Page 14 of Moth & Flame (Gothika & The Blackspire Empire)

DRAVEN

W ith eyes squeezed shut to quell their burning, I throw Hella over my shoulder. She yelps in surprise, attempting to cover her exposed ass and pussy as I march my way to the lift that will take me to my penthouse above Moth & Flame. She’s rewarded with a swift smack to the voluptuous cheeks I’m moments from sinking my fangs into.

“Wait! Where are we going?! You have to take my bag!”

“My home.”

My shadows grasp her leather bag, following us inside the elevator.

“…What if I’d been an assassin or something?”

My deep chuckle rumbles from me.

“Kitten, even if you were, my life is yours to take.”

The lift’s glass doors close, swiftly carrying us 45 floors into the sky. I’ve spent years slaving away for the Blackspire Empire, eliminating threats posed to the public and our democracy. Now, centuries later, I’ve finally broken free.

I’ve taken a lot of care to ensure my identity remains hidden, living in relative peace. The fact Hella had been able to simply hire someone to find out who I was is deeply unsettling. It also means that whoever she paid already knew who I was. She’ll tell me who, but they’ll need to be dealt with, lest the hierarchs of Blackspire–or any of my former enemies–find me.

But first, I’m going to claim my soulbound.

The lift’s glass doors face the outside world, and my eyes scan the bird’s eye view of the city before us. I’d set this entire city ablaze to protect Hella. The elevator gives its haunting melodic cathedral organ chime, and the doors reveal the open-plan space of my penthouse foyer and living room. I stalk through to march us down the hall to my bedroom.

My heart gives a beautifully painful squeeze as I lay Hella across my bed. The sight of her naked and nestled safely against the dark duvet tugs at something in my chest.

Hella tugs nervously at her lip as she stares up at me.

“You have a beautiful home.”

Still standing above her to savour the sight, I don’t dare crawl onto the bed with her until I’ve made my demands and she’s given me her decision. While I seek her approval in all things, there is only one thing on my mind.

“I want you to leave your fiancé.”

A watery grin splits across her face. “I already have.”

My breathing stills as emotion rises.

“Truly?”

She nods, tears slipping. “I visited my magistrate today. He’s sending Blackspire Blood Vaults my resignation and my ex- fiancé a notice of dissolution for our engagement first thing in the morning.”

In the next moment, I’m pulling her against my chest as I lean back against the headboard. She chews on her cheek, trying to tame her emotions as more tears spill, and I can’t help but kiss them away.

“I want you to know that I never loved him. My family and their business partners forced the engagement upon me. My fiancé has no love or loyalty for me. He has only ever proven to be as cruel as his family.”

I hadn’t thought it possible to desire this male’s death any more than I already do.

“Who is he?”

“Alister Belmont.”

That slimy fucking weasel?

Rage summons the beast inside me upon learning this precious female was forced into the vile arms of Alister Belmont— a male that I have met on more than one occasion and have fantasized about killing every time our paths crossed. The only reason I hadn’t killed him was the fact that he is under the protection of the Blackspire Empire— my former employer.

Stealing Hella for myself will have repercussions, but there is nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice for her. And nothing will stop me from killing Alister Belmont now.

“Do you know him?”

The question takes a moment to reach my distant, whirling mind.

“I do.”

Hella curls tighter into my arms as I stroke soothing circles on her back and press a kiss to her forehead.

“Then you know there will be consequences to me trying to escape him… dangerous ones.”

“Yes.”

“And you would still want to be with me?”

Hooking a finger beneath her chin, I draw her gaze to mine.

“Hella, I’ve spent my whole life killing for a living. What’s a little more spilled blood when I’d forge a river of it just to lay my eyes on you?”

Does she really not know who we are to each other?

My chest swells with determination as I finally speak aloud what I’ve known and held back for too long.

“You’re my soulbound, Hella. My life and my fate are yours, and so they shall remain.”

Her throat works on a rough swallow as she slides an arm over the back of my neck, fingers threading into the short length of my hair as she holds my gaze.

“Alister will try to take everything he can from me: my fortune, my livelihood, my reputation—my life if he can find me—but my heart, my body, my soul—they are eternally yours.”

A fervor unlike anything I’ve ever known consumes me as I spread her out beneath me and settle myself between her legs. My beast’s claws slide free as my form shifts—growing in height and breadth. My trousers and shirt are reduced to ribbons in seconds.

Hella’s eyes widen in awe as the scent of her arousal overwhelms my senses. My Nykanthros form looks like an unnatural thing conjured in nightmares and fairytales. While I grow to the terrifying size of a Lykos, fur sprouts along my back in a thick pelt as my face and body take on a monstrous melange of both fae and wolf features.

Very few have seen my beast’s form and lived to speak of it. Not that I’d want them to. Other than my mother, Akash rest her soul , there isn’t another soul in this realm who would describe me as anything other than an abomination.

And yet, Hella’s eyes pass over me with nothing short of adoration. “You’re beautiful.”

A low growl builds in my chest as I will my claws to recede to fist her hair in one hand, tugging to better expose the delicate flesh of her throat. The voice of my shifted form is an even deeper, gravelly version of my own. “And you’re mine.”

My magic whispers over her skin just as I gently sink my fangs into the side of her neck. Satisfaction is another growl in my throat as I finally get to heal the numerous faint but ragged scars from Alister’s vicious bite marks. It’s something I’ve longed to do since the day I laid eyes on her.

She gasps against the sensation, body arching into mine as she cries out, her arousal scent thickening. Her blood spilling down my throat is intoxicating, euphoria that causes my cock and my knot to swell and harden to the point of pain.

My hips give a mindless thrust against her, painting her pussy and abdomen with my leaking seed. Hella reaches between us to give my length a teasing stroke that sends a jolt of electricity up my spine before aligning it with her entrance. She wiggles her hips, easing me inside. The sensation feels as if godfire has set my veins aflame. My fangs burst free as a frenzied snarl tears from my throat.

The look in Hella’s heavy-lidded eyes soothes the beast in me as she strokes my jaw. “Shhhhh, I’ll be full of your cum soon, my love. I’m yours.”

My claws prick her skin as I pin her hips in place, gradually pushing forward until my crown breaches her tight, slick entrance. My cock is even larger in this form, and it would be selfish not to take care. Thankfully, her pussy is already primed, thanks to my shadows and earlier efforts just minutes ago in Moth & Flame.

My shadows bloom around us, teasing her clit and the tight peaks of her breasts as I sit back on my heels to gaze at where we are joined.

Fuck, I’ve made a mess of her.

Thick puddles of my pearlescent pre-cum glisten against her skin, urging my hips into a steady thrust that eases my length deeper. I’m mesmerized by the way the pink petals of her petite cunt stretch and mold around my intrusive girth.

Within moments of my quickening pace and deeper strokes, Hella’s nails bite into the flesh of my thighs, her jaw slackening. A cry escapes her, her back arching, her lush tits bouncing.

My strokes turn punishing as the beginnings of my own orgasm lick up the base of my spine, demanding I bury my knot inside of her.

“Oh my gods, Draven… Yes, yes, yes!”

“That’s it, sweetheart. Milk this cock. I’m gonna fill this pussy up with so much fucking cum, she’ll be weeping with it for a week.”

“Yes, Daddy, please!”

My eyes briefly roll into the back of my head as my growls turn to grunts. At the end of each thrust, my knot coaxes her entrance, and I press harder each time. Hella’s breath becomes keening, panting gasps as it finally begins to nudge inside. She props herself up on her elbows to watch.

My knot glides further—almost to the widest point. So close. So fucking close.

Hella’s gaze returns to mine, brows pinched with need.

“I need it, Draven. Give me all of you.”

As if to punctuate Hella’s demand, my knot finally slips all the way inside, and I’m buried to the hilt. The bond between us thumps with a pulse of its own alongside the war drum of my heartbeat. Another snarl tears from my throat as Hella cries out, her pussy milking my cock of thick, hot, pulsing ropes of cum. My strokes become languorous.

“I fucking love you, Hella...”

Emotion slips free from her eyes, prompting me to close the distance between us. I brace myself on my elbows, framing her head.

“And I’ll thank Akash every godsdamned day that you stalked me.”

A watery grin splits her gorgeous face as she gives a surprised laugh.

“You don’t think I’m insane?”

I chuckle, my nose grazing her temple before I plant a kiss on her forehead.

“Kitten, it’s one of my favorite things about you.”