SAKALA
Fane looked ready to burst as we stared at each other, side by side, on his childhood bed. He splayed his wings out to the side to sit comfortably up in his cot. It was more than I could express how I appreciated he was giving me a choice, but I’d made my mind up well before I fell wingless over a mountain for him.
Plus, I was pretty sure we had already mated. Somehow. Without the whole … mating part.
Though I appreciated his willingness to give me a say, the tenseness of his body belied how he truly felt; he’d be devastated if I left.
Besides, I loved him.
I loved how he fought for me—the feral look in his eyes when I’d entered the room in cuffs. I loved how he’d chased my despair and hopelessness away with one glance in my direction.
Both of us had never been good with loud declarations of feelings. I stuck my nose in the air and gave him a superior smirk. “You’re tolerable. And ‘queen’ sounds nice.”
He gave me a dubious look at the last one.
“I mean, we will enact change. We can work on finding out how we bonded without … you know, and help educate younger drakens as we look into how these bonds work.”
There. That sounded reasonable and grown-up, right?
His arm snaked around my waist and held me to him, his claws lightly digging into the flesh at my hip.
“Tolerable.”
He put extra emphasis on the ‘T’ sound. I wasn’t sure why I winced when he said it. His face nuzzled into my neck, his voice nothing more than a growl in my ear.
“And do you normally risk your neck for people you find … tolerable?”
I didn’t resist as his hands pushed me down onto his pelvis, making his need clear.
“Just for you,” I reassured him, trying to sound like a smart ass and failing spectacularly. It was getting more difficult to remember why I’d resisted mating with him for so long.
He was calm under pressure. He knew how to get what he wanted without bullying, and he’d stood up to his father for me. He’d nearly lost his ability to fly for me.
No one else in my life had ever shown up for me like that before. Not my mother or father, not my friends.
Only Fane. It had always been Fane.
The urge to sink my teeth into his neck stole my breath and lit a fire in my veins. My scent shifted in the surrounding air, and Fane’s nostrils flared as he caught it.
“Sakala, don’t—”
“Shut up. I’m nervous and don’t want to tear an artery.”
Anyone else would have stiffened at the insult and gotten angry. Just a month ago, Fane probably would have to. But now his eyes sparked with mirth, his lips twitching as he suppressed a smile. In the blink of an eye, his wings disappeared into his back, and I pushed him all the way down on the cot.
Before I chickened out, I placed a hand on his face and pushed it to the side, baring his neck to me. He instantly went limp, submitting without a fight or a single tensed muscle.
I bit down, my fangs extending and plunging deep into his neck.
It was just as glorious as the first time. Hot and savory, his blood filled my soul first, well before I felt anything in my body. My embarrassment and anxiety melted away, replaced by such a strong sense of rightness and home that the moan that left my lips had nothing to do with lust.
And yet my own need was still there, vibrating just under the surface of my veins.
I was done waiting.
My fangs still embedded in his neck, one of my hands snuck down and yanked down Fane’s waistband. A rumble of confused need rumbled from his chest, but his draken instincts kept him still while I fed.
I wrapped one hand around his length and squeezed. His entire body jarred, dislodging my fangs from his throat. I licked the wound closed before my brain could catch up with my instincts, and I lined myself up with his cock.
I didn’t want to hesitate. I didn’t want to be scared.
Don’t think about it. Just do it.
Slowly, I sat down on him, wincing as his hard length slowly eased its way into my center. The stretch was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I didn’t stop until he was fully seated in me.
I breathed out, willing my body to relax. Impossibly, he sank deeper.
Fane made a choked sound. His claws dug into the mattress, torn shreds of it littering either side of me. His body shook, and I panicked. Had I done something wrong?
“I’m sorry! I don’t know how to do this, I—”
His hands went to my waist and squeezed in death grip, keeping me pinned on top of him. “If you stop now, at least I’ll die a happy draken. It’s taking everything in me to quell my instincts and not flip you over and fuck you so hard your silhouette leaves a permanent Sakala-shaped indent on my bed.”
I blinked at him. Oh. OH.
The least I could do was move a little, right? Curious, I shifted my hips. The discomfort was fading the longer I had to adjust to him, and that deep itch I’d felt before was coming back. Yet this time, I had something to scratch it with.
“Gods above, you’re murdering me.…”
It was my turn to smirk as I picked up my pace, undulating my hips and finding a rhythm that made my breath catch with his. He must have felt secure I wouldn’t stop because one hand wrapped my hair around his hand and pulled me toward him. A sharp sting of pain assaulted my shoulder as Fane bit down, but it only added to every sensation already flooding my body.
The raw feralness of it all broke something inside of me, unleashing a dam of emotions and aggression I hadn’t realized I’d been penning up. My hips snapped against his roughly, the ache deep in my core a pain I kept reaching for again and again. Because it wasn’t just pain—just beyond the precipice of discomfort lurked a spark of intangibles. I was determined to reach it.
“Sakala …”
Fane uttered my name like a prayer, the rough pad of his tongue licking over the wound in my shoulder like a possessed animal. The hand in my hair yanked me down harder to him, and he held one breast in his teeth. As he bit and nipped, the edge of all reason stretched in front of me, just barely beyond my grasp. Sweat poured down my back, but I couldn’t stop now. I refused to stop.
I abandoned all pretenses and rode him hard, not stopping even when his bamboo bed snapped and dropped the few remaining inches to the floor.
A flurry of footsteps pounded down the corridor in our direction. Before I could even consider pausing, Fane pulled my hair hard and dragged my nipple across his teeth.
“Let them see.”
The pride and awe in his eyes did it in the end. For all our foibles and fights, for all the harassment and hate, we respected each other. We cared for each other. We loved each other.
I came so hard that the room slid out of focus, my inner walls clenching and bearing down hard on his still rigid cock. His arms were the only thing holding me upright as every muscle in my body turned to liquid.
A feminine gasp from the door wasn’t even enough to snap me out of my warm, glorious, hazy stupor.
“Mother, unless you wish to see your heir mounted, get out of my room.”
Her haughty reply was just as fast. “I was just ensuring your injuries—”
I didn’t hear the rest. Or perhaps there was no more. Fane grabbed me and we rolled, my back hitting the floor just as I shifted to my human form.
Fane held one of my legs and tossed it over his shoulder like it was no more than a sack of wheat, and he sank into me before I realized what was happening. Slick and wet from my release, I could only groan as he began a brutal pace.
“Humans have a few good ideas,” he growled, snapping his hips as his claws dug into my ass and thighs. I could only hang onto the ride, enjoying every brutal minute. This was the same fierceness that led him to disobey his father for me and selflessly shield me in a fall while it nearly shredded his wings beyond repair.
And it was so sexy.
He didn’t last long, but I took it as a compliment. Fane came with a roar, shaking the walls around us as blood magick sparked and sizzled between us. A gentle hum filled my ears, and I felt the buzz under my veins. Was that the bond? Vasil seemed convinced it had already happened, but I was already more aware of Fane’s emotions as he slumped over me, completely spent.
He gathered me in his arms and kissed me everywhere—the top of my head, my lips, my nose, my cheeks.
“You will be the best queen. You will be the best … everything.”
I laughed despite myself, gently pushing him away so we could get off the ground and the sharp shards that were the remains of his cot.
“You remain biased,” I said instead, brushing myself off and readjusting my breast band and my skirt. Perhaps I’d get new clothes if I was actually a queen now, and all of that hadn’t been a joke.
“I just want to sleep,” Fane grumbled, turning on his stomach and shifting so his wings stretched high above him. He glanced behind his shoulders at me and froze.
“What?” I asked, half in a panic. Was my clothing torn? Had he injured me? Was he realizing what he’d done and regretting everything now that we’d finally settled the harsh sexual tension that had dogged us for so long?
“Your—Look!”
He pointed dumbly above me, and I twisted around in fear. A shock of bright turquoise caught the corner of my eye. I kept turning and turning, then realized it was my wing tips. Startled, I flared my wings high and studied them.
The very tips were bright turquoise, just like Fane’s main coloring. It quickly faded into a dark blue, which covered most of my wings. Toward the bottom of the joints, the wings turned so dark it looked almost black. Dark scales peppered my hands and shoulders, my arms and legs.
“I … Females take their mate’s colors,” I said dumbly, because what else was there to say? I’d completely forgotten about it, or just didn’t think of it at all. Of course my colors would change—that was the entire point of the mating. I didn’t even get to mourn the loss of my iridescent scales, though it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought it would have been. I still had white spots here and there, so my original coloring wasn’t gone forever. My body just now reflected more of the journey—of how I’d changed so much in so little time.
With a jolt, another realization took place.
What if, even now, I had a drakling growing in my womb?
“It’s beautiful,” Fane choked out, scrambling to his feet and rushing to reassure me.
“Not that,” I protested, unable to express how I felt in words. Not that I never wanted draklings, it was just … there was so much to do. I had so much life to live.
“Whatever your fear is, we will face it together, and conquer it just like you did with your fear of heights.”
I paused, thinking about it. When he put it that way, it seemed foolish. How could having a drakling ever compare to the pure terror of jumping off a cliff with no wings?
It couldn’t. There was no comparison. And yet, I’d do it all again in a heartbeat for Fane.
My mate.
No matter what the future held in store, Fane would support me in whatever my goals were. I could just imagine him now—encouraging me from the sidelines while I sparred or trained with the other guards, holding a squealing little draken with turquoise coloring.
Suddenly, it didn’t seem so terrifying.
“We need to see to your guests,” I said instead, pushing all my fears away. “If you are truly king, we need to deal with the war and the treaties, and find out what happened at the battle. That is first. Then we can delve into our bond if you wish, and figure out everything else from there.
His face beamed with pride.
“My strong, wise queen.”
I blushed.
“Get your ass down to the throne room,” I muttered, following just behind him since I wasn’t entirely sure where it was, having only been in there once or twice in my life.