King of Frost

by Ana Calin

  I’m becoming one with the ocean. My power is claiming me.

  He hurries close, and looks down at me with so much intensity in his blue eyes, that I start to feel my heart again. My heart that beats harder and harder, tormented by questions—what does he really feel for me? Does the mates’ bond really have an effect on him, or did he really only play with me all along? No matter the answers, these feelings make me feel human again. So does his touch.

  He closes his eyes, his palms growing hotter on a part of my body that I identify as the sides of my torso. He’s balancing me out, helping me contain my power. I gasp as water turns to flesh, not by far as painfully as the first two times, but by the time the transformation is done, I fall into his arms, exhausted, and barely knowing who I am.

  CHAPTER VII

  Arielle

  A log fire glows warmly on my cheek. I curl under a thick duvet that seems made of furs, blinking up at Lysander’s face. He’s stroking my forehead gently with his finger.

  “I was afraid I lost you,” he murmurs, his voice like a caress. I smile, lost in this vision of him, but then a flash of memory hits me. I sit up, pain shooting through my body.

  “The Pearl of Riches. We lost it. Damn it, all this has been for nothing!”

  But Lysander holds up the familiar shabby shell, between two strong fingers. “I swiped it off the ground when I jumped from the platform,” he explains with a smile. God, will I ever be able to look away from those beautiful lips? Will I ever be able to remain detached when his icy features change to express the warmest emotions?

  No, I won’t let him do this. He’s only manipulating me. I reach for the memory of what I saw in the demon eye, him telling Minerva how he was only pretending to be in love in order to control me, and then how he scooped her up and took her to the bed. I push myself further away from him, pulling my knees up.

  “Thank you for saving me,” I say dryly. “I wish I could say I had it under control, but I totally didn’t. You saved my life. But then again, you almost took it a few times, too.”

  A shadow falls over his face. Whether it’s sadness, frustration or even fury, I don’t know, but it looks scary. Still, I won’t back down, I won’t start to make excuses for him. I look away, at our surroundings, realizing we’re inside a cave. He must have teleported us from the Sea Witch’s lair.

  “Why are we hiding here? Why didn’t you take me back to the castle, or the Seelie?”

  “Your body wasn’t strong enough to withstand a long teleportation. We’re in the rocky mountains by the sea, a few miles from where the Sea Witch kept you.”

  A snowstorm rages outside, but the sound only reaches us faintly. The cold not at all.

  “I formed a protective shield,” Lysander explains, his voice deep and dark. I become suddenly aware that I’m naked under the furs, my rags drying by the fire.

  “Can I have my outfit back, please? I’d rather wear wet rags than the fur of murdered animals.”

  “These furs come from monster shifters, creatures that lure stray supernaturals in the mountains and feast on them. They’re not the puppies and bears you know from your world.”

  He gets up and walks over to a pile of wood. He must have gathered it while I was out. He moves with the grace of a killer. Everything about him is deadly, and metallic, and feral.

  “What was happening when I contacted you telepathically?” I inquire as he returns with wood for the fire. “I heard the sounds of battle.”

  “Yes, there was an ambush. Just outside the Seelie Fae realm. Xerxes sent a unit of stray demons and serpent shifters, but we managed to push them back.”

  “Stray demons? Does that mean that Xerxes has got Lucifer on his side?” I can’t hide the alarm in my voice.

  “No, he wouldn’t take sides in this. But some creatures from hell escape and act of their own accord, that’s why we call them stray. They’re sort of like mercenaries.” He opens a sash by my drying clothes, and hands me a fluffy, delicious looking piece of fae bread.

  Only now do I realize how hungry I was. I snatch it from his hand and sink my teeth in it, moaning when I feel the taste.

  “Oh, God,” I whisper in delight. “I never get tired of this smell.” Not to mention that it will provide me with more nutrients than any meal in the human world.

  I watch Lysander as he works the fire. My eyes skim over his profile and his body, willing myself not to find him painfully handsome. Crap, I need to distract myself ASAP.

  “If you help me balance my power long term, control and wield it properly,” I say, “I promise I’ll share it with you. Even if you’re marrying Minerva, I will still stand by your side. I will use my powers to fight against Xerxes, and I’ll yield to you command of the seas when you need them. All I ask is that you let me keep my power, and teach me how to use it.”

  But instead of smiling satisfied, Lysander’s face becomes grimmer. The flames cast their glow over his blue eyes, making him resemble a beautiful devil. His strong jaw sharpens so much it could splinter rocks.

  “Are you also willing to swear that you’ll never marry another man, and share your power with him by being intimate with him?”

  “No, wait a minute, you don’t get to make that kind of demands on me. This is the part where you take my hand, look deep into my eyes and tell me how amazing I am for agreeing to put my power in your service, even though you’re marrying Minerva.”

  “Oh, yes, it is amazing that you’re ready to accept my marriage with Minerva so serenely. I’m thrilled.”

  “There’s no way around that marriage, Lysander, so what’s your problem?”

  “What’s my problem?” His eyes flash at me. “I’ll tell you. This isn’t you being generous and forgiving, Arielle. This is you opening the way for a relationship with Zillard Dark. You’re in love with him.” He snarls like an animal, his eyes bloodshot. The gauntlet coats his fist in a flash before he slams it into the rock wall, tearing a chunk out of it.

  “What’s gotten into you, Lysander, calm down.”

  “Oh, you want me to calm down? You shroud yourself in the warlock’s shadows and lose yourself with him in the Seelie gardens, and you want me to calm down? We have a mates’ bond, for fuck’s sake! My blood is inside you. I am yours, and you’re mine, whether either of us wants to or not. You think you can just leave me, like some kind of holiday fling?”

  “Cut the charade, Lysander.” I hold a finger in his face, my eyes burning into his. “You are the one who never honored that bond. You only used it to chain me to you, to strip me of my options. I saw you with Minerva in your room, I saw you grab her ass and rock your cock against her.” I grow more furious from the image in my head. “I heard what you told her about me. I know the passion in your eyes isn’t real. You’ve only been using it to make me believe I mattered to you. But you would never take me seriously, mates’ bond or not.”

  Tears stream down my face as all the frustration and pent up rage find release. Before I know it I’ve thrown off the furs and launched myself naked at Lysander. I hit his chest with my fists, screaming my frustration and pain at being used and rejected.

  What’s baffling is that he doesn’t even try to stop me. On the contrary, his defenses go down, his armor fading against his body. He’s now standing naked in front of me, my fists landing against his steel hard pecs. They hurt so bad I have to stop. Slowly, gently, he wraps his big hands around my wrists.

  “I often think about what your life would have been like, if I’d never taken you from the human world,” he says in a voice that caresses me like velvet. Holding my hands in a light grip, he brushes my hair behind my ear with the other, looking at me like I’m the most precious thing in the world. “If you’d never used magic, or if I’d never found out. Or if I’d simply decided not to uproot you. You would have finished your studies. Enjoyed a career and morning take-away at Starbucks. Girls’ nights and bachelorette parties. Maybe limos and cocktails and, later when married a former quarterback and had a couple
of kids.”

  I try to pull away, scared of the way I’m falling under his spell.

  “Lysander, what are you—”

  But he keeps me close. “If you only knew what those scenarios do to me whenever I play them in my mind, Arielle.” He sounds so tormented that tears swell in my eyes. His hand splays over the small of my back, pressing me to him. “Tell me the truth. Did you make love to Zillard Dark? Did you give yourself to him?”

  I shake my head like I can’t believe the question, even though I intentionally planted these doubts in his mind. I wanted the possibility to torment him, the way his relationship with Minerva tortured me. But Zillard is like a brother to me.

  Lysander’s embrace turns to steel around me.

  “Just tell me. Don’t prolong this uncertainty.”

  “I’ve never been with any man, Lysander,” I say as my breasts crush against the hard sinews of his body. We’re both naked, vulnerable, facing one another without defenses. His eyes mirror the fire’s glow, highlighting his passion.

  “Swear to me,” he says. “Swear to me he never touched you.”

  “My word is not enough?”

  “Maybe he used his incubus powers to seduce you, and you’re trying to protect him from me.” He caresses my chin with two strong fingers that feel like weapons. “Because you know that, if he did that, I would skin him alive, and put salt all over him.”

  I cab feel he’s capable of that and more, and I shudder.

  “The idea bothers you?” he rumbles.

  I take a deep breath, hoping he’ll take my next words for what they are—the truth. “Zillard is like a brother to me. His father Hades, is Aunt Miriam’s father as well. When she willed her power to me, Zillard and I became, how shall I put it—siblings, somehow.”

  Lysander looks deeply into my eyes as he processes the information, and his features begin to relax.

  “You, on the other hand, you have no excuse for anything you did.” I say grimly. “You slept with Minerva. You told her that your feelings for me weren’t real.”

  “Arielle—”

  “No. Don’t give me white lies, because they aren’t going to work. These are things I’ve seen with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears, there’s no way you can reframe that so that I believe you. I just want to know—How were you able to bind yourself to me, and yet love another woman? Because—” And here comes the hard part. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to love another man.”

  There’s so much passion in his eyes, it’s almost murderous.

  “You belong to me, Arielle.” His voice rumbles deep in his chest as his hand travels up my naked back. He cups the nape of my neck possessively, his lips dangerously close. I can feel he has a hard time controlling himself. “Whether we like it or not, we are bonded. You and I will forever crave each other, no matter what.”

  “You’re marrying Minerva,” I remind him, struggling with the fire in my lower belly. “You and I, we can’t be, unless you call off the engagement.”

  “I would do it without a second thought if it didn’t put you at risk. Minerva would have you killed. Remember the man who spoke against you at the meeting? Mage Igarus, who suggested we should end your life?”

  “How can I forget.” The need for revenge surges through at the memory, and I try to push myself away for Lysander. But he yanks me back to him.

  “Minerva had him speak out against you. And that was just her warming up.”

  “You said you’d thought about killing me yourself, you bastard.” I struggle in his arms.

  “You know why I said it, deep down you always knew.” Fire casts a glow of madness over his irises. “I had to make it all credible, I had to make Minerva think you really didn’t matter to me, so she’d leave you alone.”

  “So everything you did—Stating in front of anyone that I mattered so little to you you’d watch me die without a problem, telling Minerva you only act like you have feelings for me in order to manipulate me, everything that transpired was a plot?”

  “Yes. And yes. Here.”

  He lets me go and steps back from me, grabbing an iron dagger he must have brought from the Sea Witch’s lair.

  “I took this in case we came across Fire Fae, but let’s give it another purpose.” He takes the iron dagger to his chest, and slashes his left pec. I shriek when blood swells out, and the skin around the cut starts to turn black like burning paper in an instant.

  “No, don’t hurt yourself,” I cry. It must hurt like hell, but Lysander doesn’t even grimace. With intensity in his eyes, he drops the dagger, steps close, and cups my face.

  “Lick my blood.”

  “What? No!”

  “It will reveal to you my true feelings and intentions. It will give you a glimpse of my true heart.”

  Can I be so selfish to take his blood only to discover his true feelings? Use it like some sort of twisted means of divination? I don’t know, but his blood is streaming out of his wound, weakening him because he cut himself with iron. If I touch him there, I can heal him.

  I rise on my toes and touch my tongue to the thick trail of blood, sending my healing power into his body. Without it, the wound would take weeks to heal, and it would weaken his entire organism in the process.

  His blood feels warm, but tastes of snow and winter. My lids close, and my eyes roll back—his blood permeates my heart. I feel what he feels for me, and the main emotion is jealousy. Hundreds of scenarios spin in his mind of me choosing another man. I feel the torture in his heart whenever he saw me even smile at another. I disengage, the power of his feelings overwhelming.

  When I open my eyes and meet Lysander’s, I can’t resist anymore. I jump on him, closing my naked legs around his hips.

  I crush my mouth against his, my arms tight around his neck. He opens his mouth, groaning with pleasure.

  “Finally, I get to feel you,” he says, opening his mouth against mine. He pushes his tongue between my lips, gently like the brush of a feather, to make sure it’s not too much too quickly, but he grows demanding within seconds.

  I give in to his desire as he lays me down on the furs by the fire, our bodies burning with lust as we undulate into each other. He parts my knees with his. Is he actually getting ready to take me? Are Lysander and I finally going to make love?

  I squirm, inviting him to take me, as he bends down to kiss my neck, sending ribbons of pleasure all through me.

  “Ah, Lysander,” I whisper, relishing in the sensation. I have fooled around with guys before in the mortal world, back when I didn’t even suspect what the future held for me, but never have I felt like this. The way my skin reacts to him is new, and quite frankly alarming.

  He moves down to my chest and my breasts, taking his time loving them, his muscles glistening in the firelight. I’m so wet down there, my cream slips to my inner thighs. I won’t be able to resist him if he goes on kissing my body possessively, while the flames cast that beautiful glow on his skin.

  “Lysander, if we do this—”

  But I can’t even finish the sentence. He moves swiftly up and pins my hands above my head, his gaze wild with desire.

  “I have never wanted a woman like this, Arielle, never.” He slides his steel-hard cock between my folds, over my clit. I arch up my chest, aching with need. “True, I’ve never been bonded to one either. But I never expected it would feel this way.”

  I open my legs wider, lifting my hips to meet his big cock as it glides between my folds. He hisses, his eyelids hooding his bright blue eyes, his lip curling over his teeth. God, he looks like a magnificent predator enjoying his prey.

  “If I give you my virtue now, my virginity,” I whisper, craving to caress his artwork of a body, “Will you set me free? Will you go back to your Minerva, and let me restart my life with someone new, wipe out the painful past?”

  His irises flash with a murderous impulse, only not against me—against the man I might be referring to. He ruts me harder, our bodies hungry for each other as w
e writhe on the furs by the fire. I can tell he’s struggling to contain himself and not plunge into me.

  “Never,” he grunts. “Any man who dares make a move on you will die, remember that. I’ll sneak in the shadows behind their backs and snap their necks, and that would be me being merciful.”

  I smile—just what I wanted to hear. I lift my chin, inviting him to kiss me, and he takes the chance like a madman.

  I would like to let my hands travel down to his powerful buttocks, clasp them and feel those steel muscles move, but he keeps my hands above my head.

  “Stick it inside of me, Lysander,” I whisper, feverish with need.

  “Stick what?” he provokes. “Say it.”

  “Your cock, King of Frost. I want your cock fucking me, and sealing the bond we have with each other forever.”

  He pushes the head of his mighty cock between my folds. The wide crest of his cock parts my walls, making my whole body tense up.

  “Relax,” he slurs. “I’ll be gentle. I want you to love this.” With that, he pushes it just a little harder, his mighty cock urging against the flimsy barrier of my virginity.

  “By the cursed realms, so warm and sleek.” His deep voice rumbles as he pushes again, and it’s like a red iron piercing me. My wrists strain against his hold.

  He moves, slowly, the pain subsiding. It’s a delicious ache that makes me crave more. Lysander buries his face into he curve of my neck, kissing me with lust.

  “This is a first for me as well, my forbidden love,” he whispers hotly in my ear. “I have never been with a virgin before.”

  I look up at the cave ceiling, the flames playing wildly against the rock. I push my hips forward to meet his next move, and kiss his earlobe lovingly. He raises his face surprised, his intense gaze meeting mine. I lift my head as much as his hold on my wrists allows, and lick his neck, loving his taste of winter and arctic wind on my tongue. He groans, thrusting hard, making me cry out.