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Ruby stilled, her mind racing. Diminished?

“Do you mean it made you…” Ruby sat back, eyeing his loincloth underneath her hips. “Smaller?”

“No.” Slate nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent. “It will rearrange your body. While I am inside you, anyhow.”

The revelation shot through her, leaving glowing red embers in its place. Ruby knew she should be horrified. Part of herwashorrified, imagining organs and muscles moving to make way for his giant cock.

She pulled back. “Will it hurt?”

“No!” Slate growled, dragging her closer until she was crushed against him. “It is painless. When I am finished, your body will return to how it once was.”

“Oh.” Ruby let the realization wash over her. It felt like something physical, like water dripping over her head and down her body.

She could have all of him. She could have what she had wanted since the first time he bent her over the ward stone. She could feel him fuck into her as deep and rough as he wanted, no need to hold back. She could have his hips flush against her, his knot stretching her until they locked together.

And then she would leave. Would she ever have him inside her again? Would he even want her ten years from now, or forty? Would he slip into a decades-long slumber by accident and wake up to find her long gone, just like he feared?

“Mortal,” Slate said quietly. “Ruby.”

Ruby looked up at him. He was watching her. Waiting for her response, she realized.

He rubbed idly at her naked thighs. He was so close to her puffy entrance, still leaking his slick. Come dripped out of her and onto his loincloth, onto the nest he had constructed around her while she slept. He would have had to lift her so delicately to place her onto this mountain of furs.

Ruby watched his come pool out of her. Suddenly all the devastation at the idea of never feeling him again was gone, replaced by a fiery need that almost made her giddy. They coulddo it. They could really,trulydo it. Whatever came next, they still had this.

She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him, running her tongue over his fangs.

He made a muffled noise against her and pulled back. “I will take you to the anointing room.”

He wrapped her legs around him and started to lift her.

She kicked him in the back. “No! Let’s - let’s test it first.”

Slate faltered. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Ruby said instantly. There was a small voice in the back of her head reminding her that if the ward failed when they could be completing the ritual to renew it, the deaths of her entire town would be on her head. But it was easy to ignore. The ward had been failing for months, it was not as if it would suddenly break if they put off the ritual for another twenty minutes.

She kissed him deeper, sucking on his impossibly long tongue until it threatened to choke her. She made an incoherent noise, which he translated correctly by throwing her onto her back among the furs.

He crawled down her body, kissing and nipping at her bare skin. She closed her eyes, wishing that his fangs would press harder and finally break the skin. She wanted a mark. A ropey scar. Anything to prove that her time here had been real.

He kissed her navel. She imagined a thick blue line painted over it and shivered hungrily. Soon she would be anointed, a construct of a spell made to be plowed and used. But for now?—

“You don’t need to start with that,” she reminded him breathily as his long, dripping tongue circled her entrance. “You can just use your cock.”

He raised his head, his black eyes incredulous.

“Where exactly is the fun in that?” he demanded. Then he pushed his tongue inside her in one long slide.

They both moaned in shock as his tongue kept going. Usually, he could only fit half of it, just like his cock. But it kept sliding inside her, in and in andin.

Ruby gasped in amazement. She could feel him all the way in her torso. She could even feel her insides moving, sliding in a way that should have frightened her. But instead, it just made her feel… hot. She had spent so much time wishing for more of him, and now she was getting it. No matter what had to move to make him fit.

His nose brushed her clit, and Ruby jerked. His mouth rested against her entrance, his tongue inside her all the way to the root.

“Gods,” Ruby moaned. “You’re sobig.”

Slate groaned against her, the noise vibrating through her clit. He started to tongue-fuck her in earnest, last night’s come squelching out around him. She felt him seal his lips around her entrance and suck, and her hips bucked involuntarily at the incredible pressure.