Finally bare, Mav leaned back, and the two just stared at each other for a long moment. Colette wanted to touch her again. She shifted, climbing off of Mav’s hips, and knelt next to her.
“Spread your legs for me,” Colette instructed. Mav obeyed without question.
“What a good girl. Now lift your right leg into the air for a moment.” Mav did, and Colette maneuvered herself back intoa straddling position, this time with her torso pressed against Mav’s raised leg. She sank down, holding Mav’s muscled leg close to her, and her already too-sensitive core pressed into the tiny spines along Mav’s cunt. Both of them moaned at the touch; Colette might simply perish from pleasure. Nothing should feel this good.
“Oh Mav, you feel so good. Just sit still, alright?”
“Colette,” Mav moaned as Colette began to move.
She ground against Mav’s entrance, the spines working her clit. It wasn’t long before Mav’s legs were trembling. Colette kept going until Mav went completely silent and shuddered hard with her orgasm. Colette couldn’t help it; she followed Mav over the edge.
The haze of pleasure seemed to lift slightly as Colette leaned her face into the fur of Mav’s leg. After a moment of catching her breath, she turned to look back at Mav—and found her eyes filled with tears.
Chapter Thirteen
“Mav? What’s the matter?”Colette’s voice was full of surprise and concern, the venom’s haze clearly lifting. Further proof of what Mav had just realized. The thought had flashed through her mind, but she had been too caught up in the sensations of being with Colette to let it sink in.
When a manticore found their mate, their venom would induce a heightened state rather than rendering them unconscious. Mav hadn’t thought about this particular fact of her existence for a good long while; she had assumed manticores could only mate with other manticores. Apparently not.
She didn’t know what to say. “Colette, you…I’m your mate.” Mav’s voice was a whisper. She didn’t know how to feel. There was joy in her heart, but also apprehension. What would Colette think of having a manticore mate? What would the king think of Mav taking a thief into her bed?! No promises had passed between them; for all Mav knew, Colette never wanted to see her again after tonight.
It wasn’t really her career Mav cared about, if she were to be honest with herself. It was the belonging that she hoped would come with her success. It was the acceptance that should go along with accolades and leadership. That’s what she craved.
The seconds after Mav’s declaration felt like they lasted an eternity. Colette’s brow furrowed slightly, but her perfect lips pulled into a bit of a smile.
“Manticores have mates?”
Mav nodded, suddenly feeling very vulnerable from where she still lay sprawled on the rug.
“And…I’m yours?”
The words on Colette’s lips sounded so right, but Mav knew not to be too hopeful. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s a bit inconvenient since you’re supposed to arrest me.” Colette laughed, her smile bright and lovely.
Mav couldn’t help but smile back at her.
“Really though, you aren’t upset?” Mav asked.
“Upset that I have a sweet, talented, beautiful manticore that is fated by the old gods to love me forever? No, Mav. I am surprised, but not upset.”
The sheer relief that Mav felt renewed the tears that had filled her eyes only moments ago.
“I am not sure what exactly we are going to do though…I am a bit of a problem for you, Mav.” Colette’s features shifted into an expression of consideration. She looked as if she was trying to solve a puzzle. Mav supposed she was.
“Maybe we should get dressed and get out of this house before we try to solve all of our problems?” Mav suggested. Colette laughed, and Mav felt like she could face anything in the world with this woman by her side.
Chapter Fourteen
Colette experienced a hundreddifferent emotions as she stood outside the doors to the throne room of the palace. Apprehension and anxiety were chief among them.
It had taken Mav the better part of a month to convince Colette that this plan would work. Colette had promised to pause her thieving long enough for them to work things out without getting Mav into even more trouble. During that time, the two had fallen into each other in the best possible way. They were both obsessed with each other. Colette very quickly realized that she would give up her thieving even if this plan didn’t work; she could find some other way to help the people of Zhava City with Mav by her side.
She had taken Mav home to meet her grandmother, who had immediately loved the fearsome manticore. She hadn’t seemed surprised that Colette had brought home perhaps the only non-human resident of Zhava City and introduced her as her mate, no less. Mav had fit into her life like she was meant to be there.
They had just had one problem; Colette was still the most wanted thief in Sartya. She desperately hoped their king was as good-natured and fair as Mav had said he was, but Colette had worked at the palace in Ichorna. If their king was anything like Queen Aldith…well, Colette didn’t want to think about it.
The guards eyed her warily as they pulled the doors open, and she took a deep breath, striding into the room. She made her way down the long aisle, only letting herself glance at where Mav stood by the dais for a moment before shifting her gaze back to the ground in front of her.
