Page 63 of Gemini Queen
Under the metallic tang of blood, he tastes like salt and sex. Beneath my trousers, my manhood is rising. Which is far from typical for a disciplinary bite. A deepening suspicion makes me suck in my breath.
Damnation.
I’ve suspected, but I’m beginning to be hideously certain.
I’ve made the most appalling error.
I’ve utterly betrayed my student’s trust.
He moans under my touch, but it’s a moan of relief. The tension of his body under my arm is melting, my care easing his pain. Aching with need and guilt, I crawl into the bed and wrap myself around him, my face buried in his shoulder, my mouth still nuzzling and licking at his bite. With a deep sigh, he rolls to his side until our bodies press together. The electric shock of his lean muscled frame sears through me and wrenches a groan from my throat.
His need is throbbing in my shaft. His need is my need. Slowly he undulates against me. Under the sheet that’s dragged over him, he’s rigid and aching.
For me.
And I’m keenly aware that he’s naked.
He’s my student,I remind my wolf desperately, chanting it like a mantra.My student. My student. My student.
If I do this, if I break my own inviolate rule, if I prey upon my own student, if anyone finds out, I deserve to be cast out from the Academy in disgrace. And there’s no one left in the witching world to take my place. Only a handful of frightened shifters survive, each of them even less suitable for this crucial duty than I.
My people need me.
My students need me.
Ours ours ours,my wolf growls in my head.Our mate.
“Ronin, I’m so sorry,” I mumble against his shoulder, voice thick and slurred through my fully descended fangs. “I’ve made a reprehensible error in judgment.”
“Lucius?” His voice too is thick, but his sinewy frame twines around me, one hand fisting in my hair. “Ineedyou.”
“I know, my dear one. None of this is your fault.” Tenderly I nuzzle into his shoulder, his neck, the underside of his jaw. Even here, he reeks of ambergris and Vasili and wolf. This is wrong, so wrong, and I never meant for this to happen, but I wanted it and my wolf wanted it and now it’s far too late to resist.
Somehow I muster the words to make my act of confession. I owe him that. Let him at least comprehend what’s happening.
“Ronin. This isn’t a disciplinary bite. It’s a mating bite. You’re burning with mating fever.”
“What? You… gave me… a mating bite?” He’s struggling to wake up, to clear his head. Since I’ve cleansed the wound and stopped the bleeding, the punctures are knitting and his wound is starting to heal. I’ll tend him well in the coming days, so very well, to ensure his complete recovery.
But to break this fever, there’s something more his body needs from me.
I raise my head to find his feral face, haggard but curious, his amber eyes lidded and molten with need.
“I swear to you, Ronin, on the survival of my race, I never meant for this to happen. But dear God, it’s happened, and it’s all my fault. In order to break this fever, you must… mate.”
I search his face to see if he understands me. Christ, I barely understand myself, since this is the first mating bite I’ve ever inflicted. Mating fever is a shifter affliction. It only affects my race… and our mates.
He’s watching me, still only half lucid. Truly, I can’t be certain how much of this debacle he’s grasping.
I pull in a fortifying breath and forge on. It’s my duty now to help him through this. “Ideally, to break the fever fully, you should… should mate… with me. Quite frequently in the coming days. But any mate who satisfies you can ease the worst of it.” Now the words rush out of me, fueled by guilt. “I can… I can get Zarina.”
The last thing our erratic and untrained queen needs is to take her second mate within hours of taking her first. And Ronin, in his rut, will be savage. She’ll summon the lightning for certain, and then I’ll have failed her too. But Ronin—he needs—
“Lucius.” A sleepy grin curls the corners of his succulent mouth. His words fall slow but certain. “There is definitely a thing between me and Zara. But I don’t think you’re getting her away from Neo tonight.”
“Vasili then,” I offer desperately.
Not him!my jealous wolf snarls.
