Aliana
We were running.
The forest blurred past in streaks of green and shadow, the trees too thick to be real, their branches knitting overhead into something closer to a cathedral than a canopy.
Colour bled into colour—moss-dark and gold-lit and something that might have been lavender if lavender could taste like static on my tongue.
Scent came in waves I couldn’t separate: pine, wet earth, crushed grass, and beneath it all, something ancient and metallic, like moonlight had a smell.
Malakh surged ahead of us, black and enormous, then peeled back to circle Zira—teasing her, daring her to catch him, and she gave chase with a joy so pure it didn’t feel like mine. It felt like something older than me, something that had been waiting a long time to run.
This was it. Freedom.
They spiralled together, closer and closer, until Zira’s dark grey blurred into Malakh’s black and I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.
Malakh nudged her side, gentle for something so large, and she folded down into the long grass at the centre of a clearing that hadn’t been there a moment before.
I gasped when I saw her eyes.
Blood red.
Both of them.
The trees went still. The colours stopped bleeding. Everything narrowed to that red, and a voice moved through the clearing like it had always been there, waiting for me to arrive.
Child of the Moon Goddess. It is time to fulfil your destiny.
The voice wasn’t suggesting. It was commanding.
You will become the Luna Queen.
My eyes flew open and I shot upright.
Sorin grunted and followed suit, mid-yawn, rubbing at his eyes with the back of one hand.
“Is it time?” he asked, voice rough with sleep.
“Time?”
“Our mating ceremony.”
I exhaled, and patted his cheek.
“Not quite. I just had a strange dream.”
He grunted and took me down. I lay pinned beneath him, wondering how someone so massive could move so fast. It didn’t seem fair.
“Was I in your dream?” he murmured.
Don’t go breaking his heart, oh great Luna Queen, Zira teased.
“You were,” I said, rubbing the dark stubble along his jawline. “Or rather Malakh was.”
His instant frown made me smile.
Even in my sleep, he tried to claim me.
He lowered his head, his hands planted on either side of me.
“We’re just hours away from being bound together,” he murmured, pressing his cock against my belly. “Forever.”
Excitement, anxiety, and something softer washed over me.
It was a done deal. He’d added another clause before we both signed the agreement—his eternal protection for me and our pups, which meant a hefty provision, should anything happen to him.
He groaned in my ear before kissing my neck.
“You smell and taste like my personal nectar,” he said, licking my neck until I giggled.
“That tickles. Go back to sleep.”
He muttered something under his breath as he moved to my side.
I settled down, leaning into him, but I was already replaying the dream, trying to remember the words.
Fragments reminded me of what my mother had said about a soothsayer, but I’d long given up on the Moon Goddess’s protection.
Quashed the words of false hope from my mind.
Sorin rolled me onto my side and closed in behind me.
I rolled my eyes when I felt his dick nestle between my ass cheeks.
He always seemed so damn proud of it.
It didn’t stop me from smiling as I began to drift off to sleep.
? ? ?
The water was still running. I don’t know why I was torturing myself, but I had to look.
Using one finger, I pushed the door open a crack and crouched down.
Rivulets of water coursed down the length of his tattooed back.
Those ass cheeks were so rounded and tight they could double as a musical instrument.
He reached for something, and it swung out, slapping his thigh before bouncing back to hang between his legs. Flaccid, and still dangling a great distance.
I swivelled around and sat with my back against the wall outside the door. I’d lived an acceptable life. Yes, I’d once had dreams. First they were decimated by my father and his crew—now by one humongous cock.
He’d kept his promise, though. Never even tried slipping the tip in.
You’re overreacting. It’ll be fine, Zira said.
Why don’t you shift and let him have at your coochie?
Silence.
Yeah. Thought so. He’d better have a doctor on standby.
I didn’t notice, at some point, that the shower had gone quiet.
Two large feet appeared beside me. The big toes had hair on them. Kind of cute, actually.
“Are you okay down there?”
“Fine,” I said, standing up—pausing only a second at the thick lump beneath the towel.
I mustered every scrap of dignity I had left and walked past him. I didn’t even bother closing the door when I sat on the toilet.
What was the point of anything anymore?