A mating mark meant nothing.
As the sun withered, encroaching on the horizon and slanting bitter orange and ominous red through the trees, I moved across the castle's stone exterior. Cool evening air whipped around me, pushing me this way and that, and for amoment, I considered stopping. I could climb back into my room and wait until morning.
But no. I had to do this now. He’d said to tell him when I was ready, and I was. I wanted to take this step with him. Icravedhim.
So I pushed on, slowly making my way across the precarious surface. Each block scraped my fingers, and my muscles already spasmed. Back at the fortress, this would've been nothing more than a thing done on a dare. My friends would stand on the ground below, cheering me on.
Despite knowing I was no higher in the air than when I rode on the back of a dragon, my heart battered against the cage of my ribs. I kept swallowing my rising fear and telling myself to take one shift to the right more, latch onto one more stone. Soon, I'd be in my husband's arms. He'd carry me to bed and . . . I couldn't wait to get started.
Gritting the blade in my teeth, I kept my focus on the next stone.
A gust of wind smacked my back, and my left hand slid. Falling. I was falling . . .
I caught myself by wedging my fingers between two stones and hung by one hand, my ragged breathing slamming into the rough stone in front of my face.
My fingers protested, but I made them drag me upward and to the right, slowly making my way to the open window.
A crow cawed overhead, diving toward me, making me flinch. By the fates, would the world just let me do this!
Wings flapping violently, it smacked against my head.Snarling, I wrenched my head backward, smacking the bird, sending it careening. Stay away, would you?
Finally, I reached the open window. My sigh of relief huffed from my lungs as I scrambled up to perch, my belly pressed against the sill.
Merrick lay on his bed, his deep brown hair glinting in the setting sunlight. I’d climb inside, stride across the floor, and stop beside him. I’d wake him, tell him firmly that I was done waiting, that it was time we were finally together.
He'd open his arms, and I'd fall into them.
My body throbbed in anticipation. There was no denying I wanted this man more than the air surging through my lungs.
Except Merrick wasn't asleep. His eyes were closed, but he smiled. And he whispered.
To whom?
A quick scan of the room showed me he was the only one there.
Such a cutie. Was he talking to himself? No need for that. We’d soon lie together, and he could share all his thoughts with me.
“You're ready?” he asked, and for an instant, I thought he was speaking to me. But he couldn't be, or he'd turn, smile, and beckon me closer. Maybe snarl at me for endangering myself to reach him, though I was sure he'd later laugh, shake his head, and kiss me until we were lost in moaning.
He flung back the blankets and stepped from the bed, striding over to stand in front of the mirror.
My husband slept naked, and seeingeverythingonly heightened my anticipation. His long, thick cock lay flaccid—for now—and I couldn't wait to hold it. Grip it tight and stroke it until it smacked against his rippling abs.
He looked into the mirror, and I admired his tussled hair and the way his green eyes shimmered in the setting sunlight.
“It's yours,” he said to himself in the mirror. “Don’t do anything foolish.”
As the sun winked from view, usurped by the night, Merrick’s body began to shimmer. Swallowing and with my eyes as wide as they could be, I watched as he stretched, each beam of lingering sunlight winking across the perfectly sculpted muscles of his shoulders and back. His unmarred skin. His amazing ass.
That also shimmered.
Was this some sort of magic or . . .? I could not look away or finish climbing inside to demand he tell me what in all the fates was happening.
The sun slithered into the night and candles lit themselves inside the room, outlining my husband. In the mirror, Merrick's face . . . shifted.
No, it became . . .
Merrick turned around, but he was no longer my Merrick.
