Page 70 of What Lurks Between the Fates

His eyes flew open, glowing with golden light as he stared up at me. I flinched back, trying to take my wrist with me. He held fast, refusing to release me as he rolled me beneath him in a sudden, unnaturally fast movement. His hips slid between my legs, his cock nestling against me as he rocked his hips with a groan.

I stilled, watching him to see how I should move forward. While he was rougher, his body unhinged as if the thought of losing my bleeding wound was too much for him to bear, the man that lingered behind those foreign golden eyes was my mate. He was still Caldris, waiting for me to give him permission to take what he needed.

I may not have understood where the urgency came from or what my blood had done to him, but I still felt his love and desire formepulsing down the bond between us.

That was what drove me to spread my legs wider, reaching between our bodies with my free hand and guiding him until his head notched against my entrance. It was the permission he needed when he couldn’t seem to grasp the ability to communicate with words.

Driving inside of me, he filled the part of me he’d already claimed twice that evening. He held my wrist to his mouth, his other hand planted against the mattress beside my head as I wrapped my legs around his hips and took him deep.

“That’s enough,” I murmured, drawing my wrist away from his mouth.

He let it go this time, our bodies remaining united as he stared at my wrist and the blood that trickled from the wound. It healed over as he watched, his attention turning back to my face when the source of my blood no longer tormented him.

His golden gaze upon me was eerie, somehow so different from the mate I knew, and somehowmorehim than ever before. He dropped both hands to my hips, pinning me to the bed as he pulled free from my pussy and stared down at the space between my legs.

He pressed his hand against me, feeling how wet I was for him and sliding his fingers into me before he pulled themfree. He flipped me to my stomach quickly, my body thumping against the mattress. His movements remained fast, frenzied, as he drove back inside of me.

A hand buried in the hair at the back of my head, wrapping it around his fist so that he could use it to pull me back so that my body arched for him.

“You taste like the night sky,min asteren,” he groaned, forcing me to my knees so that he could fuck me as he yanked me backward and whispered in my ear. “Like raw, untouched power. Like ice running through my veins with the cool sweetness of twilight berries.”

Ice would have flooded my veins at the reminder, but the heat of his cock driving through me kept the daemons at bay.

“Whatareyou?” he asked, his frustration echoing through the cadence of his voice.

He touched his lips to the pulse thrumming up the side of my neck, as if he could feel my blood flowing and wanted to be as close to it as possible. He touched a wet finger to theotherpart of me. The one that remained untouched.

I flinched away, jolting forward as he held me steady. “I don’t think—”

“Relax, my star. It will hurt less if you do,” he murmured, massaging the ring gently.

He worked my body into relaxing for him, angling his hips so that his cock dragged over that sensitive part inside me and worked me toward an orgasm.

I whimpered as it approached, as his finger coaxed me to open for him until he slid inside. My body burned, feeling as if it had been lit aflame from the inside as he fucked me, making shallow thrusts with his finger in time with his cock.

“If you’re going to take me here, you’ll need to practice.”

There was a bite of laughter in his voice, something raw and powerful as I held his golden stare over my shoulder. The lights shimmered, traces of his blue eyes appearing through the glittering dust of power.

“Caldris,” I murmured.

“That’s right, my star. Fucking come for me,” he said, driving deep.

I shattered, seeing the stars that had become my namesake as my eyes rolled back in my head. He groaned as I squeezed down around him, thrusting into me and striking the end of me as he came.

The heat of his climax filled me, searing my insides as he dropped his head forward and paused to catch his breath.

I collapsed onto the bed, exhaustion claiming my body. We’d need to have a conversation in the morning when I could form a coherent thought, but for now, I drifted off.

Because what thefuck?

25

Estrella

The Winter Solstice was meant to be a celebration that the darkening of the days had ended. That the longer days and warmer weather would be coming soon enough. It was meant to be a time of celebration, not melancholy.

I got the impression the same was true for the rest of the Faerie courts as the Gods shuffled their way through the darkened, candlelit halls of Tar Mesa in front of us. Caldris strode at my side, his head held high even as he remained quiet.

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