Rogue Mates (Lunar Carnevale Book 1)
Page 5
“Come and sit. You’ve been on your leg too long.” And just like that, the spell was broken and Rudy was brought back down to Elv. But, instead of fighting him, for once he listened. In fact, his ankle did pain him even though the swelling was gone and he should be healed.
“Thanks…” Rudy didn’t know how to act around Nox anymore since he decided to stop cowing him and start courting him instead. To go from being fucked until he fainted to barely sharing a kiss when they met was off-putting, to say the least. But, as he thought back to the play he forced himself to sit through, it was better than the alternative. As long as he was something to be won, Rudy figured he would not be thrown away. And, while their time together was coming to an end, it felt good to feel wanted, even by someone he should consider his enemy.
“Drink. Eat. Lay down, omega, and rest.” As usual, Nox ordered him to do something and expected Rudy to listen. But in the spirit of civility and the joy the Carnevale was filling him up with, Rudy did as he was asked. He swallowed the nasty tonic Luna had surely made for him, took a bite of some street vendor’s certified meat whose stall they passed by, and then laid in Nox’s lap. His head on his stomach, body curled as best as he could into his side, Rudy marveled at the way Nox petted him and played with his hair, murmuring underneath his breath sweet nonsense in a tongue he was unfamiliar with. It felt surreal, not only because he was too buff to be playing the coy maid, but also because it was such a sudden shift in Nox’s personality. Like the way Luna had turned from a kind nurse into a resentful frenemy, the way Nox had switched personalities boggled his mind. Something had to have changed the last few weeks, something he wasn’t aware of.
As Rudy gazed up at the setting sun, he felt pressure building around the base of his neck. He looked down to find Rudy’s fingers looped around the necklace Luna shoved his way. He yanked, hard.
“Ow! Stop it!” Rudy yipped.
“Take it off!” His voice darkened, tightening his grip. This was the Nox he was used to. This was the Nox he tired with all his might to hate. But even his latest display of misplaced possessiveness only inspired confusion in him.
“Alright, alright! For the love of Elv, let go you fucking brute!” Rudy shook him off and yanked off the necklace himself, gasping as Nox took it and hurled it across the courtyard they sat in.
“What’s gotten into you? Hey? Ah!” Before he knew it, Rudy found himself straddling Nox’s hips, his honey-brown eyes smoldering with lust and something he couldn’t name.
“...I want to make love to you, but you are so hard, so rigid, such a frigid little bitch around me! That’s all I want and have ever wanted since we’ve met. Can’t you give just little? I can give you...so much. Like you do for Luna who toys with your heart. Give a little of yourself, omega, and I will give tenfold!” Nox sounded tormented, insignificant, and afraid. The fact that the mere prospect of his absence was bringing out those emotions in him turned Rudy on immensely. He sighed, hard, hot, and heavy kisses behind pressed to his neck as he allowed Nox to claim him. Their time together was coming to an end, even if he didn’t know it. So why not have some fun along the way? It was all the excuse Rudy needed to get over the final surge of his prolonged heat. He grinded against his alpha, careful not to tip them over the bench they sat on. Out in the open, like they were, Rudy was afraid they’d be caught. But, at the same time, it turned him on. The Carnevale was a time for prayer and fun, yes, but it was also a place of free love for low borns like him. Many made the journey just to find a mate, stuck in tiny hamlets without anyone to call their own. Rudy pretended he was one such traveler, and Nox a passing fling.
“Your heat, omega, that devilish heat. Oh how I’ve wanted to slam inside of it and lose myself again. Yes!” Nox stood and lifted Rudy into the air. It always threw him for a loop how strong Nox was. He turned around and sat Rudy back down, unbuckling his pants. Rudy didn’t need any direction; he knew what Rudy wanted. Parting his lips, he teased the tip of his dripping erection with his tongue. The taste was salty, unfamiliar to him, but he sucked and licked and stroked without question. It was second nature to him now, to crave Nox’s scent, taste, and touch. He bobbed his head back and forth as Nox met him with short thrusts, head rolling back as he fucked his throat.
“You’ve improved, omega. Why is that?” Nox gritted out as he sped up, and Rudy allowed him to take over. As he pulled out so Rudy could breathe, he wondered that himself. Maybe he was just less afraid of the changes going on in his body? Or, maybe he hadn’t gotten better and Nox was just more horny? Either way, he felt the urge to tease him, to elicit the reaction he knew would get him worked into a frenzy, and in turn, make Rudy see the stars from Elv.
“Practice…” Rudy shivered, the way Nox’s eyes darkened turning him on. He whimpered, gagging, as Nox thurst to the hilt and held. He clutched the sides of his face, nails digging into his chin as he came. Rudy swallowed his seed with watery eyes, his own claws lengthening and digging into his ass. As he pulled out, he gripped Rudy’s throat and waited. Rudy swallowed hesitantly, licking his lips and opening his mouth to show he was done. Nox seemed to approve of it because he bent forward to kiss him, before shoving his face aside.
“Turn around. Drop your pants. And, lift your ass. It’s time I show you who your alpha is again.” Rudy did so slowly, unsure of what to expect. But he wasn’t met with force, quite the opposite, the way Nox impaled him with the patience of a Monk put him at ease. It gave him time to adjust to his girth, bigger than anything he’d ever taken in his life. Nox’s cock was massive, thick, and perpetually hard. As Rudy rocked back on it, he felt it deep inside. Cradling his stomach, Rudy begged Nox to speed up. He obliged, pulling out completely before slamming back inside. They kept up that pace until the omega thought his legs would give out. Just as he folded, Nox took hold of him, one hand around his throat and the other digging into his hip to keep him stable, now bent over the bench and at Nox’s mercy.
“Inside,” he sputtered between the pistoling of his hips slapping against the omega’s sculpted ass, “Inside!”
He didn’t know if it was a question or a demand this time around, however, Rodolfo assumed it was an order and dutifully clenched down ass. He seemed to have an insatiable appetite for cock as of late, and he was finally allowing himself to let go and let the alphas have his way with him with no regrets. What else was there to lose? Because, by the time morning rolled around, he would probably never see Nox again. As Nox lost control of the rhythm, their bodies no longer moving in tandem, Rudy braced himself to take his seed. He came, and when he did, the same explosive high overtook him as it did the first time. His eyes rolled back and lips parted as he came and came and came.
“You must return to the final ring of Goloria…” Nox panted out, still swelling inside of him as they came back down to Elv.
“I know. I’ll wait at the third gate for three days, and then I’ll be granted entrance,” Rudy whimpered as Nox shifted so he was no longer leaning over his back, his shaft sinking deeper into Rudy’s tender core.
“I will come for you by the third day. And then… Then you will truly be mind.” As if to seal that promise, Nox bit down into the nape of Rudy’s neck after pulling out, and for once in his life, all was right in the world for Rudy. Even though, deep down inside, he knew Nox could never fulfill his promise. He would already be gone.
NOX
Capital City of Kinev
During the Lunar Carnevale
Royal Palace, Otsanan Empire
“Papa!” Nox’s chest swelled with pride as his cubs, Cinna and Cinder, ran into his arms. He scooped them up and spun them around, their laughter literal music to his ears. Around them, his packmates settled down, finally back home after three long years at war. The trip to the Royal Palace had been uneventful, and even though Nox dreaded being separated from Rudy, it was for the best. Cinna had always been a sickly little girl, and whatever he might have, if contagious, could spread easily to her. It hit Nox that some of his packm
ade hadn’t returned, buried in marked graves along the way from sickness and hunger, the unlucky left behind on the battlefield. Most, though, were claimed in war. The weight of the years crashed through Nox like a rushing wave as he sat his children back down. They both reached his waist now, nearly seven-years-old. When he left them, they were just cubs. They still were cubs, but they looked like strangers to him now.
Cinna’s wipsy kinky curls were now a full, black halo around his head, his brother’s hair shaved like his father’s, the texture thicker and coily. Their dark brown skin was just a shade lighter than Ersama’s obsidian tone. But it was their eyes that shocked him the most. It was like they had aged many more years than he’d been gone. They held secrets that he was not privy to, and something more that could not have been conveyed by letters alone. It enraged him. What had happened to the innocent angels he left behind? What had happened while Papa wasn’t home? Nox didn’t have much time to consider the possibilities because in an instant, he knew why he was so uneasy in the first place. It wasn’t just the sight of his children, too thin, face slightly hollowed, looking up at him with excitement, yet haunted expressions. No, it was the absence of him that put him on alarm. Where was his omega? Where had he gone?
“Luna? Luna! Erasma? Gloria’s tear’s, not you too!? Close rank, warpack! Close!” He did not respond. Nox scowled. Luna always responded within minutes, if not seconds when he called. Erasma could usually be trusted to have her crossbow and brawn summoned instantaneously. But neither of them appeared beside him. It was like they had vanished into thin air. Something was very wrong. His packmates could sense it too, getting to their feet and drawing their swords, some even baring their fangs and claws. Such an act of aggression was forbidden on royal soil. But, now wasn’t the time to stand on principle. Now was the time to fight and survive. The mood wasn’t right. The air tense. The energy raw. Something shifted to his right, and Nox whirled around only to be taken aback by what he saw.
“Luna?” His children cowered behind him, clinging to one pants leg. Luna was dressed in his ceremonial robes, but the colors were inverted, black and white instead of white and black. Nox frowned. He’d seen that style before, but the name of the outfit escaped him.
“Forgive me, alpha. No, forgive me Nox. But, it must be done.” Without another word, Luna lifted his hands, palms upward, towards the setting sun. Then, a loud explosion rocked the room, shattering the stained glass and ornaments decorating the hall. Nox’s packmates and the various guests hit the ground. Nox shielded Cinna and Cinder with his body, gritting his teeth against the pain of shards of glass hitting his exposed back. When he could finally open his eyes again, he watched in horror as a large fireball followed billowing white smoke far in the distance, where the Gates of Goloria stood.
“What have you done!?” Nox shouted as all of a sudden, a stampede materialized as the rest of the guests realized what was going on. During their holy festival, the only time their gates weren’t fortified, someone had attacked. Someone was sacking the capital city of Kinev!
“Papa! Papa!” The panicked cries of his cubs drove Nox to his feet. He didn’t have time to understand what was truly happening, only to act. Turning his bloodied back to Luna, he took off running with Cinna and Cinder glued to his chest. He howled, and his packmates followed, guiding the frenzied crowd deeper into the city where their fortifications hopefully held. But, even as his blood pumped in his ears and his adrenaline kept his mind focused, Nox couldn’t shake the fear that his mate was not safe, that he was in danger. And, if so, how would he get to Ruby in time to save him while saving what was left of the Kin after the first wave?
RUDY
Capital City of Kinev
During the Lunar Carnevale
Court of the Moon, Inner Palace, Otsanan Empire
“And what is your wish, half-breed? Why have you come here when you and your kind have been banished! Speak!” Queen Ostana bellowed inside of her grand chamber. Before him, curled into herself, filling the chamber from the ceiling to the ground was the colossal she-wolf that ruled the empire Rudy so tirelessly tried to reach for the better part of a year. Now he was frozen, unable to speak, only able to marvel up at her awesome size and power. He was little more than an ant that could be crushed underneath her massive paw. Fur of coal, eyes of silver, dripping in gold and diamonds, favored by the Moon, Head of the Court of Stardust and Metal, Ostana the Great, Ostana the Majestic, Savior of our Kind. The childhood lullaby was perverted by the passage of time, only bits and pieces making their way back to Rudy’s cloudy mind. But, in many ways, even the twisted version of it was accurate. Ostana’s wavy black fur cascaded around her like the endless stretch of the night sky, her eyes flashing like moon metal forged in the kilns of old. Accessories decorated every inch of her body, most striking of all the golden collars embedded with rubies. She was majestic and also deadly if Rudy didn’t choose his words carefully.
Rudy glanced back at the door that separated him from the Nox Warpack, from Nox himself, and any chance to turn back. He desperately wanted to hold onto him then, to be able to stand on his status as he pleaded his case before the Queen. He also wanted Nox’s resolve, the way he never seemed to falter no matter what was thrown at him. But, most of all, Rudy craved his reassuring scent that would envelop him, soothe him, and tell him it would all be okay without a word. Taking a deep breath, Rudy lowered himself into a kneeling position. Now wasn’t the time to think about Nox or to crave the status he’d tried to escape from all his life. Now was his chance and he had to seize it. This would be his last chance, and he would make the best of it.
“Grant me my wish, your Majesty, and strip me of my wolf. I, son of King Cassian the Ruthless of the Human Realm, and the direct descendant of the Sun Court beg of you!”
AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading Rogue Mates (Lunar Carnevale, #1)! I meant to put this book out much sooner, but the original novella length idea became a series length idea, so there was a lot of tweaking, rearranging, and removing I needed to do to break the story into 20k-ish, 30k-ish, and 40k-ish chunks, with the bulk of the action happening in the final arc. The next book will explore the dynamic between Luna and Nox more in depth, and also showcase Rudy’s new life as the “caretaker” to Nox’s adopted children, Cinna and Cinder. Until next time!
xoxo,
Iris Sword
September 19, 2020
ABOUT — IRIS SWORD
BIO: Zelda Knight writes speculative romance (horror, science fiction, and fantasy). She’s also a cryptozoologist in training. Under the pen name Odyssey Rose, Zelda explores science fiction romance. She pens LGBTQIA+ speculative romance using the pen name Iris Sword. Keep in touch on social media @AuthorZKnight. Or, visit www.zeldaknight.com. You can also email zelda@zeldaknight.com.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Other Books by Iris Sword
Warning
Synopsis
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One: Nox
Chapter Two: Rudy
Chapter Three: Luna
Chapter Four: Rudy
Chapter Five: Nox
Chapter Six: Rudy
Chapter Seven: Nox
Chapter Eight: Rudy
Chapter Nine: Rudy
Chapter Ten: Nox
Chapter Eleven: Rudy
Afterword
About the Author
Newsletter
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