Page 60 of Queen Takes Triune
Itztli pressed against my back, a solid, heavy heat. I closed my eyes, bracing my cheek against the sleek wood, and breathed him in. As dark as the silky shadows flowing around me, heavy with desperate need. Aching with love.
"What do you need, my Blood?" I thought I spoke aloud, but I honestly wasn't sure, not with the streams of power flooding me.
“Pain,” he replied hoarsely. “As much as it shames me.”
I could taste his regret in the shadows twining around our legs. And yes, his fear. He didn't want to be evil like Tanza. "Never regret a need our goddesses gave you. Embrace it. Revel in it. As I revel in you."
"I'd rather Rik put me down like a rabid dog than ever hurt you." His voice broke, and in our bond, I heard the desperate howl of his beast. Usually a massive black dog, his monster had changed here in the darkness. I couldn't make out his shape, though it was still a black creature of the night.
This creature had sharp claws too. Although Itztli held me carefully against him, he didn't expect me to surge to the side, deliberately scraping my hip on his lengthening nails.
Thick shadows lapped at my torn flesh eagerly, making me shudder. Not with pain or dread, but ecstasy. Velvet slid over my skin, sensuous and dark and tempting. It wanted my blood as much as the tree did, and I didn't mind the pain. Not at all. In fact, the stinging burn in my skin intensified my senses. I could smell his homeland, the lush jungles, ripe fruits, and rich, dark cocoa that flavored his blood. The sleek black fur of his beast. Even the obsidian blade smelled sharp and cold with the bite of blood along its edge.
The bond gave me access to his heart and mind, but here in the darkness, the shadows heightened that connection. I could taste his scent on my tongue. I breathed in the darkness of his need like a knife-thrust to the gut. His blood flavored the air. He'd gnashed his lips open, trying to contain the beast roiling inside him.
And yes, my darkness liked that very much indeed.
If we'd been moon-mad last night, now I was drunk on shadows. High on darkness. I needed so much more.Weneeded. We needed it all.
A grim, dark hurricane powerful enough to level the entire city crested inside me.
More. Blood. Pain.
I ground my buttocks against him, surprised to feel fabric against my skin. In my head and in the bond, he was a lithe dark creature of the night. He certainly wasn’t clothed.
As I moved between him and the tree, something sharp jabbed me in the ribs hard enough to draw blood. The trunk shuddered beneath my cheek and the sharp tip of the limb pressed harder. Another stuck my opposite thigh. It wasn’t the piercing agony of the heart tree that I’d grown in the nest. Not with Itztli’s heat against my back. No, this was ever so much better than suffering on those thorns.
“I want you inside me.” I gasped as the limb dragged down my side, scoring my rib cage with its thin, razor-sharp tip. “Fuck me on this tree, as I fucked you on Zaniyah’s. Let me give the darkness some pleasure with the pain, not just the hopeless torture it endured during Tanza’s reign in this room.”
Despite my words, he still hesitated. Such an honorable, loyal man, very much like his black dog. Only it wasn’t the loyal, faithful hound that I felt inside him any longer.
I sank deeper into his bond, down to the secret place inside him where he tried to keep his darker need buried. His monster blinked at me, large, liquid eyes like spilled ink, shining despite the lack of light.
:There’s always light in me now,:Itztli growled, his words garbled by the rising beast.:Because you’re inside me.:
I smiled at the creature and slowly turned my back, peeking over my shoulder with heavy-lidded, sultry eyes. I reached up and pulled my hair aside, baring my throat and the curve of my shoulder.
Something large surged up out of him. Claws seized me, his fangs buried in my shoulder. Not to feed—but to hold me in place. To pin me against him, like a jaguar would pin his mate for breeding. Only I didn’t think this was a jaguar. My winged cat didn’t answer this creature’s call. I couldn’t hear the sound it made, but I could feel the vibrations against me, rumbling through me like Daire’s purrs.
He surged into me, shoving me hard against the tree. More branches poked and stabbed me, but the pain was distant. He felt too good, a beast unleashed with a voracious hunger. So often my Blood tried to handle me gently, afraid to fuck me too hard. Like I might break.
Fuck that shit.
Fuck ithard.
He gripped the front of my throat in one hand, his thick arm locked around me. His other hand hauled my hips back so he could slam deeper. He thrust so hard that I would have groaned if I had any breath left. Everything tilted crazily, like I’d fallen, though I could still feel the tree against me.
His claws dug deep into my skin, adding more blood for the sacrifice.
I floated, wrapped in black silk and fur, shadows and blood. I’d never fully understood a submissive’s mindset, even though I shared such a deep bond with Daire. It just wasn’t in me to surrender. To give up and allow another to control me completely.
If I’d given up and surrendered, I would have died a long time ago. And even though I loved Daire absolutely without question, I’d never really gotten it. Until now.
Pain and pleasure carried me deeper. Higher. I felt the sensation of claws and branches tearing my skin. I knew it hurt, but it here in this safe darkness, wrapped in Itztli’s arms, it was like adding a shot of whiskey to my coffee. Salt to my caramel.
I just felt. So. Fucking. Good.
Nothing else mattered. I could simply exist here. I could float on the tree and know that it was in the goddess’s hands. In Itztli’s hands. My body was a vessel tonight, and that was perfectly okay. Because only I could carry his need like this, and not break. I could accept his beast without reservation. Fur, claws, fangs, wings and all.
