Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Emperor

by Felicity Heaton

  Her hips bucked into his touch when he pressed his hand against her mound, fingers teasing her through the material of her underwear. She willed him to remove the snug material, to invade her body with his own and take everything that she was offering him.

  “Regis.” As she uttered his name in sheer need, he ran his fingers over the front of her underwear and she blinked as she felt cool air against her. His fingers quickly followed it and she realised he must have used his claws to rent the material in two. She gasped at the thought of him touching her with his claws out and then relaxed when she looked at his other hand and saw his fingernails were normal.

  Her eyes met his and she opened her mouth to speak but her words came out in a garbled moan when he slipped his fingers into her folds and drew wetness up to her pert nub and circled it. The feel of his touch was intense, mind-blowing.

  Regis growled, a pleased smile on his face.

  She had to stop him. She needed to know that he was actually in there, that it was him speaking to her and he was conscious of what they were doing. Her hands pressed against his chest but he didn’t stop. His fingers slid lower and she melted into the bed when he inserted one into her slick channel.

  “Regis?” She bit her lip and stared into his eyes.

  They brightened, turning crimson.

  “Shh, Sophia, before you turn me insane. I am already half there.” He flashed her a smile that was all sharp fangs before burying his face in her neck and kissing it.

  At least he was still with her, even if he was on the verge of losing control again.

  He needed blood or, well, she didn’t know what he would do or how violent he could become. The others had told her to give him blood to calm him down. Taking hold of his other hand, she brought it up to her neck and then remembered that his claws were retracted and she really didn’t want them out again when he was touching her down there. She had to cut herself though. She had to convince him to bite her and take her blood before he lost control. She could feel that he was slowly regaining a sense of awareness about her and his surroundings. She didn’t want him to lose that again. She wanted to make love with him, not have him lost in a haze of bloodlust as he had sex with her.

  His finger moved inside her and all reasonable thought left her. She gasped with each plunge of it into her core, each smooth slide that sent sparks of hunger gathering in her abdomen. She writhed against his hand, moaning into his ear and desperately trying to retain a sense of cohesion within her thoughts so she could figure out a way to make him bite her.

  He thrust against his hand where it covered her mound and the solution dawned on her.

  He wanted to bite her.

  She didn’t need to make him.

  She only had to let him know that she wanted it too.

  There was something else that she wanted first. She wanted this torture to end and him inside her. Her hands skimmed down his back to his buttocks and she slid them around to the front of his trousers. He lightly bit her neck as she undid the front ties of his trousers and her heart thumped hard against her chest when she swallowed her nerves and slid her hand inside. The feel of his hard shaft in her hand was electrifying. She licked her lips as her mind raced to imagine it inside her, stretching her body and making it his. She ached for that moment.

  He ground his length against her hand and she instinctively wrapped her fingers around it, gripping it. A groan left him when he thrust again, his length pushing through the tight circle of her fingers. His tongue traced a line along her throat that left her tingling. Insensitive. Was this why the patch around his bite mark on her leg felt numb? Could he anaesthetise the area that he was going to bite? It explained how she hadn’t felt any pain earlier when he had bitten her thigh. She had felt only pleasure.

  His finger slid free of her body and he removed her hand from his length. She swallowed her pounding heart as he moved between her legs and the head of his shaft pressed into her. Closing her eyes, she waited with bated breath. It was torn from her throat in a deep sigh as he pushed into her, filling her body with his own. She licked her lips again and clung to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pushing her fingers into his hair. He thrust into her, slow and deep, taking her out of her mind as her body hummed and tingled with each plunge of his length. He moaned against her throat and then growled. Before she could even think about reacting, his fangs penetrated her neck and he pulled on her blood. Her entire body arched into his as a wave of heat crashed through her followed by a shockwave of pleasure. This time, she bit back the scream as she climaxed.

  Regis growled and continued to thrust into her, drawing on her blood at the same time. She held his head to her, not wanting him to stop drinking. He didn’t. He drank deeper, biting hard enough that she felt it this time. It hurt, but the intense feelings of arousal and desire that it brought with it made the pain seem a small price to pay. His hand went to her breasts and he growled into her throat as he sliced the front of her corset open. She gasped at the cool air as it washed over her body and then at the feel of his bare chest against hers. She wished they were fully naked, but didn’t want him to leave her. She wanted him to stay inside her. Wanted to feel him.

  He thrust deeper inside her and she raised her pelvis up, drawing a moan from him. His drinking slowed but remained deep enough that her head spun with each mouthful he took from her. Her thighs trembled against his as warmth coiled tight in the depth of her stomach again. His pelvis slammed against her clit with each frantic plunge of his length into her and before she knew what was happening, heat exploded through her again. Her body convulsed around his, milking his shaft and this time sending him crashing over the edge with her. He jerked up hard inside her and shuddered as he spilled himself. Her harsh breathing was joined by his own as his fangs left her throat and he licked the wound, pressing kisses against it occasionally.

  Her eyes widened when he rolled onto his back, taking her with him so she was lying on top of him, and then closed when he wrapped his arms around her. She drifted off to sleep as Regis whispered words to her that sounded a lot like the song he had been singing to the moons.

  ***

  Sophia sighed as she woke and then smiled when she saw Regis lying beside her, half dressed and looking as wanton as she probably did. She reached out to push the long strands of his black hair away from his face so she could see it better and then paused as it hit her.

  She would have to marry him now. In her haste to have him, she hadn’t thought about the consequences. She hadn’t thought about protecting herself. He murmured something in his sleep and smiled. He had a beautiful smile. If they had a child, perhaps it would also have his smile. In a way, she hoped it would have his eyes too. Now that she was used to them, his eyes were stunning.

  She brushed his hair away from his neck and ears, and smiled too as she mused what life would be like with him. Her smile faltered when she realised that she might not have a life with him. Her father hadn’t consented to the match and Regis might not want to live on Lyra Prime. What if her haste had left her pregnant and Regis didn’t want to stay with her? What if he didn’t love her enough or still refused to believe that he could love?

  He could. Her mother was right. Everything Regis had done had proven that he loved her. She had felt all the feelings in him, everything that she had been feeling herself. He couldn’t deny that he loved her. Would it be enough to make him stay on a planet that didn’t suit him though?

  Or was her love for him enough to make her leave Lyra Prime for a world and a species that she knew hardly anything about?

  A place where the brightest the day got was evening light?

  Her fingers traced the black band of marks that started just behind his ear and followed them down his throat and over his shoulder. They were so familiar.

  It dawned on her where she had seen them before.

  They had been in one of the books from the palace library.

  Pulling her clothes closed around her as best she co
uld, she rushed from the room intent on reaching hers unseen.

  There was something important about the marks.

  Something very important.

  She had to know what.

  ****

  Chapter 7

  Regis smiled up at the hot Lyran sun through his visor. It warmed him to the bone but it wasn’t the reason that he was smiling. He lowered his gaze to the garden and his smile widened as he saw Sophia. She was beautiful in her flowing sky blue empire-line gown, her wavy black hair tumbling around her smooth graceful shoulders. He laughed with her as she danced around, her smile broad and infectious. The laughter of the two small children joined theirs and he stopped to watch them again, fascinated by the sight of her and the younglings.

  Younglings.

  Their red eyes told him that they were Varkan. Or at least in part they were Varkan. They had their mother’s beauty.

  His younglings.

  Their younglings.

  He had never seen such a beautiful sight as her playing with them, never in his long years. A sigh escaped him and he allowed himself the moment of whimsy as he watched them. In this moment, he was no longer a commander of his people but a man with a family.

  It was a beautiful dream.

  No. It would be a beautiful reality.

  Sophia turned and looked at him, waving as she laughed, the light breeze tousling her hair and dress.

  She was a beautiful reality.

  He flinched and gritted his teeth as something hit him. The dream slipped through his fingers as the pain came again and he was torn from sleep. He frowned as he opened his eyes and then smiled when he saw Sophia kneeling beside him on the bed.

  “You utter sekta no uso cruskin nyaaeso!”

  She hit him again with something rectangular and very hard. His head ached and he blocked her next strike with his arm, unwilling to be beaten up any more. His translator hadn’t understood the last part of what she had said but judging by the thunderous black look in her eyes and the fact that she was beating him to a pulp, he deduced it wasn’t words of love.

  “You lied to me.”

  He understood that.

  Sitting up, he placed his hands out behind him to prop himself in place and looked at her. The marks on her neck were deep and sore. He had been a little harder on her than he had hoped he would but the bloodlust had been too intense and he hadn’t been able to stop himself from losing control.

  “Lied about what?” he said, his head still reeling. One moment, he was dreaming about their future family and the next he was being hit with, he glanced at what she was holding, a book.

  “You,” she said and opened the book. She turned it to face him and he stared at the markings on the page. Perhaps some things about his species were better documented than he had expected. He hadn’t let slip about these markings so it must have been his father or one of his other predecessors. With a sigh, she dropped the book and her shoulders slumped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  He picked the book up and looked at the drawing of the markings and then at his arms.

  “Because I had to know,” he said and closed the book, placing it down on the bed. He looked at her, at her sore eyes, and realised that she had been crying. Why? Was it because of what she had discovered or something else? His gaze lowered to her stomach and then darted back to her face.

  “You had to know what?” New tears rose into her eyes and he longed to reach out and wipe them away.

  Was this also love? This past day had been incredible. He had learnt so much, gained so much, and now he felt as though he was standing on the edge of the cliffs of Varka Three, one step away from falling to his lonely death. If he said the wrong thing now, if he couldn’t convince her that he hadn’t lied to her, then he would lose everything.

  Without her, life wasn’t worth living. Eternity would be a bleak darkness without this ray of light before him.

  His own shoulders slumped as he realised that the Terran tale was true. He understood it now. Love was consuming, beyond mortal control. The star-crossed lovers had killed themselves—one because they believed the other dead, and the other because they woke to see their love had died. Neither had wanted to live without the other. Both had chosen death over life alone.

  A decision he would gladly make should Sophia turn her back on him because of his deception.

  “It was not easy. Please believe me, Sophia,” Regis said and took her hand. When she didn’t snatch it back, he took it as a good sign. This was all frightening and new. Never before had he been so scared that someone would leave him. Never had he relied so heavily on one person for his future happiness. “I desired to tell you at every turn, with every furtive glance you threw my way, but I had to resist and see what you would do. When you rejected the emperor because you could not love him, and when you sought my company, I knew that you were growing attached to me but I still could not dare hope or reveal the truth.”

  He sighed and squeezed her hand.

  “Sophia, I admit that while we were en route to Lyra Prime, I decided to switch with Sirus and see what would happen. You have had many suitors and rejected them all. I wanted to spend time with you to discover whether you were only waiting for the right amount of money, planets or power to come along or whether it was something else that you were looking for.”

  “You lied.”

  He closed his eyes and raised her hand, pressing it against his cheek. He opened his eyes again and looked at her. The frown she wore was beginning to fade.

  “Know that I did not mean to deceive you. I only wished to observe proceedings, hoped that perhaps I was wrong and there was something else you sought. When you admitted that you wanted to love your future husband, I wanted to rejoice and cry at the same time. You had chosen the one thing I could not give and I had begun to long for your company and the sight of your beautiful face.”

  A blush touched her cheeks and he stroked her right one with the backs of his fingers.

  “But you can love,” Sophia said and took hold of his hand. “I have seen it... felt it.”

  “You have made me realise it.” He squeezed her hand and sighed. “Although I fear you will no longer love me.”

  “It’s foolish, but when I met you, I longed for you to be the emperor so I could spend time with you. I hated the emperor.”

  “Do you still hate the emperor?” he said with a hopeful look.

  Her frown melted away and she sighed. A smile curved her beautiful lips.

  “I’m an idiot, but I think I love him.”

  Regis smiled, warmed by her confession and the fact that everything was out in the open now.

  Almost everything.

  “Would you marry the emperor?”

  “I don’t think the emperor should talk about himself in the third person,” she said and then frowned again. “Your name is Regis though, yes?”

  He nodded.

  “And the Count of Sagres bit?”

  “Count of Sagres is the name traditionally given to me as Emperor Varka. It was a risk to use it, but it is not well documented.”

  Sophia stared at him. Regis was a count, and also the emperor. The man she had thought was the emperor wasn’t the emperor at all. She couldn’t believe this. It was almost as strange and fantastical as the thought that he couldn’t love. She had wanted Regis to be the emperor, and it had turned out that he was. Was this the deception her father had spoken of?

  “My father knows, doesn’t he?”

  “Does he?” Regis said with a frown.

  “Down at the cells he mentioned a deception and that someone had to explain something. It must be this.”