49
Aire
They hadn’t overheard. Rather, they found us at the onset of our kiss.
All the same, we told Nicu separately. Once Lyrik departed the scene, the three of us retreated to my liege’s cabin, where the story unfolded.
A motley of reactions dominated Nicu’s features. Shock. Hurt. Anger. He wore these expressions openly, gaping as Aspen disclosed every detail.
While seated at a dining table, remorse clotted her voice. Although Aspen rarely let herself slip in the presence of others, Nicu was an exception. Because she idolized him, his response provoked the most fear.
Still, Aspen did not indignity the young man by cowering or wilting. Nor did she neutralize her demeanor or overstate her defense.
Before Nicu’s judgement, Aspen purged herself of the last seven years. All the while, I held her hand, a gesture that did not go unnoticed.
We agreed not to involve Lyrik. He may have contributed greatly to the camp explosion, but we could not guess his sole motivation. Given Aspen’s treason, we wouldn’t risk trusting him with such information.
Apart from our mission, the man didn’t need to know more. Certainly not where Rhys was concerned, or that he’d paid this forest a visit, including when he cornered Aspen in the enclave.
Nicu understood this. As expected, a flurry of questions sprang off his tongue. Each one, Aspen answered with all the transparency he warranted, then awaited his verdict.
My liege fell silent, his posture uncharacteristically stiff. Foreboding cramped my ribcage. While he had due justification to be wounded, I never imagined Nicu to be merciless or unforgiving. As far as I knew, he hadn’t been challenged in that way until venturing from home.
But then he spoke. “Rhys hurt you.”
Aspen blinked. “He hurt you more.”
“Not any more. I won’t let him.” Then Nicu leveled his chin. “And neither will you.”
Bricks tumbled from my chest. Aspen’s mouth parted, her poise unsteady as my liege reached across the table to clutch her hand.
“Remember?” Nicu intoned. “We protect each other.”
Her throat bobbed. “I remember. And I’m… I’m sorry I didn’t keep that promise.”
“But you did. And everyone is sorry for something.” His countenance softened. “You’re family. I love you.”
Aspen choked. They shot from their chairs and snatched each other in a hug.
Pride stitched across my heart. While Nicu would need more time to accept the gravity of her betrayal, he also comprehended more.
Her mother had been threatened. Aspen played a double agent, thwarting Rhys’s plot over time.
That tactic spared villages from being ambushed.
Ultimately, she met the king’s demands to keep everyone who mattered safe, regardless of the punishment.
All humans did foolish things. That was one of our most honest truths.
It did not mean we were forsaken. For those mistakes led to our most valuable lessons.
The clan would be tougher. For now, my hopes intensified as Nicu grinned at me over Aspen’s shoulder.
He knew better than anyone. Resentment poisoned a mortal’s soul. But forgiveness set them free.
***
Between the three of us, we set a deadline.
The missive we sent to the clan regarding the camp’s alternate location following the explosion, in addition to our request for backup, hadn’t been answered yet.
Autumn hawks flew fast, but they did not traverse a kingdom instantaneously.
Therefore, if we hadn’t received a response in two days’ time, we would send another raptor.
Next, we decided how to approach Lyrik. Not to tell him about Rhys’s presence at the camp or Aspen’s connection to the king, but to forewarn the rogue about our clan’s impending arrival.
Although Nicu vouched for Lyrik’s honor, my liege supported the decision to withhold certain details. “He’s masking something,” Nicu murmured in a confidential tone.
Lyrik was hiding something. The Royal Son declared this with certainty, which implied he’d spent more time with the Lyrik than Aspen or I had guessed.
I would inquire what these two remotely had in common. However, our clan had proven that opposites attracted.
Not that they were a pair. Not in the slightest.
Seasons forbid. Nicu deserved the epitome of a devoted mate.
In any case, Rhys had slipped and indicated to Aspen that he knew the squatter in our midst was a male.
This must have arisen because Rhys watched Aspen confront Lyrik about Nicu minutes before the king accosted her.
That clarified Rhys’s misstep, ruling out any precarious connection to Lyrik.
Still, the rogue withheld details about himself, a choice that couldn’t be dismissed.
We found the alchemist foraging for tree sap. Although he didn’t care for this news, the knights’ intentions to slaughter villages changed his outlook. And because one of his mixtures had aided us, I felt confident the Crown would be lenient regarding the contents of his alchemy chamber.
This, provided Lyrik didn’t make himself scarce when they arrived. The man was hardly predictable, which was another reason we elected not to say more.
At lunchtime, Nicu sang in the communal kitchen and gathered plates while the rest of us chopped vegetables.
After feasting, Aspen and I halted in private at her door. Relieved by today’s outcome, I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Tonight—”
“I’d love to,” she burst out.
A smile carved through my face. A happy kind of agony welled inside me.
Sauntering backward, I held her grin until turning away. Mere hours separated us from eventide. Until then, we had tasks and chores to complete.
I made it halfway down the bridge. Then I turned the fuck around.
“Or how about now?” I rasped while pounding toward her.
Desire lit Aspen’s countenance. She nodded vehemently while rushing to meet me. “Great idea.”
Then she laughed as I hauled her off the ground, those fantastic legs twining around my waist. She chuckled into my growling kiss as I booted her door open and kicked it shut behind us.
So began forty eight hours of domestically erotic bliss.
***
Aspen stood beneath an arbor dripping with leaves. With her back to me, she bit into a pear, and I imagined its sweetness splashing across her tongue.
At my approaching footfalls, she tensed as if expecting to be harassed. “I’m eating my designated portion, Lyrik—”
She gasped as my hands captured those lush hips and spun her around, the fruit slipping from her fingers. “It’s not Lyrik,” I panted before hoisting the woman into a kiss.
An elated noise pushed from her throat. My tongue flexed between her lips, pumping in a tempo that matched my intentions.
Arching her mouth from mine, she beamed at my sulky pout. “In that case…”
Snatching my collar, she backed up, dragging me with her. Despite the blood flowing through my enlarged cock, I wavered. “We’re in public.”
“You mean, like on the swing?” she reminded me. “And in the watchtower?”
And technically inside the chestnut tree when my hand first touched her cunt. The space had been closed off, but we’d been among nature.
Indeed. So never fucking mind.
Lyrik was on his side of the enclave, tinkering in his chamber. Nicu was memorizing the enclave’s bridges while contemplating the stars.
We’d all taken a respite from maintenance duties. No one would see.
Inhibitions provoked, I prowled after Aspen. “I’ve missed you.”
“It’s been an hour since breakfast,” she countered while guiding me by the coat.
My head dipped to her throat and sucked on the pliable flesh. “An eternity.”
Humming, Aspen craned her head backward to afford me better access. “It’s my turn, you know.”
“By all means,” I crooned against her pulse point. “Give me an assignment. Put me to work.”
“It won’t be work.”
“Oh, I fucking know that.”
Aspen hopped backward onto the thick rail where lanterns pulsed with vaporous light. Following her lead, I shackled her knees and wrenched them apart, the skirt bunching to her waist. The outline of her core filled out the gusset of her undergarments, a wet oval seeping through the material.
My cock lurched. But when I charged forward, heading for the gulf between her thighs, the woman braced one hand on my pounding chest.
“You showed me lovemaking.” Aspen buried her incisors into my lower lip. “Now I’ll show you kink.”
Palpitations accelerated beneath my sternum. Feral curiosity tingled a path up my erection.
It was one thing to hear Poet, Eliot, and Briar’s ladies exploit this subject. It was another to be a participant.
Only Aspen proved I’d been missing out. I waited for instruction, and fuck if she didn’t voice it.
“Rip them,” she commanded.
Holding her gaze, I reached under the skirt. My fingers stroked the slitted delineation of her drawers.
A muted whimper curled from her throat as I toyed with the dainty trim. With my cock throbbing and my vocal cords depleted, it was all I could do not to yank on the slick garment. Instead, a long, slow tear peeled through the arbor, from where I scissored open the rift in her drawers.
Damp heat brimmed from her pussy, the temperature gusting over my fingers. But before I could tow one hand over that intimate crease, Aspen made another request.
“Hand me a sword,” she whispered.
Curious anticipation quivered through my stomach. Reaching behind, I withdrew one of my twin blades and relinquished the grip. Next, I read her performative gaze and stepped back to get a vaster perspective.
The next thing I knew, she grasped the hilt and angled the pommel against her cunt.
Oh. Fuck.
Lust bloated my phallus as Aspen tipped the sword’s pommel and slipped it between the flanks of her thighs. Her pussy spread, cinching around the weapon, slipping inside to the grip.
The sight cracked open a chasm in my tidy world. Riveted, I watched Aspen fuck herself with my sword. Pistoning the weapon in and out, the spread of her cunt drenched the steel, and low moans peeled from her tongue.