Chapter 24
Lux
For now, we weren’t the huntress and the king of Vylheim. In this moment, I didn’t care to be called Lux or Myrah because I didn’t feel like either. I just was.
“You are mine.” The burning rage of Odin’s voice pulsed at the back of my skull, but his tone was different, almost giddy. Strange. I expected that from Loki, but this tone from Odin disturbed me.
If I belonged to the Gods, then I was nothing more than a weapon chosen to kill their enemies.
“And a savior.” Freya interjected with a cool sentiment amidst Odin’s fire.
No, not right now, I’m not. I didn’t belong to anyone, and as much as I wanted to save the witches, my mother, Stasia, and Ragna’s family…this moment was mine. One where I relished the peace Drak’s presence brought me.
The Gods chose a selfish huntress. What did they expect?
With Drak, or Rune, or whoever he claimed to be, my past and destiny didn’t matter. My mistakes weren’t at the forefront of my mind, and I could just be.
Slipping my hand to the collar of his tunic, I gripped the fabric. He followed my cue and tugged it off, tossing it into the corner of the tent where our masks had been discarded. Together, we disrobed, and when he pulled the pants off me, the leather no longer rubbed against my thighs.
Pink marred the skin on the insides of my legs.
But with my body bare now, I could move freely.
And Drak could admire me freely. His gaze brushed over me as his hand trailed to the tie at his trousers.
Before he loosened his pants, his eyes stopped at the pink flesh.
He reached out, brushing his palm over my thigh with a careful, feathered touch.
“You’re hurt.”
“It’s nothing,” I said. “The clothes keep me warm, so a bit of discomfort is worth it.”
“When I’m a God, I’ll find a way to take all your pain away.”
With my head tipped back, I let out a huff. “That’s not how the Gods work.”
“Not Odin, because he doesn’t care enough to figure it out. But I’ll find a way to help the blood flow more freely through you.”
I flexed my stiff fingers. From the minute Drak saw my tinted fingertips and heard my ragged breaths, he’d been concerned about this weak heart that plagued me.
Something I had to hide when living in Skaldir.
My father had made sure of that. The leader of our village couldn’t have a weak and sickly daughter.
Perhaps my life in Skaldir would never have been the simple life of a village girl, even if the royal court had never hunted witches.
Even if vampires didn’t exist, my survival was tentative.
At least in all of this suffering, I’d found pleasure and release and…fuck…did I really feel safe with Drak? How long had I truly felt at ease with the vampire king?
Glimpses of the comfort he offered—not in the castle, but through his touch and his words—had been appearing since the first time we slept side by side. That night he kept me warm on the way to Mara’s Keep was the first glimpse.
The way he aggressively insisted on warming my hands as we rode from Skaldir. He had recognized what I needed from the start. Could it be because he already knew me? I suppressed the thought because the past didn’t matter right now.
“It matters greatly. You must forget this distraction—” I blinked, staring at Drak again, letting my desire for him push Odin from my mind before I lost control, and wanted to rip my eyes from my sockets and smash my head against stone to stop this agony.
I scratched at my temple too forcefully, and the sting of my fingernail jolted me. Focus on Drak.
I drank in the sight of his broad chest. The runes etched in ink.
The glowing tree of Yggdrasil that marked him as a vampire, created by Myrah’s power.
None of these could hold my attention when he looked at me the way he was now.
He pinned me with his gaze, both gentle and fierce and heavy enough to leave me breathless.
Need fluttered at the base of my belly.
Drak clutched my wrist and tugged me into him, his kiss rough and desperate.
He tasted each one of my breaths as he gripped my thigh and marked me with his fingerprints.
I climbed into his lap, pressing my nipples against his chest. The brush of his skin against mine left my heart skipping.
He leaned back just enough to run his hands over my chest, stopping at my nipples.
They tightened at his light pinch, and with his head tipped forward, he sucked one into his mouth. My core tensed with anticipation.
I was eager to taste him, but before I could disrobe him completely, a jolt of lightning radiated through my skull. A gasp escaped me, and I recoiled from Drak, curling back over my legs on the fur.
“Lux…” he said with worry straining his voice. “We can stop.”
“I’m okay.”
He tilted my chin back with two fingers. “You’re sure?”
“Do. Not. Deny. Me.” Each word Odin spoke into my head was laced with fire.
Please. Let me have this.
“You can have all of me whenever the fuck you want,” Drak said, unaware that I was pleading with Odin. He ran his hand up the curve of my neck and drew me to him, nipping at my throat. When he stopped at my ear, his lips hovered, grazing my skin when he spoke. “I’m yours. I always was.”
“Drak—”
“You were mine, too.”
My heart pricked. If our marriage was fake and I’d never vowed myself to him, why did all of this feel so real? I would have given my blood to the seal that day.
When wetness slicked between my legs and Drak’s tongue parted my lips with each kiss, the Gods couldn’t interrupt my thoughts. They couldn’t call me their weapon now, or perhaps they could, but I didn’t hear them.
Not until Odin screamed and it felt his bare hands were ripping my skull open.
“You are mine!”
Please. I just want this. And then I’m yours, Odin—
Drak grabbed my throat and forced me to focus on him. “No!”
“Drak,” I begged, but the harder he squeezed and cut off my breath, the more distant the pressure from Odin became.
The strength of his hold matched the tightness building in my core.
His desperate need to claim me only had me dripping for him.
Normally, I wouldn’t let him control me like this, but in sex, I couldn’t deny how his intensity only made me want him more.
He blinked and released me. “I’m sorry. I can’t—” he forced out a breath. “I won’t let him take you away from me again.”
“Huntress…” Loki’s voice purred.
Please stop. My thoughts descended into begging.
If only they’d shut up, just for now, just for a little while. With my eyes on Drak, I drew a heady breath.
“Do it again,” I demanded. His brow flickered. “Grab me.” To guide him, I pinched his wrist between my fingers and placed his hand on my collarbone. He licked his lips and ran his palm up my neck. Slowly, his fingers curled around my throat while he guided me onto my back.
His other hand splayed over my belly, and then carefully found its way to my core.
Two fingers brushed over my nerves, sending tentative ripples through me.
He swirled his fingers over my clit, and I tried to gasp, but he gripped my throat harder.
I moaned faintly as he rubbed my core with a rhythm that coiled me tighter and tighter.
With every swirl, his grip squeezed harder until I was right at the edge, helpless, desperate, a puddle of desire in his hands.
“You’re mine,” he whispered, right as everything unraveled. As soon as he tipped me over to the other side, and ecstasy rolled through me in undulating waves, he released my throat. I sucked in air, sweeter for my need of it.
Dizzy, I arched back, letting my eyes fall shut for a minute. I soaked in each wave that rippled through me with Drak’s name on my lips. After catching my breath, my eyes popped open, and I pushed him from his side onto his back. Tugging his pants off, I finally freed him.
“Lux, breathe first—”
I responded by burying his cock in my mouth. Wrapping my fingers around his cock, I returned the pleasure he’d given me, tightening my hold as I licked at the tip. Every tease drew delicious moans from him that only had me sucking harder when I took all of him between my lips.
“Fuck, you’re so amazing. You’re everything.” Drak didn’t need to breathe, yet his words came out scattered and breathless. “My everything.”
Encouraged by his moaning, I took him deeper down my throat.
His hands tangled in the mess of my braids, and he tugged, the satisfaction becoming too much.
To tease him, I pulled back, giving myself breath while he paused on the edge.
But he couldn’t wait. Immediately after I took him in again, he used my hair to guide me gently.
With a careful push and pull at the base of the braids he’d gathered in his grip, he led me in a rhythm that had my thighs slick with desire again.
I lived for every sound he made, and I hoped to drink him in, but he drew my head back just in time to come across my breasts. My chest, wet now with the proof of his pleasure, heaved from the effort of sucking on him.
With his hand still intertwined with my hair, he led me to him, having me crawl up from his cock to his mouth where his lips crushed mine. I collapsed onto him, our bare bodies molding to one another.
Tucking my head at the base of his neck, he held me, one arm cupped at my head, fingers still tangled in my braids. I could have fallen asleep again, but before my eyelids became too heavy, I tilted my chin up to look at him.
Odin would make me pay for this, but I wanted to say it—no, I wanted Drak to hear it—just once before this was all taken away from us.
“I’m yours,” I said.
He stroked my hair quietly for a moment. A strange sound came from his throat when he finally spoke. “I’ll take all of you, but you belong to nobody except yourself.” Breath caught in my throat. A wicked smirk curved across his face. “Still, I’d like to actually call you my wife.”
I opened my mouth, unsure of what I was even going to say when a noise outside interrupted.
The steady thud of something striking the hard-packed dirt grew louder. Footsteps were approaching. Had Silver’s army returned? All the muscles that pleasure had just relaxed stiffened in anticipation of a possible fight.
We both jolted forward, sitting up with our clothes strewn around us. In a blur, we threw pants and tunics back on, quickly strapping the weapons to our backs and my thigh as the footsteps stormed up to us. Sealing the masks over our faces, I stood and gripped the edge of the tent.
I glanced at Drak, who gave me a quick nod before peeling back the hide.
Through the fog, a familiar face emerged.
I blinked, my mind struggling to catch up with what I was seeing.
Dark eyes, wheat hair, and only the barest shadow of hair on his chin.
My heart stuttered at the sight of him, free of Silver’s compulsions.
I could see the difference in his stride and the clarity in his heavy brown eyes.
Dust swirled around his ankles with every step. Kayn marched up to me, bypassing Drak, and wrapped his arms around me in a sudden, all-consuming embrace.