Page 25 of Beyond the Mountain (Fae's Captive 4)

“More,” I demand and grab her shoulder, holding her in place as I spread her legs even wider, claiming what’s mine.

She arches for me, her pink nipples ripe for the taking. I suck one hard peak into my mouth as she grabs my hair, yanking the strands as she moans and writhes beneath me like the goddess she is.

I can’t be gentle, can’t take my time with her. I need to soak her with me, to let everyone know that we are bound body and soul.

Licking my thumb, I press it to her clit, and her heady scent of arousal grows. I run a hand through her hair and pull, watching as she lets herself go, her soft body perfect against my hard one.

My control is gone, and I can’t resist biting her. When I sink my fangs into her mating mark, she comes wildly, her legs shaking as I bury myself deep inside her warmth and coat her with my seed.

I roar to the tops of the granite turrets, my soul forever bound to hers, my heart in her hands, and my kingdom at her feet.

Epilogue I

“Take it all off.” The magic pulls at my dress as Selene dances around a roaring blue fire, her naked body reflecting the flames.

“This is …” I gape as Delantis sways into view, her nudity putting her (frankly amazing) rack on full display. “What are you doing?”

“Just go with it.” Delantis howls at the moon and dances away, her hips in tune to a distant drumbeat as her gryphon prances along behind her.

The magic twirls around me, shimmying and sparkling under the full moon. “No one will see.”

“This is insane.”

“Take it off!” Selene cries from the other side of the wide bonfire.

“Peer pressure.” I pull my tunic over my head and drop my skirt but keep my panties in place.

“Prude.” The magic frowns but leaves me alone to swirl around the fire.

Delantis grabs my hand and pulls me along with her, the drumbeat seducing me as the moon glows high above, the otherworld dark all around us. I dance, swaying as we trample the grass underfoot and raise our arms to the sky, howling like wild animals as the music grows louder.

I let my wings out, my back aching as they unfurl.

“Yes,” the magic hisses and holds out its hand, blowing onto its palm as if sending me a kiss. A sparkling wind lifts me into the air, and I soar around the fire, wheeling and shooting up into the night sky. Delantis’s gryphon joins me, the two of us racing and chasing each other as the others laugh around the fire below. My heart expands, the dark chambers working together with the light.

“Having fun?” Leander’s voice ripples down the bond.

I flap harder and pinch Delantis’s tail before dropping toward the ground. The eagle head caws, and she chases me as I giggle.

“A little,” I tell him.

“Just a little? What, exactly, are you females doing in the otherworld?”

Delantis’s gryphon soars past, its tail whipping out and yanking my panties away. We’re wild and free, naked and a little crazed.

“We’re just doing girl stuff, you know.” I pull my wings close and plummet downward, Delantis chasing me and nipping at my heels with her beak.

“Mmhmm.” He doesn’t sound convinced.

I open my wings and the wind catches me and drops me to the emerald grass. “Don’t worry.”

“I have to worry. The bed is cold. I’m snapping at everyone. I pondered removing one of my noble’s heads earlier, simply because he spoke out of turn. I need my mate.”

“I’ll be back soon.”

“When?”

“Soooooon,” the magic croons down the bond.

I shiver. “That’s creepy. Like someone listening to my phone calls.”

“Stop worrying, winter king. She will return when she is ready.”

He growls, his feral coming through loud and clear. “Wily magic. She better be back here in my bed, safe, within the week, or I will come there myself and rip out your—”

His voice cuts off as the magic titters with laughter. “Wrong number.”

“Naughty.” I fall to the grass and splay my arms over my head as I stare at the swirling sky above. “I love you. I’ll be home soon, promise.”

“Fine,” he grumbles. “I will wait. Impatiently.”

Selene collapses beside me, then Delantis falls on my other side, her gryphon curling up next to her.

The magic turns into a faun, its deer-like ears twitching as it pulls out a lute and begins to play softly.

“Secrets,” the faun whispers. “Tell me yours, my queen, and I shall tell you mine.”

“I don’t have any.” I yawn.

“You have plenty.”

“I want to know about the royal mating. Is Leander as kingly as he looks, eh?” Selene elbows me.

I blush down to my toes.

“It’s just us girls.” The magic morphs into a female faun, bare-breasted and beautiful.

“I can’t talk about that.”

“Sure you can!” Delantis grins. “My mate could barely keep up with my appetite. I think he went to the Ancestors simply to escape my lusty desires.”

“Oh, I’ve had my share of males.” Selene cackles. “I’ve sat on so many faces that I can only remember a few.”

“TMI.” I cover my face.

“TMI.” Selene’s voice sobers. “Is that why you brought Taylor here, magic? The true reason? To give her TMI?”

The lute stops. “Too soon for such conversation.” She starts playing again, louder this time. “First, let us make merry.”

I turn to the magic. “Is it about the future? About the war?”

She stops on an off note. “You know of the war?”

I sigh and lie back on the grass. “I don’t know for sure, but I can feel it.”

“Feel what?” Delantis rises on her elbow.

I tell the truth that has been haunting me, the one that wakes me in the night and has Leander comforting me with soothing touches. “Death. It seems like it waits with bated breath, ready to pounce.” I flex my hand and call forth a black flame. “I can feel it, like a deep inhale before diving beneath the surface. I’ve sensed it ever since the Gray Mountains.”

Selene clacks her teeth together. “Taste it, I can. Dark things know of what you speak.”

The magic sighs as if it’s tired, the exhaustion bone-deep, but continues its song. “First, make merry. Then, secrets and darkness and prophecy.”

“And bones?” Selene asks hopefully.

“And bones.” The magic nods.

“Do not fear.” Delantis grabs my hand. “You have allies, more by the day. Whatever comes, keep them close.”

I let out a breath and push the worries to the back of my mind. The magic is right. We must grab our pleasures while we can. Tomorrow is not promised, and each day with my mate is a

singular joy. “As long as I have Leander, I can weather any storm.”

“Yes, Leander.” Selene grins. “Let’s get back to him. Does he mate like a beast or a gentlefae? Does he ride you like a dragon? Stroke you like the kindest breeze? Rage inside you like a monster? Whisper sweetness into your ear? Pull your hair? Tell, tell, tell!”

The lute plays, the sky glitters, and I let myself sink into the emerald grass of the otherworld. I turn to Selene, mischief in the air between us, and ask, “How much time do you have?”

Epilogue II

A pile of stone shifts, the rock crumbling as a figure rises from the destruction. Under the moonless night, he creeps along the ruins of the mountaintop cavern, bones crunching beneath his feet as he struggles to find a way out of the debris of rock and death.

It takes time, but eventually he climbs from the pit and stands atop the cold, dark mountain, the valley spreading out below. Some soldiers still dwell there, campfires burning in the night. They didn’t go back to their realms. Not all of them, anyway. Enough remain. Enough to start again.

But he can’t lead them. Not as he is.

His snakelike tongue darts out, tasting the air. The winter king has gone, returned to his realm, assured that the war was thwarted.

He turns and looks down at the throne room, at the exact spot where his father was turned to nothing more than ash. Though he never loved Shathinor, never cared for him at all, he knows that he cannot lead without him. But he’s gone, his physical form utterly destroyed by that bitch of a sister.

Cenet reaches inside his tunic, past the brand of the twisted tree, and snags the golden chain that hangs around his neck. Pulling it free, he peers at the phylactery. It emits a crimson glow in the dark night, a promise of things to come.

Carefully, he unscrews the top. Even more carefully, he lifts the vial to his lips. Closing his eyes, he drinks his father’s blood.

And when he opens his eyes …

Continue the story with Beth and Gareth in Fae’s Captive 5.

Chapter 1

Beth

I creep out of Taylor and Leander’s room. They didn’t notice me passed out on their sofa when they burst in after the mating ceremony that I accidentally missed.

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