Chapter 41 #2
“Are you ready for me?” I asked, my gaze locked on her half-lidded eyes as I pressed the head of my cock against her entrance.
She spread her thighs wider in answer.
It was all the permission I needed.
I sank my mouth into the crook of her neck as I slid deep inside her in one slow, devastating stroke, groaning her name against her throat, fingers fisting the sheets as I drove deeper, stretching her, filling her to the hilt.
“Fucking Hel, Syl.” My vision blurred, my voice fracturing into a million pieces, guttural, raw.
“You feel so good, so impossibly tight around me.”
Nothing had ever felt like this—like her.
Her answering moan was all heat and hunger, nails dragging down my back hard enough to draw blood as her body surged to meet every thrust. Náldrún curse me… She locked her legs around my waist, dragging me closer to ruin with every squeeze.
If I let her keep that hold, she’d tear me apart far too quickly.
I forced her thighs open, grinding into her until she gasped, head tipping back, throat bared—an offering I couldn’t ignore. I bit her, not hard enough to break skin, but enough to remind her exactly who was claiming her.
She whimpered my name, and I nearly lost myself.
I devoured her mouth, swallowing the sound, our kiss messy and frantic and perfect.
My magic flared brighter, stronger, frost misting from my skin, threading over her body like another set of hands, touching her everywhere at once. She writhed into it, welcoming the cold as if it were my fingers, as though my magic itself was pleasuring her.
“Oh, gods. Jack…”
I slid a hand down, stroking her in time with my thrusts until her cries splintered into another climax, her body tensing hard around me.
“That’s it,” I growled into her mouth. “Feel how badly I’ve wanted this—wanted you coming apart again and again. With my fingers. My tongue. With my cock buried inside you.”
“Jack, I… I can’t…”
“Can’t what, little monster?” I murmured darkly. “Because I’m far from done with you.”
I rolled us in one smooth motion, hauling her astride me. Her hair spilled wildly around her shoulders, a storm-dark sea. My hands locked onto her hips, stilling her there, my cock driven so deep inside her I could feel myself pressing against the back of her walls.
Her eyes fluttered shut as she began to rock over my hardness, her slick heat swallowing me inch by inch. My hands roamed her body, tracing the elegant line of her spine, memorizing the sinful way her muscles flexed and rolled beneath my touch.
Our gasps tangled together, a breathless song ricocheting off the walls.
Fuck. The sight of her…using my body to draw her own pleasure, eyes glowing with an inner silver fire, lips parted in helpless ecstasy. It nearly destroyed the last threads of my restraint.
She braced her hands on my chest, hair cascading around us like liquid night, and ground down until stars detonated behind my eyes. I grabbed her ass, hauled her higher, then slammed her back down onto my cock, reveling in the broken cry she couldn’t contain as her walls squeezed me.
I was too close—far too close.
I surged upright, sitting fully as I fisted a hand in her thick hair, gripping tight. “Eyes on me, elskan,” I growled. “When I make you come again, I want to see myself in their depths.”
Her stare locked onto mine, pupils blown wide, and for one suspended heartbeat, all I saw was the beautiful beast inside her—her wolf staring back, staking its own claim as she rode me harder, faster.
“Fuck…”
“Come with me, Jack,” she breathed. “I want to feel your warmth spilling inside me…”
My answer came apart in ragged breaths and broken moans—nothing else left of me to give.
“That’s it,” she panted. “Lay claim to my body, Prince, as I lay claim to yours.”
“Ah—fuck…fuck—” With a final, unrestrained roar, I wrapped my arms around her and gave her exactly what she asked for. My cock pulsed deep inside her, release crashing through me so violently it felt as though my very soul spilled into her.
Our climax struck like thunder and lightning.
Silver light exploded around us, threads of frostfire weaving through the air, searing into our skin in ancient runes, flaring bright before dimming, binding us together in a web of living ice-magic.
I felt it in my marrow. In my blood. In the deepest parts of my being.
A lock snapped shut with irrevocable finality.
Our hearts were no longer merely tethered; they beat as one, our breaths woven together, shared between us as though we’d always belonged this way.
Sylvi collapsed against me, both of us drenched in sweat, shaking, gasping. I kissed her temple, her jaw, her mouth, again and again, like nothing in the world could ever quench my thirst for her.
“I don’t need a goddess, Sylvi,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “Or fate to tell me you belong to me. You’re mine. Only mine. Now. Forever. Even after my heart stops beating and long after the stars have fallen from the sky.”
I pressed my brow to hers. “I love you, elskan. That is my only truth. And nothing—no prophecy, no crown, no war—will ever take you away from me.
We lay tangled together in the narrow bed, skin to skin, our bodies still humming from what we’d just done. Her head rested on my chest, her hair spilling across me in waves. My fingers trailed lazy patterns down the line of her spine, savoring the shivers that followed each touch.
“I never want to leave this room,” Sylvi whispered, her voice soft, her words echoing my thoughts.
I pressed my lips to her head, closing my eyes. “Then let’s not.”
She rolled away from me and sat at the edge of the mattress.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s a cruel illusion, that’s all. We both know we can’t stay here, Jack. This moment we stole for each other…it has to remain here, locked in this room forever.”
I pushed up on my elbow. “Look at me.”
She gazed at me over her shoulder. “It’s the truth.
There’s no point in denying it. When we get back to Isenheim, you’ll still be betrothed to Isolde.
You’ll still have to go through with the wedding.
We’ll still need to fight a war. I’ll still be nothing but a soldier sworn to the crown—if I’ll even be allowed to serve after the attack on our envoy. ”
I sat up straighter. “Syl. I meant what I said back in that forest. I’m not going through with the marriage. I want you. Only you.”
Her eyes grew wide. “What are you talking about?”
“You think I can chain myself to another female when I’m deeply, madly in love with you?
When I’ve been in love with you practically my whole godsdamned life?
No. I’m done pretending to be something I’m not.
I’m done playing by my mother’s rules. Things are going to be different when we get back to the capital.
” I rose from the bed and wasn’t entirely shocked when a bundle of clothes suddenly appeared folded on a chair nearby.
I reached for the leather armor and dressed.
“What do you mean by different, Jack? Your mother is the queen. You can’t just waltz into the palace and demand—”
“I can. And I will. The throne is rightfully mine, and I’ve allowed her to horde her power for far too long.
My magic is stronger than hers. She can try to fight me if she wants, but she’ll fail.
And if everything Helka told you is true and the old magic is returning to our lands, Skadgard needs to prepare, as well as the rest of the continent.
My mother has proven she’s not equipped to lead our people, and I’m not about to abandon them to her cruelty.
Not to mention that if the shifter clans are going to demand their territories be restored, diplomacy is going to be paramount if we’re to avoid war.
Because no matter what claims they have, the northern kingdoms aren’t going to just relinquish their lands.
It’s been thousands of years since the War of Four Kings. ”
“What are you planning?”
“A convening of all seven courts. We need to be united in our approach to this threat. If it’s true that the territories of the shifter clans were taken by our people, then we need to figure out a peaceful way for all of us to co-exist.”
“What about the alliance with the Unseelie King? Your refusal of the betrothal will be a humiliating blow to his court.”
“I’m not marrying his great-granddaughter.
Plain as that. You’re my mate. Plus, I’m not mounting an attack on Yulreth simply because they hold knowledge and technology we don’t.
There are more diplomatic ways of reaching the same goals.
And I refuse to spill blood to satisfy his hunger for more power. ”
I tied my boots and turned to face her, and my heart sank when I took note of the leathers she now wore. Seemed the house had gifted her clothes as well. I already missed the milky softness of her bare skin.
Sylvi stared at me in stunned silence.
“What is it?”
“You just called me…your mate.”
“Is that not what we are?”
“Does that mean you believe in the mating bond?”
I stepped closer, twining my fingers through the long, silver lock of her hair.
“Didn’t I just prove it to you, elskan mín?
What we shared on that bed, what you made me feel, it goes beyond magic.
It goes beyond anything the gods could have decreed.
It’s incredible, this fire inside. It’s like that tether we share has become a solid chain that burns like a molten sun.
Unbreakable. Eternal. If that’s not a mating bond, then I don’t know what is. ”
She crashed her lips into mine, her fingers threading into my hair.
I pressed my brow to hers, absorbing her honey and cinnamon scent.
“What happens now?” she asked, her voice a mere whisper.
“Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out together. But no matter what, Skadgard will need to accept you as mine. Plain as that.”