Elizabeth nodded.
Geer was going to keep his distance while they were with the dragons. That should provide the time they all needed.
Mates weren’t something that she could run from any longer.
Flank Left
Torsten
Soldiers were still pouring out of the old portal. They had to travel in groups of a dozen or less, else they’d risk breaking the weak magic.
There had been quakes in the area that had changed the way magic flowed, leading to the portal’s power blinking in and out.
Torsten was glad that none of them had gotten stuck in between spaces.
They’d known about this portal only because it had been popular when the dragons had allowed mining by the earth clans.
It had been a convenient way to transport over the deserts of the Wastes. Now, it was a neglected connection in need of maintenance.
Perhaps it would be wiser to march back through the Wastes than to risk the portal again once everyone was through.
He could arrange for a couple of portal specialists from his clan to service this one later.
It might prove useful still if the dragons were willing to bargain with him.
“Form your unit upon exiting the portal. Once all members of your unit are present, start the march up the trail. It’s uphill, as you can see.”
Jaeson was directing the soldiers.
Kaila was close to him, mostly observing.
Occasionally, his daughter would pull on Jaeson’s sleeve and whisper something in his ear.
Jaeson would then order a soldier to eat something or drink water. A few times, the chosen soldier was given a potion of nutrients.
Kaila was using her earth to ensure the soldiers were at their optimum health.
Gruff earth soldiers didn’t like being coddled—but this was about more than their pride.
A climb up the Dragos mountains that could end in a confrontation with dragons—which many of the younger soldiers had never even seen in their lives—meant everyone had to be in top form.
The younger ones were all together.
Jill had been hopeful that Elizabeth would contact her once she was closer.
The assumption was that Daemon and George were still with Elizabeth and they were all on a mission to recruit the dragons to Daemon’s side.
So far, Jill hadn’t heard anything, even after getting into a circle that Princess Victoria had drawn to amplify for receiving magic.
It was like the reverse of a regular amplification circle—quite interesting. He’d seen a few earth soldiers eyeing the glyphs before their unit started to march.
At least, all of the younger ones were getting along better.
Alexander had informed him that Jill was allowing him to court her—without a mark yet.
It hadn’t disrupted her relationship with Prince Victor, but she had a buffer with accepting Alexander, which was a good thing when her prince was quite riled by the most recent news.
Demons.
Torsten didn’t dislike them without reason, but many were from the forced draining of witches. That was unacceptable.
Strength was earned, not stolen.
He suspected that things were even worse than Jill and Elizabeth had been told about their past. They’d only been children when their demon uncle had attacked them.
Kaila was the one that would have fully understood what had happened.
Her husband had been mate-bonded to her. She’d refused her husband’s brother, the very uncle who had turned demon and nearly killed his granddaughters.
The potential for a mate-bond generally ran through all the brothers of a family.
Had the brother been bitter over Kaila’s rejection?
He hadn’t turned demon until afterwards.
Ruining Kaila’s dream, turning her husband against her—it reeked of a spurned lord’s vengeance.
Draining Jill of her power would had been akin to drinking from his own daughter, so close were the ties with mates and their children. It was a monstrous act.
Kaila had been shocked and frightened, a completely foreign state for his daughter.
She’d run instead of coming to him.
His mistake had been telling her that the mate-bond was dangerous, then being proven right—no matter that he’d never intended it to happen that way.
Thank Maeren that she’d run into so little trouble in the human realm.
So strong, his daughter. His granddaughters, too. They’d forged ahead and had done much to make him proud.
Torsten had his chance now to stand with them. No demon from the past would stop him from taking his rightful place with his family.
General Bloodstone was coming out of retirement.
Bound Freely
Elizabeth
Elizabeth woke up being kissed so softly and sweetly that the moment she crossed over from her dream was lost in one butterfly brush against her lips to the whisper quiet inhale as her lover tried to breathe the memory in.
"Are you awake, sweetheart?"
Kisses trailed from the corner of her mouth, along her jaw, and down towards the secret spot between her neck and ear that always made her squirm.
The morning growth from Daemon’s unshaven chin scratched the skin against George’s last bite mark on her neck.
She opened her mouth on a breathy moan, her hands reaching up to thread through dark, thick hair.
She clenched and released her fingers, not quite sure if she wanted to pull Daemon closer or put some distance between herself and the early morning teasing.
Daemon took it as encouragement and sucked her earlobe into his mouth, nibbling, with a hint of fang.
Her moan had more volume this time.
“Do you need to feed again?” she asked, baring her neck better.
Daemon’s lips dropped to her bared flesh, brushing over the pulsing skin above her power, the magic tingling to be released.
He sent a little zap of lightning to meld with her magic, the shock of it going right between her legs and awakening her to the fact that she was pleasantly tender this morning.
It was like the soreness from a good workout, only noticeable when you stretched or moved a certain way.
Daemon rolled her onto her back. He crawled on top of her as his mouth sucked a hickey on the skin over her pulse.
His knee split her thighs, stopping just short of pressing against her tender, naked pussy.
Cold air tickled the bared lips and hidden bud instead.
“Where’s George?” she asked, realizing they were alone in bed, able to roll around.
Dark eyes peered up at her, Daemon’s fangs protruding as they swelled in arousal.
“He left to get breakfast,” Daemon answered.
He surged up her body to press another kiss on her lips. She had barely gotten to lick the tips of his fangs before he pulled up and looked deep into her eyes, once more.
“I want to make love to you.”
“B-but we just—last night?” she stuttered out, her tongue tied by his possessive look.
He thumbed her lips quiet.
“I fucked you hard last night. It was very enjoyable and I plan to repeat it every chance I get, but sweetheart, I don’t want you to mistake the depth of my feelings for you. I want your heart, not only your body.”
He lowered himself between her thighs. His cock prodded her pussy for moisture and found her already wet.
Another gush slicked Daemon’s passage as he pushed gently inside, slow but steady, rocking his way into her.
She squirmed against the tender invasion, but didn’t close her legs or demand that he stop, staring into his beautiful eyes as he claimed her body.
His long, dark lashes fluttered closed for a moment as he bottomed out, a groan escaping him.
She tightened her pelvic muscles around his cock, squeezing him with her warmth, so he could just barely withdraw and thrust against her core again.
“Are you too sore?” He w
hispered the question, stilling his thrusts for a moment.
She rocked herself under him.
“No, please. Daemon, I want you,” she begged. Swallowing deeply, she added, “Make love to me.”
He kissed her mouth again, tasting the words that he had wanted.
His hips slowly rocked, moving his cock in and out of her body at an agonizing pace.
She could feel every shift in his position, time stretching as he refused to be rushed.
He would pull out of her until he almost popped out, only to push his cock back in all the way, with long, slow thrusts that pressed up heavy against her bottom.
It felt like it would take forever for him to finish making love to her and she wanted every minute.
“More,” she demanded, nipping his lips.
Her hips lifted up as she put her feet flat on the bed and tried to fuck his cock deeper into her body from underneath, craving the connection as they joined as close together as physically possible.
He grabbed her hips and tried to take back the control, so she wrapped her legs around him, her heels digging into the firm muscles of his buttocks.
They flexed under her guidance as he continued his slow, steady rhythm of making love to her.
He thrust his tongue in to her mouth, swallowing her moan as she discovered he had nicked it first on his fangs to feed her a little of his potent blood.
She tangled her own tongue around his and let her head fall back further.
Her body tensed as he suddenly pulled his cock out of her pussy, despite her legs being wrapped around his hips.
He rubbed the silky head against her slippery clit.
A tremor shook her body, orgasm not as far off as she had thought.
He tempered her arousal by pulling a crucial inch back, but whose climax he was saving was up for debate.
He groaned into her mouth, his muscled ass tightening under her heels.
If she gave him a good nudge with her foot, would his cock accidentally fall back into her and finish them both off?
"So impatient, sweetheart. Didn’t George show you the pleasures of prolonging your climax?"
"I’d rather come and come again. Females work differently. Do you need me to explain?"
The tone of her thoughts was slightly irritable as she teased him. She wanted him back inside her, filling the emptiness.
"You want to feel full? Want to see me spread your pussy and stretch your tight sheath with my cock?"
"Yes, please."
"Give me your legs."
He grabbed behind her knees and pulled up, flexing her hips as far as they would go.
Her knees met her chest, and her feet dangled over his shoulders.
“Keep your heels up,” he ordered.
He reached over to snag a pillow beside her and stuffed it under her head, so she was propped higher to watch him.
His cock brushed against her clit again. She hissed, so close to coming that she had to grit her teeth and throw her head back on the pillow, holding on by a moment.
“Not yet,” he told her. He stroked her sweaty flank with a smoothing hand. “I want my sweet, stormy witch to see me claiming her body first.”
Sliding his hands from her knees to her bottom, he made her curl up further, tilting her pelvis up towards the ceiling, in a strained position that left her shivering, but determined to hold it.
He reached around her trembling thighs and parted her pussy lips with his fingers, holding her open as he lined the head of his cock with her entrance.
She tried to nudge him when he paused over her, but he had most of the power, with her body stretched to its limit.
“Please, Daemon,” she begged.
“I want you to count each thrust,” he told her, the head of his cock nestled at her entrance and ready to be buried. “You can’t come until I reach ten, and then, we’ll come together.”
He didn’t wait for her agreement, slowly pile driving his cock into her exposed pussy as she watched the inches disappear.
This time when he bottomed out, she felt him touch something deep inside her.
“Oh Maeren, Daemon,” she panted, squirming as he held her pinned, grinding his pelvis against hers.
“Look at me,” he ordered, his deep voice snapping her gaze up. “Mine!” he possessively told her, grinding again with a roll of his hips.
His pupils were blown, with need blackening his eyes.
It was like when he’d chased her in the forest and trapped her against a tree to lick the scent enhancer from her skin that had been designed to drive his senses crazy for her.
The dragon inside of him had made its first appearance then, and it was peering out at her now, with its primal need to claim her and hear her submit.
Daemon’s familiar, his soul beast.
“I’m yours, Dragomir,” she said, hearing his dragon growl in pleasure. “And you’re mine,” she added, squeezing around his cock buried inside her.
Daemon growled again, pulling out all the way and rubbing his cock against her clit.
“Too much,” she protested, trying to wiggle away.
He found her entrance without difficulty and stroked deep inside her, pinning her wriggles to the bed.
Her hands found his thighs and she clawed at him, screaming his name.
“You can take it,” he insisted.
Another thrust in and out as he stared at her eyes, daring her to make another peep of protest.
Another pull, all the way out, and the slick head on her swollen clit.
She arched her head back, squeezing her eyes tight, and fighting the inevitable, tightening ache towards climax.
Just seven more. She could last, if he hurried it up.
His cock spanked her pussy and she popped her eyes open.
“No hiding,” he told her, sinking all the way back inside her.
She squeezed her pelvic muscles harder and drew her bottom lip into her mouth, while he watched her chew on it, moaning her torment and pleasure.
“That’s four,” she whispered to him when he rocked against her ass with a groan. “You can take it,” she teased back.
“Your tight pussy’s trying to milk my cum before the count’s done,” he said, drawing out his withdrawal.
“You keep feeding me your hard cock and I’ll give you back plenty of cream,” she promised.
She moaned as he drove into her twice, in rapid succession, pile driving her pussy more intensely.
“So wet and tight,” Daemon said in a lusty complaint.
She grabbed her breasts and pinched her nipples, rocking her lower half against him, denied the freedom to thrash about as he drove into her.
Her fragile hold on control was testing Daemon’s own.
He groaned as he pulled out all the way, and then immediately back in, with such a hard thrust that the bed shook.
They both panted as he paused his furious thrusting for a moment.
She looked into his eyes and saw the dragon had pulled back, satisfied that she was being thoroughly possessed.
The dark look of ownership that branded her body as it swept down her was all the male taking her now.
“Hold your breasts up for my mouth,” Daemon gruffly demanded, thumbing her clit against his buried cock.
She did as he said, with a whimper.
He ground his pelvis against her, not letting her arousal fade for a moment as he bent himself over her chest to latch onto her nipples.
He nibbled each thoroughly, before sucking the pain away.
Her clit throbbed through each hard pull on her breasts, the roughness she craved remembered by Daemon at the worst time.
“I can’t hold back,” she warned, feeling the inevitable squeezing of her pelvic muscles as reflex overrode her precarious control.
Daemon shifted himself up to swallow her shout and fucked her through the orgasm.
Three more devastating thrusts, from the tip of his silky glans to the smack of his balls on her ass.
&
nbsp; He came so deep inside of her that the heat of his cum warmed her, from the inside out, spreading with the pleasured soreness as her muscular spasms finally released him.
“I want to make love to you every day,” he whispered against her lips, giving her a few more of the butterfly kisses that he’d used to awaken her.
She wiggled under him, gasping as he pulled his softening cock from her pussy.
He let her hips unwind, slowly pulling her thighs apart, so her legs could fall off of his shoulders and rest back on the bed on either side of him.
Muscles had been used in ways she hadn’t tested before and were complaining.
His hands travelled over her legs, his fingers finding her aches and rubbing them down.
She arched up and kissed him back, looking into his eyes.
He wasn’t avoiding her assessing gaze and she knew his real question deserved a response.
‘Make love every day’ meant real commitment.
He wanted a claim . . . and more. They were mates.
She let her head fall back onto the pillow and smiled at him.
“I’m sure that my mother didn’t intend for you to propose in bed,” she finally said.
Daemon smiled, too, at her perceptive guess at what he wanted.
“What your mother doesn’t know won’t get either of us into trouble. Take my claim today. I’ll get our marriage officiated before she finds out.”
So, elopement was a thing in Maeren as well.
It had to be extra scandalous for the Maerenian first prince to propose it, although with the way things were going, she doubted marrying her was the most gossip worthy thing Daemon had planned.
“Are you sure you want to tie yourself to me so impetuously? I’ll take everything if we get a divorce,” she teased him, delaying her answer.
Daemon lowered himself over her, nose-to-nose, and let her catch a glimpse of the dragon in his dark eyes as he seriously warned her, “No divorce, no escape.”
“Finders, keepers?” she teased, this time talking to the demon.
A quickly hardening cock pushed into her sore pussy, staking the dragon’s claim in no uncertain terms as he growled in response to her levity.
Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3) Page 48