24. Wilder
Wilder
My eyes flutter open at the surge that rushes through me. I’m so used to my nightmares waking me from sleep that it takes me a moment to adjust and realize it was something else. This sensation isn’t pain or fear or dread.
Warmth caresses my stomach, trailing downward as Elorie’s fingers wrap my hard cock.
“What do you think you’re doing, Starfire?”
Her face glows with the sunlight streaming through the windows. “I know I should probably let you sleep, but…”
Her fingers tighten, and I nearly shoot my release all over my stomach at the innocent little smile she offers.
Especially as she crawls down the bed with every inch of her smooth skin on display.
She kneels between my legs. Her perfect breasts fit in the cups of my hands, and I bite my tongue thinking how good it would feel to trace it over the peaks of her perky nipples.
The Beating could claim me this very moment, and I’d happily drift to the After.
Elorie leans down, taking her time playing with me.
Dragging her tongue up the underside of my cock until I’m gripping the sheets so tightly that I might rip them from the bed.
Her nails bite into my thighs as she sinks onto me, taking me deep.
Tears spring to her eyes, but she doesn’t pull back as she looks up at me and swallows.
Damn the stars, I’m going to lose my mind as she does it again.
And again.
Every preoccupation that kept me up late into the night washes away with her silvery stare—her touch.
She grips what she can’t fit down her throat, and I’m seeing the frays at the edge of fate as she looks up at me. Beauty that is so vast I could close my eyes and still feel the warmth of her heart pouring out.
Aether sparks in the air, and my fingertips draw it inward until my runes are glowing. Until Elorie’s magic can’t help meeting it with flecks of starlight crawling up my body. I’m not just feeling her on my cock—she’s everywhere.
Pumping through my bloodstream.
Seeping through my bones.
As good as it feels, it makes me need more—I need all of her. Something she must sense through the thread as she runs her tongue in a circle over the head of my cock and then smirks as she releases it.
“Having fun, Starfire?”
“How could I not be when I have all this to play with?” Her nails drag a path up my stomach and chest until she’s straddling me.
I smirk. “You want to play? Then get up here and sit on my face.”
Not waiting for her to move, I bind aether around her hips, snagging her legs and pulling her until her fingers grip the stone wall behind the bed, and her knees are at either side of my head.
Her silver eyes meet mine as I shove her down on my mouth. The sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted.
Elorie’s lashes flutter as I run circles with my tongue, until her thighs shake around my ears. With my hands on her hips, I guide her pace as she slowly starts to rock over me.
She tastes like a winter paradise.
Crisp and fresh and snow-kissed.
Like something I shouldn’t be allowed with all the things I’ve done. The blood I’ve spilled.
Her fingers grip the stone as I shove my tongue into her perfect core, and her head tips back with her scream.
I throw my magic out, casting a shell around our room. No one gets to hear her but me. No one gets to see her but me.
She’s mine.
My mate.
Her core clenches in a steady pulse as she slows her movements, and I shift her down my body, dragging her soaking heat over my cock as her hands grip my shoulders.
I’m impatient, not soft and sweet, as this need to be inside her swarms every thought.
My fingers dig into her hips as I shove her down on me, claiming her like I can’t stand another second without being connected to her in every way.
I never understood the mating bond until this tie to her snapped into place. This insatiable need that can’t be quelled. A peak that can’t be reached. The more of her I have, the more desperate I become.
Craving her unlike anything I’ve encountered in six hundred years.
How did I get so lucky?
The fates must have made a mistake the day they bound this perfect female to me. Even so, there’s no taking it back. We could ruin it all, and I wouldn’t regret it for a second.
Since being at the palace, there are times when Elorie’s jealousy flares, but there’s nothing she needs to worry about. No being in existence could come between us. Nothing else exists now that she’s in my arms.
Elorie arches her back, grabbing my thighs as she rides me in waves. There is nothing in this realm or any other that will keep me from her.
“Wilder.” She gasps when I change the angle of her hips. Her body tightens. “Oh gods, that feels—”
I drive my hips up harder, and she loses her words.
Her breath.
Her chest heaves with the steady build of her desire.
I drag my hand up her hip, over her stomach, and between her breasts, cupping one in my hand and squeezing as I pump up into her harder. She’s breathless.
Beautiful.
Pride swells through me as her cheeks turn a pretty shade of pink. Her skin flushes, and her mouth falls open with her scream. The Well could creep to the edges of this bed, and I wouldn’t be able to tear my gaze off her.
“That’s it; let me see you fall apart for me.” I rub my thumb over her sensitive nub, and her nails break skin.
Blood drips down my thighs as she tips her head back, and her release crashes through her in a tidal wave. Magic weaves down her fingers, healing the cuts she dug into my skin because that’s what Elorie is—life. Healing.
Starlight wisps over her until her skin is flecked like the night sky, and her freckles sear with the brightness of stars on her cheek. She crests, and a wave of magic crashes out with her climax in the form of white feathery wings.
Feathers tickle my thigh. Something so soft and delicate, but it sets me off. I can no longer contain myself as she rocks her tight, hot core over me. Pleasure plummets to the base of my spine, and then it’s shooting into her.
We’re slick as she rocks, coating me in both of us.
Elorie pants as she releases from her high, her magic slowly pulling inward again. Her starlight wings are the last to fade as my fingers brush over the tips of the feathers.
She falls against my chest, our bodies slick, our lungs heaving.
My hands find her back, rubbing up and down her smooth skin. Until she angles her head to look up at me, and I brush her hair out of her face.
“It happened again,” she says, her voice a little hoarse from screaming. “I didn’t imagine them, right?”
“The wings?” She nods, and I shake my head. “No, you didn’t imagine them.”
“I thought wings were a myth. It doesn’t seem like any Fae have them.”
“Most have them but can’t summon them.” I brush my thumb over the line of her jaw. “They only appear when Fae tunnel deep into their magic—deeper than most can go. Only the gods have been known to summon them at will. Yours appear more than I’ve known to be possible.”
“They appeared when I climaxed.” She hitches an eyebrow. “I wasn’t wielding magic.”
“You’re wrong.” I grin. “Everything about what you just did was magic.”
“You’re ridiculous.” She laughs.
“And you love it.” I rub her back. “You’re a celestial wielder. Not much is known about what you wield or what you can do. Your wings are one example of that.”
She sighs. Her fingertips graze over my runes, and they glow along the path she follows. “Have you ever seen your wings?”
“Once when I was Cleaving.” I swallow hard at the memory of the battle where my mother died. I pushed my magic to the limit, tunneling into more aether than my immortal body could handle, until I started to Cleave—a fate worse than death. Cleaving separates a soul from the threads of fate.
I drew on more magic than I ever have before, and even then, I still failed.
Elorie glances down at my runes. At the marks the gods gave me when I was Cleaving. “What did your wings look like? Were they like mine?”
“No, every Fae’s wings are different. Some have been known to look like water. Some are iridescent. Mine are gold, like aether, but they were as hard as metal. Like shards of swords but light as feathers. Not nearly as soft as yours.”
“Were they sharp?”
My eyebrows pinch as I think back to the one and only time my wings burst out of me. They’re a physical form as much as they aren’t. They’re an extension of something deeper than magic or Fae.
“No, they weren’t sharp.”
She bites her lower lip. “Were they sensitive?”
My head cocks to the side as her cheeks blush. “I don’t know. No one touched them. Are yours sensitive?”
I can still feel the feathers between my fingers. The delicate wisps that were an extension of my mate. The softest graze that set every nerve in my body on its ends even if they weren’t a part of me.
“I’ve never felt anything like it.”
My grin grows. “Well then, maybe we should be thankful yours appear easier than most. This could be fun.”
With a surge of my magic, I flip us around until I’m resting between Elorie’s legs, and she’s looking up at me. Her hair splays over the sheet. A halo of white and blue.
“Haven’t you had enough of me yet, King Riven?” Her smile turns to a moan as I kiss down her throat.
“There is no getting enough of you. Not in this realm, this life, or in all of the fates.” My lips trail a path down, between her breasts, moving from one peaked nipple to the other.
She moans. “I can’t help but agree.”
I chuckle, aiming lower as a knock comes at the door. This time, Elorie is the one groaning before I am.
“We found something,” Atlas says through the thread I open for him.
“And you need me now?”
“It’s about the Arch.”
My body tenses, and Elorie must not miss it because her eyebrows pinch. But I smooth the wrinkle between them with my finger, not wanting to worry her.
Ever since Perame said Elorie’s blood is the key to reaching the void, I’ve been on edge, not sure how that will play out.
“I’ll be right there,” I tell Atlas, closing the thread and meeting Elorie’s gaze. “I need to meet with my court.”
Elorie’s fingers dig into my shoulders, and I shudder. “You’re busy for a king who has yet to claim his crown.”
“I suppose you’re right, my future queen.”
Her cheeks pinken as I slide off the bed and tug on my pants.
Maybe if I say it enough, when the time comes, she’ll finally agree to accept my kingdom.
I know her loyalty is to Lyrichia, but I hold out hope that someday her heart can beat for Vaelier as well.
That she can see past this divide, and we can figure this out together.
From the beginning, Malachi made sure Elorie was torn between two kingdoms, two kings, two crowns. Sometimes, I think she’s still stuck there, worrying that by being mine, she’ll have to turn her back on all she knows.
Sometimes I fear she’ll never be able to let that go.