Page 28

Kerainne

Past

Lucian had only been gone for two weeks and I already found myself missing him.

I held our courtship agreement close to my heart, and wondered what it would be like to feel his naked skin against mine, to feel our bodies fully joined.

I silenced the thoughts before they became full-fledged fantasies.

I needed to focus on spending time with my sister.

Delgarias was out somewhere, practically the first waking hour that he and Nik hadn’t been together, despite our parents refusing permission for them to marry.

She was in my apartments, lounging on my bed and admiring the mural I’d painted on the ceiling fifty years ago.

I hoped she wouldn’t notice how nearly every male in the painting looked like Lucian and interrupted her appraisal of my work.

“Mother seems to be vexed that Delgarias’s stay has been longer than normal. ”

“Good.”

I laughed at her growly tone. “And she is still furious that you two behaved like a mated pair while the Jagwolfes were visiting.”

“Splendid.” Nik’s lips curved in a bitter smile, but I saw the pain in her copper eyes.

“I don’t understand why she won’t permit you to marry him.

It would only be for a few centuries. You two should be able to have that little time together.

” I bent down and patted Nik’s shoulder comfortingly before pacing in front of the bed.

I was strangely restless, unsettled in a way that I couldn’t explain.

“The only guess I have is that since she wants to join our family to the Jagwolfes’ she believes that she has to be as uptight and old-fashioned as they are.

But I’m the one who’s almost certainly going to be wed to a Jagwolfe prince, so there’s no need to dictate who you marry. ”

Nik snorted derisively and fanned herself. It was unseasonably hot for autumn “And yet she told Delgarias that she intended to betroth me to a luminite anyway.”

“She couldn’t have meant it.” I couldn’t for the life of me explain why Mother would do such a thing.

“I mean, she doesn’t get along with the Aviaran or Nautillia clans, since they look down upon our family for residing here in Aisthanesthai and sneer even more about us visiting Earth, so why would she want to unite—” I froze as a sudden jolt of heat shot through me like a bolt of lightning.

I’d felt this once before and dread chilled me for a moment before the heat came roaring back.

It couldn’t be. It was too soon since the last time!

“Kerainne?” My sister’s voice was rife with worry. “What’s wrong?”

A low moan poured from me and my hips moved with a will of their own. “Oh no. It’s the—” I gasped, unable to finish speaking as another jolt shot through me.

Suddenly, Nik gasped and squirmed on the bed. “Kerainne?” she gasped. “What’s happening?”

“Oh no,” I cried. Pity, both for myself and for her, gnawed at my belly. “It’s the Yearning. It must have spread to you when it struck me. Mother and Father can’t know. Where’s Delgarias?”

“Why?” Nik bolted up from my bed. Her words came in a savage growl. “You can’t have him.”

Despite my panting and writhing, I laughed. “Not for me. I need to send him to you , at the cave. And you need to fly there immediately.”

“He was with Father, touring the fortifications of the village.” Nik donned her robes, her fingers worrying at the lapels. “What are you going to do?”

“Shield my condition as best I can, and send Del to you.” I paced back and forth in front of the bed, trying my best to hold myself together. “Then I’m going to Luminista.”

“Lucian?” Nik managed to inquire. “Are you going to have him service you?”

I managed a slow nod, though the mental images she evoked nearly made me collapse with need. “I spent my first Yearning unsatisfied. It was agony. I’m going to alleviate this one, either by quashing it with my death, or by lovemaking if it remains with me.”

Silently, I prayed my death would break the Yearning. Although I wanted to mate with Lucian, having our first time like this was not the ideal.

Nik opened her mouth, closed it, and froze. I wondered if she was processing the fact that this meant that one or both of us could end up with child. But instead of mentioning our fertility, she said, “Thank you so much for helping me, beloved sister. My debts to you keep mounting up.”

“Damn right they do.” I tried to keep my voice level as I crossed the room and threw open the doors to my balcony. “With all the sex you’ve been having, it’s likely your fault the Yearning was brought on. Now bring out your wings and fly.”

Nik needed no further urging and was out my window and off to the secret place where she and Delgarias had their trysts.

I envied her, for my release from this agony would take longer.

I tried to do a teleportation spell, but the deep ache between my thighs kept me from focusing.

So I released my wings and flew to the part of the gardens where my sister and her lover talked and sparred with Shellandrian steel swords.

All but the autumn blooming plants were desiccated and dying, further aggravating my need to be filled with life.

By the time Delgarias returned, I almost threw myself at him. The only thing that stopped me was his true-bond with Nikkita. It covered him like a protective shield, strong and palpable.

I took a step backward. “You need to go to Nik. She’s in your secret place.”

His dark brows rose and his lightning-kissed eyes widened. “Is something wrong?”

I pressed my knees together and bit back another moan. “She’ll be better when you’re with her. Go! She needs you!”

As soon as he vanished, I hurried to the furthest, most overgrown part of the garden, pulled a knife from my bottomless pouch, and slit my throat. As I bled out, I tried to move the pouch away so it wouldn’t get too messy.

When I awoke in Luminista’s welcoming chamber, the Yearning pressed on me harder, making me writhe on the cool marble floor like a cat in heat.

I grabbed a silk robe, released my wings, and flew to Jagwolfe clan’s lands.

Every movement I made, coupled with the wind made by my flight felt like tongues of flame licking me all over.

I was halfway to the Jagwolfe palace when I saw a golden form flying towards me.

“Kerainne!” Lucian’s voice called out, making me gasp with need.

I pumped my wings as hard as I could and flew straight at him.

Our bodies collided and I barely noticed the drop as I wrapped my arms and legs around him. Only Lucian’s levitation spell kept us from plummeting to the trees below.

“Please,” I gasped against his neck, licking the salty sweat from his skin, “I need you now.”

Lucian adjusted his grip on me and the motion made shot another bolt of piercing lust through me. “B-but I’d told you we should wait.”

“I can’t wait,” I whimpered, arching my hips against his hardness pressing between my thighs.

“Fates be damned.” His low, husky voice gave me delicious shivers. “I can’t either.”

His lips came down on mine with crushing intensity as we slowly descended. As soon as our feet touched the mossy ground in a bower of tall pine trees, Lucian muttered some words of magic in an impatient tone and I felt his magic surge outward like thunder.

Then we let our wings recede and landed on a soft bed, his decadent weight atop me.

Although the Yearning demanded for him to be inside me now, I refused to give it voice as Lucian unfastened his doublet, baring his gloriously muscled chest. I drank in the sight of his masculine beauty like something parched while he unfastened my robe with torturous slowness.

Even though he’d seen me naked the first day we met, he looked at my body as if seeing it for the first time. The reverence and desire in his eyes stole my breath and I wondered if he saw the same reflected in my eyes when I gazed at him.

Once more, the Yearning cried out for me to be filled and once more I suppressed it, wanting to savor every moment of our first joining.

He kissed me again with that same feral hunger that matched my own.

Then his lips caressed my cheek, my neck, my collarbone, and finally my breasts.

My hands plunged into his long hair, pulling him closer, and when his mouth closed over my areola and his tongue circled a stone-hard nipple, my breath hitched in pleasure.

I arched up against him, my hands sliding over the hot planes and ridges of his firm flesh, reveling in the feel of him. Lucian’s mouth lavished equal attention on my other breast, making me cry out incoherently before he moved lower, kissing my ribcage, my belly, my hips, then my thighs.

He shifted lower and looked up at me from between my legs, a silent question in his eyes. The sight of his face there, the hunger in his eyes sent a fresh pulse of lust through my being. I managed a nod.

Then, his mouth pressed to my vulva, and his tongue slipped between the crevasse to dart across the swollen apex of my need.

I screamed by pleasure so loudly that a flock of birds burst out from the trees above us. The sight almost made me giggle, but then Lucian’s tongue worked more sensual magic, making me buck my hips and cry out more.

Lucian lifted his head and gave me a rakish smile that made my pulse jitter. “Fates, you taste so good.”

Then he returned to his glorious ministrations. Licking and sucking in alternating pulses that made me writhe.

The climax jolted through me with a suddenness that stole my breath and left me shuddering. But the inner source of the Yearning wasn’t sated. Instead, it was hungry for more and made its demands apparent with a deep, throbbing ache.

“Please,” I gasped when I recovered my breath. “I need you inside me.”

Lucian let out a low growl that seemed to reverberate through my bones as he quickly moved back up on the bed and covered my body with his once more. Feverish with impatience, I grasped his hard length and guided it into the place that burned for him.

When he slid inside my swollen heat, I let out a sound that was so primal in its satisfaction that it shocked me for a moment.

Then, liquid ecstasy flooded my being and my arms wrapped around Lucian’s golden body, feeling his heat meld into mine, our bodies becoming one.

Magic flickered across my skin, a potent blend of his and mine.

Lucian’s lips breathed fire against my neck, “You feel so good.”

Then he withdrew, making me whimper once more, before thrusting inside me again.

My hips arched uncontrollably until he guided me into a rhythm that matched the tempo of our pounding hearts.

Our magic built and swelled around us like a solar storm, and the Yearning within surged with triumph while demanding more and more.

Lucian was only too happy to give me what I wanted, and increased the depth and hardness of his thrusts. I rode the crests of savage lust, gyrating against his cock in a rhythm that made my clit pulse in tandem with my pussy.

The pleasure and magic built and built until it coalesced into a cosmic force that was so big and intense that I didn’t know if I could take anymore.

Then, my body seemed to explode at the same time as our magic, fracturing my consciousness to a million crystalline facets.

Two of the trees near us burst into flames before the sky darkened and thunder shook the ground below us.

I cried out Lucian’s name and clung to him like a shipwreck survivor to a raft as the stormy waves tossed me with merciless ecstasy.

Rain poured down on us, thankfully dousing the flames without, but the flames within me still burned, so I continued to move against him, riding the aftershocks of my climax.

His voice cried out as well, but was muffled against my neck.

I held him as he shuddered within me, his climax feeding mine, and making the hunger within purr, not quite sated, but much alleviated.

“I love you,” I whispered between gasps for air.

His deep voice rumbled against my chest. “I’ve been waiting so long to hear those words.” His lips caressed mine as he whispered back, “I love you too.”

We held each other for fates knew how long, and slowly came back into ourselves, feeling the rain patter on our flesh, soaking the bed Lucian had conjured. The scent of pine and woodsmoke made me gasp in realization of what we’d done.

“Those poor trees!”

“Don’t worry,” Lucian stroked my hair in soothing motions. “Small fires are necessary to create new life.”

New life. I blinked in astonishment. Was he talking about us or the trees?

Because if this yearning did produce a child…

a child of my own, a child that would be part myself, part Lucian, and parts of all our ancestors combined into a wonderfully unique being…

Joy suffused my being. A joy more powerful than any I’d felt before, even after holding my baby sister for the first time.

The warm glow within was so intense that I lifted my arm to see if it was radiating light.

Lucian sat up suddenly and gathered me into his arms. “Oh! You must be chilled from the rain. Let me take you someplace warm.”

I was still too overcome with emotion to explain.

Besides, the rain was getting cold. So I let him fly me to an empty cottage his clan used when they monitored their creations, hibernated, or just wanted to relax in nature.

He built a fire, and once the cottage was warmed up, my yearning returned for a second wave.

We made love until we were too exhausted to move.

Afterward, cradled in his arms, I looked into his eyes and my heart swelled with adoration for all that he was. “I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you.” His lips caressed my temple. “Marry me.”

Reality splashed over me like a jet of cool water. “I can’t yet.”

“You don’t have to, yet.” His thumb roved over my cheek. “All I want is a betrothal. We can have a long engagement while we figure out how to appease our families and ourselves. We don’t even have to tell our families yet. It can be a secret engagement if that’s how you want it.”

The fervent love in his eyes undid me. That, and the thought of making love to him every night and waking up in his arms. I suddenly couldn’t imagine anything but that.

“Yes. I’ll marry you. You may even tell your family and speak with my parents.

Though I agree that a long engagement would be best.”

Maybe not so long , a voice in my heart spoke. Because if a seedling had taken root in my womb, I’d want my union with Lucian to be official.

My heart danced with hope at the thought, and only my physical exhaustion from alleviating my yearning quieted it enough for me to fall asleep in my lover’s arms and dream about our wedding.