Property of the Fae

by Laxmi Hariharan

  “As you were saying, I was right… I hate to tell you this, Fire, I am right…on most things.” I let my lips curve in a smirk. Yeah, that’s me. When I am at a loss for words, when my body betrays me, I take refuge in that one thing I know will never fail me, my alpha-holeness. Hey, do you blame me? When this curvy, luscious shifter mate of mine is hell-bent on bringing me to my knees, I have to hold on to that last bastion of masculinity, my dominance, okay?

  I shove back the chair, then turn and stride toward the bedroom.

  “Hmm. I think you protest too much.” She hesitates, her eyes gleaming.

  Don’t say it. Don’t you dare, Fire…

  “Tristan.”

  She says my name on a soft exhale, and fuck me if my cock doesn’t strain my pants.

  Her eyes widen. “Oh.” She rubs her core over my crotch, and my dick literally weeps with pleasure.

  “I was right then.”

  “Not.” I grit my teeth. Pointless not admitting to what she’s already beginning to realize, but please, some things are sacred, and can’t I keep just one thing for myself? Or do I have to admit that every time she says my name, I literally harden. That she can bring me to climax simply by whispering my name. I am so screwed.

  “Tristan.”

  Her pupils blink vertical, and something inside me snaps. My telekinetic energy sizzles through her dragon’s essence, and my ears elongate. My biceps throb, my chest expands, and blood rushes to my groin. I peel back my lips, and my canines drop. “What?” My vision narrows on the object of my need. My mate. The rational, still-thinking sliver of my brain kicks out and warns me that I am going to scare her.

  “Remember what you said about trusting you completely?”

  Her voice cuts through the haze of thought pounding in my head.

  “You need to do the same. Don’t hold back. You need to trust me. You need to let go… Tristan.”

  43

  Jess

  His gaze narrows, and he flicks back his ears. I swear his canines seem to elongate further. His hardness strains his pants and pushes into my core. I can’t stop the whine that spills out of me. I sound like I am in pain, yearning for his touch. I sound like what I am…a female in heat.

  He moves so fast that his feet don't seem to touch the floor. The world tilts, and I feel the cool sheet on the mattress chafe my back. He lays me down on the bed, and my legs dangle over the side. He planks over me, balancing his weight on his elbows. His gaze rakes my features, down to my throat, to where the vein throbs at the base.

  All the blood in my body seems to rush toward the pulse point.

  The skin across his cheeks stretches. His gaze is fixed on my beating blood vessel. He flicks out his tongue to lick his lips, and his canines glint. Golden liquid oozes from the pointed edge. I reach up and run my finger over the tip, then bring my finger to my mouth and suck on it.

  “How do I taste?” His voice is harsh and so rough I almost don't recognize it. The hunger in his tone bleeds into my skin.

  “Tart, hot.” A complex mosaic of textures burns its way down my throat. I smack my lips. “You taste like you.”

  His gaze darts to my mouth, and he angles his head. The gesture is so feral, so animalistic. Goosebumps pop on my forearms.

  My heart drums in my rib cage. I should be scared of him, I should. He seems the same and yet he is not. He is Chef, the soldier. He is Tristan, my mate. He is all of them, and yet at his core, he is a beast riding the same wave of lust that I am. He’s caught in the same sensual trap as me; his energy responds to my need. He’ll give me what I want. And I need it. All of it. Lust flickers a path down my spine.

  A flicker of emotion crosses his features. The tendons of his throat bunch. His biceps tremble as they hold up his weight. He watches me from under his hooded eyes. Waiting. Waiting.

  I angle my pelvis, and my melting core pushes into his crotch.

  A growl rumbles up from his throat. “The things I feel when I am with you.” His eyelids grow heavy. “The things I want to do to you.”

  “Please…” The word leaches out of me.

  The energy of my dragon pulses in the psychic space, swirls around with the blue of his telekinetic essence. It floods my blood, shudders down to my core, and makes my pussy throb. Close on its heels, needles of ice seem to pierce my skin. My teeth chatter. “Help me.” My vision closes in on him. Why doesn’t he simply sink inside me, fuck me, rut me? Make love to me and put me out of my misery?

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Fire.” He swallows. Some of the color fades from his face. His eyes seem to clear, burning blue, amber flares sparking in them.

  “You can’t hurt me.” I gasp. “I am you. Can’t you see that yet…?” Say it. You must say his name. “Tristan.” I thrust my breasts up into his chest and scissor my legs around his waist. “Take me, Tristan.”

  A growl rips out of him. The planes of his chest expand, his shoulders bulk up, and his spine pushes out so I can feel each individual rib ridged against his skin. His thigh muscles go solid, and his hamstrings vibrate as if an inner energy coils his tendons, his very flesh. The remains of his shirt tear at the seams; the fabric of his pants parts with a ripping sound. Blue-amber flares spark up and coil around him, and what’s left of his clothes just disintegrate.

  “Oh.” I squeak, then swallow that very undignified sound. “Eager much?” I aim for a sophisticated drawl, but all that comes out is a thread of sound.

  Why am I trying to act cool and composed, when I am melting into a gooey puddle? Heat coils low in my belly, and moisture flows out from between my thighs. The scent of my arousal explodes over us.

  He licks his lips. “I need to taste you, Fire.”

  “Do it…Tristan.”

  Yeah, yeah, never goad an out-of-his-head, aroused, alpha Fae male, until he goes over the edge, because you won’t be able to deal with the consequences.

  He growls a very feral, very non-human, non-shifter, all-dominant-Fae shout of possession. He grabs my thighs and tugs, until I loosen my ankles from around him, then yanks my legs wide apart until I am sure he is going to split me in two.

  His gaze rakes down my breasts, over my quivering belly, to my melting pussy.

  Another low growl tears out of him.

  My thighs clench.

  He dives down between my legs and thrusts his tongue into my wet channel.

  My throat closes; my thighs spasm.

  His mouth fastens onto my flesh, and he sucks on it. The suction blows through me, and my core screams. Emptiness gnaws my belly.

  His canines graze the tender skin of my lower lips. He bites down on my throbbing clit, and a scream rips out of me, then I can’t speak, can’t breathe. Can’t do anything but pant. My eyes roll back.

  He pushes my hips up so my back curves off the bed, then lunges his tongue into me, and again. He’s eating me out, fucking me with his mouth, and I shatter. Moisture gushes from my core, and sparks of blue and amber explode behind my eyes. Sweat pours down my temples, plastering my hair to my cheeks. The flames shoot up around us, and I am helpless to stop them.

  He licks my pussy, sucking up every drop of my climax, and runs his tongue down my slit, all the way down to my back entrance. I shudder. I want to moan, say something. Yes? No? I don’t know what I want anymore.

  He crawls up my body and arches over me.

  “Open your eyes,” he growls against my ear.

  I try to open my eyelids. When did I shut them? And why do they feel so heavy?

  “Don’t disobey me.”

  The steel in his tone cuts through the thoughts in my head. I crack my eyelids open. Blue-amber eyes bore into me. I latch on to them. This is easier. Just do what he says. I can’t think. Don’t want to think. Just be what he wants. This is who I am. Someone who needs him, holds on to his every word. His command. I live for it. Will die for it.

  “Good girl.”

  He brushes his lips over my cheek, pressing tiny kisses to the shell of my ear. He bites m
y fleshy earlobe. Heat sizzles straight to my core. He flicks his tongue into my ear, and my back arches off the bed.

  He drags those beautiful lips back over my cheek then rubs them over my mouth. I part my lips. Of course I do. He’s my master, and I am…his. His tongue slips in, swiping over my teeth then dancing over my tongue, tangling with mine, plunging right in.

  His canines catch on my lips. The taste of copper, salty, metallic, fills my mouth. My belly quivers. Emptiness echoes inside me, growing, yearning. Churning for more. For him.

  A low snarl curls up my throat.

  “There you are.” His lips curve against mine.

  The distended tip of his cock grazes my throbbing core; the metal of his piercing scrapes my sensitive skin and almost drives me out of my head with need.

  “I was worried you were going all meek and obedient on me, and I know that’s not you.”

  I growl and my fingers and toes tingle. I just want him inside me, so why is he wasting time talking?

  “Not that I don’t want you to give in to me…but I prefer it when you stand up to me.”

  His muscles ripple, then his swollen shaft teases the entrance of my pussy, and more moisture slicks my channel.

  That’s it. I can’t take any more. Alpha-hole is teasing me, and I am going to give it right back to him.

  I tear my mouth from him. “Oh yeah?” I drag my nails down his back. The coppery scent of blood pours over us. It goes straight to my head. All my nerve endings seem to fire at once. “I’ll show you how I can go toe to toe with you.” I hook my leg around his thighs and thrust up, intent only on turning him around, when his grip tightens, and he slams into me.

  44

  Tristan

  Heat, softness. The sugary scent of her arousal fills my nostrils. It sinks into my blood and goes straight to my groin. My shaft expands inside her, filling her channel. Her pussy clamps around my dick and her body goes rigid. She squeezes down on my thighs with her leg, her fingernails digging deeper into my back. She throws her head back, and her chest heaves.

  “Tristan.” My name spills from her lips.

  My cock thickens, and that hardened flesh inside my dick slides out, extending to its full length. I can’t stop my hips from thrusting forward, can’t stop my shaft from plunging into her, all the way in, through that secret core inside her, slamming in where I have been only once before.

  She opens her mouth, and a low cry bleeds out. I close my lips over hers and absorb it. I lick her mouth, nibble on her lips, and tangle my tongue with hers, drawing on her sweet essence. I open myself up to her. Let our joined energies pulse into her. I squeeze her thigh, massaging her flesh. Her pussy quivers. Liquid lust slams through me. A nerve throbs in the base of my neck.

  I dig my elbows into the bed, my biceps trembling with the weight of my body. I don’t want to crush her; I need to keep my weight off her. Give her time. A little more time. I stay locked inside her, until her shoulders arc back. Her breathing evens out. Her eyelids flicker, then she drags her heel up and over my waist. She wraps her other leg around me, opening herself more to me. Clinging to me, like I am her last hope. Her pillar in a storm. Hers. I tip my head and kiss her. Pouring more of me into her. A low moan vibrates from her throat. I walk the fingers of my other hand up her waist, to the curve of her spine, then tug on her hair. Brushing the strands away from her face, I kiss her, then pull back.

  Her gaze locks with mine. And I want to tell her how much she means to me. How much I love her, that I belong to her.

  She moves, changing the angle of her hips, just another infinitesimal millimeter. I plunge in deeper, finding that opening inside her, that final barrier between us. I brush against it.

  Sweat drips down my back.

  Her gaze widens.

  We don’t have to. I grit my teeth.

  I want to. She pulses back her reply through the mating bond.

  Sparks of heat flicker down my spine, thickening my dick, and I extend farther. My canines tingle; there is a roaring in my ears.

  You sure. Fire?

  She strains towards me, and that’s all the urging I need.

  I slam through that final barrier to that part of her where I haven’t been before. My knot locks into place behind her pelvic bone.

  Moisture gushes out from her core, bathing my dick. Every muscle in my body tenses.

  I love you, Jess.

  I sink my canines at the base of where her neck meets her shoulder.

  The pressure builds from my groin, radiating out, surging through me, gathering speed, then crashes over me. My balls draw up, my cock pulses, and hot streams of cum gush out from me, pouring into her, filling her. My canines empty my essence into her blood. I lick the wound and raise my head. My gaze locks with hers.

  Her vertical pupils hold me in thrall.

  She is my beacon as much as I am hers. My heart thunders, or maybe it’s hers. Maybe it doesn’t matter anymore, for I’ve never felt this close to another. “You know I am never letting you go?” I rub my nose against hers.

  Okay, so post-coital pillow talk. Another thing I never thought I’d ever be susceptible to. But given I plan to spend a lot of time with Fire being horizontal, guess that’s allowed. And then we can talk to each other through the mating bond. A fringe benefit. One I plan to fully use.

  “Me neither. Goes both ways, Soldier.” She flexes her inner muscles around my shaft, and my dick leaps to attention. At once.

  “That didn’t hurt, did it?” I brush my lips over hers. I can’t get enough of her taste. And that’s allowed. We are recently mated after all. I lick her lips again…because I can.

  Color flecks her cheeks. “Less than last time…and ah…it felt different when you…”

  “Knotted you?”

  “Made love to me.” She cups my cheek. “You give me more than you can imagine. You think you are being harsh to me, commanding me, and dominating me…and yes, you are right, sometimes you are just way too alpha—”

  “Talk about backhanded compliments.” I smirk.

  “Shh!”

  She drags her thumb over my mouth, and of course, I open my lips and bite down on it. Because I never waste an opportunity, and this woman is my drug of choice. So fuck me, I’m pussy-whipped…and yeah, I accept it.

  “But you didn’t hold back…correction, you’ve never held back with me. You’ve always worn your heart on your sleeve, and…ah!” She brings her other hand between us and cups my balls. “Never hidden how much you want me, and you have no idea how much that turns me on.”

  I lower my brows. A pulse flares to life behind my ears, over the back of my eyelids…and whaddya know? Just when I’d thought every possible part of me is tuned in to her, Fire surprises me all over again with the way she makes my body respond to her.

  “So let me get this right.” My voice comes out harsh, and now it’s too late to hold back the true state of my mind. “You like it when I dominate you?”

  “Y…yes.” She blinks.

  “You want me to subjugate you?”

  She jerks her chin.

  “You don’t hold it against me that I can’t rein in that part of me that wants to throw you down and knot you and rut you?”

  Color flushes her cheeks. “What does that make me? A sucker for punishment. Someone who grew up so used to pain that now I only seek—”

  “Pleasure. That’s what you’re getting from me, Fire.” I wipe all expression from my face. “One hundred percent pure love. I plan to say that motherfucking four-letter word to you until I can’t speak anymore. I plan to love to you until your skin is flushed with desire, until you smell of me, taste of me, and anyone who comes within a mile of you knows you are mine.”

  “Oh.” Fire peers at me from under her hooded eyelashes. “You forgot one thing.”

  “What?” The woman really loves to get the last word in, and I’ll let her get away with that, too.

  “Promise you’ll also pulse me those three words through the mating b
ond… Tristan?”

  45

  Jess

  I amble up the pebbled beach. For an island state, Singapore has only a few beaches, and the spot where I am is among the most picturesque parts of my new home. It’s not far from the compound where the mated couples and families, including mine, live.

  I scrape the hair away from my face and continue to where a crowd of people mill around. It’s time for the weekly Dare, which now takes place on the beach. Just another evening out for the Fae families, who turn out with kids in tow to watch two grown-ass men beat the shit out of each other, for no other reason than it apparently satisfies the bloodlust in the local populace. Likely story.

  I snort. The Fae find a lot of excuses to get together. They are social as a community, though don’t go telling them that. The Fae Corps team hated it when I pointed out that they spend so much time with each other that they are beginning to resemble each other. All of them tall, broad-shouldered, tattooed, snarly alphas.

  The most handsome of them stands not five feet ahead. He crooks a finger at me, and I laugh. I race toward my very own alpha and throw myself at his chest. Of course, Tristan grabs me, swings me up like I weigh nothing—I am a tiny woman, but also a shifter, and shifters do weigh at least twice that of humans of the same size, even disregarding my hollow bones that lend themselves to flying—but to my Chef, you’d think I was made of sugar and whipped cream.

  He lowers me down and latches his mouth on mine. I wind my arms around his thick neck, lock my ankles about his waist, and kiss him right back. He growls low in that way that makes all my nerve endings fire in anticipation. My pussy clenches, and he lunges his tongue deep into my mouth when the sound of a throat clearing intrudes into my sex-addled brain.

  “Jeez, you guys, you got out of a four-day sex-a-mate-a-thon just a week ago, and you’re still attacking each other. Anyone would think you haven’t seen the other in years.”