Forty Seven #2
“She’s one of us,” Rohan says. “Yes, she’s an elf, but more than that, she has proven herself to be Dragorie, and I won’t take any slander about her.”
“I agree,” Sigrid says.
“And I,” Durruk agrees.
“Agreed,” Varan adds.
I put a hand to my mouth, Sigrid throwing me a wink as Beau rubs my back.
“Now, are we fighting?” Rohan drawls. “Because I’m itching for a fight, just say the word.”
Silence.
I can’t see what’s happening, but all of a sudden the crowd is dispersing, and clan Blackscale turns to me with soft smiles.
“Y-you all want me here?” I ask over my hiccups.
“Of course we do,” Agnis says, coming over and patting my cheek. “But no tears.”
I laugh.
“It’s not a good look for us,” Fiona remarks, but she smiles before walking off.
“You know Melle loves you,” Nora says quietly, Melle sleeping in her arms.
I nod. “I love her too.”
“Come to me if you need that blade sharpened.” Bellamy says next, and I nod, more tears falling.
Adora pats me on the head and Calian nods, disappearing through the tents.
More and more come over, patting my shoulder, or smiling, or laughing at my tears in a good-natured way.
“You are home with us,” Tofa says last, hugging me before she wanders off, and then it’s just me and Rohan.
His back is stiff, staring into the Firehorn section.
“Rohan?” I call, and the change in him is instant.
His shoulders drop a touch, and his focus comes straight to me, taking a deep breath.
He strides toward me, and I bite my lip, my heartrate kicking up. As soon as he nears, he releases the abused flesh between my teeth.
“Don’t do that,” he says, placing a kiss to my forehead.
“Are you okay?” He asks as he wipes my face of tears.
“I am now.”
He brushes some hair behind my ear, tracing my cheekbone.
“Do they really mean it?” I ask, sniffling.
His eyes soften. “They do. You belong with us. With me.”
“I’ve always w-wanted to belong somewhere.”
He presses another kiss to my forehead. “Now you do.”
“Rohan?” Dorkin calls, papers in his hand.
“Wait for me in our tent?”
I nod, and then he walks off with Dorkin in tow.
I stand there, looking across clan Blackscale, my clan, because I can call them that, and observe everyone helping one another.
When I spot one of our own with a bleeding side, I go to help him, not quite sure what to do but when Agnis smiles at me and gives me a bandage, I realize that I don’t have to know, just be willing to try.
Because I’m a part of this clan, and I will always do anything I can to help them.
It’s the least I can do for them after what they did for me today.
I sink into the tub, sighing from the heat of it easing my aching body.
I’ve helped the wounded, comforted the grieving and helped ration the food the guards gave us. Now, I wait for Rohan’s return.
I’m on edge, eager to tell him what I found today in the cavern, and just when I can hardly take it anymore, the tent opens and Rohan walks in.
He freezes when he sees me, nostrils flaring, and then he’s stripping out of his clothes.
“You bathed already?” I ask.
“In the stream,” he says, and I scan his torso for injury, but find none.
I open my mouth to tell him about Sparks, but he removes his pants next, and my eyes drop down.
He walks toward me, no shame in his nakedness and then he’s picking me up, getting in the tub and moving me to straddle him.
His hard cock is pressed between us as I straddle his thighs, but all he does is place his hands on my hips, stroking up and down as his head tilts back, relaxing into the tub, eyes closed.
I rub a hand over his heart, feeling it pounding.
“I have something to tell—”
“She’s dead,” he says, and my mouth clamps shut.
“W-what?”
He opens his eyes, a hand stroking over my ribs.
“She’s dead.”
My brows furrow, but then I blink, shaking my head.
“Who’s dead?”
There is only one person who he could be talking about, and it must be Darcia…
“Oh,” I say, unsure how to respond.
“I wanted it to come from me. We said no secrets.”
I nod.
“I don’t regret it,” he says, his hand wrapping around my stomach. “Not when there was a boot-shaped bruise here,” he says, then he moves along to my side. “Another here, and three smaller bruises here.”
“Rohan…”
He grabs my hand and then moves up my arm.
“I thought it was dirt when I first saw them on your arm… you were covered in them, Alara.” The water heats. “You had more bruises than I could see skin.”
He lifts my wrist to his mouth and rests it there. Where it was broken.
“For too long, she hurt you. For too long, I was blind to it. I won’t regret what I did.”
My shoulders slump. I don’t know how to feel.
Relief? Sadness?
I just wanted her gone, to leave me alone. But did I want her dead?
She didn’t care about Asseya.
“Don’t think about it,” Rohan says. “Her death is on my hands, not yours.” He kisses my wrist. “Never yours. That’s why I’m here.”
“To kill those who hurt me?” I meant it as a joke, but his answer isn’t.
“Yes.” He takes my hand and places it back over his chest. “But I’m also here to carry the burden of their deaths. They’re not on you.”
“But they are,” I say, fingers twitching. “They died because of me.”
“No.” He shakes his head and brings me down to the crook of his neck. “They died because I’m incapable of letting those who hurt you, live. You are not a killer, Alara, but I am. So I will be the axe that you don’t want to wield, and you will be my home where I can rest.”
I sink into him, his arms circle me in a hold of protection as I rest against his shoulder, my own hands coming up and stroking over his skin.
His chin rests on the top of my head, the only sound is the crackling fire and we just… be.
He washes me slowly, gently, reverently. The warm water flowing over my back from the cloth and I feel treasured. Important.
“You’re mine,” he tells me, running the cloth over my arms.
He says that a lot.
But this time, it seems to hold more weight, more meaning.
“Because you took me?”
“Yes.” He moves me to sit as he starts to wash my shoulders, my collarbone, before moving to my breasts.
I release a shuddering breath when he circles my nipple.
“You are mine. I took you, I claimed you.”
He moves lower, swirling around my navel and then lower still, even though there’s no soap left on the cloth.
His hand delves between my thighs, parting me and swirling that cloth in a way he knows I like.
I whimper, holding onto his shoulders as I rock my hips, his eyes devouring me.
The pleasure rises within me so sharply, so quickly that I feel dizzy with it.
Only he can ever do this to me.
“Do you know what’s changed since the first day I saw you?”
“What?” I gasp when he pushes a finger inside of me, the cloth now discarded, his thumb playing with my clit as he speeds up, my moans echoing around the tent. “What’s the difference?”
“It’s that you claimed me, too.”
I come at his words. My back arching, thighs pressing into his legs as my body trembles, my hands digging into his shoulders.
“Beautiful.” My eyes open slowly, Rohan smiling at me. His other hand comes up, touching my cheek. “Red, like a rose.”
I huff out a laugh, but then I reach down, gripping him in my palm.
“Fuck,” he groans, hips shifting and he pulls his fingers out of me, licking them clean before I rise and position myself over him.
I hover there, staring straight into his eyes, the purple shining bright.
“My Dragonbond,” I say, and then I lower onto him, watching his eyes close in pleasure as he grips my hips.
I ride him slowly, leaning into him, and then I catch his lips with a moan.
He devours me, his tongue demanding entrance and I open, letting him inside.
The groan he releases is guttural, and a hand comes to the back of my head, holding me close as I continue to move up and down his shaft.
“I won’t let them hurt you,” He grunts, breathing heavily. “I’ll always protect you. You will always be mine.”
“I’m yours,” I moan, feeling sensitive but loving how he stretches me, fits perfectly inside of me.
“Alara.” He whispers it against my lips, pulling me closer, and then he’s spilling inside of me, his hips thrusting up to get as deep as he can and I wrap my arms around his neck, holding him close.
“That was a lot,” I breathe, snuggling closer to him. Loving that he’s still inside of me.
“Yeah,” he says, a hand stroking up my back.
He felt it too. How connected we were.
His cock twitches inside of me, but we don’t move, don’t part from one another as he lazily stokes up and down my back.
We just have this moment for us.
Because it could be our last.
“I found something,” I say to him while we relax in bed, finally getting around to telling him.
He pulls the furs over us, half-laying on top of me as I lift a hand and grab some of his hair.
“What did you find?”
“Sparks.”
He stills and lifts up off of me. “What?”
“Sparks. He’s in the cavern in the back room I mentioned.”
“He’s alive?” His tone is guttural, surprised, and my throat tightens.
I nod, smiling. “He is.”
“He’s really alive?”
“He’s alive, Rohan.”
He curls back around me.
“Frelia…” he murmurs, and my eyes sting as his hold tightens on me.
Sparks is all that’s left of her.
His grief and relief wash over me.
“And that’s not all.”
He runs a hand down my side, palming my hip.
“What else did you find, Little Whisperer?”
“The eggs.”