Alec looked down, taking in a slow breath. This was his fault. He’d let the world he grew up in make him believe that sometimes people had to do things they didn’t want to do, and then he’d spent the last couple of weeks convincing Adira of the same. But this should not be one of those things.
“People aren’t property, Adira,” he said. “No one should be forced to do anything in this life for the sake of others.”
Reaching up on her toes, Adira pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “No one is forcing me, Alec. I choose this.”
“So that’s it? You just give up? You’re just going to go along with the regent? You don’t even know what he’s really—”
Adira raised a finger to his lips. “I do know,” she said, then she dropped her hand back to her side. “In fact, he told me himself. And I’m not just going along with it. I have a plan.”
“A plan to get killed?”
When her expression steadied, Alec’s heart fell. He’d thought earlier today that the ravagers had killed him. But it was Adira’s next words that did the job.
“Well…yes.”
Chapter 31
“I can’t let you do that, Adira.”
“It’s not your choice to make.”
Alec’s expression turned pained. “Why are you doing this?”
“You know why,” she said, her chest tightening with the realization of all she would be sacrificing to do it. Her decision had been easier when she believed him dead. “You know why better than anyone else.”
When he opened his mouth to speak again, Adira closed the distance between them and pressed her lips to his. At first, he stood frozen, but within moments, his body eased against hers, and he took her in his arms.
She pulled away and stared up at him. “I do love you, Alec. I want you to know that. No matter what happens.”
“If this is what you choose, then I’m behind you.”
“It is,” she said quietly. A calm buzzed through her in that moment that could only be described as complete acceptance. Any inner battles going on within subsided. This was it. Her sacrifice. Her choice. And perhaps her last few hours here in this life. “Alec?”
This time, he silenced her with a kiss, as though reading her desires from her heart before her mind could even process them. Somewhere in the back of her consciousness, the warning for her to hurry back to the castle whispered. But the shouts of her need to connect with the man she loved drowned everything else away, until all that remained was Alec and herself, standing in the woods, his hands on her hips and his mouth to her lips.
Alec backed her up against the tree, her chest heaving against his own. He pulled her shirt over her head, breaking the kiss.
“Don’t start something you’re not going to finish,” she said, trying to keep the tremble from her voice.
He dropped her shirt to the ground. “I don’t intend to.”
After guiding her off the beaten path and behind the thick overgrowth of forest plants, he pushed her to her knees, out of sight, and then dropped down beside her, scowling.
She took his hand. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he muttered. He pushed her shoulder back until she was lying down beneath him. “I’m trying not to be angry with you.”
“Angry with me? Why would—”
“Don’t.” He glared at her. “You know why. You’re putting yourself at risk.”
“Oh,” she said, giggling. “You’re that upset about it?”
“Upset is not the right word. But I plan to sort it out after this.”
Before Adira could respond, Alec had taken her pants off and thrown his own in pile with them. He nestled between her legs and touched her hair gently, as if he might break her.
“You’re a beautiful mess,” he muttered. Then he sat back on his heels, his thighs under her own, spreading her legs apart and leaving her open to him.
Adira shivered. Alec’s inner torment was palpable, coming off him in such strong waves it nearly assaulted every nerve ending in Adira’s body, making her both nervous and aroused at the same time. She knew what she had to do and had committed to it—but had Alec accepted that yet?
“Promise me you won’t get in my way,” Adira whispered. “Promise you’ll let me do what I need to do.”
Alec pushed her hands up over her head, pinning them to the ground by her wrists, and stared down into her eyes. “I can’t promise you that, love.”
Adira’s lip trembled, but Alec leaned in and kissed her, stilling her nerves. His hips pushed forward enough for the tip of his cock to press against her folds. As he pushed his head inside, he broke the kiss.
“You’re soaked,” he whispered.
Her cheeks burned. “You want this as badly as I do, I’ve noticed.”
Alec chucked, easing more of his cock inside of her until she winced from the pressure of him stretching her. It hurt…but it felt amazing. Her whole body was on fire, and her mind swam with too many thoughts to process. Her hips squirmed beneath him.
“You were saying?” he asked, holding his body perfect still. He nibbled her neck and traced kisses down her collarbone, then pulled out enough to graze his teeth across her hardened nipples. When she moaned, he whispered, “Shhh. Not a sound. If we get caught out here before I’m done with you, I’ll be really angry.”
“I thought you already were.”
His teeth pressed harder until she had to hold back a yelp. Then he released her. “I told you to be quiet.”
As his lips came back to her mouth, he rocked all the way into her, giving her all of him, and she moaned against his mouth. Her breathing shifted to quick, shallow breaths.
Alec withdrew, then flipped her over with surprising speed, knocking a gasp from her lungs. His body crushed against her, and he held her still by her hair, his lips against her ear.
“I want to make love to you, Adira,” he said, “but not this time. If I did it this time, it would feel too much like this is the last time. And it won’t be. We’re going to get through this.”
Adira’s body trembled, and she closed her eyes to take a slow breath. “You said you would finish what you started.”
“I said I wasn’t going to make love to you,” Alec said, spreading her legs apart while keeping her breasts and stomach pressed to the ground. “I still have every intention of fucking you.”
A fresh wave of arousal coursed through her, and her back arched sharply at the base of her spine. His hips cupped her ass and his throbbing cock worked its way back into the warmth between her legs. From this angle, he went even deeper, and Adira had to press her lips together to stop a cry of arousal from shattering the whispered hush of their surroundings.
Alec’s cock hardened more, and Adira gasped, momentarily unsure if her body could handle his girth. The pressure was all at once amazing and terrifying, and she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself as he began to pump into her with enough force to rock her body against the ground.
He muttered something as he went at her harder, his fist tightening in her hair and keeping her head held still. Moments later, his hands eased down to her shoulders, then grasped around her ribs, holding her entire body still. Cool air wafted over the skin of her back as the blast of each plunge took on a new jolting power. Without her body rocking away from his, she was forced to take the full blow of every stroke, and she gritted her teeth to hold back from screaming her pleasure.
Even this did not seem to be enough for Alec. He started to pull her into him with each thrust. Her ass crashed against his hips. His cock pounded into her. Although Adira held back her screams, silence became impossible; moans vibrated from deep within as pleasure built from her core.
She couldn’t take much more before this would send her over the edge, but it didn’t appear Alec would slow down any time soon. He drove harder and faster into her, and she fell apart in an explosion of pleasure that arched her back as her walls clamped down around him. It seemed an impossible feat with the size of him, and yet her bod
y gripped him with such ferocity she thought the tightening would never subside.
Her eyelids fluttered, and her lips slackened in a soft pant, nearly delirious from orgasm and trying to keep up with Alec as he continued to ride her. His thrusts slowed, just as hard but more punctuated now.
His hands dropped from her ribs to her sides, and he reached with one hand beneath their bodies to rub her button as his thrusts turned into more of a slow grind.
“I need you,” he mumbled, breathing hard.
The small circles his fingers made paired with the way he was pumping into her caused her body to build with need for a second time. Soon, he had her moaning again. He moved his hand and leaned over her to trail hot kisses along her neck.
“And you need me, Adira,” he added.
He was right. She couldn’t do this alone. Even when she had believed him dead, it was still his presence in her heart that drove her actions and determination.
As his speed and intensity increased, his cock hardened even more. His body was like stone against hers, his thrusts passionate and unforgiving. He sent her over the edge once more, this time joining her, holding onto her hips like handles as he pushed in deeper than she thought possible, grunting as he held still, his cock pulsing.
When he withdrew, Adira’s body chilled, and she shivered. She pulled on her clothes and watched him do the same.
Alec helped Adira to her feet and pulled her body to his, wrapping his arms around her to kiss the top of her head. “Do you really love me, Adira?”
She sighed against his chest. “Of course.”
She felt him nod against the top of her head. “Then I hope you will forgive me for what I’m about to do next.”
Chapter 32
Alec lifted her, threw her over his shoulder, and headed away from the castle.
She pounded her tiny fists against his back. “Put me down!”
He continued, moving quickly. He needed as much distance between them and the castle as possible, especially if she was going to carry on like this.
“Alec! I have to go back there!”
He scowled. Did she have a death wish? He’d fucked her with the full force of his anger. His every thrust has been driven by his worry, his fear, his fury. And he’d thought her orgasm would have quieted her determination to get back to the castle. Would have bought him some time to talk some sense into her.
Apparently, he’d underestimated her. Again.
As he thought back to their encounter just moments ago, he smirked to himself. Even if he were to put her down, she wouldn’t be able to walk much after the way he’d rode her.
His cock twitched at the thought of it. He would have loved to see that. And that was a reminder of exactly why he needed to keep her as far from the regent as possible. Dvorak had ruined enough between them. He’d taken that moment and so many others. But he wouldn’t take her life. Alec would never allow it.
With Adira draped over his shoulder, Alec sped through the arc of the forest surrounding most of the sector. When he reached the open fields of the old farmland, he slowed. On the other side of the electric shield that separated the outskirts from the Deadlands was his old home. His mother and father’s home.
But he couldn’t go there. And not just because it was in ravager territory now. He couldn’t go anywhere familiar. Those would be the first places Dvorak would look for them.
Except for…Adira’s place.
Alec froze and turned to face back the way he’d come. Adira’s place had never been found. She’d lived there for over a decade, undiscovered. Alec was the only one other than her who knew the location because she’d sent him there to gather her belongings.
He took off in a run, weaving through the trees until he arrived there, breathless. He broke through the entry and quickly shut the door behind him. Adira was still carrying on, but his adrenaline had drowned her out. His head was spinning. He hadn’t thought this through.
Now what?
He wasn’t about to keep her prisoner. But he needed to get her to listen to him.
With a deep sigh, he scanned the room. Spotting her cot, he sat her on it, keeping his hands firm on her shoulders. She tried to pull away, but without her magic to fight back, he was stronger.
“Adira! Calm down!”
She stopped, staring into his eyes with the most haunted expression. Her eyes were dry of tears, but the emptiness there was frightening. “Alec,” she said, her tone firm, “you need to let me go. I need to save these people.”
He crouched in front of her, still keeping her in his grasp. “Why?” His face tightened, and he shook his head. “These are people who cheer on the death of innocent women. They aren’t worth saving.”
She tilted up her chin. “You were worth saving.”
The words cut into his heart like a sharp blade of ice. He swallowed hard. “That was different.” His voice broke. “Come on, Adira. You know it’s not the same. Let me protect you.”
“No, Alec! Let me protect you.”
“I’m going to let you go now,” he said. “But I want you to hear me out. Then, if you still want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
She nodded, and he lowered his hands off her. She remained still and implored him with her gaze. “Well?”
Alec told her everything he had discovered in the regent’s books. All the things he hadn’t yet had the chance to tell her. She didn’t so much as blink.
“Okay,” she said. “May I go now?”
“Adira, please,” he pleaded. “You are amazing and strong and made of heart. If anyone can overcome the regent, it’s you. You don’t need to prove that.”
“But I do,” she said. “To myself, and to those whose lives depend on it.”
He shook his head, his heart sinking. “I’ll never forgive myself if you die.”
“And I’ll never forgive myself if those people die. So why would you ask me to live with a guilt you do not desire to live with?”
“It’s not the same.”
“Isn’t it, though?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Let me tell you something, Alec. You will never forgive yourself if I die, but if this sector dies because you stopped me, I will never forgive you. Which then would be harder to live with?”
He stood and raked his hands through his hair, blowing out a frustrated breath. “Fine. Go,” he mumbled. “But I’m coming with you.”
She stood with all the grace, calm, and acceptance that he could not muster. “You do what you want, Alec. All I ask is that you don’t get in my way.”
Alec had tried to get Adira to at least tell him what she had planned, but she refused, and that worried him more. What could be so bad that she wouldn’t tell him?
Adira made it back to the castle in time for the wedding. Soon after, she was escorted to the marketplace with one of the usual processions. But instead of setting up the altar at the usual venue, they set it up where the regent’s dispensary kiosk normally stood: on the large, circular runestones embedded into the ground. The edges normally glowed blue, but now the emanating glow was orange, with the overlapping pattern of rings glowing the brightest.
Alec wasn’t sure what Dvorak was up to, but it couldn’t be good. Especially if he was breaking this many traditions.
The entire sector was in attendance. Since Dvorak believed Alec to be dead, hiding in a crowd of people who would recognize him was not a wise idea. Instead, Alec took cover in a nearby abandoned home, peering out a hole in one of the curtains that were made from old sheets.
Adira had no father to walk her down the aisle, but that was never how these unions went anyway. It was always two armed guards who walked the doomed queen to Dvorak’s side. Adira, however, took each step with more confidence and grace than any queen before her. Nothing about her belied fear or unease that would match that roiling in Alec’s stomach.
When the officiate began to speak, Alec curled his hands into tight fists and clenched his jaw.
“To all present, I say: We are gathered
here today, not to witness the beginning of what will be, but rather what already is. The law deems these two destined to be wed for the good of our sector, and we give thanks to the willing parties before us, who join today in perfect love and perfect trust.”
The crowd cheered their trained response. “In perfect love and perfect trust!”
“This marriage is more than the joining bonds of two people,” the officiate continued. “It is the union of our well-being, of our safety. It transcends love for one another and represents a love for mankind, a love for humanity. Today, as Regent Dvorak takes Adira Chovanek’s hand in marriage, we witness their love not for each other, but for this great sector and all who live within it.”
“Thank you, Our Regent!” the crowd chanted.
Alec bit his tongue.
The regent raised his hands, quieting the crowd, and smiled widely. “I want to thank you all for being here to bear witness,” he said, his voice booming over the murmurs of the crowd. “We have confidence that we can make this sector great again!” He raised his finger, as though admonishing his point. “And let us not forget the sacrifice the entire world before us has made for our survival. Our actions today are but a small part of that. We must remember that division is what has allowed us to survive. United we stand,” he said, picking up the intensity of his tone, “but divided, we conquer!”
“Divided we conquer,” the crowd echoed, some pumping their fists into the air.
At the thought that he had once not been a far cry from these people, Alec shuddered. Mindless drones, brainwashed from birth by Dvorak’s reiterated speeches.
Alec’s gaze drifted back to Adira. Calm as ever. But while Dvorak’s attention was on the crowd and the crowd on him, her hand slipped to the folds of her dress and then back up to her mouth. The movement was so innocuous, one would think she had merely touched her lips. But Alec’s eyes were trained for slight of hand, and he noticed the vial between her fingers.
The wheels in Alec’s mind turned. She’d been working on something in the woods when he’d found her. A potion. What was in that vial?
Origin: an Adult Paranormal Witch Romance: Othala Witch Collection (Sector 1) Page 21
