Chapter 30

I gripped around her waist. My fingers dug in, feeling the heat of her supple flesh through her airy gown. She let out a screaming laugh as I twisted beneath her. I flipped us, rolling from the blanket onto the grass until I loomed over her, my one hand pinning her wrists above her head.

Diving down for a kiss, my mouth wandered along her neck. She bucked against me, back arching, a moan budding in her chest. I nudged her legs further apart and pressed my dick against her sex, letting her feel how hard I was for her.

"Do you want to fuck like enemies again, my darling wife?" I asked, smirking.

Her giggle had my heart racing. "Yes," she rasped. "Fuck me like you hate me. Bruise me. Make me bleed."

I reached into the picnic basket, feeling around bread, cool wine bottles and clanking cutlery. After a moment, I found what I was searching for. I pulled out a small carving knife and the sun reflected off it, catching Kerys's attention. She stiffened beneath me as I twirled the blade in front of her face, her eyes following each spin.

"Yes, this is for you, my little pain addict," I murmured, trailing the flat side of the knife down her throat, goose bumps following where the metal touched. She twitched, like she wanted me to cut her, but I didn't allow her that pleasure.

Not yet.

Her grin widened as I hiked her dress up, bunching the fabric above her breasts. I slid the blade under the side strings of her panties, cutting them off her. My mouth watered as I drank in the sight of her beneath me. Her heaving, bejeweled tits, the curve of her waist, her soft stomach, that glistening cunt, wet and waiting for me.

"Now, you'll receive your punishment for wanting to kill me and damn my soul to eternal torment with Aculeus feeding on my suffering." I placed the tip of the knife above her pussy, on the pubic bone. "I think you need a reminder who you belong to."

Her breath hitched. "Yes, master."

I almost wanted to toss the blade onto the lawn and force my cock into her right then, do away with the foreplay. But even more, I wanted her to wear my mark.

First, I wanted to see her eyes shimmer with agony, taste the warmth of her blood again.

"Open your mouth," I demanded, and she did without hesitation.

Fuck, that pink tongue and her throat, shining with saliva … I shuddered, my balls tightening as I remembered how deeply she sucked my cock at the party.

I scrunched up her ruined panties and shoved them into her mouth. "Can you taste your desperation, my needy little whore?"

The flush of red on her cheeks drew down over her neck. She made a pathetic squealing noise, and my dick strained against my pants.

"Aw, I forgot. You can't speak," I teased.

My eyes flicked to her lower belly again. I raised the knife, tapping the bottom of the handle against the piercing above her clit, and she writhed.

"Ah-ah. Lay still, Kerys. This is dangerous. I don't want to hurt you more than I have to …" I shrugged, cruel laughter welling in my throat. "Not much more, at least."

I pressed the blade to the left side of her pubic bone and began to carve. Careful line after careful line. Scarlet seeped from the shallow cuts and her breathing sped up.

The gashes formed one angular letter.

Then two.

Three.

By the fourth, tears streamed down her face as she endured.

Five.

After the sixth, she was sobbing, and my erection was so stiff it hurt. Desire wound along my spine, making my tail lash as I admired my artwork running across the curve of her mound.

S K R A I N

I spelled my name with her agony, wrote my mark in her blood, etched my ownership into her flesh.

Kerys was undeniably mine, mine, mine. And now, whenever she undressed to bathe, whenever she changed or admired her bare body in the mirror, she'd be reminded that she belonged to me.

And next time I fucked her in public, when those scumbags drooled over my pretty little wife, they'd see my Gods damned name right above her pussy.

I released her wrists before I tugged the panties from her mouth, tossing them over my shoulder. When I leaned down, her hands drew lightly along the base of my horns, her shaky caress adoring and gentle.

In broad strokes, I licked the red off her belly, the smell of copper in my nose and sour salt on my tongue. My tongue drew along each letter, down to her clit, up again. Her flavor was addictive, making me lightheaded as I suckled on the wounds until she moaned.

This is how the blood-cursed must feel , I mused.

I sat up, smiling. "What a good girl you are, waiting for my permission to speak," I said, brushing the back of my fingers along her throat.

"I'm always a good girl for you, master," she breathed, grinning.

"Liar."

I laughed as I pressed the handle of the knife into her palm, curling her fingers around it. With the focused attention of a hawk, she watched me undo my tunic and take it off.

"Your turn," I said.

Kerys giggled and pushed herself upright. She didn't wait for confirmation, didn't hesitate.

When the blade split my skin, I almost screamed a prayer. Not from pain, but from elation. And not to the Gods, but to my wife.

I was so very hallowed to carry her name, to take her blessing with me wherever I went. How could I have been so fortunate to receive her mark?

I would have let her carve the flesh from my bones until I had nothing left to give, would have revered the sick glint in her eyes as she tormented me until my life slipped away.

But it was over too soon.

I looked down and traced the stinging, vermillion letters above my heart with a single finger.

K E R Y S

She caught my gaze and laughed, defiantly ramming the knife into the lawn. As if snapping from a trance, I pushed her down onto her back again—and followed. I was on top, her hands everywhere at once, tangling with mine, roaming my body, undoing my trousers.

I burned up with desire, and every second not inside her was too long.

After I freed my erection, I slammed into her in one thrust. She cried out, her nails scraping along my back. I hoped she'd draw more blood, leave more scars.

No time for gentleness.

I fucked her like a rabid animal. She was so wet, the sloppy sounds of her cunt echoed through the garden.

"H-harder," she begged, barely getting the word out.

My palm connected with her cheek and her head flew to the side, but her little hole squeezed me tight.

"You're such a filthy whore, Kerys. And whores don't get to make demands. When will you finally get that through your skull?" I hissed, gripping her throat. "What kind of disgusting woman gets wet from being cut and slapped and choked, huh?"

The kind of woman I love , I thought. The kind I'd die for . The only one I'd ever want.

But this wasn't the time for mushy confessions either.

I was determined to give her what we both wanted: A good, rough, relentless fucking.

And I was determined to be what she needed: A carnal, brutal fiend who treated her like meat, like nothing but a hole. A savage man who disgraced her and used her until she was sore and bruised.

I cut off her air flow completely, and she grinned before her face twisted in euphoria. When she unraveled, her pulse fluttering beneath my fingers and her inner walls clenching around me, I couldn't hold back any longer.

Kerys was still convulsing around my cock while I released thick spurts of cum into her. I was seeing spots, the world around us dull from the aftershock, when I flipped us over again. My movements were slow and deliberate this time, careful to not break the physical connection between us.

She snickered, resting on my chest, drawing lazily along the lines of her name, and I rubbed over her back, kneading her muscles.

"I love you," she said, and my heart stopped.

This time, I knew she meant it. But I'd waited a hundred years for these words, and now that they rang out, I couldn't believe it.

"Say it again," I breathed, my voice shaking. "Please. Say it again."

Kerys let out a laugh, the kind filled with warmth, the sound like the rustle of wind before the first rain upon parched land.

"I love you, Skrain," she whispered slowly.

Each letter, each syllable resonated within me. The discordant notes of doubt in my mind harmonized into a single melody, into a single feeling, into a response dripping from my tongue like nectar.

"I love you, too, my darling wife," I said and hugged her tighter.

If the world would have ended right then, her confession in my ears, her scent in my nose and her weight atop me, I would have died happy. I knew a difficult journey was ahead of us, but we deserved a moment of bliss.

And fuck, together, we could even trick a demon.