Текст книги "Horns of Wicked Ebony"

Автор книги: Lacey Lehotzky

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 24 (всего у книги 43 страниц)

35

The moon cast a haunting glow over the hills, and we were forced to slow as the terrain grew uneven. Ahead of us, one threesome stumbled, grasping each other’s arms to steady themselves. When a second did the same, it dawned on me that we likely approached our next obstacle.

“Can you see anything?” I asked Uzadaan, the tallest of our team.

“I think there’s a crack in the earth,” he said, peering into the distance. We slowed to a walk as we approached the crest of the closest hill. Sure enough, below, all seven groups ahead of us had halted and were gesticulating wildly as they discussed how to cross.

A moment later, a fuzziness entered my head, and I forgot what we were supposed to be doing. I glanced around, finding Olet standing off to one side, obsidian wisps disappearing from his form and into the abyss.

“Why is everyone standing around?” Darrx asked blearily.

My brows pinched as I tried to focus on the thread of thought that kept slipping through my fingers. Olet…

I stumbled toward the male. He was part of it. He had to be.

“Woah!” Uzadaan shouted like I was a horse, grabbing me by the arm.

“Olet,” I said out loud, pointing with my free hand toward the Parancsok.

“Fuck, he’s using his magic,” Uzadaan cursed, and I blinked, processing his words.

“Yes! He’s a Chaos.” That was what my mind had been trying to tell me. “What if the canyon isn’t really there? What if it’s his magic?” I called on my power, hoping that by bringing my shadows to the surface I’d be able to free myself from the grip of his. This time, they answered my call, but dissipated as quickly as they’d risen.

Ugh.

“If we crawl toward it, we can test it without falling over the edge,” Darrx suggested.

“Let’s do it,” I replied. We eased our way down the steep incline, lining up with the rest of the groups trying to puzzle their way across. Some of their conversation drifted into my ear, but most of their words were jumbled and disoriented.

As a group, we sank to our knees, then slid our hands through the damp grass until we were flat on our stomachs. In this position, we were close enough to not have to worry about snapping the rope tying us together.

“Shall we?” They nodded. Digging our elbows into the earth, we dragged ourselves forward, toward the dark crack in the ground. Uzadaan stretched a hand over the expanse, and my heart leaped into my throat. The moment of truth. The void swallowed the limb whole, making it appear as if he never had one at all.

“Can you feel anything?” Darrx prodded, sweat beading his brow.

“There’s ground here, but I can’t see it. We should keep crawling,” Uzadaan replied.

“What if we can’t see each other once we’re in it?” I questioned, teeth digging into my bottom lip.

“That’s where our trust comes in. I’ll keep reaching and yell if we need to stop. Assyria, stay close to me. Darrx, stay close to Assyria,” Uzadaan instructed.

He wasn’t wrong. This was what the test was about—working together, supporting one another and believing the others would do the same in return. Rokath and Rapp were clever in their design.

I scooted closer, to the point where each dig forward would hook into Darrx’s side, letting him know I was still there. When Uzadaan moved again, I followed, stomach twisting into knots. The darkness enveloped us, banishing the light of the moon and stars above. Not only that, but all sound was muffled, like a damp blanket had been thrown over us.

Through the fog, we continued on, blindly trusting one another to lead the way or keep up. Darrx’s elbow continually brushed against my shoulder, and my elbow against his ribs. “Still good, Uzadaan?”

“Aye,” he confirmed, though he sounded like he was all the way across Keleti.

We moved slowly—so fucking slowly—but I wasn’t in a hurry to fall to our deaths. I hadn’t ventured this far beyond the academy grounds to know what lay out here. It was entirely possible there really was a cliff hidden in the murky abyss.

“Halt!” Uzadaan shouted, and we did, my breath catching in my throat.

“What is it?” I hissed, unable to see anything, including my hands mere inches from my face.

“There’s something here,” he announced.

“A real crack?” Darrx questioned.

“No, like a wall. We need to stand,” Uzadaan said. “On my mark.”

I shuffled so my hands were beneath my shoulders, toes poised and ready to tuck under me. “I’m ready.”

“One, two, three,” he counted out. Muscles protesting, I pushed off the ground. But the moment I was steady on my feet, the rope tightened around my waist.

“Shit!” Darrx cursed. Without thinking, I leaped toward the sound of his voice, grasping for something, anything, of his. A hand smacked me in the face, and the metallic tang of blood flooded my mouth from a cut in my lip. But I grabbed onto the limb and hauled him into me.

“Did our rope snap?” Uzadaan asked as we steadied ourselves.

Fumbling over our bodies, I found each of our threads still intact and secured together. “No, thank the Reaper. You okay, Darrx?”

“Fine,” he gritted out. He didn’t sound fine, but I let it go.

“Shuffle forward, then to the right. There has to be a way around the wall,” Uzadaan explained. Once again taking him for his word, I released Darrx, stretching a hand in front of me and feeling for the stone.

In two steps, the sharp pieces bit into my fingers. My poor hands deserved a break after the abuse they’d taken on this course. “Found it.”

“Me too,” Darrx confirmed.

“Alright, move sideways now,” Uzadaan instructed, and we did, boots knocking together as we tried to maintain our close proximity. I flicked my tongue over the split in my lip. The sharp taste remained, but the cut was already healing. Darrx hadn’t meant to strike me, and thankfully Rokath wouldn’t be able to see it by the time we returned.

I rolled my eyes at the thought of my brutish mate taking revenge for an accident. He would do it too. Especially after the assassination attempt. He hadn’t quite gotten over it yet. Not that I believed he ever really would.

The memory of the assassin on top of me twisted my stomach. What if someone else waited for me in the dark? My power was locked down, and I was utterly at the magic-wielders’ mercy. Someone simply had to sneak up behind me and slice their dagger across my throat to kill me. No one would see what happened. Fuck, no one would hear him approach either with the dampened sound.

“Do you feel anything?” I asked Uzadaan, trying to keep the tremble from my voice. We needed to get out of here, and fast. My entire body tingled, and my breath grew shallow.

“A corner, maybe. Turn sharply,” he replied.

A small tug around my middle had me quickening my pace, and then the rough rock gave way to smooth stone. I pivoted immediately.

“Thank fuck,” I heard Uzadaan say. In a blink, the moon blinded me again. I pressed the heels of my palms into my eyes, then opened them again. They adjusted to the glimmer of the night sky, allowing me to see the remainder of the course.

No one stood before us. I turned to examine the obstacle we’d overcome. Two matching walls pinned the maw of darkness, like a ramp had been dug into the hillside. Olet’s magic retreated, and clarity crashed into me.

Yet I couldn’t shake the fear of another assassin lingering in the dark.

“Forward?” I asked them, anticipation thrumming in my veins. Traversing the Chaos had been the third obstacle, and since everything had been in threes, it had to have been the final hurdle to overcome.

“Aye,” they replied. Relief washed through me as we set out at a jog again, putting distance between us and the void. When we crested the slope, torches lined the path, almost like barriers herding us toward a fiery beacon at the end.

“There!” I shouted, pointing at the burning logs. A shadowed figure sliced the red light, and the bond in my chest flared to life. I glanced behind us, noticing that another group had finally clawed their way through the darkness. “Hurry!”

Grass flew beneath our feet as we sprinted straight toward my mate. Each step made his stoic expression clearer, ever the cold, calculated Halálhívó. Yet pride burned along our connection, the emotion reserved only for me. Rapp stood beside Rokath, the studs in his face glinting as he turned around. He released a whooping cheer when he saw who was in the first group.

A smile rose amid my desperate panting, filling me with the energy I needed to finish this race.

Ahead, a line of blood marked the end of our path. My entire focus went to it, disregarding the burning in my limbs. We were so, so close.

Ruby sprayed as we crossed it. Darrx and Uzadaan punched their fists into the air, cries of victory tearing from their throats. I joined them in celebrating, slapping palms and knocking shoulders. A breathy laugh escaped me as I wiped the sweat from my brow.

“Congratulations on being the first across. Your time was thirty-nine minutes,” Rokath announced, glancing at the clock on a nearby stool. Moments later, the second group crossed, and Rokath gave them their time too. I grinned up at him as I untied the rope from my waist. Once we were all free of it, Darrx placed it in an empty cart off to one side.

Ascending the stairs, I took my place at my mate’s side, where I should always be.

“You really are proving yourself to them, little imposter.”

“I know,” I shot back. His hand went to my lower back, tugging me almost imperceptibly closer to him. The warmth of his palm soothed the ache there. Now that my exertion was over, every muscle felt as if it weighed more than a ball of steel, and the crisp winter air ghosting across my skin elicited a shiver.

Uzadaan and Darrx approached, saluting the Halálhívó and their Hadvezér. “Sir, it was an honor to compete with your mate.”

“Your teamwork is commendable, soldiers. Continue to have this attitude, and you’ll move up the ranks,” Rokath told them.

“Any way we can assist, we will, sir,” Uzadaan swore.

“Thank you,” I mouthed to him before the two departed, joining the others who had finished off to one side of the raised dais.

To my relief, Kiira’s group was next, followed by Izzenna, Vokkia, and Maariya. More and more poured in, and I glanced at the clock. Nearly an hour had passed and still, hundreds had not appeared.

“They can’t actually die in the dark, can they?” I clarified, glancing at Rapp and Rokath.

“Nah,” Rapp drawled, his mischievous grin making the rings in his lip glint in the firelight. “Olet is supposed to let up on his magic so they can find their way out.”

“What is that place?” I asked.

“An old storm shelter. It’s only used when there’s a nasty hurricane coming off the coast, which we haven’t had in decades. Olet simply used his magic to disorient everyone approaching the doors to it,” Rapp explained.

Clever.

“So you want everyone to succeed?” I questioned, cocking my head to the side.

Rokath nodded. “And those ropes wouldn’t have broken. Rapp infused a bit of his Binding power into each of them. It’s also why you couldn’t use your magic.”

That made perfect sense.

“So it was all mind games then?”

“Pretty much,” Rapp replied, wincing as he shrugged. “It always is.”

If I’d learned anything living among the most powerful Demons in Keleti, it was that Rapp’s statement was true. Those tricks were ones I was bringing into my repertoire, consciously or not. My last interactions with Xannirin were proof of that.

The last groups spilled from the tunnel in a rush, all making mad dashes toward the finish line. Cheers rang out from all sides, encouraging them to arrive under their time limit. The hands on the clock ticked as I glanced between it and the teams. As the number spun, signaling the change in hour, the very last set of three threw themselves forward, landing in a muddy heap at the base of the stage.

But every single soldier made it.

When Rokath declared it, the whole army erupted. I couldn’t help the smile that made my cheeks ache. To see the males and females interacting like this, trusting one another like this, celebrating together—it was everything.

All our hard work, all our sacrifices, all the blood and tears shed, it culminated in this moment.

“And you made it happen, Assyria.”

I threw my arms around Rokath’s waist, not caring that we had an audience.

“Halálhívó! Szélhámos!” they screamed our honorifics.

From the front row of soldiers, Kiira cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled, “Kiss!”

Heat swept across my cheeks, but Rokath wasted no time in threading his fingers through the sweat-soaked hair at the nape of my neck and curling down to press his lips to mine. A roar, even louder than when he announced that everyone had completed the trial on time, assaulted my ears. Love surged down our bond, fierce and unrelenting, and I willingly surrendered to its pull.

When he broke away, he rested his forehead against mine. “Like Kiira said, the myth of us will fuel them. They’ll fight harder. Encourage others to do the same,” he murmured, only loud enough for me to hear.

“Then let’s really give them something to talk about,” I grinned back, reaching up and wrapping my arms around his neck.

With a growl, he kissed me again, our tongues twining in a battle for dominance. He gripped my waist, and his hardness dug into my stomach. Pleasure curled in my core at the thought of him inside me. All aches forgotten, I wanted nothing more than to escape into that storm shelter so he could fuck me senseless.

Growing dizzy from lack of air, we broke apart, our eyes still locked on one another. “Unfortunately, there is still one trial to complete.”

I let out a groan. Fuck, I’d almost forgotten, swept up in excitement and desire. “Ugh. If we must.”

“If you want me to take that sweet, sweet cunt later, though, I won’t refuse.”

My low belly heated at his words. He released me, leaving me bereft, and faced the crowd. “Now onto the final challenge. A daring leap from the front tower of the academy. You will jump in the order in which you arrived here.”

Which meant Darrx, Uzadaan, and I were the first to go. My limbs ached as we marched toward the keep, only tempered by the excitement in my veins.

Once we reached it, I called on my wings, groaning as the muscles in my back protested. With a few beats, I was airborne and sailing toward the high wall. Toes touching down, I tucked the black membranes close to my body. Below us, Rokath, Rapp, Olet, and the Százados wove a net of onyx, undulating beneath the glow of the moon.

“You should go first, Szélhámos,” Darrx said, sweeping a hand out.

I swallowed around the thick lump in my throat. He was right, of course, but that didn’t halt my trepidation. The drop was long, and I wanted to execute it perfectly. I also didn’t want to open my wings too soon and give the dissenters reason to speculate that I was scared to fall.

Dragging in a serrated breath, I hoisted myself up between two sets of stone. Perched precariously in the air, I peered down again, stomach flipping.

I was the first to leap. To stand. To demand change. The first female to claim a position of power in the army.

I was a symbol of possibility. Of change. Of hope.

This moment was transcendent of my fears.

You can do this, Assyria.

Steeling my spine, I leaped off the tower. The ground rushed toward me, and adrenaline shattered through me.

What the fuck were you thinking?!

Wind screamed in my ears as my body begged me to use my power to slow my descent. But I gritted my teeth and held firm. The shadowy net tensed beneath me.

“Open your wings, Assyria,” Rokath growled into my mind.

“Not yet,” I shot back, gauging the remaining distance. I still had time.

“You’re falling too fast. Fucking open them,” he demanded.

I ignored him, focused on my task.

“Assyria!” he shouted, real concern lacing his tone.

Finally, I snapped my black, membranous wings wide, and the wind smacked into them, jerking me up mere feet from the blanket of obsidian. I glided over them and straight past my mate, easing myself onto the ground at a light run. Banishing my magic, I slowed, coming to a stop in front of a group of females at the front of the army.

“That was amazing!” one squealed, clapping her hands. Others followed suit, and even a few males came forward, offering me salutes and praise.

I thanked them, then went to join the officers and contributed my magic to the net. I shouted encouragement at those who needed it, helping one by one pass the final trial.

Everyone did.

By the time we finished, the middle of the night was well upon us. Rokath, Rapp, Kiira, and I all stood together in front of the soldiers, now decidedly mixed male and female. The only real distinguishing factor among them was the differing heights. A few even ribbed each other, drawing peals of laughter.

Tears burned the backs of my eyes as I beheld the scene. Exhaustion weighed down my limbs, the shadows in my chest were nothing more than wisps, but I was enthralled with what we had accomplished. What we were building. How much this one event had changed hearts and minds and allowed us to show them why we were deserving of marching under the army’s banner.

The Halálhívó stepped forward, arms crossed over his chest like he was weighing each of our worth. “Congratulations to you all for successfully passing the initiation ritual. For that, tomorrow shall be a free day. No training, no chores. Sleep in if you want.”

Cheers erupted from the crowd.

“The day after will be twice as brutal,” he warned. Groans sounded in response. I couldn’t smother the smile that spread across my face.

“You are dismissed. Return to your bunks. Rest. You have earned it.”

A round of applause rippled through the crowd, and then, streams of soldiers passed us, heading to their respective parts of the fortress.

“I for one am exhausted,” Kiira sighed, nearly leaning on Rapp for assistance as we ventured inside. Quite the change from before. And the way he looked down at her…

Rokath slipped his arm over my shoulders, drawing my attention away from the two of them. He planted a kiss on my temple, and I leaned into it, seeking his comfort. Each step forward was a challenge, and my arms ached from merely swinging as we walked. “I never, ever thought I would willingly ask this but…will you carry me up the stairs?”

I batted my long lashes up at him, hoping the gesture would melt his hard exterior. A laugh rumbled in his chest. “And here I thought you hated me again.”

“Oh, that still stands. You’ll have to win me over again,” I quipped.

Without warning, he swooped me into his arms, stealing a gasp from my throat. “I will spend every day for the rest of our lives winning you over, Assyria. It is what I should have done initially.”

Warmth bloomed around my heart, and I reached for his beard, giving it a stroke before rubbing his jaw. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see you two like this,” Kiira sighed, popping our bubble of peace. We’d reached the split that led to our tower and the adjacent one where Kiira’s rooms waited. Double the number of sentries waited, to my shock. Everyone had been dismissed for the night after participating, and yet these males still chose to protect us.

“Goodnight, Kiira,” Rokath huffed, annoyance threading his tone.

Rapp chuckled, leading Kiira in the opposite direction and greeting the guards and thanking them for being at their posts. Rokath carried me up the winding stairs toward our chamber at the top. Even the jostling against his chest made me hurt.

By the time we reached our rooms, my eyelids were heavier than bronze, almost impossible to keep open. Yet Rokath didn’t take me to bed. Instead, he carried me into the bathing chamber, turned the taps to the tub, and stripped me. I let him treat me like a pet, bathing me, washing my hair, and drying me off.

By the time we finally sank between the sheets, all it took for me to fall into a deep slumber was my mate pulling me onto his broad chest and laying my ear against the heart that beat only for me.

OceanofPDF.com

36

Adrenaline rushed through my veins as I raced through the desert. Head on a swivel, I searched for my mate. Yet this wasn’t a game of chase, like we’d enjoyed time and time again. No, icy fear shattered through me. White feathers lined the ground, growing thicker as they swallowed the sand, until I was kicking up clouds of them behind me. They followed me of their own accord, almost in a taunt.

“Assyria!” I shouted, my voice disappearing immediately, as if they absorbed it so my words couldn’t reach my mate.

Not again. Please, not again. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill her this time. Leave me with only her bones to grieve over.

I tugged on our bond, begging it to show me where she was. It was so faint, so weak. “Assyria!” I shouted again, this time down our mental connection.

I received no response. No quip, no teasing words. Just utter, heartbreaking, silence.

Dots appeared on the horizon ahead, and I wasted no time putting on a burst of speed. Yet my limbs were heavy, leaden, like I was underwater and attempting to run. “Come on,” I gritted out, pumping them harder.

What felt like an eternity later, the ebony hair of my mate came into view. She knelt in the middle of a bed of white feathers, while her black membranous wings hung limply on either side of her. Her head dragged down, obscuring her devious burgundy eyes.

“Assyria!” I called out to her, hoping she’d look at me. She didn’t acknowledge my presence. I pressed on, closing the distance quicker now. Yet as I skidded to a stop, I noticed the silver sword resting across her lap.

“Where did you get that?” I asked her.

She finally lifted her head, revealing eyes of an icy blue. The wrong color. Too late, I realized I’d been tricked. I leaped backward, but a dozen more Angels appeared at my back, wrestling me to the ground. With a roar, I flung them off, only for the sight of my mate, my real mate, to halt me.

Her arms bound above her head, the rope tied to a thick bough, she looked at me with anguish so intense it stole my breath. She’d been stripped of everything, leaving her entire body bare. A gag held her silent, though the tears streaming down her face spoke volumes.

On either side of her, male Angels stood, one with a dagger to her throat, another pressed into her ribs.

“What do you want?” I croaked, falling to my knees.

One of them laughed. “You to watch while we destroy you both.” Another male stepped forward, unfastening his pants.

A scream unlike any I’d ever heard tore from my mate’s throat as he opened her legs. “No!” I roared, leaping for her, not caring about the consequences…

“Rokath,” Assyria pleaded, and I jolted awake. My chest heaved as I took in my surroundings. My mate gripped my shoulders like she’d been shaking me, and a thick sweat coated my skin. The bed beneath me too was soaked.

“Assyria,” I breathed, crushing her against my thundering heart. I’d never been more grateful to be at the academy than I was in that moment. I kissed her head, held her so tightly she protested.

“You’re smothering me,” she wheezed, barely audible, and with a hint of loathing, I released her so she could breathe.

Still, I buried my nose in her hair, inhaling her garden-like scent, reminding myself that she was here, she was in my arms, and that the Angels didn’t have her. “Fuck, Assyria, I love you so much.” My voice was cracked, strained. She wriggled her arms out and wrapped them around me, climbing on top of me fully.

“Nightmare?” she murmured.

I nodded, unable to speak for the vastness of my need for her.

“Want to talk about it?” she pressed on.

“Not really.” It was the only way to banish it so that it would never return. So that it would never become my reality.

My breathing had slowed, evening out as her love and comfort poured into me. Telling her what I saw would only amplify my emotions again. The utter shock I’d felt when I realized the female kneeling on the ground wasn’t her. The utter terror when I’d discovered the real her strung up like an animal. And with no outlet for them other than the soldiers we were training to fight those fucking insects…

An idea suddenly dawned on me, and I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. “I want to train with your magic again today,” I announced, mind working. “How would you feel about becoming me?”

I loosened my grip on her so she could look up at me. “You mean like impersonating you?”

“Aye,” I replied. “I am someone most of the Angels try to avoid, save for the foolish ones with too much bravado. What if, in a dire situation, you could become me and confuse them? Leave them questioning which way they should go?”

Her eyes brightened and excitement dripped down our bond. I fucking loved that she didn’t temper her emotions with me anymore. It helped me understand my mate on a deeper level, one that others would never be able to access. And right then, I knew she wouldn’t refuse.

“Absolutely,” she swore, pushing off me. Her long hair brushed over my torso as she shifted up to kiss me. With a groan, I threaded my fingers in her locks and held her in place. My cock jumped to attention, nudging against her ass.

Fuck, I needed to be inside her. To banish the fear of that nightmare. To show her I’d never let anyone take her from me. She was mine, always had been, always would be.

Reaching around, I repositioned my hardness so it nudged at her entrance. We didn’t even separate our lips as she rolled her hips and took me in one deep stroke. Her cunt gripped me like a vise as she slid up and down. With a hand on her lower back and another in her hair, I guided her harder, faster. She whimpered into my mouth as I bottomed out.

Our tongues battled, and I sucked hers between my teeth, eliciting another heady moan from my mate. Only then did I release her. Using my grip, I yanked her head back. “Mine,” I growled.

“Yours,” she replied, a slight hitch in her breath as I sank to the hilt again. She circled her hips in the most torturous motion, making my eyes roll back in my head.

“Fuck, little imposter, you take my cock so well.”

“It was made for me,” she breathed.

I snapped my attention to her, blood overheating.

“Just like your cunt was for me,” I growled. “So fucking perfect. Always so fucking wet for me. Look how I just slid into you.”

“Like this?” she breathed, bracing her hands on my shoulders and lifting off until only the tip of me remained inside.

The groan that slipped out of me turned her eyes molten. When she sat back on my hips, her arousal coated the tops of my thighs. She repeated the motion, continuing to slick my cock. It throbbed inside her, and I had to grit my teeth to prevent myself from exploding already.

“You’re going to be so fucking good for me and come three times,” I bit out, shifting my hands to the hem of her shirt and tearing it over her head.

“One for the Weaver, who placed us on this path together.”

Her breath hitched as the cold brushed over her skin.

“One for the Giver, who blessed us with this bond.”

I yanked her down and captured a perfect nipple in my mouth.

“One for the Reaper, who kept you alive all the times you should have died.”

The action drew a whimper from her throat.

“You drive me crazy,” I ground out, releasing her. The peaks that greeted me made my cock twitch.

“Good,” she panted as I dragged my teeth over her other nipple. Then, I swirled my tongue around it, savoring the feel of her smooth skin. The sound she made was sinful. “Keep doing that.”

I obliged, and she moved her hips, fucking me while I sucked her. With each pass, her walls tightened around me. “That’s it, little imposter. Take all of me.”

I flicked my tongue over her sensitive bud again, and she quickened her pace, ecstasy edging in.

“Rokath.” She moaned my name, half-plea, half-prayer, and exactly how I liked it.

“Come for me,” I commanded, and on her next stroke, she shattered.

I released her as she arched, riding me through her orgasm. The way she flushed, the sharp tips of her nails digging into my tattoos, the wanton sounds that slipped between her bow-shaped lips, all of it was why she was absolutely fucking flawless and absolutely fucking made for me.

With a shuddered breath, the peak passed her, and I wasted no time flipping us. A small noise of protest slipped out of her as I removed myself so I could settle between her thighs.

“The sight of you, the smell of you,” I groaned, raking my eyes over the slickness coating her thighs, dripping down her ass, pooling beneath her on the bed. My dick dug into the mattress, and I rubbed myself against it to relieve some of the ache of leaving her perfect pussy.

I pressed my lips to the inside of one thigh, then the other. “No one will ever take you from me.”

Her eyes locked onto mine, holding that fierce fire I loved so much. “Never.”

Without breaking her gaze, I licked her slit, then sucked her clit into my mouth. Those long lashes fluttered against her cheekbones as I went to work, tasting her cum. So fucking sweet. I speared my tongue inside her, just like she liked, and she writhed against my face. “More,” she pleaded. “Please.”

That word did vicious, savage things to me. With a rumble, I gripped her hips and smashed my face into her pussy. Her nails dug into my scalp too, sending tingles to the tips of my toes. My dick wept as she whimpered and moaned.

“The feel of your scruff on my thighs,” she gasped, inner muscles tightening. I angled my jaw and rubbed them there, drawing another blissful sound from her throat. She arched off the bed, and I slid a hand beneath her hips, finding her hole. It was already so slick from her arousal that I had no trouble coating the entire thing.

“Beg me for it,” I told her, stilling my movements.

She wasted no time, already so far gone to the ways I gave her pleasure. “Please. Use your fingers. Take me there. I want to feel you everywhere.”

“Please, what?” I rumbled, rubbing my beard against her thighs again.

“Please, mate.”

“I was hoping for master, but I’ll accept that too. Just because I love the way you whimpered it.” Then, I swept my tongue through her slickness again and pressed the tip of my finger into the tight ring.