Page 24 of To Run with the Wild Hunt

I had no idea if I used the command of the Wild Hunt or not, too lost in sensation to think about magic—but Key panted out "yes, Mistress" against my neck, and slammed his cock home.

His teeth sank into my shoulder with the heat of his come flooding me. The throb of my soulmate's orgasm pressed against my core, his knot swelling and tying us together. Unbearable tension filled me as Key's knot stretched me open, my whole body shaking—but then his fingers found my clit, and in seconds I was coming, my whole soul shattered by ecstasy.

My pussy clenched around his unyielding knot, every grip of my body against his sending a lightning-flash of pleasure through me. I gasped for air, my breath rasping and my whole body devoted to ecstasy. It felt like it went on forever, waves of glory and the growing flood of bliss, but finally relaxation won over tension. I melted into the bed, Key nuzzling my throat as I yielded to him, his body locked in mine.

The feeling of fullness was so much better than I'd anticipated, something I knew I would chase again and again, total satisfaction filling me. Key rolled us over with a low sound of pleasure, not seeming to be troubled by my weight resting against his chest.

Our hearts slowed as one, bliss soothing us as we fell into eternity together. It felt like we were two people in one body, indelibly linked. I could feel his soul like sunlight on my skin, the light of his love shining on me.

I could sense Nuada, too, a prickling sensation like feeling eyes watching me from the darkness.

Come closer, I thought, leaning into that feeling. I wanted both feet on the ground—needed the same sense of absolute security I had with Key to be there when I thought of Nuada, too. Now that I'd found it with Key, I could feel the imbalance, and I wanted to find my place with both my soulmates. My life wouldn't be complete without it.

"Did I do good?" Key murmured, brushing sweat-damp strands of hair away from my face. "Are you pleased?"

"God, yes," I moaned, turning my attention back to him and earning a laugh and a lick.

"I'm not the god," he said, sounding completely content. "I'm the hound."

"Mhmm." I kissed him on the jaw before going limp again, loving the feel of his heartbeat against my chest and deep inside my body. "And what a good boy you are."

He nuzzled me with a happy wiggle before settling back into the bed, his arms wrapped around me in a loose embrace. "I'm glad I went to Nuada, even though you loved me as I was," he said, still with that quiet satisfaction in his voice. "I was split in two, and you deserve everything I have to give."

"What did he do?" I asked, listening to the slow beat of his heart with total happiness.

"A long time ago, he answered my call. I summoned the Hunt so I could devour the woman who turned me into a monster for her pleasure, then discarded me when she had nothing more to ruin." Key sighed, running his fingers down along my spine. "I begged him to make me forget, and he granted me that boon. And then, many centuries later, I begged him to let me remember, and he granted me that, as well."

I contemplated that for a moment, my thoughts sluggish and hazed with affection. "He loves his hounds, doesn't he?" I asked at last, tracing my fingers along his throat. "It doesn't seem like him to be… compassionate."

"Of course he does," Key said, sounding surprised. He nudged my head with his nose. "Do you think he doesn't know how to love?"

My cheeks heated with embarrassment. "I didn't mean it that way. It's just that he's so… stand-offish." Unhappiness tugged at me, my mouth turning down as I contemplated the Hunter. "He doesn't seem like he wants anything to do with me. It doesn't matter what I do to try to get him to look at me. He's never even invited me to come see him."

Key kissed me on the forehead. "A hound can't stop giving chase when he catches sight of the prey," he said, his voice serious. "How much more so the Hunt himself?"

I craned my neck to look up at him, raising a brow.

He grinned back down at me, showing off his strong canine teeth. "He helped me, so I think it's only fair that I help him. You wanted my invitation, and I didn't know I needed to give it." His smile widened. "He wants yours, Lexi. If he enters the hunt, he won't stop until he's run you down. Is that what you want?"

That made me wiggle a little, heat coiling in my belly at the thought of that predator's focus narrowing down on me. "Maybe."

With a laugh, Key grabbed me by the hips and bucked up against me, yanking my attention back to the knot still filling me. "Then maybe you should tell him."

Hunter

Nuada Silverhand

Walking the Prince of Teeth to the door of my bedroom, knowing my soulmate was inside, and then walking away, was perhaps the most difficult thing I had done in my eons of life. It went against every fiber of my being, and every hunger I represented. She was mine, a doe I'd run down and a woman who could meet and match me, and I had to walk away, knowing exactly what would happen when I did.

She slept next to him each night, my favorite hound and my soulmate side-by-side in my bed while I lay out under the stars, full of longing and agony. He walked next to her and gave her a life to enjoy. Of course she would see him – everything he was – and choose to answer his undying devotion with love.

I couldn't tear my traitorous mind away from my sense of them as I sat in my throne, my fingers gripping the stone with such force that my bones ached. He had his head in her lap—she had her hands on his skin—they were—

I felt it happen, the shift in the world as my soulmate found her footing with another. Touching them with the land-sense of the palace as I was, the riptide of that rapture caught me in its undertow, and I had no hope of escape. I had my silver hand around my cock and my arm in my teeth before I could even think, an unwilling and desperately wanting voyeur, my connection to the Ruined Palace and to Lexi yoking me to her pleasure.

I came with her, and I came with Key, and I came with her again, all but screaming out my pleasure and my thwarted need, as reckless as a fucking stag in rut. I finally managed to wrench myself free of them while they lay together, balanced and in love—a hound and his mistress, a prince and his princess.

The torment of it all left my muscles tight to the point of trembling, my fingers digging into my scalp as I tried not to let my anguish turn to rage. It wasn't her fault. It wasn't her fault that I was what I was—that in order to keep her safe I had to starve my every passion.

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