Page 28

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

ANYA

I stir languidly, my limbs still aching but in the best of ways. Gods, what a night! Although I still feel the faint flicker of fire beneath my skin, I barely remember Daghel gathering me in his arms and lifting me back onto the bed. I am a little surprised, however, to discover that not only are my mates missing from my bed, but that the furs have long gone cold. They’ve been gone for a while. Sitting up, I rub my eyes and frown as I glance around the empty room. For a moment, I swear I see an inky black shadow looming, but it disappears when I turn to focus on it.

The shadows within the palace and its rookery are strange.

I shake my head and climb from the bed, but am immediately distracted by the sound of laughter coming from the common room. My lips curl happily and pull on a clean shift and dressing gown before slipping my feet into my slippers and heading out into the hall of the rookery.

I do not know what I expect to see, but the sight of Daghel sitting cross-legged on the floor as he wrestles with straw, twisting them methodically into shapes and binding them with cord, is a charming surprise. His eyes lift to me and warm as he offers me the briefest wink. I grin in response to his unusual demonstrative affection. How adorable. Drisk is absent, of course, but he is frequently gone in the morning to hunt up a meal to gorge himself on before bringing a choice rump or section of one of kills back to us. Linahna grins at me from where she is sprawled on the plush bench, a cup in her hand and the hint of spiced hard cider in the air informs me that she located the bottle we hadn’t yet opened and started the party early. She follows his line of gaze to me and lifts her cup in salutation.

“Good morrow, Anya! How does it feel to be thoroughly fucked and mated?”

I grin at her candid words and step into the room, plopping onto the bench beside her. “I see that you already possessed secret knowledge before the fact,” I tease, and she smirks back at me.

“Who am I to get between good fuck and true love?” she says as she takes another long drink from her cup. “May we all be so blessed.”

I frown a little at her note of misery, but she waves off my concern. “Do not worry yourself. I thought I had this thing going with a female in a nearby village, just a flirtation, mind you. Unfortunately, I decided to pay her a call only to find her skewered on an orc’s cock quite passionately.” She sighs a little and shrugs, her lips tipping merrily. “I will find my perfect little mate someday, so do not dare worry about me.”

I give her a sympathetic smile, but I nod in agreement. “Of course, and on your mating, I swear I will drink cups of cider with you as well.”

Her expression softens, and she nods toward the kitchen facing the common room. “Get a cup then and we shall drink heartily to your mating.”

“Not too heartily,” I say as I get to my feet and head toward the kitchen. “We have our sweep to make, and I need to be relatively sober for it. At least enough to not affect Drisk. The last thing anyone needs is a wyvern falling from the sky.”

“That may be the case tomorrow, but not today,” Linahna singsongs from the bench, her head falling back to peer at me over the padded, high back of the bench. “I was walking past Vorn’s quarters—just a touch of my usual spying—and heard Daghel tell him that he refused you into the mountains when you are so vulnerable post-mating.”

“Did he?” I glance over at Daghel in surprise as I sit back down at Linahna’s side only for the male merely smirk over at me as he gathers more straw together to bind.

“Of course, Vorn pitched a fit,” Linahna added and chuckled with delight. “My brother always was a big baby when something is inconvenient for him, but Daghel was not going to budge and jeopardize your safety, so he had no choice but to relent. So today… we are celebrating,” she proclaims as she leans forward with the bottle and splashes a healthy amount into my cup.

“I suppose we are,” I chuckle and bring the cup up to my nose.

The scent of apples, alcohol and fragrant spices is perfectly sweet, and I sip it slowly, savoring the flavor sliding over my tongue. Lowering the cup, I turn to watch Daghel work while Linahna fills me in on palace gossip, noting that the way the forms of what appear to be a warrior and a maiden are coming together. Or rather, Durethikal and his bride. I sit and watching, silently sipping on my cider as the god-king and his fair maiden come together in vaguely recognizable forms. At least they look like the rough forms of a male and a skirted female.

“Did you leave with Drisk early in the morning, then, to get all of this?” I ask, and my mate nods with a look of satisfaction on his face.

“I wished to finish before you awakened so as to surprise you, but Vorn’s meltdown delayed me from returning to the rookery as quickly as I would have liked,” he mutters as he tosses aside the twine and reaches for the ribbon. “I am afraid that these are not as nice as the ones that you admired in the village, but I brought plenty for you to adorn them,” he says, nodding to a basket a short distance away from where he is sitting.

I look at it with delight, utterly touched by his efforts. “I think they look wonderful,” I tell him.

Rising from the bench, I walk over to him with a smile. He sits back to look up at me as I place a foot beside his leg. Heat fills his eyes, and he reaches up to cup my legs in his big hands while I step over him and set my foot on his other side. A soft growl rumbles in his chest and his hands lovingly cup my ass as lower myself so that I am sitting on him and curl my legs around his hips. Looking up at him, I brush a finger over his chin and sigh with pleasure when his head dips and his lips brush mine in the sweetest caress as his hands slide to my back and he holds me tightly to him.

My mouth immediately opens for him, and I don’t bother holding back my moan as his tongue slips between my lips, thrusting into my mouth in a way that sends a tingle rushing through me. Our mouths move over each, our tongues entangling as we kiss. The only thing that could make it better was if Drisk was reclined next to us. I’ve felt his tongue within my cunt, but I wonder what it would feel like to suck at its textured tip so that he can spirit a kind of kiss that is special just for him. I make a mental note to try it later as I lose myself in the love of my mate.

Tomorrow is back to the real world, but today is for dreams and celebration, and I just can’t wait to get more of that with both of my males to sustain us over the hard days of flying to come as we return to our regular duties. For now, I will savor this simple romance that I never believed possible for any courtesan to have.

“And that’s my cue to leave.” Linahna chuckles and I hear the scrape of her boots against the stone floor as she stands. “A blessed mating to you all,” she says and I smile against Daghel’s lips.

It is indeed. Never have I felt more blessed.