by Salem Cross
“I forgive you,” she said as she pulled me closer to her. “And I’ll be more careful when it comes to my safety, ok? We’re both bound to make mistakes sometimes, I guess. We’re only human.”
I chuckled as I wrapped my arms around her petite frame and breathed in her sweet scent. Mae placed her head in the middle of my chest, and I tightened my hold on her.
“Both of us are far from human,” I reminded her. “But yes, we will make mistakes.”
“Hm… I’m going to stick to pretending I’m human. The reality is too hard to wrap my head around.”
I felt her fear in my gut before the sensation abruptly vanished. I let go of her waist and took her face in my hands. I did not have to hear her thoughts to know they had turned to Zyroe.
“You can just be my Mae White,” I assured her.
I leaned down and kissed her softly. Her moan and the way she relaxed into me caused my body to react. My cock began to stiffen as desire unfolded between us. I broke the kiss, knowing I had one more thing that had to be done before this conversation was over. I stepped away from her but kept my eyes firmly locked onto her face. I reached into my jacket pocket and walked back over to her. Then slowly I bent down on one knee. Mae’s brown eyes widened in surprise and grew even wider as I showed her the small box in my hand.
I had proposed to hundreds of women. I had always known what to say in the moment. There were times I had been poetic while there had been moments when seduction was necessary. My proposals had ranged from simple to grand gestures. Each courtship had always been strategic. I learned as much as I could about my intended brides; they were, afterall, business ventures. I learned their likes and dislikes, and by the time it came to our courtship, they were putty in my hand.
It never occurred to me that one day I would be kneeling in front of my mate so choked full of emotion that I would never be able to get out the adequate words to profess how I felt about her. I knew almost every language. I knew poetry, ballads, and stories all about love. But at this moment, none of that mattered. None of it would be enough to express my love for the woman in front of me.
My heart was beating wildly in my chest. My tongue felt stuck to the roof of my mouth. To my surprise, my hand trembled as I held the small box out in front of me. There was never a moment in my long life that I had felt this exposed, vulnerable, and nervous.
“And you can forever be Mae White if that is what you wish,” I told her. “Or… you can be Mae Aurora Wellington. I know I am far from perfect, but I will strive every day to be the man that you deserve. I will make mistakes, but I will learn and grow from them. Be my mate and my wife. I love you, Mae. Please do me the honor, and marry me.”
I opened the box and showed her the priceless stone inside. My heart was beating so loudly that I was afraid I would not hear her response. I held my breath and waited. Mae’s eyes were large and round, her heart was racing just as quickly as mine. Her mouth had popped open, but she raised a hand to cover it. I could feel her excitement and joy, but I would be amiss to ignore the cold sensation of sadness mixed in with them. She dropped her hand from her mouth, and the corners of her mouth pulled upwards.
You’re nervous, she noted with amusement.
You have objected to marrying me before, I reminded her. Her smile fell some.
Isn’t a mate more permanent and everlasting than a wife? What’s the point of marriage when our souls are already sealed together? She asked me softly. I do not want to be just one more wife to you.
I want to make you mine in every way possible. The others were just practice, I tried to tease her, but the tension rolling around in my gut made it hard to be lighthearted. Marry me, Mae.
Mae reached out and took my face in her hands. Her eyes watered and a grin spread across her face.
“Yes, I will marry you.”
The elation that rushed through me caused me to feel dizzy. I took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto her finger. A perfect fit. I swept her up into my arms and spun her around. Her laughter was music to my ears. I placed Mae on her feet, took her face in my hands, and kissed her hard. I needed to touch her; I needed to bury myself in her. I needed to become one with my mate. After all the stress, fear, and anger all I wanted was to show her how much I loved her.
Our lips collided, and my desire became all-consuming. Mae opened her mouth, and I took advantage. Our tongues danced together. I trailed my hands down her sides and pulled her closer to me. One of Mae’s hands gripped my arm while the other reached down to stroke my erection. I groaned and pulled my mouth away from her. I picked her up by the waist, and I tossed her across the room onto the bed.
Mae’s squeal of surprise was muffled when I crawled over her and kissed her once more. I pulled away only so I could pull the sweater off her. I ripped away her bra, leggings, and panties. Instead of tossing her panties to the side as I had done with her other garments, I paused and inhaled the evidence of her arousal on them. Her gasp of surprise and the hint of pink that rose in her cheeks was delightful. I glanced down between her legs to find her glistening and ready. I groaned again, and I fought back the lengthening of my fangs.
“You are the most gorgeous woman to ever walk this earth,” I said, feeling breathless as I stared down at her. Mae giggled as she rolled her eyes. She self-consciously began to sit up and draw her legs to her chest. I scowled. “What do you think you are doing?” I grabbed her ankles and yanked her legs back down.
I pulled off my shirt and crawled over her. She reached out, and when her hands touched my chest, my whole body tensed. My cock throbbed, demanding attention, but I ignored it as I leaned down and took one of her nipples into my mouth. Her sharp intake of breath made me smile as I teased her nipple taut with my tongue. Her hands went to my hair and tugged at it. My hands trailed over her body, loving every inch of her.
I let go of her nipple and sat up. I gripped her hip with one hand while my other moved between her legs. My fingers slipped past her folds into her core. She was so wet. I growled, pleased with her body’s response. I caressed her inner walls, and I felt them clench in response. My thumb teased her clit, and her body jerked in response. Mae arched her chest upwards, giving me a lovely view of her breasts.
I moved down the bed, just enough so I could lean down between her legs and kiss her inner thigh, close to the junction between her legs. She jerked again in surprise. My lips skimmed across her skin, and I breathed in her heady scent. My fingers never stopped stroking her, and my thumb continued its circular motion over her swollen clit. As I kissed her inner thighs, I gently nipped at her skin causing it to turn pink. At the sight of her blood so close to the surface, I could no longer fight my fangs from lengthening. Mae began writhing around, and her moans got louder. Her body bared down on my fingers that were buried inside of her.
“Rylan,” she groaned, her body tensing as her orgasm grew closer.
I looked up at her from between her legs. When our eyes met I saw hers widen at the sight of my fangs. I felt a cold chill of her fear echo through me. Guilt and shame weighed heavy on me. One’s mate should never be afraid of them. I had been rough with Mae when I had bitten her the last time. While it had not been enough to injure her permanently, my bite had been hard enough to be punishing.
“Wait, Rylan…” Mae started, her brows coming together in concern.
She began to pull away from me, her fear mounting. But I refused to let her escape. I gripped her hips harder to hold her still while I continued to pleasure her with my other hand. I added a third finger into her.
“No Mae, do not fear me. I will never bite you like that again,” I swore, meeting her gaze.
Making sure I moved slowly so she could see what I was doing, I leaned in to kiss her inner thighs again. I sucked and nipped at her skin once again. I refused to sink my teeth into her while she was still nervous. Thankfully, it did not take long for Mae’s fear began to recede. She was willing to trust me again.
Her body tightened around m
y fingers. Just as her orgasm took over, I took advantage of her distraction. As gently as I could, I sank my fangs into her inner thigh. Her body bowed, and she cried out my name. I reveled in pleasure as I drank in her very essence. Whilst Mae’s blood was delicious and her power flooded my system, I blocked all that out to simply enjoy her. Her life force flowed through me, and I savored the sensation. Knowing she was alive and well, that she had forgiven me, and had said yes to being my wife made everything else feel inconsequential in that moment.
I did not take much blood from her. I knew her body was still recovering from her ordeal yesterday, and I did not want to weaken her further. I pulled my fangs from her thigh and licked the wound to heal it. Slowly, I withdrew my hand from between her legs. Mae panted; her body quivered from the aftershocks. I wasn’t done with her yet. I sat up, took her hand, and pulled her up into a sitting position. As I pressed my lips against hers, her satisfied sigh into my mouth was a siren’s call to me. My body shuddered with need.
I pulled away from her mouth and said, “I need you Mae Flower. I need to be buried inside you.”
Mae’s sexy smile made my blood boil. She moved to the side of the bed and said, “Lie down.”
My dick grew harder at her command. I did as I was told and moved to the middle of the bed where I lay down on my back. Mae moved to climb on top me, her legs straddling either side of me. Without any preamble, she took my dick in her hand and impaled herself. We both cried out as she slid down onto me until I was buried completely inside of her. I choked on a strangled cry of delight. Her answering chuckle was deep and sensual.
She looked at me with another megawatt smile before moving. She moved up and down on me slowly at first. She threw her head back and closed her eyes as she took me at her own speed. I grabbed her hips and watched her work. My release was going to happen soon. I felt it ready to erupt, but I fought it back as I took this moment to enjoy Mae’s control. Her breasts jiggled up and down, her intimate walls clenched around me, and her soft sighs were all divine.
Mae leaned forward until her chest was pressed against mine and kissed me. Her tongue slipped into my mouth as she deepened the kiss. Then, her hips really began to move. She placed her hands on either side of my head and began to thrust wildly. My hands slid down her waist, and I grabbed her ass cheeks to help her move faster. Everything about Mae was glorious and perfect. We fit together so well that there could be no question we belonged together. Sheer bliss radiated from my heart, saturating my soul.
Neither of us lasted long. Mae’s body squeezed me so tight that as she came, she forced out my own orgasm. As her power hit me again, the intensity of my orgasm doubled. Together we cried out in ecstasy. Mae’s body continued to pulse around me, milking me dry. When our orgasms finally subsided, Mae rolled off of me to lay on the bed.
“That was…” Mae said slowly, her voice husky, “intense.”
I laughed. I could feel her happiness and the contentment through our connection. All traces of fear and trepidation were gone.
“What we have together is intense,” I took her hand and kissed the back of it. “And I would not have it any other way, Mrs. Wellington.”
Mae’s chuckle was lovely, and while I felt her excitement, I also felt a flash of sadness again. Before I could ask her about it, there was a knock at our door. Mae stiffened and grabbed the covers to throw them over herself.
What do you want? I snapped, annoyed that our momentary bubble of happiness was about to pop.
The first group of Guardians will be arriving tomorrow morning. We need to discuss details about how this is going to work, Jasmine replied, her tone subdued.
We will be down shortly.
“Who is it?” Mae whispered.
“Jasmine knows we are both in here. There is no need to whisper. I am sure she is aware of what we have been up to,” I growled in annoyance. “She is requesting our presence to discuss the arrival of our guests.”
Mae sighed and threw off the covers.
“Will we ever have time for just us?” she complained. I stared down at her body, wondering the same thing. I placed my hand on her stomach.
“I hope so. I would rather not have an audience when we try for a family,” I told her solemnly. The alarm on her face made me laugh again.
“That’s not funny!” Mae snapped as she pushed my hand off her stomach and rolled out of bed. “We aren’t having kids.”
“You said no to marrying me but now you wear my ring. Things change.” I grinned at her glare.
She picked up her clothes and headed to the closet grumbling about my sanity. An image of Mae with a swollen belly appeared in my mind’s eye. My cock immediately came back to life, ready to make the daydream a reality.
Twenty minutes later we made our way downstairs. Mae immediately went into the kitchen while I strolled into the family room where the others were waiting. Arthur stood by the window, watching the woods as night descended and Jasmine sat stiffly in one of the chairs. Both turned their attention to me as I entered the room.
“Tomorrow, mid-morning the first group of Guardians is set to arrive,” Arthur started, his expression grim. “We need a plan. I am assuming that none of us mentioned Mae in our conversations, correct?”
Jasmine and I nodded. Mae walked over with a plate of the food I had started to make for her earlier and a fork. She plopped down on the couch and started to eat. Her first meal in a day and half. My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I needed to take better care of her.
“Good, so how do we go about introducing her to everyone without all of us coming to blows?” Arthur asked.
“Coming to blows will be inevitable. Who knows when that wave of depravity will come tomorrow?” Jasmine said grimly.
“We cannot let that happen,” I growled. “Whatever Mae has done to protect you both, she will do it to the others.”
Mae choked on the bite of food she had put in her mouth.
“Excuse me?” she squeaked in alarm. Her eyes were wide and full of horror.
“Do not fret. If it worked on Arthur and Jasmine, it will work on the others,” I assured her.
“Let me get this straight. You want to introduce me to warriors, who, mind you, will almost instantly hate me on the spot when they see me – and then as you try to convince them that I’m not a threat you want me to strike them with my power that I cannot control or guarantee won’t kill them? Is that right?”
“It should work, Mae,” Jasmine said, though her tone was far from confident.
“Are you willing to risk the lives of these Guardians? Usually, when my power hits something it destroys it, or do you not recall what happened to that thing in the lake? I think you and Arthur just got extremely lucky.”
“A Kraken,” Arthur whispered in awe as he stroked his goatee. Mae glared at him.
“Whatever that thing was, it’s now very dead,” she turned to me. “Rylan, you have seen what my power can do. You know this idea is dangerous. You all are assuming that if I can hit my target, AKA your friends, and I don’t kill them, that they will be protected from whatever this force is. What if they need to be affected by this depravity beforehand for it to work? What if it does work, but then they’re super pissed and try to kill me?” She sighed as she put down her empty plate. “It’s too bad that they can’t just hang on to a piece of my power to use in the case of an emergency.”
Three of us Guardians exchanged surprised glances. Of course! Why had none of us thought of this before?
“Is there a coven nearby?” I asked Arthur.
“There is one about a hundred miles east of here. I will call the Supreme,” he said with a grin.
“Make sure she brings enough gems for all of our guests,” Jasmine told him with a grin. Although it was obvious that she was still in pain from her ordeal with the Kraken, this idea seemed to give her life.
“How many Guardians in total will be arriving in the next two days?” I asked.
“Eight,” Arthur said.
> Eight Guardians? Unease twisted my gut. It was going to be hard to convince them all that Mae was not the problem here. Jasmine and Arthur exchanged glances that told me they were thinking the same thing.
“Wait, what’s going on? Why are you going to contact a witch?” Mae asked, confused by the sudden excitement in the room.
“We can trap your power in gems,” I explained. “Witches do it all the time. We will have the Supreme bring stones that will be able to contain your magic, and we will give them to the Guardians as they arrive. Hopefully, that should be enough to protect them. It will be their talisman while they are here.”
Arthur nodded. “I will ask her to come as soon as possible. Now, back to my original question: how do we introduce Mae to everyone?”
“We let our guests meet Mae right when they get here so it does not appear like we are trying to hide her,” Jasmine said with a grimace. “The best we can do is tell them the truth about what she is and hope they will see reason. Everyone will be trickling in slowly over the next few days. If we can get our first few guests comfortable in her presence, maybe the others will not be so threatened.”
Tension tightened in my gut. I did not want any of this. If there was another way to handle this situation, I would have fought the decision to bring in more Guardians, but the truth of the matter was that this was too great of a threat to ignore. We needed more feet on the ground if we were going to figure out what was going on and who was behind all of this. I clenched my jaw, fighting back the feeling of dread settling in my stomach.
Chapter Fourteen
Mae
We were all up before the crack of dawn the next morning. We stood together in the woods just out of sight of the house. There was frost on the ground. You could see the mist from our breaths as we stood around and watched the Supreme, Katie Gagnon, pull a handful of clear quartz stones from a small velvet bag. Each stone was attached to a leather rope that acted as a lanyard.
