Sadie

“I look like a pumpkin,”

I grumbled, staring at myself in the mirror. I wore a light flowing gown in a shade of deep orange that ruffled and cascaded down around my body doing nothing to accentuate my figure but rather hide it.

“Like a royal pumpkin,”

Maez countered as she finished tying my hair back in a matching orange scarf. “Besides, do you want to entice any of the Onyx Wolves? Here.” She added the cream-colored veil over the top, the beads and lace obscuring my face. “This will buy us some time. Tadei will love the idea of being the first of his court to gaze upon your face.”

“It’s an archaic old Wolf custom,”

I muttered.

“So is selling off brides to the highest bidder. We’re okay with playing that game, so let’s be okay playing this one. It strokes his ego,”

Maez said. “And gives me more time to set up our escape plan. Navin will present you to the court and ask for his bounty. You walk slowly. Draw this thing out.”

“I can barely see through this thing,”

I snarled as I pulled the veil off and set it on the kitchen table. “One belt of knives under the dress. Just one—”

“Nope,”

Maez said, holding up her hand. “You are a damsel in distress. Tadei is your knight in shining armor who is saving you from your human captor. Just follow the plan. Indulge the King and his brother. You’re the one who is so adamant this vase can’t be in enemy hands.”

I curled my lip. “Fine.”

I shimmied back out of the dress, stepping out into just my undergarments right as Navin walked through the curtains.

He froze, only his eyes moving to rove my figure for a split second before he cleared his throat and turned around. “Sorry,”

he said, “I have the rope to bind your hands with.”

“Maez.”

I cut her a look. “Didn’t you say you wanted to contact Briar?”

“I can’t feel her in my mind,”

Maez muttered. “She’s not in her Wolf form right now.”

“Still,”

I pushed. “You should shift one more time anyway.” I play-punched her in the arm. “We want you to be strong and ready.”

“Stick to the eastern side of the jungle, though,”

Navin said, jutting his chin in the direction of the trees we were parked beside. “Stay in the thickest parts. If the trees start thinning, you’re too close to the edge.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Maez looked at me and then Navin and then back at me before grumbling, “To be clear, Navin, you want me to go not too far, but far enough not to hear anything.”

I glowered at her as both Navin and I blushed, but she just gave us a wink and wandered off.

When she was gone, Navin turned to me again, his eyes now hungry.

“Are you ready for this?”

he asked, looking at the dress strewn across the table.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

I tried to force confidence into my voice, but in truth my heart thundered in my chest. Finally, I relented and added, “There are so many ways tomorrow could go wrong. So many points at which it could all fall apart.” Navin prowled closer. “And we need things to go our way at every turn to get out of there with our heads still attached to our bodies.”

“I have faith,”

he said, approaching until we were toe to toe. “In you. In us. It will work out.”

My gaze dropped to the silver rope in his hands. “It looks like metal,”

I said as I traced my hand over the painted fabric. The way the knots were woven made it appear almost like chain mail. At a distance they’d certainly be convincing.

“The platform is a good place for acquiring all manner of things.”

A thoughtful hum resonated through his pursed lips. “The Wolves will think you can’t escape these bindings,” he said, his warm breath whispering across my cheek. “But you will still be in control.” He lifted the rope out of my touch, and I craned my neck up at him as he said, “Hold out your wrists.” Breathlessly, I did as he commanded. “Like this.” He tied the rope around my wrists, tucking the ends in the knot between, the glinting silver fabric looking like metal cuffs. “Good?” he asked.

My chest rose and fell faster as I nodded. “Good.”

His other hand reached out and skimmed down my side before settling on my hip, leaving pinpricks in his wake. “I promise I’ll get you out of there,”

he vowed. “I promise I’ll keep us safe.”

I looked up at him, holding those bronze storming eyes. “I know.”

He bent down and ever so slowly kissed me. His warm lips moving over my own, the feeling making heat bloom low in my belly. His hands slid from my hips, up my torso, and to my arms, lifting them up until my bound hands stretched up above me. I arched my brow curiously as he backed me up a step and lifted the rope of my tied wrists to the coat hook behind me. It was just high enough that my heels lifted, and I had to stretch up onto the balls of my feet.

Navin smiled down at me, one hand still poised on the hook above me as he casually leaned over me. “This is just a taste of what’s to come when we are free of this place,”

he murmured, dropping another lavishing kiss to my lips before stepping back and tugging my scarf down so it covered my eyes.

I gasped, suddenly more attuned to every sensation building in my body. My pulse thrummed through me as I waited, unseeing, wondering where he would touch next. As I teetered there on tiptoes, my ears strained to hear his breath, the sounds of him moving in front of me, the telltale thump of clothes hitting the floor.

I jumped when his two broad hands splayed across my outer thighs. Those hands moved up and down once before his fingers pressed in, squeezing my muscled flesh. I pressed my lips together, the anticipation already making me want to claw up a wall.

I felt his hot breath on my low belly, the air skittering down to the thin fabric between my legs. He pressed his lips to my mound and murmured, “You’re already so wet for me, aren’t you?”

“Yes,”

I whispered, my hips bucking to try to move that mouth lower.

His breathy chuckle danced across my flesh. He hooked a finger into my undergarments and pulled them down until they were pooled around my feet. I stepped out of them as those strong hands steadied my hips.

Lips trailed up my inner thigh. “Whatever happens in the palace tomorrow. Whatever Tadei says to you. I need you to remember one thing.”

“What?”

I asked breathlessly.

“You’re mine, ,”

Navin murmured, his breath tickling the hair between my legs. “No Wolf will ever claim you.” My throat bobbed. “No mouth will ever taste you. No cock will ever fill you.

“Now tell me I’m yours.”

His finger trailed down my folds and I shuddered, my head dropping back as he parted my flesh. His finger stilled, his breath hot on my pussy, waiting, and I let out a desperate groan.

“You’re mine,” I panted.

With a satisfied hum, he lowered his mouth and tasted me. I gasped, the sensation even more heightened with my eyes covered and my hands bound. He started in slow, leisurely licks that already had me climbing toward my climax. As he began moving faster, circling my clit, I let out a low moan. I squirmed against his mouth, needing something to hold on to, feeling like I might float away with the sensations building within me.

Reading my body, Navin hooked one of my knees over his shoulder and continued his wanton feast. His hand squeezed the flesh of my ass as I ground into him, leveraging the new angle to move him right where I wanted. Each circle of his tongue made my breath catch. My body was so sensitive to his touch as he played me better than any of his many instruments. He was my conductor, and my cries of pleasure were his song.

When Navin’s other hand trailed up the inside of my thigh and his finger poised at my wet entrance, I shook my head.

“Wait,”

I moaned and his fingers stilled. “I want all of you.”

His groan vibrated against my pussy, making my clit throb and pushing me closer toward an orgasm I knew was so close to the surface now. He released me, my breathing coming out in desperate heaves. I waited there, teetering so close to release, desperate to feel anchored by his touch again.

His hand lifted my bound wrists off the hook and looped my arms around his neck, leaving my eyes covered. My torso and belly brushed against his warm bare skin, the feeling electrifying. He lifted me by my ass, and I clung to him, unseeing, as he walked me down to the low couches and splayed me across the patchwork fabric.

I bit my lower lip at the feel of his hard length on my belly. Navin tugged up on the scarf, pulling it free, my hair spilling across the couch under me. His face hovered above mine, his eyes filled with heat. He pressed the tip of his cock to my entrance and my eyes fluttered closed.

“Look at me,”

he commanded, and my eyes opened again. He pushed into me an inch and my mouth dropped open into a perfect O. “I love you,” he whispered as he pushed in farther. “I won’t let anything happen to you tomorrow.” His face was so open and raw as the feeling between my legs grew until he filled me to the hilt. “I swear it on my life. You are the bravest of warriors, but you can rely on me, too. I am stronger than you know. I will fight any human, Wolf, or monster who tries to tear us apart, .”

Tears misted in my eyes, the emotion catching me by surprise. Normally it was me who did all the fighting. I was always the one vowing to slay my enemies and rain vengeance on loved ones’ foes. Knowing I didn’t always have to be the fighter, knowing in my deepest soul that Navin meant every word of love and protection, made a tear slide down my cheek.

“I love you,”

I said breathlessly, and Navin kissed that tear away. Just that slightest action made him move inside me and we both let out a unified moan. I relished the way we joined, never in my life feeling such a completion as when he and I were together.

He pulled out and pushed back in. Slow rolling thrusts that coaxed me back up toward the precipice I once teetered on. My bound hands threaded into his hair, pulling his lips to mine as he picked up speed again. I tilted my hips, meeting each of his pumps with a rocking of my own. He buried himself deep inside me, hitting a spot that made me cry out every time the tip of his cock grazed it. I was already so close, my thighs trembling as they tried to clench around his hips. Navin moved faster, his movements growing erratic as he grew closer to his own release.

“Yes,”

I moaned. “Gods, yes.” He rode me faster, pushing me higher and higher.

“,”

he groaned, burying his face into the crook of my neck as he drove into me in deep, wild thrusts.

I tried to speak, tried to form words, but only a choked cry of ecstasy escaped my lips as my orgasm tore through me. My vision spotted, the force of it feeling like I was falling through the sky. My thighs gripped him tighter as my body clenched around him and he spilled into me. His fingernails clawed into my skin as his climax shattered him, until I couldn’t tell where one moan ended and another began as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through me.

With a final breath Navin collapsed to my side and gathered me into his arms. And I knew then that this wasn’t just to calm the anxiety we both felt for tomorrow, but also to remind us of all we had to fight for. Tomorrow would go well because it had to, because I needed hundreds of more nights in his arms, listening to our breathing slow and our heart rates steady. This moment was everything I wanted my future to be.