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Chapter Eighteen

Balor

I did it. I made Maeve McCrum, the last surviving member of the line that had torn my family and my world apart, my bonded mate.

For years, I’d daydreamed about slaughtering her.

Instead, I’d given her the most valuable thing I had to give.

My fealty, my love, my obsession. Yet, I felt vindicated. I finally felt at peace.

I gathered my new mate in my arms and carried her over to the corner of the ruins where the foliage was lushest, and sat us down in the grass with her curled up in my lap.

She looked smaller and more delicate than ever.

I traced the fresh brand on her shoulder, marking her as mine.

Using some magic, I healed the raw and angry wound.

When the shimmering amber light dancing across her skin faded, the teeth marks were nothing more than faint silvery lines on her skin. “There, all better.”

Maeve mumbled her thanks and buried her head into my chest. It wasn’t until her shoulders started to quiver that I realized she was weeping.

“Why are ya crying? Was it too much for ya?”

She lifted her head from my chest, her cheeks puffy and stained with tears. I imagined her pussy was in a similar state. “Too much and somehow not enough…”

“That’s normal.” I cupped her head and stroked the apple of her cheek with my thumb. "Don’t worry yer wee head. We’ll have all of eternity to keep doing that. Again and again.”

“Eternity?” She gaped at me like I had a pixie crawlin’ out of my nose. “I’m human.”

I snorted. “Haven’t fergotten.”

“We don’t live very long. I’m twenty-nine years old. I’ll be lucky if I have another six decades in me. You’ve probably had naps longer than that.”

I smiled and wiped her tears with the back of my knuckle. “That last part may be true. But ya’ve eaten the food here. There’s a reason Tír na nóg translates to Land of the Young. A meal here once in a spell will keep ya alive as long as me.”

Her eyes widened to the size of boulders as the truth set in. “That had to be the reason why my people tried to take over your lands.”

“One of the many reasons,” I confirmed with a sigh.

“I’m not sure I feel worthy of such a thing… Or that I want to live forever. I’m just a human with a bachelor’s in finance. Why should I get to live forever?”

“Now that ya have my mark, yer not exactly a normal human. Yer queen of the giants.”

“Queen.” She said it like it was a joke. “The five foot queen of the giants?”

“Since all my kin are dust,” I gestured to the bones strewn about my castle ruins, “yer not gonna have much complaint about yer size.”

“Even still, I don’t know if I feel like much of a queen.

” Maeve looked down at her naked form. She was covered in marks that would be bruises by morning, and she was sweaty and crusted in cum.

She also hadn’t bathed in longer than what she was accustomed to, but for me it only heightened her natural scent, making my mouth water.

My dick was hard again, just drinking her all in. I could rut her for days on end. “Maybe you don’t feel like a queen yet cause’ you need a crown,” I told her with a wolfish grin. “Or in the least, more gold.”

“I doubt any crown you have lying around here will fit me.”

I leaned back against a piece of rubble and tucked her against my chest as I lost myself to my thoughts. I had plenty of jewelry I could smelt down and make a crown for her. Or, use a bit of my magic to create an illusion. Though, she deserved something more momentous than that.

Then it occurred to me. I reached beneath her and slid the gold cuff off my cock, polished it clean with some spit and the sleeve of my duster and placed it on her head.

It was small for a crown, but perfect for the five foot queen of the giants. “There. Fit for a wee queen.”

Her fingertips brushed the jewelry on her head and she smiled, but there was a sadness behind it that had my heart twisting in knots. “What’s wrong? Do ya not like it?”

“No… It’s great. Who doesn’t want a cock ring for a crown?” she joked through the tears.

“Did I hurt ya? I can use my magic to—”

“No, it’s not that,” she sniffed. “I just…”

“You can tell me,” I urged her with as gentle a tone as I could manage. With her, I was finding a tenderness within me that I hadn’t possessed before my curse.

“I just… I miss my home, is all,” she finally pushed out.

My mouth flattened with a frown. “I’m right here.”

She looked like she wanted to say something else but decided against it. Instead, she leaned her head against my chest, eyes half-lidded as the day began to take its toll.

I understood what she meant when she said she missed home.

The curse her ancestors had cast had turned me into their home, their shop, their livelihoods. But it wasn’t me she missed.

She missed her bed.

She missed Gilly.

She missed her books and her drawing pencils.

I waited until she was fast asleep, and then I carefully set her down in the clovers with her sweatshirt folded beneath her like a pillow. Shrugging my duster jacket off, I laid it down on her to stave off the chill of the night.

I opened up a portal back to Cork and cast a lingering look back at my sleeping mate. Maeve McCrum, last of the monster hunters and queen of the last surviving giant.

Guilt stabbed at my ribs as I watched her sleep.

Could I give her a good life here? The land was fertile, rich with food.

I could keep her well fed, well fucked, well cared for.

I could use my magic to create a shelter for her.

Not a fancy one, not with the way I was hemorrhaging magic energy through my damaged eye.

Still, it would be a roof over her head.

There were no humans here. Nothing familiar to her.

But here, she was safe. Far away from the cult after my evil eye.

If it wasn’t damaged, I’d have the ability to always protect her.

Too bad the crack made the magic I could pack behind a spell uncertain.

I stepped through the portal, knowing what I had to do.