.
“All will be well, my queen. You would never hurt your humans.” His thick fingers stroked my hair and back with incredible gentleness.
“I guarantee I hold far more essence than the Aima hold blood, and I’m far older.
We fully recovered after the sunfires. Combined with Svar and Myrk, we should be able to tide you over until the Aima wake again. ”
:I don’t like it,: I whispered to him, still crying. :I’ve never felt like this. So out of control.:
He grasped my hips, lifting me up enough to slide deep inside me. Fill me up. Body. Soul. Essence. “It’s safe for you to be out of control now, my queen. It’s safe for you to need. So slake your hunger, as long as it takes.”
D?RR
We’d joked about our queen subduing our dark alfar forms, but in all honesty, I was terrified to fully unleash the Darkness inside me.
Who would protect her from me?
Though a still, small voice inside me insisted my beast was exactly what she needed most right now.
Please, goddess below, don’t let me harm her. I would rather return to the endless sleep until Ragnarok than harm a single hair on her head.
It might be risky, but I would be at my full power if I transformed. The bigger body would have more black blood to give her, closer to the Darkness from which I’d crawled. As long as I remained fully in control.
I allowed the monstrous shape to emerge from the humanoid body.
The mattress sank deeper beneath my impressive weight.
I kept my wings tucked tight to avoid knocking out the wall of glass and exposing her to the cold and blowing snow.
Most importantly, I would keep the spikes and barbs in my cock sheathed as long as possible.
Her hands glided over my shoulders and she made another low, hungry sound sending jitters of desire down my spine, all the way to the base of my tail. She rubbed her breasts against me, smearing her skin with oily essence.
:Coat me head to toe,: she whispered in my head.
My jaws clenched for a moment, fighting to contain the beast. When we touched her in this form, we left inky handprints on her delicate body. Even the chopped strands of her hair were still charred and stained where I’d cut her free of Jormungandr. If I contaminated her—
:Please. I need it. I need you. All of you.:
I flattened my palms against her back and smeared her spine with my black oil.
Her shoulders. Pleasure rippled through her bond.
Soft purrs vibrated her lips against my throat.
In her bond, I could feel the oil sinking into her skin, spreading through her veins like molten obsidian. Combined with my essence…
I filled her with Darkness. The never-ending absence of light and color and warmth. All the horrors of Hvergelmir. Her heritage as a Daughter of Hel.
She writhed against me, rubbing more of the oils into her skin. The more she took—the more oil I exuded. Black dripped from my thick alfar hide, pooling around me in the bedding. I gripped her nape and lifted her, letting her dangle in front of me like her little arctic fox. “Are you sure?”
Her eyes blazed with power. Deep, mossy green, so dark as to be almost black, glistening with the same oily sheen as my skin. Black blood dripped down her chin. She licked her lips and bared her fangs. :I’m going to bite you all over.:
I cracked my mouth open, giving her a glimpse of my shards. :Same.:
:Challenge accepted.:
I rolled up to my knees and turned around so I could drop her down into the oil puddled around me.
Gripping her throat with one hand, her ankle in another, I dragged her across the bedding, rubbing my oil onto her back.
She wrapped her hands around my wrist, not to free herself, but to hold on as her body flailed and thrashed with release.
Panting, she finally managed to focus on my face.
I watched her eyes widen, her pupils as dark as Yggdrasil’s wellspring.
In her bond, I saw what I looked like to her.
My wings loosened slightly, arched over my back and shoulders.
Thick nose, heavy brow, large, tilted eyes, tall, pointed ears, saw-blade obsidian shards for teeth.
Hulking shoulders with thick, long arms. Tail curled over my back like a scorpion, barbed and deadly.
Head to talon, black as the endless night.
“My Darkest.” She licked her lips again, trying to lift her head even though I pinned her to the bed. “I want you inside me.”
My fingers spasmed, my talons pricking her skin. Her blood spiced the air, power thickening around her. I bristled, everywhere. My spine. Tail. Cock.
Bred for war. A killing nightmare.
And she still wanted me.