by Stacy Reid
“To do so would be a folly on his part. He could not win,” Gidon said flatly.
“Nuria has over two hundred million citizens, twenty million of them warriors. He has more warriors than our entire kingdom’s population. King Ajali’s feats in the second Great War are unsurpassed.”
“You doubt our might?” Gidon asked in mild surprise.
“No.” Drac inhaled, tightening his hands on the railing, creating fissures. “My friend, I know you don’t want to start your reign by delivering death to any kingdom. That would transport us back to the dark times. I do not want to take her if she is not my mate and jeopardize our vision for our realm.”
“Then proceed with caution,” Gidon warned him darkly before he shiktred away.
Unable to deny the need to see her, Drac stepped into the shadows and appeared in Saieke’s chamber.
Worry.
Pain.
Regret.
They seeped from the princess, the taste of emotions bitter to swallow. She lazed in the massive tub, gently waving her fingers, spiraling water in the air. A sigh slipped past her lips. “I am so sorry, Mother.”
Ah…he’d found the source of her upheaval. She had been in his realm now for two days, and her kingdom would be beside themselves with fear for their missing princess. She did not understand that when one made a resolve it was pointless to reflect with regret.
“Drac.” His name from her lips was the softest of whisper, and if not for his enhanced senses he would not have heard.
His intention to step from the shadows suspended, he drifted even closer. He groaned low in his throat as she stood from the bath, giving him a glimpse of the graceful arch of her back and the smooth firmness of her ass before she drew on a silken robe.
With a flick of her finger, she removed all water from her body and garment, then flashed to the great windows in the bed chamber, and opened the drapes. She pressed against the cool glass, peering into the void.
She looked frail and alone. He did not like it.
He stepped from the shadows.
She spun from the windows, instinctively bracing for an attack. Terror skittered across her face. A curious feeling of satisfaction filled him when she relaxed instantly. She did not fear him. The very idea of it left him speechless. He could not remember a time when he had not been reviled.
“You came,” she said, the timbre of her voice husky and sensual.
“My king advised me that you requested me as your escort for your days in the Darkage.”
“I did.”
“Why?” The question that had been eating at him since Gidon alerted Drac.
Saieke ran her gaze over his frame in a contemplative caress. “I thought it fair that I get to see you naked as well.”
Thud. The beat of her heart slammed into him, arousal flared hot, burning his resistance. His beast stretched and tried to taste her chakra, but recoiled as it found no answering beast within her.
Yet its voice still whispered ours.
The spicy scent of her arousal wafted through the room. His mouth watered and he almost sank to his knees. “Do you understand what you invite?” he asked, wrapping the shadows around her and pulling her into his space. Her robe floated around her delicate ankles, caressing his feet.
She lifted piercing blue eyes to his face. “Yes.”
Impossible.
“You are heir to the kingdom of wind and mountains, and you offer yourself to me. Why?” he asked gliding around her, darkly curious.
The allure was too much for him to resist, and her scent was an irresistible beacon. His beast craved her. Too damn much, and the only thing saving her was the part of him that yearned to know her, and the threat she posed to his kingdom if he took her and she was not his mate.
Her lashes swooped down, hiding her thoughts. A growl slipped from him, and the pulse fluttered at her throat, tempting him to bend and rake his teeth across her throat.
She snapped her gaze to his. “I desire you.”
The invitation to pry her legs open and sink his aching cock into her was evident in her scent. How could she trust him with her body and pleasures? He was hated far and wide. The curiosity of it grounded him from pouncing on her. “Are you not a virgin?”
Red crawled up her neck and she narrowed her eyes. “I am!”
The swish of her robe whispered through his body, teasing him as she twisted to track his movements. The pulse beat even more frantically at her throat, and the daintiest of feet that peeked from under the floating garment curled into the carpet.
He stopped at her back, bent his nose to her neck and inhaled, causing her to shiver. His beast lunged and roared, and chakra leaked from him. Unable to stop the need, he scraped his teeth against her throat.
She arched sharply, quivering as his tongue followed the same path.
“Undress,” he ordered. What the fuck was he doing?
Saieke slowly faced him. Her hands fluttered to her knots and hesitated.
“I thought you understood what you were inviting.”
Saieke flushed and untied the knots of the robe, letting it pool to her feet. The fragrance of her arousal became stronger, and it pleased Drac to know she endured the same burning hunger.
The need to push her away was overridden by hunger. He drew her to him, angled his body away from hers so that only their mouths touched, and claimed her lips with raw intensity. He coaxed her lips opened, sliding his tongue against hers in a sensuous motion. Everything about her tasted like sin—dark and utterly decadent.
She moaned and fisted his jacket, pulling him even closer. Her hands flexed, then she slid them around his neck while her mouth responded with sensual greed. She breathed in his kiss as he gripped her hips, lifted her and strode to the bed.
He sat on the edge with her knees straddling his hips, pulling her wetness onto his straining cock, damping the front of his pants. Saieke bucked and shuddered, her hips undulating instinctively.
A snarl hissed out from his throat at the latent sensuality urging him to fuck her.
She froze, and apprehension flavored her chakra.
He fought to slow his intensity.
Their lips separated, and both breathed raggedly.
“Do not stop,” she moaned uncertainty and need flickering in her eyes. “I feel achy and there is a throb between my thighs.”
“I will not fuck you,” he grounded.
Her eyes widened, and he clenched his teeth against the rumble building in his chest. More wetness wetted his cock through his trousers as she reacted to his words.
He licked her lips.
“Your eyes…they have taken on a serpentine cast.”
“My beast,” he murmured, and smoky tendrils swirled and enveloped them.
As if impatient, she rolled her hips, and this time he could not control his groan. The minx smiled.
“Why won’t you fuck me?”
The crude words from her glistening lips tugged at the savage urges beating in his blood. Drac struggled for control as her scent wrapped around his senses. His beast paced in the cage of his mind, wanting to devour instead of seduce. A red haze of lust tested his restraint as he became immersed with the need of his darkness.
Ours, his beast hissed inside, voice guttural with arousal.
He trailed his hands down between her legs and probed. She trembled as his fangs extended and raked against her neck. His beast inhaled the lust riding her, and he felt its shudder deep in his mind. Drac flexed his hand and ran his fingers inside her pussy, the soft heated silkiness testing his control. He rubbed around her slipperiness until he found her clit, which he circled firmly. She grew wetter, her moans hotter, and her hips struggled to undulate against the grip he had on them.
“Drac,” she moaned, voice husky with lust, her fingers gripping his hair tightly.
&nb
sp; He pushed a finger deep, and kissed her to the rhythm of his finger slowly fucking her.
She was wet, tight and perfect.
She returned his kiss passionately, turning to molten liquid in his hands. He dragged his lips away from hers and ran them roughly down her throat, his fangs, which he had retracted, burst out almost out of his control. He tried to insert another finger in her but she flinched and bit his neck hard, drawing forth blood.
Drac nipped back at her neck but did not press her. He growled as she was too fucking tight. He thrust his finger inside her, pressing on her nub, and he plunged his fangs deep into her throat as she bucked and clamped down on him as an orgasm claimed her.
She was fucking perfect…and the most dangerous woman he’d ever encountered.
***
Rapture ripped through Saieke. She screamed in shock, and pleasure, as fangs plunged into her. Fire lanced at her neck as he groaned deeply, and dark delight rose inside her. The violence of the arousal simmering from his chakra made her heart bump painfully against her ribs. She did not know what she was waiting for, but the keen knife-edge of suspension sliced through her. The tendrils of his chakra caressed her back, the globes of her bottom, and the back of her knees delicately—the pleasure sharp and alarming.
He slipped his finger from inside her but left his hand between her legs, cupping her possessively. She whimpered as his fangs slid from her throat, and a warm trickle ran from her neck to her breast. Saieke looked down, watching her blood, red and vibrant, trailed from her breast to stomach.
“Drac,” she said, hating the aroused confusion, yet her body stirred in answer to the lust and possession stamped on his face. His eyes had taken on a deeper serpentine cast, and there were flickers of red. His fangs were fully extended and he looked…well he looked scary.
“This is but one of the reasons I must resist you,” his low growl was dark and rich. “You are not made for the kind of lover I am. I want to fuck you hard…feel the press of your nails against my back, and when you cry, unable to take me, I won’t stop…because I will love your pain.”
Her blood still flowed, and he ran his hands over her neck, stomach, and breast, painting her body crimson. His hands left fire in its wake as pleasure and hazy confusion beat inside of Saieke. He cupped her breast, pinching, caressing her nipples to heighten her arousal.
His face took on a crueler cast as he arched her toward him and lowered his fangs to her breast, holding her gaze. Saieke groaned at the pleasure-pain that knifed through her as his fangs pierced her flesh. He drank deeply while his hands caressed her body roughly but seductively. He retracted his fangs and captured her nipple in his mouth and pulled. Hot dark pleasure rushed through her as the eroticism of what he was doing to her caused another orgasm to rush through her, blinding and frightening in its intensity.
He became rougher, and his chakra became darker. He sucked and nibbled at her nipple and slipped his hand down to her core where without warning he plunged two fingers past her resistance deep into her body. “Drac!”
He snarled as her hips recoiled, he withdrew his fingers and thrust inside again.
She felt his control crack.
He ran his tongue over the punctures on her breast and her neck closing them, then kissed her with raw dominance in tune with the plunging fingers.
Saieke drew her lips from his and moaned, “Drac, I can’t…” against his mouth as the pleasure-pain that was knifing through her core edged closer to only pain.
“You can,” he hissed and twisted her down to the bed.
He withdrew his fingers and placed his hands under her hips and drew her to his mouth. His tongue swiped through the slit; it lashed and suckled. Saieke keened into the room as her body fragmented as exquisite bliss stormed her senses.
He gave her no ease, licking her into mindless pleasure, slowly and gently, then with harsh intensity. Saieke sobbed and undulated against his tongue desperate for more. He carried her body to the pinnacle of pleasure over and over until she was hoarse from screaming his name. Drac lifted her hips higher, nudged her legs wider, and ran his lips to the inside of her thighs where he pierced her with his fangs while he thrust two of his fingers inside her aching core.
Saieke wailed in pleasure and exhaustion as another orgasm lifted her torso off the bed and she was only supported by the strength of his hands under her hips. Drac swiped his tongue over the punctures and eased her down to the bed. He withdrew his fingers from her and laved her body with his tongue. He swiped from her hips to her stomach, from her breast to her neck. Saieke lay on the bed as tremors racked her body. There was the softest brush of his lips over hers as he kissed her lips, gentling her.
Saieke stared at the sensuality that carved his features and smiled. She could not believe he was still fully clothed. He returned her appraisal lazily, as if he had not just given her the most incredible delight. She drew the covers to her and stumbled to the edge of the bed. The sweat on her skin cooled with the air that wafted through the window. With a flick of her fingers breeze whipped into the room and closed the window. “I want you as my consort.”
She lifted her hand to trace his lips and blinked.
He disappeared.
They really had to stop doing that was the last hazy thought she had before she succumbed to the deep pull of sleep.
Chapter Ten
The princess purred and stretched against the silken sheets. “I can feel you,” she murmured without looking in his direction.
Interesting. His chakra was fully leashed. The shadows slithered from him, and she twisted her head to where he sat in the high wing back chair by the fire.
She glowed with pleasure.
“I am at your service for the days that you will remain in our kingdom, Princess. However my lapse in judgment will not happen again,” he said.
“I will have you as my lover, Darkan.”
“Stated like a true princess,” Drac responded with no inflection in his voice, even though his beast roared in agreement. She was exquisite.
She is ours, his beast’s voice slid across his mind.
Patience, he said. “Are you not the Nurian king’s intended?” he asked. “Blood-oathed?”
“Not by my will or desire.” She stood and sauntered to him. “Does it matter?”
“Most assuredly it does, Princess.”
“You did not touch me like it mattered,” she said, gazing down at him with penetrating awareness. She stepped between his open legs, the coverlets brushing against his knees, her scent enticing.
Ours
A blush warmed her cheeks. “You did not taste me like it mattered…in fact, your touch made me feel owned by you…not by the insignificant Nurian king.”
Drac wrestled with the flare of rage that came at the thought of her with someone else. He had exerted ruthless control to tear himself from her earlier, and he would not succumb again. He glided to his feet. She tilted her head exposing the graceful arch of her neck. His beast lunged, and Drac tamped down harshly on the desire that roused upon just looking at her.
“Dress yourself, Princess. I will return shortly,” he said stepping into the shadows.
He gritted his teeth at how easy she had shaken his resolve to never taste her again. He’d been unable to sleep, burning with need for the princess on his lips. He wanted her with a visceral desire. He had promised Gidon that he would exercise caution. Drac could not promise to stay away from her fully, but he would keep in mind that they had a lot riding on just having one kingdom form a relationship with them.
A powerful kingdom such as Boreas would be a coup.
How he had pleasured after his earlier talk with Gidon was not proceeding with caution. She simply enthralled him. Not just her beauty, she called to him on a deep instinctive level. He had taken her blood several times, and it enticed to him like nothing had before. He had never had t
he primitive urge to take another’s blood before; as Darkans, they simply fed from the negative energy from others. Yet what he had felt from absorbing her essence was rich, powerful and decadent.
I want you as my consort
His cock jumped in remembrance of her sweetness and the silky feel of her body in his arms, the lushness of her curves, and the tightness of her pussy. Everything in him clamored that she was his mate, yet the impossibility of it had him hesitating. Something that he was not prone to—he was decisive, swift and brutal.
The madness of it did not escape him.
She would leave his real in three days’ time, hopefully ending the obsessive need he felt for her. It was imperative that he found the assassins before they made a move toward Gidon. The manner in which his father had been murdered bespoke of skill and viciousness. Drac did not doubt Gidon’s ability in the slightest, but there were webs that he needed to untangle so that his king would not be caught in any traps from the enemy. The Kingmaker. Drac needed to know beyond a doubt who was the enemy. Now was not the time for distraction, despite how beguiling the distraction was.
***
Saieke groaned, completely stuffed. Drac had done nothing but stare at her while she gorged herself on their delicious food. He lounged at the entrance of the private dining hall, waiting patiently with lust flaring from his chakra. She almost grinned in sheer pleasure. It seemed despite his resolve to stay away from her, he could not help his desires. She understood, he fascinated her, and somehow she felt safe and protected knowing that he was in the castle and would be her escort for her days in the Darkage. He restrained his chakra, but Saieke was still absurdly pleased and gave him a wink to which he returned a glare filled with his usual iciness. She shrugged. He wanted her and that was all that mattered at this time.
She had to remind herself as she dressed with exquisite care for him, that the desire she felt for him had to be temporary. The excitement filling her at the thought of learning him had evolved to dread. It was her loins alone that should be shivering for him…not her. She would have to guard her heart stringently.
