Page 111 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
Aldrin doesn’t give me a chance to recover from my daze. He rolls on top of me, covering my entire body with his as he kisses me deeply. I thread my fingers into his hair, pulled back in a loose bun, then down the rippling muscles of his back, as he takes my lower lip in his teeth. My hands reach the waistband of his sleep trousers and dip beneath them to grab his ass, while his own roam over my body.
He pulls back from me, holding himself up on arms that shake, gazing at me with glazed eyes. “I have never been so afraid in my life. Especially when your body began to fall apart. I thought I was losing you.” His voice breaks.
I lean up and kiss his soft lips again, relishing the way his stubble brushes my skin. I loop an arm around his neck and pull him down on me. “I’m here now. With this ability, I can keep coming back to you.” I lean in again, slipping my tongue into his mouth.
“You can teleport?” He pulls away for only a heartbeat before clashing with me again.
“I guess I can.” I am far too numb to be shocked by the fact, though I should be. I wrap my legs around his waist, hatingthe layers of fabric between us. Gods, he is already hard. “I can teleport toyoubecause of the bond. The gods know what else I can do.”
Aldrin pins me to the bed beneath him, grabbing my wrists in one hand and holding them above my head as his amber eyes become hooded and focused. He lines us up and drags his huge cock across the apex of my core through our clothes. I let out a whimper as pleasure burns through me and my body shudders beneath him. He does it a second time and my eyes roll back into my head.
I need more.
I loosen one hand from his grasp and loop it into the waistband of his pants, attempting to drag them down over his hips, while he garbles something low and incomprehensible.
“One day, dear heart, you are going to fall asleep in my bed every night and wake there every morning. No one, no fucking one, is going to keep us apart.” He clumsily pulls at the laces at my neckline while angling his hips to help me undress him.
I don’t even get to pull out his cock before that golden light swirls in angry tendrils around me.
Aldrin clutches me tighter, desperation filling his eyes. “Keira! No, Keira! Stay with me.”
It is too late. I fall to ash a second time.
When I reassemble on the pallet within the dungeon, it is with three orcs staring at me in shock through the bars, and Titania’s angry voice yelling down the corridor as the distant gates are opened for her.
“Just wait, Florian, until I see his fucking queen! Iwillget answers from her,” Titania roars. “She thinks she can defyme! Threatenmewith dragons and my own army!”
My only reassurance is that the High Chancellor doesn’t know I escaped my cell, even for a handful of minutes, and didn’t realize she called me back with the bargain. I frantically fix thehalf-undone lacing at my neckline and stand. I will meet her on my feet.
Titania rages at me for a long time, all semblance of her usual cool sassiness gone. Her face is flushed and spit flies from her lips, her long nails flicking wildly. I am called a whore, my intelligence is insulted in a creative variety of ways, and my soul is condemned to both the deepest, darkest abyss and the Soul Ripper itself. I stand there unflinching the entire time, arms crossed over my chest and chin held high, while she loses her mind.
If she planned to torture me herself, she wouldn’t waste her energy spilling vile words.
Titania leaves without asking me a single question. She merely turns on Florian on her way out. “Get every last detail out of her. Do whatever it was you did last time. I want it all. Aldrin’s plans and his supporters. Do not disappoint me!”
Florian,Drake, doesn’t open the door to my cell until the clacking of her heels disappears completely, along with the heavier footsteps of her guards. Those red eyes are so unnerving, especially when they crinkle with softness. “How are you holding up?”
My lip wobbles and I so badly want to keep it all together, but tears leak from the corners of my eyes. “How do we get out of this mess? I can’t see a way forward, or what our next move should be.”
He quickly opens the gate and throws his arms around me in a tight embrace. I grip him like my life depends on it, closing my eyes so I don’t have to see Florian’s face.
Drake pulls back and holds me at arm’s length. “First, we need to worry about getting you out of this cage. You are far too much of an asset to our cause to keep you rotting in here. We need you to fight the next battles. Not to mention, Aldrin is probably going insane.”
I brush away my tears. For the first time since entering these dungeons, I feel like I can breathe with Drake in here with me. He is like a wall of muscle, and I know our enemies would have to go through him before they could harm me. I am suddenly glad he wasn’t here when Torin wanted to torture me, because I know with certainty that his cover would have been blown.
“I can leave this cell,” I whisper, and Drake’s eyebrows fly up. “Somehow, I can step through the mate bond and arrive at Aldrin’s side. I don’t know if I can do more than that, but it is something. Titania pulled me back the same way, through the bond of the bargain.”
“You did that?” His voice pitches high. “Tonight?”
“Yeah,” one of the orcs calls out. “She turned into a pile of ash that instantly dissipated, then returned the same way. Near gave us a heart attack. Your queen upon that throne is the only way we are getting out of this cell and our princess is getting the respect and freedom she deserves.”
Drake nods to them. “Remember that sentiment, because you’re not going to like what we have planned next.”
The grind of the gates down the corridor opening then closing, their locks turning, echoes through the cells. Drakequickly steps away from me. Slow footsteps approach, then Rainier and Sasha round the corner and come into full view. I let out a long breath of relief to see the princess unharmed by Torin.
Sasha’s face drops as she looks past me, straight to the three orcs. She rushes to the bars of their cage and thrusts her arms through, reaching for them. They crowd around her, the four of them awkwardly embracing the best they can with so many bodies and bars between them. It is the oddest sight: multiple green, bulky arms wrapping around her tiny back and waist with tenderness. Those brutal warriors close their eyes as their expressions shutter.
“Oh gods, Maxin, Kazimir, Nazaar—I am so sorry I haven’t been able to come down here and see you.”
