Chapter Three

 

 

Kara felt her naked body upon the raised bed. She did everything in her power to awaken, but it was an exercise in futility. Groggy, and not altogether certain what had happened, she fought to open her eyelashes. The strangest sleepiness stole over her again, robbing her of any will to move. She moaned a little, but couldn’t seem to open her eyes.

“Isar,” she murmured. Her eyes still closed, she wet her lips. Her dreams felt fevered. She couldn’t remember where she was or how she’d gotten here, but in her dreams at least, her warlord had returned to her. “Isar, help me.”

Silence.

“’Twill be all right, nee’ka.”

Nee’ka—the Trystonni word for wife. Wife?

“I can’t marry you,” she whispered to her dream lover. “You will grow to resent me.”

“Never,” he softly rumbled out. “’Tis impossible, that.”

“You have to catch the evil one. That has always been more important to you than staying with me.”

Her dream lover seemed to hesitate. She could have sworn he even sighed. “Kara, I have made many mistakes in this life, yet none have been greater than leaving you for even a spell.”

“You’ll resent me.”

“Nay. Never that. I resent only mine own foolishness.”

She smiled as she drifted off to sleep again. “This isn’t really happening, but I still love hearing it.” Her voice trailed off. “Goodnight, my love.”

A deep slumber again overpowered her. Hallucinations, languid and arousing, caused her nipples to grow erect. They felt like they were being sucked on, but that made no sense. She moaned regardless, the sensation so erotic. It was as if she was back in Crystal City still in Isar’s unyielding arms.

Isar. The only man she’d ever loved.

He still belonged to her in her dreams.

 

‘Twas the Chief Priestess herself whose counsel Isar had sought after returning from one of his quests to hunt down Kara. Ari had vowed unto him that his wait would mayhap be long, but he would know victory in the end.

“Remember, warlord,” Her Holiness had told him, “the unconscious mind never lies.”

“I do not understand…”

“You will. A moon-rising shall come where you will.”

Isar had nodded at her cryptic words and taken his leave. Her prediction had haunted him for a time, but faded o’er the years. Yet now, as he watched Kara slumber…

He hadn’t known precisely how long the stunning that resulted from his commanding her body to stillness would cause her to sleep. He felt nigh unto crazed waiting for her to awaken, yet the words she whispered in her subdued state made the waiting more than worth it.

His hearts beat accelerated as he gazed down at Kara. She loved him. Leastways, ‘twas difficult to say how long ‘twould be afore Kara admitted her feelings again whilst awake, yet he now understood them to be true even so many Yessat-Years later. The unconscious mind never lies. The Chief Priestess’ words were cryptic no more.

“I love you too, my hearts.” His deep voice was a quiet rumble. “Forever.”

 

Kara moaned and batted her eyelashes as she slowly awoke. She had never experienced grogginess the likes of which she was combatting now. It was all-consuming, much like a patient trying to awaken from the effects of anesthesia. Her mind knew she needed to regain consciousness, but her body was utterly unaccommodating.

“I love you too, my hearts. Forever.”

She stilled. She knew that voice.

Memories flooded back—images, impressions, words, feelings, Isar—everything. The overstimulation was painful to the point of causing her to gasp. What was the last thing she remembered? Her eyes flew open. Her hands flew to her neck. The Trystonni bridal necklace.

The very piece of jewelry Klykka had warned her about.

The very piece of jewelry that, once worn, could never be removed.

The very piece of jewelry that had caused other Galian females to go missing, never to be heard from again.

Her pulse soared as she tugged at the thing that would not give even a little bit. Her ice-blue eyes widened and her breathing became labored. The bejeweled band around her neck made no sense. It was butter soft, yet unyielding. It was light as a feather, but heavier than a skyscraper when she tried to lift it.

“Calm down, little one. ‘Twill be all right.”

Her gaze flew in the general vicinity of the voice. Isar. She hadn’t been dreaming—not even for a moment. He was here. It was nine Yessat-Years since she’d ran from him, yet he’d caught her just as he’d vowed to.

“What have you done to me?” she breathed out as she forced herself to sit up. The motion was dizzying, almost causing her to fall on her back again. Her nipples stabbed out from under the bridal necklace. “Isar?”

He sat naked on a raised chair that had been positioned close to the bed. His dark head slowly came up, his golden gaze burning with intensity as it wandered all over her body before coming to rest on her face. “What I should have done long ago. I claimed you.”

Kara’s mouth worked up and down, but nothing came out. She cleared her throat. “Claimed? Is that like being married?”

“Aye.” She could feel him sensing her emotions about marriage—the earthly and Galian versions anyway. “Leastways, our bond is now eternal and unbreakable.”

Her hand came up to her head. Was he reading her mind?

“Only your emotions, pani.”

Her heart beat accelerated again. Her breasts heaved up and down in time with her breathing. “Can you feel this emotion?” she bit out. “I call it pissed.”

“Aye.” There was amusement emanating from him even though his expression didn’t show it. “You are vexed with your Sacred Mate.”

“I prefer pissed to vexed. Vexed isn’t strong enough.”

“As you will.”

His stoicism irked her. He could feel all her feelings yet she could barely guess his? Frustrated, she looked around for something to throw at him. Seeing nothing with hurling power, she settled for a vesha-hide pillow. Warbling out her annoyance, she jumped off the bed and made to run around him. A heavily muscled and tattooed arm stopped her. He pulled her into his lap.

“Let yourself become one with me. You will know my emotions the soonest, nee’ka.”

Nee’ka—the Trystonni word for wife. Kara thought to tell him to stop calling her that, but his hot breath against her neck sent shivers down her spine. And being in his arms again…

She wanted to cry. She wanted to throw herself on the bed like a child and cry her eyes out.

“I’m not supposed to want you,” she said quietly, refusing to look at him. “Klykka warned me that this necklace would make me disappear from Galis.”

“You can visit with your adoptive sister at any time of your choosing, pani.”

“But I can’t live there?”

“Nay. You will live on Xaerja with me.” He brushed one hand along her spine, making it tingle. “’Twill be your wish now to always be by my side, just as I will always crave to be at yours.”

She had felt that way before the bridal necklace. She couldn’t imagine her emotions growing even more intense now. But they were. She did nothing but sit on his lap and the desire to be even closer was already waging war within her.

“I don’t understand any of this,” she whispered.

“I know. Leastways, you will the soonest.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“’Tis the way of our holy union. The goddess has decreed it thusly and so it is.”

“I don’t believe in religion.”

“You don’t have to. The goddess will have her way whether you believe she exists or not.”

His breath. The warlord’s hot breath could do to her body what a thousand hands working simultaneously couldn’t. It had always been this way between them, yet now the effect was exponentially more searing. Again, she shivered.

“I can smell your arousal, Kara. Do not fight our consummation.”

She closed her eyes against his words. Her natural female instinct told her to run—even if there was zero chance of not being found—but his closeness was working its sensual magic on her. She latched onto a less heated, but still important, topic. “Did the Emperor really give me my name back?”

“Aye. Your given name is yours to keep. ‘Tis only your surname that changed when I claimed you.” She could sense he realized she was stalling. “You are now and forevermore Queen Kara K’ala Draji of Xaerja.”

Her eyes flicked back open, though she still didn’t look at him. It was both bizarre and beautiful to know she would never be called Kari again. She had lived with the name for more Yessat-Years than she could count, yet it had never felt like hers. Probably because it wasn’t.

“Look at me, Kara.”

The command was soft, yet compelling. She thought to disobey him, but his nearness was getting to her. Slowly, very slowly, she looked up into his face. Their gazes clashed. Her heartbeat sped up. “Isar…”

Kara had been about to say something, but whatever it had been was quickly forgotten as her gaze wandered to his forehead. Her eyes widened. “The skull tattoo. Where is it?”

“Gone.”

She did a quick once-over of the rest of his body. He was still as heavily tattooed as he was muscled; only the singular tattoo on his forehead was missing. She shook her head slightly. “I don’t understand.”

“I had it removed. You were never o’erly fond of it from the first.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “You removed it for me?”

“Aye. For you and because of you.” At her look of confusion he clarified, “There was a time when I had vowed never to remove the skull given to me by the evil one until it was dead. Then you came into my life, into my hearts, and I realized I needed to love you more than I needed to hate it.”

“Isar.”

“You loved me once, pani. Can you love me again?”

Her heart was in her eyes. “I think you already know I never stopped.”

One second she was sitting in his lap and a blink of an eye later he was carrying her to the raised bed. He laid her upon it with a near reverence, coming down on top of her as if afraid she might try to escape. He pinned her beneath him, definitively and possessively. They could feel each other’s pulses rising, could feel the other’s need as if it was their own.

Every earthly and Galian sensibility Kara had told her mind to fight, to flee. Her heart, however, told her she was home. Anywhere Isar was was home.

“You belong to me,” Isar told her, as if sensing the competing emotions within her. Perhaps he did. “You belong to me and with me, Kara K’ala Draji.”

Her eyes misted with nine years of pent-up yearning. She had missed him so much—so fucking much—and now he was with her again. To hell with her nervous mind. She, for once, was following her long ago captured heart.

He grabbed a swath of her wine-red curls and wrapped it around his hand. Apparently confident she wasn’t going anywhere, he settled himself at the juncture of her thighs. Her breathing hitched, mimicking his own.

“I’ve missed you, pani,” he rasped out. “Never leave me again.”

Isar plunged inside her pussy, forcing her to gasp. She was tight and tender down there for it had been nine years since she’d been with him or any man, yet Kara eagerly wrapped her legs around his hips in anticipation. He did not disappoint. He fucked her just as he always had—dominantly and possessively.

“Isar.”

His nostrils flared as he impaled her with his cock, over and over, again and again. “Mine,” he growled. He took her fast and deep, grabbing first one of her tits and then the other with his free hand and massaging their nipples. He kept her long curls wrapped around his other massive hand.

Kara moaned as he fucked her, groaning as he hit a particularly sensitive spot. Isar took note and fucked her deeper, hitting her sweet spot again and again. She cried out, the erotic sensations he was producing overwhelming. Perspiration soaked skin slapped against perspiration soaked skin. Their breathing, labored, was one.

“My wife,” he ground out, fucking her impossibly harder. “I have missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Kara found his steely buttocks and squeezed. “More than you can know.”

His jaw was tight. “I can feel your emotions, pani,” he gritted out between thrusts, “Can you feel mine?”

Through the haze of eroticism and sensuality, Kara realized that she could, yet she could no more put his emotions into words than she could stop wanting him. All her mind could register was his deepest emotions—longing and need. He had been barren without her by his side during their years of separation. Barren, lonely, and indescribably desperate to get her back. The knowledge made her eyes burn with unshed tears.

“I’ll never leave you again,” she promised. “I don’t understand our bond, but I’m done questioning it.”

Isar rewarded her words with the deepest, fastest, most primitive fuck of her life. He growled low into her ear as he plunged in and out of her, fucking her tight pussy with primal ownership. The sound of her cunt sucking him back in with every upthrust permeated the air. He fucked her harder and harder, deeper and deeper, once, twice, three times more…

“Oh my God!” Kara wailed, the arousal in her belly knotting and careening. She burst on a groan. “Isar!”

Every muscle in his body tensed. He roared out his orgasm, still fucking her hard.

Trained as a High Mystik in the erotic arts, Kara used the power of the bridal necklace to give them one, final, combined orgasm. It proved to be the most all-consuming pleasure either of them had ever before experienced.

The bridal necklace pulsed an array of colors. Blood rushed to her clit and nipples, making them stiff and sensitive. Blood rushed to her face, heating it. Kara screamed as the most intense orgasm of her life tore through her belly. Isar growled in response, her orgasm giving him another, harder one. They kept fucking each other as they rode out the waves of pleasure that were so intense as to border on pain.

His breathing heavy, his skin slick with perspiration, Isar found the strength to roll off his beloved bride before his massive size did her harm. Kara, her breathing just as labored and her skin just as slick, felt his emotions and rolled up against him. Within seconds, they were both fast asleep.

Unconscious though they were, their bodies managed to tangle even in slumber. They were one now—forever and always.

 

* * * * *

Meanwhile, aboard ship…

 

“Sweet goddess,” Emperor Zor panted. “Leastways, we now know for a certainty what happens when a High Mystik wears the bridal necklace.”

“’Twas the biggest spurt of my life,” King Dak groaned. “Geris will kill me.”

King Kil crawled on all fours to where his three brothers lay. He looked grimly at King Rem. “We have no time for sleeping!”

But Rem was already snoring—deeply and fully satiated.

“Mayhap we have all been removed from our nee’kas o’er long,” Zor managed to say between pants. His expression was that of an Emperor defeated. “Dak and Kil! I forbid you to fall aslee—”

‘Twas the last words Zor said before falling into slumber.

A High Mystik had the ability to make everyone within a certain distance feel her arousal as though it was their own. Kara had done so whether aware of it or not. Hopeless and helpless, Dak and Kil gave up the fight. Within seconds they were snoring alongside their brothers.

Princess Dari walked around the gastrolight-cruiser’s main compartment, dodging sleeping warriors left and right. She sighed as she crossed her arms and stared down at her own sleeping husband. Gio was, as Kari—now Kara—would say, totally out of it.

“Warriors,” she muttered. She shrugged her shoulders. “They are nigh unto wimps.”