Page 44 of These Eternal Bones

Impossibility of Promises

Game of Survival - Ruelle

Molly

My world pivots wildly as I’m jerked off my feet, crushed into arms that rival the winter wind, my head reeling.

There are no sweet words, not even a kiss, as Elric’s dark, crazed eyes meet mine, swimming in need and rage.

My lips part on a stifled moan as he drags his tongue over the scratch on my face.

I’d long stopped feeling the sting or welling of blood.

My mind wobbles, and I don’t get even a second to orient myself; there’s no bracing, no soft warning kisses, only savage growls and the pricking of claws as I’m bound by his tendrils, restrained and wrangled chest down into the icy ground.

A gasp rips from my throat as the clasp on my cloak gives, only the front of my thin nighttime slip offering a barrier between my heated breasts and the snow.

I try to brace myself, pushing up, only for his arm to snake around my heaving chest, his claw tipped hands capture my chin.

“You are mine.”

I want to say yes; I mean to…I mean to scream it at the top of my lungs, but the word never comes, only his bite.

And he bites deep.

For a few seconds, my world is dark, confused agony, before it parts for bliss.

Pure and blinding as he takes a drag of me into his mouth.

My thighs press together tightly as he crouches over me, very much a rabid animal protecting his willing prey.

Tendrils soothe and snap, pinch and tickle, and I am all sensation.

All touch. I moan as he drinks deep again, my core throbbing as if he’s buried deep inside it.

I’m brimming, hurtling toward the brink of oblivion, when my hazy, unfocused eyes watch him slice through the pad of his pointer and middle finger with a claw.

Blood a shade too dark to be natural, welling before he feeds them into my mouth.

My eyes widen, a whimper of disgust coming too late before he growls against my neck. “Drink.”

The revulsion passes quickly, and drink I do.

Whatever euphoria I felt doubles with the weight of the universe as I suck his fingers greedily into my mouth.

Spice and cedar hit my tongue, invading my senses.

The sounds I make are lewd and unholy as I scream my release around the digits, grinding my empty center into the snow covered dirt, infected by a heat not even it can cool.

My body goes limp as he releases my neck, and when I’m pulled into his arms, it's with the care of the man, not the animal, although I can see it lurking, pacing behind his eyes.

Eyes swimming with ink, he bares his bloody, sharpened canines, lifting my hand to his mouth.

I watch as the sizzling venom, as he calls it, drips from the top where his tooth meets gum, looking uncomfortably engorged.

I mean to ask if he’s okay, if he’d extracted it today, but I don’t get a chance, balling up tiny on his lap.

Elric’s movements are back to his usual reverence and grace as he kisses the tip of my ring finger.

I watch entranced as he makes his way to the old scar.

I rarely notice it these days. My past doesn’t hold the same horror and dread, only lessons, only necessary pain that led me here.

My lips part as he pricks the thick scarred skin, ever so gently, with the tip of his fang.

Allowing a single drop of venom into the tiny cut.

My brow crinkles in pain as the burn sets in deep, far more pain than pleasure, but I swallow down my whimper.

He presses my palm to his face, as if to ward off whatever will happen next.

Those blackened veins overtaking his inky, swirling eyes.

Panic seizes my chest because it… hurts .

My eyes widen, and I cry out, trying to jerk my arm away as the venom snakes up my veins, turning my arm into a throbbing inferno.

He holds me tightly, pressing a kiss to my inner wrist that offers a slight distraction.

“It will only last a second, my love. My mate. My everything.” There’s such reverence in his words.

I’m sobbing by the time the venom strikes my chest, anticipating something horrible, but the horrible doesn’t come.

It's hot, but the inferno weakens to a comforting warmth as it settles between my breasts. My mouth gapes as Elric’s forehead meets mine, unbothered by my loud guttural sobbing.

Because I feel him.

It’s small at first, easy to miss, and then it snaps into place like the thrum of a guitar.

Love.

Fear.

Awe.

Worry.

Guilt .

His fist falls to his own chest, absently rubbing the spot, something I’d noticed him doing before. My sobbing only comes harder, understanding the meaning. “C-can you feel me there?” I hiccup, trying to stifle and contain my tears.

He nods before slamming his lips to mine. I whimper, my tears slicking his cheeks as he consumes me, the taste of copper on his tongue. When he breaks away, I know it’s for my benefit alone, to allow me a slight breath.

“What does it feel like?” I whisper, my chest heaving as if there’s not enough air in the world to satisfy my lungs.

“Like I’m not alone.”

“I won’t. I won’t ever leave you alone again, Elric. I wouldn’t dare.”

He offers me a smile, one that lifts the corners of his eyes, but I can feel the pang of hurt through the bond as he gathers me into his arms. It's such an odd, full feeling.

He kisses me again, hands tangling with tendrils fighting for an inch of my skin, and when he pulls back, leaving me gasping, his eyes are hungry.

Tucking me into my chest, he blurs as he takes us home.

Elric

My pretty little human is free from her clothes by the time I settle her in front of the fireplace.

The rightness, the sudden fullness of my chest, my heart is finally back in its rightful place after years lost to me.

Not even the horror of what will come next can dampen the high she brings me to.

I stalk her, fighting to keep hold of my more honorable, polite form as flashes of her clutched to the back of the damn fox invades my mind.

Molly gasps, her hand slamming between her breasts. “You’re jealous.”

“My mate fled our bedchamber, clutched to the back of another being, as he helped her flee…me. Wears nothing but a slip, with your core bare to him…oh, and only after you formed a soul connection with him, giving him allowances to your mind even I do not possess.” The last words are a growl, and this isn’t what I am meant to be doing right now.

I am meant to be warming her by the fire while I worship her flesh, covering his scent with my own while I pump her reddened achy core full of my cock.

The urge to growl bubbles in my throat, but I suck it back.

She at least has enough conscience to look sheepish. “I hadn’t known that was what he wanted my name for.”

I do growl then, the sound savage as my tendrils snag her while I make quick work of removing my pants, the only thing I’d left the castle in.

She yelps, and instantly, I check their grip, ensuring I didn’t hurt her.

I didn’t. My sweet, tricky mate just got everything she wanted.

She forced my hand. Despite the consequences, the sand is now working double time to run through our proverbial hourglass, and I can’t find it in myself to be upset.

The right word would be grateful.

If I were being honest with myself.

Relieved and horrified at the same time.

Dread and anticipation.

Horror and awe.

“My strong little mate,” I coo at her, loving the way it heats her flesh to the most beautiful shade of pink.

Around fifty years ago, I’d had flowers imported that I’d hoped would match the shade; they did before they withered.

Nothing grows on these grounds. The soil is too saturated with blood and suffering to give anything life.

I fear that was the case long before we arrived.

My cock throbs painfully in the face of her rapt attention as my tendrils lift her, making her squirm and tug, but it’s all for show and I do enjoy watching.

Her nipples are peaked, her skin flushed, and there’s a mouthwatering sheen to her inner thighs as my tendrils suspend her before me, forcing them apart so she can hide nothing of herself.

She’s watching me, chest heaving as I bind her arms above her head, weaving my tendrils over her smooth, freckled flesh.

When I go to her, our faces level with one another, a proud smile bleeds onto my face at the sight of my bite on her neck.

It won’t fade, but the soreness will. I drag my tendrils, infinite in their form, numbers, and shape, gently up her inner thighs, making her tense and whimper. “Elric…”

“Yes, my love?”

“I-I want you.”

Those words alone nearly undo my restraint, but this isn’t about me. This sweet torment will continue until she’s sobbing for it with an apology on her lips. This is every bit a reward and a punishment. “Have you any clue how terrified I was when I woke to find you gone?”

“What?” She gasps at the sudden turn in topic, my tendrils making languid passes along her heated flesh, brushing her nipples, featherlight. Stroking her core, once, twice, three times, only to move away before they get proper purchase.

“You have yet to apologize,” I offer, hiding a smirk on my lips. At least mostly.

Her eyes snap open. “You cannot be serious.”

“Oh, but I am deathly so. We are eleven supernaturals shorter here at the estate thanks to you slipping out in the night, bare and smelling of excitement and slick. ”

Her face reddens, giving her binds a little tug. “Perhaps you haven’t received an apology because I am not, in the slightest bit, sorry.”