Chapter 16
Abram
“What’s wrong?” Elowyn’s soft voice echoed in my mind.
My heartbeat roared in my ears. Light suddenly flared inside my chest, too bright and too sudden to brace for.
I felt the air leave my lungs as a bright golden thread tore out of my chest and shot forward, blazing like a sunrise I had no control over.
It shot down the street like it had been waiting centuries for this moment.
I watched it race into the distance, watched fate choose for me, watched it disappear before I could stop it.
“Abe?” Elowyn’s voice snapped my gaze from my mating bond. “Are you alright?” she asked.
I forced myself to look at her. If she saw the truth in my eyes, everything between us would shatter. Something inside me had fractured when the bond didn’t go to her. No, it’s supposed to be her.
My stomach twisted. I dragged in a slow breath, trying to smother the panic clawing its way up my throat. She couldn’t see it. She didn’t know. I had to keep it that way.
“Yes. That old man pissed me off,” I lied as I looked back to my mating bond.
I had no desire to follow it because it didn’t go to her. Elowyn was not my mate, and even though Thomas had said as much, I had still believed he was wrong. I stood there now, with the truth thrumming in my chest like a betrayal, refusing to accept it. I turned around when I felt eyes on my back.
Thomas was standing in his doorway watching me with pity, as if he could see the bond blazing from me. As if he knew I had waited my entire existence for this and now wanted nothing to do with it. His expression told me everything. He knew exactly what had happened.
I grabbed Elowyn and used my magic to take us home.
When my magic faded, Nate stared at us. Clearly he knew something was upsetting me because his gaze kept flickering to me.
“Sorry he was drunk, but hopefully that helped.” Nate gave us a look like he knew we both hated the news. “I’m going to get going and let you two talk. I’ll see you around.”
He headed toward his horse. I was sure he could feel the tension choking the air around us.
I looked at Elowyn, and something inside me cracked wide open.
I wanted to erase this night, erase that man’s words, erase the bond still pulsing in the back of my mind like a threat.
We should have never gone to Falgon. We should have stayed home.
We should have never stepped foot outside again so we could keep pretending this was ours, that we weren’t running out of time.
“Abram,” Elowyn began, her voice soft with worry. “Maybe we should talk—”
I kissed her. I kissed her before she could pull us into the truth I was not ready to face.
I poured everything into it. The fear. The denial.
The hopeless want that had lived in me since the moment I met her.
If the heavens truly made me for someone else, then why in the hells did Elowyn feel like the only thing that would make me happy?
A sound tore from my chest as I lifted her into my arms, holding her like I could anchor myself with her alone. I carried her inside, desperate to drown out fate with the only choice I still had—her.
She wrapped her legs around me and clung to me like letting go meant losing me forever.
The desperation in her hold punched the air from my lungs.
I kicked the door shut behind us and carried her to the table, setting her on it with hands that shook more than I wanted to admit.
Then I tore at our clothing like the fabric itself was the thing trying to keep her from me.
“Abram…”
“Please, I don’t want to talk. I want to lose myself to you.” I looked at her.
She looked at me with tears in her eyes and nodded. I gently pushed her back on the table so she was on her back, then leaned over her, kissing between her breasts. I trailed kisses down her stomach as she arched into my touch.
I dropped to my knees like my body couldn’t hold itself up without her.
I dragged her to the edge of the table with a grip that shook, needing her closer, needing her now.
My tongue ran up her pussy in one slow, starving stroke before I sucked her clit into my mouth.
The moan she gave me punched straight into my chest, filling it with a longing so fierce I almost groaned against her.
I did it again, chasing that sound like it was the only thing that could keep me alive. It was burned into my mind, into my bones, into the part of me that wasn’t allowed to want her—but did anyway. She sighed, hips rising to meet my mouth, and I nearly lost myself right then.
I wrapped my arms around her legs and held her down, palms splayed over her stomach like I could keep her anchored to me. I couldn’t get enough. I didn’t want enough. I wanted everything.
My tongue dipped into her, tasting her, claiming her, and her loud moan made my head spin. I pushed my tongue in and out of her, desperate, frantic, worshipping her like she was the only thing left in my world.
“Abe…,” she cried softly. “Don’t stop.”
My mouth closed around her clit and sucked it gently before flicking my tongue over it. Her body started shaking against me. My movements became more frantic, like I would die if I didn’t have her cum all over my face.
I stuck my tongue out and yanked her pussy up and down it roughly until her hands slammed into the tabletop, looking for something to grip as her orgasm tore through her.
Her moans had me closing my eyes tightly so I could keep that sound on repeat in my mind forever, and I stayed that way as she slowed down, riding out the finishing waves of pleasure.
As I stood, she was already sitting up and pulling me down to her mouth. Her tongue twisted with mine, tasting her own arousal as her hand stroked me. She pulled back and looked up through her dark lashes. Her honey-colored eyes pinned me to where I stood.
“You’re so pretty, little weaver,” I whispered.
She gave me a seductive smile as she leaned forward and kissed my bare chest. I pulled her hips toward me, and she adjusted me so I was sliding through her arousal.
“Fuck.” I moaned as my eyes closed.
“You like that?” she whispered. “I want you to open those eyes and watch me take all of you.”
My eyes snapped open, dragged to the sight of her guiding me to her entrance. She held me there, teasing, before sliding her hips forward and pushing down on my cock. Slow. Controlled. Torturous. I sank into her inch by inch.
“Godsdamn it,” I hissed when I finally settled all the way into her.
“I want you on your back.” She pulled herself from me.
Immediately, I obeyed her demand. I grabbed her and moved us to the bedroom, lying down on my back like she wanted. Elowyn wasted no time slamming herself down my hard length.
“Oh,” she breathed.
She lifted up, slow and deliberate, just to drop herself back down with a force that made my vision blur. Her smile turned wicked as she rolled her hips, grinding herself against me in a rhythm that dragged heat up my spine and threatened to end me right there.
“Gods,” I groaned, my hands gripping her hips as she fucked me like she wanted to ruin me. “Elowyn…”
Her hips changed tempo, sharper, deeper, her breath catching as she rode me like she couldn’t get close enough. Like she needed all of me inside her.
And I gave her everything.
“Ride me until the heavens crack, Elowyn. Let fate hear you scream my name and choke on the truth that you’re already mine. This pussy exists to cum on my cock. No one else gets it. No one else gets you. You were carved out of the stars to take me. Only me. Mine.”
She was a pleading mess above me, so close to her orgasm. I sat up so her face was close to mine as she rode me. My mouth dragged up her neck before kissing her. My thumb brushed over her plump lips.
“You were born to please me, to be filled by me, to cum for me. Don’t you dare hold back, Elowyn. Give it to me. Show me how good it feels to be ruined by the man who worships every inch of you.”
My gaze stayed on her face.
“Say it,” I growled, biting down on her shoulder hard enough to mark her. “Say you were made for me.”
“I… I was… Gods, Abram—”
“Come on, Elowyn, and say it.”
“I was made for you,” she sobbed, her voice breaking as her orgasm tore through her, her walls clenching around me with violent pleasure.
My eyes darkened with a twisted worship. “That’s my girl. My perfect wife. Cum for me, let the heavens watch as I fill you so deep they know you’ll never belong to anyone else. Let fate hear you scream my name and know I’ll burn every thread it wove to ash just to keep you.”
I bit down on her shoulder to mark her again as I came so hard my magic exploded from me, lighting up the whole room with starlight. My arms gripped her to me as we both breathed so heavy that we couldn’t hear anything else.
Our sweaty bodies stuck together as I pulled her down, and together we fell backward. We didn’t speak. We didn’t say anything as we laid there.
Maybe we were both too scared to break this perfect moment where I could pretend she was mine by destiny. Maybe she wasn’t thinking that at all. Maybe she was thinking of her mate. Maybe Elowyn wasn’t terrified of losing me like I was of losing her.
Maybe she didn’t lie awake every night haunted by nightmares of a world without me like I did.
I swallowed hard. One day, she would fall in love with her mate, and maybe fate would forgive her curse and let him keep her.
And I’d be left alone, haunted by the knowledge that another man would get to have her.
Because no matter what fate said… she was the only thing I'd ever longed for. The only one I would ever want.
The next morning, I woke up before Elowyn. She was facing me, her pretty face soft as she slept. I got up and dressed so I could make her breakfast. I padded my way to the kitchen and started on her favorite pastries and hot tea.