Page 41 of Hunger in His Blood (Brides of the Kylorr #3)

CHAPTER 41

KALDUR

I opened the door to Maudoric, who held a tray of food, fresh bandages, and a steaming pot of what I knew was baanye . I’d wrapped a blanket around my hips for Maudoric’s sake. Even still, I spied the relief in her eyes when she eyed my side, the wound already looking much better than it’d been an hour ago.

There was a jerkiness to my movements as I took the tray, as if I’d forgotten my strength and the stretch and pull of my muscles. I felt like my old self, and yet everything had changed.

Maudoric knew better than to speak to me when I was in this state. She merely inclined her head, relieved that I’d fed from my kyrana , and then left. She would sleep easier tonight.

I shut the door behind her, loosening the blanket around my hips, and it fell to the floor as I continued into the bedroom.

I nearly purred in contentment when I saw my mate, sprawled across the bed the wrong way. It looked like she’d dozed off in the brief moment I’d left, and I memorized her like this as I poured her some baanye from the pot.

Her body was naked, her nightdress long tossed clear across the room. She was lucky I hadn’t shredded it. Her skin was flushed, her lips reddened from my kiss, my bite adorning her neck.

My heart twisted looking at her. Beautiful. I knew I wouldn’t ever get tired of this view, and so I committed it to memory. Every soft curve of her body, including the one of my child, every wild wavy strand of her dark red hair.

The clinking of the cup against the pot woke her. She made a sound in the back of her throat, disoriented, as she peered at me.

“How long was I asleep?” she murmured, voice hoarse from her screams.

“Not long,” I replied.

Her eyes dragged over me, and I felt my cock—still hard—twitch with her perusal. Her observation felt as erotic as her touch. It skimmed over my body, the muscles swollen, surging after the feeding. Every sharp, cut line caught her attention, and I wondered if she was imagining drawing me like this. I saw her hand twitch, as if wanting her pencil, and nearly grinned.

I brought over the teacup, and she went onto her elbow to take it.

“ Baanye ,” I told her gruffly. “I’ve taken a lot of your blood.”

Maybe even too much. I had to learn to be less greedy when it came to her.

“You needed it,” she answered, peering at me over the rim with those warm eyes, framed by dark, curling lashes. She took a sip of her baanye , pulling a small face at the bitter taste. “And Ekor said it was all right, remember?”

Ekor told us that pregnant women naturally had more blood in their bodies. He thought the baanye wasn’t necessary while Erina was pregnant…but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Keep drinking it,” I told her, dropping to my knees beside the bed, catching her startled cry when I tugged on her legs, dragging her toward me. “I want it all gone by the time I make you come on my tongue.”

A shuddered gasp escaped her when I draped her legs over my shoulders, when I licked at the seam of her cunt, still hot and slick from the three times I’d taken her tonight.

She nearly spilled the tea, managing to keep it balanced at the last moment. But then she struggled to get away, and I growled, latching my arms around her hips to keep her place.

“I haven’t washed and?—”

I growled again, the sound vibrating through her, her eyelids fluttering shut for a brief moment. “You think I fucking care?”

“N-No,” she whispered.

“Drink,” I ordered her. When she took a small sip immediately, I rewarded her with a gentle suckle at the sensitive little bud of her clit, making her gasp, nearly choking on the tea, her thighs giving a tremble around me. “Mmm, the things I’m going to do to you, kyrana . All the wicked things I’ve only dreamed of.”

Her eyes burned into mine, the baanye sloshing in the cup when she shifted on the bed. I slid my hand over her growing belly, up to her breasts, tweaking and teasing one of her nipples, which I’d learned she’d liked. She groaned, her hips twitching, and I smelled a fresh flood of her arousal.

My mouth watered for her, and I lapped at her pussy, nearly smirking when she took another dutiful sip of her tea. She was so expressive, every flash of pleasure, every new sensation that flooded her right there for me to see.

She’d been untouched before me. This was all new to her. Every slow, lingering stroke of my tongue. Every gentle suckle of her lips, of her clit. Every teasing thrust as I fucked her with my fingers.

I felt her toes curl against my wings. I didn’t need to look down between my legs to know that my cock was dripping pre-come all over the rug. It bobbed and twitched with every sound she made, her pleasure becoming my own.

I feasted on her until she was squirming, a steady tumble of “Oh, gods” and moans of “Yes, Kaldur” from her throat.

She was getting close. I could feel it. She nearly went flying over the edge when I got a little too greedy, momentarily losing myself in her taste and sounds. But I managed to pull back at the last moment, her frustrated cry my reward.

“You want to come, my love?” I asked.

“Yes!”

Gods, didn’t she know what that little growl did to me? My normally sweet and even-tempered mate, growling at me to make her come. Demanding little thing. I would show her just how greedy she could be with me. I’d give her anything she wanted.

“Finish the baanye ,” I purred, unable to help myself as I wrapped my fist around my cock, giving it a rough, teasing pump that sent tingles zipping down my spine, right between my wings. My eyes nearly rolled back. I grunted, “Then I’ll let you come.”

She tipped back the cup, a couple big swallows left and it was likely unpleasant by now, cooled down.

But I teased her clit, flicking it back and forth with my tongue, just enough pressure to keep her on the edge without actually letting her tip over it.

She groaned and squirmed, her thighs tightening around my head, but she swallowed down the rest of the tea and even showed me her empty cup.

“Happy now?” she asked, voice guttural, a hint of a glare on her expression that made my cock twitch.

“Extremely,” I said, taking the cup from her and placing it safely to the floor.

She fell back onto the bed with a soft huff, likely thinking I would tease her again.

But I didn’t. The moment she fell back, I was ravenous and determined, focused on one thing and one thing only.

A strangled sound escaped her when I lapped and suckled at her clit like I was fucking starved. She jerked as I teased the entrance of her pussy with the knuckle of my index finger, just enough pressure to keep her aware. I would stretch her there…when she took my knot.

“You’re going to make me come again,” she breathed, voice ragged, trying to catch her breath as her body began to tense up. Her hips twitched, but I kept her pinned down, pressing on her pelvis to keep her still. “ Kaldur! ”

She inhaled a sharp breath. I felt a single flutter around my finger, and then she was arching up from the bed, a silent scream on her lips.

There you go, I thought. Come for me.

I never changed my pace between her thighs, alternating between sucking and lapping at her fluttering little clit. And I continued to do that until I knew her orgasm was over, even when she reached down to push at me.

I finally released her and stood, wiping at my mouth and jaw with a shaking hand. My movements were jerky, stilted when I stepped up to the bed, tugging her bodily down again until her bottom was just over the edge.

“Good,” I murmured.

I took her ankles in my grip, pulling them wide so I could slide between them.

“Need you again,” I told her, my gaze zeroing in on her, the rest of the room fading away. “Gods, I’ve never felt anything like this before. It drives me crazy, how much I need you, dallia .”

A gasp left her when I thrust into her pussy, hard and deep, and a low, extremely satisfied rumbling vibrated through my entire body. Even my wings shuddered with it.

But I needed deeper. She would take my knot, the entrance of her tight pussy just teasing the swelling of it.

I pushed forward, and she made a sound like a soft mew, a desperate one. I pulled back, nearly leaving the warmth of her body, before I thrust back in.

Then a haze of need shrouded me. I pressed over her, using the weight of my body to keep her legs spread open wide, leaning down to capture her lips in a deep, hard kiss.

Was it possible to want someone so much? I just wanted to consume her, to keep her close so nothing would ever hurt her again. Even me.

My need for her was great, but I forced myself to go slow. To make love to her instead of mindlessly fuck, though I thought maybe that would be how this ended. Every deep, long stroke of my cock into her body made her gasp. She breathed into my kiss, like she was breathing life into me again.

Every thrust teased my knot, making fire burn in my veins. I pulled back from her kiss, already on the edge of coming.

I placed my hands on both sides of her head, capturing her beneath me like prey, my wings coming around us until it was like we were blanketed in them. I held her eyes as we shared the same breath, as I saw my own need and pleasure mirrored in her eyes.

Looking down at her, I thought that there were very few moments in my life I wanted to capture forever, to be able to relive over and over again. But that this was certainly one of them.

But just as I thought that, her eyes flickered back and forth between my own as I continued to push my body into hers, claiming her, making love to her. There was a flash of uncertainty…and then a moment of fear.

Suddenly her expression, which was usually so readable, closed off.

“This,” she whispered, her voice catching in her throat with the ferocity of my thrusts. I stilled, breathing hard, trepidation curling in my gut. “This doesn’t have to mean anything,” she said. “Right?”

My brow furrowed, not understanding.

“It’s just sex,” she said. “We both want this. It doesn’t have to mean anything. ”

I growled, understanding finally flooding into me.

“No,” I rasped, cupping the side of her face so she wouldn’t turn away. I gave another deep thrust, watching her bite her lip at the sensation. Each word was punctuated with a teeth-clattering thrust when I said, “ This. Means. Everything. ”

“It can’t,” she cried out, voice strained, torn between her rising panic, her quiet determination, and her pleasure. “It can’t.”

“Yes,” I said, desperation now driving me. It made a fissure run through my heart—but perhaps I deserved it—merely thinking she was trying to keep distance between us. It was what I’d done to her, after all. “It can.”

But saying it didn’t hold any meaning. Erina had decided that she was open to this , to sex, to the feedings again. That didn’t mean this intimacy meant what it had once meant to her. I’d ruined any chance of that.

Yet I was determined to break down every last block she’d stacked between us, the wall I’d caused her to build to keep herself safe. It ate at me, that knowledge. Knowing I’d been the cause. But I wouldn’t rest until I had earned her forgiveness. Her trust. Her love.

Her fear stemmed from her uncertainty. But she needed to understand…I had never been more certain of anything in my life.

What I feared was losing her.

I thanked all the gods and goddesses I knew that I’d gotten her pregnant that night. A blessing. Because if I hadn’t, she wouldn’t be here right now. Would she have even given me another chance?

“Look at me,” I growled, cupping her face. I leaned down, pressing my lips against hers. The words slipped over her tongue when I said, “This means everything, Erina.”

She stared up at me, and I saw the raw emotion cut open on her face. I saw that she wanted to believe me, that little piece of her that perhaps still held hope, and that nearly broke my heart all over again. Because I knew she wouldn’t fully allow herself to give in. To have faith.

Not yet.

So, I didn’t pressure her. Not right then. Instead, I said, “We will make this our own. Whatever it becomes, whatever we need it to become, it will be. All right?”

Finally she nodded, and I caught her gasp with my lips, beginning to move my hips again, sinking deeply into her. There was a new determination pounding at me, beating at my very soul.

I felt the orgasm rise as she began to clench around me. I threaded our hands together, shoving my face into the crook of her neck, licking at the bite wound that I’d already healed.

“Erina,” I groaned into her skin.

She made a choked, ragged sound when she felt my knot seat inside her, swelling with my pleasure. The tightness around it—gods, the heat and pulse of her body—I couldn’t withstand it. I thought it surprised her when she began to come again—a shocked little gasp was my only warning before I felt the squeeze .

And that was it for me. I felt my come sizzle up my cock, my vision momentarily blackening, stars dotting the darkness.

When I surfaced again, I was bellowing with the intensity, the flood of my pleasure unleashing into her body over and over. I could only move slightly, my knot like a seal at her entrance. But every minuscule amount of friction prolonged my orgasm.

I hadn’t knotted a female in well over a decade—only when I’d been young, and it had been more hassle than it’d been worth—but it certainly hadn’t felt like this . This electricity zapping up my spine. All I could do was fuck my way through it, trying to catch my breath.

When it was over, I nearly collapsed onto her. I felt like all my renewed strength had been stolen again. At the last moment, I rolled to the side, the seal of my knot taking her with me. She groaned, her eyes holding an edge of her tiredness.

“Come here,” I said quietly, my voice raw. I hitched her leg over my hip, tucking back a strand of hair away from her glistening forehead. “It’ll be a while. I’ll hold you until it eases.”

Thankfully Erina didn’t protest. She sighed, her body melting against me. It couldn’t be a terribly comfortable position, but her eyes were already sliding shut, her cheek coming to rest on my pectoral.

We probably looked worse for wear. We still hadn’t washed, and the blankets of the bed were a haphazard tangle of a bloodied mess from my previous wound. But I didn’t find it in me to care.

All that mattered was Erina in my arms, our child safe between us.

I pressed my lips to the top of her head, already feeling the exhale of her even breaths drift over my skin. Passed out. I was still trying to catch my breath, folding my arms over my blood mate tight, my cock still throbbing between her legs.

“Everything, Erina,” I whispered, more comforted by the feel of her warm, bare skin against mine than anything in my memory. “I’ll give you everything.”