Page 8 of Milk and Honey

“Damn. My foxfire must have been pulling at this while I was healing, I’m afraid I didn’t realize.” The kitsune muttered to himself, squinting at something along the edge of the door as his fingertips traced a rune shape. Victor stuck his head inside the great metal box for a long moment, rocking back on his heels and crossing his arms.

“If I could get to the Bright Court and warn my sister, send riders out to find my niece, we could help Elim retake his throne before those vile pieces of offal even realize we’d mounted a defense. I suspect they had a hand in trapping me here during my last battle, although I remember very little of what happened after I fell. I awoke here, seemingly human, my magic removed or suppressed to the end I couldn’t even sense your kind, honorable conveyor. But what can we do to repair this?” He nodded at the door.

Matcha coughed, blushing deeply. “I mean no offense, my graces, but you are…aware of the sorts of magic used by my kind, yes? I used what little I currently had of my own to roast coffee intended for Bailey—not a fae prince, obviously—and it seems your unfinished bond with Melisandre has also pulled what I managed to rekindle, and likely will continue to do so until you’re both properly joined.”

I winced inwardly; my exhaustion at producing a new carriage meant the act had probably pulled all functional magic from the kitsune’s fledgling portal magic, albeit accidentally. Melisandre made a noise of concern, and we all glanced at her. “So, what, the kingdom is doomed if I don’t marry Elim? I mean, can we get like, Vegas-married? Get it annulled after? Maybe we can do this on paper if it’s that important.”

Matcha rubbed the back of his neck and traded grimaces with Victor and I. “Not…exactly, Mel. Marriage is part of it, but the only thing that’s going to recharge the seal right now is, erm, what typically occurs on the honeymoon.” He coughed, blushing uncomfortably. For a kitsune, Matcha was surprisingly reserved, and I wondered if he’d chosen this remote post to sidestep the usual vulpine debauchery his kind was rumored to enjoy.

The other woman, Bailey, rolled her eyes and shouldered past the stammering Matcha, murmuring to my betrothed. “You two gotta fuck in the walk-in, Mel. Sorry, Mat’s a little old-fashioned and I figure we’ve got enough crossed wires going on around here.”

“...O-oh. Well.” Melisandre blinked and grinned shyly up at me, sending my heart catapulting over itself, and the rest of my body following suit. “I mean, if it’s to save a kingdom and a kid, I kind of have to, right?”

I blanched. “Never, my intended. You do not have to do anything, let alone that.” I laced my hands together in front of me to keep from touching her, afraid my actions would contradict my words. “There is no denying this is a dire time, and it would certainly help us all, but I will never take what isn’t given freely. No Fae would.” Victor, seven soils bless him, nodded in enthusiastic agreement beside me.

“No, no I don’t mean- it’s-” She coughed, tossing Bailey a pleading look that caused the other woman to stifle a laugh. She took a moment to compose herself and patted my shoulder companionably.

“Mel’s very much down to save the day, don’t worry about that. C’mon Mat, why don’t we give Victor a tour of your conspicuously-out-of-earshot apartment?” She tossed Melisandre a wink as she herded a flustered Matcha and my fellow Fae out of the store through a back door.

The kitsune had chosen an excellent mate.

MEL

Without the noise and familiar surroundings of the club, there was no avoiding the fact that I had basically used the man beside me like a sex toy to get off not an hour ago. So why the hell was I so nervous about the idea of banging him in a walk-in now? It wasn’t like it would even be my first time; it was more or less a rite of passage when you were young and working a food service job.

But Elim was no gangly pizza-delivering High School crush. He was a hot-as-fuck brand new adult crush, with fangs, that had already given me an orgasm and yeah, I wanted to climb him like a tree to get a few more.

For the good of the kingdom, of course.

“Sooo…you’re not like a vampire, are you?” I blurted the question out, not quite ready to haul open the huge metal door and violate a variety of food and beverage storage standards.

Oops. Beast mode activated. Elim stalked towards me at the question, purpose glinting in his eyes. His mouth curved into a sharp, fang-glinting smile that made my stomach quiver as he backed me against the front edge of the walk-in. “And if I were, my Queen?”

“Nothing, nothing, I was just, you know, curious. I’m a little afraid of them.” I was not, in fact, afraid of them but my mouth seemed determined to make small talk, even if the rest of me wanted to get down to business. My breath caught as he splayed a palm beside my head, his body crowding mine against the cool metal as he leaned down, inhaling just beside the side of my neck and sending chills down my arms.

“Your body sings a different song, my Queen. Do you see me as a monster, then?” His free hand settled on my waist as he traced the side of my jaw with his own, his quiet voice rumbling in my ear. “And are you afraid I’ll devour you? You begged so sweetly for me earlier, why don’t you do it again?”

I exhaled a shuddering breath, entirely unprepared for Elim to have shifted gears so suddenly. The courtly, oddly-spoken foreign man that had given me a friggin Lexus with a wave of his hand was sending my latent vamp fetish into overdrive. “Yes, please, Elim. Please. I want you to-” I cut off with a whimper as he teased my neck with the small, sharp point of a fang.

A chill of freezer air brushed my spine as he reached beside us, pulling the door open with surprising strength and walking me backwards into a waist-high tower of boxes with a predatory smile.“I cannot deny you, my beautiful bride. Now open yourself to me, and give me my wedding feast.”

His hands wrapped my waist, lifting me like I was made of air, perching me roughly on top of the boxes with what sounded like a growl. Like an animal growl. The hungry noise rumbled through the small space around us as the walk-in freezer door closed in our wake, plunging us into complete darkness and activating something like fight-or-flight in my primal brain. Cold slithered along the soles of my feet as I lost my shoes in two quick pulls of an unseen hand, something glowing up through Elim’s collar just enough to highlight his more vicious features: his fangs, eyes that now looked like a cat’s pupils, the strange points of his ears.

Before I could gawk any further at the shadowed man intent on ruining me, fingers tipped in claws curled into the waistband of my leggings, pulling them down in impatient jerks to reveal my lower half, sans underwear in my haste to get dressed earlier. The smooth upper curve of Elim’s claws, thick and menacing, pressed and slid against my legs, reminding me that whatever was undressing me right now, it was much higher on the food chain than yours truly.

The sound of cloth tearing made my stomach flip, though I couldn’t see if my leggings had met their end or if Elim’s strange pajamas had been sacrificed. As I squinted uselessly at the darkness, I only had the warning of his hair against my inner thighs before his mouth unapologetically opened against my cunt. Another growl sounded and he began rooting so insistently at my core, I nearly fell backwards. Frantically clutching the box edges and shifting my hips, his tongue lapped at me eagerly, a sigh of satisfaction heaving through his shoulders as I clutched at his head for stability.

“Fuck! Elim! Warn-mmm-warn a girl first, oh okay-” I groaned, a clunk and clatter of something behind me falling from a shelf, the pitch-black chaos getting lost in a wave of sensation as Elim made some kind of purring noise that vibrated against my clit and made my eyes roll back.

My thighs clamped down around him as I fumbled for a handhold, grabbing onto an icy-cold metal shelf pole for leverage as I helplessly bucked my hips against his tongue, which was far more flexible and agile than anything I’d felt before. Self-consciousness flashed through me as I realized I hadn’t gotten a chance to shower after my unexpected orgasm in his lap earlier, but the way he was working me, I was clearly the only one in this walk-in who gave a damn.

I gasped as one of his talons teased my entrance, cold and slick, before gliding inside with almost embarrassing ease. The end was blunt enough that it didn’t hurt, but still sharp enough to make my toes curl with alarm, staying stock-still as Elim fingered me just in case, shocked that it was such a turn on. The frigid cold my heated skin was keeping at bay scratched down my throat at the surprised inhale, and the faint light from under his shirt collar showed him watching me like a lion moving in for the kill.

I suddenly understood why rabbits and possums just kind of gave up when danger appeared as a defense mechanism: I knew Elim could rend me limb from limb and rather than frighten me, that thought settled me. He was in control in the darkness here, he had me, his hands steady on my body, his mouth confident in claiming me.

His voice was lower, rougher, words formed carefully around fangs that felt longer against my inner thigh as he murmured, two fingers fitting in and sliding out with a firm, unforgiving pace. “I’m going to drink from you, betrothed, and then I’m going to take you as a King takes his Queen. Now, give me my due.”

His talons rounded and retracted inside me as the pads of his fingers curled, working my body like I was nothing more than a puppet. It took long seconds for me to realize the howling, screaming, guttural noises breaking through the dark were coming from me, the liquid dripping down Elim’s fingers was mine, the silver flashes in my blackened vision courtesy of an orgasm that made me see god, not more Lexus magic.

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