Chapter Fourteen
A lisdair healed quickly in the coming weeks, and with news of his recovery spreading through Wind and Wild, the wolf attacks on our people and the villages ceased.
“But I’ve yet to find my brother,” Foalan said, his forehead stuck to the floor. “My failure is unacceptable, my lord. I insist I be flogged, then replaced. Your army deserves a better man than I.”
Alisdair, Foalan, Eadaoin, Aeris, and I were out in the gardens. Aeris fluttered around Alisdair—giving him ale, adjusting the hanging orblights, fluffing his throne cushions. She agreed with me that he shouldn’t be out of bed until the healers declared him out of the woods. But nothing, not even being outnumbered, stopped Alisdair from doing exactly what he wished to do.
I checked him over, then returned to my task. The little patch I scratched out for myself was just beginning to sprout. Eadaoin put on a polite face, and pretended to be interested while I gushed at her—explaining all the hows and whys of what I was doing.
I kept my other ear on Foalan and Alisdair’s conversation.
“I will not flog or replace you for failing to locate your brother. Meallan knows Wind and Wild’s dark and forgotten corners better than anyone. He hoards a thousand bolt holes, and he’s an expert at covering his tracks. I never expected him to be easy to find. But—” A hard, vicious edge crept into his voice. “I will flog, replace, and behead you if you tell me once more that you haven’t found the traitor who attacked and baited my queen.”
My conversation with Eadaoin ceased abruptly. I half rose, ready and willing to dive in front of Foalan. I was beginning to understand Alisdair and when he was or wasn’t being sincere.
And right then he’d never sounded more serious.
“On that topic,” Foalan began, drawing me closer. “I will not disappoint you. The traitor has been found.”
“Who is it?” Alisdair, Aeris, Eadaoin, and I asked at once.
“You’re unlikely to know her, my lady,” Foalan replied, lifting his head high enough to meet my eyes. “She’s a kitchen maid. Her name is Eavan.”
“Where is she?” Alisdair broke in. “Bring her here. Now. I will execute her myself.”
“Hold on a moment.” I moved between him and Foalan. “Why would she do this? Was Meallan threatening or blackmailing her? Was she helping him because she wanted the curse to remain unbroken?”
“The only thing that matters less than these questions are their response,” Alisdair said. “She dies.”
I gave him a look. “I would still like to hear the response, husband, so if you please...?”
He flapped a hand. “Very well.”
“Foalan?”
“My lady, she did follow his orders in aid of his cause, but after speaking with her...” Sighing, he rose to his feet. “After speaking with her, I knew immediately something wasn’t right. She was ranting and raving about how much she loves Meallan, that she would do anything for him, and they’re going to be together forever.
“Absolute nonsense because I know enough about my brother to know he’d never mate with a chimp faeriken. I don’t need to be a healer to know she’s under the influence of a love spell.”
I felt Alisdair’s silence like a weight against my back.
“Is there any way to cure her of its effects?” I asked.
Foalan nodded. “It takes time, and she’ll be a danger to you until then, but the healers can return her addled mind to its proper state.”
“Then, we treat her, but we do so far from the castle. She cannot return until she’s well.” I faced Alisdair. “Do you agree?”
Face shadowed, a sharp bob of the chin was his only agreement.
Damn fucking Meallan and his love spells. His pack may have sworn an oath warning them off attacking Alisdair directly, but they were wreaking more than enough havoc on his life through the loophole.
“We’re leaving,” Alisdair barked in my direction. “Now.”
He grabbed his cane and entered the castle, leaving me to trail behind. I followed—catching up to him easily.
These days, Alisdair was more and more open to talking to me and having real, honest conversations. But not in front of an audience.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I wish I could hunt down that bastard and kill him for you myself.”
“It’s not for you to apologize to me. It was you he tried to have killed not once but four times.”
“Let’s both agree we hate that furry little shit and want him dead.”
“Agreed,” he growled.
I squeezed his hand. He squeezed back, leading me around the wrong corner, going the opposite direction of our bedchamber.
“I have something for you.”
“Ooh, a present?” I half joked.
“You may call it that if you like.”
I was even more intrigued. I pelted him with questions as we turned down hallways, and found ourselves in the east wing.
The hard line of my shoulders went taut, remembering the night he found me in the east tower, and flayed my heart alive, shouting that I would never mean more to him than a good fuck.
Don’t think about that. Things are different between you and Alisdair now. He’s different. He asked me to stay with him.
But he hasn’t told you he loves you, whispered another, quieter voice.
I pushed both out of my head, along with my memories of that horrible night. If Alisdair was willing to forgive me poisoning him and throwing me off a cliff. I could forgive him for losing his temper when he found me trespassing in the one room he asked me not to enter.
We turned one final corner, and came face-to-face with glass-paned double doors.
“What’s this?”
“Another hidden part of the castle,” he replied. “Or at least it was hidden until it was ready for you.”
Alisdair pushed open the doors, and the gift of speech was stolen off my tongue.
My mind flashed back to that first night wandering the halls with Eadaoin. I peeked out of a blurry, frost-covered window and saw what looked like a conservatory. I forgot all about it when Alisdair chased me away from the tower.
Warm, misty spray washed over me—delighting my skin as it did the thirsty plants. Lettuce, peas, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, carrots, and herbs. Strawberries, blueberries, melons, cucumbers, and figs. I named all the plants and fruits I recognized, then jumped up and down, clapping to see even more that I didn’t.
The greenhouse was incredible. So big, my gleeful cries echoed against the cavernous ceiling. I walked the rows of the plant stands, stretching my arms out wide, and just barely brushing their leaves from fingertips to fingertips.
“Alisdair, what is this? It’s amazing!”
“I told you everyone in Lumenfell must be self-sufficient.” He plucked a ripe, juicy strawberry and tossed it to me. I took a bite and moaned. “Castle Riagin is no different. This is the greenhouse that feeds our table. I thought you might like it to be your greenhouse—”
“Yes.” I knew culture dictated that I hemmed, hawed, and demurred before accepting a large gift. We were supposed to go back and forth with me saying that I couldn’t possibly accept. “Fuck that. I want it. I want it so much, Alisdair, it’s perfect. It’s the best gift anyone has ever given me!”
I ran to him, arms out—then abruptly remembered I couldn’t go around throwing myself on men who were only days out of their sickbed.
Chuckling, Alisdair came the rest of the way, tugged me off my feet, and buried me in his arms. I melted against him—bursting with so much love for him I couldn’t breathe for wanting to shower him in it.
I hadn’t told him I loved him since that night I held him dying in the snow. It wasn’t possible he heard me, and with each day that passed with me not saying it again, the words hung heavier around my heart.
Alisdair asked me to stay, but I didn’t know what that meant for us. For me. As much as I wanted to go home to my family, it was Emiana, not me, who would walk through their door. It was also Emiana who would walk right out and return to Lumenfell.
I knew this because over the last few weeks during the times she’d taken me over, she was nothing but pleased that I fixed things with Alisdair, and now she would get her war. If anyone could’ve wanted to be high empress of Elva more than Constance, it was Princess fucking Emiana of Lyrica.
She wanted to stay here so that Alisdair, and his spies, and his army could give her everything she desired. I wished to stay because Alisdair was everything I desired. But only time, and not very much time at that, would tell who would get their wish.
All I knew was that the war plans were already in motion. And Alisdair still hadn’t told me he loved me, and he didn’t know my true name.
I slid out of his arms, dropping back down on the floor. “I love my gift,” I said, forcing my mind away from my thoughts. “But I will need help if I’m to feed an entire castle.”
He chuckled. “You will have it. This area is your domain. Request all the help you need.”
Smiling, I curled my arm through his, resting my head on his shoulder. “Will you show me around? Tell me what some of these plants are?”
Alisdair did just that—giving me the tour and introducing me to the foods they nurtured to thrive in their cold, barren home.
“And in here”—we passed through a small door into another enclosed section of the greenhouse—“is where we grow the tropical flowers. You needn’t continue scratching away at the ground outside. Grow your flowers here.”
I poked his side. “I quite like what my scratching away has produced, but yes, I can do so much more in here.” I tossed my head, mind blown. “We have to introduce Lumenfell’s greenhouse system to all of Elva. Especially the magics used to keep plants growing in the wrong climate happy. This would feed so many struggling families.”
“These systems and magics used to come natural for us,” he replied. “Before we built cities and kingdoms in envy of humans, we lived simple lives in the forest where we grew and traded what we needed, instead of hoarding what we don’t. We’ve lost much in our pursuit of power and wealth. I can’t say if we’ll ever truly get it back.”
We passed by a collection of brilliant red roses, and I instantly flashed to that horrid, life-sucking thing in the tower.
“What is it?” Alisdair asked, feeling me stiffen against him. “Something not to your liking?”
“What—? No,” I cried. “Everything’s perfect, it’s just... Alisdair, are things truly different between us now? If I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?”
He frowned down at me. “I have always told you the truth.”
“You told me you were born with a full set of teeth.”
“One is allowed to flex the truth when blowjobs are involved.”
“That is not a rule anywhere,” I replied with a giggle, then I sobered. “Seriously, Alisdair. It’s about that rose you have locked away in the tower. What is it? Why is it so...?” I shuddered, not able to go on. “Will you tell me?”
Lifting his head, he nodded. “I will. Honestly, I’m surprised you waited this long to ask me. I’ve been expecting this question for a while, and— What did you say it looked like to you?”
Looked like to me?
“It’s a rose. A thorny rose encased in glass.”
“A thorny rose,” he repeated, gaze drifting off. “Beautiful but dangerous. Like you. Of course that’s what you see.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s not a rose, Ana, but it’s not wrong that you see one. A soul looks like different things to different people.”
I stopped dead. “A soul?”
“Constance’s soul,” he said, walking on ahead of me. “The one I ripped out of her chest and locked away in a cold, dark tower—forever imprisoned. Forever suffering.”
I stared after him, eyes wide.
“Did you know a soul could suffer?” Alisdair sounded almost conversational. “People value the body and the mind, but the body is just a vessel, and the mind is unreliable. It changes so often, it breaks so easily.
“All we are is our soul, and when ripped from its protection, it never recovers. It never stops screaming.” He laughed. “Or did you believe that was the wind howling?”
A chill raced up my spine, standing my hairs on end. “Alisdair...”
“Constance and I faced each other on a burning field, but she was prepared for fire. She laughed as her weapons shielded her from the flames—taunting her victory and my failure. She laughed while walking headlong into my trap.
“I tore her filthy, rotting soul—bloated and fed by the souls of innocents—out of her carcass, and on that burning field I built my kingdom. Over the centuries, all have wondered how I wield such limitless power, but I have no power. No more than any other faeman. Like them all, I must drain magic from another source.”
“The rose.” It wasn’t a question.
He laughed louder, his malice washing over the flowers as he moved further away from me. “My final victory. Wind and Wild is everything she despises, and it was her magic that made it happen. I created her hell on earth, and forever this prison ensnares her while voiceless, sightless, and helpless, she screams.
“So, what say you, my queen?” Alisdair passed over the threshold, leaving me behind. “Do you still think me soft and kind?”
It was my fault. It was me who stupidly thought Alisdair telling me the truth was a good thing.
“I WAS A HORSE brEEDER in my previous life.”
Alisdair walked side by side with me through the square, his hand firm and tickling against the small of my back. He nodded to people we passed, but his attention was on me. Despite all the time he spent teaching me archery and how to rule a kingdom, it was only now that I felt what it truly meant to have his time and attention.
And the result was I was wishing harder for my litter than ever. I refused it to keep Emiana at bay, but I regretted that decision as I leaned heavily on Alisdair—sore in places I didn’t know I could be sore. I swore he was determined to make up for all the nights he couldn’t chase me down and have his way with me.
But even so, our nights together weren’t like they were before. I didn’t need to tempt him with favors to get him to open up, and he didn’t have to maintain tight control of himself every minute of every day. The result was for the first time since we stood at the altar, he was my husband, and I was his wife.
“I’ve always had a more natural affinity with horses than I did other animals.”
Alisdair looked exceptionally handsome that morning, and that was saying something. His scars were all but gone. Only faint, fading lines marred his stomach and chest, but those would be gone soon enough.
He bound his hair back, pulling it taut around his horns. Horns that were smaller than I’d ever seen. After weeks of being forced to rest and not using magic, he was strong enough to take in more than ever. His horns were smaller, his claws were blunt, his fangs couldn’t be seen behind his full lips.
All of that was well and good, but it wasn’t what kept my eyes drawing up to bask in him.
Alisdair looked calmer and more relaxed than I’d ever seen him. Since we’d met, he’d been that hungry, stalking wolf—prowling unfamiliar streets warning off anyone who dare make themselves his prey.
Since telling the truth of his history with Raelina, Constance, and his daughters, the burden weighing down his own soul eased just that little bit, allowing it to come up for air in a sea of pain, hatred, and rage.
Seeing him like this, I could imagine the young, handsome horse breeder who ignited mad obsession in Constance, and such pure love in Raelina that her heart led her back to him, even after lost memories stole him away.
“Were you able to mind-ride with them?” I asked when he caught me staring at him.
“I was,” he confessed. “The only animal that I could, but I wasn’t complaining. The joy and freedom that a wild stallion feels as it gallops through the plains...” He shook his head. “There’s nothing quite like it.”
“Amazing.” We strolled around the fountain—having nowhere to go, and not rushing to get there. “We don’t see those gifts much these days. Do you think Meya really is punishing us? For leaving the forests? For betraying her daughters?”
“I believe we have come too far from what she expected of us, but we are punishing ourselves. Meya didn’t make us do the things we’ve done, and isn’t preventing us from stopping. We are steering our ship toward the rocks all on our own.”
I hummed, turning that over in my mind. It was easy to forget Alisdair was wise, amid his harshness and jackassery, but when I thought about it, he rarely said a thing I disagreed with. He was even correct that he would one day corrupt me.
“Do you know how to ride?”
I shook my head. “I had a lesson when I was five years of age. The horse threw me and I never got on another again.” That was Emiana’s story, not mine. I knew how to ride, or... I think I do?
“Are you still afraid?” Alisdair gestured at Riordan’s stables. “Or would you like to learn?”
“You’ll teach me?”
Smirking, he backed away—lightly kissing my fingertips as they slipped out of reach. “I intend to teach you a great many things.”
He crossed to the stables, leaving me a smoldering pile of lace and satin.
Eadaoin whistled, falling in at my side. “My lady, don’t take this the wrong way, but I deeply regret that I was never chosen to be one of my lord’s companions. The man exudes sex, and he’s exuding it all over you.”
“Ew,” I cried, giggling. “That phrasing did not conjure a sexy image.”
We cracked up.
“But truly.” She bumped my shoulder. “I am happy to see this change. You both look so happy. Not that you didn’t look happy before,” she mused, cocking her head to the side. “It was obvious to everyone watching how much you two enjoyed riling each other up. Bet it made the sex de licious . Be honest, how hard did he fuck you the night you told the whole court he had a hairy mole on his cock and bursts into tears when he completes?”
“Oh, Meya,” I groaned. “I think you and I could stand to be less honest with each other.”
She laughed that growly, tsking laugh. “You never did tell me. How did you do it in the end? How’d you get him to fall in love with you?”
“I haven’t.” My reply was instant. “I mean, he hasn’t said that he does. Assuming his feelings didn’t work out well for either one of us, so I refuse to repeat the mistake.” I lifted my chin, nose high. “If and when Alisdair has something to tell me, he will,” Emiana said. “I won’t be the lovesick fool—nipping at his heels and making sappy declarations that are never returned.”
“Oh, my lady.” She slipped her hand into mine. “I’m sorry.”
Emiana’s consciousness faded as the sympathy left Eadaoin’s lips, giving me an opportunity to clarify her harshness and say that I didn’t mean it that way.
The opportunity passed without a word from me. If it was possible for Alisdair Shadowsoul to be mostly right, it was also possible that Emiana wasn’t always wrong.
The last time Alisdair broke my heart, we nearly killed him. It wouldn’t be amiss for me to keep my heart in my chest this time around, instead of giving it to him to crush in his clawed fist.
“Are you ready?” Alisdair called, drawing my head back up.
Eadaoin winked. “Don’t get into too much trouble out there— Actually, what am I saying? If you don’t come back limping even worse than you are right now, don’t come back at all.”
“I was being generous when I called you a wicked minx!”
She took off, laughing. Eadaoin didn’t need to stick by my side when Alisdair was around. No one did. He proved he was all the army I needed.
I entered the stables and went directly to the sweet brown mare who listened while I hogged her stall and bawled my troubles. Alisdair bent to help me up.
I halted. “Wait, I’m not sure about this.”
“What’s wrong? You said you wanted to learn to ride.”
“I do, but maybe it’s not a good idea to have another great big animal bouncing between my legs, after the first one left me so sore, I can barely walk.”
He hummed. “Well then, you’ll never learn to ride, because this great, big animal will fuck the sense out of you tonight, and every night that you’re mine.” Alisdair smiled wide, holding out his laced fingers. “After you.”
Sniffing, I placed my foot on his palms. “Your mouth is as filthy as you are handsome.”
“That as may be, but after you got on your knees and did what you did to my cock this morning, we can safely say your mouth is filthier.”
I told him something filthy he could do with a horse, which set him off laughing. “You will not distract me with that naughty mouth for a second time today.” He pointed. “On the horse.”
“You’re commanding me now?”
“You’re delaying because you’re scared, but you don’t have to be.” His smile almost knocked me on my back. “I’m with you.”
My heart pounded so loud in my ear, it drowned out Emiana’s memories and her fear of being thrown. When you indulge her, it only makes it easier for her to climb a toehold into your mind. You must do what Emiana wouldn’t do. And she wouldn’t get on this horse.
Mind made up, I got on the horse.
Ten minutes later, my sweet, gentle companion was doing her best to tip me face-first into the snow.
“This was my worst idea! I want to get off!”
“Take a breath.” Alisdair’s grip was steady on my waist, leaving me clinging to the reins of the excitable animal. “You’re doing well.”
“She’s going to throw me!”
“Only because you’re making her nervous.”
“How am I the problem!”
Orna tossed her head and reared, her forehooves kicking the air.
My scream echoed through the forest. The only thing louder were his guffaws.
“This isn’t funny!”
Alisdair leaned over me, gently patting and murmuring to the horse until she settled down. “She needs to feel your calm, little bird. Take a breath, sit up straight, don’t pull too hard on the reins, and I will handle the rest.”
“Okay, okay,” I breathed, willing stillness into my jittery limbs. It was a strange sensation navigating someone else’s terror. I held on to the fact that I still knew it wasn’t mine. The days were coming when I wouldn’t. “Breathe, sit up straight, don’t pull hard on the reins.”
I repeated that over and over to myself as Orna resumed a steady trot.
If not for our mode of transport, I would have enjoyed our quiet trip through the forest. A light dusting of snow rained from above like a confectioner’s treat. Orblights hung along the path, casting a gentle glow on the winged rabbits and other critters who came out to see the guests trotting through their home.
It was morning, so the blazing sun and azure sky dominated the horizons. All behind a black curtain of clouds and ice. Even so, I didn’t miss it. There was something serene and private about this little pocket of Elva, where everyone came together against the cold and dark. Every day there were parties in the square, and every night families huddled together with cocoa before the fire.
They loved each other harder because eventually the one they loved would be gone in mind, if not by death. They took nothing for granted—not the light, not the warmth, not food, and not freedom. It could all go away one day, so let’s love it harder while it deigns to stay.
A stiff wind blasted me, ripping straight through my layers.
Alisdair instinctively drew me closer, shielding me with his warmth.
Oh yes, I missed the sun less and less every day.
I was so caught up thinking of the ways Lumenfell and Lyrica differed, that I didn’t notice Alisdair’s hand under my skirt until—
“Oh!”
Two fingers slipped past my folds as mischievous as the thumb pressing firm against my clit. “Shh,” he crooned. “I told you. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Is th-this”—I jostled on the saddle and came down hard on his fingers, rolling my eyes up in my head—“a part of the lesson?”
“Vital part.” Alisdair nipped my ear, making me bite my lip. “I did say it was all about being relaxed.”
“I see now why you were s-so popular.” He flicked my little nub and I snapped forward, body bending in half as lightning demolished my defenses. “Women must’ve come from far and wide for your lessons— Ah!”
He chuckled. “You are the only woman to receive my private instruction.” Alisdair slipped in a third finger and I nearly pitched off the horse. “But you’ll find me a suitable teacher.”
Suitable was not the word. Every bump and jostle impaled me on his fingers and struck that spot dead-on. If the goal was to calm me down, it didn’t work. I was a moaning, shuddering mess who long ago gave up any pretense of guiding the horse and bent back, draping my arms over his shoulders, and holding on for dear life as I bucked and bounced on his hand.
A glowing, furry mass shot out of the trees in front of us, zipping across the path.
Orna neighed and reared, tossing us shouting off her back. We tumbled to the snow in a mass of limbs, satin, and shattered orgasms as she took off into the dark.
Alisdair and I flailed around righting ourselves. Hooking me around the waist, he finally sat us both up, getting our knees under ourselves. We took one look at each other, and burst out laughing.
I was laughing so hard I could barely speak. “Far be it for me to—to critique your teaching skills, but I think we’re supposed to be on the horse when she gallops off.”
Alisdair fell back over, clutching his stomach.
I hopped on top of him—straddling his waist. “I hope you don’t think this means you’ve gotten out of that orgasm you owe me.”
“I am not a stupid man.” He grinned wolfishly. “So why would I have such a stupid thought?”
Alisdair waved his hand, and simmering white fabric appeared out of the air—spinning and floating all around us.
I shrieked in delight as the fabric formed, crafting a beautiful castle-shaped tent around us. Beneath my feet, the powdery snow both firmed and softened, becoming a fluffy, bouncy mattress.
I was allowed another second to admire the glittering, starry flecks woven through the silk before it all spun. We tore each other’s clothes off in a frenzy, both whispering filthy promises to each other that burned my ears even as they left my lips.
Alisdair kissed me hard—scrambling my mind like the plate of eggs I devoured that morning. I gasped as he broke away, coming up for air but wishing he kept me drowning. Drowning in him.
Down he went, dropping soft, nipping kisses over my chin, along my neck, and between the valley of my breasts. Goose bumps popped in his wake as if my very skin was reaching out to him for more.
I moaned as his mouth closed around my nipple, sucking the soft nub into a hard, little pebble eager and desperate for more. He pounced on the other one and worshipped it in kind, making my core melt under his blisteringly hot ministrations.
Somehow, I got my hands between us and flipped him over, guiding him onto his back. I sat on his face like I’d been longing to do for weeks, and then I fell forward across his chest—gripping his rock-hard ridge. “I trust you know where I’m going with this.”
“I do. You weren’t content with one day of celebration, so now you bargain for a second.”
I wiggled my pussy above his lips, giggling. “You did teach me to only bargain with what you desire.”
Alisdair reared up and captured my lower lips—all talking over.
“Oh, Meya,” I cried when his fingers immediately joined the party, rapid-fire plunging in and out of my hole while he sucked on my apex.
My back nearly bent in half as my head threw back—knees quivering beside his ears. Bolts of electricity shot through my veins, tightening me around him. I dropped and swallowed him to the hilt, letting him feel the vibrations of my moans and what he did to me.
For a while, our tent was filled with nothing but moans, grunts, cries, and the glorious music of flesh slapping flesh.
Alisdair stretched my hole past its limits milking the poor innocent for my cum. I fisted the snow mattress, barely holding myself up as I pumped him hard and fast.
“Yes, Alisdair, there— Right there! Gods, yes!”
He gave me no warning. Hot, sticky ropes of seed exploded on my face, shocking my razor-thin tether of control into snapping.
I came hard—jerking and flopping on his stomach as each resounding shock wave rocked my body hard, hard, and harder. It was an eternity before I collapsed on top of him, grinning like a lunatic. “Wow,” I breathed, chest heaving. “I swear those get better every time.”
“Let’s test that theory.”
“Uh-uh,” I sang, wriggling away when he tried to flip me over. “I have you right where I want you, husband, and it’s right where you’re going to stay until I say otherwise.”
“You are sexy when you think you’re in charge.”
“Oh, but I am.” I winked at him over my shoulder. “I’ve told you, I have many ways of putting a man on his back.”
A furious growl split his lips. There was something wrong with me that I found that deeply arousing.
“Now, now, don’t be like that,” I purred, gripping his knees. “You’ll find that there’s nothing I can do in this position that you won’t like.”
I didn’t give him a chance to rebut. I rose up, slowly twisting and wining my hips, pushing out my ass, then slowly coming back down—grinding on his member. Taking my time, I teased, danced, and kissed his ridge with my pussy, sending it shooting back up and eager for more.
“Still think I’m a bad dancer, husband?”
He panted hard, his growls raising the temperature within my body. “You are the best dancer in all of Elva in this and every other century. You make all other dancers weep for their failure,” he growled, “for they will never surpass you.”
Now that’s more like it. Fuck you, Honora.
“You’ve watched my mouth do it more times than there are numbers.” I swirled my juicy hole on his tip. “Want to watch my pussy swallow that big, fat cock, lover?”
Alisdair didn’t waste time with words. Snarling, he grasped my hips—pulling me slowly, but firmly down on his middle. Despite the inevitable way this was going to end, I was determined to take my time—drive him as crazy as he drove me.
I rose up all the way to the tip, enjoying his low hiss deep inside a newly awakened naughty part of me. Just as slowly, I impaled myself on him—groaning as my eyes fluttered. The man filled me to bursting, and then some. Alisdair said it was his looks that had all the men and women swooning in his younger days, but I knew for a fact fae weren’t so married to clothes back in the old days. They were swooning certainly, but they weren’t looking at his face when they did so.
Alisdair’s warm, firm grip was the anchor pulling me back when I drew away. Caught in our eternal push-pull, I rode his lap much more happily than I rode a horse.
“Faster!”
Biting my lip, I rolled my hips—making him choke. “I could go faster,” I mused, “but you’d have to do something for me first.”
“Very well, if that’s what you were waiting for, you should’ve said so sooner.”
“What are— Oh!”
My brows bounced up to my hairline as a wet finger pushed past my puckered entrance. I opened my mouth to tell him that was not what I was going to say, when his other hand came around and rubbed my clit so vigorously, the explosion of pleasure popped me off his cock.
“Okay, that’s better than what I was going to say.”
“Faster,” he ordered.
I knew when to give in to the will of a god. Nails digging in his knees, I bounced up and down on his lap—driving his length and his fingers deeper and deeper inside of me with each thrust.
Our heat filled the tent and burst out, banishing the cold from Wind and Wild—from the world. My moans were screams. I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t slow down.
Alisdair and I were like one—meeting thrust for thrust. Groan for groan. Scream for every relentless strike of my inner bull’s-eye.
Every muscle in my body went rigid, tightening harder than my lower belly. I screeched myself hoarse as I came—body seizing and clamping my walls down, strangling his length till it burst.
We collapsed back in a sweaty, sated pile.
“Fucking hell, woman.” It brought me immense pleasure that Alisdair was so out of breath. “You make it easy for a man to forgive you anything. I’ve already forgotten about that pesky little cliff you threw me off of.”
My smile tightened around the edges. “Have you? Well, that’s good. Since you only keep me around for my mouth and pussy, I’d hate for either to disappoint.” I shoved up, but I was still too weak and shaky from my orgasm. My storm-out ended instantly when I flopped stomach down on the mattress—steaming.
I felt Alisdair’s eyes on the back of my head. He was no doubt pondering what went wrong again that I was having another tantrum.
He’s such a fool. I swear, it wasn’t his heart that he ripped out. It was his brain!
“Ana.”
“What!” I snapped.
Alisdair flipped me over. I squawked as he pinned my hands over my head, and pressed our foreheads together.
“You are aware, little bird, that I am hopelessly, madly, irrevocably, irrationally in love with you?”
I stilled.
“I would love you, my short-tempered, violent biter, even if you had no mouth and no pussy? Although, I would never wish you had no mouth, because it is your constant challenge of me, pushing me to grow and be a better man than I was the day before—that makes my heart beat mad for you—in or out of my chest.”
I stopped breathing, my own heart shooting into my throat. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t swallow. I couldn’t process a word coming out of his mouth! Did he mean it? Was this truly happening?
“You knew this, yes?”
My jaw worked as my tongue strained to remember how to form sounds. “If... If I didn’t,” I croaked, “I do now.”
“Good.” He kissed me hard. “Because I wouldn’t want there to be any confusion on that topic.”
I ducked my head, hiding my smile in his neck. “No confusion here. We understand each other perfectly.”
For a long while, we just held each other—safe and secure in our own little world. Lazily, I traced the runes on his arm—fingers skating over the cooling sweat on his body.
He loves me. I can’t believe he loves me.
The thought brought a wide, goofy grin to my face every time. I’d been wishing for this for so long. At first I thought getting him to love me was impossible. And then I thought it was a miraculous feat that not even Meya could achieve. But here we were—two cursed people in love.
Cursed. Of course, the curse, I thought, a sliver of urgency sneaking through the fog.
I was cursed and Alisdair just brought me closer to freedom. Now all he needed to do was say so to my true self and make it so by declaring my true name.
But... what is my true name? I frowned, searching the depths of my mind. I think it starts with a D— Oh, no, an O. O-r-a... Or is it O-e-a—?
“What is it?” Alisdair smoothed down my frown lines. “What’s upset my queen?”
My smile returned. “Not a thing. How can I be upset on such a perfect morning?” I chewed my lip. “Actually, I was just thinking. If you truly love me, I was hoping you’d do something for me.”
He shrugged. “If you insist.” His hand traveled between my cheeks.
“Behave yourself, beast,” I cried, swatting his arm.
Alisdair laughed unrepentantly.
“What I was going to say was that I want us to get married again. Properly this time.”
“Huh,” he voiced, cocking his head. “You mean a marriage ceremony that doesn’t end with me getting stabbed through the chest, or you fleeing into the night? That would be quite an accomplishment for us.”
I giggled. “I think we can manage it, don’t you?”
“We’ll find out in a week’s time.” He kissed my fingertips. “At the ball celebrating our marriage.”
Squealing happily, I tackled Alisdair and kissed him soundly. In typical fashion, he flipped me back over and had his way with me—making me very glad I had a pussy and a mouth.
All too soon, Alisdair and I headed back to the village with me enjoying the journey much more on foot. He listened to me chatter about wedding plans, stopping only once to pick a starflower and tuck it behind my ear without a word—just a smile. I swear I fell deeper in love with him on the spot.
Walking into town, my stream of chatter was interrupted a few times by a strange sight. Every villager we passed was stopped in the middle of their day—standing frozen in the square, on the side of the road, outside their homes, or beside the fountain.
They weren’t moving. They weren’t talking. They were just staring at something Alisdair and I couldn’t see.
Cautiously we passed through and stepped onto the castle bridge. Eadaoin stood in front of the entrance, staring straight up.
“Eadaoin? Eadaoin,” I called. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”
“The ice...” she whispered.
“The ice? What about it?”
She pointed up, her finger shaking. At that moment, the icicle shed a tear, dripping its gift on her fingertip.
“It’s melting.”