Page 30 of Rhaz’s Redemption (Shifters of Valo Prime #6)

Rhaz

CW: descriptions of blood, violence

After tucking Beatrice tightly into bed, I headed for my own furs.

My mind was still buzzing from the kiss we’d shared earlier, and I’d hoped she’d invite me to kiss her again, but it wasn’t meant to be, not tonight.

That was alright. I would be content with the kisses she gave me earlier and cherish the longing I held for her in my heart.

Beatrice was worth the wait, that much I knew to be true.

I fell asleep shortly after Beatrice did, but woke up again when I heard her shivering.

The night had grown cold and I’d unconsciously shifted in my sleep to stay warm, but Beatrice didn’t have that ability.

She got up from her bed and opened one of the wooden shutters that covered the window.

The moon was bright, and even I could see that the entire ravine was blanketed in a foot of snow.

She shut the shutter lightly and tip-toed back to bed where she continued to shiver. This would not do.

I got up and walked to her side of the cabin and saw that she’d pulled her blanket up to her chin in an attempt to stay warm but even then she still shivered.

Bending down, I gently laid my hand on her forehead and felt that she was chilled.

Beatrice opened her eyes and the corner of her mouth turned up in a smile. Her smile made my heart skip a beat. She was smiling at me. She was happy to see my face even now as she suffered.

“You’re cold,” I growled. I hadn’t meant to, but her shivering had made me angry. She shouldn’t suffer, especially if I was around to bring her comfort.

“I’ll start another fire.” I began to stand to do just that when I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and pull me back down.

“We don’t have enough wood,” she commented, which was true, we didn’t.

“We have enough to burn extra tonight,” I lied. I’d have to cut down another fruit tree, but there were plenty more left. We’d survive.

“Liar,” she smiled.

“Am not,” I huffed. Could she really tell when I was lying? That was…nice. I liked the idea of Beatrice knowing me well enough know when I was lying or not.

I started to walk away again when Beatrice tightened her hold on my arm.

“Stay with me,” she pleaded, and my whole body went still as if I was frozen in the snow.

“I can get more wood,” I suggested. She didn’t need my warmth if she didn’t want it. I would start another fire and she would be comfortable again. But even so, I held my breath. I wanted to be wanted by Beatrice so badly it ached.

“I don’t want a fire,” Beatrice shook her head. “I want you.”

She lifted up her blanket in a silent invitation. “Please stay.”

“You want me for warmth?” I clarified, still unable to believe that this was really happening.

“No,” Beatrice shook her head. “I want you for you. I might need your warmth, but I want you.”

I swallowed hard. Then slowly, as if I were living in a dream, laid down next to my luminescence mate and watched in awe as she snuggled up to me as if I were her favorite person in the world.

I’d never been anyone’s favorite before.

Even Jax, who had tried the hardest of all the hunters to befriend me, still preferred the company of Sozu.

No, this was a first for me. I wasn’t my father’s monster anymore. I no longer lived in the shadow of his madness and rage. I was Beatrice’s mate. I was wanted, and it felt so good.

The next day came too quickly. I want to stay under the furs with Beatrice forever. She fell asleep quickly with her head on my chest, but I stayed awake for as long as I could. Why dream when reality was finally better than anything I could imagine?

Beatrice stretched as the sun started to peek through the shutters. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to my chest.

“Go back to sleep. It’s still night,” I teased.

“Is not,” she giggled. “The sun is shining through the window.”

“It’s just the moon. It’s extra bright tonight.”

“Rhaz,” she turned so she was laying on her stomach and looking directly into my eyes. “Do you think we could sleep like this every night?”

I could not hide the smile that spread across my face. I squeezed her tighter and buried my face in her hair.

“You promise this is what you want?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“This is what I want. I want you.”

“Will you stay with me even when we return to the mountain? I will make our cave as comfortable as Axon’s.

I will cover the floor in moss and the ceiling in glow worms. You will want for nothing, I swear it.

” My words spilled out of me like a flood.

I’d wanted this for so long, that I could hardly contain my excitement.

“I’d like that.” Beatrice smiled then interlaced her fingers with mine.

“We are together then,” I replied. “I am yours and you are mine.”

“Yes,” she smiled. “I want you, and you’ve made it clear that you want me.”

“I do. I want you, all of you, every piece you are willing to give me I will cherish.”

I wanted this moment to last forever. I could have spent all morning proclaiming my love for Beatrice, but her stomach grumbled and it was clear she was hungry.

“I’ll make us some breakfast.” I said as I got up from the furs and headed toward the door.

“I set a few traps yesterday. With any luck they’ll be full.”

I opened the door and started walking toward my snares when a cold hand wrapped around my neck. I looked back and saw a shadow looming over me.

I tried to maneuver out of the grasp, but it was nearly impossible. My sire’s shifter form was hard to get out of.

“Her scent is faint,” he commented after he sniffed me.

“I should be able to smell the evidence of your mating, and yet I smell nothing.” He growled.

“Maybe you need some motivation to get things started.”

My sire held my wrists together behind my back and shoved me forward. We burst through the door and the smile that had been on Beatrice’s face quickly vanished.

“What do you want,” Beatrice hissed.

“I told you what I wanted a nearly a week ago,” Dameron snapped back. “I want a grandchild and yet you have not made any attempt to make one for me.”

Beatrice hugged her coat over her body and eyed my sire suspiciously.

“It’s our scent,” I clarified. I didn’t want her to think he had some ability to see pregnancy when he did not.

Her shoulders relaxed slightly but she still looked at Dameron with a weary expression.

“You will mate or there will be severe consequences,” my sire threatened.

“I will never obey you,” I seethed. “I can handle whatever consequences you throw my way, and you know it.”

Dameron knew I couldn’t be killed. I could experience pain, but that didn’t bother me. Temporary pain was worth protecting Beatrice. Neither of us would be forced to do something we didn’t want to do.

“Oh yeah?” he smirked. “We’ll see about that.”

In an instant he was on the other side of the room in his shadow form. “I know you can handle pain,” he began as he held Beatrice against him with his hand at her throat. “But can she?”

He ran a claw tipped finger along her neck until blood trickled down her throat to her collarbone. Beatrice whimpered in distress.

“Stop!” I pleaded. “Let her go! This is between you and me. Leave Beatrice out of it!”

“I’ll mate with him,” Beatrice blurted out. “Please just let me go.”

“Swear it,” Dameron growled.

“I swear upon the goddess herself that I’ll mate with Rhaz.” She swallowed hard.

“You have three days.” the Savrix declared. “If I don’t smell your scent on her then she’ll suffer far more than a little scratch on her neck.”

He released Beatrice and she fell to the floor. I quickly helped her up and stood between her and Dameron.

“You got your answer, now leave.” I growled.

“Gladly,” the Savrix took a moment to look around the cabin he’d built as a place of refuge and frowned.

“I thought this place would keep me safe, but it only prolonged my suffering.”

“You don’t need to suffer,” I corrected him. “Being a shifter doesn’t make you a bad person.”

“If being a shifter isn’t wrong, then why do so many people in our dekes act as if it is.”

“They’re wrong,” Beatrice cut in.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Dameron confessed then shifted into his shadow form and floated out of the ravine.

“Are you alright?” I asked as soon as he was gone. “Of course you’re not.” I answered my own question. I grabbed a spare clean cloth and dabbed at the blood on Beatrice’s neck.

“I’m so sorry, you got caught up in all this. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’m almost done making that rope. I’ll get us out of here soon.”

She put her hand over mine to get my attention and I stopped my rambling. “This isn’t your fault.”

I stopped moving then. Her words pierced right through me. “I feel like it is. Dameron’s hatred of me has spilled onto you, and you don’t deserve any of it.”

“You don’t deserve his hatred either, Rhaz,” she assured me.

“I…” I’d lived with my sire’s wrath for so long, that somewhere along the line I just started believing that there must be a reason for it. That a part of me was incurably bad, and that was the part he hated.

“I’d like to believe that,” I admitted.

“Then believe it.”

She took the cloth from my hand and finished cleaning the blood from her skin.

“We should come up with a plan in case he comes back,” she suggested.

“Right. I like that idea. Maybe I can reinforce the door so Dameron can open it. That way you’d be safe inside.”

“No,” Beatrice shook her head with a shy smile. “I was talking about…” she bit her bottom lip and was clearly trying to gain the courage she needed to finish her statement.

“I was thinking about ways you could get your scent on me. Do you think that would work? If he smells you on me, he’ll believe we’ve mated right?”

I swallowed hard. There were only a few ways to share one’s scent, and all of them involved being physically close and completely naked.

“S-sure,” I stuttered. “That could work. What did you have in mind?”

“Well, humans don’t usually go straight to sex in their romantic relationships. Usually they do other things first, like… pleasuring each other their their hands.”

“Hands.” I held mine up in front of me as if they held the answer to all my problems. “I could do that. I think. I… Tarak told us how to pleasure a female but you’ll have to guide me.”

“I’d like that, but you’ll have to guide me too. I have very little experience pleasuring a male.”

“Would you like to pleasure me?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes, I’d like that very much,” Beatrice gave me a shy grin and I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Never in all my days did I think this could be my reality. I’d hoped it might be, but seeing it come true…

“I’ll, umm, I’ll check my traps. We still need to eat.”

I quickly walked out of the cabin hoping Beatrice wouldn’t notice exactly how affected I was by the idea of pleasuring her. My cock strained painfully in my leathers, and I felt like I might die without release.

I quickly walked to the edge of the ravine where there was a large boulder I could hide behind and unfastened the cord holing up my leathers. My cock sprang forward and I let out a relieved sigh now that I was free from the confines of my pants.

I needed to make this quick. Beatrice was still hungry and I wanted to make us breakfast as soon as possible.

I settled my hand at the base of my cock and gave it a quick rough stroke.

The groan that tumbled from my lips was involuntary but impossible to stop.

I gritted my teeth against the pleasure of my movements as I continued to work my hand over my shaft again and again.

I thought about Beatrice and her soft body, and how amazing she felt snuggled next to me last night.

I thought about her soft lips on mine yesterday when she invited me to kiss her.

I pictured her laying underneath me panting hard as I pleasured her body as a mate should.

My movements quickened and as I panted I breathed Beatrice’s name. What would it be light to be touched by her. Would she be gentle? Would she let me find a quick release or torment me for hours?

A loud grunt rattled through my lungs as my seed spilled forth onto the snow.

I collapsed onto my knees and waited there until the trembling subsided.

These next few days might be the best of my entire life.

I would pleasure Beatrice over and over again until she begged me to stop.

I would hear her moans and swallow her cries with kisses.

I would worship her and she would know the full extent of my devotion.