Chapter 11

Eleven

Rhoswyn

T he next shrine is a boulder with some dirty strips of fabric knotted around it. It seems even more abandoned than the first. I almost feel bad that Danu isn’t revitalising it like she did before everything went down in Siabetha.

It’s a depressing sight to eat dinner next to, but we’re all hungry and more than a little bored. I certainly never expected having Caed in the group to make things so… quiet, but it has. Perhaps he’s being careful not to push his luck.

“I thought there were shrine keepers?” I mumble, just to break the silence.

I’m not expecting an answer, but Bree offers one anyway. “There are, but these ones are so far out of the way that those shrine keepers are often leshens or other fae who prefer the wild. To them, as long as the shrine is accessible, it’s perfect.”

“It’s a good thing. We don’t want our presence noted.” Drystan brushes past me with his own food.

“My lady,” Jaro says, and I jump, not having noticed him behind me. “Might I have a word?”

I peer up at him and nod warily, trying to read his expression as he leads me away from the camp. His gait is stiff, his shoulders tense, and I feel my chest tighten in response.

Is this… it? I’m not even sure what ‘it’ is, only that there’s some finality to this whole situation that I can’t understand.

Jaro stops so abruptly that I almost crash into him. The only reason I don’t is because he dodges like he’s trying to escape a physical blow.

“What did you want to talk about?” I begin, perching against a fallen tree because my knees are suddenly too weak to support my weight.

He paces away from me, then back again.

“I want your permission to join the front lines at Elfhame.”

What?

My breath whooshes out from my lungs.

“My wolf has been unstable since Aiyana’s trial,” he continues, filling the gap where my reply should’ve been. “He’s insistent on mating you, and I’m not strong enough to refuse him when you’re always so close. Last night I woke up, and I was standing right next to you, just watching you sleep. If I shift near you, he might take matters into his own hands.”

“You’re afraid of mating me?” I blink, because this wasn’t what I was expecting.

“You deserve a proper ceremony in the Grand Temple.” Jaro starts to pace, twigs snapping underfoot. “With your full Guard. Females spend weeks on those things. The entire queendom will be waiting to see what dress you choose. My wolf doesn’t care about any of that. He’d rather mark you with his teeth like an animal and drip our blood into the wound while you’re pinned to the dirt and writhing on my cock.”

My lower body clenches with heat at the visual, and a tiny shiver travels up my spine. Jaro doesn’t notice my reaction, or if he does, he puts it down to fear rather than arousal.

“I’m too much of a risk. My beast is on a hair trigger. If I go back to the city, I can be useful. I’ll protect Florian, take back the walls that I lost, and?—”

I hold up a hand, and he falls silent but doesn’t stop pacing. He moves like a caged animal, and I can practically feel the wolf’s displeasure.

His beast hates this idea as much as I do.

“Do you really want to leave?”

Jaro blinks. “Of course not, but it’s the only way.”

It takes me a second to breathe past the tightness that’s invaded my chest. “It’s not the only way. I could mate you instead.”

He halts mid-step, eyes wide. “You could?” Then he shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s the same problem we ran into when you were being crowned. As Nicnevin, you need to mate all of your Guard at the same time. I can’t ask that of you.”

Because just like before, that would mean mating Caed.

“I would do it in a heartbeat,” I whisper. “If it meant you didn’t have to leave.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “You would?”

I nod, swallowing. “In an instant. I understand Caed. I understand why he did what he did, and I… I’ve already mostly forgiven him.” I release the confession on a soft sigh, hating the way Jaro jerks like I’ve struck him. “I won’t act on it, not unless?—”

“You’ve forgiven him?” Incredulity and more than a little anger drip from every word.

I said ‘mostly’, but I don’t think this is the time for pettifogging.

“Don’t tell the others,” I plead. “Wait. I don’t mean it like that. I don’t want to influence their decision. Danu already asked me if I’d give him another chance before she cursed him, and I said yes. But I don’t think I really started to forgive him until he rescued me after I fell from the window. I was so weak. He could’ve betrayed me a hundred different times, but…he didn’t. And then he helped me break back into the palace to find you, even though we treated him awfully. But I shouldn’t have said anything. This”—I wave a hand ambiguously, trying to find a better way to put it—“drama in my Guard while he tries to earn your trust, isn’t for me to mess with.”

Chestnut eyes pierce mine, brows crinkled with confusion. “But if you want him?—”

I groan and drop my head into my hands. “ That . That’s exactly what I mean. Caed needs to earn your trust without my interference. You have to live with him for the rest of our lives and work with him. I won’t let you make a decision purely because you’re putting my wants before your own.” I’m not blind to the fact that so many of their actions are taken for my happiness or protection. “Besides, I don’t want to talk about him right now. I…I want to be your mate. I want your marks on me and mine on you. I?—”

With a snarl Jaro lunges for me, eyes wolf gold, only to twist at the last second. He lands in a crouch several feet away from me, hands curled to fists in the grass.

“You can’t say things like that,” he mutters, panting. “Rosie, I?—”

“I can charm your wolf to wait until we’re ready,” I say, before he can launch into another speech about how his leaving is our only option. “Would you let me?”

Jaro’s whole body literally stops moving midway through standing, until he’s caught in a comical half-squat.

“You don’t have to say yes,” I babble, when his stillness makes me nervous. “I just… I miss you. You’re my rock. If you left for Elfhame, I—I don’t know what I’d do.”

Between Drystan and Caed’s hostility, Bree’s quiet brooding, and Lore’s provocations, I’m pretty sure our entire group would implode before we even reached the Autumn Court. Jaro is my silent strength, sure, but he’s also the one member of my Guard who balances the others. That’s never been clearer than the past few weeks while he’s been struggling with this.

“We can find a different way,” I continue. “Perhaps I’ll just stay far away from you until your wolf calms down, or maybe?—”

“Rosie.”

My hands hit his chest, and I gasp. When did he move? Was he that fast, or was I just that distracted?

Probably a little of both, I admit to myself as I look up into those warm chestnut eyes.

“Jaro?”

“Do it. Charm me so I can’t mate you without the others,” he says. “Then tell me all about how much you want to wear my marks on your skin while I’m hilt-deep inside of you where I’ve wanted to be for the last month.”

Has it really only been a month? It feels like longer, though I suppose given the time since my fever and the length of his imprisonment, it must have been.

My cheeks flush red, and I offer him a little smile. “You really want that?”

The smouldering look in his eyes is enough to tell me yes, he really does. “Hurry up.”

I take a deep breath, drawing from Danu and meeting his eyes. My hands automatically reach up to cup his face, and he allows the touch, dipping his head until our breath mingles.

“Please don’t mate me until the others are ready, too,” I whisper, heart melting a little at the golden warmth flickering in his chestnut brown gaze. “But if you want to put me on my knees in the dirt… I really don’t mind that part at all.”

Surprise lights up his face for a heartbeat before heat rushes to take its place. Jaro closes the gap between our mouths, and I press up onto my tiptoes to meet him. One of his huge hands cups my ass, lifting me and pressing me into him as he devours me.

There’s a rip as my tunic is torn down the middle by impatient claws, followed by a growl when he takes hold of my leggings and drags them down my body along with my underwear. In seconds, I’m completely naked, but I don’t even have time to process that before he urges me to wrap my legs around him, then lowers to his knees.

Goddess, yes. Like this, the hard length of him presses into me just where I crave him the most.

Jaro lowers me down to the ground without breaking our kiss. His tongue strokes against mine with a feral intensity that makes me shiver. Beneath me, the gentle tickling of the cool grass against my sensitive wings contrasts deliciously with the heavy warmth of his hand cupping my breast. But it’s not enough. With a needy whine, I grind my pussy mercilessly against his erection, demanding more.

The fabric of his shirt is rough beneath my palms, and I pet his chest through it as I pour every ounce of longing I’ve felt over the last few weeks into the kiss.

I’m rewarded when the hand at my breast kneads firmly, massaging as I arch beneath him.

“Wanted to do this since the second your fever ended,” he growls against my mouth before he abandons the kiss and trails his lips down my jaw. The hair of his beard rasps against my sensitive skin, leaving goosebumps as he nuzzles the junction of my throat, scraping lightly at the skin there with his teeth.

He’s testing himself, I realise, making sure my charm has worked.

“Jaro.” My breathy complaint is followed by a harder squeeze of my breast that makes my nails dig into his shoulders.

“Don’t rush me, Rosie. I promised myself in the arena that once it was all over, I was going to bury myself in you and never leave.” My heart gives a little thu-thump. “Besides,” he adds, a little softer. “I want to be drenched in your dust at the end of this. The redcap needs a taste of his own medicine.”

As if the words remind him, his hands grip my hips, flipping me onto my elbows and knees until my face is in the glittering patch of grass beneath me and he’s staring at the fluttering culprits on my back.

“I’m going to touch your wings,” he whispers, and I nod. The glamour I use to cover them has long since fallen away, given my obvious distraction, and the fine membranes tremble with anticipation.

He kisses my nape and traces his mouth down my spine. His warm tongue licks and flicks around the base of my top left wing, then moves across to the other side. Goddess, how is it that every single suck seems to travel right through me?

The sensations zing straight to my clit, which throbs. Jaro’s hands on my hips keep me pinned as he continues alternating between all six wings, and I cry out as he grazes one shoulder blade lightly with his teeth.

“Let them hear you,” he groans, and it’s a primal sound that’s half-growl. “Let them fucking hear.”

My hands claw the dirt, sparkles filling the edge of my vision as he licks and nips down my spine, peppering worshipful kisses along the filaments of my wings as he goes. Every single swipe of his tongue makes my lower abdomen twist hungrily. I’m panting and moaning shamelessly by the time his mouth skates over the fullness of my ass.

Then he bends lower and starts to lap at my pussy from behind.

“Jaro!” I shriek as he focuses in on my clit.

The answering kiss of claws against my thighs, and the scrape of his beard against my sex, turns my entire body to liquid fire.

“Delicious,” he swears, laving the entrance to my sex without missing a beat. The vibration of his words adds another layer of pleasure, and his hold on my thighs becomes supportive. “So damn soft.”

I’m writhing, straining towards my approaching orgasm, when he spears his tongue into me and fucks me with it until my muscles tense and I shatter.

I’ve barely come down from the high when his cock surges roughly forward to take its place.

“Fuck!” I scream as my body struggles to take him.

I didn’t even hear him shed his clothes.

He freezes, but I know from experience he’s barely halfway in. “Rosie?”

His concern tugs at my heartstrings as I squirm, pinned by his massive cock. It’s been a while since I last had sex, and the stretch is insane, but it’s a good burn.

“I haven’t… since my fever… it didn’t feel…” I pant as I try to explain, and he growls.

“What?” The incredulity is thick in his voice. “But you had the others, and the redcap?—”

“You were missing .” I hiss as I try to move, and my head drops under the pressure. “And then you were hurting. I just…I couldn’t.”

“Shh, Rosie, it’s okay. Just breathe. Shit, if I’d known, I would’ve—” He pulls back, and I release a small snarl of my own, reaching behind me to force him to remain inside me.

“Let me get used to you,” I interrupt, moving incrementally again as an experiment. “Watch me take you.”

The husky suggestion draws a growl from him, and he leans back to oblige me, hands stroking my wings gently as I drop my hands and wiggle my ass, lifting and falling in tiny rocking motions until I can take him deeper.

My forehead meets the cool earth, and I shudder.

“You have no idea how gorgeous you are,” he says, and I glance over my shoulder to see him staring, enraptured, at the place where we’re joined. “You take me so well. Goddess!” The last is a curse as I drive back a little harder.

One last thrust and my ass meets his pelvis. The leather of his trousers is cool against the back of my thighs—proving he didn’t even have the patience to take them off—but his shirt is gone, and I breathe hard as I try to unravel all of the sensations. I’m so full. His size has always been a lot to take, but my fever must have made it more manageable, or perhaps this position is to blame, because I don’t remember feeling so insanely full before. Jaro’s cock flexes inside me, and I gasp.

“Do that again.”

He obliges, and I moan when he squeezes my ass at the same time.

“I’m going to move,” he murmurs. “Okay?”

“Please.” The word is a whine, drawn from the depths of my soul.

His hips snap back and then drive forward, and I want to weep at the sheer perfection of it. With every thrust, my body winds tighter and my soul seems to reach for his a little harder. As if he senses my struggle, he bends over, caging me in until my wings brush against the soft hair of his chest with each thrust.

His teeth nip at my ear, and he whispers, “When I mate you, I’m going to put my mark right here.” He presses a kiss to the side of my throat. “You can put yours wherever you like, but my wolf wants it to be visible so he can show off your claim.”

Something in me shudders with possessive joy at his words, and I arch my neck, baring more of the skin to him in offering.

“I want that too,” I admit, and his next thrust shoves me forward, wrenching a cry from my lips. “I want them all to know you’re mine.”

Whatever he might’ve said in reply is swallowed by a snarl of satisfaction. Then there are no more words, only the primal wet sounds of his cock hammering into my sopping pussy over and over and over.

One of his hands drops to my clit and flicks it in time with his thrusts. The extra stimulation is just what I need to come hard a second time.

Jaro goes wild. His snarls and growls echo off the trees surrounding us, and I can do little more than shudder and gasp around him as he powers through my orgasm, forcing his way past the clenching muscles to drench my insides with spurts of scorching cum. He keeps going when I expect him to soften, pumping shallowly inside me.

Without stopping, he rolls us again, until I’m seated on top of him, facing his boots.

“Ride me,” he murmurs. “I need you again. You’re so wet?—”

Cutting him off, I brace my hands on his leather-clad thighs and lift, sinking down slowly. It works better when I rotate my hips, allowing my own weight to pull me down onto him before lifting again. My tits bounce, nipples hard and begging for attention, and I abandon my grip on his thighs to cradle them in my palms.

A growl under his breath is all the warning I get before his hand tangles in the strands of my hair, holding me by the nape of my neck in a proprietary hold that forces my breasts out on display.

“Mine!” he roars.

I half-think I catch a glimpse of blue disappearing between the trees before my eyes fall closed and I shatter all over again with the claiming.

When my heart rate finally returns to normal, I’m sprawled against his chest. Jaro’s fingers trace lazy patterns in the whorls of sparkling violet dust that covers every inch of us.

“You’re a miracle,” he murmurs.

I run my fingers across his collarbone. “How is your wolf? Did I?—”

“He tried to bite you and draw your blood at least half a dozen times,” Jaro replies, scrubbing at his beard with a guilty expression. “Your magic held. You’re stronger than he is. Stronger than me…”

“You went through something no one should ever have to,” I say, pushing up onto my elbows. “You’ll find your balance again.”

I just don’t know if it will take until we form that mating bond.

“You can’t leave,” I add, but it’s less of an order and more of a plea.

He sighs, fingers stopping for a second. “I’ll stay, but if I lose control…”

“We’ll deal with it if it happens.”

As long as we stay together, we can fix anything.