Page 72 of Savagely Mated

“This is the part where you get expelled and the entire plan falls apart.”

The director pauses.“She has been summoned to the palace by the king.”

“Excuse me?”

“Einar?”

“You still have it on mute,” I remind him.

He unmutes the call and responds in a way I would describe as both curt and incredulous. Rafe is staring at me like he just heard that I’m made of cheese, or something. The general mood of the room is surprise and a little concern. I’m just glad nobody’s beating my ass for doing more wrong and bad things.

I might actually be getting these three to the same point it took several years to get academy faculty to: accepting that they can’t actually control my behavior.

“She’s not ready to meet the king.”

“The king has decided otherwise.”

“When is she to be presented?”

“In the morning,”the director says.“She is to be taken to the palace no later than sunrise.”

“Very well. We will, of course, comply.”

“Yes,”the director says dryly.“Unless, of course, she is too busy in the slums of the city eating bandits.”

“She will be there,” Einar promises.

“I hope so. Good night, Mr. Bitten.”

The call ends, and the guys all look at each other with very serious expressions. Nobody is laughing now.

I’ve never seen Einar look this way before. He looks grave, and almost… heartbroken? I don’t know. The silence following the call feels so deep, and so complete.

“This could work in our favor. We could just do nothing besides deliver her to the palace. She’s bound to kill the king on her own accord. That’s the sort of thing she does. The worst, most reckless, destructive thing possible,” Kirin says.

His suggestion is not met with happiness. Instead, Einar and Rafe look at one another like two men who know they have just lost a game they have been playing to the hilt.

“Why don’t I just bring the true king with me, kill the wrong king, and hand Rafe his crown?” I smirk as I offer the solution. I don’t know why they look so miserable. Kirin’s right. Whatever is going to happen at the palace is not going to get the better of me.

“Do not mock us!” Einar growls. “Many have died and suffered in aiding this cause, as well you know. You are about to walk into the lair of the most dangerous man in Eclipse, and you are being flippant. Have you forgotten that you are still injured? And that we will be unable to protect you inside those walls? We can barely protect you from yourself out here.”

“I don’t need your protection. I never have.”

Einar takes a deep breath, as if he is trying to control himself. I know what he wants to do. He wants to punish me. He wants to whip me and fuck me and claim me and…

He grabs me, kissing me roughly. His kiss has a near magic effect in making my brain go blank, and the excitement that lives between my thighs expand all the way through my body.

His hand is fisted in my hair as he breaks the kiss, letting me go nowhere.

“If you are going to the king tomorrow, you will go with our seed inside you. You will go with our scent clinging to your most intimate places. There will be no doubt that you are taken, claimed, and marked.”

The mate bond makes me receptive. I don’t know if I have a choice. Between the lustful intentions of my mates, and my own incredibly intense physical responses, my mind is along for the ride, a muted passenger to what is certain to be a thorough ravishing.

“My turn, this time,” Kirin says. “Let me show you monsters how to make love to a woman properly.”

I giggle, a little nervous as I feel his full carnal attention on me. Kirin is a work of art, and being with him is beautiful. Whether we are in the countryside, or inside his home, he has a way of becoming the entirety of my vision.

My desire for him flowers and flows as he wraps me in his arms, draws me down onto one of the many couches in this room and proceeds to make tender, yet passionate love to me, his cock finding that flower between my thighs and making it bloom with pleasure as he surges inside me.

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