28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

I almost cried as I came. I might have actually cried. My skin was damp everywhere with a combination of sweat and slick, what was a few tears on top of that?

I was just so… relieved. So relieved. So grateful. So overjoyed. So overflowing with love—my love for him and his love for me—that I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. Perhaps I’d been holding it back a little before now, not wanting to let myself get carried away in case things didn’t work out. But the floodgates had truly opened and I had more emotions swirling around inside my head than I knew what to do with.

Damen murmured words of praise and encouragement to me as pleasure radiated out through my body, finding his own release as my walls clenched tightly around him. As the intensity subsided, I realized that I’d tipped my neck as far to the side as I physically could, silently begging for his bite.

I needed it. Something inside of me was missing, and I was convinced that Damen’s mating mark was the only thing that could make it whole.

His knot expanded, briefly diverting my focus as I clung to him, breathing my way through the pleasurable stretch that walked right up to the edge of pain.

And then , he bit me.

Or, rather, sank his teeth into my throat and stayed there just long enough that I wondered if he was ever going to let go. It didn’t hurt the way I expected it to, based on how sharp his teeth were. I barely even felt where the skin was broken. The sensation seemed to have immediately traveled much deeper, settling into my very core.

Damen withdrew slowly and carefully, tending the spot with his rough tongue. I shifted ever so slightly, setting off another relentless wave of orgasms where his knot was pressing on some highly sensitive nerves. By the time my soul had returned to my body, only the very faintest sting on my neck reminded me that he’d just had his teeth in my throat.

Something was taking root deeper, though. A connection between us that went beyond just the love we shared. That felt tangible somehow. I rested my cheek on Damen’s shoulder, his arms banding around my back, holding me in place.

A purr rumbled out of his chest, and I immediately flattened my palms against it, wanting to feel the faint vibration of it through my hands.

“Talk to me, Iris. Are you okay? Are you hurting?”

“I’m good,” I promised, surprised at how slurred my words were. “I’m very good. I’m happy.”

“That’s what I want to hear. I’ve never been happier. I’m going to move us closer to the table so I can pour you some water. You’ll probably come a few times in the process,” he added, not sounding altogether sorry about that prospect.

As he predicted, I was a writhing, panting mess while he shifted the chair closer to the table, adjusting our positions so that we could comfortably eat and drink while knotted together.

It was extremely… sensory. Decadent, even.

“Here, you need to hydrate,” Damen murmured, pressing the rim of a cup to my lower lip. I took it out of his hand, quickly drinking the water that I hadn’t realized I desperately needed, followed by a small sip of wine from the goblet he passed me next. “Can I feed you?”

I nodded sleepily, happily opening my mouth whenever Damen lightly touched a piece of food to my lips.

“Did you get all of my favorite things?” I asked.

“Of course. Like I said, I was trying to make this romantic.”

“You definitely succeeded there. This was much more romantic than what I had planned for my proposal.”

He laughed, kissing the top of my head. “What did you have planned, princess?”

“I was just going to ask you. Maybe cry a little,” I admitted. “Not on purpose, but just because I was worried you’d say no.”

Damen scoffed. “As if I could. Open, I’ve got some cakes here.”

Eventually, his knot subsided, and we bathed in the bathroom of whatever guest room we were in before redressing and heading back to my room to sleep. Evidently, it was late enough that the rest of the palace was asleep, and it felt oddly rebellious to be walking around through the silent halls.

“This has been the best day of my life,” I told Damen sleepily, my head resting on his chest in bed while Tilly stretched herself out over both of our feet.

“Likewise, princess. But I’m going to make sure we have some even better ones.”

“Can you see my bite properly?” I asked Damen, smoothing down the front of the maxi dress I was wearing. It felt like it was made out of jersey cotton, and it was the most comfortable thing I’d ever put on. I really had to thank Astrid for all of the dresses she’d sourced, despite how busy she was furnishing Elverston House with human-realm comforts.

“Yes,” Damen said smugly, pausing from playing on the floor with Tilly to reply. I’d even pulled my hair back into a ponytail to really show it off. The couple of days we’d taken to ourselves had been incredible, but we couldn’t miss the Feast of the Modra. Ophelia had put so much work into organizing it, and the whole court was going to be there.

And while I was nervous about making our big debut as a mated couple, I was excited about it too. There was a possessiveness to it that I hadn’t expected to feel.

Damen was mine and I was his. I wanted everyone to know that.

“Are you ready?” I asked. “Do you need to stop by your room first? Yours is probably much bigger than mine,” I added, realizing that Damen was making sacrifices for me already.

“It is, but the courtyard with vegetation around the edges is far more comfortable for Tilly, and this room is easier for you to get to.” He was quiet for a moment. “Though, perhaps we could renovate a couple of the rooms in this row. Join them together, and make more space for us that way. We probably need a formal sitting area for visitors at the very least. You were already popular, princess. It’ll only get worse.”

He sighed dramatically, like this was the worst thing he’d ever heard.

“Do you not like me having visitors?”

“I don’t like sharing your attention, but have just enough self-awareness to know that this is selfish and unacceptable, and I’ll have to learn to deal with it,” Damen laughed.

“You’ll have plenty of visitors too,” I pointed out, moving toward him. Damen’s hands landed on my hips the moment I got close, and he pulled me down into his lap on the floor. Tilly flopped her head on my stomach, and I gave her some enthusiastic ear scritchies. “What with all the projects you’ve gotten involved in recently.”

“That’s your fault too,” he replied affectionately, kissing the top of my head before encouraging my head to the side, brushing kisses down my cheek and jaw until he got to the mating mark on my neck. “You were too wonderful. I had to learn to be less of a drain on society.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Probably,” Damen agreed. “Shall we go? The noise is dying down, likely most of the court is seated now.”

I exhaled a little shakily. “Okay.”

I’d sat at the high table before, but I’d never made the formal entrance with the king and queen down the center of the room with everyone watching. I had absolute faith in Damen and Tilly to keep me upright, but it was still a little intimidating.

We headed for the entryway, Ophelia’s excited squeal letting me know we’d arrived.

“You look so beautiful, Iris!” Ophelia said the moment we arrived, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze. “Oh, that ring—Damen, you did so good.”

“Would you expect any less of me?” he asked, standing a little taller next to me.

“No. When you apply yourself to something, you really go all in,” Ophelia said confidently. The king hummed in agreement, but didn’t offer any further remarks. I got the impression that from him, that was pretty high praise.

“What’s that smell?” I asked, leaning forward to try and get a better whiff.

“Ooh, so there’s an ancient tradition of decorating with garlands at Modra,” Ophelia replied enthusiastically. “They’re from a tree that grows all over the shadow realm and it smells so pretty, doesn’t it?”

“We haven’t bothered with it in recent years at the palace,” Allerick added gruffly. “Neither my father nor I have much of an eye for decorations and such.”

“I would have decorated every year if I’d been king,” Damen announced.

“You would have forgotten about the Modra entirely,” Allerick said dryly.

Damen laughed. “As you did last year, if I recall correctly.

“He’d have forgotten this year too, if it wasn’t for me,” Ophelia confided in me conspiratorially. “But Affra, my attendant, told me about it and I couldn’t let it pass by unacknowledged. “I know we all eat together every day, so that part isn’t particularly special, but I miss the festiveness of a proper holiday season.”

I nodded, though I’d never really experienced one. The holidays had been basically the same as any other day, except Nana and I had received leftovers from whatever meal the family had eaten downstairs.

In all honesty, the regular meals we shared that Nana cooked had been preferable to the stone-cold scraps we got on holidays as some misguided way of including us. And those days had always served as a reminder that I wasn’t a part of my family and I never would be.

After all those years of diligently telling Nana that I was grateful for those experiences, I could admit now that I wasn’t. I didn’t like those holiday meals. I wasn’t grateful for them. The life I had now was something I could be grateful for.

The noise in the dining hall briefly died down when the four of us entered, before building into a crescendo that had me clinging to Damen a little tighter in surprise. Were they stomping their feet? It was the cadence of applause, but a duller sound, and the ground vibrated beneath my feet.

“You all had such little faith in me,” Damen called, laughing loudly. “I’m shocked that Iris agreed to be my mate too, believe me. The wedding will be held as soon as we can arrange it.”

The stomping and whistles grew louder, and I felt myself relaxing into Damen’s side, my face aching from smiling. The sounds were raucous, but they were warm and welcoming at the same time.

“If you recall, it’s my job to make the introductions,” Allerick pointed out wryly, though he didn’t sound mad.

“Four stairs here,” Damen told me, gripping my arm a little more securely before responding to his brother. “Why should you get to do all the fun jobs?”

“Historically, you’ve not had much interest in any jobs.”

“I’m a new Shade now, clearly,” Damen teased. “I have a mate to impress. I can’t just lounge around all day.”

“Very true,” Ophelia agreed. “You don’t want to give her the ick.”

“The what?” Damen asked, though I had no idea either. That wasn’t a term that had come up in the films Nana had put on.

“I’ll explain later,” Ophelia said as Damen helped me into my seat. “Everyone is staring, we should probably talk about something more cultured.”

“Does anyone seem mad?” I whispered to Damen. “Aren’t they worried about having more weak Hunter genetics in the royal family?”

“They better not be,” he grumbled darkly, sounding surprisingly like Allerick for a moment. “But no, I don’t think so. Everyone is riding the high of the successful feeding trips to the human realm, and the next trip is tomorrow. Their focus is there for now.”

It wasn’t a forever solution then, but at least a problem we didn’t have to address right away. Besides, I had every intention of proving that I had value to add to the realm and to my new family, even if it wasn’t in the form of physical strength. We all had something to offer.

“Harlow is here,” Damen said cheerfully, narrating the surroundings for me. “Sitting with Ruvyn, looking very loved up—no mating mark. Or not that I can see, at least. All of the ex-Hunters in the realm are here with their partners—they’ve commandeered most of one long table. Sebastian is sitting with Cosima, that’s a new development.”

“I’m going to cry,” Ophelia sniffed. “It really wasn’t that long ago that I came here all by myself—wedding dress on, suitcase in hand, and now look at how many people are here! And they all look so happy. Isn’t this amazing?”

“Sure,” Damen agreed cautiously. “Are you feeling okay? You’re weepier than normal.”

She leaned in close, her hair brushing my shoulder to whisper to both of us. “I’m pregnant.”

The relief and joy in her voice had tears pooling in my eyes as I discreetly squeezed her hand, congratulating her in hushed tones so we didn’t draw any attention to ourselves. Based on her whispered announcement, I guessed she didn’t want to announce it publicly yet.

“Are you crying now?” Damen asked, bemused, though he was rubbing soothing circles between my shoulder blades. “Is it catching?”

“Be nice,” Allerick chided.

“This is me being nice!” Damen laughed. “We can talk more later when we don’t have an audience, but I’m so happy for you both.”

“And we’re happy for you,” Ophelia replied gently, nudging my engagement ring as she gave my hand another squeeze. “For us. And what the future will hold.”