“Yours,” she choked out, meeting my eyes, her gaze half-lidded, her arms beginning to shake as she fought to hold herself up.
“Tell me,” I ordered her, my voice changed. That deep, primal instinct was rising. She wore my markings around her wrists but I wanted to mark every inch of her flesh. Because she wasmine. She was always meant to be.
She knew what I wanted, my perfect, perfect female.
“Lo rune tei’ri, rei Vorakkar,” she vowed.I am yours.
Rei Vorakkar.
Myhorde king, she’d said.
Those words triggered my release, sudden and shocking, catching me by surprise. My shuddering bellow lifted to the domed ceiling as I thrust into her, my rhythm going choppy and short. When I felt her clench around me, when I heard her moans and saw her hands digging into the rug, I felt her orgasm only lengthen my own.
“Lysi,” I groaned. “So good. You feel so good, my Mina.”
I’d spoken in Dakkari, I realized belatedly.
Her arms finally gave out from underneath her when her pleasure reached its end. I caught her quickly before she fell, bringing her up, so her back was to my chest. Inside her, my cock continued to pulse.
Tilting her head, I leaned down and kissed her, lazy yet needful. She gasped into me as she caught her breath.
“Need you again,rei kassi,” I murmured against her lips. “And I intend to have you.”
Always, I added silently.
Chapter Forty-Six
The fire popped gently and the light flickered, casting deep shadows around thevoliki. Wrune usually added another chunk of fire fuel when it got this low but my husband was relaxed beneath me and I didn’t think I could move off him. My bones felt like jelly and his heartbeat under my cheek brought a comforting sense of safety, of peace.
I want to lay here forever, I thought, feeling that troubling pang of guilt that arrived with it.
His dulled claws ran over my shoulder and down my arm. I didn’t know what time of the night it was. Whether it wasn’t yet midnight or if it was the early hours of morning. All I knew was that we’d been ravenous for one another and after the third or fourth or fifth coupling, we’d finally fallen into a sated heap.
We were still on the floor. We’d never made it to the bed but since we were close to the basin, I was warm. The chill of night would never dare to reach me when I was tucked so closely to my husband, in the safety of his arms.
I want to lay here forever, I thought again. I felt a warmth building inside me at the thought. I held onto it, letting it grow. I fed it, nourished it, and in my hazy dream-like state, I asked it to protect us because I knew that it would. I didn’t want anything to touch us again. I wanted to keep him safe. Always.
“Mina,” came his gruff voice, an urgent, quiet tinge in his tone.
I blinked and then realized what I’d done. Wrune’s sword had been to his right, alongside our clothes. I heard the ring of the sword as it made contact with something unseen. The clothing was sprawled clear across the room and his sword hit the side of the bathing tub with a dull chime. It held there, floating, rippling against something invisible.
I knew what I’d done, though I knew it had caused no harm. Luckily, I hadn’t cast the barrier far. Only a little more and I would’ve toppled over the fire basin and sent ash and sparks flying.
“Sorry,” I whispered, staring at his sword, feeling the sudden tension within Wrune. I closed my eyes, breathing, focusing on that ball of solid warmth inside me, and then I twisted it, severing it in two, and then I dragged in a deep lungful of air.
The humming—something I hadn’t noticed before now—ceased. The sword clattered to the wet rugs. Wrune relaxed, ever so slightly.
I sat up, feeling Wrune’s large, hot palm slide from my arm to curve around the expanse of my back. His touch kept me grounded and I focused on it as my mind reeled. I…I was beginning to realize that I’d always had this thing inside me. It was familiar. I just hadn’t realized what it could do. Even when I was a child.
“You are not alone in this,rei Morakkari,” Wrune’s voice sounded from behind me as I stared at his sword next to the tub. He was still lying on the floor, staring up at me as he stroked my back, as if he sensed that I needed his comfort. “Those with Kakkari’s gifts have been recorded throughout our history. In the past century, however, there have not been many.”
My brow furrowed. “Why do you think that is?”
“Kakkari’s power is seated inbalance,” he told me. “In all things. In the earth, in the forests, in the seas, in her creatures, and in herpeople. One thing is a certainty on Dakkar at present.”
Balance?
“That there is animbalance,” I finished for him, looking over my shoulder at him, seeing his red eyes gleam with satisfaction at my answer. “The fog.”
