Fuck.He was only counting her orgasms? He hadn’t come once?
I sighed. I punched the wall with my fist, then slid that hand into my trousers to grip my aching knot, knowing the pain would only get worse. I listened as she came and he counted, and wondered if there was any way I could fight and kill numbers. Each number stabbed me in the gut.
My thoughts grew indistinct as I came three more times against the wall, breathing in as heavily as I could. My cock would not soften, and I wondered… Was I going mad, or going into a rut? I hadn’t had one of those since I was a young man.
I’d done what Rada and I had begun in our year together, and helped most of the young Alphas of Starlak reverse the descent in madness without being tied up during their first ruts. The herbal mixtures Wren had provided had been the key, and as long as young males had some of it in the first days of that initial rut, they all recovered.
Many of their fathers, uncles, and older brothers had gone feral and died before we had enough of the remedy for every village, though, and there had been too many young warrior Alphas to leave without guidance in how to be an honorable Alpha.
Honor. I was so close to losing my honor as she gasped out another climax, it was almost laughable. I let my fingers trace the gold bars that lined my shaft, reminders of what I’d done for her before I’d even known her body for the first time.
I’d done it for her, and it had hurt for months. I’d wondered more than once if I was the biggest fool in the world, but when she’d taken me into her small, confident hand, her eyes wide with laughter and awe, and led me by my pierced cock to her bed…
“Twenty-seven,” Kellin murmured. “Goddess, you’re beautiful. Someday, I pray you will allow me to watch you come on my cock.”
“Can’t… I promised…”
The air around me went even more still. What she’d started to say at the table echoed, and I let myself hope in the dark. Was it possible that she hadn’t been with another man since she’d left me?
We’d made vows when we married under the moon, in the sight of the Goddess. I closed my eyes, remembering what I’d said like it was yesterday.
“Goran, your braids are beautiful,” she murmured as she worked behind me. I tried to twist my head around to see what beads she’d chosen for the first braids that would mark me as hers, but she thumped my head. “No peeking.”
“Do you like yours?” I asked, though I knew the answer. She’d squealed when I put them in and sniffled when I told her the story of each one. My mother’s wedding ring had been melted down to make three gold beads, with our initials intertwined on one, and the traditional runes for happiness and health on the other two. I’d had the gemstones I’d taken from my treasury worked into the gold of three more, to honor her place as Warqueen.
My grandmothers and great-grandmother’s rings made up more carved beads, telling a silent story of my line, their battles and histories. I’d wanted to mate in the traditional way of Starlakian Alphas, with marks and a feast, but I knew why it wasn’t possible.
I couldsmellwhy it wasn’t. The longer we were together, the more enticing she became. She almost glowed with an otherworldly allure at times, especially on nights like this one when the air was filled with the scent of rain and mint.
“I’m done. You can stand up and turn around.” I did just that and held out a hand for her. The light fell on her naked skin as she stared at me, looking up almost shyly. “What do you think?” she asked.
I didn’t know what to expect. She was an orphan, with no ancestral heirlooms to beat into bead shapes. But I gasped when I saw what she’d done.
“Ma bohinya,” I whispered, my finger moving over the beads at the ends of each braid. She hadn’t carved runes in hers. Instead, she’d made nests of gold wire that wrapped around each braid… but also around a dragon’s hoard of riches. She’d given me ten braids, each one bearing a king’s ransom in jewels.
“They’re not the ones we stole,” she muttered when I gawked for too long. “These ones I was given by King Rigol and Vilkurn before I left home, from back when I was declared a duchess. The diamonds I had for a lot longer; Queen Vali slipped them to me for rescuing the king, not long after they mated.”
“I will treasure them forever,” I said, my voice raw as I took her in. “I’ll never take them off.”
The moonlight was all that illuminated us, since she’d insisted on no fires for this ceremony, but it was enough for me to see. She was every inch a princess, though her frame was narrower and more elegant than most of my country’s women. She was perfect for me, though. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” she replied, letting out a breath. She’d rolled her eyes at the Starlakian vows where the women promised to honor and obey their husbands. I’d told her to make up her own, that I didn’t want us starting out our life together on a lie.
“I, Rada, take you Goran as my husband under the moon and in sight of the Goddess. I vow from now until the end of my days to love and protect you, to be your blade when yours goes dull, your eyes when you can’t see, your friend and lover andpartner in crime.” We both laughed; we’d already committed a few. “I’ll fight to stay at your side to the end of our lives, until the moon falls into the sea.”
Then it was my turn. “I, Goran, the Warlord of All Starlak, take you, Rada, as my Warqueen and wife,” I began, letting myself linger on her name. Her real name, the one she’d been given by her dead mother.
She’d asked me not to use it for some reason. She had a suspicious streak, and perhaps she was worried about spies, given her background.
I knew some of her story, but not all. I didn’t need all her secrets yet; the years ahead would be full of chances for us to bare our souls to each other.
Our gazes locked as I finished my vow. “I’ll fight to stay at your side through all of our days, never loving another, my body, soul, and mind devoted only to you, my wife, until the last sword crumbles into dust.”
I leaned to kiss her gently, but her hand landed on my mouth. There was a hint of sadness in her expression as she spoke. “Goran, you know I couldn’t make that vow to you. I’m an Omega. But I do promise not to be with any others who aren’t my mates.”
She hadn’t mentioned other mates directly. “Mates? Do you know who they are?”
“I’ve already met a couple… Well, one male who could be a destined mate.”
