Sarazen's Betrayal : Sarazen Saga 1.2

by Isabel Wroth

  Cassie was drawn out of her thoughts when Falken barked orders at his men to secure the manor for the night. “Matem, send a transmission to the ship and tell Rhus to come and pick us up at sunset tomorrow. My mate wishes to stay here tonight.”

  *****

  Falken led her into the manor and the first thought that popped into her head?

  Amreet was one hell of a gardener.

  Every available inch of the cavernous room was covered in some kind of plant life. The floor was covered in what looked like amethyst colored moss, a long, shallow stream lined with opalescent stones bisected through the purple stuff. Green vines sprinkled with tiny white blossoms climbed the walls. The scent they put off perfumed the air, the fragrance sweet and sensual, relaxing even. Short red trees sprouted up from the four corners of the room and had not a single leaf to be seen on the needle thin branches.

  Cassie was fascinated when a gust of air moved through the room, those naked branches knocked together to make a metallic chiming sound. The jewel of the room, literally, was the huge spear of glowing crystal that hung down from the ceiling looking as though it was lit from within. Looking around, it seemed like the entire room had been carved around the white gem.

  It was breathtaking.

  Falken let her go when she stepped past him, following along silently behind her while she explored the unparalleled beauty all around her.

  The carpet of moss was springy, almost bouncy as she walked across it. It took her an entire circuit of the room to discover a hallway she hadn’t noticed. The reason she hadn’t noticed it was because the room had been designed to hide it. It helped that the vines grew over every inch of stone that made up the interior walls, all that green blended together upon first glance to create the optical illusion of a solid room.

  Curious as hell, Cassie brushed her fingertips along the vines as she walked through the hallway, her touch releasing another burst of the flower’s sensual perfume.

  The corridor was wide enough for three warriors to walk abreast of one another, the ceiling arched above her a good fifteen feet, all the way down and into a bubble of a room where a flight of white stone stairs waited. The purple moss marched up the center of the stairs in a precise row, leading her up to the next landing. Another long stretch of hall reached out in front of her, the wall to her left open from one end to the other, looking out on the yard below and the plains of blue grass beyond. Yet for all that open space on the left, on the right, only one pair of doors stood situated in the center.

  A peek inside revealed an enormous dining room and kitchen with a veritable garden of what Cassie assumed were more edible plants, growing from one entire wall of the vaulted room. The space was large enough to easily accommodate at least a hundred people. The focal piece of the room was the top end of the crystal that hung from the entryway ceiling below, situated in the center of a round table.

  Guests would be able to sit there and look around at one another or the large open space that displayed the crystal. Falken smiled at her when she looked back at him, her jaw no doubt unhinged and swinging around her toes. He said nothing, just tilted his head to the side, silently indicating she move on.

  Naturally, she did, discovering another staircase at the opposite end of the hall.

  The third level hall was filled on both sides with bedrooms. Over twenty rooms that upon closer inspection seemed to be guest quarters or employee housing.

  The fourth level was completely enclosed in stone, two offices and a librarian’s wet dream situated between them. Floor to ceiling rows of books and items such as statues or clusters of crystals. A few sword-like weapons on ornamental stands. One office was clearly masculine, the other much more feminine, but neither of them looked very lived in.

  The fifth level was the family level, made obvious by the size of the master suite and five adjoining rooms. The master suite had a complete air of disuse about it. Amreet’s scent was light, like she only came in to clean. There was no heavier male scent in the room at all to indicate Farro slept in here.

  So far, this was Cassie’s favorite room. Well, second to the library.

  The floor was covered in more of the purple moss, the bed situated on top of a slab of shiny green stone. The mattress was big enough to comfortably fit six warriors lying shoulder to shoulder. Two pink pillars stood on either side of the bed, lit from within to paint the room in a soft glow. There was a huge fireplace made from the sparkling stone of the plains outside, lounges and pillows mounded on top situated in front of the hearth. A raised platform sat in one corner with a glass desk and a big black chair meant to cradle a masculine body. A holo-office perhaps?

  The bathroom was a study in luxury. It was a grotto with a natural waterfall flowing from the rock face into a pool that steamed and smelled slightly of minerals. The purple moss gradually changed color to become almost black around the rim of the pool. The sink and mirrors lined one wall, another door led into a huge walk-in closet.

  Eager to see the rest of the floor, Cassie went from room to room, slowly taking it all in. There wasn’t a single thing to say people even lived here. The room Falken said had been his as a child looked like all the rest of the rooms in the manor. No personal items, no grooming tools, no pictures, no clothes in the closet, just a huge house with no one to fill it.

  Either that, or Farro’s cohorts had come in and cleaned the place out.

  Cassie climbed the final set of stairs and discovered…Eden.

  The entire roof was covered in plants. A garden overflowing with flowers, fruit trees being cultivated in huge pots, herbs, the smell of rich dirt and growing things filling her nostrils. Cassie wandered slowly, not sure she would be able to properly articulate what she felt in reaction to seeing what Amreet had created for herself up here. A haven, no doubt.

  In the very center of the garden, Cassie found a round building made of wood and glass, the roof covered in vines that dripped off the eaves. Glass doors encircling the whole structure so that the person who slept in the bed at the center of the room could look out and not see a single wall. Amreet’s scent was heavy inside, the bed unmade, books and a data-pad. A glass of water sat on a nightstand as though just set down and then forgotten. A small desk stacked with hand drawn sketches of the plants outside, made it seem as though the lady of the house would return at any moment.

  Cassie respectfully shut the door and made sure it was secure before she wandered back to stand beside Falken at the waist high barrier of the roof. He smiled at her and drew her to stand in front of him, disengaging his armor before wrapping his arms around her chest, her back to his front, his chin finding a place on her shoulder. They stood there together in silence for a long time, watching the wind sweep across the blue grass plain beyond. From up here, it really did look like water.

  “You like it here.” Falken repeated.

  This time, Cassie didn’t bother to pretend otherwise. “I love it here. I can picture you as a child, running wild down there.”

  “It looks very different than I remember. I have thought of returning here with dread for so many years, seeing my sire’s stamp all over the halls. Yet it is my mother’s presence I find coating this entire place. I see nothing of my sire here. To my surprise, I do see our family growing here. Our cubs running wild around the orchard while you chase them.”

  Cassie struggled to stem the wiggling of her lips, the sadness that filled her at the mention of babies. She reached up and curled her fingers around his wrists, settling back into the warmth of his body with a sigh.

  “Sounds like a dream come true.”

  “It does. What do you say, we go downstairs and see about making that dream a reality, my one?”

  Cassie tilted her head to receive the arousing string of kisses Falken pressed up the side of her throat.

  “I’ll go anywhere with you.”

  The last word feathered out as a gasp. Falken having scraped his fangs over the unbelievably sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder me
t. Chills raced down her spine and she turned, needing to chase away her silly pang of sadness with more of those pleasurable chills.

  He reached down to scoop an arm under her butt and lifted her straight up, smiling when she yipped in surprise. Purring for her when she bent to rub her nose up against his.

  “We don’t have to stay here tonight, Falken. Not if you don’t want to.”

  “I want to.” he growled back.

  *****

  Cassie slumped back onto the bed with a moan, every nerve ending sparking, her muscles giving one final convulsive twist before the ecstasy drained away like water being let out of a tub. Falken’s rumbling growl vibrated through her body as he followed her down. She whimpered in denial when he eased himself from inside her, her body feeling instantly bereft despite how he kept his arms wrapped around her. He laid his cheek between her breasts, his breath coming in heavy pants, blowing across her rapidly cooling skin. Her legs were shaking, her bones felt like overstretched rubber bands, yet from somewhere she drew the strength to flop her arms around him so she could comb her fingers through his sweaty hair.

  She smiled stupidly when she noticed her dress hanging from one of the pink stone lamps beside the bed. A shoe thrown on top of the glass desk. Falken’s trousers all the way across the room in front of the fireplace. One of his boots by the door, the other half in half out of the bathroom entry. A giggle escaped her and Falken lifted his head to look at her, then around the wreck they had made of the room.

  “You ripped my trousers in half,” he growled, turning to lick a hot path over the curve of the breast closest to his mouth.

  Cassie hummed, flexing her fingers in remembrance of her haste to get him naked. He hadn’t been getting his pants off fast enough to suit her needs. So she’d helped by clawing them off. “You’ve got armor you can wear home.”

  He huffed a short laugh, giving her other breast the same attention as its twin. “Ah yes. I forgot.”

  She floated in the warm aftermath of his attention. The licks and nibbles, the suckling kisses he spread across her chest easing the burn of the earlier frenzy, left her feeling almost drunk. Though apparently not that drunk, as the release of her previous tension made room for new thoughts to begin coiling through her mind. She stared at the ceiling while Falken continued his oral exploration of her breasts, making her twitch and sigh every other kiss as he found a patch of sensitive skin, her fingers kneading across his shoulders while she thought.

  “Falken?”

  He hummed with his lips around her nipple, making a shower of sparks shoot through her at the vibration of sound on her flesh.

  “What if we’re making it too complicated?”

  “Making what too complicated?” He pushed up onto his elbows, using his hands to mash her breasts together. Delight obvious in his expression while he bent and licked a hot line up the crevice of her cleavage.

  “This whole Original Council thing.”

  With his mouth at the apex of her cleavage, Falken rolled his eyes up to her and frowned despite the amusement she could feel tickling across their bond. “I have done a poor job of distracting you if already your thoughts turn to such things.”

  Cassie snorted, sure to the last ligament in her body, if the ‘distractions’ were any better, she might die.

  “It’s a job now, huh?” she teased, laughing when he abandoned her breasts to crawl up her body and attack her with kisses.

  “My most favorite job.” he growled against her lips. Digging his fingers into her sides where he knew she was ticklish, grinning when her shrieking and writhing made her buck and press up against him.

  “You’re trying to distract me again.” she accused breathlessly, not fighting too hard to escape him.

  He relented in his tickling with a happy chuff, his beast clearly having enjoyed her bouncing around, too. “I was attempting to be so subtle about my intentions.”

  Cassie lay back with a soft sigh, managing a smile while she looked up at the playful frown on Falken’s face. This side of him was so different from the one she had experienced this morning. Cold and hard in reaction to having come back home, reminded of his youth and of his parents. Coming to grips with the fact that his sire was unquestionably guilty of having played a part in the conspiracy to take down the pride, and in the process harm or kill the humans now calling Saraz their home.

  Now here they were, presumably in what had once been his parent’s room, laughing and playfully wrestling with one another in the gigantic bed like the world outside didn’t exist. Cassie decided then, the world outside could cease to exist for a little bit longer. They would return to the citadel tomorrow, get back to the hunt tomorrow, their mountain of data tomorrow. It could wait.

  “Maybe you should be less subtle then.” she suggested. Reaching down to wrap her fingers around the smoothness of Falken’s cock. Cassie smiled when she felt the surge of blood that instantly turned the softening flesh to a solid stalk of stone, hot and pulsating in her hand.

  A deeper growl rumbled from his parted lips, his eyes turned molten as his pupils elongated. She felt him shudder at the sweep of her thumb across the silken crown, at how she rubbed the beads of fluid already seeping from the tip, around and around.

  “You’ve changed your mind then? About those…other thoughts?” Falken gnashed his teeth a little, like he was trying to keep from pouncing on her. Giving her a chance maybe, to say what she had to say before they got lost to their lust.

  “Mm hm. They can wait until we get back home.” Baiting his beast, Cassie scraped her teeth over his jaw, slowly twisting her hand down and around the prize she held. The fine hairs on her body stood up to quiver at the now constant sound of his throaty growls.

  “Turn. Over.”

  Falken’s command was followed by the soft popping sound of his claws piercing through the mattress at either side of her head.

  Excitement raced through her, giving his shaft one more firm pump before she obeyed. Falken hissed softly, bending to carefully rake his teeth across her nape. Her toes curled with the burst of pleasure, a convulsive shiver making her fight not to wiggle beneath him.

  “Up.”

  Cassie’s breath came in choppy little pants when she pushed up to her knees, hearing him order the wall in front of her to ‘reflect.’ The entire surface turned opaque, then shinier than any glass mirror, displaying her nude and kneeling on the mess of the big bed, with the beast that was her mate crouched behind her like a demon.

  She could see the heat that flushed her skin a rosy pink, how her breasts quivered and peaked, eager for his hands. The sight of them together in the mirror, coupled with the scent and sound of his desire was like a drug that instantly slicked her thighs with arousal.

  She reached back to touch him, jolting in surprise when he snarled, “Hands on the wall.”

  Her palms stung from how fast she obeyed. Her body jumped and twitched in readiness at the caress of his hands across her hips, his touch soft as his voice was hard. Lust and need tightened his features, made his eyes glitter as he met and held her gaze in the reflection of the mirror. She could feel the heat of him against her back, but the only parts he touched her with were his hands on her front, and the hard wedge of his shaft pressed tight between her legs. He held her there when she would have rocked against him, when she would have spread her knees wider to coat his cock with the slickness of her need. His arm circled her waist, his other hand pushing up the center of her body until he could curl his fingers around her throat, tipping her head just the way he wanted. Just enough to allow him to roll his cheek along her throat, never taking his eyes off of her reflection.

  “This, will be our home.” he declared in a growl, just a tone above a whisper.

  Cassie licked her dry lips, feeling her heart pounding with gleeful uncertainty for what he would do next. “But you hate it here.”

  The answering nip of his teeth to her ear made it difficult to focus.

  “I have hated the memory of
this place, the memory of my sire’s disdain for me attached to these walls. But watching you move from room to room, I saw it anew. Looked through your eyes and discovered the beauty here that had nothing to do with my sire. He would not have cared about making this place a home. He cared about making it a palace to display his wealth and status to those he thought would look down on him.

  “My mother made it a home. I remembered that as I watched you open each new door and find wonder in the rooms beyond. I saw you take a breath the moment we stepped from the transport and relax in a way you’ve not done since the day your feet first touched the soil of this planet. For the time being, we will have to split our time between the citadel and this place, but here is home.”

  “Falken-” He drove the breath from her lungs, filling her in one ruthless lunge.

  “I will make it so,” he growled, while Cassie struggled for breath. For sight as her eyes had rolled back in ecstasy. “For you. For our cubs.”

  “What if we don’t have any?” she blurted. The fear she had been holding onto, that secret worry, falling past her lips in a rush.

  Falken held her still, held her impaled on his shaft even as she tried to wiggle and greedily take more. “We will. Soon.” he punctuated his harsh, confident words with a rough jab of his hips. Lifting her knees from the bed a few inches with the power of it. “We will fill this manor with so many little ones, you will curse my name.”

  He whispered the promise across her ear, grinning wickedly when she gave a broken whimper. Cassie watched him scrape his fangs across her neck, his hand chasing the shudder she gave, all the way down to her thighs and back up, hissing a little when she finally managed to curl her hips and press back on him. He clicked his tongue at her chidingly, giving her shoulder a sharp nip, his expression turning to oddly triumphant. Mischievous even.

  “We’ll start with this one.” he told her, cupping her hips in his big hands.

  “What one?”

  Falken pressed his lips to her cheek, his thumbs sweeping back and forth over the skin where her stars used to be.