Page 110 of Untethering Dark

Astrid stared up at him, her pale, mismatched eyes reflecting his hunger. A wicked smile crept across her lips. “You are fucking me.”

“On yourknees.” He pulled out, heavy, aching, and practically dripping with her pleasure. “Now.”

Sweet, obedient creature flipped over for him. Not a second’s hesitation.

He hiked her up by the hips, nice and high, and met no resistance remounting her. Astrid’s soft, pliable body was so eager to have him back.

“Show me how you rut, beast.” One part challenge, one part permission, and his witch didn’t need to ask twice.

Gudariks pounded into her as his body demanded. Watched her take his every thrust. The way she stretched to accommodate his length. The smooth slope of her back and snow-white hair that felt like silk in his hands. But what he liked most was the new set of antlers crowning her head, so like his own.

A fierce pride filled him. That he had any part to play in unlocking the truest version of herself was an honor, and now, a piece of himself marked her forever.If this forest was his kingdom, Astrid was its queen.

“Mine,” he growled into her ear, plowing her again and again.

Astrid slammed back on him, matching him thrust for thrust. The wooden bed frame creaked from their combined efforts. “Mine,” she echoed with a growl of her own.

So pretty, so feral. Such a perfect match.

“Yes, witch.” He chuckled darkly. “Yours.”

Choose me, claim me. Until time ceases to exist.

They gave each other all they had, their bodies aching and trembling, even as they quaked in pleasure. Barely hanging on, barely staying upright. Only powered by mutual desperate need.

Gudariks applied his fingers to the sensitive bundle of nerves at the juncture of her thighs. Made them vibrate for her as he rubbed. She got wetter. Louder. Squirming against him, so deliciously needy. “That’s it, Liebe. Come for me.”

Crying out as her pleasure peaked, Astrid buckled beneath him, channel clamping him tightly.

His own dam broke.

He wanted to fill her up and watch his cum leak down her legs, but she hadn’t cast her spell, so he yanked away, keeping a firm hand on her hip. He thrust into his hand once, twice, then stilled as his own release shuddered through him, painting her snow-white skin.

The crimson color his cum took made such a lovely contrast. He skated a claw along her inner thigh, up the round curve of her ass, catching it as it dripped.

Exhaustion would claim him soon—his witch too—its tendrils already hooked in. But there was one last thing he needed to say before they collapsed into deep sleep, utterly spent. Nuzzling into the back of her neck, he murmured, “You look so good in red.”

Her sharp laugh was music to his ears.

Chapter Fifty-Three

Weeks came and went. There was a memorial service for Johanna’s fallen colleagues with plans to dig a new trail in their honor come springtime. Der Schwarzwald reopened to the public, the tourists returning in droves for skiing and winter hiking. Astrid was less cranky about that bit than she thought she’d be.

Life fell back into many of its usual patterns, but there were new ones, too.

There was wood to chop, dinner to cook, potions to brew, goats to spoil, and a cottage to expand into something more antler friendly. Suri graciously began hosting their bimonthly dinner parties at Astrid’s place, so that Gudariks could join.

Quiet, a little boring, was just what Astrid wanted. She’d had enough excitement to last her through the next century at least.

After a particularly grueling day of home improvement projects, Astrid took Gudariks’s hand and led him to her thinking pond. There, they sat on the log they shared before, and for a long time, just stared up at the stars, soaking in the quiet of night.

Silences were comfortable with him. The way he inclined his head toward her, careful not to entangle their antlers, or clasped her hand in both of his or pressed his thigh to hers spoke plenty. Oftentimes those silences told her everything she needed to know.

“Were you there when der Schwarzwald was born?” She had wanted to ask this many times, but with recent events, it never seemed to be the right time.

“I was there,” he answered softly, gazing out into the trees. “I’ve nurtured, I’ve destroyed. Watching the cycles of the forest taught me there’s not one without the other.”

“So, the humans were right. You truly are Wald Vater.”

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