by Simon Archer
Holding her gaze, I dropped my head, my lips parting slightly, and I had a wicked gleam in my eyes. Slowly, my tongue shot out to flick across her right nipple. She gasped and arched her chest upward, needing more, more, more.
Finally, my mouth opened, and I sucked the hard nub. The wet heat of my mouth sent goosebumps over her body. When I switched to offer the other side the same amount of attention, she cried out at the sensation of the breeze on her hard nipple.
Pressure continued to build at her core, liquid pooling between her legs. When I released the second nipple, I planted open-mouthed kisses in a trail down the flat plains of her stomach. When I reached the fabric of her pants at her hips, my eyes found hers once more, a silent, burning question in them.
Biting her lip at the heat in my eyes, she nodded her consent. Gods, yes.
She lifted her hips, and a second later, she was completely naked before me.
My mate.
I sat back on my haunches and took in her naked form. Her long, dark lashes fanned across her cheeks, the shadows sharpening the lines of her face.
“You. Are. Perfect,” I breathed, almost reverently. My chest heaved with my ragged breath.
“And you are wearing too many clothes,” she quipped, and I realized that her own ragged breathing matched mine.
Instead of stripping, I reached for her knees, which were still closed tightly together.
“Open,” I commanded, and she obeyed.
I smiled at her approvingly before lowering myself to my stomach with my head between her legs, kissing down her legs the whole way. My hot breath down there made her force down a desperate sob.
When her hips bucked without my permission, I pinned down on either side of her with my strong grip. I placed a soft, sweet kiss on her clit, and nonsensical mumbling started pouring out of her mouth, desperate and needy.
The first stroke of my tongue made her see stars, and my grip tightened on her hips when they tried to buck again. I did it again and again until she melted into my grip. My tongue came up to swirl around her clit before flicking across it once, twice, and then on the third time, she fell apart.
When she cried out my name, I groaned in response as I continued my assault on her clit. When I finally came up for air once her limbs had loosened, the look in her eyes said everything. “More.”
And so I did it again. And again after that. Finally, after the third time, when I rose back onto my haunches, I bared my teeth at her before making quick work of my boots, shirt, and trousers.
When my weight finally settled back over her, the most spectacular molten silver pools filled my vision. The wrinkle of her brow in concentration. The straight bridge of her nose.
“Are you ready?” I asked, and she felt the head of my cock poking against her entrance. Her eyes were so soft and vulnerable that tears pricked in my eyes before I blinked them away.
“Yes,” she whispered.
My hand came down to cup her cheek gently. “What do we do to complete the bond?”
One corner of her mouth kicked up in a crooked smile. “You will know when the time comes.”
Too eager to be inside her to argue, I leaned down for a long, searing kiss. As my erection moved against her most sensitive area, I felt her liquid pool there. When I broke the kiss, her eyes held mine as I guided the hard head to nudge at her entrance, then began to ease into her, inch by glorious inch.
I kept dropping my hips further until I bottomed out inside her, then paused, waiting for her to adjust to my size. Holy gods, it felt amazing being inside her warmth. The sound of our ragged breathing filled the meadow as I started to move in and out. Slowly at first, then harder and deeper. After a while, she couldn’t keep the moans from flowing from her lips.
Higher and higher she climbed until at one point, I adjusted us so that I could rub my thumb with her clit. With the change in angle and the new pressure on her most sensitive area, it wasn’t long before she was crying out as she climaxed. I knew she could feel my intense gaze on her when she fell apart, the walls of her pussy squeezing tight around my pulsing cock.
My movements became less controlled, pumping harder and faster, and my breathing became harsh and ragged. With a few practiced flicks of my fingers against her clit, she was close to the edge. This time was different somehow, though. Knowing Rozmarin was on the brink, right there with me… something was building inside me, and it wasn’t just the climax.
It was something primal and possessive. My mate. She was my mate. Mine.
Just as I had the thought, Rozmarin bared her teeth at me, her eyes wild and filled with that same possessive gleam that I felt. It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. It threw me over the edge, and in the next moment, Rozmarin and I were both sinking our canines into each other’s necks. The rush of my climax hit me just as I felt my heart squeeze, something deep in me stretching, filling, growing.
It was the bond, that link between Rozmarin and I that was suddenly becoming so, so tangible.
When our muscles finally relaxed, the last of the aftershocks subsiding, that bond that tethered me to Rozmarin shone like a golden light within me, warm, radiant, and soothing. When her eyes met mine, that same radiant light was there. She gave me one last searing kiss before I pulled back.
When I pulled out of her, I immediately reached for her pack and pulled out a rag and wiped the liquid that seeped from between her legs.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
I shot her a sweet smile before neatly and swiftly packing the rag away, once more. Then, I joined her on the blanket, my solid muscle hot against her back as I wrapped her up in my arms. I pulled another blanket over us.
I tilted my head to look at her.
“You sure thought of everything, didn’t you?” I teased. She chuckled, and I thought I might have seen a light blush spread across her cheeks, but I couldn’t be sure.
“I aim to please, my lord,” she replied. “Sleep, now. I have not camped out in the open like this for decades. Let me enjoy it with my mate holding me in his arms.”
We laid in silence for a while, the plaid quilted blanket I’d pulled over us, protecting our naked bodies from the cool night breeze. It wasn’t long before we both drifted off to sleep, though never for more than a few hours at a time throughout the night. I woke Rozmarin up, multiple times, to sink myself into her, always asking if she was too tender, first.
Over and over, I’d fill her, working our bodies in a fervor to satiate our need for each other, beneath the stars. When the first light broke over the horizon, we finally drifted into our last few hours of rest, our bodies exhausted and sated.
Happy and content. Loved and so, so grateful.
We awoke sometime in the afternoon to the sound of voices somewhere in the trees. I grabbed my clothes, eager to dress before these strangers intruded on our privacy. As Rozmarin and I dressed, a knowing smirk spread across her lips, confusing me until the noisy group emerged into the meadow.
“There you two are,” it was the well-known voice of Rachel and behind her stood Anix, Aerywin, and of course, Sahar.
“We couldn’t let you two have all the fun alone,” Aery giggled. She held a box in her hand, and I recognized it as being from the bakery Rozmarin had taken me to in the East Village.
“Besides, it’s only fair we celebrate you and Sahar cheating death.” Anix stood next to the beloved sorceress, her gray arm wrapped around Sahar’s shoulders.
I thought my heart couldn’t be filled with any more happiness than it had the previous night, but seeing all my friends standing there, with smiles on their faces filled me with a sensation even more powerful than what I’d felt before destroying the zombies.
We spent the next few days and nights enjoying each other’s company. My friends had brought cake and plenty of wine, and we danced and sang in the meadow around a roaring fire created from Sahar’s magic. My bond with the council grew until I knew deep in my core that nothing could ever tear us away from each other, not
even death.
44
Christoff
When we returned to the castle, the kingdom was already hard at work. As we flew over the East and West villages, I could see people working on reparations in the streets, on rooftops, and in the shops.
As we approached the castle, I saw several figures standing on top of the roof where we were aiming to land. The figures looked human, male and female, besides the large gargoyle that stood towering over them at their side. They all seemed to be tracking us as we made our way towards them.
“Who is that on the roof?” I asked Rozmarin, just as my vision of them became more clear. Then, I froze. I felt Rozmarin smiling down at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to tear my gaze away from the two women and the man on the rooftop.
Two heads of blonde hair came into view, along with another head of brown hair. The brown-haired girl was shorter and stockier than the other two people, though her head was held the highest, her shoulders thrown back. The other two were taller, leaner, and their blonde hair shone beneath the sunlight that beamed down atop their heads. A long, graceful arm rose to wave at us from the tallest of the women, and the male beside her did the same while the brown-haired woman used her hands as a visor for her eyes as she tracked our movements.
A sob escaped my lips as Rozmarin brought us closer, beginning to straighten out for a smooth landing. By the time our feet hit the solid stone of the roof, my feet were already moving. I sprinted across the rooftop and flung myself into the arms of my mother and my siblings. My family.
Tears of joy streaked down each of our faces as we clung so tightly to each other, I thought we might never let go. My mind raced with some sort of explanation. When our grip finally loosened and I was able to turn my gaze to Rozmarin, she was beaming at me.
“Did you do this?” I asked, but it wasn’t Rozmarin who responded. It was my mother.
“She has taken great care of us, Chris. She’s a good girl, that one,” my mother said and winked at me.
I got a good look at her now that I had stepped back. Her hair, which had been dull and stringy the last time I saw her, was now thick and shiny. Her eyes were lively and bright, but most of all, she had gained weight. Where there used to be dry skin and jagged bones, there was now soft, curvy flesh and muscle. There was color in her cheeks for the first time in years, and she was standing perfectly fine on her own.
For a while, I just stood there, silently taking in my mother’s form. Healthy. She was healthy. And beautiful. I hadn’t seen her so vibrant, so full of life…
“How?” I breathed.
Beside me, Theia was the one to answer. As she spoke, I realized just how much I’d missed my shy, gentle sister.
“The Queen assigned us our own alchemist once she sent people to help us move to the East Village. Oh, it’s beautiful there, Chris. You have to come to see the house,” Theia gushed, dreamily. A light blush colored her cheeks, and my heart warmed at seeing my sister shine. Happy. She was happy.
Sharp eyes came into my vision, then.
“Tyrion,” I rasped. His face was tear-streaked like the rest of us, but it somehow only managed to make him look even more fierce. His eyes blazed with a million questions, but to my surprise, he just reached for my shoulders and hauled me into his chest, his breathing uneven.
“Brother,” he breathed over my shoulder. When he pulled back, his gaze had softened but became curious again when he noticed the two, baby fangs that grew just a bit longer than they had before. “We have much to catch up on, it seems.”
I couldn’t help it. I threw my head back and laughed, a full-bellied laugh. “That we do.”
Later that day, as my family joined the Queen’s Council for the midday meal in Rozmarin’s private dining quarters, my mom and my siblings filled me in on everything they’d been up to in the months that I’d been gone, working at the castle. I learned that months ago, before I’d even agreed to stay, Rozmarin had gone to my family’s old, beat-up cottage on the outskirts of the West Village to inform them of my upcoming absence. And, having been privy to my family’s dependence on me, financially, she’d offered to compensate them for my time away.
With the money Rozmarin gave to them, and continued to give to them, they were able to pick up and move out of the West Village for the first time. Ever. On top of that, Theia was able to begin attending a dance school in the East Village, and Tyrion had begun his own tattooing practice. He’d even rented a tiny studio downtown in the East Village to display his work and had begun taking clients. Apparently, his hobby-turned-business venture had become quite successful in just the few weeks since he’d started it.
When I asked how bad the damage from his studio had been from the invasion, he’d merely shrugged, but his eyes lowered in an attempt to hide his disappointment.
“We’ve all suffered losses. A few damages to the studio and some ruined ink is a small price to pay for the elimination of all zombies from the area,” he’d said.
I supposed he was right. I didn’t have to tell him I’d paid a much steeper price than he had. For the cure and peace of the kingdom, I’d paid with my life. And I would do it again if I had to.
From the seat to my left, Rozmarin reached over and grabbed my hand.
Rozmarin leaned in so that her breath blew hot against my ear.
“You better be thinking about me with that dreamy look on your face, Your Majesty,” she said, enunciating my brand new title.
His Majesty. King of Constanta.
I turned to face her. Our noses were inches apart, and I knew that my own gaze mirrored the wicked gleam in hers.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Rozmarin chuckled, pulling back a bit as the wicked gleam in her eyes faded, leaving only amusement, and then content. “I always want to know what you are thinking. Especially if it is making you smile.”
My own gaze softened, and I gripped her hand tighter, tears suddenly pricking in the corner of my eyes. The chatter around us faded, and it was just my mate and me.
“You saved my family,” I said, my voice husky from holding back tears of joy and gratitude.
Rozmarin was quick to respond, not even missing a beat. “And you saved my kingdom.”
I arched a brow, “Our kingdom,” I corrected.
As if she’d expected my reaction, like she’d been testing me, Rozmarin grinned. With all of the love and pride that was the Vampire Queen, she said, “Our kingdom.”
Author’s Note
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