His claws retracted, and he ran his thumb over her full bottom lip. She opened her mouth a little on impulse, and he slid his thumb in between her lips. He tasted of the warm salty water she had washed him with, and a spicysomethingthat she couldn't identify.
"Watch this pretty mouth of yours, Delphinium, or I will find more interesting ways to keep you quiet," he warned. The threat should have scared her, but it only made her want to tease him. She must have had a death wish because she couldn't resist smirking around his thumb and flicking her tongue over it.
Tenebrys's nostrils flared, and he let her go with a soft curse. Delphi was dazed for a long second before a scuffing sound came from outside the kitchen, and Felix appeared. His presence shattered the tense heat in the room like a bubble bursting.
"I hate to interrupt, but Delphi, I have a cut that I can't reach as well," he said innocently.
Tenebrys's face shut down, and he got up so fast that he nearly knocked Delphi over. "Good timing. I'm done here."
Delphi cleared her throat and managed to smile at Felix. "If you boys keep this up, I'm going to need to grow a hell of a lot more yarrow."
13
Tenebrys didn't like leaving Felix alone with Delphi, but he had to get out of there before he did something irrational. She was going to drive him insane with her soft hands, and by the gods, hersmell.He wanted to pin her to him and bury his face in her neck and soft hair.
Tenebrys managed to keep himself together until he got back to the privacy of his own wing of the château. As soon as the door closed, he put his thumb to his mouth and licked the taste of Delphi off it. He groaned.
He had done so well to sit still and not react to her touch as she soothed his wounds and spoke to him so freely. She had been too close. The heat and smell of her had distracted him from any pain from his wounds. That kind of pain he was used to. The pain of his dick thickening every time she drew near him was problematic, however. He hadneverbeen like this before over a female. It was beyond irrational.
Tenebrys huffed in frustration and went to his bathing chamber. He needed to wash his hands, or he would be smelling the scent of Delphi's skin on him all night.
The light in his chambers suddenly flickered to life on its own, startling him. He paused, staring at the delicate glass lanterns. They hadn't worked since the curse either.
"By the goddess, is it really her causing the magic to return?" he muttered.
Tenebrys went into the bath room where the lanterns warmed the space. He looked down at his trousers and the obvious outline of his still hard cock. He untied them, ridding himself of the too-tight pressure, and let his large dick spring free.
"Stop getting me into trouble..." Tenebrys froze. His shaft was different from what it had been that morning. "It can't be."
He stroked his cock, and his eyes weren't seeing things. Toward the base of his shaft was a knot. He carefully felt underneath it. The spur that was between his dick and balls was so sensitive to touch that he hissed.
"This can't be happening to me. Not now." He gripped the edge of the cast-iron bath and tried to breathe. Shifters only ever had their knot appear when they had found their mate. "Nother."
Tenebrys had always been attracted to Delphi despite who her parents were because she was a beautiful woman, and he was still male enough to admit it.
He thought he had reacted to her in the dreams because he hadn't touched anyone for so long. He had marked her as his, and it had remained because she was his mate. The magic had known the truth and made it so. He was such a damn fool.
Tenebrys touched the knot again, closing his fingers around it so he could feel the lump underneath that pressed into his spur.
"Fuckkk," he whispered. It felt so good.
He couldn't remember when he had last given himself any relief at all. Maybe that was why a knot had appeared and why he kept getting hard whenever he got a nose full of Delphi's scent.
Unable to control himself, Tenebrys jerked himself harder, his eyes almost rolling into the back of his head at how amazing it felt.
He thought about holding Delphi in the dream, how she had been so soft in his arms, delicate and curvy with a wicked, smiling mouth. Her blue eyes had shone with want in the kitchen just now. She hadn't been afraid, even with his big paw around her throat.
How could she still want him now that she knew exactly what he looked like?
Would Delphi still moan for him if he played with her sweet cunt? Would she be able to take his knot? His spur?
Tenebrys imagined the wet, tight heat of her locked around him, and he shattered with a broken gasp of her name. Come splattered against the bone plating on his chest and covered the fur over his abs.
After his breath evened out again, Tenebrys turned on the taps to wash himself clean. A few moments later, the water began to get warmer.
"This is impossible. The wards haven't been charged. The house magic isgone," he said to his reflection in the broken mirror.
He glanced down and felt like he was losing his mind. His knot wasn't from lack of relief. It was still there. "It can't beher. Not my enemy's blood."
