Chapter 32

Thirty-Two

Lorcan

R ose wants her high priestess, so her high priestess she shall have.

I pop into Kitarni’s room in Siabetha Temple with a grin…

Only to find it empty.

Odd. She’s been staying in relative comfort in this room since we escaped the city. Maybe she got fed up with the lack of a view. It is basically a cell, after all, even with all the comforts it holds. Well, this is rude. She could’ve at least told me…

I blink again, this time focusing on the dryad herself while making sure I have a glamour in place, just in case.

Last time, she started lecturing me about being discreet when I visited her. Something about her technically being a prisoner.

Eh, our definitions of prison are different. Mine has more spikes and torture and fun stuff. Definitely less cushions and silk sheets.

When I reappear, I’m in a temple courtyard. For a second, the chimes distract me as they always do, and I have to shake off their effects and dart behind a fancy bush in one corner to watch as Kitarni carefully cleans off a blade on the sleeve of her robe.

They’ve set up the courtyard for the challenge, and around her five dead bodies are splattered with the remnants of colourful potions and bright shiny blood.

Damn. I’m late to the party. Why does everyone always do the fun stuff without me?

“Is that all?” she demands of the gathered priests across the opposite wall.

It seems like every single priest and all of the Temple Guard is gathered there, but it’s the five with fancy robes in the front whom the dryad is addressing.

“We will convene.” The high fae at the front is visibly sweating.

“No. You will not.” Kitarni’s doing that thing again, the calm-but-angry voice that makes me want to grin. “The laws of the Temple are clear, and I have humoured you by allowing you to stretch them to their furthest extent for long enough. I have won six challenges since the one I lost. I’ve endured your endless stalling with grace, and now neither Danu nor I shall suffer your impertinence a second longer.”

The dryad pulls herself up to her full height, the bushy green leaves of her hair vibrating.

“I am the High Priestess of Danu. Queen Rhoswyn and her Guard have been proclaimed as the Goddess’s chosen by the Goddess herself in front of hundreds of witnesses at her coronation. If anyone doubts that, they’re either a fool or a traitor to the fae and certainly not worthy of office in this sacred institution. If you wish to challenge me again, do it yourselves. I will enjoy meting the Goddess’s justice on a bunch of elitist heretics, but I will face no more of your challengers.”

Then she drops the best blow of all. “I hereby declare all of you—including the Grand Clerics who are absent—apostates. Your ranks and titles are stripped, and your positions will be filled in the coming days by elected servants of Danu.”

“Boom!” I blink into place beside her with a grin. “Does that mean I can stab them now?”

“You can’t do that!” the high fae splutters. “Temple Guard, I order you to—” A pixie in armour flies forward, her arms crossed over her chest. “The Temple Guard sides with the High Priestess. The Goddess’s will in this has been clear from the moment she won the first challenge. Leave the grounds immediately, or we will make you.”

Ooh, I love pixies. Maybe she’ll eat him if he argues.

I really, really hope he tries.

The rest of the Grand Clerics bow stiffly, removing their shiny bronze badges of office. Two throw them to the ground in anger, but the majority seem resigned to their fate, handing off their badges to other priests instead.

Still, I mark the two angry ones, shooting them grins filled with just the right amount of teeth before miming kicking them on their lazy asses.

“Lorcan.” Kitarni’s censure is familiar as it is annoying. “What news?”

Blowing out a bored breath—because I am not a messenger—I shrug. “Rose misses you, so I came to fetch you. She got pissed off with Cressidick, and now she’s determined to start lots of bloody battles across the northern?—”

“Pissed off with Cressida, how?” Kitarni’s eyes sharpen as she grabs my arm. “You didn’t mention anything about your history with her, did you? Rose’s training is crucial…”

I can’t help it. I roll my eyes.

“I didn’t bore her with a long recital of how poor Cressidick’s cock-sucking is, or how fun her methods of breaking-in new assassins are. The autumn bitch-queen angered Rose all by herself! She made her nephew force-mate Praedra, probably so he wouldn’t wither any more of her legs, if I had to guess.”

Not that Cressidick has any more legs to wither. Maybe he’d shrivel an arm next? A tit?

That stupid kid is always withering the wrong people. First his parents, then his aunt when she took him in. If I hadn’t knocked the little fucker out, he would probably have killed her in a toddler tantrum.

Being on babysitting duty for a decade after that was so not worth it. I should’ve just let him kill her.

“Anyway, Rose got deadly.” My hat pops up again, giving away the fact that my cock has turned rock hard at the memory. “But unfortunately no one died, well, except a whole camp of Fomorians when Caed got pissy waiting for us to rescue him.”

Kitarni’s lichen-covered brows draw closer and closer together as I speak. I’ve got to wrap this up since it’s clearly too complex for her after the long and bloody day she’s enjoyed.

“Now Rose wants to know if she can send me to kill Mervyn. So… come back with me and tell her I can kill him?” I offer her my best, and most fearsome grin.

Kitarni hums under her breath. “I cannot.”

My grin falls. “As in… no stabbing? Even a little? I’ll even make it a quick death…”

“No. I mean, I can’t leave the Temple. I need to install new Grand Clerics and fix this schism that Mervyn created swiftly. The Temple Guard must be mobilised if Cressida’s forces are as decimated as she claims and we don’t have the support of the Summer Court. We need numbers.”

Yes, obviously. But she’s missing the important stuff

“So… Stabbing is still on the table?”

Kitarni pauses, then nods. “I just declared him an apostate.” A feral little grin splits the rough bark of her lips, making eagerness pool in my gut. “Rose’s choice won’t affect the Temple. In fact, I’m certain it would win her a little more respect from the rest of the fae—even the seelie, now that he’s been publicly disgraced. I am surprised, however, that she’s considering it. Are you pressuring her?”

“Me? Noooo. Would I have come to find you for her if I was?”

I’m the opposite of pressure. The least pressure-ish of all her mates.

Kitarni tips her head to one side. “I hoped that my absence would give her an opportunity to trust her gut without second guessing herself. The choice is hers. Now, I have some housekeeping to do.” She looks over her shoulder towards the priests still gathered in a huddle. “Hurry back to her and keep her safe.”

Like I need telling twice.

Shooting the dryad a wink, I tip my hat to her and blink straight back?—

Into the middle of an argument.

They’re gathered around the fire, though the priest and his mate have disappeared. Bree is perched on a nearby branch, grimacing at the tension that’s thick in the air as our mate goes toe-to-toe with Drystan.

“I just want to know why you’re all avoiding the subject!” Rose is actually trembling, and I turn my glare on the dullahan, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that he’s to blame for this.

My pretty pet looks so gorgeous when she’s all fired up, but not like this. Not stressed to the point of shaking.

“Well, he’s here now, so you can ask him yourself!”

Drystan swoops an arm in my direction, and I grin, bowing before tumbling towards Rose.

“Ask me what? Ropes in the bedroom? Done. Knives? Eh, only if you’re using them on me. Oooh, role play?” I press my wrists together and offer them up to her. “I’m your slave for life, mistress.”

Her cheeks turn that adorable shade of red and flustered that she always gets when I make any kind of sexual prod, and my grin grows until my cheeks ache.

One day, in a thousand years or so, she’ll have tasted every pleasure known to fae. I’ll make sure of it. But that will probably come at the cost of her sweet little flame-kissed cheeks and shy glances, so I’ll savour every single one of them while I can.

“I want to know what Finch meant.” Her words hit me like a ton of bricks, and my grin falls.

My cock, ever greedy at the memory of her sweet cunt clenching down on it during her fever, surges to life, and my hat explodes upwards at the thought. Images of my pet on her knees, cheek pressed into the dirt, as I fuck her pussy and claim it for every single redcap in my troop to witness, hit me like a ton of bricks. Show them all what’s mine, what they’ll never touch.

Nope nope nope. Not ready.

Not if she’s still blushing at ropes and role play.

Bad Lore.

My cap sags at the reminder, turning into a mourning hat.

The dullahan catches my eye, and I see him waiting, ready to intervene.

Stupid bastard lordling. If I decided to take my pretty pet, there’s no fae on this earth who could stop me. We’re all at the mercy of my self-control here.

Oops. Shit. Well, we’re all screwed then.

“Lore!” Rose pulls me out of the fantasy with wide, purple eyes, and I realise I’ve accidentally pulled a blade and stabbed myself.

Maybe I should rename that knife ‘self-control.’ It seems to be doing the job better than whatever’s between my ears.

She’s coming closer, and I look over her head to the rest of her Guard for help.

Nothing. Traitors.

The autumn prince is even sneakily leading Praedra away from the group while they’re all focused on me. When he catches me looking, he gives me a wink and sweeps her into his arms, abandoning all pretence of subtlety as they disappear between the trees, probably to fuck some more.

Newly mated couples are worse than rabbits. I sigh.

Rose captures my face in her hands, and suddenly she’s all I can see. My pretty shiny pet. “Why did Finch say I wasn’t a true redcap mate?”

Note to self: blink Finch to the top of Calimnel and push him off. Not only will he learn his lesson about saying stupid shit, I’ll get to find out if he rolls like a snowball or just goes splat. Science!

“Perhaps because he’s a jealous dead male walking?” I ask innocently.

“Killing the Fomorian’s grandfather is not on the table,” Jaromir interrupts, and I groan. “Especially when he and his mate have been faithful warriors of the realm for centuries.”

Those gorgeous violet eyes pin me in place as she ignores the wolfie. “If I’m not giving you something you need, I want to know. You give me so much, and if I’m failing you somehow?—”

I cut her off with a kiss. It seems like a good idea, but I’m quickly proved wrong when her tongue darts out in an uncharacteristically bold move, deepening the contact until my cock throbs and all my hard-won self-control falls to the ground with a clatter of steel against leaf-strewn rock.

My hands fist in her hair, dragging her head back as I fight to remember why blinking her out of her clothes is a bad idea. She wants to be a true redcap mate? I can help with that.

“Lorcan.” The dullahan has so much warning in his tone, and I briefly consider whether stabbing him might help me calm down.

Eh, it’s worth a shot.

Blinking to him, I curse when he dodges both the first and second blades.

“Answer her question or tell her to drop the matter.” The Lord of the Wild Hunt doesn’t seem to care much for the way I stick my tongue out at him. “But do it quickly. We’ve taken enough of a detour already.”

“So eager to go home and watch Mummy and Daddy fight?” I tease, but he doesn’t rise to it.

Shame.

“Is it so horrible?” Rose asks, her voice stroking along the back of my neck like a caress.

“Terrible.” I grin. “Absolutely depraved and truly perverse. You’ll probably faint.”

Her hand closes over my shoulder, turning me without effort, and making me face down that determined purple gaze again.

“Try me.”

“A true redcap mate…” I lean down, closing the distance to whisper darkly in her ear. “Kneels in the middle of the slain after a battle, taking her under fae’s cock in front of the whole troop while he ruts her like a beast.” I lean back, grinning again. “If you ask me, letting me play with your pretty little pussy right in the middle of that slaughter in the Spring Court was even better.”

It’s not the same, and my smart little pet knows it, if the scowl on her face is anything to go by.

“And Cressida did this… with you?”

Abort. Abort. Abort.

Cressidick has done many things to me, a good half of them were agonisingly painful. None of them are things Rose needs to hear about. I shoot a pleading look at Jaro. Surely wolfie will save me?

“Rosie,” Jaro mutters, reluctantly. “A lot of battles where redcaps are involved tend to devolve into orgies… I doubt it meant anything to Lore, and Cressida was probably just curious.”

My mate doesn’t back down, and neither does the Goddess’s fury simmering in her eyes. “Does it matter to you?” she presses.

“You’re the only thing that matters to me, pet.”

I don’t think she understands how deep that truth is. Several millennia of boring living tends to strip away the significance of almost anything besides the basic needs—fucking and killing.

Now, I want to fuck her and kill her enemies.

The little lines bracketing her tempting lips ease slightly. “And this… is why you haven’t taken me since my fever?”

Oops, she noticed. She wasn’t supposed to notice! I glance to the others again, waiting for one of them to interrupt, to inject some good old-fashioned seelie sensibility into the conversation.

Alas, the nosy bastards choose now to keep their heads down. Why couldn’t they do that when I wanted to take her on a date to Hangman’s Row?

Rose cocks her head to one side, those too-perceptive eyes seeing too much.

“You’re afraid,” she whispers.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope.

“That would be ludicrous.”

Jaro finally comes to my rescue a second time. “What do you remember from your fever?”

Ohhh, that blush is lethal. I use my grip on her hair to stop her from hiding her face, delighting in the way the colour stains her cheeks and darkens her eyes.

“Some of it is a bit of a blur,” she admits softly. “But not… not the start. Not everything.”

“Your fever loosens inhibitions.” Jaro quietly comes up behind her. “What you enjoyed then might not necessarily be what you prefer now. It also relaxes you, making your body receptive to harsher-than-usual treatment.”

“What he means to say, pet,” I murmur. “Is that, unless you want to be turned around and fucked hard against a tree in front of everyone here…”

“I’m not opposed.”

My jaw snaps shut. I’m pretty sure that the dullahan’s brain implodes.

Rose huffs out a little impatient sigh. “You all keep acting like I’m made of glass. Yes, I was a virgin before I met you, and yes, my fever did rush things a little, but you’ve yet to do anything I don’t like. I’m not going to break.” A gentle pause. “Although, I’ll admit, perhaps we can work up to sex in front of dozens of redcaps.” Another pause, followed by a tiny, derisive little scoff. “Then again, if we miraculously do manage to defeat Elatha… I’ll probably say yes.”

Jaro chooses that moment to choke on his own spit, and Bree’s wings rustle with concern.

“What?” Rose turns guileless eyes on them both. “I mean, once he’s dead, that’s it, right? If the Fomorians become our allies, surely there won’t be any huge battles for Lore to… enjoy me after? So he should have the chance…”

Oh. My hat sags.

She’s only agreeing because she thinks I’ll miss it if she doesn’t… That’s far from the enthusiasm I was hoping for.

“There are always more battles,” I reassure her. “The fae live too long for peace. And if there’s a lull… there’s always an opportune murder or a little friendly torture.”

Minor courts war with one another for territory all the time, and the other royals are content to let them, given that it keeps any of the lords getting too powerful and becoming a challenger. It’s a rather boring way to rule, in my humble opinion. Cressidick never agreed, though.

The autumn queen likes to watch the weak suffer whatever bloody demise Danu has chosen for them.

Leaning in close once more, I take a huge breath of Rose’s sweet floral scent and grin. “But if you want to celebrate your victory like that, pet, I’m more than happy to oblige.”

My lips rub up the soft, slender column of her neck, and her breath hitches in response.

I’ll admit, I was prepared to wait centuries, but now that she’s brought it up…

“And if you change your mind, that’s fine, too,” Jaro adds. “No one expects you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

Duh. Why does he always have to waste time stating the obvious? Maybe I should stab him to shut him up…

Nah. I’d have to let go of Rose for that.

“Your white knight will always swoop in to save you from me,” I say, grinning wickedly at the wolf as my hands fall to her ass and squeeze, dragging her against me fully. “But if you want to prove to him that you’re not as delicate as he thinks, I think we can do that.”

“Now?” she squeaks.

“Now.” I grind into her, licking the scent from her skin this time and groaning. “In front of all of them.”

Her eyes dart away, lighting gently on each of her other males before lingering on the Fomorian. If she thinks the blue idiot being there is a deterrent, she’s very wrong.

I want him to watch. I want him to see how she comes apart for her mates. Maybe one day he’ll earn the privilege. Maybe not.

Either way, torturing him with her is almost as fun as slicing him open would be.

My hands squeeze her ass again, and I shoot the wolfie a feral little grin that tells him to back the fuck off. I’ve shared her enough. If she wants me, she’ll have me.

And if she uses her safe word and they need to pull me off her, it’s better if they still have their weapons on them.

Jaro holds his hands up, backing away like a good doggie. Releasing his gaze, I sink my teeth into the junction between Rose’s pretty neck and her shoulder. Hard enough to mark, but not hard enough to break skin. Not yet.

Soon.

A blink, and she’s pressed face-first against Bree’s tree on the other side of the camp. Closer to Caed. Gripping the fabric of her shirt, I blink away and back so fast that it looks like it disappeared.

Her breasts are soft, full, and heavy, overflowing my hands as my hips pin her in place. She has just enough room to squirm, and each time she does, my cock rubs along the cleft of her ass until I think I might go insane. Sweet little pink nipples pebble beneath my thumbs, already hard and rosy.

I pinch them, twisting until her forehead falls to rest against the bark, breath leaving her lungs in a tortured moan.

A hundred impulses slam into me at once. Suck her nipples. Drop to my knees and eat her until she screams. Kiss her. Sink my fingers into that wet heat between her legs. Mark her breasts with my teeth. Nip at the cute little points of her ears. Slam my cock into her and see how deep I can go on the first thrust. Wrap her hair around my fist. Bury myself in her body and fuck her until she begs me to stop and keep going in equal measure.

So many options, and no way to do them all at once. Shame.

Oops. Her leggings disappeared along with my clothes. How did that happen? A mere six feet from us, the Fomorian’s breath catches, and my cap warps, the brim stiffening and curling.

“He’s going too fast,” Jaro objects, but Drystan mutters something, and the wolf’s protests cease.

Grinning, I lean down and scrape my fangs lightly down her shoulder, just above those lovely wings, making her shudder. Then I return to her neck, licking the salt from her skin.

“I’m being such a good boy,” I tell her. “They have no idea, do they, pet?”

My cock slides lower, and I pull back just long enough to kick her ankles apart, exposing the slick lips of her juicy cunt to the air. My cock slides between them, and I tease us both by pausing at her entrance. Fuck. So tempting.

“Lore!” she cries.

The taste of sugar-sweet copper fills my mouth, and I realise my fangs have sunk into her skin.

“Tell me to stop.” I’m not sure if I’m begging or not. “Use your safe word, pretty pet. Or I’ll slip inside you right now and fuck you until you scream.”

My hands abandon her breasts, my right working its way down to pinch her slippery clit between my fingers and thumb and rub while my left fists in her hair.

Her dainty hands are splayed on the bark as she struggles to gather her wits while fighting against the buzz of the Call and the frantic need flushing beneath her skin.

Rose’s head tilts to one side, her mouth opening. I brace myself, ready to rip myself away, willing myself not to fight the others when they intervene.

“Violet roses.”

Oh, little pet…

My pearls buzz to life as they rub through her dripping slit, landing directly over her clit, and her breath hitches as she reaps the rewards of her actions.

It’s all the invitation I need. The next time the head of my cock notches at her opening, I angle my hips and thrust inside.

Warm.

Wet.

Soft.

Clenching on me like a fucking fist.

“Lore!” Her scream of pleasure is tipped in shock.

But my leash has well and truly snapped.

Purple glittering dust drips from her wings as I cant my hips, driving deeper on the next thrust, then deeper still. Rose claws at the tree’s bark as I hammer into her. I snarl when she cries out, pinching her clit punishingly until she clenches around my buzzing length.

Fuck. Goddess. Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.