Sentinel Of Khoth

by Brenda Trim

  She ran her hands over her hips as Finn’s gaze trav­eled over her tight choco­late dress. His eyes in­ten­si­fied as his gaze fol­lowed a path up to her am­ple cleav­age. The dress wasn’t par­tic­u­larly low cut, but it made her av­er­age-sized chest ap­pear big­ger. Her gown matched her mate’s eye color as was the Cuele­bre cus­tom, and she was sud­denly very glad she went with the tra­di­tion rather than his re­quest.

  Heat suf­fused her core and spread to her limbs. It put a swing in her hips that turned her walk sen­sual and had his eyes glued to her body. Her arousal was al­ways off the charts with Finn, but when he looked at her like that it was all she could do not to grab his hand and drag him to a bed­room.

  “There is no fe­male more per­fect than you, Song­bird,” he whis­pered in her ear.

  “I love you,” she replied au­to­mat­i­cally and brought her lips to his.

  “We’d bet­ter stop be­fore I toss you over my shoul­der and take you some­where pri­vate,” Finn de­clared.

  Talysia chuck­led. “I was think­ing about drag­ging you to the room up­stairs,” she ges­tured over her shoul­der. The smile he gave her melted her heart.

  Finn twined their fin­gers to­gether and turned her to face King An­gus. Talysia’s heart swelled with all the love she had for Finn. This mo­ment was per­fect. She fi­nally un­der­stood her fa­ther’s state­ment about the power of true love. It over­whelmed all else.

  Glimps­ing over her shoul­der, she saw her fa­ther and mother hold­ing hands. Their de­vo­tion to one an­other sur­passed two realms, and ev­ery ounce of neg­a­tiv­ity thrown their way. While Talysia and her sis­ters were dev­as­tated by their ridicule, her par­ents were never both­ered. They al­ways told them their ex­is­tence was proof of the love they shared and there was noth­ing greater.

  An­gus lifted his hands, and a hush fell over the crowd. But­ter­flies flut­tered in her stom­ach and her gaze re­turned to Finn. She wanted to im­print ev­ery sec­ond of the cer­e­mony in her mem­ory, but her eyes re­fused to stray from her mate for long.

  “In the years since my re­turn to Khoth, the mat­ing cer­e­mony, along with, the Civappu are my fa­vorite priv­i­leges as king. I am hon­ored to once again join one of our most valu­able Maa­hes and his cho­sen,” An­gus de­clared and opened his mouth, ex­hal­ing dragon smoke.

  A white cloud formed above their heads. It re­minded Talysia of the way the Maa­hes con­tained the smoke from the ex­plo­sion on the beach. Then, it made her skin tin­gle, but now it caused her body to vi­brate like a tun­ing fork.

  Finn wrapped her in an em­brace, pulling her snug against his side. Her eyes trav­eled back to her mate and she smiled at the look of joy on his face. Finn leaned in and whis­pered in her ear. “An­gus is draw­ing the Gods’ rune.”

  Turn­ing back to the cer­e­mony, Tals was cap­ti­vated as An­gus used a fin­ger to sketch an elab­o­rate de­sign in his dragon smoke. The mo­ment the sym­bol was com­plete, blue light pulsed out­ward and lit up the night sky.

  She heard her par­ents and sis­ters gasp. The col­or­ful sight set­tled any ques­tions she felt. She was ex­actly where the Gods wanted her. She bounced and laughed as the sprites danced about the sky, mir­ror­ing her ela­tion.

  “Finn has cho­sen Talysia, and they are to be united for all of eter­nity. Fam­ily and friends have gath­ered to join in the cel­e­bra­tion of their love and com­mit­ment.” An­gus re­cited then traced an­other rune in his dragon smoke.

  “That’s the unit­ing rune,” Finn said against her ear. His hot breath made her stom­ach flip and her hor­mones go crazy.

  “With a touch of your hands, you reach each other’s thoughts,” An­gus added. Finn grabbed her hips and turned her to­ward him. His emo­tions reached her. His arousal matched hers. Her emo­tions stopped churn­ing the sec­ond the sky lit up. “With a gaze, you touch each other’s soul.”

  Talysia stared into ador­ing brown eyes. Her dragon would wor­ship her for all eter­nity. The thought still stunned her.

  “Your gaze fell upon me, and brought me life,” Finn vowed.

  “Your kiss touched my lips, and reached my heart,” Talysia mur­mured as she placed her lips to his. The kiss was meant to be gen­tle, but quickly turned pas­sion­ate.

  Some­thing in her chest stirred then rose to­ward her con­nec­tion to Finn. Her soul, she re­al­ized. Her breath left her on a whoosh the sec­ond Finn’s soul con­nected with it then en­tered her chest. Finn reached ev­ery cell in her body, light­ing ev­ery dark cor­ner.

  “I vow to love you as my most pre­cious trea­sure. To put you in the high­est place of honor and re­spect. To stand as your pil­lar of sup­port, and shoul­der of strength. To cher­ish and care for you, for all the days of my life,” Finn pledged to her.

  “And, I prom­ise from this day for­ward, I will give you all my love, and you shall not walk alone. As your love is my an­chor, and your trust my strength, may my heart be your shel­ter, and my arms be your home. As the smoke rune bonds our pledge, it has no be­gin­ning and no end. And so shall my love for you, un­til the end of time,” Talysia promised. She wor­ried she wouldn’t re­call the words she needed to say, but she shouldn’t have. Her love for Finn guided her.

  “The pledge you’ve made in front of these wit­nesses is ev­er­last­ing and un­break­able. You will walk to­gether through deep green forests and on shores of white sand. You are the star of each night, the bright­ness of ev­ery morn­ing, and the story of each guest,” An­gus in­ter­jected. “May your fu­ture be blessed. Now, it’s time to seal the bond with Finn’s mat­ing flight.”

  Talysia smiled as she watched Finn un­dress. Drag­ons had no qualm about nu­dity. She chanced a look in her par­ent’s di­rec­tion, check­ing to see their re­ac­tion. Blaine found his way to Tia’s side and seemed to ex­plain the rea­son for Finn’s nu­dity be­cause both her mom and dad seemed anx­ious and ex­cited.

  Talysia kissed Finn then made her way to her sis­ters, al­low­ing room for his dragon. The mo­ment he shifted, Isis stepped for­ward and brought the con­tainer of wa­ter then her mate handed her a bot­tle.

  Pour­ing the con­tents of the bot­tle on the ground, Isis mut­tered a for­eign word then mil­lions of fine sand par­ti­cles lifted into the air. Finn took a deep breath and tilted his head to the sky. When he opened his mouth dragon fire left his maw in a stream of red-or­ange flames.

  Col­or­ful glass beads fell to the ground and into a con­tainer at Finn’s feet. An­gus leaned down and lifted the con­tainer. Cu­ri­ous about what would hap­pen next, Talysia con­tin­ued watch­ing Finn. Be­fore he took to the sky, An­gus handed him the con­tainer of glass.

  Sud­denly, Finn took off and flew straight to­ward the pur­ple moon.

  “I love you, Song­bird,” Finn told her us­ing dragon speech.

  “I love you, too, Sen­tinel,” she an­swered.

  Finn’s dragon trum­peted and then dumped the col­or­ful beads. The glass fell to­ward the ground, but be­fore it reached the earth, Finn soared af­ter it while once again re­leas­ing his fire. Talysia watched in awe as the heat and flames melted the glass pieces.

  Us­ing that mo­ment to be part of what­ever was hap­pen­ing, Talysia stood with her feet apart and lifted her hands over the wa­ter. Us­ing her siren half, she lifted the wa­ter into the air and sent it to­ward the melt­ing glass. Finn flew around the liq­uid, mak­ing it siz­zle. Talysia added the wa­ter and steam filled the air around Finn.

  She moved her fin­ger, fol­low­ing Finn as he flew. To­gether they sculpted the glass. Af­ter sev­eral sec­onds, she called upon her ice de­mon. Her skin cooled and her breath fogged when she spoke, “For­ever sealed to­gether.” Freez­ing the wa­ter with her power, she watched as the glass fused to­gether.

  Finn spread his wings and a sec­ond later light­ning flashed, strik­ing the glass sculp­ture. Its shape changed fur­
ther, mak­ing Talysia jump. She wanted to scream when it plum­meted to the ground. She wanted to keep this as a sym­bol of their love and com­mit­ment to one an­other. Be­fore she was able to move a mus­cle, the frag­ile sculp­ture landed in a cush­ion of smoke pro­vided by the king’s rune.

  Talysia gasped when An­gus handed it to her. It was a mas­sive flower, like the ones Finn picked for her from the for­est when he went on mis­sions. It was a per­fect replica, right down to the var­i­ous col­ors. A smile crept over her face when she saw a heart in the mid­dle of the petals.

  Finn landed and stepped into his pants be­fore he pulled her into his arms. She yelped, wor­ried she would drop the sculp­ture. Luck­ily, Tia saved the day and took it from her hold.

  “As corny as it sounds, you re­ally do com­plete me, Song­bird. I never imag­ined find­ing a mate would be so all-en­com­pass­ing,” Finn mur­mured.

  “You’re right. It is corny,” she said on a chuckle. “But, se­ri­ously. I knew I loved you the mo­ment I felt vul­ner­a­ble with you and didn’t run for the hills. I needed and wanted you, yet trusted you enough not to hurt me. My dad was right. There is no greater power than true love.”

  Finn claimed her mouth in a sear­ing kiss. She lost her­self in his em­brace and found it easy to ig­nore the whoops and hollers of her friends and fam­ily.

  Finn was hap­pier than he’d ever been, but he wanted to sink into his mate’s wel­com­ing body more than any­thing. Mate. Holy fuck. He was of­fi­cially mated. As in the sex­i­est fe­male be­longed to him for the rest of their lives.

  He’d be­gun to ques­tion his luck with the par­a­site and then Talysia’s poi­son­ing, but ev­ery­thing they suf­fered was worth it. It led them to each other, and that was price­less. All he wanted was to love and pro­tect her.

  His cock throbbed in his pants, mak­ing him groan. “It’s time to leave, Song­bird,” he told her men­tally.

  Mated drag­ons shared a deeper level of in­ti­macy and could com­mu­ni­cate tele­path­i­cally with each other. To punc­tu­ate his need, Finn sent a men­tal im­age along with his thoughts.

  “I can see some­one isn’t pay­ing at­ten­tion to my dad at all,” Talysia re­torted with a smile.

  “Gods no. I can’t think about any­thing but fully claim­ing you as mine,” Finn ad­mit­ted.

  Talysia moved closer to him and sub­tly rubbed her ass against his groin. Her lust was ev­i­dent even be­fore he smelled her arousal. Finn’s erec­tion pulsed against her soft flesh. When Tals started mov­ing more, Finn was forced to grab her hips and stop her.

  Lean­ing for­ward, Finn kissed be­hind her ear then nipped the lobe. Talysia gasped and her fa­ther’s gaze shot to Finn’s face. Heat filled his cheeks and he was about to apol­o­gize when Turner smirked and ex­cused him­self to grab some more torc.

  Talysia twined her fin­gers with his and started to­ward the cas­tle. “Time for you to fin­ish what you started, dragon.”

  He chuck­led when her words came out breathy and hur­ried. “I will al­ways fin­ish what I start. I plan to make ev­ery part of you mine tonight,” he vowed then placed a kiss on her cheek. His body pressed tight to hers as they walked, and he felt the quiver course through her limbs. It made his cock jerk painfully.

  “Hey, sis,” Tia called out.

  “Don’t even say it, T. I’ll see you soon,” Talysia called over her shoul­der with­out stop­ping. Laugh­ter fol­lowed them through the door. In­side the at­mos­phere was com­pletely dif­fer­ent. It was calm and quiet.

  At the foot of the stairs, Finn lifted Talysia into his arms and car­ried her up the steps as fast as his feet would carry them. Tals kissed along his jaw and down his neck. Ev­ery touch sent his li­bido through the roof. By the time they made it to the bed­room he was cer­tain his pa­tience was gone.

  He was go­ing to fall on his mate like a craven beast. Not that Talysia would ob­ject or have a prob­lem if he did, but he wanted to go slow and sa­vor this night with her.

  “You are driv­ing me mad, Song­bird. That myth about sirens lead­ing males to their deaths is one hun­dred per­cent ac­cu­rate. They tease them and make them so horny they die from pent up need.”

  Talysia chuck­led and squirmed from his arms. The slit in the side of her dress re­vealed one creamy thigh and the silk clung to her like a sec­ond skin. “You’ll live, I prom­ise. I’m build­ing to an ex­plo­sive fin­ish.”

  He re­called the first time he kissed her in the woods out­side Club Toxic. Things heated quickly be­tween them, and never re­ally slowed down. She drew him like a moth to a flame even then. Who would have thought all those weeks ago they’d be here now on the night of their mat­ing?

  Twist­ing the knob, he shoved the door open. The can­dle­light high­lighted her fea­tures and made her turquoise eyes shine. “Gods, you’re per­fect.”

  “This is the sweet­est thing any­one’s ever done for me,” she gushed when she saw all the flow­ers that he had the room filled with. By chance Finn dis­cov­ered her love of the na­tive Khoth flower. It was why he se­lected it for their sculp­ture.

  “You haven’t seen any­thing yet, love.” Finn turned her around and wrapped her in his arms. He hadn’t put his shirt or jacket on af­ter his mat­ing flight and the silk of her dress rubbed over his chest, arous­ing him fur­ther.

  “Prom­ises, prom­ises,” she teased then pressed her lips to his stop­ping his re­tort.

  Sweet sherulla from the mar­ti­nis she drank ex­ploded across his tongue when he forced her lips to part. Swal­low­ing Talysia’s moan, he pressed her body against his, want­ing her closer. Her soft stom­ach hit his aching cock, nearly mak­ing him rip her dress from her body so he could take her.

  “I love you, Sen­tinel,” she mur­mured and nib­bled his lower lip.

  Run­ning his hands from her ass and up her back, he couldn’t wait any longer and tugged the zip­per down. Within sec­onds, the gown pooled at her feet. His siren had on a sexy strap­less bra and panties the same silk as her dress. The dark fab­ric con­trasted her milky skin. When she got aroused and lost con­trol like that mo­ment her skin took on the faintest hint of light blue. The lit­tle tell was sexy as sin.

  Talysia reached be­hind her and un­clasped her bra. Her breasts bounced free and made his mouth wa­ter. He kissed a path to her pert breasts then sucked a nip­ple into his mouth. When she was moan­ing, he lifted his head and blew hot air against the peb­bled flesh be­fore tak­ing the other tip in his mouth. Talysia was so re­spon­sive to his dragon steam.

  Suck­ing and nip­ping her turgid peaks, Finn pushed her panties off her hips and down her legs. When Tals stepped out of the fab­ric, Finn took a mo­ment to ap­pre­ci­ate the view. Her sex glis­tened with arousal, and her swollen nip­ples puck­ered from his at­ten­tion.

  “Some­one wants to come out and play,” Talysia whis­pered al­most as if she was in a trance. A sex­ual trance, he thought. Her tiny fin­gers brushed over his ab­domen, mak­ing his cock jump. Glanc­ing down he no­ticed she was right. The head of his shaft was peek­ing out of the top of his pants.

  Talysia kicked the black heeled san­dals she wore aside and was reach­ing for the but­ton of his pants. He was trans­fixed by the sight of her hand run­ning up and down his erec­tion. With the zip­per down, Tals took the root of his sex in her hand and gripped it firmly.

  Cold flames licked his flesh where she touched. The di­chotomy made pre­cum leak out the tip, and had his balls draw­ing up tight. ‘Not yet!’ he scolded him­self.

  Talysia pushed his pants down his legs and Finn stepped out of them. He hadn’t put any­thing else on af­ter his flight which was con­ve­nient at the mo­ment. He froze then groaned when her mouth trailed over his chest. Clos­ing his eyes, he lost him­self in the feel of her mouth and hand.

  His eyes flew open when she bit his flat nip­ple. The sting com­bined with the feel of her cold mouth against his sen­s
i­tive flesh had him close to los­ing his shit. Grab­bing her by the hips, Finn lifted her up and claimed her mouth.

  Their tongues tan­gled and her legs wrapped around his hips. Their kiss es­ca­lated quickly as teeth and tongues col­lided. The ur­gency heated the air around them. He wouldn’t be sur­prised if they spon­ta­neously com­busted. Finn filled his hands with her firm ass. When her hot core rubbed against his shaft, Finn broke the kiss and tight­ened his hold so she couldn’t move.

  “Fuck you’re wet, Song­bird. You make it dif­fi­cult for a male to show re­straint,” he purred as he met her gaze. The con­nec­tion they shared al­lowed him to feel what she was ex­pe­ri­enc­ing.

  Never be­fore had he con­sid­ered what the fe­male felt. He never gave it more thought than he wanted to make sure she en­joyed the en­counter. With Talysia he wanted to make her soar to heights she had yet to reach.

  “There’s no rea­son for re­straint, Finn. Not be­tween us. I feel how painful your need is right now. I know you want to fuck me against that wall.”

  Finn walked the three steps to the wall and used it as lever­age. Talysia leaned back, thrust­ing her breasts to­ward his mouth. Finn ran his shaft through her slick folds as he low­ered his head and licked her nip­ples. Talysia’s mewls were like mu­sic from the heav­ens. The sound reached down and grabbed his balls.

  “I love the sounds you make,” he con­fessed. His cock was soak­ing with her arousal. He could tell by the way her body jerked that she was close. He in­creased the pres­sure and fric­tion on her sen­si­tive nub.

  Talysia ground against his shaft while he squeezed her ass so hard, he hoped he didn’t leave bruises. There was no soft and gen­tle at the mo­ment.