A goddess.
He supposed he had to believe in her now.
She had healed him through Vail.
She had given him a second chance.
One he wasn’t going to waste.
CHAPTER 39
Tegan breathed a deep sigh of relief as he strolled out of the meeting, leaving his advisers bickering over the windfarm project he had put forward, a new one he and Suki had come up with together.
This one included the castle in the list of areas where the test would be conducted.
His advisers had kept him for an extra hour to go over and over the plan, attempting to change his mind because of the cost involved in not only constructing the windmills near the castle, building enough to provide a suitable amount of electricity, but also in modernising the castle, fitting electrical wires and lights, and things called outlets.
He suspected Suki wanted power brought to the castle because she had unofficially moved in with him, making herself at home on his private floors. She had complained more than once about his lack of a television and the fact she had to get a fresh power pack to charge her phone so she could watch something called YouTube and browse the internet.
During the meeting, his advisers had brought her up, and although he had brushed aside their attempt to discuss the formalities of her becoming his queen, it had got him thinking.
And he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.
Which had made every second of the meeting feel like an hour.
Now, as he ascended the stairs, choosing to walk to his apartments rather than teleporting there, giving himself time to fight for calm and control, the need that had been building inside him since he had bitten her rolled to a dangerous boil.
He flexed his fingers, spreading them and then curling them into tight fists as he wrestled with the urges swirling inside him, hungers that he could no longer deny. He had been patient, had waited until he was feeling stronger because she worried about him, but he couldn’t wait anymore.
He needed to make Suki his mate.
He needed to complete their bond.
Before tonight’s feast to celebrate their victory in the elf kingdom, a feast that Suki insisted on attending.
The thought of her there, around so many unmated males, drove him wild and half-mad, had him taking the steps to the next floor two at a time, rushing to close the distance between them.
He growled at the two warriors standing guard outside the heavy wooden door to his apartments, flashing his fangs in warning. They bowed their heads and were quick to stride away, leaving him alone in the lamplit corridor.
Tegan breathed hard, fighting to calm himself again. The males weren’t interested in his female. She was alone in his rooms, waiting for him. She wanted no other male.
She loved him.
He gripped the door handle and wrestled with himself, clawing back enough control that he wouldn’t frighten his female when he found her. It was impossible. Whenever he thought he was close, an image of her surrounded by males flashed into his mind, tormenting him. His horns curled, rage and desire an explosive combination in his blood as he shoved the door open and slammed it behind him.
He stilled.
She wasn’t in the drawing room where he had left her.
On a low, vicious growl, he stalked through the room, scenting the air to track her. The sweet warmly-spiced fragrance of her led him up the staircase to the bedroom, but she wasn’t there either. He pivoted and stormed back out of the room, breathed deep to catch her scent again and followed it as his heart thundered, each step ratcheting his need up another degree, until he was straining for her, aching for her.
On the verge of dying if he didn’t find her soon.
He reached the open door of his study and paused on the threshold, his steps arrested by the sight of her where she stood amidst the carnage he had wrought when he had thought he had lost her.
Her green, blue and violet hair tumbled around her bare shoulders, caressing the black velvet corset she wore with her blue plaid skirt. Her striking eyes were fixed on the mess strewn across the floor as she bent and rifled through it, plucked a book from the wreckage and sighed at it, sorrow crossing her delicate features.
“Suki,” he growled, voice a rough snarl as hunger mounted, threatening to rip control from him.
She paused and lifted her eyes from the book, settling them on him. “Done with your meeting?”
He nodded and stalked into the room, each step clipped as he wrestled to remain in control, to deny the primal need screaming inside of him, demanding he claim her.
She stood slowly, coming to face him, awareness dawning in her green-to-blue eyes as he stopped close to her, his bare chest heaving as he fought his need, afraid of how she might react.
She had given him blood when he had been dying, but had she done it because she had wanted him healed or because she had wanted his bond?
She was fae, valued her freedom, and he knew what a monumental step it would be for her if she chose to become his mate. As monumental as her decision to give him her real name. He couldn’t rush her.
But he couldn’t wait either.
They had triggered the bonding process and he needed to complete it.
“Suki… I…” He clenched his fists and took a deep breath, held her gaze and put it out there. “Would you be my mate?”
She stared at him in silence that ate away at his courage.
And then she grinned.
“I thought you’d never bloody ask!” She teleported into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist and grabbed hold of his shoulders as her mouth came down on his, rocking him with a kiss so fierce he was left in no doubt of how much she wanted him.
He groaned, enfolded her in his arms and held her to him, gentling the kiss until it warmed him, had all his fear melting away and desire rising to replace it, a need that urged him to claim her now, before she changed her mind.
She was way ahead of him.
Darkness swept around him and when it receded, he was standing at the foot of his four-poster bed and she was grinning wickedly at him, her eyes sparkling with excitement and the need he could feel in her.
“Give me your blood,” she murmured and dipped her head, swept her lips over his throat in a maddening way that had a thousand achy shivers chasing over his skin and his cock hardening in his leathers. She rocked against it, driving him crazier still. “I want to see it again.”
“See what again?” He sounded dazed.
Felt it too as she worked her body against his, stripping away his control.
“Through the shadows.” She pulled back with effort, groaned and trembled as she skimmed her fingers over his shoulders. When he lowered his hands to her backside, it was his turn to moan. She wore no undergarments. Gods, the thought that she was bare against his caged erection.
It destroyed him.
Almost obliterated his ability to think.
But he managed to keep it together. “Shadows?”
She nodded, sighed as she rubbed against him, her breasts jiggling in her tight corset, threatening to shatter his ability to think after all.
“Your aura is black. I can’t read your feelings… but when you took my blood… I could see your love for me.” A blush climbed her cheeks, a flicker of nerves lighting her green-to-blue eyes.
She worried what she might see this time, but she wanted to see it regardless.
He would show it to her.
He adjusted his grip on her, so he could hold her with only one hand without fear of dropping her, and brought his right wrist up to his lips.
She grabbed it, stopping him.
“No.”
No?
His heart sank. She wanted his blood, didn’t she? She wanted his bond.
Didn’t she?
Her eyes glittered wickedly.
Hungrily.
Thrilled him as they lowered to his throat and she licked her lips.
Whispered.
> “I want to bite you. Like you bit me.” She nibbled her lower lip, her short fangs teasing it as she gazed at his throat, heat filling her eyes.
“Gods,” he uttered, breathless himself now as he considered that.
He could wear her marks as she wore his. The whole world would know their love for each other and that they were bound, that they belonged to each other.
“That sounds like a yes to me.” She didn’t give him a chance to answer.
She lunged and struck, sank her tiny fangs deep into his throat and tore a guttural moan from his lips as pain and pleasure detonated inside him. His head swum with her first pull on his blood, desire flaring so hot he was burning, sure he was going to turn to ashes. In the wake of the fire, intense emotions rushed through him, tearing his strength away as he realised they were hers.
Her love for him.
Her need of him.
She moaned and shook in his arms and his knees gave out and he hit the floor with her at the foot of his bed. She didn’t stop, didn’t miss a single beat. She kept drinking and writhing against him, cranking his need tighter inside him, until he was on the verge of snapping.
Her sucking grew fiercer, the rush of his blood faster, and he shuddered as she pressed her heels into the floor and rocked on him, as she grumbled something against his throat and wriggled back a few inches. She made fast work of his leathers, tearing through the laces with her claws, and he hissed when cool air kissed his cock and then her hot hand replaced it.
She gripped him hard, stroked him roughly as she tore away from his throat and kissed him, matching his desperation as the connection bloomed between them, tangled their needs and their feelings together into one incredible sensation.
He had never felt anything like it.
Suki grabbed him by his right horn as she pulled herself up, as she grasped his cock and fed it into her, stealing his ability to think as she sheathed him, her heat scalding him as she gripped him tightly. He groaned and shuddered, clutched her bare backside and pressed her back against the end of the bed as he seized control. She moaned and kissed him deeper, wrapped her legs around him and clung to him as he pumped her hard and fast, unable to hold back now that she had roused his primal instincts and he was on the verge of claiming her.
She moaned hotly into his ear as he lowered his mouth to her neck, angled her head away from him and whispered, “Bite me. Do it.”
He growled and sank his fangs into her in the same spot he had bitten before.
The moment her blood hit his tongue, heat rolled through him, an inferno so intense it branded his soul with her name. The bond blossomed, growing stronger still, bringing tears to his eyes as he felt all of her love for him and became aware she could feel his for her too. She held him close to her, stroked his hair and his horn, rocked her body against his as she took them higher.
Words rose to the tip of his tongue as he felt her soaring and flew higher with her, as his body tensed and release rose to the base of his cock. He held them back, pumping her harder, deeper, longer strokes that had her crying for more, digging her nails into his shoulders as she sought the release she needed.
A climax that would bind them forever as mates.
Together with the words.
And her answer.
She cried his name as she came apart in his arms, as her body quivered and milked his, pushing him over the edge. He groaned into her throat as he spilled inside her, his entire body trembling, fire rushing through his veins, along with bliss, happiness that he could feel blooming inside her too as she clung to him and slowly came down.
He forced himself to wait for her breathing to settle, for his own racing heart to calm, and kissed her softly, reverently, with all the love that he held for her.
And then he pulled back and looked deep into her eyes, ones that had enchanted him the moment he had met her and would always hold him under her spell.
“Suki.” He brushed his knuckles across her flushed cheeks, and she blinked, her gaze softening with love as she held his. It was tradition to speak the words in the demon tongue, but he wanted her to understand them, wanted to know her reply now without having to waste time explaining what he had said. He needed to know her answer. “Do you consent to become my mate, to take all that I am and give all that you are, in the eyes of the gods and eternity?”
She slowly smiled and the new bond between them hit him with her reply before it even reached her lips, setting his heart and mind at ease.
“Abso-bloody-lutely.” She stroked her fingers down his chest, her gaze growing heated again, passion and need flaring that he could feel in her. “What about you? Do you swear you’ll take me?”
He groaned as she wriggled on him, as if he needed an explanation of what she meant with that question.
“Whenever, wherever and however you want it, my love.”
“How about right now, right here, and right on this bed.” She grabbed his horns and dragged him down for a kiss, a sweet reward that promised something more wicked at the end of it.
Tegan moaned and clutched her to him as he counted his blessings.
For the first time in his life, he was grateful for what he had been given.
A bond he would cherish.
A mate he would worship.
A queen to rule by his side.
He revised that last one as she teleported him onto the bed, landing on top of him, pinning him beneath her as she grinned saucily and raked her nails down his bare chest.
A queen to rule by his side in public.
And rule him in the bedroom.
One he was looking forward to serving.
For eternity.
The End
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Love the Eternal Mates series? Read on for a preview of Claimed by her Cougar, book one in the Cougar Creek Mates series, part of the Eternal Mates world
Claimed by her Cougar - Preview
In the tranquil morning air, a deer called out, the sound echoing around the mountains sheltering the peaceful verdant valley.
Rath stilled, froze right down to his breathing as his ears twitched and he cocked his head, the instinct to hunt that animal sweeping through him and tugging at his cougar side.
When the call didn’t come again, he exhaled slowly, releasing his breath and using the action to centre himself, and looked to his left, out of the window that formed a triangle on the gable end of his log cabin, nestled beneath the two sides of the pitched roof where it hung out over the deck below to provide cover.
Mist swirled above the sweeping bend of the river that formed a barrier between him and the thick forest that blanketed the other side, where his senses had pinpointed the deer, among other creatures stirring in the early morning as darkness began to give way to light. The tendrils of fog crept over the stony bank of the river in places, crawling across the grass and into the pines that flanked the open ground on his side of the creek, reaching the deck of the cabin nearest it.
His was too distant, close to two hundred metres from the river across the grass. It was rare for the spring morning mists to reach his home, happened only once or twice a season, the sun too swift to rise and burn them away before they could creep that far up the sloping green.
Rath lingered and let the beauty of the scene wash over him, savouring the peace because it would be shattered soon.
Gods, he wanted his instincts as an unmated male cougar to be wrong, but they hadn’t been yet.
This year, there would be a gathering.
He grabbed his long-sleeved cream t-sh
irt from the banister at the front of the loft bedroom and tugged it on, following it with a thick dark green fleece that had a zip that reached the centre of his chest. He pulled his faded jeans on and buttoned them as he descended the wooden steps to the ground floor of the cabin. It was small, had only two rooms on the lower level—an open plan kitchen and living room, and an enclosed bathroom—but it was more than big enough for him.
A huff burst from his lips when he saw the fire in the log burner was low. No wonder it was so damned cold this morning. He moved around the worn beige couch and crouched before it, opened the door and tossed another log on, and warmed his hands as he waited for it to catch.
When the fire was blazing again and the chill of morning was off his hands, he yawned and latched the door, and rose back onto his feet.
Gods, he needed coffee.
Rath scrubbed a hand over the two-days’ growth on his face, thought about shaving and then shrugged it off.
He was going to be out all day again, repairing the cabin by the river and clearing up a few more odd jobs he needed to complete around the settlement at the other dozen or so cabins spread throughout the trees on his side of the river. A little insulation on his face wasn’t a bad thing.
Winter had loosened its grip on Cougar Creek, but the mornings and evenings were still chilly, the air holding a bitter bite that was slow to go as the sun struggled to heat the land and quick to return once darkness fell again.
He had been working non-stop since the snowmelt, when that damned feeling had stirred in his gut and he had found himself pacing the porch, scenting the air, hungry for a female he didn’t want and didn’t need.
Wasn’t going to chase.
Seduced by a Demon King Page 39
