Page 15 of THE SOULBOND AND HER BELOVED (Beasts Of Wrath And Madness #4)

Chapter fifteen

BEYOND THE SKIES TO THE HEAVENS.

“You have to take my knot.” Grand Lord Vladya's voice was strained as his release neared.

Aekeira barely heard him. Her entire world had shrunk to sensation, to pleasure, to him. Every stroke sent her spiraling into euphoria, drowning in bliss so deep she felt drunk on him, yet he did not bloodfeed from her.

She had long since lost count of how many times he had sent her over the edge. How many times she had screamed her pleasure for the world to hear.

Distantly, she heard his deep groan as he climaxed atop her, spilling his warm, thick release inside her.

But instead of the usual burn Aekeira had learned to live with, this sent her plummeting into yet another shattering orgasm. Tearing a broken cry from her throat, making her grip the sheets as her sensitive body writhed and shook from pleasure overload.

Barely had she recovered before she felt a new sensation.

Aekeira gasped, her dazed mind struggling to process it. A stretch. No, an expansion.

Her eyes blinked open. “What is... what is...” Even her voice sounded slurred to her own ears.

“My knot.”

Already she could feel him growing, stretching her open, pulsing thicker inside her.

At first, it felt full. Blissfully full. But then, it kept expanding .

And soon, full became too full. Uncomfortably full.

"This is not normal. I-I do not think I can..." Her breath came in short, panicked gasps.

"You can," Vladya soothed her, threading his fingers through her hair. “The first time is always uncomfortable, but I promise, you will eventually love it.”

She clenched around him, trembling. Torn between pleasure and the sheer impossibility of how much more he was forcing her to take.

It kept growing until she was certain it would split her in two. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, slipping down her flushed cheeks.

“Such a good girl,” Gently, he kissed away her tears, warmth and pride in his voice. “My sweet little Keira, you take me so well. I am so proud of you.”

His praise sent a different kind of heat into her, a glow that settled deep. Made her want to please him. To take everything he gave her.

So biting her lip, Aekeira panted through the pressure, her thighs quivering as his knot grew. And just when she was sure she could not take another inch, just when she thought she might break... it swelled to completion.

A perfect, locked fit.

"I did it." Her breath shuddered out in a disbelieving whisper.

“I never doubted it.” Vladya brushed his lips over her damp temple. “You did beautifully well, sweetling. Hell, Aekeira, you feel so damn good on my knot.”

He shifted—just a little.

Oh. Aekeira gasped, shocked at the sudden burst of pleasure searing through her nerves. Eyes going wide, her lips parted in a moan.

Vladya stilled, a wicked smirk playing on his face as he did it again. A slow, shallow grind, his swollen knot pressing firmly against something new, something devastatingly sensitive inside her.

Sensations exploded through her. Aekeira keened helplessly, body clamping down on him while she convulsed in overstimulated bliss. Too intense, too intense...!

“Please,” she gasped, her hands shooting down, gripping his firm ass, holding him still. “Don’t move, please.”

Even the tiniest movement was too much.

The wicked Vladya chuckled low, knowingly. "Alright, sweetling. I will not do that again. But I still need to move us into a better position."

"I do not mind your weight on me."

Vladya exhaled, brushing a loose strand of hair from her damp forehead. "Yes, but it will become uncomfortable if we remain this way for too long," his arms tightened briefly around her before he shifted their position, rolling them onto their sides so they faced each other. "We do not know how long my knot will take to go down."

A hush settled between them. Aekeira fought to stay awake, though sleep pulled at her, her eyelids fluttering open and closed. But through the fog of exhaustion, she caught his gaze.

He was watching her again with that same piercing intensity he always did—but now, something was different. As though he was seeing her anew.

Her lips parted. "My lord?"

“You are my destined mate, Aekeira,” he said at last, his voice laced with quiet wonder. “I am still trying to wrap my head around it.”

The haze of heat momentarily lifted, reality struck her like a lightning bolt.

She was a Syren.

Created for him. Made for him.

And he was hers. Well and truly hers .

Tears burned her eyes.

"There were so many signs…" she whispered. "I was merely too terrified to hope. And even when I allowed myself to, I only wished we might be compatible enough to become bondmates after the ritual under the moonlight. I hoped for the skies... and I was given the heavens.”

A sharp breath left him. Over the past few months, Aekeira had seen glimpses of his softer side, but she had never seen him like this. Vulnerable. Stripped bare.

Never had she seen his eyes glisten .

"Who would have thought that I, Vladya Theriozydovkar Skyvakto, the male with the highest failed bonding record, the most cursed in Urai, would have a Soulbond ?"

"How could you call yourself such things?"

"Because those were the names the people gave me, little bird." His lips curved, even as he blinked hard, clearing the sheen in his eyes. "Over the centuries, they found their way to my ears."

Aekeira’s heart ached for him.

“Now, who would have thought?” he mused, stroking her hair with the lightest touch.

She pressed closer, until their noses brushed, until his breath mingled with hers. "I love being yours.” Drowning in this enigmatic male who had become everything to her. “My heart feels so full." As full as my body.

"Who would have thought," his voice almost lost to the quiet, "that I would begin to experience true happiness after giving up all hope of ever feeling even the slightest joy?" His thumb brushed over her lips. “For the first time in five centuries… I believe her.”

"Who?" Aekeira asked softly.

"Tiara. My dead bondmate."

"Oh..."

"I watched her die, you know." Sadness edged in his tone. "She was cut down by a human right before my eyes. After I recited the Hav’zie de Baah , and nothing happened, the cold crept in. It dawned on me that I would truly lose her. A female who had only officially become mine a week before, after millennia of failed bondings."

"I'm sorry." Aekeira wished she could take away his pain.

"I was devastated. Shouting, begging her not to leave. And as she lay dying in my arms, she cupped my cheeks and said, ‘It will be alright.’"

Aekeira’s heart squeezed painfully , and pressed a hand to it, trying to quell the ache.

"I told her it would never be alright again if she died." His voice grew hoarse. "I told her, ‘If you dare leave me, you are the most wicked being to ever exist. Not the gods, not the humans—you, Tiara.’"

Tears slipped down Aekeira’s cheeks.

A single tear traced down his cheek. "Those were my exact words as I pressed my hands against her bleeding stomach, desperate to stop the flow."

Aekeira felt his agony, as if she had lived it herself. Why did it hurt so much? Why did it feel... familiar?

“Tiara smiled amidst the tears, and told me, ‘This is not the end.’”

Aekeira shivered.

“For five hundred years, I did not believe a single word of it. How could I? My world crumbled that night?" The shadow of the past lifted from his eyes, and the present— she —filled his vision instead. “But tonight, for the first time in so long… I remember her words again. And now, they finally make sense to me."

"It will be alright?” Aekeira whispered.

“It's alright now.” Another tear rolled down his cheek. “Everything is alright now, Aekeira.”

***

Grand King Daemonikai waited. But nothing happened.

No resistance. No rejection.

Emeriel’s quivering sheath remained wrapped around him like a warm, silken vise, pleasure licking up his spine like fire. Pulling back, he withdrew just enough before sliding in again.

Emeriel moaned. A sound of pure bliss, not the pain that had marred her delicate features earlier when he'd tried to get inside her.

She had accepted him. Her body recognized him once more—as him. Their Beloved. Their Soulbond .

Daemonikai’s throat went tight. The tension tormenting him all night released like a coiled serpent finally slithering free. He could breathe again.

"Move... I need more."

Bracing his forearms on either side of her head, Daemonikai gave her exactly what she wanted. What her heat demanded. What he had craved all damn night.

His earlier releases had steadied him, allowing him more control. Every stroke he gave her was calculated, every angle... targeted for maximum pleasure. He coaxed the most sinful cries from her.

And soon, he had her soaring into the abyss of bliss.

Time dissolved around them. The dawn brightened into morning behind the heavy curtains, though the chambers remained cloaked in darkness.

There was only them. Only this. Only her.

Inside this cocoon of shadow and desire, he ruined her. Again. And again. And again.

Taking her from one debilitating orgasm to another catastrophic one. It was sensational. It was euphoric. It was pure, unfiltered ecstasy.

Emeriel sang the most erotic melody. "My king, my king, my king—oh, it is so good— ahhh! "

His young princess was in another world entirely, not just from the things he did to her, but from his earlier bloodfeeding that left her in a state of heady high.

Head tossed back, mouth slack with pleasure, eyes drooping as he bounced her back and forth with his strokes. She was the perfect vision, the sexiest irresistible wanton.

And Daemonikai could not resist slanting his lips over hers, swallowing her cries as he angled his hips and punched in. Deep, so deep the blunt head of his cock slammed into the spongy mouth of her sealed womb.

A strangled wail tore from her throat as her body arched violently beneath him.

Daemonikai growled, transferring her hands into the hold of one large palm, pinning them high above her head.

She would not escape. She would take this. And she would love it.

Daemonikai drove shot after shot aimed directly at that delicate door. Punching into it, abusing it, shoving against its sponge mouth again and again.

Emeriel howled. Hands flailing but could not escape his hold. Body twisting but could not dislodge him.

He would not have attempted to fuck close to this hypersensitive spot unless he was certain her heat could handle it, and he knew this one could. It had the strength of full heat. So, he gave her sensations that should have been pain but came with blinding pleasure instead.

Her thighs, cushioning either side of his hips, fell open in helpless surrender as tremors battered her. Her toes curled and uncurled furiously. Her eyes going wide—wider— wider still with each passing second.

Then, the time bomb he was building inside her detonated .

"DAEMON—!"

It was not a scream. It was a shriek .

A wild, desperate, shattered sound—so high, so unladylike, so utterly debauched, coupled with the way she squeezed his cock, he released with a groan. Spilling thick ropes of cum directly to that delicate, abused mouth, his cock twitching fiercely as he kept thrusting.

A gush of liquid exploded from between her legs, drenching them, soaking his thighs and the sheet.

Daemonikai was so shocked his strokes stuttered. "Did you just... squirt ?"

Emeriel did not answer. She did not hear him.

His female was completely gone, lost in the deep, endless pit of ecstasy he had shoved her into.

But yes. Even for a gusher like her, she had released an unreal amount.

Daemonikai exhaled, in awe of her, of what he had done to her.

Ukrae. He had never had a female react to his touch the way she did. Not a single one in five millennia came close.

"You truly have no idea how unexplainably sexy you are, do you?" He growled possessively, pressing his lips to her flushed, sweat-kissed skin.

"Too much," she sobbed, whipping her head from side to side. "Please, please—"

“Take it like a good girl, Riel. You know you want to,” Daemonikai snarled.

This part was one of his favorites. When he overwhelmed her, taking her beyond pleasure, beyond reason, until all she could do was beg .

Because he would always rather give her too much than not enough. Rather over-satisfy his woman than leave her starving.

The wet, obscene sounds filled the chamber, growing louder with each sharp snap of his hips.

Ruthless. Unrelenting. Inescapable.

Dragging her through mini orgasms and aftershocks, wringing tiny broken sobs from her with each stroke, even as she quivered and sobbed beneath him. Yet he did not stop.

Because she could take it. She was his. This was what she needed. And he was all too happy to give it to her.

But then… the hunger came again.

Urekai males followed an unwritten rule, do not bloodfeed during heat sex.

The coupling was already too much. An overload of sensation. Throwing in bloodfeeding on top of it? Cruel .

The urge almost never came during heat.

Almost.

But now, it did.

Fucking hell, it did. Clawing at him like a feral defending its territory.

Daemonikai had no idea if it was because of her messy heat hormones failing to condition his rut properly, or the events of the night—the danger, the helplessness he had felt earlier—but the urge to possess her with his fangs was there. And it was strong .

Gums aching, fangs throbbing, saliva pooling endlessly no matter how hard he swallowed.

" Your body should be outlawed," his growl was as animalistic as his thrusts. Slam. Slam. Slam. "Too fucking addictive."

"Mercy! Please! More. Oh gods. Enough. More—"

Daemonikai chuckled darkly, watching the delicious contradiction spill from her lips.

"My sweet, indecisive little slut…” he drawled, dragging his tongue over his teeth. "Make up your blissed-out mind.”

"Oh goddess...!"

She could not. She would not. She was ruined. Ravaged .

So he kept going. Pounding into her even as more slick gushed from her loosened body, making the wet, sloppy sounds all the more obscene.

"I cannot stop," his own voice sounded wrecked. "Just a little bit more." He was obsessed with this body. "Cannot have enough."

His eyes remained locked onto her enticing throat. That pulsing vein...

He was starving .

And she was right there .

His fangs elongated, and with a grunt of surrender, he sank them home.

She yelled. It rose in the air… and cut off , everything in her going slack.

In seconds, every active muscle, every trembling bone, every tense fiber in her body melted into the sheets. His Riel—sweet, devoured, bewitching little princess—was out like a light.

Devil’s sticks, perhaps I should not have done that. Her blood trickled down his throat like a hot, rich ambrosia. The delicious food of the gods.

Daemonikai’s roar of pleasure as his cock exploded was muffled against her neck. He pumped into her, release jetting out in thick, powerful ropes, filling her up so deep. Spilling yet again into that pulsing loosened mouth of her abused womb.

His body fucking shook. His breathing loud. His mind blanking to white noise.

Then, he collapsed on top of her. For the briefest moment, all strength left him, and he felt as weak as a newborn while he struggled to steady his breathing.

And when he finally pulled out, his semen dribbled from her, thick and plentiful, threatening to spill onto the sheets—

A feral snarl tore from his throat.

Riding on pure instinct, he seized her limp thighs, pressing them together, tilting her hips upward to keep every last drop of his cum inside her.

None must drip out!

Mine, mine, MINE!

***

Moments later, Daemonikai emerged from the bathing chamber, feeling calmer and satisfied. He draped himself in one of Vladya’s loose, comfortable garments.

He stopped by Emeriel's bedside. Her mini-heat should be abating by now, but Daemonikai did not want to take any chances. Pulling the blanket over her, he tucked it gently around her shoulders.

Then, watched her. Sweeping his eyes over her delicate features for a long while to ensure she was truly at peace.

When he was satisfied, he finally stepped out and headed for the living room.

Vladya stood by the window, a glass in hand, staring outside. At the sound of Daemonikai’s footsteps, he turned slightly, glancing over his shoulder.

"Is Aekeira asleep?" Daemonikai asked as he approached.

Vladya nodded. "She has had a long day... and an even longer night."

"Emeriel too.”

Standing beside Vladya, they stared down at the courtyard below.

Blackstone was alive with celebration all night and into the morning. Firelight flickered across the cobblestone streets, the sounds of cheering, music, and dancing.

The city pulsed with joy. The people were rejoicing. The news of their ruler’s Soulbond had spread like wildfire.

But Daemonikai remembered the terrifying events of yesterday and sobered. “Those sisters may be human, but their wills surpass even a Urekai’s. Ukrae truly blessed us with the strongest women."

"He did." Vladya swallowed, fingers tightening around his glass. "I keep thinking about the day Ottai and I acquired them. There are twenty-one human kingdoms, and yet, somehow, Navia was the one we chose to bestow our presence upon. The one we demanded a princess from."

A wry smile tugged at Vladya’s lips. "I bought Aekeira, and her little ‘brother’ bravely told me if I did not take him as well, he would always try to cross the great mountain just to reach his sister."

Daemonikai let out a quiet huff of amusement. That sounded like his Emeriel, alright.

Vladya sighed, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. "Who would have thought the decision to angrily acquire these women would change the course of our lives? That we would find the greatest treasures in a land ruled by the very species we despised most?"

Daemonikai shook his head. He, too, was amazed by it all.

"Fate truly cannot be interfered with,” Vladya mused. “That bitch. I always thought she hated me, yet she knew exactly what she was doing all along."

Daemonikai glanced out at the firelit streets, at the people dancing, laughing, raising their cups in celebration. "Everyone is happy about this.” He lifted his chin toward them. “Look at them."

Vladya did.

Daemonikai turned to him, then slowly opened his arms.

Vladya threw him a side-eyed glare, then looked away. "I am not a youngling. I do not need hugs."

Daemonikai refrained from rolling his eyes. His famous last words.

So he waited, patient as ever.

A beat passed.

And then Vladya barreled into him, clasping him with a force that even Daemonikai had not expected.

"I have a Soulbond , Ancient One," Vladya said, voice hoarse.

Daemonikai relaxed into the hold, clasping him just as tightly. "Congratulations, V.D."

Vladya wasn’t the only one who felt a knot in his chest loosen. Daemonikai felt an overpowering relief .

For his friend, for this moment, for the way Vladya’s world had suddenly, unexpectedly righted itself.

Finally, Daemonikai saw color in a world that had once been nothing but black and white.

And it made him— completely, immensely —happy.