Page 59 of Faeling (Monstrous World #4)

“I didn’t want to. I don’t want to. But I have to do this. They’re my parents . They gave everything…” Wiping at her face, she said, “I kept away as long as I could. I thought to protect us both, but…” Nothing had quite gone to plan.

He was silent for long enough that she thought she might be sick. His grip remained tight, and she wasn’t immediately cast away from him, but Ravenna couldn’t read his hard face.

She wanted his forgiveness—but also his anger. She’d used him, betrayed his trust, undermined the sanctity of matehood, a thing held sacrosanct for both orcs and fae.

I’m nothing but an angry, orphaned halfling girl.

She didn’t know why she thought to ever be more.

She’d known her fate since she was a little girl, predicting the downfall of a queen.

There would be no escaping it. The more she tried, the more people she hurt, and she couldn’t hurt him, not anymore, not—

“Is there anything else?”

Ravenna gasped and held her breath. His words and expression were serious but not angry. Those lapis-lazuli eyes assessed her, looking inside her for more revelations.

“No,” she whispered through numb lips.

So stunned was she by his sudden grin that she didn’t believe what she saw. Lifting one brow cockily, he nodded at her.

“Very well. Remember what I promised, sprite. You’ve upheld your end of the bargain.”

Ravenna’s heart lurched painfully in her chest. “No, Vallek, I can’t—”

“You can. It is a mate’s due.” Nuzzling her cheek, he said, “You’ve told me your scheme. Now ask for my aid like the queen you are.”

She reared back, not understanding, not believing. “You can’t mean…”

He nodded at the empty space before the dais. “Ask.”

Her poor heart didn’t know whether to beat right out of her chest or stop altogether. Her fingers spasmed in the abused fabric of his tunic, holding onto him as if he was the last harbor against a storm of insanity.

He waited patiently, helping her stand and find her balance. Ravenna’s tears dried as she descended the steps in a daze, her mind buzzing with a new reality she couldn’t quite accept yet.

When she turned to face the throne, she looked up to find the imperious orc king staring down at her. Legs spread, hands gripping the curved ends of the armrests, he was every inch the conquering warrior and anointed monarch.

He was magnificent, and he was her mate.

A giddy excitement fluttered in her chest.

Bowing her head only enough to be respectful, Ravenna said, “I come humbly before you, King Vallek, to seek your aid against a shared enemy. Amaranthe of the fae is a tyrant and a threat. I beseech your help in defeating her.”

“Intriguing. And what will I receive in return?”

Ravenna’s lips twitched with a grin. “My eternal thanks. And my love.”

Vallek rumbled with interest, leaning forward in his throne. He held out a hand, which Ravenna gracefully ascended the steps again to take. Drawing her forward, Vallek kissed the back of her hand.

“Now ask me as a mate would.”

She couldn’t stop the grin this time. Fates, this man. How could he so easily wring out her heart and fill it, too?

Holding onto his hand, she knelt between his spread legs. His pupils dilated as he watched her, a vein visibly pulsing in his neck.

“Will you help me, my love?”

Bending down to share breath, he murmured, “Your enemies are mine. And you know how I feel about threats to you. Consider it done.”

More tears threatened, a bewildering mixture of relief and jubilation and dread, but Ravenna forced them back with sheer will.

“You mean that?”

“I do.” One side of his mouth lifted in a cocksure grin. “It will be my pleasure to bring you her head.”

That dread inside her only deepened, but she didn’t correct him. Not yet. There was too much to be grateful for. If he meant to help her, there would be time to find a way that would involve the least amount of risk to him. He was what was most important to Ravenna and the orc-kin.

After a gentle tug on her hand, Ravenna regained her feet. Vallek spun her round before pulling her into his lap, her back to his chest. With one hand spanning her chest, his fingers curled loosely around her neck to hold her just so as his other began rucking up her skirts.

His lips buzzed along her cheek, his purr a warm comfort at her back. Ravenna gasped then bit her lip to feel his touch slide up her inner thigh.

“We’ll do this together,” he said, fingers working their own magic.

The idea of letting him touch her like this, so exposed and open to the great basilica, even empty, should have horrified her. Instead, when his fingers found their way past the gusset of her underthings, she was already wet for him. He rumbled with approval, fingers beginning to play in her slick.

With the hand round her throat, he gently pulled her back into the curve of his body. She rested her head on the meat of his pectoral, letting him have his way with her. She was, after all, eternally grateful and more than willing to show it.

Reaching back, she found the shell of his ear and began to delicately trace the whorls and ridges, earning another rumble.

He began to strum her clitoris with his thumb, making her squirm on his lap. Should anyone walk in, it’d be obvious what they were up to, even with his hand almost hidden by the hem of her gown. Although no one would, a thrill zipped up Ravenna’s spine at the thought of someone seeing them.

Let them see. Let them witness how a halfling claims a king.

His fingers strayed from her throat to delve below the neckline of her gown.

He pushed it down until her left breast burst free, his greedy hand claiming the giving flesh.

He plumped her breast and pinched her nipple as he rolled her clitoris beneath the pad of his finger—an onslaught of sensation that sent her overwrought mind into sweet oblivion.

“Whatever visions you may or may not have, I know this to be true: You will survive, sprite. I demand it. I demand all of your years, for they are mine by right.”

Ravenna could only gasp and moan as his hands worked her body masterfully.

He’d been a devoted study to her pleasure, and by now, he knew just what she liked.

How to build her up quickly and how to prolong her anticipation.

He played with her, and she knew his game, knew that in this, they would both win.

“I have my own vision, you see. Together, we’ll build this kingdom and rule it. We will see many harvests, and we will have many good decades.”

“Maybe more,” she gasped, mind already full of his vision when he pushed two fingers inside her. “Fae blood and magic.” She needed to explain it to him in full, how her own human mother was almost three hundred before she bore Ravenna, but she couldn’t form the words.

Vallek understood enough, purring with pleasure. “Excellent. We will lead this kingdom into a new age, and when the land is safe and secure and the people are finally sick of us, we’ll choose our favorite child and leave it to them. Then we’ll go off and have our own new adventures.”

He supported her weight with one hand as he loosened his trou. Ravenna greedily reached for him, moving her skirts aside until she could feel the searing press of his cock along her flesh. She shuddered with an agonizing pleasure as she began to feed him into her body.

“Can you see my vision, sprite?” he asked, gone breathless as he stretched her wide.

Ravenna could only moan, his cock reaching so damn deep inside her, she couldn’t feel where she stopped and he began.

“I’ll give you her head, and you will give me all your years.”

Bracing a hand on the armrest, Ravenna held onto his neck with the other as he bounced her on his lap.

His cock shuttled in and out of her, the wet slap of their bodies echoing across the vast basilica.

Her knees shook on either side of his legs, barely able to hold herself upright under his onslaught.

“Promise me,” he growled against her cheek.

“Yes!” she cried. “Yes!”

He could have it all, everything she was and would be. It was a small price to pay.

“My good mate. Hold onto me.”

That was all the warning she got before he took hold of both her hips and began thrusting up in brutal strokes, holding her steady to meet every single one. She could do nothing but take his lust as he used her body; every time he pulled away, she ached for his return.

“Harder,” she moaned, head lolling from side to side on his chest.

“ Fuck .” Fingers dug in so deep they’d leave bruises, he thrust her hips down as he rammed himself up. The force of his strokes rattled her teeth, and Ravenna dug her nails into wood and flesh as she came violently apart.

Body gone stiff in a rictus of pleasure, her hips rolled and rolled, chasing down her orgasm. Arms banded around her, securing her to his chest, he roared into the empty space, the basilica echoing with his triumph.

He pumped inside her, filling her with spend. She overflowed with him but greedily wanted more, her muscles milking his cock, eager to wring every bit of pleasure from him.

“Everything, sprite,” he growled at her ear.

“Everything,” she promised.