Page 73 of What Hunts Inside the Shadows

His cock was hard and ready by the time I settled with my feet on the stone bottom of the hot spring, a moment of panic sending me reeling.

I ran a hand over my arm and the tiny scratches along my body from where I’d thrashed and fought for breath. “You’re alright,” Caldris said, cupping my cheek in his hand. It brought me a small measure of comfort, knowing he was here to support me.

He waved a hand over my shackles, letting them fall away and drop into the hot spring where they clanked to the bottom. “You will never wear those again,” he murmured, the words sounding an echo of the anger he tried to hide from me. It was the worst of his rage, all that he hadn’t allowed himself to feel in the moments when I’d been a fury on the path of vengeance.

I nodded, not bothering to argue against the special treatment I hadn’t thought I wanted. It hadn’t made a damn bit of difference in their pursuit to kill me. I’d take the special treatment from my mate any day.

“I can’t believe I wanted to defend them. I wanted them to accept me so much that I didn’t care if the cost of if that was you.” I sighed, enjoying the moment of tenderness he showed me.

“They aren’t worth your loyalty,” Caldris said, touching his chin to the top of my head. He ran his hands over my skin, soothing the aches in my arms with warm water as he covered me in it. Washing any traces of dirt from my skin, he let me settle into the comfort of his embrace for a few moments. What he wanted to do in front of Holt never left the forefront of my mind, but I sank into my exhaustion and the need I felt to just feel loved for a moment.

This was my mate I knew, not the estranged male who didn’t seem to know what to do with the possible repercussions of my lineage.

I ran my hands over his skin, picking up a piece of linen from the ledge and using it to wash away the dirt. He did the same, offering me the care and affection I needed in that moment more than anything.

There had to be a purpose to all of this, and if Caldris and I couldn’t come out united on the other side…it would have all been for nothing.

Holt sat on the stone, his head held in his hands and watching the moment stretch between us. I tried not to think about what Caldris wanted him to watch—the coming sex that felt almost like a punishment.

I knew I hadn’t been the one to commit the crime, and that Caldris blamed Holt entirely for my near death experience. “The sooner we get to Alfheimr and complete the bond, the better. I don’t know how much longer I can stand the dangers that come with your humanity,” Caldris murmured, setting the linen on the edge of the spring when he’d finished cleaning my body. He took the strip of cloth from my hand as well, ringing it out and discarding it beside the other.

He studied me carefully, running a thumb over my cheek for a moment, then he lifted his other wrist from the water, letting the fluid drip off his gleaming, golden skin. Raising a finger, he allowed one black talon to replace the more human-like nails he donned in his less violent moments.

Slashing that nail across his wrist, he watched me as I watched his blood dripping into the spring, tinting the water between us pink. He raised his wrist to my mouth, pressing it against my lips as the warmth of him spread through me. I opened, letting the thick fluid coat my tongue before he pulled it away. That familiar feeling of him sank inside me, strengthening the mate bond that pulled between us, wrapping us in the threads of gold, consuming us entirely. I had to imagine the moments we shared like this were as close as we could come to being fully bonded before that event finally occurred.

Something in his gaze glinted with mischief, and he maneuvered himself to the edge of the spring. Putting his back to the ledge, he placed a hand on each side and lifted himself out. Water sluiced down his body, accentuating every line of muscle in his rigid frame. He spread his legs, his cock jutting up to the sky above.

“I want your mouth, min asteren,” he said, and something in the position reminded me of the rock carving not far away. Of the human women centuries ago who had shared his cock in the same way, in the same place.

There was none of the aloofness on his face that was depicted in that carving as I prowled toward him, jealousy burning in my veins. He smirked at me as if he knew it, and he probably felt what that possessiveness did to me.

In the same way he wanted Holt to watch me pleasure him, he knew that I wanted to stake my claim against the visual memory of those humans. Their faces were carved into the stone identical and somehow vague, as if their likenesses weren’t worth immortalizing. They were replaceable, and the God of the Dead had probably fucked so many he’d never remembered their names.

But I was his mate. I was the one whose face would be recorded in the books where I stood by his side; the one who would bear his name if we ever managed to complete the bond.

His wife.

I stopped between his spread legs, touching a hand to each of his thighs as I stared at him. “Given that I nearly died, I should think you’d be showing me how grateful you are to see me alive. Not making demands.” I watched as he chuckled with amusement.

“You sound as if you’re convinced I don’t have plans for your pussy after,” he said, his chuckle trailing off as he reached out to touch my cheek. He stroked a thumb over my lower lip, sinking the tip into my mouth. “The woman I saw was not victimized by what was done to her. She was an angry, vengeful goddess, hell-bent on the destruction of those who’d wronged her. She bit back, and now I want to feel those vicious little lips wrapped around my fucking cock.”

His thumb left my mouth, sliding around to the back of my head and guiding me forward. I bent slightly, rubbing my mouth against his shaft as he groaned. “How do you know I won’t bite again?” I asked, cocking my head to the side as I wrapped a hand around the base of his shaft and guided him to the angle I needed.

My lips pressed a single kiss against his head, smiling when he twitched in my grip.

“You like my cock far too much for that, Little One,” he said with a chuckle. “The faster you suck it, the faster I can get my tongue between your legs.”

I grinned at his impatience, shaking my head once before I spread my lips around the head of his cock and took him into my mouth. I was far too aware of our audience of one, the Huntsman, watching with his heavy stare on the side of my face.

I opened wider, keeping my eyes on Caelum’s as he wrapped a hand into the back of my wet hair, gathering it into his fist as he pushed me further down on his cock. I took a deep breath in, swallowing around him and allowing him to thrust deep. He groaned, tossing his head back as he used the hand at the back of my head to guide me onto him at the exact pace he wanted.

He moved quickly, driving himself closer to the edge of an orgasm within the confines of my mouth. He released me suddenly, allowing me to pull free and breathe as air returned to my lungs. It was almost too much, too close to the reality of drowning in the water below the surface.

But whereas that moment had been marked by fear, and fear alone, this was fear mingled with desire, dancing in an eternal waltz that felt rooted in time itself. As if the combination of fear and desire were always created to intertwine, coming together to create a symphony inside of me.

Caldris watched as I leaned forward, licking him from root to tip and then taking him into my mouth again. I worked him with slower, teasing swallows, flattening my tongue over his skin as I pulled back each time. “Good girl,” he murmured, petting my hair sweetly. “Remind Holt that there is only one male you will ever worship with that pretty mouth.”

I resisted the urge to glare at Caldris, knowing damn well he fully intended on worshiping me in the same way. I could live with that label being assigned to what I did to him, so long as it went both ways.

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