That was what I had just sworn to do. “What are your orders,ma bohinya?”
“Take off your clothes and give them to me.” I did it more quickly than gracefully. When I handed them to her, she took them and began placing them on top of the gray cloak that formed the base of her nest. My shirts and trousers made terrible pillows, and for a moment, I longed for the velvet cushions and satin fabrics I’d purchased for the nests she’d built for us in the caves of Starlak. It had been the only soft thing about those dark places we’d been forced into because of her wildly attractive scent, though I’d tried to make sure they were as comfortable as I could make them.
Rada sat cross-legged in the middle of her rough nest, and I took her in. The vines and flowers on her arm were every bit as bright as they had been when I’d given her the tattoo. There was a small, pale scar like a miniature snowflake just below her belly button that I’d never seen before. The bite mark on her upper bicep gleamed like twin crescent moons, and her skin flushed pink when I let out a low curse. My cock was already throbbing, and I prayed that I could make this good for her. Whatever “this” would be.
I kneeled in front of her, waiting for her instructions, and she held up one hand. “Warrior, you may enter my nest.”
“Ma bohinya, my love, my life. You honor me.”
Her lithe arms slid around my neck, and I lifted her to meet me in a kiss. I closed my eyes and tasted her, my tongue dipping into her mouth, tracing her lips, relearning her. She was every bit as sweet as she had been, but more mellow, her mint smoother, and her scent like the smell of distant rain after a drought. I tasted salt on our joined lips, but with my eyes shut, I wasn’t sure if they were her tears or mine.
I kissed her until she softened, lying back in my embrace. I’d never felt so strong or so weak. So powerful. So helpless. My hands traced every line of her form, lingering on the places I’d longed for most: her shoulders, the curve of her hip, the silkenskin where her thighs met just below her mound. She’d once teased me that I was edging her, taunting her by not touching the places other men would have gone toward first off.
I’d told her then that what I’d wanted was to know her more deeply than any other man could. “You’ll have other mates. They’ll want to claim your breasts, your luscious ass. I want to love the parts of you that any other man might overlook. That’s how a queen should be worshiped.”
“Make love to me, Goran,” she begged now, her hand sliding around my cock, fingers counting the nine rungs of the ladder I’d put there to prove myself.
“Yes, my goddess,” I replied and slid my hips toward her. She was already drenched, near-sobbing for me to enter. I ignored her murmured threats and curses and rubbed my fingers in the old patterns we’d learned together at the top of her mound until she was almost fragmenting, then I slid into her. Each rung of the ladder that entered her erased a year of the absence that had stretched between us until my knot was flush with her slick opening, and she was shuddering.
“Please,” she whimpered.
“You never have to beg,” I replied, thrusting my knot forward, the final year disintegrating as she cried out with her climax.
I had not been the best lover when I’d finally earned the Goddess’s approval, as well as Rada’s, and lay with her. I’d been like many younger men: quick to finish, focused too much on my own pleasure rather than hers. She’d trained me out of that, though, and the long, pleasurable lessons came flooding back now.
After our first knotting, I made love to her again and again, until the cloth of her nest was fragrant with our mingled scents, and neither of us had energy to do more than stroke each otherlightly, then fall into sleep. For the first time in years, I didn’t dream. The only dream that mattered had already come true.
When I woke, she was dressed again, and the wind was hotter than before. “I can see the islands,” she said, leaning over and pressing a kiss to one of the gemstones on my braid, then tied a piece of cream-colored cloth over her mouth and nose.
I sat up, choking on ash. She handed me a strip of cloth that looked like it had been cut from… I glanced at the small cabin. Alexios had come out at some point, and nodded silently to me. His robes were shorter now, and he had a cover over his face to match Rada’s. He pointed silently to the horizon, and I gasped, then went into a fit of coughing that lasted until I fashioned my own mask from the cloth and put it on.
“That’s not possible. It takes weeks to reach Pict.” My words were muffled as I spied what Alexios had pointed out. On the horizon were the unmistakable shapes of two islands, with a jagged peak on the one farther away, spewing smoke into the flat, gray sky.
“Not if you’re invited by the host,” she joked, pressing a hand to her gut. She grabbed the water jug and sipped a bit, drinking under her mask, then handed me the water.
“Are you hungry? I can catch you a fish.” I was a decent fisherman, though nowhere near as good as Lachlan or Kellin. I turned my head to the west, still seeing no sign of either selkie.
“Ah, no. Whatever Skadi did to try and block out the pain from the… pull, hooks, whatever it is. It’s wearing off a bit.” She slumped. “And there’s almost no fish to be had here. I think the water is too warm, or acidic. It smells, anyway.”
It did. The air was rotten eggs mixed with a dry bitterness that seared my nostrils.
“Right. Are you ready to be my warrior, Goran?” Something in her voice made my heart race.
“Of course,ma bohinya. What is your plan? What are your orders?”
She pointed to the larger island. “If I’m right, we’re being drawn directly to the volcano. I need to go there; it’s what I promised. But I want you to go to the west side of the island.”
I didn’t understand, but Alexios did. “Where they’re keeping the Omegas.”
She ignored him. “I want you to spy on the encampment for now. The long house, or whatever structure they’re being kept in now, should be there, far enough from the beach to be safe from storms. I would expect lots of guards, and dozens of Omegas. I’m not sure what else.”
“Where will you be?”
“Swimming to shore,” she said, standing. Before I could figure out what she meant, she was hissing, her eyes tracking something. She exploded into motion, emptying a few small things out of her cloak, then stuffing it into the bag Alexios had brought. “Probably a good thing that dragon took all my shit. They wouldn’t let me keep any of it.” I stood, but saw nothing. “Idiot, stay down! There’s a boat coming, a canoe. I’ll swim to meet them, and you two sail around to the west side. Do reconnaissance. Try not to get killed.”
“You must be joking,” Alexios said. “You’re not going to walk right into the trap?” She ignored him again. He began to mutter something under his breath.
“I think she plans to swim. But he has a point. You must be joking,” I told her, and her hard gaze jumped to me. “None of us can stay in the boat if you leave. They’ll already have seen it. They’ll come to investigate, probably in force. Unless we plan to fight, we all have to jump ship.”
