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I could feel a line of bumps beneath my fingers. Ridges spiraled down his cock, evidently as sensitive as the tip. Every time my fingers moved on him, he quivered and strained to hold himself in check.

So naturally I did it again. Dragging my palm down his full length in a firm squeeze.

Making him babble. “Please, my queen. I don’t know if the frill will deploy. Just from touch. But I want. To be inside you. Please. Goddess.”

Laughing softly, I lay back against Rik once more, pulling Nox back up over me. “Please do, my Blood.”

He thrust inside me, quick and hard, deep enough to drive my breath out. “Sorry. My queen.” He dropped his head against mine, his breath hot and fast. “Trying.”

I lightly tugged my fingers through his hair. “No apology is needed. Not when you’re giving me exactly what I want.” I licked his throat, delicately teasing us both by dragging the tips of my fangs up to his ear. “Fuck me, Nox. As hard and fast as you can.”

He made a deep, ragged growl and reared back so he could shove deep again. Harder. Making me clutch at his back. Digging in my nails. But after a few rapid-fire thrusts slammed deep, he steadied his pace, gliding back and forth inside me. I started to tell him again it was alright, I enjoyed his rougher thrusts, but the sensation inside me increased.

The ridges rippled and flowed against my own sensitive flesh. Swirling up and down his length as he moved. His head fell back, his breathing heavy and ragged. His pace slowed even more, allowing the spirals to flare wider. Almost like fingers moving inside me, or knuckles, bumps, pressing outward in smooth glides. Expanding in an ever-widening arc like a ripple across a still lake’s surface.

The slower his hips moved—the faster the ridges glided around inside me. My muscles started to coil and tighten. Pleasure rising, familiar yet different. He didn’t stimulate the same areas. My clit throbbed. My fangs.

His throat bared, arched back, begging for my bite. :Please.: Even his mental voice cracked with strain. :Blast me at the same time.:

I sank my fangs into his throat. His spine bowed. The spinning ridges flared out impossibly wide, filling and stretching me so much I screamed against his throat. Digging in my nails. Tightening my thighs. Keeping him pulled in as close as I could. Goddess, it really did feel like he was embedded into me, carving spirals into my channel to match his. Though it didn’t hurt. At all. Just so much sensation. The fullness.

I’d never been so aware of my internal anatomy before. The sensation of spasms up and down the rigid edges. The aching band of tissue wrapped around my vagina, connected to the tip of my clit. Squeezing. Pulsing. Full of blood. Every clench made my thighs quiver with sensation.

Liquid heat flowed between us. His hot semen melted into me. His blood on my tongue, slowly seeping into my mouth thanks to my fangs still buried in him. Every time either of us breathed or moved a muscle, sensation rippled through me. Wave after wave, still so full I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. Let alone think.

Draped over me, his face nestled against my throat, he barely stirred. If I drained him, he’d lose the lock, and I wanted him to enjoy every moment of being inside me. Even if he wasn’t quite aware yet.

:I’m aware, my queen.: He swirled his hips ever so slightly, making us both groan. :Just so you know, the frill isn’t affected by blood loss.:

My lips curved against his throat and I retracted my fangs. Filling my mouth with his blood, drinking him down so his bond deepened, spreading through me like a gentle spring rain after a long drought. Slipping through every crevice.

I licked my bite and lifted my head, not willing to risk draining him completely. Especially when I had plenty of other eager Blood. Though he was still locked inside me…

Khalid lifted his head, his eyes heavy and sultry. “I’d love to feed you again, my queen.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to damage your health.”

“I’d like nothing more than to feel your fangs again.”

I shifted Nox slightly to the side so Khalid could slide closer, not minding the other Blood still on top of me, or my alpha’s thigh. I bit him slower, gentler, drawing out the piercing of his flesh as long as possible. Giving him what he most wanted. He spasmed against me, his breath shuddering out in a sigh of bliss.

Every swallow stirred Nox ever so slightly, swirling the knobby edges of his frill. His weight on top of me. Rik beneath me. My right arm curled around Khalid. My left hand stroked the slab of muscle bared by the makeshift kilt. I sank my nails into Rik, letting the alpha kick of his blood pump into me again. The only thing that could be better…

“I’m here, my queen,” Nevarre said on our other side.

Khalid gave a drowsy murmur as I lifted my head from his throat, so I could turn a little more toward Nevarre. Reaching over Nox, shifting us both slightly so I could get my right arm onto Nevarre’s hip. He leaned closer, his dark hair slipping over his shoulder to stroke over my arm and neck. The plaid cloth folded softly against his thigh, the wool slightly rough against my fingers as I worked it up. Finding bare, hot flesh beneath. I pressed my mouth to his, teasing his lips with my tongue as I trailed the tips of my nails on his skin. Finding his buttock. To sink my nails deep.

With deep, dreamy kisses, Nevarre lured me into sleep. My nails still in his ass.

12

XIN

What does an assassin do when the highest possible targets have all been eliminated? Would my queen even still have a use for me now?

If she were at home in Arkansas, I would be able to roam over the hilly forests until the restlessness eased. I would talk to the wolves who came bearing news from the north. Perhaps one of the packs would have information about the wolf king, Eivind. I wondered if he was still alive, or if the sunfires had consumed him. How would we even know? Wolves didn’t share a collective consciousness, but perhaps Vivian would know if the sunfires fully engulfed him.

I didn’t mind city streets. I could pass even the busiest intersections in broad daylight without anyone seeing me. But concrete couldn’t compare to the wilds of nature. More scents, certainly, but all human. Nothing that could even hope to threaten an Aima queen.