Page 45 of Where the Shadows Land (Garden of Hope #1)

Mairuk’s next kiss was all-consuming, their tongue tangled with hers and they squeezed her body against theirs tight enough to leave a bruise.

They kissed down her neck, to her chest, then to the opening of her robe.

Giggling, she danced out of the way to still their hands.

They tilted their cap, and her fingers found the clasp of their robe.

If the loktossi bond was about claiming, then she would take what she wanted first.

With ravenous need flaming in her blood, Astoria pushed the robe off their wide shoulders.

It pooled at their wrists. A bundle of starlight and magic, so pure looking at it cleansed her of any sins she ever committed, both real and imagined.

Mesmerized by the way the refracted light played with the ridges and valleys of their body, she kissed down their chest and sat tall on her knees.

Her fingers danced over each cluster of growths on their body as she sank down to the soft blanket.

Their shafts, blue, to purple, to pink, wiggled in front of her face, Mairuk’s need for her clear in how wet their shafts were.

She hummed as she took them in her hands, the slickness of them granting her grip a smooth glide as she stroked both their shafts.

Each bump and ridge of their skin was a brand against her slippery palms. She opened her mouth and took the upper shaft between her lips, and moaned at the taste of them .

Divine. Ambrosial. Fresh and sweet like honeysuckle nectar, Astoria greedily drank in their desire.

She hollowed out her cheeks and swirled her tongue under the rim of the wide cap, swallowing when they gifted her more of their arousal.

A choked gasp fell from their lips, and she moved to their lower shaft.

She took them into her throat until she gagged, pulled back enough to breathe, then swirled her tongue around the lower cap.

Astoria returned to the top shaft and repeated the process.

Time lost meaning. She sucked as it pleased her to do so.

Their hand around the back of her head and their breathy moans were the only encouragement she needed.

A tingle of awareness prickled at the back of her mind, signaling the other sets of eyes on her as she pleasured her monster.

Instead of the awkward insecurity she felt earlier, the extra eyes on her became an allure.

Others witnessed her submission, her devotion, her desire for Mairuk, but not a single one of them would dare touch her.

Not when it was obvious who she belonged to.

“Astoria,” Mairuk’s strained voice rang in her mind, clearer than it had ever been. “If you do not stop, we will root inside your throat.”

A giggle was Astoria’s only response. She locked her gaze on theirs. Her fist squeezed as she stroked their lower shaft, and she took as much of their upper one into her mouth as she could. Do it. Fill my throat.

As if they heard her, Mairuk groaned. Their fingers wove into her hair, pulled her into their body, then thrust themselves into her mouth.

She went lax, opening her jaw in welcome of their advance.

She focused all her attention on stroking their lower shaft while they used her throat.

Squeezing in time with their thrusts. A low growl vibrated through them and danced into hers, straight to her clit. That was her only warning.

Mairuk rooted in her mouth and around her hands.

Each vibrating tendril locked them in place and limited their movements.

Her hands and lips could only move an inch or so.

The tendrils vibrated hard enough to rattle her mind, heightening her own bliss.

She rolled her tongue, and the roots on the cap of their cock in her mouth expanded, rooting her tongue in place as Mairuk’s thick release shot down her throat and all across her chest.

As sweet as their arousal, but with the burn of strong alcohol, it poured down her throat.

Astoria greedily swallowed every drop. Each gulp of it down her throat sent her floating higher and higher until she became one with the clouds.

She sucked until they stopped coming, and she stayed there, languid until the roots released her.

She pulled her mouth back with a pop and dropped their slippery length from her still-buzzing fingertips.

Thick, dark purple splatters covered the front of her gossamer robe.

They soaked the garment through to her skin, removing any hope of modesty.

Mairuk let their robe fall completely from their body and they sank to their knees on the blanket.

The predatory look on their face made Astoria’s toes curl.

She giggled as Mairuk leaned down to kiss her, their hands making quick work of the clasp of her robe.

Mairuk’s deft hands pushed it off her shoulders.

Their palm against the bare skin of her back made her moan into their mouth.

She wrapped her now bare arms around their neck, then rocked her body up into their hold.

The robe fell away and she laid back on the bed of soft blankets and pillows.

Her legs spread wide, and she traced a hand down her stomach to her soaked lips.

Her other hand pinched her nipple and her body arched under the pleasure of her delicate fingers on her skin.

Mairuk groaned and pushed her hands out of the way, cupping her sex in their palm. They growled. “None of that, vixen. If you misbehave, we will have no choice but to bind your hands. You do not want the others to see you like that, do you?”

Her skin broke out in goosebumps as the feeling of the other eyes registered in her mind.

Perhaps she should’ve said no and been perfectly obedient, but she was too far gone for reason to matter.

She grinned up at Mairuk, dazed, and rolled her nipples between her fingers.

Her hips rocked into their hand and soaked them with her desire.

“Dirty little vixen.” Mairuk pinned her hands above her head and called mycelium up from the ground.

The soft, damp texture of it wrapped around her fingers and wrists, binding her in place.

More broke through the dirt and wrapped around her ankles.

It snaked up her thighs, then burrowed down into the ground below.

Her arms tied high above her head and her thighs splayed wide open, Astoria was fully exposed to Mairuk’s hungry gaze.

They stuffed two of their thick fingers into her drenched cunt.

She whined and rolled her hips in search of more, but Mairuk pulled back instead of giving in.

The way she was bound, she couldn’t chase their touch. A defeated cry left her lips.

“That’s our pretty little human. Cry for us.

Let us hear you.” Mairuk leaned over her body and kissed her, moving from her lips, to her neck, to her breasts, then back up again.

They hovered just out of reach, denying her any of the friction she ached for.

Her desire grew, her pussy clenching on air under their teasing touches.

Mairuk dragged their tongue over her nipple, and in the same breath they sank both their fingers back inside her spasming channel.

Her back arched, and she cried in relief, the coolness of their fingers a balm to her overheated, needy body.

The wet sound of her pussy under the strokes of their thick fingers rang loud in her ears.

One of their long, tentacle-like fingers left her cunt and sank into her ass, and she moaned.

“You love when we stretch your pretty little human holes, don’t you?” Mairuk asked.

“Yes!”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, I love when you stretch my holes! Please give me your olctae , Mairuk. I need them. Please! ”

“What good manners you have,” Mairuk praised. They kissed each of her nipples and hummed. “We will give you what you need, but you have to come first. Can you do that for us?”

“Yes, yes yes! I’ll do anything you want if you’ll give me your cocks!” Astoria strained against the roots and whined when they wouldn’t budge.

“Come for us, Astoria. Show the witnesses how you shatter so prettily for us.”

She needed no further encouragement. The tone and vibration of their voice against her mind drew her to the precipice and she fell, shattering into bliss as they commanded.

She cried with the intensity of her release, and a choked sob heaved from her chest. She fought against the bindings, trying to curl into herself from the weight of the pleasure.

The mycelium didn’t give, and she trembled, soaking Mairuk’s fingers as they stroked her through her first release.

Astoria didn’t have the chance to catch her breath.

Mairuk pressed the finger that had been inside her cunt into her mouth, and she obediently sucked.

Distracted by her flavor on Mairuk’s skin, she didn’t notice they moved until the thick cap of their upper cock rubbed against her clit.

She jolted and whined, desperate to feel them inside her.

Their arousal dripped onto her clit and tingled against her already sensitive skin. Her cries grew with her frustration, both worsening under the teasing roll of Mairuk’s hips. The words that fell from her lips were so thick with her tears they became nothing but incoherent, begging babble.

“Hush, we have you,” Mairuk cooed. They cupped her cheek and wiped away her tears with a gentle stroke of their fingers. “Are you ready to become ours, Astoria?”

“Yes! I’m ready to become yours. Please, please fuck me!”

Mairuk sank both cocks in to the base, one in each of her holes.

Her choked sob of relief echoed through the garden, matched only by her cry of bliss a moment later when their kastae latched onto her clit.

Each of the small, vibrating tendrils that wrapped around her clit and it sucked her in with the force of a storm.

She flew over the edge of pleasure a second time.

Mairuk’s brutal thrusts tingled with magic as they chanted above her, the language familiar but undecipherable in her state.

It sang to her body, her mind, her heart, and her soul.

Every fiber of her being answered to Mairuk’s power.

Her eyes fell open, gazing up at the Rholctai who brought her back from death twice over, and brought color back to her gray world.

The one who granted her hope. Their pink eyes grew brighter with their magic, and so did the ring on their neck.

Both so blinding it hurt to look at them.

Some may have looked on and seen a nightmare.

A monster ravaging a helpless woman, but Astoria saw this moment as a dream come to life.

Mairuk was hers, binding her body because she needed it.

Fucking her hard enough to shake everything outside of them from her mind because she needed it.

She submitted to them, but they worshiped her with their dominance.

Each roll of their hips was perfectly positioned to bring her closer and closer to a third release.

The pressure built higher, vibrating her body with a mix of burning need and tingling magic.

Her blood rushed under her skin. The silver threads she always saw under Mairuk’s influence glittered bright under their magic.

Each one connected her skin to theirs. The silver threads danced around their bodies, so tangible that if Astoria had the use of her hands, she would’ve reached out and touched them.

They brushed over her skin and deepened her pleasure.

Mairuk’s thrusts grew shorter, more sporadic as they rooted in her depths.

They moaned when she clenched around them, the sound the sweetest music to Astoria’s ears.

Mairuk pulled one of the tall blue and pink mushrooms over their heart off of their body.

Their fingertip traced between her breasts and sliced her skin apart with the faintest brush of pain.

“Under the light of the moon, as witnessed by companions of the Spirit of Mieotsy and Goddess Ayloo, we bind Astoria of Leilan to us, body, mind, and soul.” Mairuk panted the words, need turning their voice husky and rich in her ears.

They slowed their thrusts and tilted Astoria’s chin to get her to meet their eyes.

“Once we give you this, you will become our loktossi . You will belong to us as we belong to you. Do you accept?”

“Yes. I’m yours, Mairuk. Mark me.”

Mairuk placed the small piece of themselves into the bleeding wound on Astoria’s chest. Dozens of tiny roots shot out of the base and stitched her skin back together with magic so pure it struck her like lightning.

With a rush of power, her awareness whited out in pure static.

The pleasure melted her mind, seeped into her bones, into her soul and reforged her in blissful light.

Magic, life, and light overwhelmed all her other thoughts. Mairuk’s body rocked against hers, their release filling her depths. Her chest tingled with magic, hot and bright. All that existed in that moment was her, the power, and Mairuk.