22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

No one moved in the room as Dohal drew closer to where the four of them lay in various levels of exhaustion on the bed. It was the first time any of them aside from Mari had seen him in the flesh. And Mari was certain he was there in the flesh because of the way her body vibrated in anticipation at his presence. She was drawn to him like one of those powerful magnets that shook in place until it snapped to its mate, even though she had been completely emptied of magic by the last release.

As soon as they recovered, Rio and Dante moved away from her like twin reflections of each other, both knowing they were impossibly outmatched in this state, but Cisco stubbornly moved her aside and tried to shield her with his body until she reached to stop him.

Since the majority of the times she had seen him Dohal had been largely incorporeal, she had nearly forgotten how impressive he was to behold. A mountain of coal black muscle with towering wings, he had glowing red markings carved into every inch of his body. Solid dark hooves rang against the floor with each of his steps. His cock was immense and erect, with two large glittering piercings crossing behind the head.

When Dohal reached the edge of the bed, he paused to let his gaze roam her body, his eyes filled with lust. She knew what a filthy picture she must have made, well-fucked and literally dripping with semen. Arousal tickled through her, making her bold. She rolled to one side, parting her legs for him to get a better look.

He took the invitation with an amused glint in his eyes, his long, thick fingers sliding easily inside of her thanks to her own wetness and the fluids her men had left behind. "Your acolytes have prepared you well for me, little rabbit," he murmured, his voice warm with appreciation.

"If you harm her, so help me, I'll find a way to kill you," Cisco growled with one arm still locked around her.

Dohal stroked her luxuriously several times, making Mari's toes curl and eyelids droop as she watched him, before he met Cisco's gaze. "Unlikely that you could kill me now, considering all the power you just poured into her. Perhaps wait until I've had my turn." He smirked. "When I'm spent, you might manage." He turned a simmering glance Mari's way. "I shouldn't indulge myself in you, it could leave you vulnerable, but you have summoned me to your bed with an offering for the ages and I will service you this once, if that is what you wish."

Mari intended for it to be much more than just this once, but she left that unsaid. She sent a smile at Cisco to reassure him that she was okay, feeling powerful and proud when he accepted her assessment with a nod and then moved away to give them some room. She returned her attention to Dohal. "I want all of you. Right now."

His expression eased as he pushed his fingers further, until she squirmed at the discomfort. "You are such a sweet and demanding morsel. I wish I could take the time that you deserve and make you beg me for hours, but I must return to my cell soon." He loomed over her, forcing her thighs wide with careless ease as he moved. "What sort of sounds will make for me when I drive myself deep in your drenched hole? Will you scream for me, little rabbit? Or will you whimper?"

She rocked her hips as much as she could to entice him, working through the twinge of pain when he spread his fingers inside her. "I imagine it will be a bit of both."

Dohal chuckled, low and deep. "Indeed." He withdrew his hand to her mingled relief and frustration and reached to grab her throat in a possessive grip. "Remember, you were made for me, bavi." He notched the head of his cock against her cunt. Her muscles clenched reflexively, and a small gasp escaped her.

Though all of his skin was hot to the touch, that part of him was scathing, like a wrist-thick rod of molten steel demanding entry to her body. There was no way he could fit inside her, even as prepared as she had been by the others.

A moment of doubt shivered through her, and then it was too late. He pushed forward an inch. Pain shot through her as her body stretched around him. Groaning, she dug her nails into his forearm until the worst of it passed. Then she tilted her head and arched her back, parting her thighs to accept him.

He pushed forward again until he encountered resistance and then thrust in and out slightly. She clenched her teeth as he worked that tiny portion of his cock into her over and over again. It stung enough to bring tears to her eyes, but it also felt delicious. The next sound that fell from her lips was a wanton moan.

When she relaxed a fraction he tightened his hand around her throat and forced himself deeper, until she spluttered and clawed at his arm. Her slumbering magic roared forward to embrace him, pulling him into her as she cried out. The expression of pain quickly transformed into a plea for more as her arousal spiked.

"That's right," he purred. "Your body knows its master."

Dohal growled with satisfaction as he set a lazy pace. He plied her with shallow strokes that stretched her around him with relentless patience. The hand that wasn't around her throat gripped the back of her thigh and pushed her leg up and out to make more room for his massive legs, contorting her body to accommodate him. He held her open under him, pressing his hips forward with a groan.

Mari's magic wrapped around him, encouraging him. Now that the pain had twisted into pleasure, she needed every inch of him inside her as soon as possible. She held her breath as he pushed all the way to the hilt, savoring the sensation of the decadent, perfect stretch that seemed to go on forever.

"Oh, yes," she said, her voice shaking. She arched up into him as much as she could, offering herself to him.

A wordless sound of pleasure escaped her as Dohal relaxed over her, his lips seeking hers in a long, slow kiss that conveyed his hunger for her. When he started to move again, he drank in every desperate sound that he pried from her willing, pliant body.

He started off slow and easy, but soon that wasn't enough to slake his lust, and he started to move faster and with more force. And she spurred him with her magic because she needed more, she needed everything he had. He broke the kiss with a bellow of triumph.

Dohal held her jaw so she couldn't look away as he fucked her with his entire impressive length, his body hard and unyielding as he pressed her to the bed and stretched her past every limit she thought she had. Her voice lifted into a whine of desperation because she felt like she was drowning in him.

Between one powerful stroke and the next, his body language intensified, becoming more focused and aggressive. She had never felt anything like being taken by him. It was brutal. And beautiful.

Her magic sang along her nerves. This is what she had been waiting for her entire life. This primal claiming and raw power was what she had been born to contain and every cell of her body knew it. Her piercings sparked in her skin, and his did the same inside her. She tightened around him convulsively.

"Saints," she groaned. "Don't ever stop."

He leaned down, his fingers curling tighter around her throat as he pressed his mouth to hers. "When I fill you overflowing with my seed, your body will quicken," he said between gritted teeth, his hips not relenting for an instant as he drove into her. "You will grow round with my offspring like the statues that once celebrated you, and then you will birth a legion of monsters to overrun this world as my revenge on these creatures that sought to tame us."

Mari trembled under him, the weight of his words winding tight around her. A not insubstantial part of her wanted to surrender to his vision of her as a vessel. This was what she had been made for. What the goddess had been made for. The reason the goddess had been hoarding magic all this time, to bring their children into the world.

She could see the terrible beauty of their children bringing destruction to any who opposed them in his fathomless, cosmic eyes; the promise of vengeance and wreckage and conquest in their path. And while she knew without question that she would be feared and loved in equal measure as the dark empress of this world should she choose, she didn't want that, for herself or for those she cared about.

That had been her father's path and she wouldn't follow it. There had to be another way.

The goddess inside her knew her thoughts and understood her hesitation. She had been driven from the world by such conquest and savagery, nearly exterminated by it. While a part of her craved the violence, she also understood the yearning for a less destructive path. Even as wronged as she had been, the goddess recognized the wisdom of restraint and the peace that might lie at the end of that road.

When Mari called, the goddess surged forward, granting her strength, but not taking control. She raised her hand to grasp Dohal's horn and twisted his head back to expose his throat until he whimpered. "No one dictates my destiny. Not even you, my wicked love. I decide who will father my children, and when."

She bit his neck with her blunt teeth, tearing his tough skin and making him cry out. His hips snapped against her, his entire body tensing at once as his climax took hold. His claws dug into her thigh, pushing her legs wider as he plunged to the hilt with a powerful thrust that undid her completely.

Her muscles squeezed around him, the pleasure cascading outwards until all she could do was hold on and hope her body remembered to breathe when it was necessary because she was utterly overwhelmed by the magic that raced through her. It seared her to her soul as the goddess released the hoard she had been stashing at the same time.

Mari drew on Dohal's magic as well, pulling back every scrap she had sent to him to free him from his prison and drove it back into him.

She fell back onto the bed, her spine arching as Dohal continued to pump into her with unrhythmic strokes, his body given over to the feral need to breed her that consumed him. He cried out over and over, in anguish and in ecstasy, until his voice gave out. When his hips finally came to a shuddering stop much later, he collapsed over her, his breathing harsh and uneven and his cock throbbing inside her. His cum leaked out of her in a slow trickle down to her ass.

Mari wrapped her arms around his head and held him to her chest as he succumbed to tears. No one in the room said a word for a very long time.

Every glowing scar that had marred his perfect body was gone—erased in an instant of unfathomable magic that her pleasure had unleashed with only one intention, to heal him.

She stroked his horn with one hand when he finally quieted. "I'm sorry for what they did to you. And I'm sorry I didn't come for you sooner."

Dohal sighed into her skin. "Your kindness is more than I deserve after what I tried to do." He blinked up at her, his expression sad. "But I fear you may regret denying the army I would have given you before long. Now that you've severed me from my prison, I don't think I can protect you any longer."

She soothed him for a moment, her hand moving to hold the back of his neck in a silent offer of support. "Who is it you're afraid of?"

Dohal pressed his lips to her breastbone in a reverent kiss. His hands shook where they held her when he said, "The Old One."

If you want to read two more scorching scenes that take place before the start of book 1, claim your copy of a short story collection called Sinful Secrets on my website. You'll get to see what Mari witnessed at the barracks when she saw Nova, and the sparks that flew when she first met Dante. Book 3: Hers to Keep is coming in 2025 and will be the final book of Mari's character arc.