Severin was always tough to rile up but his face composed itself into sober lines even for him. “I didn’t try. It was handed to me.”
“You can discuss how you’re going to help us later. I need to yell at Maggie for leaving me behind.” I tossed Maggie higher on my body so my erection was on display for everyone and turned to the cottage. “Find something to do for a few hours.”
Maggie’s poppy scent barely let me get her upstairs and into a room. I slammed the door closed and plastered her to it, grinding said erection against her. I had never been so scared in my life as when I woke up alone in Yaya’s retreat, Maggie without my protection. I knewshe was a big girl. I knew it by the color of Severin’s face and the story about Brad just bursting to be told, but none of it mattered when I had to pace the cottage, tearing out precious strands of hair, waiting for her return. Not even misting Gertrude helped.
“You were a bad girl for leaving me,” I snapped into her tresses. “Don’t leave me, Pumpkin.”
I tried to suppress the whine my Nightmare forced out. That Jax had to use the shadow portal I sent with him didn’t bode well. Maybe Brad was dead, maybe he wasn’t. The idea that she might have been slain and I did nothing made me insane. When had this new version of me taken over?
She pulled back from my kisses, fisting a handful of my hair. Her eyes snapped with fire, which was better than the sadness I saw in the garden. I braced for her cutting remark.
“Hey. I’m right here. I made it. Fuck up and all.” Her grip turned into the glide of her hand through as much of my locks as she could reach.
My heart shattered into a thousand pieces for her.
“You’re not a fuck-up.”
She scoffed and went to say something snarky. My jaw widened and my Nightmare pulsed my eyes to a glowing red.
“You’re MINE. And nothing I want this badly could ever be a fuck-up.” My claws dug into the door on eitherside of her. “You don’t have to be perfect for me to love you.”
Her mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ of surprise. My emotions had overwhelmed me for hours after that slip of my tongue. I was afraid my Nightmare would think saying we were mates was permission to claim her. I was a bastard, but I didn’t want an unwilling mate. Would she love all of me, or just the pretty Elf?
No test. Bite her. Make her ours.My Nightmare’s voice rushed through me. He was certain of her, no matter how wild or combative she got.Don’t let her go.
I kissed her to cover my panic. These needs rushing through me didn’t make our situation any more legible. A failed attempt on Brad just meant I needed to kill him myself. The crown would be mine, and Maggie… Maggie would… Well, that was the problem.
I ruthlessly shoved that away as future Noth problems and revelled in my Pumpkin in my arms. Letting the bond latch only made everything worse. I was sliding into her in a way I never thought possible. I wanted to take her to my favorite eating spot, see how she dealt with the Council, and see what she would look like against my slate gray sheets.
She hooked a blackened fingertip in my mouth, prying me off her. I sucked on that instead, drinking in the magic that returned right back to her over the pitiful mate bond. I couldn’t believe I let that thing latch, but it wascarrying our mutual fire back and forth for all that it was still weak.
“Let’s at least make it to a bed this time,” Maggie said.
That was so cute. I set her down after a long lick to her neck and she started toward the mattress. I grinned in anticipation. Too bad a bed wouldn’t do for this. I couldn’t stuff her with my cock. I would never pull out in either of our lifetimes.
Her yelp was nearly lost in the inky blackness of the portal as it pulled her in. I strolled in her direction as I fanned the shadows out to consume the rest of the room. Darkness spread from my eyes in tandem. The laugh that swarmed out of me echoed across the dark. Trapped, at my mercy, I could do whatever I wanted to her lower half in the void.
“Haha. Very funny,” Maggie said. It was hard to deny the mate bond when she made it breathy like my magic already edged her into pleasure. Hers certainly tightened mine.
She pulled herself up with her considerable strength but the portal only compressed around her waist. I hadn’t used my shadows like this… well, ever. I probably should have trapped her hands in the portal too, but I admitted I wanted them on me too bad to bind them. If she reached up, she could touch my cock. I wanted her to want that more than was sane. More than a King should desire anything. I was the Elven King, not a Nightmare, but Maggie made me downright feral. I needed her to see me.
Something loosened inside me with the tendrils of smoke and darkness that came to my call and touched her feet within my void. I sensed everything that happened, like it was my hands slowly taking off her boots, her socks.
“Noth!”
The hint of helplessness in her voice spread a smirk over my face as I prowled around her. I tore off all of her clothes below the portal.
Maggie kicked out but there was nothing to hit or gain purchase on until I solidified the darkness.
I traced every plane of her calves, her thighs, behind her knees, over the ‘v’ of her hips, into the dip of her ass. She struggled against me. To get away or come closer, I couldn’t tell.
“You just hate doing what you’re told. Don’t you?” I crouched down on the floor in front of her, conscious of how far she could reach. I had annoyed her by not letting her on the bed and I didn’t want her so peeved that we didn’t get to the good part.
“Depends on who is telling me,” she spat.
“Itold you not to leave without me.”
The weight of her ass against my shadows made my Nightmare push forward. What would it feel like bouncing against mythighs?
