Page 33 of Heart of Chaos (Chaosborn #1)

Arik grunted as I threaded the needle through the edge of yet another gash in his flesh, torn either by the odemarksdyr or by Ragnar’s jaws.

It had taken hours to burn and mourn the dead, set new patrols, and begin repairs on the fortress. Arik had only agreed to stop and let me stitch him up when most of the mountain had retired for what was left of the night.

“Sorry,” I murmured, pressing a kiss to the wound and pouring a little healing magic into it. “All done.”

“I rather enjoy it when you fuss over me,” Arik murmured, rolling his shoulder before standing and wrapping his arms around me. “Although I wish it involved fewer needles.”

“You should let me heal you properly then.” I lifted my face to look into his. His face was shadowed and his skin still blood-smeared, but his eyes glowed with Baldur’s power.

My king.

“Are you alright?” I asked, pressing a hand to his rough cheek.

“Me?”

“You killed Einar.”

“And I’d do it again.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

I pursed my lips in frustration, trying to read his feelings through the bond. “You can talk about it with me, you know. It’s not nothing.”

Arik sighed, pulling me down to sit on the bed. He intertwined our fingers and gave me a serious look. “Dragons do not kill each other, except under one circumstance. I presume you can figure out what that is?”

“Threats to their mate?” I suggested, feeling Idunn rage at the memory of Ragnar and Baldur fighting. I rose and lifted myself to straddle Arik’s lap, and he growled in approval. If his wounds bothered him, he didn’t show it, and I had to force myself to remember that he was injured as I felt the hard press of him against me.

“The moment he struck at you, his life was forfeit.”

“Those are dragon laws,” I argued, running a hand through his tangled hair. “What about human law? Won’t the king retaliate?”

He grunted as I tugged the strands, the sound sending fire through my core. “If he calls me to answer for it, I’ll tell him the same.”

“He won’t punish you?” I asked, running a hand through his tangled hair.

Arik sighed as I moved my hands to the back of his neck and massaged gently. “He might. But I’m far more useful to him as an ally than an opponent. A powerful pawn to threaten unruly nobles with—the son who can become a dragon.”

“He sounds charming.”

“As charming as I am,” Arik laughed hollowly. His eyes focused on mine, a line creasing his brow as his hand swept my hair away from my neck. “And you, Kj?re. How are you?”

I shifted uncomfortably, honestly not sure how to answer. “Alive?”

“Are you asking, or telling me?” he murmured, placing a kiss to the place below my ear.

I shivered, attempting half-heartedly to bat him away. “None of that. You’re still in deep shit for that stunt you pulled. How dare you lock me in this room!”

“Apologies.” He nipped the lobe of my ear, sending molten heat to my core. “I promise to make it up to you.”

“With groveling,” I suggested, my breath hitching as his lips moved to my collarbone. “Lots of groveling.”

Arik looked at me, the silver in his eyes glinting as his smile turned feral. “Shall I get on my knees?”

“The world nearly came crashing down around us, and you’re covered in injuries,” I protested as his hand moved down the length of my body.

Arik stilled, looking suddenly serious. “Are you in pain? If you’re hurt or sore—”

“ I’m fine,” I argued, trying to look stern as I took his face between my hands. “You’re the one with eight thousand stitches, a nameless, dark entity, and an entire army to worry about now.”

“The army will wait until morning, and I’m fine,” he assured me, resuming his kisses down the column of my throat. “Plus, you took care of the nameless entity quite nicely.”

“There’s no door, if you hadn’t noticed.”

Arik pulled back and glanced at the broken remnants of the wooden door. He grinned, pressing another kiss to my lips. “Then you’d better not scream my name too loudly.”

“I’m serious!” I laughed, not really trying to push him away.

“So am I.” His voice was a growl as he flipped me, pressing my back into the mattress as he consumed me, his lips devouring mine with urgency as he tugged at my shirt. “I nearly lost you tonight, Kj?re. I need—”

I frowned as he shook his head, his eyes aglow with silver.

“What?” I pushed gently, letting my hands rest against his warm chest. “What do you need, Arik?”

He kissed me again, drawing a moan from me as he squeezed my backside. “I need to claim you. To feel you coming around me. To know you are alive.”

“You, or Baldur?” I breathed, feeling my nipples pebble against his taut chest in anticipation.

“Both of us.” His eyes were pure moonlight as they met mine, and I let Idunn shine out in response.

Then take us, mate .

He growled, tugging my shirt roughly over my head as he let Baldur take the reigns. I did the same, letting Idunn flood me as her need spiraled with my own.

With another rough kiss, Arik tugged my trousers down as he caressed the length of my legs. He growled in approval as I watched him undress.

He was already glistening with need as he stroked himself once. “If I hurt you—”

You won’t, I assured him, sitting up and pressing a kiss to his erect length. I teased my tongue down his shaft and he wove his fingers into my hair, gripping lightly as he tugged me away from him.

I’m supposed to be on my knees, he argued, cupping my breast and teasing the nipple with the pad of his thumb as he leaned over me and pushed me back against the mattress. Not the other way around.

I didn’t argue as he trailed a line of hot kisses down my body, pausing where the strange diamond-shaped mark sat over my sternum. He pressed a reverent kiss there before continuing his trail downward. The first stroke of his tongue between my thighs had my entire body shaking with the effort to hold still, and Idunn clawed at the mental bond begging for more.

Patience , Baldur chuckled, his eyes glowing through Arik’s as I looked down to where he kneeled between my legs. We’re supposed to be grovelling.

I arched against him as he licked me, his tongue teasing and circling in steady, rhythmic strokes as his hands explored my breasts and teased my nipples. I wasn’t sure where Idunn ended and I began, or whether it was Arik or Baldur sending pleasure shuddering through me, but I didn’t care. We were one, and my pleasure was as much Idunn’s as it was mine.

More, she demanded, shining through my eyes as I watched Arik pleasure me. He looked up, a wicked gleam in his draconic eyes as he circled my entrance with a single finger. You are toying with me.

Always, he—Arik or Baldur, I wasn’t sure—replied, curling that finger into me and pumping gently. I moaned, rocking against him as I sought more sensation, more pleasure, and he chuckled against my center as he felt my search for more friction. So greedy.

Please, I begged, lifting my hands to my breasts to knead the flesh, feeling like my whole body was alight with the energy of the Rift.

He slid a second finger in to join the first, and I felt my body clench around him as ecstasy tore through me.

Mine. The voice of both dragon and man eddied through my mind, engulfing my consciousness as pleasure unspooled. You are mine.

Yours. I reached for Arik’s shoulders, wanting to tug him up into me. To force him to claim me.

He kissed me, gripping my waist tightly before flipping me so my back was pressed to his chest as we kneeled on the bed. One hand cupped my breast while the other teased my sensitive clit, making me shudder with aftershocks. Say it again, he growled into my mind, his teeth biting gently at my neck.

I’m yours.

He squeezed my breast as he slid home, and I groaned at the stretch and pull as I settled around him.

The fingers at my breast moved to my throat, lightly holding me against him as he began to move. Again.

Yours, I repeated, knowing that it was Baldur’s need to claim—to possess—driving him into me with each thrust. Idunn preened, stupidly pleased at her mate’s need as Arik thrust into me.

He squeezed my throat a little tighter as he stroked my clit in steady circles, and I felt another wave of heat flood me at the possession in his grip. We’d come together many times since that first, heated joining, but this was the first time it felt like the dragons were part of us.

Come for me.

The command sent me over the edge, pleasure racing through me until I was barely able to keep kneeling, my body shaking and sensitive as I collapsed to my arms. Arik stayed inside me, his arm banded around my waist as he moved, more slowly now that the desperate edge of possession had been satisfied, his lips pressing kisses to my throat and ear as he continued to stroke me. One more, Kj?re.

I moaned, feeling helpless under the assault of sensation as he held me to him, his fingers never giving up their steady stroking over my center.

Let go, I begged him, arching my backside into him as he hit a particularly sensitive spot inside me. Take your pleasure.

Not until we’re done, he laughed, his arms still hard around me. One more.

I can’t, I whined, even though I could feel another climax cresting inside me. It was too much. Too sensitive. Too incredible to last.

You can. Let me feel you come around me one more time, Kj?re.

Arik’s teeth grazed my neck, and I came undone, shuddering around him until I could feel him let go and claim his own release.

We collapsed to the end in a sweaty, boneless heap, his arms still tight around me as he pressed kisses to my ear and my jaw.

“Good girl,” he murmured, his voice sounding oddly strained compared to his purring commands in my head.

A laugh bubbled up from me. “Good girl?”

He rumbled what sounded suspiciously like a purr into my neck as he pinned my legs between his. “Very good.”

I laughed again, letting feeling return to the proper parts of my body as our breathing slowed. He was still hard against me, and I had a feeling that Baldur hadn’t quite worked through all of his feelings yet.

I turned in Arik’s arms, pressing kisses to his chest and working my way up over his mangled tattoos. “Anything bleeding?”

“I’m fine, Kj?re,” he yawned, cracking a single eye open at me. It was fully human now, the edge of the dragon having receded in the way of our lovemaking. He closed his eyes and tugged me closer, tucking my head beneath his chin. “Just need a minute to catch my breath.”

I hummed against him, letting my fingers play over the broken patterns as his heart thumped steadily against my ear.

“Do you think she knew?” Arik asked eventually, releasing me to stretch his neck. It cracked ominously, and he hissed as he settled back down to face me. “Damned fucking garmr.”

“Who knew what?” I asked, sitting up and frowning down at him.

“Sigrid,” he replied, lifting a hand to stroke lines down my back as he tugged me atop him again. He traced the lines of the diamond marking with a gentle finger, and I could have sworn they shimmered slightly under his examination. “About the necklace. That it was something powerful.”

“I don’t know. Perhaps,” I confessed. Sigrid had always been more cunning than most gave her credit for. “She told me it would protect me.”

Arik hummed, contemplating, then lifted a hand to my face. “We should ask her.”

“How?”

“When we go to the continent. To Stormhold.” He traced the diamond pattern that marked the spot where the gem had shattered into me. “I think I’ve seen this marking before. In the original Book of Chaos. Whatever it was, it had the power to close the Rift, which might also be in the Book. We’ll use my father’s summons as an excuse to grab the Book, and then go talk to Sigrid.”

I nodded, biting my lower lip. “I’m not sure I can close the whole Rift, if that’s what you’re hoping for. The power feels…dormant.”

I shrugged awkwardly, feeling like I’d failed him somehow.

“You have not.” Arik cupped the back of my neck and drew my mouth to his. “You saved Ironholm. Gave us a chance to rebuild. Somehow sealed part of the Rift.”

“I need to stop projecting my thoughts to you,” I murmured.

He pulled back, stroking his thumb over my cheekbone and laughed. “We’ll figure it out, Kj?re. Together.”

I nodded, pressing a soft kiss to his lips that quickly turned heated as he pulled me flush against his hard body.

“We should sleep,” I protested breathlessly after Arik had rolled us over and thoroughly plundered my mouth. “The older reirleders will need to be dealt with, and we have no idea if there will be another attack from the Rift.” He began kissing down my throat again, and a familiar heat built inside me as Idunn perked up with interest from where she had been dozing in my mind. “And you’re injured, and—”

“Later,” Arik growled in a voice that brooked no argument as his eyes met mine, silver slits in the darkness. “I have more grovelling to do first.”

“You’ll freeze like that.”

I rolled my eyes as I joined Arik out on the ledge overlooking the Iron Sea, only a fur and a pack standing between me and the elements.

“Drage run hot,” I reminded him, trying to hide my shiver as Idunn paced restlessly in my mind. Despite being bonded to Idunn for almost a month now, I still bled and felt the cold more than I should. “And it’s only for a few minutes.”

I do not understand the point of waiting, Idunn grumbled as he snorted and wrapped a warm arm around me anyway. They will catch up.

Are you so eager to be free of the Rift? I teased, soothing a mental hand over her scales.

I am eager to fly, she corrected. The destination does not much concern me.

“What did we say about silent conversations, Kj?re?” Arik teased, nipping at my earlobe. “Is Idunn as restless as Baldur is making her out to be?”

More, Baldur drawled so both of us could hear.

I smiled knowingly at Arik, who’s eyes softened as he looked down at me. The hard edge was still there—discipline and duty and a shadow of guilt. But he was also gentle and tender and irrevocably mine .

“Are you nervous?” I asked, looking back across the sea as if we could catch the turrets of Stormhold from this distance.

Arik shook his head. “No.”

“Because you’re so brave and fierce now that you’re Dragehersker?” I teased.

He laughed. “Interim Dragehersker. If my father has anything to do with it, Tormund will be back here making me fly until my wings are bloody.”

Arik had worked quickly to replace the reirleders most loyal to Einar with younger whites and golds, reorganizing all the reirholds in the process. Tormund and a few others had been sent with far more supplies than necessary to staff one of the abandoned outposts on the Peripheries.

But they hadn’t exactly gone willingly.

Idunn growled internally at the memory of Tormund’s tantrum, and Baldur sent a soothing caress over the bond.

I will rip out this King’s throat myself if he tries to replace you, she seethed darkly.

Try to wait until after we’ve fulfilled the summons, Baldur drawled lazily. It’s far too much paperwork if you eat a king.

Arik laughed, having only heard Baldur’s side of the conversation, as our friends—our reirhold—joined us on the ledge.

“You’d all better not die on this excursion,” Revna groused. “If I have to stay behind, at least don’t make me deal with that headache of paperwork.”

“We wouldn’t dare,” Arik vowed solemnly, grasping Revna’s arm in farewell. She had begrudgingly agreed to stay and manage the fortress with the promise of a week’s leave when we returned.

Arik turned to Jorgen, who was holding Branka’s hand tightly, both of them wearing nothing but a fur over their shoulders. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” replied Jorgen. “Mate?”

He looked down at Branka, who beamed as she squeezed my hand. “Where Eisa goes, I go.”

“That’s not concerning,” Jorgen muttered, earning an elbow to his ribs as he took his mate’s hand and pressed an apologetic kiss to her knuckles.

“And you, Kj?re?” Arik looked down at me, his eyes slitting to silver as he let Baldur shine through.

The scar on my chest pulsed faintly, a distant thrum of comforting power, and I nodded. “Meet your father, convince him not to kill you, steal the book, find Sigrid, seal the Rift. Easy.”

Arik laughed as we launched into the sky.