Catching her lust-filled stare on me was my undoing. With one last, hard stroke, the hot, painful throbbing in my groin released with pleasure. I growled like a feral beast, blinded by ecstasy. Through pain and pleasure, diamonds dropped to the floor, then bounced and rolled along the glass.
Maren watched them with amusement. She propped her hands onto the mattress and leaned toward me. With her face barely a hand breadth away from mine, she gave me a blinding smile and whispered in a teasing, carefree voice, “You have the best ‘lewd filth’ in that head of yours, Your Majesty.”
It was only the best, because she created this fantasy with me.
“I do,” I agreed. “Because you’re the star of them all now.”
Chapter 20
Maren
We reached the shores of Sarnala in the evening. Between the sex and his singing, Kye had succeeded in calming my nerves long enough for us to catch a nap that afternoon. I felt rested and far more at peace now. Thanks to Daria’s healing efforts, my bruises had paled to hardly visible even in the long, sleeveless gown that the maids had dressed me in.
I stood on the main deck next to Kye, curious about this new-to-me land as the ship approached its shores. That this was indeed a different world became immediately apparent. The air felt different—slightly colder and less humid already even though we were still on the ocean. The narrow sandy beach on the shore was surrounded by rolling hills with a dense forest that seemed dark even with the sun still above the horizon.
Half of the ship’s siren crew swam alongside the vessel, directing the water and keeping the ship afloat. I wasn’t sure if it would float on its own since it had transformed to glass, but it certainly wouldn’t sail anywhere with no masts or sails. Yet the sirens made it move swiftly. It looked like we’d be able to disembark soon.
“What do werewolves look like?” I asked Kye, with some apprehension.
He chuckled softly. “Just like you and me, darling.”
“Kye, don’t you see? You and I look nothing alike.”
He was tall, gorgeous, perfect, full of splendor, shimmer, and magic, no matter what he did or didn’t do. And me...well, I was me—a human who had to regularly wash sweat from my body, brush my teeth, comb my hair, and do many other maintenance tasks just to remain presentable and accepted by the public. Failing to do those tasks would turn me into a stinky, repulsive creature faster than a full moon transformed werewolves into beasts.
He tilted his head, dragging a slow gaze down my body. “Well, you and I each have two arms, two legs, two eyes, and one head, among many other similarities. As do werewolves. They all have gray eyes for most of the month, though.”
“Does their eye color change for the rest of the month?”
He nodded. “On full moon nights, their eyes turn red. They also grow fur, tails, claws, and long poisonous fangs, and then, my curious butterfly, they no longer look like you and me.”
Well, from that perspective, he had a point.
He turned back to watching the approaching shore, and my gaze drifted to his hands, the hands that had never touched me, but somehow I knew what their touch would feel like. I knew that his strong, long fingers would glide over my body tenderly, flutter over my skin like butterflies, and stroke all my pleasure places until I moaned with need and desire. I also knew that they could be firm and unyielding, rubbing, pinching, and kneading my body until I came harder than ever.
A wave of warmth rolled through my body, heating my face and dampening my underwear. Kye had already proven that he could easily make me come without touching me. And now, I was intensely aroused just from looking at his hands.
How did he do it, dammit?
Magic, of course. There simply was no other explanation.
The drumming of his fingers on the glass railing betrayed his impatience. I could only imagine what getting the silk would mean to Kye. He hadn’t touched a living being in more than a century. He hadn’t touched me... I inhaled as anticipation skittered along my skin with a flock of tiny shivers. It wasn’t just the sexual touches that I was looking forward to. A simple hug from him would be a gift already.
The ship lifted with a swell, then lowered again. This time, it remained stationary as the crew put it into shallow water. I imagined they could put it all the way into the forest if they wished. With their water magic, there were no limits for the sirens as long as they stayed in physical contact with the ocean.
Directed by Captain Sagara and his crew, a swell of water gently lifted Kye and me off the deck, then just as carefully deposited us onto the beach.
A cloaked figure emerged from the fog that drifted down the forested hills. Her hood was down. The long locks of her silver-white hair were arranged in elaborate braids and pinned up with long, spiraled seashells. The old woman looked frail but moved smoothly, as if floating along with the fog. The illusion was made even stronger by the fine veil of mist streaming down her pale-gray cloak.
The only other aged person I’d met in Olathana was Jearda. The sorceresses, or “the hags” as they were called in Nerifir, wielded a strong magic in this world, but it demanded that they give up their youthful looks in exchange. It didn’t mean these women were actually as ancient as they looked though.
Apprehension seized me as the hag approached. My hand drifted to my neck where the phantom memory of Jearda’s pearls lingered. Cautiously, I stayed back as the woman I assumed was Odine faced Kye.
“Greetings, my boy.” She smiled.
“Evening, Grandmother,” Kye bowed his head to Odine with more deference than I’d ever seen him greet anyone with before.
She narrowed her dark eyes at me with a dry chuckle. “You brought thebrack’scollateral with you, I see?”
