Page 209 of A Soul to Embrace

He said this, yet he gave the corner of her jaw a messy kiss with his tongue darting out, before scraping his fangs against it like he wanted to nip her. Zylah shivered, and she did so repeatedly as he did it multiple times. His mouth made a slow path down the length of her jaw.

Everywhere his lips went, his warm, now fruity breath cascaded over it, causing her fur to puff from goosebumps trailing down her spine. She trembled and her pussy spasmed when he drew the points of his claw-like nails along her sternum and then down her abdomen.

“Jabez,” she moaned as his mouth lowered to her neck and nipped at it multiple times. Each one was mild in pain, as her flesh was protected against his fangs due to her fur.

She’d never had him be so utterly affectionate like this before, and she felt herself melting under the power of it.

“You’re so easy to arouse,” he muttered against her, then lifted his head up to lick over the corner of her jaw. His fingers stopped before he could reach her swelling slit and instead drifted up the side of her abdomen to make her arch.

Within seconds, Zylah had turned into a panting, needy mess, her sight saturated in deep purple. She mewled at each touch, at each time his tongue lashed her or his lips caressed the bone of her face. She slowly turned her snout to him and tried to lick his tongue.

He sucked his own back inside his mouth before she could, and he gave a quiet, muffled chuckle behind his lips. When she tried to turn so she could force him to accept her kiss, he gripped one of her antlers and yanked her head to the side.

“I told you,” he grated against her taut nape, nipping at it and causing a raspy pant to come from her. “The council will likely make their decision soon.”

“Then why?” she whined, her pussy throbbing due tohisministrations. Why was he instigating this if he had no intention of continuing?

“Because, my bunny, I’m a very devious man.” He kissed the side of her cheekbone. “And I’ve never been able to truly tease you like this before. You picked a mean mate for yourself.”

A small growl bubbled its way up her throat, her tongue curling in horny agitation as her maw parted, and he chuckled at her for it. Then, he bit into the side of her neck hard and cupped her left breast with his free hand, forcing a haunted moan from her.

Mean, huh?She wondered how she could do it back to him to see how he liked it!

Just as she went to retaliate, a loud knock at the door caused her to jump and him to freeze. He pulled away as he said, “See? I told you.”

Shewhimperedwhen he pushed her forward so he could get up from around her. As much as she knew the council was important, now she was just horny and frustrated.

As she was getting up, her orbs flared red at his back in annoyance when he opened the door and spoke to the person onthe other side. They handed him a bundle of material, and he closed the door just as she’d picked up her stained dress.

“Absolutely not,” he bit out, coming over to her as he held out some kind of plain cream-coloured dress. “When they brought us food, I asked them to procure clothing that may fit you. It lacks a design, as that’s cheaper, and I’ll obtain you something nicer once they’ve given us their approval.”

“You suddenly sound sure that they will,” she commented when he handed it to her.

Lacking in sleeves, the dress had a small amount of cleavage and went all the way down to the bottom of her calves. It was rather loose on her lithe form when she slipped it over her body, but it also felt too short, considering its design looked as though it should come to the backs of her ankles.

She didn’t expect his features to brighten with what could only be malicious humour. “Because they’ll be unable to resist what I’ve offered.”

Knowing him, and what she did of his past, Zylah could only imagine what that meant.

I’m beginning to not trust that look.It meant her enchanting thorn was – or had been – up to something naughty.

As Jabez had foreseen, he was right, and he could tell from the moment they walked into the conference chamber.

The councilmembers watched them enter with softer and more inquisitive gazes, and their postures lacked the sticks-up-their-arses quality from before. Ulric had his arms folded like he was a petulant child who hadn’t gotten his way, and his refusal to look upon Jabez was telling.

With Zylah kneeling at his side, he had to refrain from grinning like an overconfident bastard. He kept his back straight, leaned his head back superiorly, and let his eyes trail across the faces in front of him.

Silveria was the first to speak. Despite her gentle and angelic voice, she addressed them firmly. He had a feeling she was the one to deliver the news due to how soothing her voice was.

She looked down at a small pile of neatly stacked parchment in front of her. “We have decided to approve your stay within the city so long as you adhere to a few rules.”

I figured there would be restrictions placed upon us, Jabez thought, as his grin finally filled his features.So, here is wherewe’ll be staying.

More than ever, he was thankful for Zylah refocusing his thoughts when he’d been struggling to on his own. If it hadn’t been for her, he wouldn’t have had the clarity to speak of what likely helped them make this decision.

“Firstly, until we are fully confident that we can trust you, we will be assigning you a guard who will follow you wherever you go. Any form of evading them will be considered a violation, and you will only have a limited amount of strikes before we deem you incapable of following our rules. This means that you will be allowed the use of your magic within the city, and we believe that to be a fair compromise – unless you’d prefer it to be the other way around.”

He’d expected them to restrict him in some way, but not that he’d have an option of choosing how they did so.

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