13. ROSE
Thirteen
ROSE
We return to Thornhaven for our wedding. My mother’s been planning it since the second Kael walked out of that tower holding my hand. And she has gone… wild.
“Nine courses, Kael.” I’m reading from a scroll. “The sixth is a palate cleanser shaped like a swan.”
He chuckles.
“Made of lemon ice.”
More amused male rumbling. “She loves you.”
I shake my head. “She’s insane.”
Kael’s eyes twinkle. “Both things can be true.”
I throw the scroll at him, and he catches it, smirking.
* * *
Miriel arrives the morning of the wedding. Small, silver-haired, and wearing a moth-eaten cardigan over her formal robes. She walks in like she’s seen every kind of bullshit this world has to offer and is no longer impressed.
She looks at me. At Kael. At our marks.
“Took you long enough.”
I laugh. “I was asleep!”
“Not you, girl. Him.” She jabs a finger at Kael. “The thorns were thinning for years. Could have come sooner if he wasn’t so busy raging wars and being single.”
Kael opens his mouth. Closes it. And just shakes his head.
“The curse?” I ask, still a bit worried.
Miriel’s face softens. “It’s broken, sweetie. Completely. The moment you bonded. Isadora tied it to her own life force. So when the curse shattered, she did too. There’s nothing left.”
I’m quiet, relieved, barely believing it’s over.
Miriel straightens her cardigan. “Now. Where’s the food? I didn’t ride a donkey for three days to be fucking hungry at a royal wedding.”
* * *
The ceremony is at sunset. My gown is ivory and gold, and white flowers adorn my curls.
“No veil,” my mother smiles when I’m all dressed.
I shake my head, returning her loving smile. “I’m done hiding, Mama.”
“My brave girl.”
I walk down the great hall toward Kael, and everything else disappears.
He’s at the end. Massive, in all black formal wear, his scar catching the light. And his hands are shaking… I can see it from here. His massive, scarred, sword-wielding hands… fucking trembling. And that almost undoes me.
I reach my mate, take his hands, and feel the tremor in mine matching his.
“Hey,” I whisper.
“Hey, Princess.” His voice is rough, smile huge.
The officiant binds our hands with silk while we exchange vows older than these walls.
And when he tells him to kiss me, Kael takes my face in both hands and kisses me like we’re alone. Not a ceremonial peck. A fucking promise. The hall erupts. My mother sobs. His mother sobs. My father clears his throat about twelve times. His fucking whistles.
Yours.
Always.
* * *
The feast goes on late. All nine courses. When Kael finally pulls me from the hall, it’s past midnight.
Our chambers are in the tower. Of course. My mother had it transformed: now it’s all warm wood, candles, flowers, and silk. The cursed room turned into something beautiful. The bed is new, made of solid oak. It freaking needs to be…
I stand at the window, looking out at the garden where thorns used to grow, with the moonlight on my skin. Still in my gown, flowers in my hair.
“Hey,” Kael says from the doorway.
I turn to him and smile huge. “Hey, husband.”
I watch the word hits him and bite my bottom lip.
He crosses the room, takes my face in his hands, kisses my forehead, my cheeks, my bond mark, the corner of my mouth.
“I’m going to take this dress off now,” he fucking growls.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” I’m smiling so much my cheeks hurt.
He turns me, undoes the buttons down my back one at a time, his lips following. Down my spine, over my shoulders, at the small of my back. Until the gown drops…
Then my man drops to his knees behind me. His mouth on my trembling skin.
“Kael…”
“Right here, wife,” he rasps, licking and nipping my ass-cheeks. Then he turns me to face him. Still on his knees. Looking up at me. My mighty warrior king.
My fingers slide into his hair, with tears on my cheeks and a smile on my lips.
“I could get used to this.”
“Good, I’ll be here a while.”
His mouth on my belly slides lower. Lower. Taking his whole fucking time. I feel his breath, hot against my inner thigh, his stubble scraping my skin, his big hands gripping my hips to hold me steady because my legs are already shaking.
“Kael, please…”
“Please what, Omega?” he rumbles against me, and the vibration alone makes my knees buckle. He tightens his grip, holding me up and open.
Then his tongue drags through me, slow, and I make a wrecked sound.
He groans like I’m the best thing he’s ever tasted.
And takes his time mouth-fucking me with long, slow licks, his tongue flat and hot, circling my clit, then pulling back before I can tip over.
Teasing, building. His fingers digging into my hips hard enough to mark, and I fucking crave every bruise.
“Fuck, Kael, don’t stop…”
“Not stopping, baby. Not tonight. Not ever.”
He seals his mouth over my clit and sucks, and my hands fist in his hair so hard it has to hurt. He doesn’t even flinch. Just groans again, the sound raw, hungry, and pushes two thick fingers inside me. Curling. Finding the spot that makes me go fucking wild.
I’m shaking. Full body. My thighs clamping around his head, my back arching, my mouth open on sounds I can’t control.
I come calling his name, and he catches me when my legs give out… Then my king carries me to the bed and lays me down. I pull him over me, and when he sinks in, slow, so fucking slow, we’re both fucking shaking. His feral groans meeting my desperate moans.
He moves like he wants to feel every inch of me.
Hips rolling into mine, deep. I wrap my legs around him, pulling him close, impossibly deeper, needing him in a way that has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with the fact that this man is my husband and I am his wife and we are in the room where he found me and everything about this moment is sacred.
“Look at me, Rosalind.” His voice is fucking wrecked.
His hazel eyes are burning, his jaw is tight, his arms trembling with the effort of going slow when I know he’s this fucking close to losing control.
“Don’t hold back,” I demand. “Fucking give it to me.”
That’s all it takes for Kael to fucking crack.
His powerful hips snap forward, and I gasp, my nails biting into his shoulders.
He growls into my neck, picking up his pace, and I meet him thrust for fucking thrust. The bed slams against the wall.
The candles flicker. His hand slides between us, thumb finding my clit, circling, pressing, and I’m climbing again, already, so fast it fucking scares me.
“That’s it, baby,” he rasps in my ear. “Give me one more.”
“Kael, I can’t…”
“Fuck, yeah, you can…” He thrusts deep, his thumb pressing faster, teeth grazing my bond mark.
And I fucking explode. Clenching around him so hard he groans my name like a goddamn madman. His knot swells, stretching me, filling me, locking us together, and I feel his cum pour and fucking flood my body. Hot, deep, so fucking much…
His knot pulses inside me, and I sigh his name.
“I love you, my Rose.”
“And I you, my King.”
Outside the door, Brutus howls, making us laugh. And somewhere below, in a garden where cursed thorns used to grow, the first roses are beginning to bloom…