Chapter 16

16

I t was Izidora’s birthday, and like every year, I had a special event planned to celebrate. Only this year, my mate was finally in my arms, and she would join me as we hiked to my favorite spot in the Agrenak Mountains and watched the sun appear over the horizon.

“Ugh, it's so early,” she complained as I pulled her flush against me to wake her.

“Happy birthday, mate,” I whispered in her ear, ghosting my hot breath across her neck. Goosebumps broke out across her bare skin, and I nipped at a few along her shoulder before throwing back the blankets and forcing her out of bed.

“It’s not even light outside yet,” she protested, the words coming out jumbled as she yawned wide.

“I know, but I want to take you somewhere,” I responded, kissing her on the forehead and handing her leather pants and a jacket, along with new fur-lined boots, since the ones I’d gifted her when she first arrived in the Iron Realm were irrevocably ruined when we slaughtered her former captors.

“What about–”

“Food?” I smiled. Izidora was always hungry, and I knew better than to be unprepared. I jogged into the living space and returned with two bags that smelled of vanilla and bacon.

The smile that split her face was worth her earlier grumbles, and fuck if she didn’t still make my blood sing with her sparkling eyes. “Okay, fine. Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” I promised, leading her by the hand to the spiral stairs that led to the roof. “Hold these.” I handed her the bags of food, and she sniffed them longingly as I threw open the hatch.

Taking the bags back from her, I watched her ass as she climbed up the ladder and hoisted herself onto the roof before following her out into the chilly morning air. She shivered, and I wrapped my arms around her, lending my heat to my always chilly mate.

“Now what? Surely you didn’t bring me up here before dawn broke to show me something. We’ve been here before,” she teased, entwining her arms with mine.

“Call on your wings. We’re going to fly over there,” I pointed to a small landing space barely visible across a field of jagged rocks, “and then walk the rest of the way.” The rocks were fantastic for protecting the mountain palace I had built for Izidora, but also a pain to cross.

She chewed her lip, eyeing them with trepidation.

“I’ll always catch you if you fall,” I reminded her, giving her another squeeze before releasing her and stepping back. She needed space to bring her ethereal wings into existence, though I wouldn’t mind running my nose through the soft feathers and making Izidora writhe in pleasure from touching the sensitive spots. My Demon-Dragon ones flared behind me, stretching before settling on either side of my shoulders. With one last glance at me, Izidora’s white wings appeared, though her teeth still dug into her bottom lip.

Capturing her chin in my hand, I pulled it free. “That’s mine to bite.”

Her aquamarine eyes blazed with white fire before I released her. Stepping back, I flapped my wings hard and launched myself into the air, hovering as I waited for her to join me. She closed her eyes, lips moving as she spoke affirmations to herself like she did every time she needed a boost, then leaped into the air beside me.

“If you want some light to guide your path, use your magic. But we’re going across.” Shooting her a reassuring smile, I sailed toward the rocks, barely visible in the pre-dawn light. Taking my suggestion, she threw some white bubble lights into the air, and they chased my mate as she flew forward, remaining within reach of me. Her brow furrowed with determination as we passed over row after row of serrated death. When we landed on a clear patch of rock on the other side, she exhaled, long and slow.

“You didn’t even need me, sprite. You are so strong,” I praised, and she beamed up at me, relief written all over her face.

“I wish I was more confident with my flying,” she admitted, nudging a rock with the tip of her boot.

“You’ll get there. You didn’t experience it from a young age, so it makes sense that you’re nervous now. You won’t even need me to fly beside you soon. You’ll be leaving me to soar among the peaks by yourself.”

The bubble lights danced playfully around us, and I snatched at one in an attempt to catch it.

“And you would want me to do that?” she quipped, raising a teasing brow.

Grasping her shoulders, I crouched down so we were at eye level. I wanted her to see how serious my next words were. “Sprite, I want you to do anything that makes you happy. I’m not going to hold you back from anything. I’m here to empower you, to protect you, and to love you, not to tell you where to go, what to do, or who to be.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

“Come,” I said, grabbing her hands. “We need to hurry to get there before the sun rises.”

A small path cut through the rock, and we followed it, scaling the mountain through switchbacks and rock scrambles until we neared the clouds. Izidora panted in front of me and stopped to catch her breath more than once. It was a different kind of physical exertion, and one she needed to continue training and conditioning her body. The following day we were set to depart for the Day Realm, and I needed to know she could handle any challenge I threw at her.

“How much farther?” she asked through gasped breaths.

“Not far. We’re almost there.”

She nodded, the braid down her back whipping around as she gritted her teeth and faced the rocks once more. I grinned to myself and followed her, pride swelling in my chest. If I had to pick one quality about my mate that I loved above all else, it would be her unbreakable will. Nothing and no one would stop her once she set her mind to a task.

“Start climbing to the right,” I called, and she shuffled along, scrambling up and over a large boulder. A moment later, I pulled myself up beside her, hearing her delicate gasp as she surveyed the view.

Just below our feet, fluffy clouds hugged the ridge, while at eye level the highest peaks were visible, barely blocking out the light of the sun rising to the east.

“Do you see Vasvain?” I asked her, gesturing to where the sun had just peeked around its apex.

She shielded her eyes as she squinted in the direction I pointed. My Dragon senses were sharper than hers, so while the mountain was clearly visible to me, it might have been a little fuzzy for her. “I think so,” she said eventually. “That’s where I was hidden all those years?”

“Mmm,” I responded, fishing in the bags of food for bacon and handing her a piece. “Every year on your birthday, I came to this spot and watched the sun rise over the mountains. I’d stay up here all day, spending it with you in the only way I could, wondering where my father was keeping you. I guess, somehow, our bond was signaling to me that you were over there, and I wish I had listened to that instinct harder, so I could have protected you from the abuse of King Azim and King Zalan.”

A salty tear trickled down her cheek as she stared at me with a love so intense it was nearly painful. All I’d ever wanted was for someone to look at me that way, and all the days I sat here, wondering what it would finally be like to have a mate, could not have prepared me for the depths of devotion I would show this female. My thumb found her cheek, catching the tear and clearing it from her heart-shaped face.

“I love you,” she whispered, her normally bright voice reduced to rasps that mirrored my own.

“I love you more,” I promised, earning a smile from Izidora. She needed to hear those words as much as I did, if not more.

She was right when she told me being understood and accepted was the most glorious feeling. There were no barriers between us, nothing held back out of fear of judgment. Together, we were raw, emotional, and unguarded, unlike any relationship I’d witnessed before. It worked for us, not only because of our bond, but because of our traumatic pasts.

I pulled her to the ground, settling her in front of me and encasing her in my warmth before handing her a bag of food. We ate in comfortable silence as the light grew around us, clouds whispering past us on a soft breeze that wafted Izidora’s rose and plum scent into my nostrils. Since accepting our mating bond, her scent was even stronger and more complex, and I would remember that scent across worlds and lifetimes.

“I have presents for you when we return home,” I said once I’d finished my food, dusting the crumbs from my hands off to one side so as not to spill them on my mate.

“Oh?” she replied, craning her neck to look at me and exposing her pretty throat. “Let me guess, I have to wait until we return for you to tell me?”

“Correct,” I teased, kissing her bare skin. “But I promise you’ll like them.”

“I like everything you buy me,” she noted with a half-smile.

“Thankfully, you are easy to please,” I winked at her, a hint of lust tainting my voice and sending a flush of red across her skin. Grasping her neck with a free hand, I tightened it ever so slightly, cutting off a hint of air. “And I do love pleasing you.”

Her dark lashes fluttered against her cheeks, and I pulled her in close, running my free hand across her flat stomach, dipping lower. “Please,” she begged, and I continued downward until I cupped her pussy over her pants.

“Like that?” I purred in her ear, sending her shivering.

“Yes,” she breathed, rolling her hips against my palm.

I rubbed it against the seam, eliciting a gasp. The scent of her arousal flooded my nostrils, and I inhaled it deeply, my cock hardening against her back. Dropping my hand from her neck, I unfastened her jacket, exposing the thin tunic underneath. Slipping my hand beneath it, I pressed my warm skin against hers and savored the fire that burned between us.

She whimpered as I traced circles across her belly in the direction of her waistband. “Fuck me here, Ruslan.”

I needed no further encouragement. I stripped her jacket off, then tore her tunic over her head, leaving her heaving breasts barely contained by the wrap she wore around them. Her pants were next, boots temporality stalling my progress until she was nearly bare before me. “On your hands and knees,” I growled, kicking off my own boots and stripping until I was naked behind her.

Her perfectly round ass faced me, her suntanned skin pebbling in the cool morning air, and I took a moment to admire the slope of her back and the muscles rippling across her shoulders as she braced herself against the smooth rock. Stroking myself a few times to the view to relieve the ache in my balls, I drank in our utter aloneness in the mountains that called to my soul. “Touch yourself,” I ordered, and she immediately dropped a hand to her center, swirling her tiny fingers over her clit and making herself moan.

“Spread yourself for me,” I rasped, watching hungrily as she spread her lips apart and dipped a finger inside. I stroked myself in time with her movements, and she whimpered as her digits slipped deeper.

“I need you.”

“Not yet, sprite. Work yourself up for me.”

She obeyed, breathy moans escaping her as she ground into her hand. Wetness dripped from her, and it took everything I had to hold back and watch her touch herself without shoving myself into her heat. Her body trembled, and her hips rocked as her pleasure heightened. Closing the distance between us, I trailed a finger along her spine, the ridges of the bone just below the surface of her smooth skin. She shivered at the sensation, releasing a low groan as my hand began rubbing her ass.

“Please, I want you inside me,” she begged, looking over her shoulder at me through thick lashes.

“Make yourself come first, and then I’ll fuck you into oblivion,” I promised, a bead of moisture appearing at the head of my dick as images of us fucking inches from the edge of the rock flooded my mind.

“Okay,” she agreed, her fingers beginning to work faster as she brought herself to climax.

Poised behind her, I stroked myself slowly as I waited for the moment she came all over herself. The pulsing pink lips were the first signs of her orgasm, and the reverberating cry she released was the second. She rode her hand through it, and my erection became nearly unbearable as wetness gushed from her.

“Good girl,” I growled, pulling her hand away and lining myself at her entrance. In one powerful thrust, I seated myself inside her, and fuck, she was so tight, her walls still fluttering from her release. They gripped me as I began moving within her, and I gritted my teeth as my spine tingled in anticipation. Using one strong hand, I caught her throat and bent her toward me, forcing her spine to arch and take me deeper. “You are going to trust me, and you will not question me. Understood?”

Her pussy clenched around me in the most delicious way. “Understood.”

Shuffling us forward, we neared the edge of the rock, and her breath came in shorter gasps that had nothing to do with her lust. “You will overcome your fear of falling today, sprite, and you will do it as you shatter around my cock.”

“Oh fuck,” she whimpered, trembling against me as I began working circles over her clit with my free hand while the other pinned her in place by her throat. Once she was sufficiently drenched, I slowly released her to the rock, wrapping her long braid around my fist and forcing her head to lift as I fucked her. Izidora’s hands were a foot from the edge that careened into nothingness for thousands of feet, and her heartbeat was like a hummingbird’s wings at the nearness.

But the thrill was soaking my cock, and I smirked as I slid in and out of her with ease. The slick noises coming from our thighs resounded around the mountain, mixing with Izidora’s mewls and my groans of pleasure.

“Are you afraid?” I growled, seating myself fully.

“Yes,” she moaned, throwing her head back at the fullness.

“Then I’ll have to fuck you harder,” I said, releasing her braid and grasping her hips instead.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, cut off as my brutal thrusts shoved her forward, inching toward the edge. The sun crested over the peaks, casting the most brilliant view from our high vantage point. Her gasp was a mix of awe and pleasure, and her pussy tightened around my cock in the most delicious way. She pressed her palms into the rock, forced to still her momentum and push back into me, taking me deeper inside her. “Ruslan, shit, I–”

My grip tightened until she yelped in pain, silencing whatever protest she offered. “You can take it,” I told her. “You will survive because you have survived everything else thrown at you. Now come for me.”

Those words were her undoing because a breath later, her walls clenched around me, forcing my movements to slow.

“Ruslan!” she screamed, loud enough that the echo of her cry lasted until I roared my release and banished the sound.

“Fuck, Izidora, you take my cock so well.” My body twitched as I stilled, sweat dripping down my spine.

My future wife trembled on hands and knees with my dick still inside her, breathing heavy but no longer forcing her way backward and away from the edge. Exiting her was like leaving home, but I pulled her into my arms and carried her a safe distance away, cradling her like she was the most precious gemstone.

“That was…” she started, breathless.

“Exhilarating,” I finished for her. She nodded, her aquamarine eyes alight. I smoothed back her hair, tucking it behind her pointed ear, and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I knew you could handle it.”

“Deep down, I knew I could too.” The shy, sleepy grin that stretched her lips made my heart skip a beat. She was so damn beautiful.

I rocked her in my arms while we came down from our high, until the sun beat heavily on us and the day’s tasks called to us.

“Ready to go?” I groaned, loathe to leave this moment of peace we’d carved for ourselves.

“Yep,” she said, extricating herself from my embrace and pulling on her clothes.

“I’ll move us back to the palace since we are running short on time.”

“And whose fault is that?” she teased, her face still slightly flushed from her orgasms.

“Yours.” She was fully dressed, and I swept her knees out from under her, earning a squeal as she was trapped in my arms. I chanted the spell to take us home, and the rocks blended together until we stood in our suite. I allowed her to slide to the ground, and she fisted my jacket and pulled me in for a quick kiss before sashaying her way to our closet to change. I watched her the entire time, already hungry for more.

Would I ever tire of my mate?