15. Corvan
Chapter fifteen
Corvan
I fly around the cruise ship, seeking out anything someone might have dropped. Anything I can gift her for this rite. I’ll replace it with something better, something more her , the second I can, but for now…
My raven eyes spot something glinting by the pool. A golden ring. I splay my wings and sweep for it, clutching it in my feet before lifting off again and finding somewhere to hide myself while I study the ring.
And I decide it’ll do. Yes, Eliza deserves a fucking diamond the size of a golf ball for this night, for everything she’d done for me since the moment we met, but this will do.
I pluck a feather from my body before shifting back. I scoop both the ring and the pitch black feather up in one hand, and then I’m walking. Fighting the urge to run like a damn fool.
It’s time to claim my mate.
Eliza
Using my spare keycard, Corvan slips back into my room twenty minutes later.
He pulls me into his arms the second he has the door closed behind him, chuckling as he runs his hands over my cardigan. “Prepared for our flight?” he asks.
When I pull back to look at him, I gasp. Wings. His wings, silky black feathers that I have to fight the urge to touch, have appeared at his back. “Beautiful,” I murmur.
“You said once that you’ve always wanted to fly. You still mean that?”
I bring my eyes back to his and lean into his body. In an instant, Corvan scoops me up, holding me close to him. On instinct, I wrap my arms around his neck. “Yes,” I say. “I still mean that.”
“Good.” He grins down at me as he slides the balcony door open with his foot and slips us out the door. “Hold tight, mate.”
And then we’re in the sky.
On instinct, my eyes snap closed when the wind sweeps across my body. The beating of his large wings and the sound of the ocean crashing against the boat are all I hear, but I feel Corvan’s heartbeat against my body. Then he says, “Open your eyes, Eliza.”
“This a whole fucking lot scarier than I thought!” My voice is raised against the wind.
“You trust me?” he asks.
“With my life.”
“Then open your eyes.”
With a shaky breath, I do.
And it is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Nothing but the dark expanse of the sky, the breathtaking display of the green and purple aurora borealis, and the calm ocean reflecting it.
As we soar through the glowing night sky, Corvan's wings beat rhythmically, carrying us higher and higher. The cold air whips around us, but I'm warm in his embrace. I can't help but marvel at the sheer strength of his winged form, able to carry both of us with such ease. Suddenly, Corvan dips and swoops, causing my stomach to flip. I tighten my grip around his neck, a mix of exhilaration and fear coursing through me. He chuckles, the sound rumbling through his chest.
"Watch this," he whispers in my ear.
Without warning, we're plummeting towards the ocean. I bite back a scream as the dark water rushes up to meet us. At the last possible second, Corvan pulls up, his wingtips skimming the surface of the water. Droplets spray around us, cool against my skin.
"Show off," I mutter, but I can't keep the smile from my voice.
Corvan's response is to soar upward again, higher than before. As we climb, he begins to twist and turn in the air, executing perfect barrel rolls that leave me breathless. It's as if he's dancing with the wind itself, each movement fluid and graceful.
"This is how ravens court their mates," Corvan explains as we level out. "We perform acrobatic feats to impress our chosen partners."
As if to elaborate on that, he suddenly releases me. For a heart-stopping moment, I'm falling through the air. But before panic can even set in, Corvan swoops beneath me, catching me effortlessly. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I gasp, clinging to him.
He laughs, the sound carried away by the wind. "Trust me, Eliza. This is just the beginning."
True to his word, he begins a series of stunning aerial maneuvers. He dives and climbs, each move more daring than the last. At one point, he flies straight up, higher and higher until it feels like the stars and glowing swirls are all around us. Then, he folds his wings and we fall backward, tumbling through the sky in a controlled freefall.
Just when I think my heart can't take anymore, Corvan rights us and extends his wings, catching an updraft. We glide peacefully, the aurora borealis painting the surrounding sky in ethereal hues that I will never forget.
"In the wild, ravens often go on joy flights with their mates," Corvan says softly. "They soar together, strengthening their bond."
As if to emphasize his point, he gently takes my hand in his. The gesture is so tender, so at odds with the raw power he's just displayed, that I feel my heart swell with emotion.
An amazed laugh falls from my lips. “ This is your life?” I ask Corvan. “Something you get to just do ?”
“You and me now, Eliza,” he murmurs in my ear, pressing a kiss to my temple before sending us higher into the sky. “You and me always.”
When we get back to the room, Corvan doesn’t waste a minute before setting me down on the bed. He turns his back to me, wings disappearing right before my eyes, and pulls something out of his pocket. He says, “I spent the last three years doing almost nothing with my life but flying, Eliza. But none of those flights could ever compare to the one I just had with you. What it represented, what it means for you and me, I—”
I've peeled off everything but my bra and underwear and tossed to the floor when he turns around. Freezes. Stares at me like I am far more remarkable than any of the views he must have seen before. “Hope this is okay,” I whisper.
“Fuck,” he groans. “Fuck, yes, it’s okay.”
He strides to me with a visible hardness at the front of his jeans. I swallow down the gasp that threatens to rise out of me when he climbs on top of me. “I love you so fucking much, Eliza.” He opens the palm of one of his hands and lets a feather fall from his grasp. It drifts down until it settles on my chest. What remains in his hand is a ring. A thin gold band with swirls of detailed metal. “Beautiful,” I murmur.
“This is just for now,” he says. “I’ll get you a better mating gift when we’re on land.”
“It’s perfect, Cor,” I insist. “I love it.”
“Still,” he murmurs, and lifts one of my hands. The ring is a size or so too big, but it’s close enough to fit me that it holds its position on my hand when he slides it onto my right index finger. “I’ll get you a wedding ring for this finger someday,” he says, brushing my other hand, that finger that once held a ring before. “Something suitable for you.”
“Can’t wait,” I breathe .
Corvan smiles as he drops his lips down to mine. “But for now, we’ll stick with mates, yeah?”
“Yeah.” It comes out as an airy moan when he rolls his hips over mine, his hardness pressing against my clit through the fabric.
He groans at the sound and immediately reaches a hand down to unbuckle his jeans, the other hand keeping him braced above me. “Just like I’ll go slow, someday,” he says. “I’ll take my time with you. But tonight I just need to make you mine.” Forever .
He gets his pants off, then goes for my bra. Then his shirt. Then my underwear.
And then his.
Until we’re both naked, staring at each other. And it would be awkward, I think, with anyone else. But this moment between us… it represents something far more than lust. I am soaking him in as he is. Taking in the whole of the man that I will cherish for the rest of my life, just as he’s doing with me.
And then his eyes flick to mine, and the question is in them. Can I touch you now? those eyes say.
I spread my legs in answer.
He groans and drops his mouth to my lips. His hands to my breasts. He flicks and teases and squeezes in all the right ways until my chest is heaving and I’m desperate to have him inside of me.
But then he moves his mouth away from mine. Kisses his way down my body.
Presses an open-mouth version of that kiss straight against my clit.
I cry out as he nips at the bud before licking his way down my pussy, gathering my wetness on his tongue like I’m the finest thing he’s ever tasted.
My hands tangle in his hair, and I swear he only grows more intense with those hands, that tongue, his teeth, at my touch. He licks his way back and forth from my clit to my entrance, kissing and sucking and slowly pushing his tongue inside of me. Teasing me until my hips are arching, begging for more, until I’m shaking with the need for release that builds like a heavy weight at my spine. “You said,” I gasp out between breaths, “That you wouldn’t take your time tonight, Cor.”
He looks up at me with my wetness glistening on his lips. Licks them. His dark eyes sparking with desire. “I’m not. When I take my time with you, you’ll know it, Eliza.”
And then he drops his mouth back down to my pussy and sucks my clit into my mouth with such a delicately rough motion that I come harder than I ever have before. I’m seeing stars and my knees are nothing more than jelly and Corvan is lining his cock up at my entrance, pushing into me just as the last shockwave rolls through me, my body loose with the last of my release. Just what he wanted , I realize.
A muscle twitches in his jaw as he sinks all the way in, and I gasp out, throwing my head back against the bed.
I feel Corvan’s gentle touch as he picks up the feather and presses it just above my heart. Then he grabs my hand and lays it over the top of it. “There,” he murmurs. “Now it will become a part of you.” I hear what he didn’t say. Now he will become a part of me.
He doesn’t start slowly. Corvan is thorough, pulling out until his tip barely nudges inside of me before sinking all the way back in. My hand presses down hard on the feather as pleasure rolls through me.
“I love you so fucking much,” he grits out, hips rolling as he readjusts his angle, just as he does with every new thrust. Constantly changing where his cock presses into me. Constantly having pleasure roll down my spine, the proof in the sounds that leave my mouth.
I clench on him as I say back, “I love you, too.”
“You’re mine.” Thrust. My hips arch as he rubs against that spot deep inside of me, and I cry out.
“I’m yours,” I say back, because it’s true. It’s not a possessive thing; it’s a fact. “And you’re mine. My mate.”
“I’m yours.” He doesn’t hesitate to agree, and his thumb rubs circles against my clit.
And it’s too much, just then. Everything with him is heightened. Everything with him is more than I feel I can handle and yet it is everything I need.
I’m coming again before I can even register it, and Corvan thrusts through it, hips rolling before he lowers his head and kisses me, hard and fierce, as he comes, too.
When both our breaths have stabilized, Corvan pulls my hand away from my chest, staring down with a satisfied smile on his face.
I look down, too. And there, just on the skin above my heart and curving across my breast, is a raven’s feather, marked onto my body forever.
Just the way it should be.