Chapter 25

“Believe it or not, I’m happy you did,” I said, meaning it.

I didn’t have much time to think or rest, but the moments where I lay on the bed with Daryus, while he held me, had been the most peaceful of my life. They had reminded me of the night we spent together, how close we were then. Of our conversations.

Yes, I hardly knew him, but I had previously already resigned myself to a man who would claim me as his mekarry. Which only made me wonder why I was making it so difficult now that a man had actually claimed me. And not any man, but Daryus, the one I could see myself choosing on my own.

Overhearing his conversation with Commander Noctus only reiterated what I already knew: I could trust Daryus. With my life, my heart.

He was a good man and in time I was sure I would come to love him, it seemed impossible not to.

What scared me though was his title. Emperor. He was the most powerful man I had ever met, possibly the most powerful man in the entire universe. This mekarry thing was ensuring that I wouldn’t end up like Anne Boleyn with my head chopped off once he tired of me. Still, I wasn’t sure I was empressmaterial, as he had so eloquently explained about Lady Madeema, who I was sure would have brought a lot more to the table than I did. Or maybe I was overstating things, because Daryus hadn’t really said anything about me becoming empress, those were just assumptions, I had drawn.

In the few minutes I had had to gather myself, I came to the conclusion that I would fully invest myself in our relationship. Besides not really having another choice, I wanted things to work out. I wanted to be an us.

Right now though, most of all, I wanted to feel alive. I was exhausted, yes, at the end of my wits, yes, but what I needed were his arms around me, his hands touching me, assuring me I was out of that terrible hole in the ground and would never have to go back there.

“There is no place I would rather be,” I added, rising on my tiptoes and putting my arms around his neck. I licked my lips suggestively and didn’t have to wait for him to react. His head lowered. “Are you sure?”

“More than I have ever been of anything,” I swore, before his lips sealed against mine, bringing back the memories of that night, how he had kissed me, and how much I had liked it.

Butterflies took up residence in my stomach as I snuggled into him, pressed up, and welcomed his tongue into my mouth. Mine danced around his, which was full of ridges, and felt oh-so good.

His hands fell to my back, my ass, moved up and down my sides, my arms. Down my stomach where he balled up my dress, to touch naked flesh. Heat enveloped my tits even before his hand cupped and kneaded one.

He bent over and picked me off the ground to carry me to the bedroom while my fingers played with his long, highlighted hair. He only broke the kiss to stare at me. “Are you sure?”

In answer, I pulled my shirt over my head. “I’m yours.”

“Mine?” he rasped in a voice that reflected a hint of doubt.

“Yours.” I nodded.

“MINE!” he bellowed, and pulled me against him to give me another soul-crushing kiss that left me breathless.

Somehow he managed to get my pants down without me even realizing, and I found myself naked on the bed, while his rough tongue played with my nipple and his hand parted my folds.

“Daryus,” I moaned as his fingers entered me, moving up and down. Fluid dripped down, flooding my canal and his fingers with my juices and making me yearn for more.

“I need you…” I lifted my hips to ride his fingers while my body shuddered from his teeth teasing my nipple, before he sucked on it again, letting it go with a plop.

“What do you need, cinna? Tell me,” he coaxed, scissoring his fingers inside me and rubbing my G-spot.

“Your cock,” I whimpered. “Please, Daryus, fuck me.”

His mouth found mine again, his fingers withdrew, and gently his weight lowered on me. The tip of his cock teased my entrance and I mewled in desire. I lifted my hips, spread my legs around his to ease his entrance. Then the head of his cock finally slid inside me. I groaned from the bottom of my soul in indescribable pleasure as the ridges on his cock rubbed against my sensitive walls, parted them, spread them wide.

When he was sheathed to the hilt inside me, I closed my eyes to savor every second of the sense of fullness, rightness, he gave me. I felt as if I had been carved for him and he molded for me. We were a perfect fit, and come hell or high water, I would make this work between us.

Slowly at first, he began to retreat, before he pushed back in, rubbing against me in all the right places, making me mewl as pleasure built and more of my fluids drenched him.

“MINE,” he called out when he pumped into me.

“Yours,” I gasped in response.

Our words became faster, louder, until they melded together just as his body melded with mine and I forgot what I was saying, only to emit keening sounds as pleasure wave after pleasure wave rolled through me. My keening turned into a scream of bliss as the world exploded around me.

“MINE!” he bellowed when he came, filling me with his seed.

I wasn’t sure what had happened between us in those moments, but something changed. I clung to him and didn’t want to let go. Even after we were both satiated and I lay cuddled next to him with my head in the crook of his shoulder, my leg draped over him, my hand caressing his chest, it didn’t feel as if I were close enough.

His fingers played with my hair, his other hand caressed my hip, as if he too, couldn’t get enough of me and that thought pleased me with a surprising intensity.

MINE, I remembered him yelling, yours, I remembered me acquiescing, and that was exactly how I felt. Instead of it terrifying me, the thought soothed me. For the first time, I allowed the idea that all this might have something to do with fate. That all the terrible things that had happened to Earth had led me to this moment. I should have been horrified to think that way, millions of people were suffering, but it wasn’t just me who found her destiny here. No, thousands of others were finding their destinies as well as partners with the Pandraxians.

Unbeknownst to us, Earth had been a ticking time bomb. Our arrogance of thinking we were the only beings in this massive universe, and the only advanced beings, at that, had been our downfall. It could have been any number of alien species who discovered us, even the Pandraxians I surmised, and questioned briefly why it hadn’t been them since we seemed to be fated to one another. It was a moot point dwelling on it though, it was what it was, and we had to make the best of it.

My eyelids were getting heavier, my breathing evened out, and I allowed my lids to stay closed for longer periods of time, while my mind furiously worked through fate, destiny, purpose, and luck. If I considered this as being true, I had to also consider that there was a reason why I was here. With the most powerful person in the universe. Or one of the most powerful. Me.

Why me?

What was it that I was supposed to do, accomplish here?

Pondering this very thing, I finally fell asleep.