Page 105 of Return of the Nine

Nervous was not the way to describe her feelings. Panicked like one of her own prey was more like it. Niika Baker stood in the Nine embassy and watched her aunt fiddle with her hair.

Daphne was standing nearby with a sly smile on her face. “You know, we have never had so many people of the Stone Folk in residence.”

“Well, his mother is here, so it stands to reason that there would be a few more than usual.” Niika bit her lip, and her aunt grinned.

Her gown was burgundy and gold, a sweeping span of silk that wrapped her torso and flowed freely around her legs. One week since her surgery, and now, her knees were going weak.

Daphne suddenly grew solemn. “It’s time, Niika.”

Her Aunt Emaline took her arm, and they walked to the stairway that led into the ballroom.

Emharo and her husband, Rivvin, were in the group of people lining the walkway that would take her to Cavos.

Niika went through a dizzying round of hugging all her friends and family then greeting the cousins, clan reps and the mother of her bond mate.

The moment she took Cavos’s hand, her nerves faded. She walked with him through to the mating gardens and followed the protocol for the Stone Folk by taking a crystal from the attendant and holding it in her palm.

She didn’t remember the words they spoke as the blade came up out of the stone. She focussed on slipping the crystal into the hilt of the knife and then flicking it with her finger. She sliced his wrist with the humming crystal dagger.

He lifted her wrist to his mouth and bit down with sharp, pointed teeth that he had been careful to hide from her until now. Her blood coursed down the dagger, and she slipped it back into the registration stone.

Wound to wound, they sat for a moment before he lifted her wrist to his mouth and licked the bite closed. She followed on his wrist, the shallow cut sealed slowly but surely as she lapped at him. It was appalling to her sensibilities but actually not horrible in the execution of it.

When they were finished with that portion of the ritual, they kissed and Niika felt heat running through her body. She broke the kiss suddenly. “Is that what you have been dealing with?”

He smiled and kissed her again. “Just wait, it gets worse as you synch to me.”

“You always give me something to look forward to.”

He chortled and helped her rise to her feet. “It is a very ancient custom.”

“Yeah, I am not falling for that one again.”

His grin was delight and endless smugness. He had her right where he wanted her.

The reception was hours of fun, but Niika missed most of it.

The harmonics of the crystal had let her cut his skin, but the rest of him was still hard as stone when they tumbled into bed and he stroked her from neck to knees until she twisted against him.

He was careful as he moved between her thighs, delicate and deliberate as he shifted inside her, and she felt like a cherished treasure as he took her to heights that her cousin had only whispered and blushed about.

Niika had been excited to be able to sit cross-legged again, but it didn’t even come close to the delight of being able to wrap her legs around her bond mate.

Curled up against him, she stroked his chest slowly. “So, whendo you think we can get back into the forest with Morro and Tidae?”

“I think we should take at least one more day to rest and recuperate from the stress of our families being in attendance.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm.

“Stress, hmm?”

“It is an ancient custom. Trust me.”

She grinned and moved over him, sliding her body against his until she had his complete focus. “I don’t think trust has anything to do with it.”

He sighed as she joined their bodies. “I will do whatever it takes to get you back into your wilderness.”

The phrasing was loaded with innuendo, but she didn’t mind. She wanted to get her wilderness back into her as well. It had been far too long.

Two days later, they were back next to the skimmer with their original party. Niika had her hair braided tightly against her skull, and she had to admit, Cavos was very good at doing her hair.

---