Chapter 60 #2
“Wait. You said the heart made whole could be about us, because we’re seelie and unseelie—two halves of the same heart.
The fae were born of the same piece of Lucia’s heart, split into two.
I don’t think she meant for her children to be so divided, and that’s why she becomes upset whenever the seelie and unseelie fight.
A union. Lucia showing me the Sacred Milk.
What if the part of me I feel is missing is that unseelie half of my heart? What Vaeleryn said—”
“Is nothing but a fairytale!” he snapped as shadows lashed at the columns, adding several new gashes to the black stone.
“What she said to you… it is just a fairytale. Something said but only ever proven the opposite. All seelie made to drink the Sacred Milk die. It is fatal to the seelie, just as the Starlight is fatal to the unseelie.”
He took a hard step towards me, his chest rising and falling quickly as he glared at me, so much pain in his eyes that I regretted what I had said. I hadn’t known that the Sacred Milk was fatal to seelie. If I had, I never would have mentioned it. I hated seeing him pained.
Hated it even more as he sank to his knees before me and took hold of both my hands, clutching them in his as he gazed up at me, his voice strained and low as he said, “I cannot lose you, my love. We will find the answers. Together. Just give me time. Let it go for now. Please? I beg of you. Just give me time to complete my work at Wraith Wood and then we shall go through everything you have seen, and all the dragons saw, and we will find the answers for you. Together. I know this is troubling you, but I cannot risk you. Give me time. We shall find the answers. I promise you. I just need time.”
I heard the words he locked inside, the ones that shone in his eyes as they pleaded me to do as he had asked.
He just needed time with me.
He was soul-deep afraid of losing me.
Terrified that the vision Arianell had seen would come true and I would die.
Gods, I hated seeing my beautiful dark king on the verge of breaking like this and knowing I was responsible.
I nodded and brushed my thumbs against his hand, hoping to soothe him as I smiled down at him, willing to do that for him.
But his choice of words gave me pause.
Made to drink. Not drink by their choice. Not their decision.
Arianell had told me I had to make a choice.
Was this the choice she meant?
I had to choose to drink the Sacred Milk if I wanted to be all I was meant to be?
I tried to let it go, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there might be some truth in the fairytale Vaeleryn had told me and in Neve and Arianell’s visions.
I didn’t want to anger him, and I didn’t want to hurt him, so I kept it to myself, filing it away to ask the dragons about or discuss it with him later as he had asked.
As I looked at him, there on his knees before me, such an earnest, tender look in his eyes, it was easy to let it go.
To let it all fall away and steal this time with him.
The goddess had waited this long for me to figure out what she wanted me to do. She could wait a few days longer, and maybe I would have another dream that would make it all make sense.
“I would kill for a moment alone with you, away from the world,” I whispered and lifted his hands, pressing a kiss to the back of each one.
“A little moment of normal?” His look was wicked, teasing, and brightened as I nodded. He pushed to his feet. “Come. We can do that.”
He paced a short distance from me, down the steps, before he looked back at me.
I stroked the arms of my seat again. “It is a lovely throne, but I’m not sure it’s for me. I’m just a wolf.”
Kaeleron smiled, intense and beautiful, all the shadows that had lingered in his eyes fading as he took the bait and shifted to face me again. “You were never just a wolf. Do you know what I saw the moment I set eyes on you?”
I shook my head, a little frightened to know because I had been an innocent, blind fool locked in a cage.
His silver eyes were deadly serious as he purred, “I saw an alpha.”
Chills cascaded down my limbs, those words cleaving the darkness clouding my heart wide open, allowing the first rays of light to touch my soul in what felt like forever.
That light that bathed my soul only grew warmer as he continued.
“I saw an alpha. I saw a female born to lead—to rule—strong of heart but kind with it. A gentle soul willing to do anything to keep those she loved happy and safe, even if it meant staining her own hands with blood or chipping a piece of her soul away by taking a life.” He prowled towards me. “We are not so different, you and I.”
I couldn’t deny that.
Both of us were willing to do whatever it took to protect the people we cared about—the things we cared about.
“You are the strongest female I have ever known, and watching you come into that strength and realise your potential—your power—made my life one worth living when it had been a hollow existence for too long.” He gently shook his head, shifting the twin braids that hung from behind his pointed ears against his collar, and smiled solemnly.
“Just a wolf. You are no mere wolf. You are no mere alpha. You are a queen.”
I shivered as shadows brushed my skin, as they curled around my arms, their touch as tender as that look in his eyes, flooding me with warmth.
He fell to his knees before me, heat building in his gaze that seared me together with his touch as he placed his hands on my knees.
“What are you doing?” I whispered as he pushed my skirts up my legs, my gaze leaping from him to the door at the far end of the aisle, my heart thrumming frantically even as I saw it was closed and we were alone.
His smile was all wicked intent and delicious promise as he purred.
“Worshipping my queen.”
I felt like one—as powerful as one—as his palms pressed between my thighs to spread them, his eyes never leaving mine as he tore my undergarments from me, exposing me to the cool air of the great hall.
His throne was large enough that his dark head easily fit between my thighs as his hands curled around the backs of my knees, drawing me slightly towards him.
The first brush of his lips over my aching flesh was bliss, ripping a gasp from me, and another followed it as he stroked his tongue over me.
My hands flew to the back of his throne as he went to war on me, laving and stroking, scattering all my thoughts until all that was left was awareness of him.
Where he kneeled before me.
A king worshipping his queen.
I moaned and rocked my hips against his face, a louder groan falling from my lips as he gave me what I needed, pressing two fingers into my core to stroke it.
I rode those fingers and his tongue, wantonly reaching for release, surrendering to the pleasure that built within me as I lowered one hand to the back of his head, clutching it to me.
My fingers tightened against the back of the throne and his head as he took me harder, sucking my clit until it stung, until shivers blazed outwards through me with every stroke and flick, and all I knew was bliss.
Release slammed into me like a wall of heat and starlight, exploding along my trembling limbs as I threw my head back and howled, not caring that someone might hear. Let them hear. I wanted them to know that Kaeleron was mine, and I was his, and nothing would change that.
Nothing.
He slowly stroked me as I came down, pressing kisses to my mound, teasing me with soft flicks of his tongue as he rumbled, “Goddess, you taste divine. I want to worship you like this every day of our lives.”
I smiled lazily at the vaulted ceiling, heart racing, mind spinning. “I might hold you to that.”
He chuckled and withdrew his fingers, and cupped my backside, raising it up level with his face.
I barked out another moan as he laved my entrance, thrusting his tongue into it before sucking, tasting all of me and sending another shattering release tearing through me before he was done.
“Oh gods,” I breathed and pushed at his head. “You need to stop that before someone walks in on us.”
He nuzzled my inner thigh, his look mischievous and wicked, warning me he would make me howl again and again and not stop until someone did walk in on us unless I did something.
I caught him by his collar and pulled him up to me, shivering at the feel of his hard body pressing into mine as I claimed his lips, kissing him deeply.
He groaned and gripped the arms of the throne, reluctantly pushing back and breaking contact with me.
I growled when he got to his feet, suddenly finding I didn’t want him to stop after all. I craved the feel of him inside me.
He offered a hand to me.
“I have somewhere I would like to show you.”