Chapter 41 #2
“I hate it,” I ground out, gritting my teeth and wanting to growl as my wolf side shifted from pining for the son of a bitch to restlessly pacing within me, hungry to rip out every tendril of what Lucas had done to me that kept burrowing deeper into my heart and hurl it away from me.
“Let it out,” he husked. “Let it all out.”
Decades of keeping my thoughts to myself, of pleasing others and being the sweet and good little daughter of the Harper alpha fought against my desire to obey that command. It wasn’t right to badmouth someone, or scream about the injustice of it all. I was meant to be seen and not heard.
But fuck that.
“I fucking hate him,” I growled savagely as my gaze darted up to meet Kaeleron’s.
“I hate how weak he made me. I hate that he’s still in my head…
that my stupid instincts are so twisted that my wolf side still pines for the bastard sometimes and I have to catch myself and remind myself that he betrayed me.
He betrayed me. He rejected me. He sold me.
But these damned instincts run so deep it doesn’t matter sometimes. I hate it. I hate him.”
I splayed my hand against my chest, over the soft fabric of my dress, and tightened my fingers against it, pulling at it as I dug them into it.
“I want to rip every thread that ties me to him out of my heart. I want to pull and pull on them until they snap and I’m free of this curse. I don’t want him in my head. I don’t want him in my heart. I just want… I just want to be free.”
Kaeleron wrapped me in his arms, holding me close to his chest, and dropped a kiss on my hair. “And you will be, my love. You will be. I swear it to you. I swear it.”
I sank against him, gripped his tunic jacket at his hips and clutched it tightly, clinging to him.
“Death will sever his ties to you. You will be free.”
My wolf side snarled with me as those bewitching words conjured images in my mind, a vision of striking Lucas down, plunging my dagger into his black heart and ending him.
Severing our bond in the most final of ways.
My wolf instincts couldn’t pine for him if he was dead.
Maybe they would finally get the message that it was over, and I could finally move on with my life and learn to trust someone with my heart, without constantly fearing they would do the same to it.
“Gods, I want that,” I breathed, the darkness curling through my veins echoing in my voice as I added, “I want to watch him die and our bond die with him.”
“So very bloodthirsty tonight, my little wolf.” Kaeleron chuckled against my hair.
“You don’t even know the half of it.” I smiled against his chest.
“Then I count myself lucky you resorted to revenge rather than opening one of my arteries with your fangs.”
“The night is still young,” I countered.
He chuckled again, the sound bewitching me. I wanted to see him when he laughed like that. I wanted to see his smile and that twinkle in his eyes.
I lifted my head and met his gaze, aching to see the effect I had on him.
His warm silver gaze grew heated, but that smile that graced his lips, so full of life, amusement, and even love, remained as he looked down at me, still holding me in his arms.
That look was reserved for me. It was mine. He hadn’t smiled like that at the high king’s daughter. He hadn’t looked at her like that. This was my Kaeleron.
And anyone who tried to take him from me would meet their end.
“My little wolf devours me.” His smile widened. “Being alone in a dark garden with such a handsome fae king is planting wicked thoughts in her mind.”
“You’re mistaken.” I ducked out of his arms. “This is my stabby look.”
He chuckled again. “But you have no blade upon you. I checked rather thoroughly during our dance.”
I flashed claws. “Who needs a dagger when I have built in weaponry.”
His laughter echoed around the garden, loud enough that anyone could hear him, but it was the look on his face that bewitched me, casting a spell on me that was impossible to break as I watched him.
I had done that. Me. I had been the one who had found that laugh, buried deep beneath centuries of rage and hate, freeing it.
His expression turned serious as he raked a gaze down me and purred, “I have better uses for my claws.”
“I like this dress.” I glowered at him in warning. “I’m keeping it, so keep your claws to yourself.”
Although the thought of him shredding it to get at me was far too hot, heating my blood to boiling point as his words echoed in my mind. Alone. In a dark garden. With my handsome fae king.
And a large number of unseelie with very sensitive noses dancing not too far away.
Not going to happen.
Although.
I pursed my lips as I stared at the stars reflected in the pond, so beautiful and steady, so calm and bright tonight.
If we did get a little wicked out here, every unseelie in the ballroom would know it when we returned from the garden.
I wanted to stake a claim on him. What better way to do that than wearing his scent on my body when we walked back into that dreadful and beautiful room together?
Kaeleron crouched before the water.
A frown creased my brow as he ran his hand through the dark water, brushing aside lilies and other greenery, and causing a strange shimmering iridescent frog to panic and leap into the water to swim away.
My confusion turned to fascination as one by one the reflected stars disappeared from that water.
My gaze leaped to his hand as light flared there, brilliant and dazzling, growing stronger by the second. A gasp burst from my lips as shock swept through me, as fascination stole my breath and a chill skated down my spine.
The stars glittered in his cupped palms, crushed together until they were as bright as moonlight, as he stood.
And offered them to me.
My gaze flickered between the empty surface of the pond and the pool of stars he held in his hands, and then his masked face.
His smile was sincere, almost hopeful, and a little strained as he said, “You looked as if you wanted to touch the stars.”
The magnitude of his power left me breathless, in awe, and a touch afraid to ask just what sort of things he was capable of if he could gather the stars from the sky, altering the very fabric of this world as if it was nothing.
Not nothing, I realised as he extended his hands towards me, beckoning me to touch them.
The silvery light of the stars gilded his face, twinkling in his eyes, and I could feel him waiting, willing me to touch what he had gathered for me at great cost to his strength. Tension bracketed his mouth, his skin paler than before, verging on white, as if his darker side was at the fore.
I reached a hand towards that pool of stunning starlight and dipped my finger into it. The warmth of it surprised me, together with how it tingled, and a shiver rolled through me as I swirled my finger in it and brushed his palm.
His breath hitched, his throat bobbing as he went deathly still, as if he was holding himself back.
I willed him to shatter that hold he had on himself, because I wanted to act on this hunger and heat that spread through me as my fingertips cut through the starlight to glide over his callused palms.
I willed him to show me the reason he had brought me here tonight.
To let the mask fall away.
I lifted my eyes to meet his.
He stared at me, silence stretching between us, pulling something inside me taut and close to snapping.
And then his hands were on my face, his palms framing it and painting me with glowing starlight as he dipped his head to claim my mouth in not a bruising kiss, but a tender one.
My hands dropped to his biceps, my fingers pressing in deep as I returned the kiss and pulled him closer.
This kiss was a drug. A balm. A whisper of hope.
It overwhelmed me but at the same time I couldn’t get enough of it.
Of him. There was power in this kiss. Power that shattered the wall around my heart and laid waste to the jealousy within it.
Power that told me in an unspoken whisper that the reason he had brought me here tonight was because he had needed me here. He wanted me close to him.
By his side.
His queen.
His lips closed over mine, his tongue stroking the seam of my mouth and then mine, sending shivers sweeping through me as I leaned closer still, hungry for more.
He denied me, pulling back to look down at me.
A gasp tore from me as I looked there too, at the stars that swept down my dress to make the jewels stitched onto the layers of fabric glow and shine.
His lips tugged slightly as he murmured, “They suit you.”
I was wrapped in shadows and starlight.
Starlight Kaeleron had captured and given to me, leaving himself drained.
A gift I would never forget and would forever cherish.
“I’m not the only one they suit.” I brushed my hand over the stars that flecked the sleeve of his tunic jacket.
He looked at them, that tightness in his face fading slightly as he smiled, and said, “Perhaps I should return them.”
I glanced at the dark pond. “Perhaps.”
But I didn’t want them gone yet. I loved the soft glow that illuminated him and seemed to chase the shadows from his eyes.
I rose on my tiptoes and kissed him again, smiling when our masks collided with a soft ‘clack’ and he chuckled.
“Such an eager wolf.”
I twined my arms around his neck as he banded his around my waist. “Speaking about yourself?”
“Perhaps.” He pulled me closer, pressing his hips against me, and the feel of his hardness had me aching for it.
Right here. Right now.
It only took a glance in the direction of the thickest group of trees to have Kaeleron groaning low and lifting me in his arms, taking swift strides in that direction.
His shadows swirled around me, dulling the starlight still painted across our bodies, and thickened further as my back met the broad trunk of one of the trees.
Kaeleron gripped the sheer layers of my skirts to pull them up. The feel of them sliding over my skin and the cool kiss of night air as they were exposed, had me pressing my back into the tree and biting my lip.
His hands dipped lower, beyond the hems of the skirt, and I bit back a moan as his palms met my flesh, skimming up the outside of my thighs. It was harder to hold back the moan as he tore my panties away and cold air met my aching flesh.
Oh gods.
Kaeleron dropped to his knees before me.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, unwilling to trust that his shadows that were concealing us physically could do the same with my voice. Or my moans.
Maybe this was a bad idea after all.
But as I looked down at him where he kneeled before me, his black wolf mask still in place, I couldn’t bring myself to stop him.
Because damn, he looked wicked. A carnal beast made flesh, one who wanted to devour me as he gazed up at me, his eyes sharp and hungry, his fingers pressing hard into my thighs as he eased them apart, exposing me to him.
“Grovelling is generally done on one’s knees,” he purred.
Oh gods.
I covered my mouth with my hand as he pressed my thighs further apart and delved between them, his gaze hot on mine as he swept his tongue upwards and flicked my clit.
Oh gods. Oh gods. Oh gods. I bit down on my finger as he grinned wickedly and set to work, his apology more than enough as he laved and licked me, as he held my trembling thighs apart with his shadows and supported me, keeping me upright against the tree as he took me with his mouth.
Claimed me with it.
My muffled groan sounded so loud in my ears as he stroked down the length of my slickness with his fingers and eased them into me. I waited, aching to feel them plundering me.
The bastard kept them still inside me, filling me but not fucking me.
I uncovered my mouth and growled at him; a commanding one I couldn’t quite hold back.
His husky chuckle rasped against my flesh, making it tingle.
My body flexed, grasping his fingers, and I cast aside the last of my inhibitions, shedding them as I began riding his fingers, working my body up and down them as I lowered my hands to his head and tangled my fingers in his hair, holding him in place.
He groaned and laved me as I rode his face and his fingers, as I stole a shred of command from him, revelling in how good it felt.
Not as good as it felt as he began moving his fingers inside me, countering my thrusts, sending me soaring as he sucked my clit and then rubbed it with the hard nose of his mask.
“Oh gods.” I covered my mouth with one hand and gripped him with the other. Maddening. Too much. I groaned into my palm with each plunge of his fingers and stroke of that hard mask over my sensitive flesh.
The world shattered around me in a wave of glittering starlight as my back arched away from the tree and release tore through me, every kick and pulse of my body making my breath hitch.
I wasn’t sure how long I remained there, swept up in the waves of pleasure rolling through me.
It felt like forever before I sank against the tree, my breath leaving me on a long sigh, my body hazy and warm from head to toe.
I smiled lazily down at Kaeleron as he stared up at me, watching me come down from the high he had given me.
And whispered.
“Apology accepted.”