Page 215

“Do it!” The low light glinted on her fangs as she screamed into his face. “Make sure I don’t see another day and just fucking kill me already!”

“I can’t!” Brand roared right back.

“I know that!” Luna grabbed hold of his horns and gave him a good shake. “You’re the one who’s confused, you absolute eejit.”

Lungs sawing in tandem, they stared at one another for one beat, two…

“I know what you’re trying to do,” he growled.

“Do you?” She turned his head this way and that, inspecting him. “Is it working, or are you going to insist on being a dense⁠—”

Brand wrenched her flush against him, silencing that infuriating fucking mouth with his own.

He just wanted her to stop with the madness. Just wanted…wanted…

Her tongue darted out, testing and tasting, and that was it.

“Damn you, Lunara.”

Brand devoured Luna, swallowing her whimpers as she clawed her way closer.

They slammed into the wall and he hiked her up, wrapping those luscious thighs around his waist as he pressed her against it. “You’re the most ridiculous person I’ve ever met.”

She latched on to his lower lip, pulling. “Likewise.”

His fingers sank into her arse, spreading her wider. Her back arched when he ground himself against the center of her welcome heat. Only when he tried to drag his tongue across her skin did he finally notice she was back in one of Mag’s fucking robes. It did fuck all to stop him wanting her, but pissed him off nonetheless.

He ripped the ties and collar apart with his teeth and one hand, destroying the drab garment. Exposing the glory of her ample breasts. Dragging his cheek and beard across one dusky peak, he sighed his relief. Soft. She was so bloody soft.

The wheaten fabric was a horrid color on her, anyway, and Brand wanted to be absolutely sure she never put it on again. Never hid from him again. She was frozen, not meeting his gaze, and he knew exactly why—which wouldn’t fucking do.

“Look at me.” Brand groaned when she immediately obeyed. “I’m burning every last one of these pieces of shite,” he vowed, hoping to put her at ease. “You belong in deep shades that speak of living things. And this”—he licked up her sternum without breaking eye contact, over gnarled scar and Tear Stone, and nipped at her jaw—“deserves to be on full display.”

Before she spit out some sassy or self-deprecating retort, Brand kissed her again. He basked in the little taste of skin on skin as he thrust against her. The back of her head hit the wall, fangs flashing as she cried out.

Sisters, he’d taken her like this so many times. Hot and quick and heavy, standing as he fucked her into the stone of the castle. Stone he’d commanded to cradle her. Here, Brand had no such power over the wooden planks or plaster, and there was too much he needed to say, too much he wanted to do, for it to be over with that soon.

“Take us to bed, Blessed Keeper. I wish to make love to my mate while we lay on down feathers.”

It wasn’t a surprise when she only half listened. Sure, they ended up in the bed, but he was flat on his back with her straddling him. Brand wasn’t as irked by it when their clothes disappeared with a wave of her hand, and he was presented with the most spectacular view in all of Bordoroth—Lunara the Moonweaver, Blessed Keeper of Illamiata, stripped bare and burying both hands in her wild mane while she ground herself against him.

He needed more.

His fingers slid up her thighs, thumbs spreading them apart to reveal that pretty, pink pearl at her apex. He wanted to watch it throb as he bumped against it, building her higher and higher. Wanted to hit her exactly right. To make the glistening drop on his head cling to her instead, so he could lick it right back off again in a moment.

Brand gripped himself, angling his cock higher to see it done.

Shite. Her molten cunt dragged along his knuckles and it took everything not to bury himself in that begging heat. Not to go straight to being consumed by her.

The reality was that he was all over the place. Lost. Pissed. Soul sick.

He was also so fucking obsessed with her that he couldn’t think straight, and it hit Brand—that was exactly what he was hoping for. To bury the shite with the one thing that wasn’t trying to kill him.

Brand was using Luna to cover it all up, and that…that wasn’t bloody right. Not without her knowing it. And there was something he needed to do first. A promise he meant to keep.

He sat up and wrapped his arms around her, fisting a handful of those curls for himself and bringing their bodies flush together.

“I want to hear those words again, so I can follow them with my lips and hands,” he whispered, brow to brow, his nose nuzzling hers. “Say it. I’m begging you.”