I still couldn’t believe that just last night, Jax had laid claim to me, bonding me as his mate, and this morning I’d done the same to him.
We were still so newly mated that I couldn’t believe that it had happened. Everything with Bastian had taken centerstage since our bond had formed, yet Jax—Prince Adarian, the crown prince of Stonewild Kingdom—was my mate. The gods and goddesses had chosen him for me and me for him.
At the threshold to Bastian’s chambers, Jax gave his brother one last look, then extinguished the fairy lights, and closed the door. For a moment, he stayed there, eyeing the lock while standing in the hallway.
He took a deep breath, then muttered a spell, and a coating of magic sealed the lock and frame. Pain again engulfed Jax’s aura and billowed toward me on our bond.
“I’d like to think that my brother would never hurt me, or you, or any of us, but”—his throat rolled in a swallow—“the male in there looks like my brother, but it’s not him. I don’t know where my brother has gone, but that’s not him.”
I laid a hand on his cheek, my heart clenching at the sheer agony strumming from him. “I know, Jax, but tomorrow we’ll venture to the Solis continent, and then we’ll find that female. We’ll find a way to remove that anklet and truly save your brother once and for all. We won’t stop until we do.”
CHAPTER 2
Bells tolling in Leafton’s square roused me from sleep. I stretched, and heat from Jax’s side warmed my skin. Turning, I wrapped my arm around his waist, and his stomach tightened, a low groan rumbling in his chest. Outside, the sun kissed the horizon, and a pulse of magic bathed the realm. A sleepy smile lifted my lips. I loved sunrises. I loved everything about this time of day when magic from the universe called to my own.
“Good morning,” I whispered. I kissed the back of Jax’s neck and ran my hand up his middle, my fingers dancing across his skin.
His aura began to pulse. “Good morning, mate,” he replied in a husky growl.
He abruptly spun and pinned me beneath him, getting a giggle out of me. “It’s about time we had a moment to ourselves. Yesterday’s wakeup didn’t exactly go as planned.”
His eyes blazed like liquid cerulean. Dark hair draped across his forehead, and the muscles clearly defined in his shoulders bulged against his skin, begging me to touch them.
I arched into him, a low throb beginning in my lower stomach. Jax dipped his head, kissing along my neck, and then trailed soft kisses across my collarbone.
Power thrummed in his aura, calling to my magic. The mating mark on the back of my neck tingled, and the need to be with this male, to claim him, to own him...it filled me up as though a force greater than myself demanded that I be with him.
“I love you,” I whispered, and an answering pulse of love strummed along his bond.
He cupped my cheek, his eyes heated with want. “Love doesn’t accurately describe what I feel for you, Elowen. You are my realm, my stars, my moon, my life. You are everything to me.Everything.”
I pulled him in, our mouths clashing together. A low growl rumbled in his chest, and his fingers grazed against the side of my breast in a soft caress.
“Has it only been a day since I felt you inside me?” I rasped when his mouth finally left mine. “It feels like I haven’t felt you in weeks.”
A discontented sound came from him. “I shall indeed fix that.”
I closed my eyes, relishing the power that radiated from him. His head dipped again, and my fingers tangled in his hair. He moved lower, deliberately, and I knew immediately where he was headed.
I parted my thighs, my need making me quiver like a trembling leaf.
He inhaled, and a sharp spike entered his aura. “I could smell your arousal all day, and it wouldn’t be long enough.” Humming in satisfaction, he settled himself between my legs, and his tongue flicked out.
I bowed off the bed, a cry parting my lips.
Another groan came from him, and he began to lick me in earnest, but then a shout came from down the hall.
Jax’s head lifted just as a crash against a wall reverberated through the suite.
Another garbled yell that sounded more animal than fae pierced my ears.
“What in the realm is that?” I muttered.
Both of us bolted upright, and I pulled the covers up and around me just as Phillen burst through our bed chambers’ door.
Ragged breaths lifted the guard’s chest. “Jax! Bastian broke out of his room. He charged right through the wall. It’s not good.”
The crown prince of Stonewild shot out of bed as though he’d channeled God Zorifel’s power. Naked, he flew across the room, only snagging a pair of pants on his way out.
