Fire's Mark (Lords of Krete Book 4)

by Rachael Slate

  He pinched the bridge of his nose, grimacing. “You’re not wrong, and they’re not right, either. We don’t have to mate. We don’t have to prove anything to them.”

  “Why?” She leaned forward, those blazing eyes piercing him. “Because you don’t want to? Or are you afraid they might actually be right?”

  * * *

  Enyo scoffed at the confusion flickering across Demoleon’s face. There. He was conflicted, as much as his people were. “You’re welcome to admit that you don’t fancy me. Harpies are too cold-hearted to care for affections, anyway.” She cut a hand through the air, dismissing the pang in her chest. Being a burden to Demoleon was worse than being his enemy.

  Things had been easier when they’d hated each other. When she hadn’t wanted more from him. More of him.

  Like his love.

  “Lass, I don’t know where you get such notions from.” He inclined his head. “I’ve desired you since the first time I laid eyes on you. I can barely fight to control myself around you, to not pour out my bleeding hearts and lay them at your feet.”

  She narrowed her gaze. “Then why haven’t you.”

  He edged forward, their faces close. “Because I’m a damned fool, a coward, and the last thing in this world I could bear would be your refusal.”

  “Well, who said I would? I can’t refuse you if you don’t ask, you blockhead.”

  He bared his teeth right up in her face. “Well, mayhap I would, if I thought you’d say yes.”

  “So why don’t you.”

  Nose to nose, he mumbled, “Perchance, I will.”

  “Good, go ahead.”

  “I’m going to.”

  “Wonderful, I’ll be waiting.”

  His heavy respirations fanned across her face and, suddenly, he crushed his lips against hers, crashing his body into her.

  His kiss was full of snarls and growls, him biting her lips and her retaliating with the same. Such a feral beast he was. She loved it.

  Enyo sank her claws into his shoulders, clutching him.

  He drew back, her claws ripping through his flesh, and he exhaled heavily. “Not here, not with them watching our every move, doubting our intentions. Our love.”

  “Love?” she squeaked.

  He shot his perusal to hers. “Aye, of course, love. I’ve offered you my beating hearts, Enyo. I’ve fallen far harder and madder into your eyes than probably is sane for any male to do. But there it is. I love you, my sweet harpy, and I’ll continue to love you until both of my hearts stop beating.”

  The sincerity of his declarations softened her fears, comforting her. “I was afraid you only declared those things because you believe I’m your mate. That if I weren’t, you’d feel the same about me as everyone out there does.”

  “Oh, sweetling.” He framed her face in his large hands. “Even if you weren’t my mate, I’d be mad with affection for you, I’d pledge my life to you, and never would I stop fighting for us.”

  She curled her hand against his cheek. “Harpies don’t care for honeyed words, centaur, but for you, I’ll make an exception. Never stop speaking them to me.”

  He cast her a devilish wink. “Aye, Strinklia. I can promise you that I won’t.”

  Chapter 10

  Demoleon claimed Enyo’s mouth, savoring his mate, but groaned as he refused to take things any further here. Luckily, he had the perfect place in mind.

  He seized her hand and led her through the tunnels to the outside. Together, they shot into the sky and flew around the borders of Mount Ida. Finally, they approached a waterfall. He’d ventured here often as a lad. The place was secluded and, thank the gods, unoccupied.

  A perfect location to perform the ceremony and bind himself to his mate.

  To his Enyo.

  He ushered her beneath the spray to the inside and backed her against the wall. “You may presume to know a thing or two about centaurs, lass, but I’ll be most obliging in proving you wrong.”

  “Oh, such as?”

  He broke his hold on her and thrust out his arm, flames sparking off his hands to light across the cavern walls. Every torch in the chamber lit, illuminating the cozy hideaway.

  “You arranged this?” She spun toward him and arched her brow.

  “Well, a long time ago, aye. I’ve often come to this place, hoping and praying to one day share it with my mate. At least, until we had the chance to rebuild my family home.”

  “Demoleon,” she planted her hands on his shoulders, “I’m honored you brought me here.”

  “Hmm? Well, I think soon I shall make you so much more than honored.” He nuzzled her neck, slipping his hands beneath her thick, braided locks.

  She moaned and swayed on her feet. He spread his hands lower, unclasping the ties of her gown. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed that you’ve finally developed a sense of modesty. I miss the sight of you, Enyo.”

  “Feast your eyes, centaur.” A saucy laugh on her lips, she twirled, the cloth pooling at her feet.

  His mouth grew dry, his body tense and hard, while his gaze devoured those luscious curves. “I’ve waited so long for this, for you.” He seized her hand. “I was a bloody fool for not cherishing you for the incredible person you are from the moment that I met you. I know they will, too, in time.”

  “What about until then?” Her breath hitched.

  “Until then, you’re mine alone.” He snared the back of her head and kissed her with decades’ worth of suppressed passion. She tasted so damn good, he couldn’t wait to be inside her. Demoleon tore off his breeches and palmed his hand between her legs, groaning at the honey slicking across his fingers. Unable to resist, he dropped to his knees, planted his face between her thighs, and lapped at her loveliness. That firm nub swelled and throbbed against his tongue, and Enyo clawed her hands through his hair.

  He was relentless, drawing out her mewling whimpers until her legs shook and a cascade of tremors pulsed through her sex. Only after she’d stilled did he lean back and wink at her.

  “Well, lass, are you ready to feel my burn?”

  “Mmm, you know that I am.” She wrapped her hands around his neck and kissed him hard, their bodies sharing each other’s air. She climbed atop him, his length pressing into her with desperate slowness.

  He grunted and thrust his hips up, delving deeper inside her. Inside his mate. Demoleon nuzzled her breasts, nipping at those succulent peaks, until she finally took all of him in.

  She straddled his lap while they both sat upright, and she used the ground to propel forward and back along his cock, riding him.

  The instinct to take her as his mate grew too strong. He needed her, now.

  His mate, and his alone.

  * * *

  The force of Demoleon’s growls echoed about the cavern, bouncing off the cascading water and the stone walls. While she surged against him, his lips were everywhere along her skin, burning hot and searing with the heat of his passions.

  He arched up and flipped her around, so that she reclined on his lap. Her hands fell forward and she lifted her bottom for his admiration. He stroked his tongue across her flesh, up along her spine and down again. She quivered and peeked at him, but he had her body in full command. Her knees were on either side of his legs, which were folded beneath him, and his width pulsed inside her, demanding and hungry.

  So, this was what it was like to be taken by a centaur. To have her pleasure fall beneath his masterful command.

  The harpy in her hadn’t thought she’d enjoy it. The harpy had been wrong.

  This sensual torment couldn’t be any more delectable.

  She shuttered her eyes and relaxed her muscles, savoring the ebb and flow of his thrusts, the wave-like undulations that came from his body crashing into hers.

  His large shaft jerked inside her, stretching her sheath, but didn’t appear to be anywhere near gratified. Indeed, his appetite seemed insatiable. She licked her lips. Good, because when it came to him, hers was, too.

  As she tighte
ned around him, the urge to capture him inside her body became relentless. She needed him, so damn much.

  A thrumming thundered from his chest. “I must make you mine, Enyo.” A request? No, a demand. One she had no intention of refusing.

  She gave a quick nod of her head. “What do I do?”

  He snatched a jeweled dagger from off the ground. “Cut me, along my bonding mark. I’ll spill myself in you and we’ll be joined forever.”

  She eyed the dagger. He slid it into her hand, and she backed up to sit, still on his lap, his hardness full within her. Arching around, she traced the marking beneath his arm and dragged the tip of the dagger along it, slicing his flesh.

  He howled as she completed the circle, and bucked against her, making the dagger fly from her grasp to clink across the floor. His massive body settled atop hers, she on her hands and knees, with him pounding into her like the wild beast she’d first beheld.

  It was all she could do to not explode alongside with him. Her body betrayed any sense of control, glorious spasms rolling through her and a shattering cry departing her lips.

  A hot, pulsing blast shot through her core, his seed bursting into her.

  The ecstasy of her release seized control once more, relentlessly spiraling through her. She curled against herself, panting and gasping for air, fiery sparks dancing across her vision.

  Demoleon collapsed atop her, his dense weight crushing her to the floor and his heaving breaths vibrating against her back. Until finally, he groaned in a rasped inhalation and backed off her, then scooped his arms around her waist and hauled her onto his lap. The slickness of his lust dripped between her legs, but he made no attempt to clean them. Instead, he pressed soft kisses to her neck, his hands spreading across her torso to clutch her tightly. “Have you had enough, mate?”

  She hummed and twisted around to nip at his lips. “Mmm, never. Why, have you?”

  * * *

  Demoleon bared his teeth at Enyo’s challenge. The scent of their lovemaking filled his nostrils, to the great appeasement of the bonded male within him. He dipped his hand low between them and rubbed his essence across her soft bud. Every inch of his mate should bear his scent, his mark, his branding. Just as he now did hers. He cast a quick glance at his arm, at the black band now encircling his upper left bicep and the miniscule scrolling entwined about it. Enyo’s name, in Old Centaurion.

  A signal to the entire world that he was her mate, that she was his. No man or centaur or beast could ever break their bond.

  Let those dissenters feast on that.

  But not yet. He razed his appreciation along her lusciously nude body and his cock jolted hard inside her.

  “Hmm,” she moaned and lifted her hips, rubbing herself along his thickness and his hand. She leaned back against him, and rocked up and down, riding his length.

  He smoothed both hands up to fondle her breasts, caressing them and brushing his thumbs across their pebbling peaks. She raised her hands to reach around his head and brace against him. Those slow, torturous undulations of hers would bring him to a sweet, sweet end.

  “Enyo,” he growled, “I can’t have enough of you. I fear this torment will be my undoing.”

  “Good.” She tilted her face and kissed his jaw. “Enjoy your demise.”

  He released his breath in an agonizing hiss. Half of him longed to toss her down and mount her again, ravaging her like a beast. The other half enjoyed her lithe movements far too much to stop them.

  How ought a male to choose when faced with such conflicting desires?

  Even worse, in this position, his hands were free to slide through his spilled essence, to massage it across her flesh, and wonder if, even now, it might be possible for her to conceive their child. What a world they would live in, where a centaur and a harpy weren’t enemies any longer, and even more, joined their kind as one?

  A child between them would unite their races in ways no vows of peace could.

  He rasped against her ear, “Enyo, I’d like very much for you to bear our child.”

  She stilled and angled her face toward his. “You would?”

  “Aye. Would you?”

  She skimmed her hand down his neck, tracing her claw along his throat. “Yes, Demoleon. I would love to have a family with you.”

  “Good,” he murmured, “because I’m about to come again.”

  * * *

  Five rapid thrusts and Demoleon roared into the cavern, blasting that scorching heat between her legs once more. Enyo bit her fist and writhed against the extreme bliss taking control of her body, making her release clench her muscles every time his did.

  Even if their bond didn’t command their mutual pleasure, the sight of this massive, sensual male trembling from such erotic movements would have driven her hunger to insatiable depths.

  He was simply delicious.

  Demoleon continued pouring himself into her, over and over, for long hours, until she couldn’t imagine being any more spent. Her body ached in a most delightful manner, the flush of heat between her thighs was wet and full from his releases. When she’d agreed to try for a babe, she hadn’t known he’d approach the challenge with so much vigor.

  Enyo smiled to herself and drew a lazy trail across Demoleon’s pectoral, his flesh firm beneath her claws.

  He snatched her hand, squeezed it, and nodded toward his shaft. Despite their hours of intimacy, that part of his body seemed nowhere near exerted. “Lass, if you continue touching me, you do know where that will lead, right?”

  She hummed and watched his thickness grow. “No, I’m not actually sure.” Teasingly, she shifted to straddle him and jerked her head toward the cascade. “Perhaps we should wash first.”

  “Mmmhmm.” He seized a mouthful of her breast, his vibrations roaming through her.

  She closed her eyes for a brief second to enjoy the sensation, before tapping his nose and making him let her go, then scooting off him to saunter toward the cascade.

  It took only a second of separation for him to leap to his feet, charge her, and enclose her in his brawny arms. “Missed you, love.”

  She chimed a laugh. “Are you certain it was you that missed me?” No hiding the erection prodding into her lower back.

  “Mayhap.” He rubbed himself against her. “You did suggest something about washing first though.”

  “Yes, I did.” She smacked his arm for him to release her, and he did so with a scowl. She sashayed beneath the spray of water, tipping her face to revel in the cool mist. The heat from Demoleon could leave a female parched. She opened her mouth and drank deeply while the water poured down her body and cleansed her.

  Demoleon skulked beside her to wash as well, those cascading droplets meandering about every inch of hardened muscle. Every sculpted edge. Every chiseled contour.

  Suddenly, she was thirsty again.

  He must have sensed her arousal, for he strode to her and wrapped his large hand around her nape. Slowly, tenderly, he feathered his lips across hers, a soft and sensuous kiss. “I don’t wish to ever leave this place, mate.”

  “If we didn’t, we’d miss out on the war we started.” She smirked at him. “That would be a pity indeed.”

  He huffed. “Or, we could escape to somewhere else. A secluded place, where we might be alone to indulge in our desires.”

  She scrunched her nose at his playfulness. “As obstinate as your siblings are, they’re your family, and I know you wouldn’t abandon them. Besides, I’m not finished with my vengeance yet. You shouldn’t be, either.”

  He groaned and planted his forehead against hers. “You’re right, of course.”

  “I always am,” she droned.

  He winked at her, his wicked grin dazzling her. “Is it time to face the world?”

  “You know that it is.”

  He sighed and steeled his shoulders. “Then come, my love. Let’s fight for our future together. Just let any of those bastard centaurs try to put their traitorous hooves on my mate.” His hands balled, cle
nched tight at his sides.

  She couldn’t help but smile at his easy declarations of protection toward her. He was so far removed from the male she’d first met, the one who’d been eager to seek revenge against her.

  To take her life in vengeance.

  Now, he’d simply claimed her heart instead.

  The fearsome presence of her bonded male at her side lent her strength, courage, and fierce determination. She placed her hands overtop his fisted ones and pressed a tender kiss to the tic in his jaw.

  It mattered not what terrors they would face, because they’d face them together, side by side, hearts intertwined.

  Come what may.

  They were ready.

  Epilogue

  The moment Demoleon and Enyo arrived in his family’s home, the hairs on his neck pricked. An eerie quiet spread through the cave and droning voices drifted from the meadow. They headed toward the grove, where a large crowd had gathered. It seemed everyone was here.

  “About bloody time!” one of his brothers roared.

  “About what bloody time?” Demoleon thundered in response. “You gave us no choice but to leave. In case any of you are curious, aye, we are mated now. You’d better keep your bloody hooves off my Enyo.” He was in no mood for his family’s persistent accusations and speculations, so he’d determined to come in here and announce their mating to everyone. Let no questions remain about his devotion to Enyo. Or about hers to their centaur clan.

  Arctus didn’t even blink, instead bellowing, “Do with the harpy as you will, but next time, inform us if you decide to start a war on your own, heh?”

  Oh, that. He flinched. “We weren’t sure the other minotaurs would notice, or so soon. Or that they’d realized who’d executed him.”

  Lycus scoffed. “Well, they have. They’re not taking kindly to their brother’s murder, and they’re blaming us. Centaurs. Things have escalated quickly.”

  Rhoetus wedged between the brothers. “We’re assembling our warriors. Where will you stand, Demoleon?”