Chapter Twenty-Five #2
He lifted her gently onto the cool stone ledge, as if placing something sacred upon an altar.
Her hands found their place behind her, bracing against the carved edge, while her body arched towards him with wordless grace.
Slowly, she parted for him. A silent invitation, a yielding both fierce and soft, opening herself in full trust, granting him the space where breath, desire, and devotion became one.
Kai surrendered to instinct, to the taste of her and the symphony of sounds that fell from her lips like sacred hymns.
She moaned, her fingers curling tightly around one of his dark horns, guiding him with the urgency of a storm seeking shore.
He did not think, not of propriety, not of the towering doors that might at any moment swing open.
He was wyverian, after all, and such concerns had never tethered him.
And Alina… Alina seemed just as unbound, just as gloriously unrepentant in the fire they’d conjured between them.
He slipped his fingers inside her, and a slow, wicked smile unfurled across his face as he watched her body tremble in response, every shiver a silent symphony to his touch.
Her thighs clenched, her moans rising in volume, raw and unrestrained the moment she came, as though her very soul answered him in kind.
Kai surrendered to instinct alone as he broke away, drawing her with him into the embrace of the water, folding her limbs around his own like ivy twining a tree.
He stared into those warm brown eyes, eyes he had longed for in sleep, conjured in dreams with aching hope.
And now, impossibly, she was here. Alive.
A second chance.
He kissed her once more, desperate to anchor himself in the reality of her, to lose himself in the feel of her against him. She matched his fervour, pulling him closer, as if to fuse their bodies into one.
Kai forced himself not to think. Especially not of the purple eyes that haunted his nights with whispers of what once was.
He couldn’t, wouldn’t, allow himself to feel anything for those eyes.
And yet, with each passing moment, Dawn’s face surged to the surface of his mind, unbidden and relentless, his chest tightening under the weight of it, as if a voice within him was screaming, pleading, for him to stop.
He pressed Alina firmly against the cool stone wall of the pool, his mouth trailing along her neck, grazing her jaw with sharp, urgent bites, as he ground himself against her with desperate need.
He needed her, needed this moment like air in his lungs.
Alina was the one he was meant to care for, the one destiny had written beside his name.
Alina was the one he was meant to be with.
He took her nipple into his mouth and sucked hard, drawing a sharp gasp from her lips that sent a low, primal growl rumbling from his chest. Yes, this was what he craved. What he had yearned for from the very first moment their paths had crossed.
Dawn’s face flashed through his mind once more, uninvited and persistent.
He grasped Alina’s arse and lifted her higher, pressing her more tightly against him, as though by fusing her body to his own he might somehow banish the ghost of purple eyes from his thoughts.
Alina’s fingernails dug into his skin, anchoring him to the present with every sharp bite.
‘Fuck me,’ she moaned into his ear, her voice a breathless plea that sent a shiver down his spine.
He paused, eyes searching hers for the briefest heartbeat, before lowering his lips to her jaw once more, softly, almost reverently, savouring the delicate brush of her hardened nipples against his chest, a whisper of sensation that made his breath hitch.
Could he truly do this to her? Share her bed while Dawn’s face kept appearing unbidden through his mind? Did he genuinely want Alina or was he merely trying to drown out the ghost of another?
Whatever the truth was, until he uncovered it, he could not, would not, do this to the drakonian princess. She deserved far more than half-truths and haunted hearts.
He drew back, breath ragged in his throat.
Alina offered him a soft, wistful smile, as though she too, had fought her own quiet battle in the shadows of their closeness and, in some small way, was grateful for the space he gave her. A single tear slipped down her cheek.
Kai kissed it away with aching tenderness, pulling her into his arms as if the strength of his embrace might somehow banish all her demons.
‘Why are you crying?’ he whispered into her ear, still holding her close, unwilling to let her go.
Alina tensed for a moment, then seemed to remember it was Kai, and the stiffness melted from her body.
‘I met someone during my time in the Desert Kingdom and… I loved her, Kai.’ She leaned back, her brown eyes glistening, the tears that clung to them shimmering like morning dew.
‘And she was taken from me. And now… I don’t know what to do.
It hurts all the time. It’s as if someone has cracked open my chest, torn out my heart, and crushed it beneath their heel.
I don’t know how to go on without her. I wake each morning thinking I’ll roll over and see her lying there beside me and when I don’t, the grief crashes over me like a wave, and I can’t breathe. ’
Kai pressed a kiss to her forehead, his chest aching with sorrow for the drakonian princess.
Not a trace of jealousy stirred at her confession; instead, something deeper settled within him.
In that moment, he understood that whatever they had shared had been more than lust, more than even love.
It was a bond forged from fierce friendship and quiet reverence.
He knew, with the certainty of stone beneath his feet, that he would remain in Alina’s life for as long as she would have him.
‘The person who took her from me… they seem to know Hagan,’ Alina said at last, her voice low.
The words struck Kai like ice water. His body stiffened.
‘How is that possible?’ he asked, a frown pulling at his brow.
‘I don’t know,’ she replied with a weary sigh. ‘But there’s something between them. And I need to face whatever darkness is festering down here in the south.’
Kai kissed her forehead once more, his fingers brushing gently over the faint trails of tears that had dried upon her cheeks like the ghost of sorrow past.
‘What we had…’ Alina slowly uncurled herself from his embrace, though she stayed near, her hands resting lightly on his arms as if reluctant to fully let go. ‘I thought, for a moment, that maybe you could take the pain away. But…’
Kai smiled softly and took her hand in his, lifting it to his lips and pressing a tender kiss to her skin. ‘Perhaps this is our fate, princess. To be companions of the heart. Friends.’
Alina returned his smile, and for the first time since his arrival, it was real, genuine, unburdened by grief.
‘Perhaps in another life, it might have been different for us. Perhaps I would have climbed onto that wyvern with you, flown to your lands, and lived that story. Perhaps somewhere out there, a version of Kai and Alina chose that path, and found their happy ending.’
‘Oh, how I envy them.’
‘I do too, Kai Blackburn,’ she whispered, lifting his hand to her lips and kissing his knuckles. ‘I do too.’
The doors to the chamber creaked open, and Mareena stepped in with Dawn a heartbeat behind her.
The moment Kai saw Dawn’s eyes narrow and her pace quicken down the steps, he knew that she had seen Alina kiss his hand.
Her shoulders had drawn taut, her every movement sharpened by a silent storm.
She came to a halt at the water’s edge, gaze drifting to the heap of discarded clothes, then to the two of them naked, close, too close.
Something flashed in her eyes, something fleeting and fierce, but before Kai could decipher it, Dawn turned sharply on her heel and strode away.
Without a second thought, Kai hauled himself out of the pool and ran after her, water trailing in his wake.
She was already climbing the stairs, vanishing through the doors, by the time he caught up.
He reached for her, fingers wrapping around her arm to pull her back to him but she recoiled with a hiss, shoving him away.
Two servants approached in the corridor beyond, their eyes widening before they respectfully averted their eyes at the sight of Kai standing bare before them.
‘Nothing happened,’ he said, the words dry and brittle on his tongue.
‘But you wanted something to happen,’ Dawn replied quietly, stepping back, her arms folding tightly around her as though to shield herself from the ache.
‘I…’
Her stare turned to ice. ‘I think you’re confused, commander. You seem to be under the impression that I give a damn where you stick your cock.’
‘Dawn—’
She fixed him with one final, frostbitten look before turning away once more. But in that final glance, brief as it was, Kai saw something buried beneath the fury and cold.
Sorrow.
A sorrow he hadn’t expected, but had desperately hoped to find.