Chapter 37 #2
"Rise," I said, and my voice was lower than usual, rough, almost like I was mimicking Torion's growl.
His breaths were heavy as he pushed up from the edge of the tub, water sluicing off his body in a cascade that left me parched, my view now the beautifully muscled and rounded globes of his ass. I swallowed hard and pushed back from the tub, lifting the heavy linen sheet up as I rose.
"Come here," I ordered, and Torion stepped out of the tub and into my embrace, his cock prodding through the damp linen to plead against my stomach. I buffed him quickly and then pulled away. "Sit."
Torion glanced down at the cushioned stool and then back up at me with an eyebrow arched. I arched one back and he grinned, cheeks flushed, as he sat down, naked and still dripping. When I knelt before him on the layered rugs, his hands rose to cover his face, a plaintive groan buried in his palms.
"Brigid."
All I had to do was nudge his knees, and he parted to make room for me.
His cock was standing high, bobbing against his belly and leaving a pearly drop against the dark hair that led down from his belly button. His sac was heavy and full and deep brown, and I thought it already looked like it was tightening, readying for release.
I ignored the area, focusing instead on his feet, pulling them into my lap and grabbing a softer lotion.
"Fang's fire," he laughed, breathless and fractured with need as I tended his body at my own pace, working on his feet and then up to his calves, over his knees.
He twitched as I touched the sensitive, vulnerable skin at the back, and then his cock kicked for attention when I moved up his thighs. "You'll kill me, love."
"You're heartier than that, alpha," I teased.
He swallowed hard, smiling down at me with his blush spreading down his chest and his eyes the full dark of midnight in the new moon. "Not when it comes to you."
I stroked my hands over his hips, and he dripped a little precum right in front of my eyes.
I glanced up at him, a wicked smile curving my lips, and he stilled, prey caught in my sights.
I leaned forward and licked up his length, claiming his flavor on my tongue, my eyelids growing heavy as he swayed and then fumbled behind him, hands bracing against the tub.
"Fuck," he grunted, chest heaving.
I rested back on my heels for a moment, giving him a long, examining look, making my decision.
I warmed more of the lotion in my hands and then reached between his legs, pulling and rolling his balls in my hands, stroking the dark crease of the inside of his thigh.
Torion's head fell back on a hopeless cry for mercy, and his cock wept once more.
I licked him again, fighting my own grin.
"Witch, please," he hissed through clenched teeth. "I won't last."
That was probably for the best because even through two rugs, my knees were starting to grow tired already.
I released his sac from my grip and moved it up to steady the base of his cock, rising up on my knees and wrapping my lips around the head of his cock.
He wet my tongue at the same moment that I felt dewy beads of arousal budding in my sex.
Torion shouted out a wordless sound as I mouthed and then licked at his head, wiggling my tongue to his tip and then along the rigid underside.
Inside of my closed hand, his knot swelled, hard and quick.
My cunt answered with a hollow ache, as if it knew exactly where that knot ought to have been.
I put both hands to it, digging my thumbs in, and Torion's hips rose up from the stool to pump his length into my mouth, stroking it along my tongue and then deeper.
I wanted to laugh in giddy triumph, but the sound that came out was a moan, echoing down into his swollen shaft. I twisted my hands around his knot and bobbed my head in encouragement, approval of his use of my mouth.
There was a roaring in my ears, a rush of desire in my blood that I hadn't felt since before Tylane's birth, and the echo of one sound in my head—a dark chant of mate, mate, mate.
Except it wasn't just in my head. Torion was gasping the word, my name, witch, at the same tempo that his knot throbbed in my hands, thick with his pounding pulse, one that matched the drum of need in my core.
I lifted my head to catch my breath and found him staring down at me, feral with hunger, wild with pride and lust, and I knew my expression matched his.
This was my alpha, mine for life. And I was his.
He would never stray, mate bond or not. It wasn't in Torion's nature.
He loved with breath and thought and the rhythm of his heartbeat. He'd taught me to do the same.
"I love you," I gasped out.
His wild expression softened. "And I love you, witch. Come here?"
I laughed and shook my head, then dove down, swallowing him deeply, squeezing hard around his knot with that same chant of mate, mate, mate, shamelessly starving and slurping at the warning of his release.
Torion roared, arching into my mouth, my hands, wings scraping at the floor and the tub, a splash of water from a slipping hand.
I made a sound like a purr, as if our roles had changed in the past few minutes, curling my tongue as I retreated and returned, taking every drop of him as he quaked and fell back to the stool, flailed to right himself.
I wished I could've watched us from the side.
I had heard but not seen his collapse, but he was rich and salty and bitter on my tongue, and my whole body was moving, rocking, begging to be filled.
I sat up with a gasp and a whimper, my lips damp and my eyes wide.
"Tor—"
I didn't finish his name before Torion's hands were under my armpits, lifting me up as he stood, his expression slack with release but eyes dark.
"I have to taste you, mate," he rumbled, scooping me off the floor as his wings snapped around us, as if to prevent me from being stolen away from him.
We rose unsteadily for a moment, Torion finding his balance after the rush of release.
I thought briefly that I would have to work harder next time to leave him limp, but perhaps it was for the best that I hadn't succeeded so much this time.
He shook himself, straightened, and then marched to the bedroom. "Say yes."
I smiled at his demand, at the gentle way he lowered me into our nest, not so much as blinking to see how it might've changed in the new surroundings. I stretched and watched him lick his lips.
My nerves and worries were gone, smothered under my desire and the urgency of Torion's touch.
"Taste me, alpha," I cooed, lifting my knees and letting my shift slide down to my waist.
Torion let out a growl of warning, and then I was his to devour.
"I'll speak with her first."
The words floated to me from a tunnel of sleep, the first clear phrase in the collection of soothingly familiar whispers.
"Don't push too hard. Wings or not, it may be better for you if she's in attendance."
My eyes opened as Torion hushed his partner in the conversation.
The door to our suite groaned, the guest exiting, and I ran my hand over the sheets.
They were still warm, so Torion's absence from the bed couldn't have been a long one.
Even from the sitting room, his sigh was audible, and by the time he'd returned to the nest I'd pushed myself up to sitting, my shoulders back and chin raised in defiance.
It was just before dawn, light enough for Torion's grave features to be clear to me and my stubborn ones evident to him.
"That was Ronson. Mairwen is here as well."
"I'm not leaving, Torion."
"It might not even be a challenge. It could be a siege."
I didn't catch my wince fast enough, but Torion gave me the grace of not pointing it out. "I've made up my mind," I said. "We can trust Mairwen with Tylane. I will remain here, with you, until you put this matter to rest."
Torion stood frozen at the end of the bed, lips tense with objections, wings slightly spread at his back, shielding me from the approaching threat.
Slowly, he unwound, bowing forward to the bed, spreading out there, his arms reaching above his head until he found my legs under our blankets, gently cupping warm fingers over my shins.
"If you're hurt—" he snarled into the bed.
"Ronson or Seamus will assure I am not," I soothed, leaning forward to cover his hands with my own.
"That is my responsibility," he said, voice growing even more tense and dark.
I took a silent breath. "It is, and that's what you'll be doing, Torion. Just as you'll be protecting Tylane, the Hills, the ungrateful betas, and the omegas who will be better off for your rule here. Using your allies is part of that. Speaking of—"
"Seamus is gathering the betas we trust," Torion mumbled, and then groaned, going limp on the bed.
If I'd been asked just a handful of months ago what I would do in this situation, it would've been to run with Tylane.
Even now, a part of me demanded that action.
I did trust Mairwen to keep my daughter safe—the woman had dragon's breath, after all.
Even more so, I trusted Torion to win. Challenge, siege, argument, it didn't matter. He would be the victor.
"Mate, you are stronger and cannier than anyone realizes," I said, rubbing over his hands. His head stirred on the bed, one ear turning up to listen. "You will win a challenge—"
"If he brings an army—"
"If he brings an army, you will outwit him with diplomacy," I said. Torion snorted, and my eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me you think the way they do. Our land is rougher and we live in tune with it, but we are not simple folk."
Torion grumbled and rolled onto his side, glaring at me from under a dark, glossy curl of hair. "Of course not."
"Good. Then act like it. Poke at his pride. Mock him. Make it personal. Shame him for bringing a fleet of betas in a matter that should be settled between alphas," I said, snapping the words in a line, watching the spark light in Torion's eyes, the gentle twitch of his lips.
"Clever witch," he teased, words thick and warm with affection.
I smiled and sat up, letting the sheets fall to my lap, leaning over his face and kissing across his brow, down the length of his nose. His hands left my knees to circle around my ribs, thumbs brushing the underside of my breasts.
"All will be well, mate," I promised, flirting my mouth over his as his purr began to thrum. "Let's go greet our daughter and face what the day brings."
He took his time petting my waist and back, nuzzling up into gentle kisses, a private moment of soothing between us before we had to open the door to reality, the danger we truly faced.
You could lose everything, an old voice hissed to me.
It was and was not my voice that answered. No. We'll win.