Chapter 39
The Story
Cedar
“Where do you wish to start?” I asked calmly.
Her heart was racing and her mind was turning faster than I could keep up. My hands settled on her hips, thumbs sliding beneath her shirt while rubbing slow circles across her skin. It was a poor attempt to calm her, but I knew she needed time to process whatever it was she needed to tell me.
Her hands came down and sat along my forearms, her fingers slowly swiping back and forth along my skin, matching my pace. I contemplated if she could feel the nerves boiling deep within my bones right now, or if she was doing it merely to calm her own anxieties.
“I should start at the beginning and not jump into the middle of the story. That would be the right call, right?” she asked softly.
“I want you to start wherever you wish, Princess. I just wish to hear you speak.”
She blew out a slow breath and nodded.
“Keres had been sending me letters. Requesting information. It was the only reason he allowed me to leave with you and Raiden,” she began, my hands tightening slightly on her hips.
“I didn’t tell him anything worth a damn, Cedar.
You have to believe me. It was small things.
Bastian was the leader of his Shadow Brigade.
He had males stationed all over the place.
Raiden didn’t leave the court. Small things like that.
Nothing he didn’t already know, but something so he couldn’t say I wasn’t doing my job. ”
Nodding my head, I let her continue, my thumbs back to rubbing small circles against her skin.
“He was content for a while. At least… at first. When we returned the first night you went into the Court of Wolves? He told me I wasn’t giving him enough and he wanted me to come back.
I ignored him. I thought about telling Raiden, but I knew he’d think me a traitor.
He’d send me back without a second thought or he’d have me killed in some horrid accident—”
“He wouldn’t do that, Cora,” I interrupted, hoping to end her spiral, but she shook her head.
“He’d do anything to protect Silv, and you know that. Even if it meant taking down her sister behind her back. Don’t tell me I’m wrong, because it’s no less than I’d do for you, Cedar.”
I paused, staring up at her before nodding again, letting her continue. She wasn’t far off when she put it like that. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do—lines I wouldn’t dare cross to keep Cora safe, it seemed.
“So you ignored him, then what happened?” I asked when she didn’t say anything more.
“Silv and I went out with Arabella and Allie. I had fun, and for the first time I felt myself somewhat relax. But we returned to find that letter from Bastian and then another was delivered to me later by Alina. He threatened you, Cedar. He knew you’d been injured and I knew within my very soul he’d be able to get to you. I couldn’t allow it, so I went back.”
My chest clenched at the validation of her reasoning. I could imagine how it looked. I’d told her what happened, only to turn around and receive a letter from the male who’d tormented her almost her entire life confirming he could do it again if he needed to.
“What happened when you arrived in Whitbourne?” I asked calmly, still rubbing slow circles around her hips.
She shifted slightly, foot to foot, and crossed her arms across her chest. I knew whatever was coming was the part that had her so anxious, and I was struggling not to tell her to just spit it out already.
Let me help fix whatever the problem may be so we could move on together and just enjoy each other.
“I arrived and he had me escorted to one of the rooms in the east towers. The next morning, he had Rusor escort me to see Sabel.”
She paused and I stared at her patiently.
“Who’s Sabel, Princess?”
Her light scoff had the corner of my mouth inching up.
“Of course. It wasn’t as if you had any medical care while there. Sabil is the female Keres has in charge of… caring for us. The females in his castle. The ones he tries to… procreate with,” she whispered, her voice fading out at the end, any previous fire she just held snuffed out.
“I don’t understand. Was he planning on trying with you once more?” The words came out as more of a growl than I’d intended. The tone sharp and biting as my hands squeezed along her hips.
But she let out another scoff and rolled her eyes, her head dropping back as her gaze turned away from me.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Cedar, no. He knew we’d been together. He’d cast me from those meetings long before now.” There was no edge to her voice. No venom in the words like I’d expect a scorned female to have, and for that I felt my body relax.
“Well then, why are you so worked up over meeting with the healer, Cora?”
Slowly, her chin lowered and her eyes met mine once more.
“I’m pregnant, Cedar,” she breathed.
The world stopped—it could’ve imploded, killing everyone around us, and I wouldn’t have noticed anything beyond her deep blue eyes.
My fingers grazed around her hips and settled on her lower belly.
Apprehension slid through the bond, but I couldn’t formulate words to even begin to explain to her what this meant to me.
“Please say something,” she whispered once more.
Shaking my head, my eyes rose from her stomach and I stared at her.
“You're sure?” I asked, my tone soft and barely audible.
“That it’s yours?”
I chuckled, shaking my head. No doubt sat within my chest on who this child belonged to. “No, Princess. Are you sure that you are? With our child? The healer, Sabel, wasn’t wrong? She didn’t mess up whatever she did?”
She shook her head quickly. “No. Trust me. She did the test over and over again, trying to tell herself she was wrong. She wasn’t.”
“Why did she wish to be wrong?” I questioned.
Her hand came down, covering my own as it sat against her abdomen.
“Cedar, we had to tell Keres he was the father,” she began, and I felt the growl reverberate through my chest, but her opposite hand came down to rest on my shoulder. I wanted to rise, shift, and kill the male wherever he stood for having any inclination my child could be his.
“Please, hear me first. I know what you’re thinking, and I know you want to race off to the castle and end him.
But I need you to listen. If Keres knew this baby didn’t belong to him, he’d have me killed.
You and I both know it to be true. Keres is also known for killing the bearer of news he doesn’t much like.
She agreed to lie for me, with me, in order to save us both. ”
“She lied to save her own skin,” I replied without pause.
Nodding, Cora took a step closer, her thighs now fully between my legs as her arms wrapped around my neck.
“You’re not angry?”
“Am I angry that the insane male in that ridiculous castle believes our baby is his? Yes. Am I angry that you left without saying a word and I almost died due to not eating and being away from you? Yes. Am I angry that it took me almost dying and you being back in harm's way for me to realize how I truly felt? Yes. But am I angry that my mate has been Fates-blessed with our child? No, Princess. I’m not angry.”
I watched as her eyes began to tear up, the dark sapphires appearing even more stunning when filled with tears.
My hand roved up her back and into her hair, my fist clutching around it as I stood to my full height.
I kept her still, unable to look away, the tears now running down her cheeks as I growled.
She was stunning, this female of mine. I watched her nipples harden through the thin fabric of the white shirt, and I could smell her arousal spiking the harder I tugged on her hair.
“The only thing allowed to make you cry, Princess, is when I force you to your knees to choke on my cock. You know that.”
She tried to nod, but couldn’t do much with the little amount of leeway I gave her.
“It’s been much too long since I tasted that sweet cunt of yours, and we both know you’re going to need to feed if you’re going to nourish our little one,” I whispered as I kissed along her exposed throat. My fangs nipped along the pale skin there. “When was the last time you fed, Cora?”
Her breathing picked up slightly as I made it towards her shoulder, pushing the fabric of her shirt out of the way as I went. She shrugged, a delicate moan slipping from her mouth.
“That simply won’t do for my princess or my little one,” I explained as my hands slid back down her sides and I pulled her shirt up and over her head, leaving her top half bare and perfect. “Kick your boots off for me.”
Nodding, she took a step back and undid the laces, kicking them off to the side and out of the way. She stood before me in nothing but her black tights. Her dark curls sat across one shoulder. Her deep blue eyes wide as she looked me over.
“Tights too,” I muttered as she attempted a step back towards me.
Smirking, she slid them down her thighs, only to kick them over beside her shoes. The raised eyebrow in question had me wanting to torment her longer, but only after she’d eaten.
“Why is it that I’m naked and you’re still fully clothed?” she questioned.
I couldn’t stop the smile that quickly became visible. There was my sassy female. I’d been waiting for her to come back. Meeting her halfway, I tugged my shirt up and over, tossing it to the side with hers.
“Halfway there. Now come here, Princess.”
She bit her bottom lip as she took two steps closer. Reaching out, I pulled her by the hips until her chest was pressed against my own, the skin-to-skin contact making my body hotter than it already felt.
It was taking everything in my power to remain in control.
To not lean her over the side of this bed and plunge deep within her.
To not sink my teeth in the side of her luscious thighs and drink my fill.
I couldn’t—not yet. I had to ensure she was taken care of first or it would haunt me for the rest of my days.