by Holly Bargo
“Uberon!” Corinne shrieked, eyes snapping wide open. She gasped as he feasted upon her, drawing more of her honey into his mouth until she began to strain toward what must have been the prize: an orgasm. She panted and writhed against his unbreakable hold as the unbearable pleasure intensified and coiled and … then … released.
Uberon continued to lick and suck as his mate crashed through her first orgasm. With ruthless determination, he focused on driving her into another climax. He inserted a long finger into her rippling channel and drew it out only to slide it back in, establishing a pattern that would be repeated once she was fully relaxed and prepared for him. He added a second finger into the tight, virginal passage and she moaned her pleasure. His fingertips found the barrier of her innocence, which inspired fierce feelings of possessiveness within him.
This female was untouched by any other male and his.
Corinne cried out, her voice breathless as he hurled her over the precipice of another orgasm. She shuddered helplessly against the waves of pleasure he forced her to endure. After a long moment, she twitched and moaned yet again.
“I can’t move,” came the muffled complaint.
He chuckled against her as he crawled up her body, pressing open-mouthed kisses to her belly and then her breasts, spending time to induce her to arching weakly against him as he used lips, teeth, and tongue to deepen the rosy color of her nipples and aureoles. He nibbled the elegant sweep of her collarbone and the tender skin of her graceful neck. Corinne could taste the lingering remnants of her essence on his lips and tongue and breath when he returned to kissing her mouth. She skimmed her hands down his body, but he captured them before they managed to stray very far. He raised her hands above her head and wrapped one hand around both her wrists. He chuckled into her mouth at her inarticulate protest even as his other hand returned to her core and stroked her again, his thumb focusing on her over-sensitive and throbbing clit. Her hips bucked against him again.
“Tell me you’re mine,” he ordered, his lips brushing over hers with each syllable.
“I’m yours,” she said, the last word ending on a high-pitched keen as he slid his fingers inside her for the most delicious of intimate strokes. “I’m yours.”
“By air and water and fire and earth, I claim thee,” he rasped as he took hold of his rampant cock and settled the weeping tip at the entrance of her body. His hips flexed and he parted the slick folds.
Corinne gasped at the gentle intrusion. She gasped and panted as her body stretched, yielding to Uberon’s heated possession. She winced and bit back a yelp of pain when he breached her maidenhead. Sweat beaded on his forehead and upper lip as he held himself still to allow the pain to fade and her body to accept his invasion.
Corinne breathed through her nose, unable to draw her attention away from the loss of her virginity. How could she when she felt full to bursting. Surely, he could go no more deeply inside her. With that erroneous assumption, she relaxed.
When he felt her muscles relax around him, Uberon drove forward, burying himself inside his mate’s body. She cried out again at the unexpectedly deep occupation. He rolled his hips back slowly, giving her the chance to enjoy the slide of his flesh inside hers. She mewled. He pushed back in, taking care to avoid abrading the newly deflowered channel. He held her jade green gaze with his as he moved inside her body and watched as discomfort gave way to exquisite pleasure. He felt the tightening of her muscles around him and released her wrists. She left them where he’d held them. Uberon delved down to where their bodies joined and, with a delicate touch, strummed her swollen, sensitive clit. The manipulation was enough to shatter her, and she cried out a final time as her body convulsed beneath and around him. The spasms of her internal muscles triggered his own release. He pumped hard, the strokes fast and uncoordinated as his world boiled down to the sublime ejaculation of his seed inside his mate’s body.
“By witness of the sun, voice of the wind, embrace of the water, and kiss of the flame, I claim you, body, mind, heart, and soul.” He rasped the ancient words in an equally ancient tongue only few remembered and sealed the bond that forever melded her soul with his.
The connection of their souls clicked into place as his cock slowly deflated. Uberon felt his mate’s weariness and gathered her to him, giving her the shelter of his body as she succumbed to the imperative of slumber.
“I will love thee for all time and endow thee with all my wealth and power that you might never suffer harm,” he whispered. His breath lifted strands of her ginger tresses. With another whisper of will and power, he cleaned and refreshed their bodies. He did not want his mate waking in discomfort, her skin oily with old sweat and sticky from their passion. With a feeling of deep satisfaction, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to sleep, anticipating a more restful slumber than he’d enjoyed in many millennia.
He looked forward to returning home with his soul-bonded mate. Already amazing as a human, she’d make an incredible fae. With that thought, Uberon dipped into her mind and sent her into deep, deep sleep so that when he woke he could initiate her transformation and spare her the agony of it.
You vowed to allow her the choice, came the chastisement.
Uberon recognized the voice. She accepted me.
She did not understand what that meant.
She is mine, mine to possess, mine to care for.
Foolish fae. She won’t thank you for what you do to her.
Foolish swift. She’ll be happy. She’ll have me, and I will fill her heart, soul, mind, and body. Uberon especially looked forward to innumerable hours enjoying her body and anticipated that she would enjoy his with equal relish.
The unicorn’s derisive snort resounded inside Uberon’s skull. Arrogant fae. Bring her to the Deepwood when you return. We shall await you there.
Fiery pain erupted upon Uberon’s skin as the soul bond manifested itself in the emergence of black jewels amid the silver filigree tracing that proclaimed his rank and power and pure blood to any who knew how to read the intricate runes incorporated into the complex design. A whimper followed by a groan drew his attention back to his mate. She arched away from him in agony as the soul bond erupted from her human skin, manifesting as a wide collar that spread over her clavicles and across her shoulders. Black diamonds matching those on his markings caught the faint ambient light. Blood seeped from the broken skin and soaked into the linens. With a sigh, Uberon unwrapped his arms from around his mate and admired the mark of his possession emblazoned upon his mate’s skin. Rising from Corinne’s bed, he fetched a bowl of cool, clean water and a soft cloth. With gentle tenderness, he cleaned her skin.
Some things were best done by hand.
But he used his power to remove the wet bloodstains from the sheets and dry the fabric.
CHAPTER 6
Corinne stretched against the sheets, which felt deliciously cool and smooth against her skin. Muscles twinged with unaccustomed soreness, a mild ache that bespoke of vigorous nighttime activity. Her lips curled in a smile at the hazy memory of the loss of her virginity and the glory of the pleasure she’d experienced. If she’d known sex was that good, she would have cashed in her V-card years ago.
With sybaritic joy, she ran her palms down her body, from ribs to upper thighs. Her hand strayed to her mound and realization filtered through. She rubbed her skin, her bare, hairless skin.
“What the hell?” she muttered. She lifted the covers, which she now realized she did not recognize, and looked down her body. The glimpse encompassed the glitter of silver and gemstones that were embedded into her skin. Her hands flew up to her chest, sensitive fingertips running over the cool silver tracery and the faceted jewels that crawled up her throat.
“What the hell?” she muttered again.
Corinne sat up and flung the covers aside. In doing so, her long hair swished over her body. She grabbed a hank of her hair and sighed with relief that at least she hadn’t lost her hair, even if she did not quite recognize the rest of her own
body.
The gleam at her fingertips caught her eye as she examined the hank of hair. A yelp of surprise burst from her mouth.
“I have claws!” she squeaked in sudden panic.
“Beloved,” came the baritone endearment from behind her. She looked up, swiveling to see Uberon walk through a door she hadn’t realized was there. He shrugged off a loose robe as he approached, his pale skin practically gleaming, his eyes burning with heat and desire, and his cock swollen and erect.
“What have you done to me?” she cried out and scrambled away from him.
“You accepted me,” he replied and extended a hand—a clawed hand—toward her.
Corinne blinked. The intricate silver tattoos emblazoned across his chest and over his hips—which really weren’t tattoos because that implied ink—was studded with black diamonds just like she now had on her skin. Fury ripped through her at his trickery and obvious expectation that she’d spread her legs and fall on his penis.
“I said yes to sex, not to … to this!”
He halted beside the bed. “What did you think saying yes to me would entail, Corinne? I told you want I wanted.”
She shook her head. “Are you mad? I did not agree to this.”
At that last word she gestured to indicate her body. “I have claws now. And you had no right to shave or wax me … oh, shit … did you drug me, you bastard? And just where the hell are we?”
Uberon blinked, surprised by her ire. His hand fell back to his side. Perhaps the swifts had been correct in predicting her reaction to the transformation. However, surely she would calm down once he explained.
“I informed you that you would be transformed, that it was necessary for you to survive here.”
Through gritted teeth she growled at him, “And just where in the hell is here?”
“At the moment, we’re in the Erlking’s castle. He has graciously granted us leave to reside here until you are recovered sufficiently to travel to my home.”
“The Unseelie Court?” she snarled.
“No. There is no more Unseelie Court. We have territory far to the north bordering the Quol. We shall occupy that.”
“No. Just … no. And I want you to undo this.”
“We cannot restore your humanity.”
“What’s this ‘we’ shit? You did this to me!”
With implacable determination indicating his struggle to remain calm, Uberon repeated, “You accepted me and all that such acceptance entailed.”
“I rescind that acceptance.”
“You cannot. We are bound soul to soul, heart to heart, mind to mind, and flesh to flesh.” At the mention of flesh, his erection bobbed as though in emphasis.
“I am not getting near that,” Corinne snapped, her gaze captured by the swollen appendage.
Uberon seated himself on the bed and reached across to grasp his mate’s upper arm.
“Let me go!”
“My body craves yours and yours will crave mine,” he said as he pulled her toward him. She yanked against his hold, but his ancient strength easily dominated hers. He saw the light of power flash in her jade green eyes and quelled it with a thought.
“You jerk!” she hissed at him as she struggled to free herself. She raised a hand to strike him, but he caught it with the quick reflexes of a master swordsman.
Now, with both of her arms in his grasp, he forced her down and crawled over her, wedging his knees between her legs.
“No!”
He bowed down and captured her mouth with his even as he lowered his hips to pin her beneath his greater size and weight.
Dread of rape seized Corinne and she panicked, throwing her entire body into the struggle for freedom. She did not notice that the press of Uberon’s lips against hers was tender. She only recognized terror and the loss of choice.
When his mate did not subside in her thrashing about at his tender touch, Uberon drew back and dipped into her mind. What he saw there appalled him. She was his mate and she was supposed to yearn for his touch, his kiss, his possession of her body. She was supposed to ache for him and receive him with naught but joy and pleasure.
Her terror disturbed him.
He released her, and she shot off the bed and across the room where she cowered like a cornered animal. He rose, and she begged, “Don’t. Please don’t.”
“My touch should give you nothing but joy and pleasure,” he said, his voice quiet with unaccustomed confusion. “I do not understand this. I will not harm you.”
“You took away my choice. You were going to rape me.”
The cold words coated his heart with ice.
“I have not abandoned all honor such as that,” he snapped. He climbed off the bed and walked to where he could loom over her. “Do not besmirch me with the evils of human males. I am Uberon, a king of my race and one of the most powerful of my kind.”
Corinne averted her gaze and sniffed.
With narrowed eyes and icy disdain, Uberon straightened to his full height and said, “My cock rises to none but you and my heart beats only for you, but I’ll not beg. You will. And when you do, rest assured that I’ll spare you no quarter and fuck you raw until you admit you belong to me.”
With a slithering rustle, cloth and leather wrapped around his body. Fully clothed, Uberon stalked from the bedroom in a towering fury.
“Aw, shit,” Corinne muttered and buried her face in her hands. She stayed in the corner for a moment until her limbs stopped trembling and she thought her legs would bear her weight. They felt shaky as she rose, but strong enough to do what she needed them to do. Leaning on the wall and then a bureau for stability, she explored the room and found clothing, none of it practical. Exquisite, floor length gowns, delicate sandals, silky shawls: all of it suited an idle lady of leisure, not a headlong flight into the great unknown of the Erlking’s kingdom.
And just who was this Erlking anyway?
In a fit of pique, she focused her angry gaze on a glass figurine and focused her urge to incinerate it … nothing.
“Damn it!” she grumbled, realizing that Uberon had stifled her power well and good. She hoped his block would wear off, because she was going to leave his arrogant ass if she had to burn down her host’s castle to do so.
A knock on the door—not the one through which Uberon had entered and exited—distracted her. She grabbed Uberon’s robe off the floor where he’d left it and pulled it on. The hem dragged the floor.
“Who is it?”
The door opened and a pretty face peered in.
“Lord Uberon asked me to see to your welfare,” the woman said.
“He didn’t actually ask, did he?” Corinne could not help but stare at the intricate silver design and blood red gems embedded in the skin covering the woman’s throat and exposed upper chest and shoulders. Her fingers skimmed over her own embellishment.
“He suggested it,” the woman said with a grin. “Considering how angry he is, I thought it best to humor him.”
Corinne felt a grin tug at her lips, so she pressed them together in a firm line of disapproval. When she felt she could keep control of herself, she said, “Again, who are you?”
The pretty woman sighed and extended her hand in a curiously familiar, human gesture. “I’m Oriel, the Erlking’s mate.”
Corinne took her hand and shook it briefly. “Oriel. And I’m Corinne.”
“Oh, yes, I know. I also know you were once human, like me.”
“Like you?”
“Gus kidnapped me and brought me here.” She chuckled, even as Corinne’s eyes widened at the plain name given to the apparently wealthy and assumedly powerful Erlking. “Let me tell you, it took months before I was ready to forgive him for that.”
“So, you’re saying I should forgive Uberon for what he did to me?”
“Oh, no. I think you should lead him a merry chase.” Oriel giggled, her amber eyes twinkling with merriment. “But I’ve not come up here to discuss that.” She gestured toward the wardrobe and bureau. �
��You’ll find a bath through that door” —she pointed across the room— “and some soap, towels, and such. Avail yourself of the clothes in the wardrobe; they’ll fit you. And when you’re feeling more or less normal, step outside the room and someone will be waiting to lead you to the dining room. You must be hungry.”
Corinne blinked in surprise and nodded. Yes, she was hungry.
Damn it.
She padded across the floor and passed through the indicated doorway. Sure enough, a shallow pool steamed. Colored mosaic tiles gleamed through the water, reminding her of photos she’d seen of Roman baths. Arranged on a ledge, cut crystal containers offered an array of fragrant oils and salts to season the bathwater. A small table held two thick, folded towels. A matching washcloth was draped over the edge of the pool. Corinne looked into the ceramic pots that sat on another small table beside the pool and, rubbing a dab of their contents between her thumb and forefinger, discerned that both held soap. Whether the soap doubled as shampoo could only be answered through empirical trial, she figured.
“Ahhh,” she sighed as she sank into the pool, which was just deep enough to allow the water to cover her up to her shoulders while she sat on the mosaic bottom. The hot water relaxed and eased the lingering soreness of her body. After she soaked for several minutes, her belly rumbled, reminding her that she needed to eat.
After washing both her hair and body with the fragrant soap, Corinne wrapped the towel around her body and found a silver comb and silver-backed brush which she put to good use. She gaped in amazement when each stroke drawing the comb through her hair left behind dry, shining locks. Enjoying the feel of her loose hair sliding over her shoulders, she rummaged through a bureau and found a lightweight silk chemise trimmed with lace. She dropped the towel and slipped it on, then opened the wardrobe and selected a midnight blue gown that looked simple enough to manage without the assistance of a ladies maid. She adjusted the ties to fit her body and wondered if it would be gauche to request panties and a bra. Tilting her head to one side, she rather thought that, considering the style of the clothing, modern undergarments likely had no place in this strange, new world where Uberon had brought her.
