She gave a shaky laugh. “So I guess I shouldn’t bite you again.”
He opened his eyes. A look she couldn’t describe shown in them. Longing, maybe?
“Not until we are both ready.”
She licked her lips. “Umm, you make it sound as if it’s a done deal.”
He made a noncommittal sound and captured her mouth, stealing a kiss she wasn’t sure she wanted to give. The finality in his tone worried her. A few strokes of his tongue with hers and her concern faded on a wave of desire.
He pushed her shirt up and ran his hands over her back. Each pass sent tingles across her skin. On and on, he kissed her. The sensual seduction left her weak. Her convictions wavered. Thankfully, he broke the kiss before she succumbed to his charms completely.
“It is a done deal. I want you to be mine and I won’t relent in my pursuit of you.” He grinned. She felt the curve of his lips against hers. “You might as well give in. I am a stubborn male.”
“I don’t have time for a relationship, Rune.” Never mind the fact that he wasn’t human. She leaned back to meet his gaze. “I need to focus on UP-33. Tell me more about the eldjötnar, please.”
“I don’t either, but this attraction we feel will only grow more intense. We won’t be able to resist the pull.”
She suspected as much. It also comforted her to know they both felt it. She’d have to get away from him if she wanted to kill her fascination with him. Not yet, though, she wasn’t done with him.
“You’re avoiding my question.”
He sighed. “The eldjötnar too must feed on blood and yes, it is their bite that spreads the infection you call UP-33.”
“Yes, but how did they become infected?”
“They were punished by the gods.” He tightened his grip on her. “The children of the mist are not like them, Cat. We would never commit the sin they did.”
She took a deep breath to settle her nerves. It didn’t help. His tone set her on edge. “You’re scaring me, Rune. Just tell me.”
He stared at her a long moment then sighed. “After their sons were born, they drained their consorts of blood and feasted on their females’ hearts, breaking the mate bond.”
Chapter Ten
Rune’s chest squeezed at the look of horror on Cat’s face. “They do not feel love or honor. We do. We treasure our consorts.”
She shoved against his chest. “Let me go.”
He pulled her struggling body closer. “No, not until you understand that you are safe with me.”
“Safe?” The word came out shaky. “If you have to make a point of telling me you’ll never rip my heart out and eat it, then I most definitely will never be safe.”
“Did you miss when I said they are heartless? We are not.”
He buried his face in the crook of her neck. She froze and a whimper that had nothing to do with pleasure escaped her soft lips. He ignored the signs of her fear and pressed kisses to her skin. She remained stiff but her breathing deepened. The frightened sound stopped while the scent of her desire grew. The mating drive riding them both took over. He wanted to lay her down and bury his cock inside her. After watching her responses to his touch, he knew she suffered from the same urges. He would use it to his advantage if it came to that, but for the moment, he restrained himself.
“I will treasure you, Cat. Protect you.” He brushed his lips over the sensitive spot right beneath her ear. “You are special. You are mine.”
“I’m not—”
He nipped her earlobe. Her words turned into a moan. “Not yet, but you will be.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on between us, Rune.” She turned her head. Confusion pinched her brows but lust darkened her eyes. “I ache for you.”
He lifted her. She automatically wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. “We are evolving. Our species has always risen to meet the challenges of our environment. It is necessary to ensure we will survive and endure until it is time for Ragnarok to occur.”
She bent her head and licked up the length of his neck. His dick jerked. At his ear, she eased back slightly so her breath bathed his skin in warmth. “Evolution is something I can comprehend, Rune. It makes understanding your existence easier. I can conceptualize the triggers that would cause your species to develop a certain way. What I don’t grasp is what it has to do with us.”
She deserved answers, not that he had definitive ones. He suspected his earlier theory hit fairly close to the mark, however. They were meant to rebuild their species’ numbers. In the age between the earth’s death and rebirth, balance was as essential as the children of mist and fire. The demons had tipped the scales.
He closed his eyes. He wanted to tell the tale once. The memories hurt. “In the years after the eldjötnar killed their mates, the unmated males of our species struggled to contain the spread of their destruction. It was a never-ending battle. They can’t die. Still, we fought. Each one we struck down offered a short reprieve to the humans. It took months, sometimes years, before the fallen demon was rebirthed from its element.”
“Fire?” The word was laced with disbelief.
He peered into her face to judge her mood. She watched him with inquisitive eyes.
“Yes.” He offered her a smile, grateful she tried to accept his tale. “This went on for many years. The eldjötnar grew bitter. They resented the gods’ punishment and us as much as they had their females. They saw nothing wrong with what they had done. Their mates were selected to birth their sons. Once that occurred, they lost their importance and became a weakness.”
“That’s…” She cringed. “That’s cold.”
“Exactly.” He sighed. “Their leader, Surtr, devised a plan to stop us. Once the gods returned to their slumber, they lured first the unmated males from our home then the mated ones by kidnapping our children. When we returned after finding our young ones slaughtered, our females had been infected. Their mates followed them into death.”
She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God.”
In an effort to calm her, he ran his hands over her back. “I led our remaining males into a battle against them. Instead of taking their heads as we had normally done, we lashed out at them. Each wound weakened them. We then imprisoned them in cells of ice where fire could not reach them to rejuvenate their bodies.”
“And because of global warming, the ice has melted.”
He’d heard of the phenomenon but hadn’t investigated it. The term the humans applied to the earth’s rise in temperature mattered little to the end result. “Yes and released the fire demons. We had not awakened in time to stop it. Had we known the ice was melting, we could’ve manipulated the elements to reinforce their prison.”
He nudged her chin. She bent her head for him, no hesitation. She might doubt his words, but she wouldn’t deny him. He held the knowledge close. “I too lost a female, one I had planned to mate. I won’t lose you, Cat.”
She sifted her fingers through his hair and held him close. “I’m sorry for your loss, but I don’t know if I can take your dead consort’s place.”
He pressed his lips to her neck, teasing and torturing himself. She didn’t show any sign of fear. “You are nothing like Malin. She didn’t affect me the way you do.”
Her pulse quickened. “How do I affect you?”
He clamped his mouth over her throat and allowed his fangs to descend. He was testing her. He knew it but couldn’t help it. She needed to accept him and quickly. She tensed but didn’t push him away or scream. Pleased with her response, he willed his teeth to recede and kissed her throat.
“I feel possessive of you. I want to protect you. Treasure you.” He slid his hand over her cheek and rubbed the corner of her mouth. Emotions choked him. He didn’t understand them, didn’t know what to do with them, but he had to tell her.
“Cat, I want…” He swallowed hard and forced the words out. “I want to worship you, make you the center of my life.”
She stared
at him for a long moment. A whimpered cry escaped her throat. Tears welled in her eyes. Unsure of what he’d done wrong, he tensed. She gripped his nape and tugged his mouth to hers. The kiss she delivered him tore his control to shreds. The needs riding him took over.
He reached for the button on his jeans. Maybe he was making a mistake by pushing her so soon after revealing what he was, but he needed to be joined with her. The memories he’d recounted brought back the loss.
The zip of the fastener releasing sounded overly loud in the room. His dick sprang free and brushed over her wet cleft. She tipped her head back, breaking the wild melding of their mouths. Her eyelids fluttered on a low moan, but she didn’t move, not in an effort to get away or to take him inside her body.
He held her face between his hands and waited for her to say something. She watched him with guarded but lust-filled eyes as if waiting on the same from him. He couldn’t come up with anything, not with desire hazing his mind.
“Angel?” It was all he could muster.
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. He bent his head and licked it away.
“Rune.” She whispered his name against his mouth and darted her tongue inside. It was the acceptance he needed.
He tilted his hips so the head of his cock slipped between her lower lips. Her muscles gripped the small invasion. He pushed farther into her center. Her breath escaped on a soft exhale, one he took into himself.
They rocked together, slowly at first. Desire built and so did the urge to fuck her until she dragged every drop of his seed free. He gripped her rounded bottom and used his hold to slam their bodies together. She grunted and moved with him. The smack of her wet lips to his groin and their moans filled the room.
The flannel shirt she wore rubbed against his chest. He wanted to feel her naked skin but not enough to stop. He couldn’t. The wet slide of his dick through her muscles felt like heaven, one he never wanted to give up, but the ache in his dick grew. Each stroke demanded he move faster.
Her sheath quivered. Small waves danced along the length of his erection. He quickened his pace, refusing to let her release take hold. He didn’t want to lose the sensations of her willing body conforming to his thrusts. She molded to him, a silken caress he was sure he’d never experienced with another.
“Cat, my Cat.” He couldn’t get any other words out. He didn’t know what they’d be, anyway.
She moaned and dug her heels into his ass, pushing at the jeans still partially covering him. They slipped and pooled at his feet. He kicked them away.
“Rune. Need you.” She ground her hips over his. The head of his erection reached the end of her with each thrust. She whimpered. “Yes. More. Need all of you.”
He grabbed her hands and tugged them above her head. He paused the steady pumping of his hips. With his dick lodged deep, he glanced into her face. “Soon, Cat. Soon you will own me. All of me. Forever.”
“No.” She shook her head “Don’t want to own you. Just want this, you, loving me.”
Her words smacked him as if she’d struck him with a palm across his cheek. She would deny him? No, he wouldn’t let her.
He pulled his dick out so only her lips held him. Her lashes fluttered.
“You don’t get one without the other.” He drove into her on a hard thrust. Her eyes rolled back. A shaky moan fell from her lips. He waited until she focused on him. “I’ve lived for over a millennium, slept for another. I am ready to embrace the role I’d resented before. And I want to face the future with you.”
She jerked at her hands to free them. He grasped her wrists in a loose hold so as not to harm her and tugged them higher. “Rune, this isn’t—”
He kissed her before she could reject him. She resisted for only a moment before giving herself over the lust consuming them. He led in a quicker dance of tongues that matched the pounding of his cock into her core. The door shook behind them with each smack. The scent of sex filled his nose. He slid his free hand down her side. His fingertips met soft skin at her waist. He shoved the material away and traced the curve of her hip.
She squeezed her inner muscles over his shaft and growled. For a moment, he wondered if she’d bite his tongue, but she didn’t take their wild kiss too far. She captured it and sucked. The pull of her mouth connected with his dick.
He groaned. His seed rushed up. He slipped his cock free before he lost it. He wasn’t done with his consort yet.
“Rune, please…”
He broke the hold of her legs around his hips and spun her. Once more, he tugged her wrists up. The curve of her spine tempted him to dip his head and lick her smooth skin. He settled for a hand on her side. In one quick move, he thrust into her center. Her orgasm caught him by surprise.
She moaned his name.
By the gods, he’d never heard anything better.
Her release threatened to pull him with her. He bit his cheek and rode out the clenching waves.
“Good, angel.” So damn good. Never felt anything better. He dropped his head to her shoulder and reveled in the massage she gave him, so tight, so warm, so perfect.
His.
Never giving her up.
He flexed his hand on her hip and moved. Her muscles clamped down on his sensitive dick. He dragged his length free and parted her tight folds on a forward thrust. He moved slowly, steadily and rebuilt her desire. She writhed over him as much she could. He kept her immobilized and open for his possession.
He set a steady rhythm and took her back to the edge. “Keeping you.”
“Rune, I—”
He drove deep once more and let the orgasm he’d been fighting take him. She followed. Her silken muscles clamped hard over his dick. They massaged his jerking length, milking him until he had nothing left to give.
Once more, snow formed. More mist surrounded them. Again, it seeped into her, quicker than the last time. It rushed into her parted mouth.
He didn’t know what to say or think.
“Cat.” Her name was all he could manage.
She was special. The mist loved her.
He dropped his forehead to the door next to her face and tried to ponder the knowledge, but he sensed Jaron outside. His presence reminded him of their situation and that he didn’t have time to indulge in sex with his consort or dissect what was happening between them. Rune breathed deeply to calm his racing heart. Later. He’d consider the mist’s acceptance of her later.
Finally, his rough panting slowed. He became aware of her gaze on him. He turned his head. She watched him with guarded eyes that held no warmth as they had a few moments ago. He clenched his jaw.
Oh God, I’m a fool.
He’d made a horrible mistake giving in to his body’s needs.
How do I fix this?
No answer came to him. Unable to delay any longer, he slipped his dick from her body. The loss of her warmth shocked him. He wanted to tug her back to him but didn’t. “Jaron is waiting for me. There is much we need to discuss.”
She nodded. “I need to think on everything you told me too.”
“Do you believe me?”
She snorted. “God, Rune, I don’t know what to believe about your tale or us. You’ve dropped me into a world I never knew existed. I’m not sure I like it.” She shook her head. “Actually, I’m positive I don’t like it.”
He studied her a moment more. Her intelligent eyes bored into him. “It is unbelievable, my tale and our attraction. I understand that, Cat.” He cupped her face in his palms. “But do you believe me when I say that you are safe with me?”
He needed that above all things. Her safety was paramount. He’d have plenty of time to convince her of the rightness of the rest.
She watched him a long moment more before she sighed. “Well, I’m still breathing.” She shrugged. “So, sure.”
With that, she walked past him and headed toward the bedroom’s attached bathroom. The door clicked closed. He grabbed a flannel from the wall hooks and wiped the evidence of their passion
away. The shower turned on. He listened a moment more, dressed, then headed outside.
Jaron waited with troubling news, but Rune feared the worst was what Cat had said. Or more precisely, what she hadn’t said.
She might believe him but it didn’t mean she wanted to be his.
Chapter Eleven
Rune closed the door behind him. Jaron paced several feet away. At close to midnight, no villagers were out. It was a good thing too. One glance and the humans would question his presence. His outfit didn’t match the modern world. Beyond that, his silver eyes glowed. Strong emotion often brought out the inhuman trait. His tense body and quick steps told him anger forced the reaction they normally kept in check.
Finally, Jaron stopped a few feet from him. “Is your consort well?”
It shouldn’t have surprised Rune that his brother would ask first about Cat. Breeding couples were treated with respect, but in truth, his claim on Cat meant little. She might be his consort, but all that meant was that she was his favored lover and the one he planned to mate. It didn’t mean he actually would.
“Yes…no.” Rune sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know. Physically, she is well. She also seems to have accepted my explanation, but I don’t believe she understands what she means to me.”
“You didn’t explain it?”
“I’m not a fool.” Rune motioned behind him. “Cat is not like the females of our time. She’s highly intelligent and independent.”
“She’s a complication we do not need.”
Rune nodded. He couldn’t deny it. “She is, but she’s also mine. I will mate her.”
Jaron narrowed his eyes. “You are possessive of her.”
Rune gave another dip of his head. He did not lie to his brother about anything. They had been through too much together. “I am. I won’t share her with you or any of the others.” He rubbed his chin. “I believe it’s connected to the intense mating drive I feel. If I am not joined with her, I am not filling her with my seed.”
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