“What the fuck is happening?” I whispered but then obeyed.
Cyn straddled my waist and angled his cock at my open mouth. I closed my eyes just before he came, that hot lash hitting my cheek before entering my mouth. Cyn's possessive grunts made me writhe, adding to the tingling on my chest and tongue. And in my ass.
I finally realized what was happening.
“Holy fuck, are you mating me?” I opened my eyes even as the cum sank into the skin of my chest. “You're mating me! Cyn!”
“You're mine!” Cyn snarled in response, his free hand going to my face to rub in his cum. No, not cum. It was his mating essence!
“Cyn,” I whispered in awe. “You're mine too.”
“I always have been. Now, roll over.” When I didn't instantly obey, he growled, “Do it now, Ru. I need to mark you everywhere.”
Eager for all he would give me, I rolled onto my belly, my revived cock rejoicing with me as more stripes of mating essence tingled on my back. I could feel it sinking into every part of me. My flesh, bones, and blood. Cyn's magic, his essence, infused my entire being.
His essence. Holy fuck.Essence!
Gasping with hope and anticipation, I slipped into my shadowform, and the King's essence hit mine directly. It touched and merged. I cried out with the bliss of it, the sublime ecstasy of joining ourselves, our true selves. Cyn cried out with me, as if he could feel it too. Because he could. Of course, he could. He was giving me tiny pieces of himself.
And there was more. So much more. In shadowform, Raltven can see auras and sense a person's intentions and emotions. It was damn helpful during a job, but at that moment, it was mind-blowing. I felt Cyn's love for me. Truly felt it as he did. Some of that love came through his essence, but I knew even Dragon mating magic couldn't convey the depth of his love for me. It was the touching of our essences that allowed me to feel it all.
Cyn's love for me had no end. It billowed out from him continuously, a glorious cloud that seeped through my soul. Beneath it, buoying it up, was happiness so pure it seemed divine, as if granted by the Gods. As for his intentions, they were a bit darker and yet just as bright as his emotions. Cyn wanted so much for us. I couldn't feel his precise goals, that's not how it worked, but I did sense the tenderness in his intent. His love for me was now the driving force within him. I felt his need to protect me. To keep me safe, warm, and fed. To fulfill all ofmyneeds. To make me happy. That's all he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
It was humbling and so fucking magnificent. I never thought anyone would love me how Cyn did. Never even hoped for it. How could I? I hadn't thought it possible.
“Ru,” Cyn's voice went tender. “My mate. You are so beautiful.”
Normally, the compliment would have pleased me, but in my shadowform, it made little sense. Cyn might see a shadowy outline of me, but that was all. Hardly the time to call me beautiful. I looked over my shoulder at him with a little frown of confusion. At first, the magnificence of his aura struck me. It bore the billowing primrose clouds of love and dandelion-yellow bursts of joy I expected, but also great swaths of crimson power, waves of honorable blue, and glittering diamond righteousness. I'd known Cyn was a good man, but I hadn't guessed he was this good. This brilliant being of virtue, compassion, and generosity was also a warrior of immense physical and mental prowess. A man who didn't just love deeply but was also prepared to defend that love to the death.
The sight of that glorious aura was enough to distract me for a few moments and leave me stunned. But then I saw what had prompted Cyn's declaration. His glittering mating essence had melded with my shadowform and set it to shining like the night sky. A sky flooded with stars.
“Holy fuck,” I said as I rolled over. “Cyn, our essences are merging.Youare making me beautiful.”
“Ru!” Cyn roared and came again, striping my shadow-chest and setting it to shining even brighter.
I cried out with the touch of that magical liquid, then shivered as it sank in and became mine forever. Just as the Dragon King was. Mine. My mate. I didn't need to hear the words to know that he loved me. I saw it in his aura and felt it in his essence. And it would never wane. Never fade or fail. I could be completely honest about my feelings now. Cyn would never reject me. It simply wasn't possible.
With a shuddering moan, Cyn released another stream of essence, angling it onto my cock to send me into an instant orgasm. My hips jerked upward, and I lashed Cyn's belly with my cum, then I flopped down to pant through the conclusion of my bliss. Staring at him through half-lidded eyes, I drew my gaze down Cyn's glorious body and noted that his cock had gone limp at last. As soon as that registered, I let go of my shadowform and lifted my arms, reaching for my mate. Cyn fell forward with a joyous cry, and we rolled together, turning ourselves lengthwise on the bed so we could stretch out. The mating was over, and I was a little disappointed by that, but still happy. So happy and . . .
“Agh!” I screamed as something burned inside my head. I clutched at my skull, the burning intensifying.
“Ru!” Cyn lurched up and pulled me into his arms. “Mate! What's happening?”
But I couldn't answer him. The throbbing pain burst like an explosion and with the detonation came a flood of images. I was back in Cyn's dungeon. Lying on a cot in that cell. A light woke me. When I sat up, I didn't groan and feel for my broken nose. This was a different memory. An earlier one. In it, I couldn't move. All I could do was open my eyes and shift my stare toward the cell door. The light that woke me was shining through the bars. Greenish light. I could just make out someone standing beyond the glow, but I couldn't see their face. They were just a shadow. I did, however, hear him speak.
At least, I think it was a man, and I think he was speaking. The voice became a vibration as it passed through the light, and the light took it straight into my mind. I felt it latch its claws in me, bleeding out my resistance until I let it whisper its terrible commands.
Kill him,it said.Kill him. Kill King Cynric. Kill him.It went on and on and on, slipping into my subconscious until it melded with my thoughts, masquerading as my own. After the light retreated, I passed out again, to later revive with no memory of what had transpired.
“Holy shit!” I shouted as the pain vanished.
“Ru? Ru, are you all right?” Cyn was still holding me, his cheeks wet with tears.
“I'm fine,” I said as I turned in his arms to wipe his cheeks. “I know why I woke up in the kitchen earlier. I wasn't sleepwalking.”
“Then what were you doing?”
“I was enchanted.”
