Ella
I’m not sure what time it is. Ryatt picked me up and carried me out of the tub hours ago, laying me in bed with so much tenderness it nearly broke my heart.
We’ve been lying here ever since. My cheek rests against his arm while his other one cradles me, his hand tucked under my breast.
He’s asleep. His rhythmic breathing is the only sound in the room other than the rain softly padding against the foggy windows. The fire burned out long ago, and the room is cast in silver gray light as the sun finally begins to rise.
I want to stay here forever–in this room, with my mate’s warmth penetrating my skin. Outside the door leading back into the main rooms of the inn, our reality awaits. War, unrest, death and despair. I killed Petra, sure, but I know we have more trials to face. More enemies to conquer.
Ryatt stirs as that silvery, stormy morning light starts to creep up the bed. His legs are tangled in the sheets, and the soft lighting makes his scars and roping, intricate tattoos all the more incredible.
“Are you awake?” he asks against my shoulder.
I blink, my eyes dry from what was probably hours spent staring at the far wall. “I am.”
“You need to actually sleep, Ella.”
“What happens now?”
Ryatt exhales deeply. “I have to continue south past Rifthold. There’s an Alpha there who is going to try to challenge me for the title of Alpha King of Eastonia, and I need to see that matter as soon as I can.”
“Are you sending me to the coven now?”
“Is that where you want to go?”
I roll over so we’re nose to nose. “How is this supposed to work, Ryatt? Me, Queen of Moonrise, and you, with your… three or four titles, at this point? Alpha of Veiled Valley, Alpha King of the Roguelands, now Alpha King of Eastonia? Are we going to be able to… be together? Live together?”
“Of course, we will. When–”
“Don’t you dare say when I am Queen of Eastonia,” I say with force, but the words feel thick and sticky leaving my tongue. “I’m talking about now. Where is home?”
He runs his hand down my arm, then to my wrist, where the poultices some of the witches made for me have made quick work of healing my horrific wounds.
But the scars are atrocious and deep. I’ll always carry them as a physical reminder of what could have become of the coven if I hadn’t fallen into Petra’s grasp.
Ryatt brushes his thumb over one of the lifted, moon-white scars. “You don’t need to go to the coven right away. Giselle has been voted as your second, your heir, from what I understand.”
I can’t do much more than nod. I understand the coven chooses its queens and it’s not a title that’s passed down in a single family line, no. It’s based on power alone, and if Giselle is destined as my heir, then she is powerful indeed.
Ryatt explains that once he put me to bed last night, he’d gone back into the village to speak to the Alpha of Hannis. The Alpha of Hannis then dispatched a small band of his best warriors to a nearby pack, Cerserne, and captured the Alpha and Beta. Ryatt means to make an example of that pack–to show the rest of the Roguelands what will happen if the Alphas step out of line and try to ally with the enemy that kept them all enslaved for so long.
Then, he went to the infirmary and spoke to the witches there, who gave him the whole story. They’d been picked off, one by one. Some of them were stolen from their homes before the fall of Moonrise, other’s kidnapped off the roads between packs, others from their cottages and cabins in whatever pack they lived in as healers.
Every single witch in that infirmary made it clear where their loyalty lies, and that is with me. Not because I am, for whatever reason, the new queen of the coven, but because I freed them.
Giselle, a powerful healer whose gifts extend to botany and manipulating the weather, was voted in as my regent and their ruler in my stead.
She will take the witches back to Moonrise to heal.
Then, Ryatt brings up Petra’s head.
“Are you saving it for something?”
“No,” I reply, tracing one of the tattoos on his chest. “I just felt like I needed to keep an eye on it.”
“Did you think she was somehow going to come back to life?”
I give him a sharp look. “Stranger things have happened in Eastonia, I’m sure.”
“The Luna of Hannis is recommending we burn it. She offered to do the honors, and will have the skull ground into dust, then buried deep underground.”
“If that’s what it takes to rid this world from someone like Petra, so be it.”
He swipes a knuckle over my cheek. “You’re pale, Ella.”
“I was in a cave for three weeks, Ryatt.”
I wait for that fiery look in his eyes at my jab, but his gaze softens as he inspects my face. “This is different. You don’t feel well, do you?”
“You can’t feel those things anymore, remember? Our bond is broken?”
“Not entirely,” he whispers, leaning his forehead against mine. “That doesn’t negate the fact that you look ill, mate. I’m worried that a journey past Rifthold into what we call the Wastes is going to be taxing on you in your condition.”
“Because I’m pregnant?”
“Because you’ve been through more trauma in the last year than most people experience in a lifetime.”
“I don’t want to be separated from you again,” I admit. The words warble off my tongue, and my throat closes around a sob. “I can’t, Ryatt.”
“You don’t need to return to Moonrise right away,” he assures me then presses a kiss to my lips. The kiss is tender, but deep, the kind of kiss that sends electricity shuddering through my soul, awakening that part of me that’s only for Ryatt to see.
I bring my knee up and rest it on his hip. That’s when I realize that I’m not the only naked one in bed right now.
I shouldn’t even be thinking about sex at the moment. I’ve been in a stupor for weeks and just battled to the death with a witch who was enslaving and torturing my coven.
But my traitorous body ignores the doubts in my mind as Ryatt pulls away from the kiss, and I pull him back, sliding my tongue over his lower lip in invitation.
Ryatt runs his hand down my back but hesitates for the space of a breath before gripping my ass and exhaling with a groan. He pulls me closer so my breasts are flush with his chest.
My breasts ache–in general–but right now I’m just aching to be touched. I want to be touched in a way that won’t hurt, that won’t scar me or make me think of everything that happened over the past few weeks.
“Gently,” I whisper before I can stop myself. Ryatt is getting ready to roll me onto my back but stops and looks down at me.
“I will only ever ask one thing of you from now on,” he says, his eyes growing heavy and dark with need, “and that’s honesty, Princess.”
“I’m okay, really.”
He shakes his head, rolling his lower lip between his teeth as he debates his next move. He’s carrying so much on his shoulders right now, and the last thing I want to do is add a curse to that burden.
“Ryatt,” I whisper, running my fingers through his hair and cupping the back of his head. “I love you. I’m all right. I’m going to be fine.”
“Promise me.”
I feel my heart beginning to crack around the lie burrowing itself deep in my chest. I kiss him again, hard, pulling him into me until there’s no space left between us. The kiss is wet and hot–edging on desperate–as he nudges my legs apart and wastes no time at all sinking his cock deep into my core.
I gasp at the sudden fullness, and then let my breath out in a heady moan when he pulls out slowly. He nuzzles my neck, whispering praise against my skin as he pumps into me again, and again, one hand cupping the back of my head while the other grips my ass to keep me right where I am.
His weight on top of me is the most comforting thing I’ve experienced in a long time. The world around us ceases to exist, and I’m so blinded by pleasure that I don’t notice the way the daylight shifts from stormy gray to a rich gold that heats the room.
I lose myself to his touch. The way his hips grind into mine sends my mind into a state of numbness, where there’s nothing but the way he’s making me feel and his deep voice in my ear telling me that he loves me, that I’m his.
I open my eyes to find him looking down at me, his face flushed with ecstasy as he slides his hand from my ass to grip the headboard.
“R-Ryatt!” I plead, arching my hips to meet his stroke for stroke. Tingles of pleasure burn through my belly and thighs, and then my body erupts with heat.
“Ella,” he grunts, pressing his body against mine as my core begins to spasm around his dick, squeezing him tight. He growls low in his throat as he dips his head and kisses me so deeply my toes curl. “You’re fucking paradise.”
I can’t form real words. A whimpering moan leaves my lips as he thrusts into me so hard the headboard claps against the wall. I rake my nails over his back as he comes undone, spilling himself deep inside of me.
Then he collapses, pulling me into his chest.
Slick with sweat and panting, he tenderly runs his knuckles up and down my naked spine, then over my ribs, which currently show through my skin. Several beats of silence pass before he says, “What you did in those caves… I’m sorry you had to do it. Taking a life–”
“I’ve killed before. It’s nothing.”
“It shouldn’t feel like nothing. You saved countless lives. I’m proud of you. I knew… I knew wherever you were, you were giving your captors hell.”
“They kept me drugged. I–” I bite down on my lip and rest my arm against my stomach. “I’m worried about the baby, Ryatt.”
“I already have a healer coming to see you this morning. Luna Beth said she’s the best.”
“What if someone happened to our daughter?” I ask, and it’s the first time I allowed myself to say the words out loud. I’m only just starting to let myself think about this baby being an actual, tangible thing. At first, when I found out, it didn’t seem real. Now, especially after meeting my nephews, I imagine holding her in my arms. I imagine Ryatt looking down at her for the first time with love in his eyes as he sits in the sun with our daughter in his arms.
I love her. I’d tear the world in two in her name, whatever that will be.
“I’d go insane if anything happened to her. If they hurt her—I’d bring Petra back from the dead and kill her all over again.”
Ryatt suddenly stiffens beside me. I lift my head.
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” he says abruptly, but his brows are furrowed. “I just forgot I needed to do something today. That's all.”
He sits up, and I follow.
“I won’t be gone long. We’re going to stay here in Hannis for a few days to rest. I’ll have breakfast sent up.”
“Do you need me to–”
“Stay here, Ella.” He presses a kiss to my forehead and begins to dress.
“Where are you going?”
He pulls his shirt over his head and shrugs, giving me a cocky smirk. “I have an appointment with the Alpha King of Crescent Falls.”