by Ana Calin
“Forgive me,” he says hotly, resting his forehead against mine, struggling to contain himself. I push my breasts into his chest, feeling the blood from his wound dripping from his chest onto mine. The need to become one with him overwhelms me.
“Let go of my hands, Lysander,” I ask him sweetly.
He releases my wrists, and I use the opportunity to quickly slit my wrist with my fingernail. All I’ve managed to cause is a small cut that only gives out a few drops of blood before he catches my hand, not having expected this.
“Arielle, why are you hurting yourself?”
“You’ve made a blood oath to me,” I muse. “But I never made one to you. So here I am, doing it.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“If you give me your blood and make a blood oath, you will feel about me as strongly as I feel about you. And that’s...slow death on the inside. Every second of separation is like walking with a blade thrust between your ribs.”
“I know. You gave me a glimpse into your feelings, remember?” I look at the slanting slash on his left pec.
“I know I’m not doing the right thing, Lysander, but I know what I want—to be yours; forever. I want to be the only woman with a true claim on you.”
He bends his head to kiss me, his long blond hair brushing the side of my face, but I put my wrist between us.
“This right here, King of Frost,” I whisper, “this moment is sublimely intimate. It’s more than holy ground could ever be. You’re inside of me, by a fire that matches my passion for you. Lysander, let me be yours forever.”
“You feel passion for me,” he whispers, rocking his big cock into me. It parts my walls more, making way, but it doesn’t feel quite as uncomfortable as the first time.
“I crave you more than anything,” I plead truthfully. “Take my blood, and make me yours. Let us be one.”
He can’t resist, and closes his hot lips on the little wound on my wrist. He sucks gently, and when the taste of my blood hits his taste buds, his eyes flash to mine. It feels like he can see into the darkest depths of my soul. We’re connecting on the deepest level.
He moves inside me, slowly, carefully, enjoying the sensations my body is giving him. We lose ourselves in each other as we make love, Lysander thrusting harder as I grow more comfortable with him.
Soon we’re panting, our sweating bodies sliding on each other, the scent of sex filling the cave, and driving us even wilder. Lysander closes his eyes as his mouth disengages from my wrist. He leans his head back as he takes in the pleasure and our connection, his golden hair flowing to his powerful shoulders. Shoulders that I crave to touch.
I hold on tightly to them as I build up, the tension inside my core threatening to explode.
He thrusts into me, now unbridled. I can’t believe that I’m about to have an orgasm, my first time. This isn’t normal, women don’t come the first time they make love, do they?
But climax keeps mounting in my body as I watch this beautiful beast claiming me. I explode around him, my fingers turning white as they clench on his rock-hard upper arms. My head swims from the exquisite sensations.
Lysander spills his seed inside of me. I can feel it flooding my pussy, his cock throbbing against my walls. God, he fills me so good. He empties himself inside of me, bucking and swearing in the most sinful way. When he lies on the fur by my side he’s breathing hard, still inside of me. He rolls me over him, so that I’m straddling him now, and it feels amazing. He kisses me with so much love that I become submissive in his arms.
“I can’t believe this actually happened,” I say with a smile, my lips deliciously swollen from his kisses.
We spend long moments staring at each other. He’s so incredibly beautiful lying on the furs, his golden hair spread around his head, his warrior features now relaxed, and his ice blue eyes lost in mine. I trace his sharp cheekbones with my finger, drinking him in without even trying to hide it.
“What is it?” he whispers, brushing my hair behind my ear.
“You’re so beautiful, Lysander. And I can’t believe I just had you, that you were the first man in my life.”
The flames rustle, and his eyes turn savage. He wraps his impossibly strong arms around me.
“Not just the first. The only man.”
I try to move, because this doesn’t feel like the right position to have this conversation, but he doesn’t let me. He opens his big hand over my loins, pushing gently while also lifting his hips, so that I can get an even better feel of his still hard cock filling me.
“You. Are. Mine,” he says with a low growl. “And I am yours. Bonded mates are for eternity. We don’t get to separate even in the afterlife, you know that?
Sadness washes over me.
“Then that’s when we’ll be together. In this world, you belong to Minerva, you pledged yourself to her.”
“You know damn well why I did it, and so does she. My union with Minerva isn’t based on love, it never has been. I could never feel for her what I feel for you.”
“Is that so?” Hearing that does something to me. I start rocking my hips, riding him. Surprise changes the hard planes of his face. “What about the time when you had sex with her in your chamber?”
“What are you talking about, Arielle, I never had sex with her.” His breath goes short as I move in sensual circles on his cock, running my hands over his fantastic body.
“I saw it in the demon eye—”
“The demon eye,” he cuts me off, trying to make me still down. But I ride him faster, wanting to punish him for having been with another woman, subduing him. I will make him com, groaning. But he manages to resist, though his sharp cheeks heat up.
“You clearly didn’t watch everything,” he manages in a husky voice. “If you had, you’d know I dropped her on the bed when I saw the demon eye between the pillows. I asked her what she thought she was doing, and she swore by all realms that she hadn’t planted it there.”
I keep circling my hips on him, his muscles cording up.
“And you believed her?”
“No. I knew she’d set it all up so you would watch. So I dropped her on the bed and asked her to leave. Still, I pretended to believe her. I didn’t want her to know I saw through her schemes.”
I don’t know what to say. Only the rustling of the fire fills the silence between us.
He cups my breasts, touching them as if in worship before sliding his hands down my body and grabbing my hips.
“I never betrayed you, Arielle.” His gaze fills with animal lust. “And now that I’ve been inside of you, I will never respond to another woman again. In fact, my body didn’t respond to Minerva that day, either. I had to think about you to get it up.”
I sense the truth of that statement, which drives me crazy with lust. I rock on him, the juices of my pleasure coating him, my moans filling the cave. Lysander struggles to resist his orgasm, to prolong my delight.
I reach behind me, and take his balls in my hand. They’re wet from my cream. Lysander’s cock pulses inside me, I feel him so deep now that it hurts. But I love the pain. I come, screaming his name.
“I won’t stay away from you, Lysander, even if it costs me my life.”
Lysander
FAE LINE THE ROAD TO the Seelie King’s castle, their cheers rising to the sky. Since Xerxes’ ambush outside their realm, my warriors and I haven’t been back, so this is a delayed celebration. Xerxes hadn’t known that I was here with part of my Court, and his attack had been meant to ambush and assassinate the Seelie King, to make sure he doesn’t take my side in this war.
Bad decision. The Seelie King had wanted to stay neutral, but now he’s pissed.
I’m all too aware of Arielle’s presence on the back of a white unicorn behind me. I can feel her breathing, her heart beating steadily, her scent of sea and fresh breeze wafting to my nostrils. In this beautiful landscape of the Seelie realm, with the fairy dust and magic nature all around, she’s happy. She takes it al
l in, and I know she’d like to stay here. It hurts all the more that I have to take her with me back to the rock castle by the ocean. A lot to take care of, prepare for war.
The grand gates open to the castle’a inner courtyard. Army, civilians, and noble members of the Seelie Court throw flowers and magic in the air, cheering for their saviors. But I barely manage to smile, knowing what’s waiting for me in the grand hall—separation from Arielle. Thinking about is like being crucified.
“King of Frost,” Calabriel Seawrath greets with open arms as we step into the grand hall. The noble members of the Seelie Court and Army have been asked to remain outside, so that only Arielle and I enter. The doors close behind us, and two of Minerva’s guards stomp over to Arielle. Instead of properly greeting Minerva, Calabriel, and the Seelie King, I turn sharply to the guards.
“Do not touch her.”
“But you lifted the silver spell, and freed her powers,” Minerva says calmly, but I hear the poison behind her words. “She could be dangerous, to us and to herself, if she doesn’t master them right.”
“I’m here to balance her out.” One look at my half brother Sandros is enough for him to take a protective stance by Arielle’s side. “Besides, we are going to train her to use her powers, and she will be aiding us in the war against Xerxes. I think we should start treating her with the respect owed to a fae of her standing.”
“Half fae,” Minerva blocks viciously, her icy eyes shooting daggers at Arielle.
“So it’s true, her powers have been restored,” Calabriel says in his oily tone. The thin layer of slime on his face glints in the sunlight that floods the hall through the great arched windows. “But she will not claim her throne as ruler of the Sea Court, yes? As promised?”
Until Arielle answers, I can hear the worry in Calabriel’s breathing.
“She will not claim the throne,” Arielle finally replies. Relief pours out with Calabriel’s next breath. “And we have brought you the Pearl of Riches.” She holds it out, but doesn’t approach him. If he wants it, Calabriel will have to go to her.
When he does, it makes me smile in the corner of my mouth. He’s scared of her unrestrained powers, afraid she might use them to finish him. He basically snatches the Pearl from her hand, and returns quickly to where he’d been standing with Minerva and the Seelie King, crouched greedily over the item he holds in his hands.
Minerva lifts her chin, keeping her hands laced together in front of her like some wronged saint.
“I would have expected a warmer greeting,” she says to me.
I walk over to her. I can feel all eyes on us, but I can’t even pretend anymore. Yesterday I claimed Arielle like a beast in a cave, the taste of her still lingers in my mouth. I wouldn’t be able to fake a relationship with Minerva anymore even if I wanted to.
And Minerva sees it in my eyes. I can tell by the way her expression changes. I can’t hide my true feelings for Arielle anymore, and I can only hope that Minerva understands that. We have a moment here, one in which I almost expect her to set me free from our arrangement. After all, it was never about love. From my part, not even about lust, and she knows it. But just as I’m getting my hopes up that she’ll understand, Calabriel bursts into laughter.
We all turn to him. He’s laughing like a mad man that just discovered the way to fulfill all his wishes as he holds the glinting pearl in the sun. He’s taken it out of the shabby shell.
“The Pearl of Riches,” he calls enthusiastically, “and the Sea Court, mine to command.” He looks right at Minerva, and that look speaks volumes. It’s like he’s telling her, “Don’t you wish you hadn’t dumped me now?”
But Minerva groans, almost imperceptibly, and rolls her eyes. Poor guy never really stood a chance. She only fucked him for the beauty he once possessed, and then she plagued him with bad emotions that robbed him of it. I almost pity him.
“Now it’s time that you honor your side of the bargain. Fight alongside us against Xerxes, and bring in your allies from the human world.” During the ambush outside of the realm, he didn’t even move a finger, he just lounged here, waiting for the Pearl. I’ll make sure to put him in the front line first chance I get.
“Of course,” he replies. “A deal is a deal.” He gives us a slimy grin. Then he raises his voice, as if there were a roaring crowd in here, eager to drink every word from his lips. “In fact, I just got the best idea possible. We could make this an unbreakable alliance, and that way you would never doubt my loyalty again.”
He looks to Arielle, my beautiful mate. She stands there, dressed in an emerald gown, looking breathtakingly gorgeous. I white-knuckle the hilt of my dagger as Calabriel’s eyes travel over her like she’s a trophy.
“Give me Arielle’s hand in marriage, and I will remain your vassal for eternity.”
Fury makes my ears whistle. Is he doing this in order to piss me off, or because he’s greedy for all the advantages that come from being intimate with her, like wielding the ocean’s powers, or is he trying to make Minerva jealous?
Minerva laughs and steps down from the royal dais.
“What a fabulous idea, Calabriel,” she says, placing a hand on his shoulder. He looks like he wants to shake it off, but refrains.
Arielle looks from one to the other confused. “You’re kidding, right? Who’s to force me to marry you?” She looks at Calabriel like a queen, and he takes notice.
“Nobody can give you Arielle,” I put in as I descend from the dais and approach them. “Nobody has the right to decide her fate.”
“But you’re her guardian.”
I could slap the idiot.
“Are you stupid, or are you just pretending?” Arielle says. “I risked my life to get you the Pearl of Riches. I killed the Sea Witch and escaped her minions, I have powers from both Poseidon and Hades. I’ve proven that I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, so Lysander is no longer my guardian. We stick together because we have a common goal, but he cannot decide over me.”
“She’s right,” I say.
“You—” Calabriel points to Arielle, his words almost a threat. “Need to be part of a Court, sweet girl. You stick with Lysander Nightfrost because you trust him more than others, I understand, but you are not part of his Court. Even if we annihilate Xerxes, you’ll always require protection. Being on your own in the supernatural world, with no clan, no Court, no coven, no nothing to support you, it’s suicide. And you are an asset many desire.” He tries to take her hand, but she jerks it away.
One could cut the tension in the great hall with a knife. Fae cheer outside, waiting for their king, Calabriel and I to appear on the balcony and officially announce the Sea Witch’s defeat. She was a villain the supernatural world had been hunting down for a long time. Also, they can’t wait for us to officially present Arielle.
“It’s time,” the Seelie King interrupts gently, and we all head towards the balcony, the cheers outside turning louder.
It angers me that we have to display her like a trophy weapon. Now that it’s come out who she truly is, they want to see as much as possible of the daughter of the ocean, who also wields dark powers straight out of Tartarus. She is an asset indeed, but she is also so vulnerable that it moves me to tears.
Flowers and magic shoot up in the sky, spring scents wafting on the air.
“Think about my proposal,” Calabriel says to Arielle, while smiling down at the crowd. “It would give you power over the Sea Court. This means I would be sharing the throne with you.”
“Bring that into discussion again,” Arielle retorts sharply, “and I will raise the entire ocean over you.”
There’s no mistaking what Calabriel wants—he wants to share her powers. He wants to command the ocean, and that can only be done by making love to Arielle. But no man is ever going to touch her, I will kill each and every one that sets his eyes on her, even if that makes me a serial killer.
Calabriel retreats from the balcony, now that his retinue is here to escort him.
Lysander
“YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH her,” Minerva spits in anger, following me to my chamber and slamming the door shut. “I saw it in the way you looked at Calabriel after he said he’d claim her as his bride, so don’t even try to deny it.”
When I don’t reply she runs after me, and grabs my arm, forcing me to turn around, just as my armor fades from my body.
“Minerva, I’ve just come back from a mission that’s been draining and exhausting. I need an ice bath, and time to rest. I can’t deal with this right now.”
“You’re drained from fucking her. I could smell you on each other, you bastard.” She slaps her palms against my chest, her gold and silver hair a mess, thin red veins crisscrossing the whites of her eyes. It stirs pity in my heart. I have to tell her the truth, I owe her that much.
“You’re right. I took Arielle to the rocky mountains after the Sea Witch was defeated. I only wanted to let her rest, and then bring her back. But things rarely happen how we plan them. I couldn’t resist her.”
“That tramp, she used her powers to seduce you.”
“What? No. I have been into her the entire time, Minerva. I lied to you, and maybe also to myself, when I said I was only pretending. Somewhere along the way those feelings became real.” They have been real all along, but the look of hurt on Minerva’s face prompts me to sugarcoat that. It would cause her too much pain. Even if the only thing that hurts is probably her ego.
“She did,” she insists, looking like a mad woman, holding a finger in my face. “She used her water nymph powers on you, messed with your head.”
“Minerva, you’re in denial.”
“She used her love spells. She’s more powerful now, with her sea magic activated, and with whatever darkness has seeped inside her from her aunt. You couldn’t resist her, that’s why your feelings for her intensified over time.”