I had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t sound good. Still… “That doesn’t explain you misleading me. Pretending to be your brother’s bear?—”
“The only thing I was pretending to be was not obsessed,” Declan insisted. “Do you truly think there’s any other explanation for my behavior? The few moments of peace I was granted were when you left your room to go whittle in my hedge woods. What else could explain me not being able to keep myself from leaving my room to stalk after you? Pretending I just happened to be standing by that rock every single time you came by?”
My knees went weak, threatening to give out—not under his weight, but under his words.
“I could only interact with you as a bear because I knew… Iknewif I dared to do it in human form, all would be lost for certain. Oh, Sadie…”
He let out a bitter laugh and rubbed his entire face into my neck as he spoke. “You believe the joke to be on you, but it’s on no one but me. Because you charmed me from every angle. I both couldn’t get enough of your voice as you made your confessions to me, and wanted to murder my own brother, just because you thought you were making them to him. Yes, joke’s on me. And then, you gave me this and pushed me over the edge!”
The High King pushed something underneath the hand I had splayed against the glass. Something small and hard.
The carving. The bear I’d made. When I thought it was just his brother.
“That’s just a piece of evidence for the case I’m making. The case where you cast your spell with the offer of a muffin, making me love you from the start. You giving me this carving was the final straw.”
I closed my fingers around the bear I’d whittled. This? This was what had broken him?
“I’ll be needing that right back,” he said, taking the carving from my hand. “Because I am a male too far gone. This gift ismine, just like you. And I’m never letting it go. Just like I’m never letting you go now that I’ve accepted the burning down of my life for you, Sadie Ellis, my reluctant queen.”
He let out another bitter laugh that held not even a flicker of amusement. “I’d lost to you from the beginning, hadn’t I? There was no version of our story that wasn’t going to end with me finally giving in to the spell you’ve cast. Now, let me in, littlewitch. Give me the first claim I more than deserve after trying and failing to stay out of your cauldron.”
I didn’t know what surprised me more.
His confession…
Being calledlittleanything…
Or the sound I made right before I turned my head and found his mouth with mine.
His mouth caught my kiss with a sharp spark that sent us both spiraling into a frenzy.
Clothes.
There were too many clothes.
The sound of ripping fabric filled the air. My beautiful fairy-tale dress. His stately king robes. Every barrier between the front of his body and the back of mine got torn away.
Until suddenly—there was something thick at the back of my vagina. Pressing my hot, panting core into the cool glass. And then…
With one great shove of his hips, he filled me up so thoroughly that my feet kicked air. The force of his first claimlifted me off the floor. Then I was back on solid ground again with his hands on my hips as he rocked into me from behind.
Tadhg and the Shadow King had been right to worry. Declan was large. The width of Tadhg’s curled hand with the Shadow King’s length.
He was so deep inside me. And still it wasn’t enough for him.
He lifted one of my legs, crooking my knee over his forearm, forcing me to take him even deeper. “Give me this cunt, little witch. First Claim. First Baby. It is mine. It is mine!”
Oh goodness. Oh goodness.I thought this would be like training.
But it wasnothinglike training.
He was so rough. So dominating. So all-consuming. And I came so fast.
“Not yet,” he said in that steely king voice that brooked no argument.
“I’m sorry,” I gasped. “I can’t stop it. I can’t?—”
The orgasm stole the rest of my words, choking me as I helplessly defied him, coming with a broken, ragged cry.
