Page 37 of Where the Shadows Land (Garden of Hope #1)

“Are bent to our will. Would you like them to be tighter, vixen?”

Goosebumps rose across Astoria’s skin and she clenched around Mairuk’s shafts. The haze of their influence seeped into her mind and turned the brightness of the colors and sensations to blinding brightness. She flexed her arms and squeezed the vines in her palms. “Yes. Make them tighter, please.”

“When you ask for what you want so sweetly, how could we say no?” Mairuk purred. The vines tightened and pulled her arms up above her head, pinning her in place. Other vines trailed further around Astoria’s body, wrapping around her breasts, and the tips flicked over her nipples.

Astoria arched into their touch with a sharp gasp.

Mairuk pulled her hips into theirs, slamming their lengths as deep in as they could go.

Their kastae snapped onto her clit, instantly molding to her shape as it vibrated and sucked.

The pleasure jolted through her body like a lightning strike, and she came with a choked cry.

“You are so beautiful like this. We could watch you come for eternity.” Mairuk fucked her through her release, extending the pleasure with each slow roll of their hips.

Astoria couldn’t respond. Words were too hard to form through her panting breaths and dazed mind.

Mairuk pulled back to the entrance of her holes, then slammed all the way inside in one deep thrust. They kept the brutal pace, stretching her open again and again, forcing her to take them.

Each time they pulled back, their kastae released her clit with a pop, then wrapped back around it again.

She came every time it reattached, unable to hold back.

The olctae in her ass took the breath from her lungs. Their top shaft in her cunt stretched her so wide it burned in the best way. Both reached so deep inside her, Astoria’s lungs couldn’t expand enough to take a full breath.

Mairuk’s pace never slowed, the sucking on her clit only increasing the longer their kastae remained attached to her.

With each pulse and suck, Mairuk’s neck glowed with blue light.

The rush of magic in her, in them, and in the air tingled against the roof of her mouth and the hard peaks of her nipples.

Mairuk’s meaty hands on her body, the brush of the supple vines against her nipples, and the thrusts deep in her core sent her tumbling to yet another release.

“That’s it, vixen. Come again, coat us. Let us feel you shatter.

” Mairuk’s voice caressed her ears, and her body couldn’t help but obey.

Gripping the vines that held her hands, Astoria came screaming Mairuk’s name.

Their name became her prayer, the only one she chanted as she came down from her release.

Their thrusts grew shallow as they rooted into her depths.

The small tendrils vibrated against her inner walls in time with their kastae around her oversensitive clit.

They rocked inside her, tugging at the roots that locked them together.

Each tug sent deep waves of pleasure crashing through her veins.

Mairuk leaned down to kiss her, and she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around their neck and keep them close, but the vines held strong.

She clenched her thighs around them as tight as she could to limit their movement further, keeping them tangled in her hold. The taste of fresh rain danced across her tongue when their lips met and Astoria moaned into their mouth, fighting against the bindings.

“We have you,” Mairuk said into her mind. They kissed her, deep and slow in time with their languid thrusts. “You are going to come for us one more time. ”

Astoria made a sound of protest against their lips that Mairuk devoured. I can’t.

“Yes, you can. Give us one more, then we will fill your pretty holes with our release. Cover you in so many of our spores that no other will try to come close to you. There will be no doubt of who you belong to. You are our pretty little human. Ours. You are ours and you will come for us again.”

A deep, gravelly sound rumbled with their voice in her mind, fierce and half feral. The command was sharp and their possessiveness coaxed bliss from the darkest corners of her awareness. The pleasure built higher and higher until she bowed to their command and came for the fourth time. Yours.

The heads of their shafts expanded and rooted in place, stretching her so wide it burned.

Mairuk’s deep growl reverberated through her, extending the aftershocks that refused to release her as Mairuk came.

The thick, cool spore poured inside her, and the feeling was enough to send her over the edge again.

White-hot, static-filled pleasure consumed her.

The world faded away, leaving only bliss and sensation.

Nothing existed outside of the pleasure and Mairuk.

Gentle fingers wiped the wet tears from her cheeks and she nuzzled into the cool texture of her monster’s skin.

She leaned up, nuzzling her neck into the spongy growths on their chest and inhaling their scent.

The vines released her tingling arms, and she wrapped them around Mairuk’s neck, clutching to them.

Their hands traced a soothing pattern down her back.

Mairuk took a deep, slow breath and Astoria followed suit.

Her tears eased the longer the pair breathed together.

Each slow exhale brought her one step closer to her body and awareness.

Astoria’s eyes opened, and the world still carried the sweet haze of Mairuk’s influence.

At some point in the haze, they moved, so Astoria laid on their chest. She nuzzled deeper into them with a contented hum.

The countless growths on their body pulsed under her, moving in time with the gentle hand on her back.

“You are magnificent, Astoria. ”

Under the buzz of their influence, Astoria giggled and lifted her head to face them. “Are you sure about that? What about my moodiness and sour attitude?”

Mairuk cupped her face in their hand and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“You feel deeply, and it is a beautiful thing. Give us your sour attitude, give us your joy, and give us your pain. We will take all of your moods with gratitude. You are a force of nature, and as a creature of it, we are blessed to bask in your glory.”

An emotion Astoria didn’t have the time to question or name bubbled up from the surface and she cried into Mairuk’s shoulder. She clung to them as if they were her lifeline and refused to let them go.