Chapter 7
Sera
Every part of me is simmering with hot, tangible fire.
Maliki’s power elicited responses inside me that I… I can’t define or explain. All I know is that this male has claimed me in a manner that makes me feel safe. Exposed. Owned.
It’s a contradiction.
Confusing.
Overwhelming.
Oh, so amazing.
Yet he’s just told me I can do whatever I want to him. I would be a fool to deny the opportunity. Especially after all these dark urges have awoken inside me.
Urges I don’t really understand.
But when he bit me, then started talking about marking me elsewhere, I… I grew hot. Angry. Rabid. Because how dare he claim me without allowing me to claim him.
I want my scent etched into his skin. My mark forever instilled in his smooth, tan flesh.
It’s the strangest need, one I don’t fully understand. But I don’t want to analyze it. I just want to fulfill the craving. To take my mate and make him mine.
To forever remember this moment.
To feel cherished.
Connected.
Loved.
The needs roll through me in a tornado of insanity, driving my instincts and forcing me to forget everything else.
All that matters is this memory.
This moment.
My Maliki.
He’s lounging beside me like a piece of art, his tattoos swimming all over as they settle into a new pattern of skulls along his forearms. I swear those skulls are grinning, their eyes seeming to taunt me into action.
Maliki just used his powers to ignite every nerve inside me, making me long for so much more than just his smoky touch.
Yet all he did was lick me a few times until I exploded.
And now…
Now I want to return the favor.
Biting will have to wait.
I want to torture him like he tortured me. Only, I don’t have magical ribbons that evoke sensation. But I do have hands, as well as a mouth.
Grabbing his shoulder, I press against him and push him to his back on the bed. He goes easily, allowing me to move him as I desire, though his hands grasp my hips when I straddle him. I half expect him to take over, but all he does is give me a squeeze and say, “You look good on top of me, mate.”
I shiver, that term making my thighs clench.
I like being his mate. It’s not something we ever discussed. Not something I ever thought I would be to anyone, let alone this dangerous male. When he bit me, I didn’t think much of it. It just seemed natural, like something Maliki would do.
Now I realize that claim went so much deeper than just being a flesh wound.
He connected our souls.
So is he mated to me… or to Persephone? The question gives me pause, causing me to sit up fully on Maliki’s lap and stare down at him. “Tell me how this mate-bond works.” I have a slight understanding of my fated links to Morpheus and Hades—through my Omega soul.
But Maliki is a mystery.
Which I guess is fitting, given his chosen nickname for me.
“I don’t know,” he says, his gold eyes glinting off the glow cast by the magic glittering all over this cave. I caught sight of the glowing enchantment while running through the Rutting Grounds, the starlike pattern enthralling me in an instant.
It was as though this space beckoned me into it, the cavern opening and closing without me doing anything other than walking inside.
Now, I feel the energy thriving all around us. See it reflected in Maliki’s features. Sense it humming across my naked skin with wicked promises of extreme delight.
Or perhaps that’s the mate-bond I’m experiencing.
Except…
My brow furrows as I process Maliki’s words. “You don’t know how this works?” I ask slowly.
He tucks his hands behind his head, his arms flexing enticingly with the movement. But then he murmurs, “Nope.”
“Oh.” My nose crinkles, uncertain now.
“I’ve never taken a mate before,” Maliki says, a little softer now.
“I’m just following my instincts.” His eyes go to my shoulder before traveling down to my hip.
“And those instincts are telling me to bite.” That statement is uttered in a deeper tone than before, his need a palpable presence I feel blistering between us.
I squeeze my thighs again, which has his muscles tensing in response.
“What are your instincts telling you to do, trouble?” he asks, his silky tone a warm caress to my senses.
“A lot of things,” I say, squirming a little. “So many things.” The words come out on a breath, my gaze roaming over his rippling physique. His tattoos are calm now, settled into his skin like permanent fixtures. But I know better. Those smoky tendrils of his are decadent. Devious. Divine.
My need reignites—the one that urges me to taunt him in the same way he did me—and I lean down to press a kiss to his pec. It jumps beneath my touch, causing me to do it again before dragging my lips to his flat nipple.
He groans when I scrape my teeth against the bud, making me wonder if he would enjoy being bitten there. I nibble him lightly, then grin when he hisses in expectation.
As if I would make it that easy.
No.
I want to explore. Taunt. Torture. Just like he’s done to me.
He said his body was my canvas to do whatever I wanted to, and I fully intend to indulge myself.
His muscles flex as I begin to explore, his skin hot beneath my fingertips. I swear I see his tattoos writhe, too. But I can’t focus on his arms right now, not when I have all the hard planes of his stomach to memorize.
Which I proceed to do with my tongue.
He releases a sound of approval. Or maybe it’s a curse. I’m not sure. But the way he tenses beneath me says I’m doing something right.
I think about Morpheus and what I learned to do with my mouth and continue my path lower to Maliki’s groin.
Where I meet his cock with my tongue.
There is no hesitation. No second-guessing. Just me following my instincts, similar to what he said.
It’s all so natural. So necessary. So erotic.
Because stars, he tastes good. Like sin. Like… like forever.
I can’t define it. Can’t even make sense of it. And I don’t need to. I just need to enjoy this. Enjoy him. Enjoy us.
And that’s what I do, taking him into my mouth and swallowing deep.
“Fuck, Sera,” he groans, his hand suddenly on the back of my head. But rather than pull me away, he threads his fingers through my tangled strands and holds me against him.
I wait for him to guide me, kind of like how Morpheus did.
But Maliki isn’t Morpheus.
Maliki wants me to take. He wants me to follow my own needs.
Which urge me to go deeper. To take more of him. To swallow around the head and moan as he comes a little on my tongue.
I want to make him do that again. Drive him to the point of no return. Force him to claim me in this intimate way.
It’s an animalistic craving, one I don’t deny as I grab his base and work him to the point of madness with me.
“If you keep this up, trouble, then you’d better be ready to commit,” he pants. “Fuck…”
I’m too lost to him to smile at the victory coursing through me. But on some level, I’m aware that I’m mastering him. Reducing this strong male to a puddle of warmth and sensation.
With my mouth wrapped around him, I’m in charge.
And that feeling is liberating. Empowering. Arousing.
My thighs clench around nothing, my desire to put him inside me nearly overriding everything else. However, there’s a competing craving, one highlighted by the subtle burn radiating from my hip.
Mine, that sting says. Maliki made me his… but he’s also mine.
I draw my teeth up along his shaft, earning me a deep growl of approval from the fae I want to claim as my mate.
More of that delicious precum enters my mouth, and I know he’s close. That knowledge comes from the way he stiffens in my mouth. But also from somewhere deep within. A connection that seems to be blossoming more and more with each passing second.
A connection I long to strengthen.
I suck harder, my mind melting beneath this onslaught of sensations. This overwhelming hunger. My dark desire to bite.
It’s all too much.
Yet not enough.
I’m dizzy with it, my mouth greedy for more. I take Maliki so far into my throat that I nearly gag, but I don’t care. He’s my oxygen now. My world. And I… I need him to feel this intensity with me. To be driven so utterly insane that all he can think about is me.
I want to blow his mind.
Prove I’m worthy of this bond.
Ensure he never doubts this connection between us.
It’s insanity. I don’t know where this need is coming from or why I’ve fallen under its spell, but I’m so tired of questioning my fate. For once, I just want to do what feels right.
And that’s this—with Maliki. Sucking him. Teasing him. Making him groan my name.
His muscles strain, revealing his sculpted perfection. He’s so close that I can feel his orgasm pulsing against my tongue.
Now, I decide, releasing him from my mouth.
“Sera,” he growls.
I ignore him, my lips ghosting over his head to the side of his cock.
He starts to come, my hand around his base stroking the release from him.
A release I interrupt by parting my lips against his shaft and biting down.
“Fuck!” he shouts, his ecstasy mingling with the pain. It’s a sensation I suddenly feel as though it’s my own as blood trickles onto my tongue.
I’ve hurt him.
But the pleasure he’s feeling outweighs the sting of my bite. Pleasure born from his orgasm. Pleasure stemming from our enhanced connection. Pleasure heightened by his elation at what I’ve done.
“You just permanently marked my dick,” he breathes, panting through the euphoria. “Shadows, Sera…”
His fist in my hair tightens. I sense what he’s about to do a second before he acts, allowing me to release him from my bite right as he yanks me up over him on the bed.
In the next instant, I’m on my back and he slams into me.
It’s so seamless. So fantastical. Like his body just knows mine, knew where to go, how to connect, and exactly what we both needed.
He’s still coming.
Yet fucking me.
Creating a mess of us both, but I embrace the sensations. Live for his thrusts. Meet him with equal passion. And kiss him with a desperation I can barely explain.