Chapter 37 – Vale
VALE
After what happened to Luccan, it became clear that we could do nothing to discover the truth of what happened, nor remedy the matter. Not right away anyhow. So we remained at the celebration, hoping to seize a few more hours of joy. To lose ourselves for a night.
Hours of revelry passed. Hours in which wine and ale flowed. I danced with my mate, and watched my half-brothers fall deeper in love. As the hour of the direwolf approached, a handful of rebels had requested that Caelo and I join them in a hand of nuchi. Caelo agreed, whereas I declined.
I had other ideas for how to spend the small hours. None of them involved gambling, but rather getting Neve into our bed.
Since the mate bond snapped into place, I’d wanted her more than ever before. Body. Mind. Soul. Everything.
As my mate, she was my beginning and my end, the very air in my lungs and the blood in my veins, and I’d give everything I had to her. I counted myself lucky to have that pleasure.
I could have lived a thousand turns and never met my mate. Or never had one at all. For most fae, that was the reality of life.
And as that force of nature I called my wife entered our bedchamber, dressed in a thin gown that left little to the imagination, I planned to make the most of every moment we had together.
“Thought you might already be asleep,” she teased. “Snoring drunkenly.”
I scoffed at her cheek. “I’d never do such a thing.”
“You have!” She slipped beneath the furs. “The night we fled Avaldenn. Stars alive, you snored so loudly, you sounded like a lür horn blasting through the room.”
I grabbed her, flipped her beneath me. The squeal that left her lips set my heart racing. “I only recall battling a vampire that night, so I’ll have to take your word for it.”
“Better that way.” She stroked my cheek, the heat I’d grown so used to seeing in her eyes when we made love fanning there momentarily before her face stilled, her gentle hand fell away. “Vale, I have something important to ask, and I don’t want to delay.”
“Delayed gratification can be fun though. Let me show you,” I kissed her neck, but she pushed me away gently.
“Seriously.”
I rolled over. “I’m listening.”
“Thyra and I were talking—she wants to get closer.”
“That’s good. You’ve wanted that too.” Who wouldn’t? As a twin myself, I understood that special bond. They were a part of you that no one else could have or understand. Not even a mate.
“We’re going to work on our relationship, and that does make me very happy.” Neve chewed on her plump lower lip. “But she brought you up too.”
“How so?”
“Your family. I told her I’d never harm Saga, and I don’t want to see your mother harmed either.
Rhistel, well, I despise him, but I understand if you want to spare him from death, though he’ll be punished in other ways for the wrongs he’s committed, and not just against me.
Thyra knows all that, and she can understand those feelings as well.
They don’t rule the kingdom, after all. Mostly it’s your relationship to the king that has Thyra worried. ”
Right, that. I’d imagined I might be an issue for Thyra. As the realm knew me as the son of King Magnus, she’d expect certain actions from me.
“Do you wish for me to expose myself now?” I asked. I planned to, soon. Planned to tell the realm that I was a bastard. The declaration would be freeing in a way, but it would also hurt Rhistel, which conflicted my heart even if I knew it was unavoidable.
“Not until you’re ready, but Thyra wanted me to make sure you were willing to see the king’s downfall.”
“You know I am. He’s not a good king. For a while, I convinced myself that he was trying, but now I no longer think that. And he’s had ample time to prove himself. Plus, you’re my mate. No one is more important than you.”
“What if he has to die, Vale? What if I, or Thyra, have to do it?”
Her words made the hair on my arms stand up. We’d spoken of dethroning the king many times. I supported that change for the kingdom. Somehow though, I’d always thought of him imprisoned. Perhaps that he’d die in battle—for once we took a fight to him, the king would surely fight with his soldiers.
“Or what if you do it, Vale. What then?” Neve looked away, as if she couldn’t believe she’d said such a thing.
Silence filled the room for long minutes. Outside an owl hooted, probably one of the creatures roosting inside the cursed castle. Her question ran through my mind over and over, until I couldn’t deny my answer. Or her.
“I don’t want to kill him. In my opinion, the best warriors don’t hunger for blood but for peace. To protect, and one day even put down their weapons.” I swallowed. “And to become a kinslayer is to be cursed in the eyes of the stars and all fae. I do not want that either.”
Even my father sidestepped that fate when he took the throne. He’d had the Falks executed, but not by his own hands.
“I hope that if the king dies, it’s by another hand. But if he goes after you or anyone I love, believe me when I say that I will fight him. I will defend you and our friends. And yes, I would do it to the death.”
“And me?” she pressed again. “Would you blame me if his death fell to me?”
“No,” I replied honestly. Neve, as much as she despised my father and rightfully so, wouldn’t kill him just to do so. She preferred imprisoning him.
An exhale parted her luscious lips. “Thank the stars.”
“Were you truly worried?” My hand landed on her hip and ran lightly up and down. Whenever she was in distress, I craved two things: to solve her problem and to touch her.
“Somewhat? I don’t know, but it’s better to be certain. If his death, in any manner, would harm you, I’d do my best to prevent it.”
I stared at my mate, loving that after all she’d been through, she still cared so much for others. Perhaps it was because of all she’d been through, but not everyone was that way.
Some would live a harsh life and blame the world.
They’d claim that others owed them, and they did not care that others would be hurt by their actions.
Neve wanted revenge on the male I’d called my father for most of my life, there was no doubt about that, and yet she cared about my feelings in the matter.
I had no doubt that if my sister was here, she’d ask Saga too.
Rhistel, likely not.
Thinking, even so briefly, of my brother reminded me of the time he’d sought to kiss my wife. We hadn’t known that we were mates then, but I’d nearly beaten Rhistel to death for attempting to taste her lips. I’d almost become a kinslayer then.
Despite the lack of any threat, a sense of possessiveness rose in me, and I slid my arms around Neve and pulled her closer so that we shared breath. Her eyes widened for a heartbeat, followed by a delicious curving of her lips.
“I’d not thought such talk would turn you on, mate.”
“I’ve been thinking of time alone together all day.”
“Stars, that is a long time to be in suspense,” she purred. “You looked so very handsome at the party.” Lightly, she trailed a line of kisses along my jaw, making me groan with pleasure.
“In your presence, it’s difficult not to want you bare, laid out before me.
Writhing and wanting more of the pleasure only I can give.
” I took her lips in mine and my cock went ice hard as she kissed me back, slipping her tongue into my mouth, stroking my shoulder.
Her smell. Her feel. Her taste. Everything about Neve was designed to tempt me, tailored to my tastes.
Taste. Fates, I wanted to taste her now. To feast on her.
I broke our kiss and before Neve could blink, I shifted under the fur covering our bed, pushing that thin gown up as I went. Neve assisted, lifting her hips so that she was fully exposed to me.
Beneath the fur, I allowed myself to gaze at the beauty that was my mate. Her pussy glistened, wet and wanting, and the scent coming off her was enough to make me explode.
“Are you lost?” she asked, and suddenly, the fur was tossed to the ground.
“Admiring.” I licked her folds.
They parted more, allowing me the deeper taste I so desired. I moaned as Neve coated my tongue.
In response, my wife pressed her core to my lips. A low laugh left me. Neve was not one to be shy about what she wanted, in life or in bed. One of the many things I loved about her.
Moving up, I sucked on her clit, savoring the way she squirmed as I did so. How her fingers gripped the sheets. I smiled into her pussy and slipped a finger inside.
“Stars,” she whispered, almost as if she didn’t wish for me to hear.
I thrived on her praise. It fed me, just as her body did. Slowly, knowing she could take it, I inserted two more fingers and began to fuck her with them as I nipped lightly at her clit.
My mate’s back arched. “Vale, do that again.”
“Hmmm?” I asked peppering kisses along her inner thigh now. “What was that?”
In answer, snow fell. Unable to help myself, I laughed. Since our mate bond formed, our powers had manifested whenever we were intimate. They were usually a sign that we were losing control.
“Already, love?” I growled.
“By the dead gods, if you don’t stop teasing me, I’ll freeze you down there.”
“Yes, my queen.” I dove in again, desperate to feel her come on my tongue, to give her pleasure that no one else could. Her channel began to quiver.
“Vale, I’m close. I—”
A moan swallowed her words, and her back arched high as sweetness coated my tongue. My mate rode out her orgasm on my face, and only when she was finished did I rise and crawl over her.
Her cheeks were flushed, her eyelids heavy with desire. She took my face in her hands, brought it to her lips and kissed me.
“More,” she whispered when we broke for breath. “All of you. I want you to fill me.”
Never able to get enough of my wife, my mate, my queen, I obliged.