I rested back on my heels for a moment, giving him a long, examining look, making my decision. I warmed more of the lotion in my hands and then reached between his legs, pulling and rolling his balls in my hands, stroking the dark crease of the inside of his thigh. Torion's head fell back on a hopeless cry formercy, and his cock wept once more. I licked him again, fighting my own grin.
"Witch,please," he hissed through clenched teeth. "I won't last."
That was probably for the best because even through two rugs, my knees were starting to grow tired already. I released his sac from my grip and moved it up to steady the base of his cock, rising up on my knees and wrapping my lips around the head of his cock. He wet my tongue at the same moment that I felt dewy beads of arousal budding in my sex.
Torion shouted out a wordless sound as I mouthed and then licked at his head, wiggling my tongue to his tip and then along the rigid underside. Inside of my closed hand, his knot swelled, hard and quick. My cunt answered with a hollow ache, as if it knew exactly where that knot ought to have been. I put both hands to it, digging my thumbs in, and Torion's hips rose up from the stool to pump his length into my mouth, stroking it along my tongue and then deeper.
I wanted to laugh in giddy triumph, but the sound that came out was a moan, echoing down into his swollen shaft. I twisted my hands around his knot and bobbed my head in encouragement, approval of his use of my mouth.
There was a roaring in my ears, a rush of desire in my blood that I hadn't felt since before Tylane's birth, and the echo of one sound in my head—a dark chant ofmate, mate, mate.
Except it wasn't just in my head. Torion was gasping the word, my name,witch, at the same tempo that his knot throbbed in my hands, thick with his pounding pulse, one that matched the drum of need in my core.
I lifted my head to catch my breath and found him staring down at me, feral with hunger, wild with pride and lust, and I knew my expression matched his. This was my alpha, mine forlife. And I was his. He would never stray, mate bond or not. Itwasn't in Torion's nature. He loved with breath and thought and the rhythm of his heartbeat. He'd taught me to do the same.
"I love you," I gasped out.
His wild expression softened. "And I love you, witch. Come here?"
I laughed and shook my head, then dove down, swallowing him deeply, squeezing hard around his knot with that same chant ofmate, mate, mate, shamelessly starving and slurping at the warning of his release.
Torion roared, arching into my mouth, my hands, wings scraping at the floor and the tub, a splash of water from a slipping hand. I made a sound like a purr, as if our roles had changed in the past few minutes, curling my tongue as I retreated and returned, taking every drop of him as he quaked and fell back to the stool, flailed to right himself. I wished I could've watched us from the side. I had heard but not seen his collapse, but he was rich and salty and bitter on my tongue, and my whole body was moving, rocking, begging to be filled.
I sat up with a gasp and a whimper, my lips damp and my eyes wide.
"Tor—"
I didn't finish his name before Torion's hands were under my armpits, lifting me up as he stood, his expression slack with release but eyes dark.
"I have to taste you, mate," he rumbled, scooping me off the floor as his wings snapped around us, as if to prevent me from being stolen away from him. We rose unsteadily for a moment, Torion finding his balance after the rush of release. I thought briefly that I would have to work harder next time to leave him limp, but perhaps it was for the best that I hadn't succeeded so much this time. He shook himself, straightened, and then marched to the bedroom. "Say yes."
I smiled at his demand, at the gentle way he lowered me into our nest, not so much as blinking to see how it might've changed in the new surroundings. I stretched and watched him lick his lips.
My nerves and worries were gone, smothered under my desire and the urgency of Torion's touch.
"Taste me, alpha," I cooed, lifting my knees and letting my shift slide down to my waist.
Torion let out a growl of warning, and then I was his to devour.
"I'll speak with her first."
The words floated to me from a tunnel of sleep, the first clear phrase in the collection of soothingly familiar whispers.
"Don't push too hard. Wings or not, it may be better for you if she's in attendance."
My eyes opened as Torion hushed his partner in the conversation. The door to our suite groaned, the guest exiting, and I ran my hand over the sheets. They were still warm, so Torion's absence from the bed couldn't have been a long one. Even from the sitting room, his sigh was audible, and by the time he'd returned to the nest I'd pushed myself up to sitting, my shoulders back and chin raised in defiance.
It was just before dawn, light enough for Torion's grave features to be clear to me and my stubborn ones evident to him.
"That was Ronson. Mairwen is here as well."
"I'm not leaving, Torion."
"It might not even be a challenge. It could be a siege."
I didn't catch my wince fast enough, but Torion gave me the grace of not pointing it out. "I've made up my mind," I said. "Wecan trust Mairwen with Tylane. I will remain here, with you, until you put this matter to rest."
Torion stood frozen at the end of the bed, lips tense with objections, wings slightly spread at his back, shielding me from the approaching threat. Slowly, he unwound, bowing forward to the bed, spreading out there, his arms reaching above his head until he found my legs under our blankets, gently cupping warm fingers over my shins.
