Chapter Eleven
That evening, the palace court gathered around the dining table—devouring everything in sight.
“What about siblings?” I threw in Alisdair’s direction. “Did you have any? Do you have any?”
He responded by snatching the turkey leg off my plate and tearing off a bite. I used the distraction to drop my addition in his ale.
I peered around, but no one was sounding the alarm. No one even looked in my direction. So in the end, that’s how easy it was to fell the great Alisdair Shadowsoul. All it took was a little flower—
Alisdair downed the ale in one messy gulp.
—and a little bird.
An hour later, I entered our bedchamber. Alisdair lay stretched on the mattress—pale, sweating, and still. I don’t know what I expected the poison flower to do to him. Possibly hurt him? Ravage his insides or make him sick? But it didn’t seem to be doing any of that.
Alisdair didn’t look to be sick or eaten from the insides. He looked like he’d run around the entire world, and collapsed right on that mattress—too weak and jelly-kneed to carry on.
Yes, that was it. For the first time since I met the impossible man, Alisdair was weak.
He caught sight of me, and not quickly. It was a slow, agonizing turn of the head that narrowed his gaze in my direction. “My queen...” he drew out, sounding like he was choosing every word carefully, for each cost him dearly. “Something... is wrong. Fetch... Aeris. Now.”
“Aeris?” Slowly, I closed the distance, my prize clutched behind my back. “Why would you need Aeris? Your wife is here. I will help you.” I lofted the knife high, enjoying the slow widening of his eyes. “I’ll make everything better.”
“Princess—!”
My knife fell, slicing the rope in two. Moving fast, I pounced on him, caught his wrist, and roped it to the headboard. The other one received the same treatment. Alisdair truly was weak magically and physically. He barely put up a fight.
“What are you doing, woman! Untie me!” His bark had much less of a bite when he was leashed to a headboard. “Untie me this instant!”
“Nope,” I sang. “I don’t believe I will.” I wriggled down his chest, dropping comfortably on his middle. Cheerily, I peeled off my robe. “I told you, husband. Warned you even. I said that one day soon, I would have you at my mercy.”
“You?” he hissed. “You did this to me? Did you—you—poison me?!”
I laughed. “It was just half a petal in your ale.” I clicked my tongue. “You really should be careful with those. Could do a lot of damage in the wrong hands.”
Roaring, he reared up—growing fangs splitting his lip. Alisdair made it halfway, and flopped back down, panting hard.
I patted his chest. “Nice try, dear. When you speak of this in the future, you’ll be able to tell everyone you gave it your all. But now it’s my turn.”
Alisdair growled, latching on to the knife I still held in my hand. “What are you going to do?”
“Oh, well, that’s simple. It was recently pointed out that you can’t fall in love with someone without being vulnerable, and you, Alisdair, are never vulnerable.
You hold all the power in our marriage. You inked those very words of power on my skin in a language I can’t even read.
” I pressed the knife tip to his collarbone, and slid down—slicing his tunic in half.
“You even hold all the power in the bedroom. Eadaoin says it’s the Wind and Wild way for men to put a woman’s pleasure first. Much in the way male animals attract and tempt a female, but even though it would bring me pleasure to be on top every other night, you’ve allowed no such thing to happen.
I must always be at your mercy. I must always beg and plead beneath you—not the goddess receiving pleasure, but your puppet to it. ”
“And so you will be tonight.” His eyes flashed. “And every night thereafter. My wife. My puppet. Mine.”
“I dispute none of that.” I flicked his nose, earning a snarl.
“I’m merely opening your mind to the Lyrican way.
The women of my kingdom know a few tricks to please a man too.
” My hand traveled down, slipping past his waistband, and gripping the length that had been tearing me in two every night. I paused. “Ah, but there are rules.”
“The rule being that you’re never to do anything like this again!”
I giggled again. “No, definitely not that. I’ve actually hidden away a few petals in case you don’t learn your lesson tonight.” I swore the glare he gave me was murderous. “No, the rules are that you must share an intimate detail about yourself. Something you’ve never told anyone.”
“And that will make you cease?” he snapped.
“No.” My grin widened. “That’s what you must do... if you want me to keep going.” With that, I freed his cock from its confines, dropped my head, and swallowed him to the hilt.
Alisdair howled. Yes, howled like a wounded animal. The howl was smothered by a choked groan when I sucked hard, caving in my cheeks. Even though Eadaoin said it, I didn’t truly believe it. Alisdair had his own harem basking in a sauna oasis. I’d met them myself.
I didn’t believe he hadn’t done all the things there were to do in the bedroom, and more.
But then I underestimated the man who shocked his staff by announcing his hunger.
To not be in control at every moment? To allow his pleasure to be at someone’s discretion, and their power?
That was not the Alisdair way, and the customs of Wind and Wild had nothing to do with it.
This was the first time a woman pleasured him with her mouth, and I was going to make it count.
I sucked, bobbed, and stroked—my fingers tight around the base of his cock, but my tongue a dancer’s minx—light and playful teasing his member. I only had the little I remembered of Shadi’s advice to aid me, but confidence was my guide.
She did tell me that his groaning, moaning, and carrying-on would be all the encouragement I needed to know I was doing it right. If that was the case, I was doing it very, very wrong.
Alisdair growled, thrashed, and kicked—snapping and clawing at the ropes. Fighting to get free like an animal caught in a trap. The last time someone sounded this furious with me... they attacked.
The poison flower was still doing its work. His claws weren’t as long as they could be. His fangs not as lethal. His thrashing only served to drive his length deeper, making me moan to rumble the vibrations down his pole, and hitch his breath every time.
I withdrew and sucked on the tip, scraping my teeth across his hole.
“Agh!” he grunted, yanking harder on his restraints. The man was going to wrench his arms out of the socket.
“Sorry, husband. You’re not getting out of those.” I leaned forward, capturing his cock between my breasts, and sliding them up and down—gifting the glory of the valley of my breasts.
Alisdair was so incensed, his eyes glittered like the insane rage of the Taken.
“I understand,” I breezed. “Believe me, I do. You haven’t surrendered to another soul in a thousand years, but if you wanted to retain tight control of everything and everyone, you shouldn’t have married me.”
He started thrashing back and forth, trying to pry the very headboard off. His roars echoed over the horizon.
“I will get you to open up to me, and doing so before and after I sit on your face, will be the cherry on top of a perfect—”
His claws broke through and shredded the ropes.
I ran.
Scrambling off him, I leaped—
A hard body tackled me, crashing us both foot over limb across the sheets. Alisdair grabbed and pinned me down, turning the tables on me so fast, I couldn’t recall how it happened.
I swallowed hard, losing my grin fast. “Are... Are you going to kill me?” It was a fair question. The last time Alisdair looked this enraged, he ripped out someone’s throat with his teeth.
“Kill you?” He pressed his forehead to mine. “My queen, I’m going to throw a parade in your name and the women of your land. Today will mark the grandest celebration in the entire kingdom.” He growled, “Now do that again.”
I was so shocked, I lay there gaping and blinking at him for a full minute.
“But, you— Don’t forget our deal,” I blurted. “You have to tell me something about yourself. Or am I still bartering with worthless coin?”
Alisdair gritted his teeth—his warring emotions splashed across his face. “Damn you,” he belted—the war won. “I do have a sibling, all right. Pleased with yourself?”
“Immensely.” I kissed his wrinkled nose. “But I’ll need more detail than that.” I laughed at his rising growl. “Come on, you wouldn’t want me if I made this easy for you. You said have, not had. Who is this sibling? What’s their name?”
“You know well who the fool is and their name. The flying bastard makes himself known.”
My jaw slackened. Flying bastard? I didn’t need more detail than that. “Bradach?” I cried. “He’s your brother? But you two look nothing alike.”
“Borrowed brother.” Alisdair looked pained, like the explanation was being yanked out of him. “The little beggar wandered into our home one day to steal food, and my mother kept him. She made me swear to look out for him. Mother Meya has kept me honest to this promise by giving him wings.”
I clapped my hand over my mouth, smothering a giggle. I couldn’t help it. Suddenly it made so much sense why Alisdair had both an abundance of patience and an abundance of irritation toward Bradach. Siblings demanded both in equal measure.
“But when—”
“Again!” he demanded, flipping me squealing over the pillows.
I squirmed free and shoved him back down, pouncing on his hard, weeping ridge with the same enthusiasm. Groans and moans filled the room—the right ones. Alisdair was definitely enjoying himself, and I was definitely doing it right.
But in typical Alisdair fashion, he dominated me within an hour of being introduced to our new activity. He propped me against the headboard, holding my head back by the hair while he pumped my mouth—straining to keep hold on his thin tether on control.