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4 THARAN

Tharan stared out the window, glass of brandy in one hand, cigarette in the other, contemplating the journey ahead. Foot resting on the edge of his mahogany desk, he leaned back in his chair, taking a sip, reveling in the burn as it slid down his throat.

The door to his study creaked open, and Aelia appeared. He couldn’t help but be in awe every time he laid his eyes on her. The curves of her body called to him, and he yearned to answer.

“Hello, my darling,” he said, taking a drag of his cigarette.

“What a day.”

She crossed the room, sliding onto his lap, stealing the cigarette from between his lips and placing it to her own.

The thought of her plush lips wrapped around his cock instead of a cigarette sent a quiver through him. He nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck, inhaling the scent of jasmine lingering on her skin. A reminder of the royalty she’d once been. Jasmine was expensive.

Her pulse quickened and she leaned into him.

“Drink?” he said, running kisses up her neck.

She took another drag off the cigarette.

“Yes, please.”

Tharan gently lifted her from his lap, before pouring her a glass of whiskey.

Taking the glass, she crossed the room and plopped down on the couch, extinguishing the cigarette in a bronze ashtray on the marble coffee table.

“What’s bothering you?”

Taking a seat next to her, he watched the bob of her throat as she drank the amber liquid, wondering what it would be like to sink his teeth into that pretty neck as he pushed inside her. His fingers itched to touch her. To claim her.

“I’m worried about traveling with Baylis. I’m worried she’s not ready.”

“She’s not. She may never be, but the world doesn’t wait for us to be ready.”

“She had a vision today. Just a glimpse, and it scared her.” She exhaled sharply. “I’m going to have to go into her mind… I just don’t know if I’m strong enough to see what I may find there.”

“Are you worried she was in love with Gideon, and he was good to her? Or are you worried he treated her worse than you?”

Aelia nodded.

“If he was good to her, I’m worried I will resent her for it. But if I found the latter, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Tharan’s heart ached for the woman he loved so much. Her pain was his pain. “Your feelings are valid, Aelia, but that was five years ago. You’ve moved on.”

Her gaze softened upon him as she cupped his face in her hand.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t let old feelings get the better of me. The pain is duller now, more a memory of a wound than the wound itself.”

He laid a kiss on her forehead.

“I hope I can help you to heal those wounds.”

She leaned into his kiss, her body relaxing beneath his lips.

“But there is something I want to discuss,” he said.

“Oh?” She took another swig of whiskey.

“Well, two things…”

“Go on.”

“First, I think you should have Elrida lay hands on you. She is ancient and can sense spells. If your mother bound your power, she may be able to tell.”

Aelia inhaled deeply.

“I suppose that is a reasonable ask. What’s the other?”

Tharan pulled her onto his lap, so she was straddling him.

“I have seen the way you look at Caiden. I know you still harbor feelings for him. It’s only natural.”

She bit her lip, and her eyes flitted to the floor. Tharan could feel her body tense on top of his.

He pushed a stray hair behind her ear.

“I want to make you mine. I want us to bind our hands in the sacred ceremony so that our souls may find one another in the next life, but I want to make sure you are ready for such a commitment. So, if you want to be with Caiden, I will not stop you. But once I claim you, once we consummate our binding, you will be marked as mine, and I will defend what is mine at all costs.”

Aelia swallowed hard; indecision plastered across her face. “I’ve never heard you speak like this before.”

Tharan’s eyes stared over her shoulder.

“It is part of the way of the Alder King. We have a primal nature. Our power comes with a price.”

Aelia stroked his chin lovingly, forcing their eyes to meet.

“Caiden is my past. You are my future. But it may take some time for me to let go of him fully.”

His gaze softened upon her, drinking her in. The ache of love grew in his chest. Even her scars were beautiful.

“I have nothing but time. Take as long as you need. After we are bound, I will not share you, but if you wanted to, I would share you with him for one last night. Together.”

Her cheeks reddened.

“He doesn’t even know who I am.”

“It does not mean his heart does not remember.” It pained Tharan to say those words, to think about losing Aelia to Caiden, but it was her choice.

She nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck, letting the full weight of her body rest on him.

“You are too good to me.”

“It is easy to be good to you, my darling, my King Killer.”

“You forgot Traitor.” A smirk resonated in her voice.

Tharan stroked his long fingers through her thick hair.

“You are no longer a traitor, and I am no longer the Lord of Nothing.”

“I am glad to be rid of that title.”

“I will give you a title you are worthy of,” he said.

“How about Queen of the Damned? I still have an army bound to my blood.”

“We will find a way to remedy that. I am hoping my grandfather can help.”

“My mother has to know something about the Trinity Wells and the Army of the Dead,” she said. “Hopefully, she’ll give us some answers as well.

“Her sisters will be tricky. They will want your power, Aelia. They have been trying to find a way back into the public’s good graces for hundreds of years. Their greed cost them their acolytes.”

“Did you know her—my mother—before?” she murmured.

Her head bobbed with the rising and falling of his chest.

Tharan couldn’t remember the last time he felt so content. The love of his life resting her head on his chest, his wolves sleeping contently at his feet, a fire crackling while a winter storm raged outside. A bittersweet taste filled his mouth at the thought of having to part ways with them in such a short time. It wasn’t fair. They just found each other, and now they’d have to leave again.

“Yes, I met her once. When I was young, it was a tradition to have our fates read at the time we came of age. Around fifty in human years.”

“Oh?” She lifted her head, ebony hair falling over her freckled face.

“She was kind to me.”

“What did the Fates say? If you don’t mind me asking.”

He reached for his glass of brandy and took a swig. “They told me I would be a great general. That I would lead an army to victory, but that my heart would get the better of me if I weren’t careful.”

Her mouth straightened into a tight line.

“I guess she was right.”

“I was too young to understand what she meant then, too brash to think fate had any control over my life.” He ground his teeth at the memory. “And then, one hundred years later, I met Lyra, and my fate was sealed.”

“We are never ready to accept our fate, no matter what it is. We always think we can change what has been written into the fabric of time.” She kissed his cheek, bringing a heat to his chest.

He cupped her face in his hands and whispered, “I am glad fate brought us together.”

She smiled, bringing her lips to his for a kiss, their mouths said what words could not. His lips parted, and she slipped her tongue inside. A moan rose in his core. His fingers gripped her hips, and she instinctively began to grind her hips against his. The sensation sent lust running through his veins and his erection pressed against the ties of his pants, needing to be released.

“Let me repay you for the other morning,” she whispered in his ear.

He arched his brow.

“What do you have in mind?”

“We can’t consummate our bond yet, but I can still make you come.” With a coy smile, she slid down his muscled torso. Her hazel eyes locked on his. She undid the laces of his trousers, pulling them to his knees, releasing his girthy cock.

“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” she said, planting gentle kisses along the insides of his thighs.

His breath hitched in his throat, balls clenching at the touch of her lips. Taking him in one hand, she slowly glided her tongue up his hard shaft. Tharan leaned back on the couch.

“Trinity, I want you so bad,” he whispered, his breaths coming faster as Aelia encircled the tip of his cock with her tongue, teasing him, making his erection bulge with need.

“I’m going to enjoy watching you,” she said, slipping his thick member in her mouth, pressing her tongue against the sensitive tip.

Heat ran through Tharan’s veins. His breath came faster and faster. Fisting her hair in his hands, he set her pace. Aelia thrust his massive cock in and out of her mouth. Taking him deeper with each motion until he hit the back of her throat.

“Oh, that’s a good girl.”

She moaned with pleasure, sucking harder.

Tightening his grip on her hair, his hips moved with the rhythm of her mouth, back and forth, until the fire running through his veins reached a fever pitch. He stared at the ceiling, focusing on the pleasure writhing in his veins.

“Aelia, I need you.” He gripped her hair, forcing her face up so that their eyes met.

Reading his expression, she quickly undressed. Her curvaceous body on display for him. Only him. The sight of her plump breasts and pricked nipples made the want in his core steam with need.

“Trinity, you’re gorgeous,” he said through ragged breaths.

A smirk lit her face.

Kneeling beside him, so her feet were on the floor, she ran her tongue up and down his cock, dark hair falling in waves around her face. The jagged scars on her back were a reminder of the cruelty she’d endured. He would make Gideon suffer for that. Suffer so greatly his screams would echo through time itself. He traced the outline of one with his fingers.

Aelia lifted her hips so he could reach her cunt.

“Yes,” she whispered as he slid his fingers inside her.

“You’re so wet for me.”

She nodded, stroking his cock.

Placing another finger inside her, he thrust in and out, loving the way her muscles clenched around him, longing for the day they would join as one.

“Oh, Tharan.”

He increased his pace, making sure to scrape the soft place where he knew her orgasm would grow. “Don’t stop sucking me, darling. I want to come in your mouth while you come on my fingers.”

A blinding need coursed through his veins as she took him deeper and deeper. Balls clenching, his orgasm clawed at his senses, demanding to be released. But not until she came. Everything was for her.

The sound of her pleasure filled the room with heady moans and soft whimpers.

“That’s it, you’re so close, darling.”

“I… ohhh…”

Wetness dripped down his fingers as she clenched tighter around him, making his cock pearl with the beginning of his orgasm.

She pulled her head away, crying out as she drenched him with her pleasure. The feeling of her orgasm spurred his own. Tingles ran through every nerve of his body.

“Now, baby,” he said, pushing her head down and spilling his seed into her perfect mouth. Muscles spasming, he held her down until he’d emptied every last drop into her.

She gripped his thighs tightly, swallowing his cum. Again, his pleasure shook the room, and the power of the Alder King coursed through his veins. He wanted to pick her up and ravage her right there on the couch. Fuck her until neither of them knew their names, but he couldn’t.

He pulled on his pants. She dressed and climbed next to him on the couch, nuzzling her face into his neck once more. Sweat dampened both their brows.

Wiping the hair from her eyes, she said, “I want you, Tharan. I want you so badly. I think I’ll die if I don’t have you inside me soon.”

Chests heaving, their breaths mixed. Words escaped him, so instead, he tilted her head, planting a passionate kiss on her lips, savoring the taste of his seed on her tongue.

A whimper echoed in her throat.

He ran a hand over her collarbone and down her breast to her perked nipple, thumbing it gently.

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“I don’t either,” she said through heavy breaths.

“I’m going to have our finest weapon makers work with our spell weavers to make it so we never have to be apart for long.”

She lifted her head, brows knitted in confusion.

“A spell of sorts. So we can communicate over long distances.”

“As long as I’m not drinking any more blood.”

“No, my darling. Never again.”

“Good.” She laid her head on his chest, eyes heavy with exhaustion.

Combing his fingers through her hair, he watched as she drifted off to sleep in his arms. A glimpse of their fleeting future should they fail to stop Gideon and Erissa. Tharan pulled a wool blanket from the back of the couch, covering them both. Snapping his fingers, he extinguished the candles. Only the light of the crackling fire remained, casting a warm glow over them. He counted the freckles on Aelia’s cheeks before drifting to sleep.