Page 43

Chapter 42

Adeline

H er body melted into the mattress as Rolf lay panting on top of her, a comforting weight while he softened inside her. He withdrew slowly, leaving a trail of his cum against her leg. His hand cupped her backside, stroking the sensitive skin where her curve met her leg, then he dragged his finger through his seed, up to where his cock had just filled her.

“I want to fill you with my cum until it pours out of you,” he whispered in her ear. He slipped his finger inside her, pushing his cum farther into her. She groaned as he wound her up again, and for the first time in ages, she didn’t want to wipe herself clean.

She wanted his cum to spill out of her, to dry on her skin. She wanted to be covered in it. To be marked by him. To smell like him. To belong to him.

Her left breast throbbed where he had bitten her, the center of her chest pulsed with heat—an aching, blissful feeling that swam just underneath her skin.

“Adeline,” he whispered. His fingers brushed her temples as he tucked a stray strand from her forehead. “Can you feel it?”

She turned slightly, rubbing the center of her chest where the slow heat had started to build. She closed her eyes, the new sensation tingling down to the tips of her fingers. “Yes.”

He smiled and kissed her forehead. “It’s like a fire inside that flares every time I think of you.”

Rolf, she whispered.

Adeline. Her head whipped around to meet his gaze. His lips were closed, but she heard it again, clearer this time. Adeline .

Her chest pulsed, like someone tugged on an invisible string. Puzzled, she dipped her head to look between her breasts, then rubbed her sternum where the fire pulsed stronger. There was nothing noticeable on the outside but, yes, the fire he spoke of roared inside her.

“Is this—” She could barely form a thought.

“I think so,” he replied. His voice was low, gravely, husky as he added: “Mate.”

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. Thick and muscular and steady, his body scooped around hers. His heart thumped rapidly through his chest, against her back, and she snuggled into him.

They lay like that for a few minutes, passing thoughts back and forth until Rolf’s breathing evened out, his arm got heavier, and his grip relaxed. She snuck a look back at him and saw that he had fallen asleep. As gingerly as she could, she turned in his arms. She stared at his sleeping figure, and deep contentment pooled low in her belly as she memorized his features.

I do much prefer the beard, she thought as she lightly traced the scruff that lined his jaw. He had a few scars that she hadn’t noticed before. Some were small nicks, but there was one on the left side of his face, near his ear, that caught her attention. Two marks, equally spaced, but not deep enough or wide enough to be a bite mark. Her fingers touched one of them gently, her nails elongated to fine points, and as she traced it, she realized that someone must have tried to grab his neck with claws of a similar shape.

Erik? Or someone else?

Adeline filed it away to ask him about later and dragged the tip of her nail down his neck, featherlight, until she reached the spiderweb scar on his shoulder. She rested her hand against his skin, wondering why it had remained while the rest of him had transformed when his shifter magic was activated in the stones.

Rolf snored and Adeline suppressed a giggle as she burrowed her head into his chest. She inhaled his woodsy scent, the shifter musk, the smell of sweat and sex that danced across his skin and in his chest hair. She splayed her hands against him, his heartbeat strong under her fingertips, and within moments, she let herself rest.

* * *

Adeline stretched, and her legs stuck where some of Rolf’s seed had dried. She opened her eyes slowly—the late-afternoon sunlight streamed through the small window in her room. She had forgotten how bright the sun got as it changed course in the autumn sky. An orange glow set the gilded accents in the room ablaze.

Her hands brushed away an itch on her neck. She had fully healed and she could think clearly, the constant gnawing of hunger had abated, and though she craved more from Rolf, she knew that she could last a little while longer on what she had taken from him.

She closed her eyes for a few moments, and when she did, it was as if the entire room had come alive. She listened: the flicker of the candles next to her bed, the soft inhale of Rolf next to her, the beating of his heart, the silent hallway outside her door—all were easier for her to hear.

Air prickled her skin. The fire had long gone out, but Rolf was still sticky-hot beside her. His arm kept her pinned to the bed, and his thumb stroked beneath the curve of her breast. The swish of his skin as it brushed hers lit gooseflesh up and down her arms. Even her skin felt like it was alive.

She opened her eyes. The light had shifted, and the gilded accents dulled as the sun slipped out of view of the window. Opaque shadows curled at the edges of the room, forming distantly familiar shapes on the walls as the candles flickered. Adeline blinked a few times, but the shadows never changed. She swiped her hands in front of her, but when she lifted them, the silver around her wrists glowed with a halo of light. When she touched the wards, a jolt of energy traveled down her arm.

“Do—do you see this?” Adeline asked, turning her head to Rolf and lifting her arms to show him the chains.

His eyes were still closed, but he mumbled against the side of her head, “Hmm, you smell delightful.”

“Rolf, I’ve never experienced this before,” she said, shaking the bed to wake him. “The lights, the colors?”

The shadows?

“What do you mean?” he asked, propping himself up on his arm. He ran his hand over his face and yawned.

Adeline turned and braced against his chest. She gestured to the chains. “Are they glowing to you?”

“No.” He shook his head, frowning. “They’re shiny, but they aren’t glowing.”

She settled back into the bed, something gnawing at the edges of her memory. It was an odd sensation, seeing colors this rich, hearing sounds so clearly, watching shadows move on their own. As a vampire, her every sense was heightened, but nothing to the degree she felt now.

Mate, Rolf’s voice tugged on the bond. “Where did you go, Adeline?”

“I—” She stopped. Was she going crazy or was this the reason why Erik wanted to mate with her? But now that she was mated to Rolf… “I know what we have to do.”

A devilish smile curled at the corner of Rolf’s lips. “What does my darkness have in mind?”

His darkness. Warmth bloomed in the center of her chest, and Rolf rubbed her back, trailing slow circles with his fingers between her shoulder blades.

“Mating gave us the advantage we need.” She pushed off his chest and sat up, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Rolf’s hand slipped from her back and rested on her leg, his thumb grazing the sensitive skin on her inner thigh. She shivered and placed her hand over his to still the distracting touch. She could see her plan laid out clearly.

Adeline looked to the window; the sun would set in an hour, and the vampires would become more active soon. “We have to act like Erik knows you’re alive and coming to get me. He has contingencies upon contingencies. You mentioned you wanted to set this place on fire…”

“Burn the whole thing to the ground with the vampires trapped inside, yes.”

“Then we do it.”

Rolf smiled; his eyes flicked to the candles on her vanity. “Now?”

“Erik is eager to marry me,” she said. “And?—”

Rolf growled, cutting her off.

“Stop that. Just listen—we are running out of time and I have it all worked out.”

Rolf held up his hands and sat up, facing her. “I can’t help but get protective, Adeline.”

Adeline cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, but I can’t have you acting like a fool. Erik doesn’t know you’re alive or that you’re even here, right?”

“As far as I know. It was just the enchantments down below, but I kept out of sight, and any of the servants I did see were all glamoured.”

Adeline closed her eyes, trying to remember how long it had been when Erik glamoured the castle the first time. The two of them had stumbled upon the ruined shell of this place centuries ago. He had hired several local workers to restore it so he could make it a safe haven for his progeny. After the restoration was finished, Erik and Adeline drank the workers dry so no one could spread rumors. One night, she had been restless, wandering the halls, only to hear strange chanting coming from the throne room. Through a crack in the door, she found Erik covered in blood. He had painted symbols across his skin and the floor and he was mumbling incantations while his eyes glowed red.

Afterward, the castle was enchanted, and they had lived there in peace since. She didn’t know if Rolf had triggered an alert, but she had to assume that Erik would know.

His eyes had been red… Something nagged at the back of her mind and she could almost recall why that now felt so familiar. A fairy story?

“If the castle knows there is an intruder, we have even less time than I thought. Hopefully, Erik doesn’t know it’s you, but again, let’s assume he does. He’s eager to marry me, he wants to mate, he wants me as his for eternity. When I suggested moving up the wedding date, he didn’t hesitate. In fact, he said it was a good idea.”

The list in her head kept going and she could feel her chest getting tight with anticipation, so she took a few measured breaths. There was no telling what Erik was going to do tonight, but the fact that he had been so eager to see her acquiesce meant that there were sure to be a few surprises. Erik was, after all, twenty steps ahead. “You need to dress as a servant. Blend in.”

Rolf rubbed his jaw. “Then cause a distraction.”

“Exactly,” she said.

“I need to free the other fae first,” Rolf added.

“Then you need to get down there, now. Wait until it is dark and then set fire to the lower levels.”

“Flush them out, you mean?”

Adeline agreed. “If they aren’t in the ballroom, where I think Erik will have us get married, then we need them in there. But you have to leave before the sun sets.”

Rolf went deadly still, his mouth parted as if he was going to say something. Alarm reverberated down their shared thread. Adeline closed her eyes. His blood still thrummed inside her, fueling her, strengthening her as she listened to the sounds in the hall.

Voices. The message thrummed through their bond.

Juliette and one other…a voice she couldn’t recognize.

“Rolf,” she whispered, her eyes wide.

But he was already off the bed and grabbing his clothes. She forgot how quickly he could move as a wolf shifter, but even now, he had a grace to his movements he hadn’t before. The bond pulsed between them, and they moved in sync, anticipating each others’ movements seconds before they acted. It was like a dance. Rolf dressed, Adeline dressed.

Don’t kill. Not yet. Adeline sent her thoughts down to Rolf. They couldn’t risk their plan being foiled, not yet. Rolf needed to get down to the servants before anything else happened. He looked as if he wanted to object, but then his thread shimmered with agreement.

She was mated now. Despite the chance that they’d be discovered and their entire plan would be ruined, this was the calmest she had felt in ages. As if everything had slotted into place after centuries of loneliness. She’d never wanted to belong to any man, but having a companion? With Rolf, it seemed possible. How long had it been since she’d felt this connected to anyone else other than her mother and sister?

Too long. And she was ready to hold on to this with everything she had.

Erik wasn’t going to take Rolf away from her again. Erik wasn’t going to win.

My darkness, Rolf sent through the thread, snapping her back into the present.

She rubbed her sternum and met Rolf’s gaze. He held up his fingers, signaling that the voices neared her room. She tightened the laces on her corset and looked around. They needed a distraction, something to get Rolf out of there safely.