Chapter 15 Dagon
Dagon
“You rented this entire place for the night?” Annika’s voice is laced with wonder as she takes in the space.
I squeeze her hand, her fingers interlaced with mine. The physical contact is completely natural to us now, but we’re only openly physical when I’m certain it’s safe to do so. The emotional connection? That’s even harder to be open about.
“I did,” I answer, walking us farther into the indoor waterpark.
It’s one of Edgemont’s most popular attractions, especially in the winter months when there are less activities to do because of the cold weather.
It’s late January now, but winter’s chill still clings to the air.
“We needed a break from the training room at the residence, don’t you think? ”
“Absolutely,” she says, grinning up at me.
Her smile takes my breath away. Those full, lush lips of hers have easily become my undoing, but it’s her eyes and the way she looks at me—like it’s me and her against the world—that solidifies something in my very soul.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
We still haven’t openly accepted or denied the mating mark that rests on her back.
My mark. We’re taking things slow, and the fact that she understands my hesitance with the entire situation means more to me than she’ll ever know.
I don’t know where she gets her patience, but she’s been incredible to me.
Even when I pull away from her in public, doing my best not to show the world how much she means to me, she understands.
She knows it’s because I’m terrified of our enemies clocking her as special to me and hurting her to get to me.
The mere thought has ice crystalizing in my veins.
“It’s warm in here,” Annika says, drawing me to the present as she sheds her layers, laying them gently on one of the dozen or so empty beach chairs spread out near us.
The sound of rushing water echoes off the high walls, filling the massive room with a constant roar. Water gushes down slides, splashes against the walls of a wave pool nearby, and gurgles from the various spickets and fountains spread across the floor near a play area.
“Yes,” I say, completely distracted as she shimmies down to nothing but her bathing suit—a black shorts and tank combo that has me rock hard in seconds. “Yes, it is.”
I hurry down to some swim trunks, hauling my shirt over my head and tossing it atop her clothes.
Annika trembles, her body visibly shuddering, and I feel the buzz of power ripple down our connection.
Over a month with the faint bond between us, and I’m still not used to sensing her in this way. I know it would only be magnified if we both accepted the bond too.
“Too much?” I ask, stepping toward her as I gesture to the copious amounts of water all around us.
We’ve been training for weeks, picking up right where we left off on the island after returning home.
Between training, we help out when Olivia and Ransom need us and spend time with the others strategizing and analyzing any whispers of movement we hear from the other side.
But this is the first time we’ve been around so much concentrated water in this kind of setting.
“If it is, we can—”
A stream of cold water hits me in the back, and Annika’s smile goes wild as she laughs. “Gotcha,” she says.
I catch my breath, shaking off the shock. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“You’ll have to catch me first,” Annika teases, then takes off running faster than I can follow.
Her bolting floods my instincts with the primal sense of the hunt, my eyes flickering from thermal to regular and back again.
Fuck, this female drives me wild. My fangs punch out without me being able to hold back, lava streaking through my veins as I catch sight of her across the room and elevated, doing her best to hide behind the entry of a waterslide.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” I call as I stalk up the stairs. It’s all I can do to not dip into my natural speed and yank her body flush with mine.
We’re supposed to be training. Despite her incredible progress, I want to ensure she’s fully confident with all her abilities, not just water control.
The past month, I’ve had too much fun honing her hand-to-hand combat skills.
She was already brilliant, thanks to training with Olivia before she got pregnant, but now she’s relentless.
We worked on speed and escape tactics too, and weaponry.
She’s doing a shit job at evasion at the moment, especially as she releases a giggle as I clear the landing. Of course, I know she’s toying with me. If I were a real threat, she’d take it more seriously.
“Laughing gives away your location,” I chide her over it anyway.
She gives me a little shrug, her body turned toward the opening of the slide. “Maybe I wanted you to know exactly where I was…”
I read the intention in her eyes a second too late, reaching for her as she ducks into the tunneled slide.
A low growl rumbles from my chest as I hurry in after her, but she’s used the water gushing down the slide to propel her movement, and done the opposite for me, slowing it down to a snail’s pace.
It takes me a second to catch on before I take control of the water myself and soar through the opening at the end of the slide.
I fully expect to grab onto her, but she’s not in the pool I crash into. I glance around the area, my adrenaline spiking from the hunt she’s put me on—
I’m hauled off my feet, the water around me swirling too fast for me to stop.
I’m propelled into the air, the stream of water carrying me up and up before jerking me back down, stopping me just before I crash into the pool again.
The water lets go gently enough, but my heart is a jackhammer in my chest.
My girl is strong.
“Good,” I say, even though I can’t see her. “Where are you hiding?”
I close my eyes and focus on the faint connection between us, homing in on her as best I possibly can. My eyes snap open when I figure it out, and I can almost feel her eyes hitting the back of my neck.
I don’t spin around. I don’t want to give it away. Instead, I swirl my fingers in the water, taking control of it, and give her a taste of her own medicine.
A surprised gasp is music to my ears and I’m smiling as I direct the water to bring her before me.
“Got you,” I say, victory ringing from every inch of me as I watch her struggle against the water bonds I’ve created—two constant streams around her wrists and two around her ankles. The water keeps her hovering just above the surface of the pool where I stand, hip deep.
She tugs against the bonds, her chest heaving. “I got you first, though,” she argues. “That means I win.”
I shake my head, flame licking every inch of my body at the sight of her before me. She’s stunning, her black hair soaked and laying in wet strands atop her bare shoulders, the dark fabric of her suit barely containing her supple breasts.
Mine.
“I win,” I say, my voice rough. “I have you now.” I step closer, the motion brings us eye to eye with how high I have the water holding her up. “You’re mine and I can do whatever I want to you.”
Her lips part, a little gasp shuddering from them. “Dagon,” she says, breathless as I rake my eyes over her. “Does this mean training is over?”
“For now,” I answer, drinking her in. I can’t decide which parts of her I want to play with first. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go.”
Annika’s eyes flare wide, pleasure and anticipation flood down the bond between us.
I drink it in, relishing how excited she is from the thought of being totally at my mercy.
I graze my lips over hers, just a fraction of a touch, before dragging my finger down her suit, pulling it just enough that one of her perfect breasts spills out.
I immediately dip down, sucking her nipple into my mouth, hard enough to make it pert and rosy for me. Annika sighs, moving within her bonds in an attempt to get closer to me. I grin, moving from one breast to the other until she’s whimpering.
My cock aches beneath my shorts, the cold water of the pool doing nothing to stop the heat pulsing between us. I want to sink into her until she’s limp and sated, but this is too much fun.
I step back, surveying her full breasts on display for me, and grin as her lust-hooded eyes watch me.
“Dagon,” she pleads, her arms and legs spread before me. “Please.”
Fuck me. I’m so helpless to that word on her tongue.
I smirk, flicking my fingers.
A surprised moan rips from her lips, her head lolling back just slightly as I swirl water between her thighs.
“Yes,” she sighs. “Dagon. God.”
My grin deepens and I do my best to hold onto my control of the water, directing it between her thighs, over her clit in pulsing circles that make her breath hitch.
Another moan slips past her lips. “Just like that,” she says. “Don’t stop.”
I have no intention of stopping or changing the flow of water, not when she’s flushed and heady for me. Fuck, she’s amazing.
Her eyes meet mine, determination and lust-hazed all over them—
Water hits me, grips my aching cock, as if she’s freed herself and plunged her hand down my pants.
“Fuck,” I hiss, shock making my power slip a fraction.
Annika’s smile is brilliant. “Two can play this game,” she says, breathless, as I get control of myself and increase the pressure of the water against her sensitive flesh.
She gasps, her eyes fluttering, but she doesn’t stop gripping me with the water too. I’ve never felt anything like this—the way she matches me on every level and exceeds me in all others. She’s my match in every way.
My mate.
My everything.
And that scares the shit out of me.
“Dagon,” she sighs my name, her hold on the water she’s using to toy with me slipping a bit as she trembles before me. “I…I’m…”
“Coming,” I say as I watch her convulse before me, her power over the water evaporating entirely as she loses herself to me. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, watching her come undone like that.
“I could watch you like that every night for the rest of forever,” I say before I can stop myself. “And I wouldn’t get tired of it.”
Her eyes meet mine, pleasure-coated but serious. An unspoken need flares to life between us, begging us to voice all the things we’ve kept buried since that mark appeared on her back.
I part my lips, desperate to ask her to accept me, to be mine officially.
I can’t.
Not when we’re at a war with no end. Not when Samuel, if he found out, would use her against me, just like he’d done with Avianna against Hawke. Talia against Zachariah.
I crush my mouth on hers before I can say something that will damn us both. The kiss is a punishment and an awakening, slowing to something more than I can ever admit.
I release her bonds, and her arms fly around my neck, her legs wrapping around my waist. We’re a flurry of greedy mouths as I suck her needy little tongue into my mouth. We break apart only to rid ourselves of our suits before we crash together again, a frantic clash within the pool.
“Dagon,” she says my name like a plea. “I…I need you.”
“Fucking more than you know,” I growl as I haul her against me, situating her heat right above my cock. I pause there, hesitating as our eyes meet.
I can’t keep pretending this is just great chemistry.
I can’t keep burying how damn right she feels in my arms.
I can’t keep my heart from latching on to everything that is her.
Slowly, I help her sink atop me, inch by sweet inch, until she’s seated to the hilt.
“You’re amazing,” I say, holding us poised there. My heart races as I dip down to kiss her again, gentler this time. “You’re…”
Mine. I want to say it so fucking badly.
“Amazing,” I groan when she kisses me back, languid and intimate, slow and burning. As if we have all the time in the world to explore each other, to appreciate this connection. As if we don’t have a war waiting for us or enemies who would gladly use either of us to their advantage.
Annika moves atop me, drawing my focus right where it should be.
Her. Here. Now.
Mine.
“Dagon,” she says my name with a hint of demand. “Fuck me like you mean it.”
Lightning strikes down my spine at that mouth, and I plunge into her with all the force of need I possess. Her moan is a symphony as I do it over and over again. As her nails dig into my shoulders and she meets my every thrust, her thighs clenching around my hips as we crash together.
We cling to each other until there’s nothing but heat and pleasure, the rest of the world dying around us to an inconsequential thing.
We crash together until that connection between us is searing with the need for attention and acceptance.
And we don’t stop until neither of us can hold on a second longer, the two of us coming together like we’ve always been in sync.
A match.
We’re a match.
And I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.
“Annika…” I cup her face in my hand as I hold her against me, the two of us trembling. “Goddamn it,” I growl. “I love you.”
“I fucking love you too.” Annika smiles, huffing a laugh before her lips meet mine again. “Took you long enough.”