Chapter Forty-Three
Emelyn
W e had been traveling for a few days, and now we were only a handful of hours away from Woodhaven.
We stopped to take a break not only to get our barrings but Atreya sent a handful of soldiers ahead to scout, Ember may already be here.
Since Kade had saved Rhet from Ember, they would have had enough time to travel over Draynua.
From Iron Isle Harbor to Westwell, it was only a week of travel, and since we had waited to leave until the other outposts had gotten to the rebellion camp, it gave Ember a three-day head start, give or take.
That was, if they’d prepared quickly and left shortly after Rhet had been saved, but there wasn’t a way for any of us to know that.
Atreya told everyone to get some rest before we made the final trek there, but I couldn’t sleep if I tried. I was too wound up, my nerves too jumbled.
“You need rest, mei wynsoara, ” Kade whispered against my shoulder, as he could sense my unrest. We had both been leaving our minds completely open, leaving the bond between us gaping.
I remembered a time I would have hated the intrusion, but now I didn’t know what I would do without it.
It was the only thing keeping me grounded at this point, with all the uncertainty ahead of us.
“I can’t. I’m too distracted about what will happen once we get there,” I whispered, and his hands pulled me tighter into his chest. I felt his naked body and the hard length of his cock against my back.
He wasn’t trying to be intimate with me, only supportive, but I immediately thought having my mate would be the perfect distraction .
I arched my back and pushed my backside into him, and he tried and failed to leash the growl rumbling from him. The feel of it made my skin pebble with anticipation. His hand snaked around my waist and between my legs, where he found me drenched for him with no panties, and he groaned.
“I’ll gladly distract you,” he murmured against my shoulder as he started to tease me with his fingers until I was panting.
I must have said that down the bond then.
I smiled when he rolled over top of me. He pulled his tunic that I’d worn to bed off me, and then I was completely bare before him.
He worked his way down my body, leaving kisses everywhere he touched—my jaw, my collarbone, between my breasts—then he moved from one nipple to the other and didn’t stop sucking and playing with them until I was writing beneath him from how sensitive they were
Then he moved lower, kissing and licking as he went, my stomach, my navel, kissing each hip bone before moving between my thighs.
I could feel his hot breath against my center and that alone made me whimper.
He gave one last kiss to my inner thigh, and then his tongue darted out and I moaned at the feel of him.
He started at my entrance, but then moved up and circled my clit, and I arched against his mouth.
I cried out as he continued, falling apart around him, my fingers tangled in his hair, urging him harder, closer, deeper.
I needed more. But he stayed his torturous pace, his mouth unrelenting and wicked as it tormented my clit.
He circled it with his tongue, flicking and sucking, and the tight coil inside me finally snapped as I came undone against his mouth.
He moved over my body then and seated himself between my thighs, the weight of him delicious.
He kissed me, and I could taste my release on his tongue.
Which only made me hotter. Needier and more desperate.
The head of his cock notched at my entrance, and then in one long thrust, he was fully sheathed inside me.
I groaned against his mouth at how full I felt.
He stayed there for a moment, not moving, and I assumed he was trying to maintain his control. But then he thrust again, and it was slow, languid, and deep. My arms draped around his back, and his movements picked up. Soon, we were both moaning into each other’s mouths, ready to explode.
His pace quickened, becoming more urgent.
Each intrusion was a claim, a brand, a promise.
I was his and he was mine. I could feel pleasure building again.
His hands found mine, and he entwined our fingers as he pinned them above my head.
His mouth left mine, only to latch onto my neck, biting, sucking, marking.
His shadows exploded around the tiny tent.
The room filled with the sound of our ragged breaths, the slick noise of our bodies meeting and parting, the low growls from deep in his throat that only moved me closer and closer to my release.
His moans were the prettiest sounds. My legs wrapped around his waist, urging him deeper, harder. He placed his brow against mine.
“I love you,” he exclaimed down the bond as he kissed me again.
I said it back, and then I exploded. My body arched against his, my head pressing back into the pillow as wave after wave of ecstasy coursed through my veins.
He swallowed my moans of pleasure, and then with one final thrust, he moaned and his cock twitched.
His body trembled against mine, the heat of his release filling me, leaving me even more satisfied.
The shadows receded, followed silence broken only by our ragged breaths.
He stayed there, pressed against me, his forehead resting on mine, his eyes closed as if he were savoring the moment.
As our breaths slowly steadied, he opened his eyes and brushed a strand of silver from my face, his touch gentle.
"You are mine, now and forever, mei wynsoara, " he murmured, gazing at me.
“Yours,” I whispered against his lips. He moved out of the covers and quickly cleaned us both up before crawling back under behind me, pulling me against his chest.
“Now sleep,” he said, and then his shadows chased away all of the nerves from before.
We woke a few hours later to the rest of the camp stirring, readying for the last stretch of our journey. Kade helped me pack up our things, and then we were moving with the others.
Within hours, we could see Woodhaven's walls in the distance, but there was something else too: long, dark splotches in the sky. My brow creased as I looked at them, trying to figure out what they were, but then Atreya commanded we hurry because they weren’t random blotches.
They were some kind of skyships soaring through the air like balloons. Headed straight for Woodhaven.
Ember was here.