Page 16 of A Story of Mates and Temptation

“I fucking missed you, Storm.” He runs his hands down my hips, torturously slow. His eyes are still wicked, still full of the same thing that began this fight. Fear. I don’t—no,can’t—lose him. He starts yanking down my leggings. I can barely think of anything but him and how much I need him. He pushes my legs apart, running his fingertip down my slit before gliding two fingers easily inside me, already finding me soaked for him. His thumb runs around my clit as he pumps his fingers in and out of me, watching my body, watching my face every second. I clutch the bedsheet tight. “How fucking dare you try and take this—you—from me,” he growls, sending shivers up my body.

I snarl back at him, and his grin is feral. I push him back on the other side of the bed, climbing onto his lap and kissing with every bit of my anger. Oh, by the deities, he gives it back to me with every stroke of his lips. But he doesn’t take me, not yet. I feel his cock, hard and ready by my thigh, and he holds me up. He twists us around, pushing me against the wall, lifting us off the bed, and he grips the back of my neck. “Never again, Storm. Fucking promise me.”

“Promise me the same.” I give him the same question. “Then I promise.”

“Never again,” he vows, and I gasp as he drives his cock straight into me, and the fullness of him is home. He groans, digging his hands into the wall. “Fuck.” He pounds into me, pushing me into the wall, fury marking my body as his with his every thrust. I can’t stop the moans escaping my lips, the echo of them matching the sound of us. “This,” he groans, and I feel the sound right down my core. “Us.” He grips my ass tight in his hands.“This is permanent and forever. You don’t fucking leave me, do you understand? I want you alive at the end of all of this and hate me, but I am the only one who gets to die between us. Now promise me forever.”

I won’t ever let him die.

“Forever,” I answer with every bit of my soul that he owns completely. He carries me to the bed, pulling out of me to turn me over on the bed, and he drags my hips up into the air before slamming into me again. His grip is tight on my hips, but I can barely notice anything other than the pleasure of my building orgasm. I feel it turning down my spine, and he growls louder. Shadows dance in the room, blocking out every inch of light. I swear I see dragons within the shadows now. “Come for me, my queen. My mate.” He has never called me those titles like this before, like they are mine now and not something I can argue with, and I cry out as my orgasm explodes through every part of my body and the pleasure is blinding. I can feel nothing except for his cock, nothing other than him taking me over and over, right before he finishes with a roar that shakes the walls of the hut.

My knees are ready to collapse as he picks me up, lying us both down on the bed and covering us with a blanket. He keeps me close as I trace the new markings, the hundreds of dragons that dance around every inch of his skin above his waist and under his neck.

“They are beautiful,” I whisper, touching a particularly big dragon over his heart. “What do these markings mean?”

“I’m the King of the Dragons, and they listen to my every command now.” He strokes his hand down my cheek. “And now we have thousands of dragons fighting for us. Shadow dragons,they’re huge and I’m going to win this war for you. You are going to survive this war.” Ziven leans over me. “Be my mate, my queen, and join the Moon Dynasty. Marry me, Story Dehana.”

“Oh, Ziven.” I stroke his cheek. “Yes. Yes to all the titles that come with loving you. It’s been a yes for a long time.”

His smile is wide, different from anything I’ve seen from him. A radiant smile. I can almost imagine what Ziven would have been like without the war, without the vampyres. Maybe we can have this when the war is over, a life of happiness. “I planned to ask for your forgiveness and then ask you to marry me. I am sorry about Kyrell.”

“There will never be a moment I don’t mourn him, but I know he asked you. He gave you an impossible choice, and I can’t hate you for keeping your word, but…” I climb up onto him and lean down. “Keeping secrets will be the death of us. I’m yours.” I lean down and kiss him softly. “And you’re mine. Never again.”

Something unreadable shines in his eyes for a second, but it’s gone as quick as an ember in the wind. He winds his hand into my hair, a single word escaping his lips. “Mine.”

Chapter Nine

Page Nine. I write this final part to you. The deities are holy beings and they can be changed.

Idive straight to the left, barely missing Avaluna’s swift and unexpected lunge in my direction. “That was really impressive. You almost got me.”

She winks. “Calix is fantastic at training me.” I bet. I hold in my comment but not my smile, and she rolls her eyes at me. “I think I like training and fighting. Using my body, training like this—it makes you feel like you can fight anyone, right?”

“Yes,” I answer, knowing exactly what she means. In the early days of the mansion, I felt like training saved my mental health from plummeting more than necessary. I’ll never be able to escape the memories completely but, for the most part, I will be able to use training to fight the worst days away. When I’m training, I don’t have time to think of the past, to let my nightmares haunt me. An understanding passes between two people with the same horrors. I grin at her, and she grins rightback before lunging at me again. I twist around her, knocking her back before swinging my leg out and kicking her straight out of the circle. She falls on her ass, her eyes wide. “Calix is good, but I was trained by the king.” I offer her my hand. “And I learned I don’t like to lose.”

She laughs, taking my hand, and we both head to the water jugs by the mat. The cold air whips around us, and I look around as I take a drink, missing the forest. Missing the colours of the sky, the colours of nature, which are lost here. This place is a cave of grey and nothing much else. The green farms do not make up for the lack of life in this place, and I’m so glad Ziven is back with a solution, because spending forever locked in here can’t be a long-term option like Daegan planned. The people here might be content, but they are trapped, and they have no idea what it is like out there.

Calix claps as he comes over to us, my rival on the edge of the mat wheezing. “Well done. I was impressed by that move, Story.” He winks at Avaluna when she huffs. “Want me to teach you how to block her next time? Ziven does the same twisting move, and I learnt a trick to block the bastard.”

“Yes, but in secret.” She laughs. “Then I can surprise Story.”

I smile at them both. I’ve also seen how Calix blocks Ziven in sparring, and I have a good chance of stopping her. Calix turns to me, and it’s like he has to physically drag his eyes from Avaluna. “Have you seen Ziven this morning? Only, there’s another meeting and King Daegan is calling for him. He didn’t attend the morning meeting. I was sent to find him, but I’m not brave enough to knock on your hut door when the ground is shaking and covered in shadows.” He arches an eyebrow. “Like it has been for weeks.”

My cheeks burn. I know exactly why he wasn’t attending this morning. It’s been two weeks since he turned up, and we’ve spent most of our time in the hut. Any other time, it’s meetings after meetings, and they can be quite strenuous as Daegan and him can’t seem to agree on anything other than they want the vampyres dead. Every other plan has gone up in flames, and anyone in the room is stuck in the middle of them both, along with me. “I haven’t seen him since he took off on his dragon.”

He sighs, pinching his nose. “Right. He seems to do that a lot. How’s Maeve doing?”

“I gather it’s them practicing flying together and securing the bond,” I add before answering him. “But Maeve is healing and sleeping most of the time to do that. She claims she’ll fly up to see me in a few days, as her wing is nearly there. Honestly, I miss riding her.” I touch my chest. “Being apart from your dragon is unnatural.”

“At least your dragon’s coming up and communicating with you. Mine is being strange,” Calix admits quietly. “Some dragons are not answering their riders. I think they are mad at us for losing the fight, and worse, they might not fight with us.”

“They will,” I firmly state. “I don’t think it’s that. I have a feeling it’s something else. Our dragons love us as much as we love them. You taught me that.”

I’ve asked Maeve about this subject, but she goes silent on me too.

He nods. “I know.” Straightening, he delivers more good news. “And you’re coming with me to the meeting if Ziven is still not here. Ziven told me not to punch Daegan, but if he keeps being a pissy little shit because Ziven is not turning up, I’m going toignore my king’s orders.” I cough on thin air, and Calix pats my back. “Good, you agree. Let’s go.” He kisses Avaluna’s cheek. “See you soon. Watch Hettie until Dianyla’s, her new friend, mother comes and takes them both for lunch, okay?”

“Always.” She blushes under his intense stare. They smell like each other, I notice. I’m not sure what is going on with them, but something is. I glance over at Hettie, and she’s reading in the corner, chatting with one of the fae children that made it here from the mansion. A lot of her other new friends didn’t, and I can barely accept knowing that they’re gone. They were children. Calix and I wind through the busy town, and several people stop us to bow their heads or offer up prayers to the deities in the royals’ names. When it’s quieter, I lower my voice. “I’m not sure I’m used to the attention here from them. I’m not even the queen yet or his mate yet.”

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