Kenna
I arch my back and brush my mouth over Evander’s jaw. His proximity is overwhelming to every single sense, and I drown in him. He lowers himself to cover me wholly with his body, pushing the sheets down to the end of the bed with his feet.
This feels different than it did in the cave. Despite our obvious desire for each other that has spanned weeks at this point, we were performing the ritual together. It was something we had to do.
But this… this is just for us. Because we want to. Because, despite everything that happened last night and what’s happening now, we need this from each other.
His touch is the perfect distraction. His hand roaming down my side is enough for my mind to go blissfully blank.
Every other feeling is set aside for now, and that’s okay. For a few moments, we can just be mates. Soon, I’m sure every waking minute of my life will be consumed by worry for my parents and my kingdom.
Falling back into the spiral of anxiety and grief, I clutch his face and draw him close, kissing him soundly. Our teeth clash, and I bite down on his lip, drawing out a moan from him.
“I’m trying to be gentle with you, Kenna. Don’t tempt me.”
“Tempt you to do what?” I ask innocently, going as far as to bat my eyelashes at him as he pulls away to look down at me.
“Tempt me to take you in every way I’ve been imagining. In every place I’ve been envisioning in my dreams of you.” He grinds his hips against mine, his hard cock pressing against my thigh. “But you’re going to be sore and I… I just want to take care of you right now. We have time for the rest of that.”
“I want to know about your dreams,” I whisper, trailing my lips over his neck.
His throat strains as he swallows, letting out a little gasp as I continue my exploration of his skin– his shoulders and his chest– with my mouth. My tongue darts out to swipe over his flesh. He’s salty from sweat but tastes divine, and a fresh heat builds deep in my belly.
“You’re making this very hard for me, Kenna,” he groans, closing his eyes. I look up at him, and I’ve never seen him so relaxed, so at peace. His eternally pinched brow has softened to the point he looks… far younger than before, so much closer to his actual age, like he’s never experienced death, war, and violence.
Pride swells in my heart at the thought that I am the reason for his peace, at least right now. I’m sure I’m also the reason for that pinched brow and icy expression more often than not.
“I want to know,” I whine, arching my knee as he settles deeper between my legs. We’re still separated by our clothing, but he’s bare save for his boxes as I run my hands down his back.
But I pause as my hands drift over a network of scars.
“What happened to you?”
He shushes me, leaning in to kiss me again. “Nothing you need to worry about. I’m a warrior.”
Still, the thought of him hurt makes my heart twist.
“Don’t think about it, Kenna.”
“I feel like I barely know you now,” I admit.
He nuzzles my neck, inhaling deeply. “I’m not all that different.”
“But–”
“Look at me,” he commands in a tone that immediately makes me submit. It’s hot, admittedly, and that heated rush ripples through my body again. “You are my mate, but you’re also so much more than that to me. You will learn sides of me no one else has ever seen, and my past–what happened to me in the field and occasionally in training–is part of that.” He kisses the mark he left on my shoulder. It burns to life, still unhealed and raw.
“I love you,” he continues. “But you don’t have to take care of me.”
I’m not sure how to say what I feel about that sentiment. If I did have something to say, it’s stolen from my lips as his kisses cover my collarbone, his tongue dragging over my skin. His teeth graze down to my breasts and any rational thought leaves my mind.
“Let me be the one taking care of you,” he says softly, and reaches down to tug my pants down over my hips.
I gasp as he brushes a kiss over my belly while yanking my pants and underwear down and off. He works his way back up, removing my shirt and lingering on my breasts to knead and suck them until I’m panting his name, and my eyelashes are fluttering.
The way he touches me is something I’m not prepared for. Maybe it’s because we’ve only ever been with each other, and only once. Every sensation for me is new. And to him? It’s like he’s desperate to explore and uncover every inch of my body in the most enthusiastic way.
He kisses my neck as he squeezes my hips, the head of his cock sliding through my wetness and nudging my clit.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers against my skin. “You’re so soft, so full, and I–” His breath catches in his throat, and he exhales deeply, groaning with relief as he sinks his cock inside of me until he’s buried to the hilt.
The feel of him is exquisite, but he was right. I am sore. Sore, but thrumming with want as he pulls out, my muscles clenching to try to keep him inside.
He chuckles low in his throat as I whimper, rocking my hips against him. “Please,” I rasp, digging my nails into his sides.
He thrusts again, slowly, grinding into me, and curses under his breath. “You’ve done something to me, Kenna. I can’t get you out of my head. I want to stay deep inside of you forever.”
I almost choke on a moan as he picks up his pace, lowering to rest on his elbows as his body slides over mine. We’re both slick with sweat, and I’m so close to coming undone at this point that I wonder if he’s going slow, drawing this out, just to watch me unravel and beg.
“I dream about you on your knees,” he rasps in my ear, thrusting into me hard enough the headboard smacks against the wall. “With my cock between your beautiful lips.”
My eyes flutter closed as his voice–heavy with want and full of smoke–laces over my neck and shoulder.
“I dream I’m pinning you against a wall and fucking you until you’re screaming my name,” he pants, teeth gritted as he lowers his forehead against mine. He clutches my ass and rocks against my hips. “I’ve dreamt of you sprawled naked in my bed with nothing but moonlight covering your skin, and claiming you while you slept, waking you up with my cock buried in your pussy.”
Goddess, he’s going to make me come with just his words. My heart pounds to the rhythm of his thrusts.
“I want you to come for me,” he commands.
“Evander,” I whimper, opening my eyes as he lowers himself further until we’re chest to chest. I wrap my arms around his shoulder, spasming around him as I come. I cry out his name like it’s a prayer to the gods.
“Quiet,” he pants, murmuring unintelligible words of praise in my ear as he body strains.
I’m still coming undone. Pleasure I’ve never felt roars through me like a firestorm, igniting every nerve until I’m buzzing with electricity.
I want to scream. I want the echoes of my pleasure to bounce through the mountain valley around us, but I bite down on his shoulder hard enough he grunts and hisses as my teeth sink into his skin.
His blood is beautiful. The taste of him blooms through my mouth, setting fire to my senses and awakening something primal.
He comes, grunting and growling my name as he pumps into me, then stills.
I open my eyes to find him looking down at me, his eyes hooded and heavy with mingled desire and exhaustion. I glance at his shoulder. A half-moon wound drips with blood in the stormy darkness.
I marked him.
There’s no going back now.
“I’m sorry,” I begin to say, but he shakes his head and slowly pulls out, blowing out his breath.
“Never say that to me,” he whispers, brushing his lips over mine. His muscles strain as he untangles us and lies beside me, gathering me into his arms. We lie like that for a long time, neither of us speaking, while we listen to the rain thunder against the windows.
I’m so tired. So exhausted. I feel a crushing kind of sleep creeping in as he pulls the blankets over our bodies. Reality hits me almost as hard as the fatigue numbing every muscle.
“What are we going to do, Evander?” I ask after a long moment.
“Whatever we can,” he replies, his voice distant and sleepy.
I fall asleep before my mind can begin to whirl over our current reality and the world outside of my bedroom. Below us, hundreds of people are displaced and wounded. My mom is missing, but I know, deep in my heart, that she’s okay.
Dad, however….
I wake sometime later, unaware of what time it is, or how much time has passed since I fell asleep in Evander’s arms. He’s dead asleep beside me, but the door to my room creaks open to reveal a figure dressed in the gray uniform the maids in the castle usually wear.
I sit up, pulling the sheets with me to cover my naked breasts, and squint at the maid in the dark. I recognize her as Mary, one of the kitchen maids.
“Is everything all right?” I ask as she edges around the door.
She blushes deeply and refuses to look at Evander even though she knows he’s there. “Yes, Your Highness. But we were unable to locate the husband of the woman who died in childbirth last night. She has no local family, and no one knows what to do with the child. I wanted to tell you that some of the healers are talking about sending her to the orphanage in the Roguelands–”
“Wait,” I tell her, blowing out a breath. “Just wait. I’ll be down soon.” I feel a certain responsibility to the baby. I was the first person to hold her. I held her as her mother died. Her mother had been in the throes of a difficult labor when the attack began and was wounded, and there had been nothing I could do at that point. She’d died only minutes after I got to the stuffy sitting room where she’d been laboring.
Losing a mother like this… I can’t fathom it. I’m an only child because my own mother nearly died having me, and my dad wouldn’t let her go through that again.
“I will decide what is done with the baby,” I tell the maid. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be downstairs. Were you able to find a nursing mother? If so, fetch her for me–”
Another set of footsteps echo from the corridor beyond the door, and I stiffen, recognizing them completely. I don’t have a single second to cover myself further before my dad barges through the door, stepping past the maid, who squeaks in surprise and quickly ducks out of the room.
“Dad!” I hiss, but it’s too late. He looks at me, then at Evander, and curses, his eyes full of sudden fury.
I give him an exasperated look and shout, “Get out!”
Evander stirs, reaching over to lay his arm over my lap. My cheeks blaze with embarrassment.
“In my office,” Dad rumbles. “Now.”