Chapter Thirty-Eight

A s a close friend to Ichorna’s heir and her intended, she had grown up near this palace. They had spent countless nights in this garden getting up to all the nonsense seventeen-year-olds could muster. Evienne knew the hedge maze like the back of her hand.

Back then, this had been the best place on palace grounds for a midnight tryst. Evienne supposed it still was, but the hum of voices that filled the garden reminded her how many people were nearby.

Though people lingered close to the maze, it didn’t seem to be the most popular spot at the party. The mage lights only stood near the entrance, the darkness discouraging people from getting lost in its winding rows. This hedge maze took up nearly a full acre of land, its paths lined with seven-foot-tall yew bushes.

Evienne didn’t hesitate, striding into the vast maze. A massive oak tree stood in the clearing at the center of the maze, ancient and twisting. It was visible from anywhere in the maze, meant to taunt those trying to solve the massive puzzle.

She walked the paths of this maze she knew so well, not faltering in her path as she made her way toward the center. After about ten minutes of walking, she arrived at the middle clearing. She paused and took a deep breath of cold night air, looking up at the darkened sky in all its majesty.

“Hello, love,” Orion’s gentle voice drifted to her on the night breeze. She closed her eyes as his arms wrapped around her waist from behind, his body pressing into her back. “Are you alright? I was so worried this afternoon,” he continued.

“Yes, I’m well. I…Orion, I saw what we needed,” she whispered into the night. She felt his breath catch where his chest was pressed to her back. His hands splayed across her soft waist, and his arms tightened a bit.

“You’re certain you are alright? I’ve never seen you so shaken, and I…” he trailed off, considering. “I felt your fear and chaos in my own soul.”

Evienne turned in his arms to face him, and she felt tears spring to her eyes. “I feel very overwhelmed, but I have to be strong,” she said, her voice breaking.

His hand cupped her cheek as he wiped away the tear that fell. “You’re the strongest person I know—but part of having a Còmhanam is sharing your burden with me. I’m here for you. Whatever you need,” he said quietly.

Evienne didn’t know what the future held for them, tonight, tomorrow, next year. But she knew she wanted him one more time before they plunged into the danger ahead.

“I need you,” she said, pulling him down into a kiss.

He kissed her back, meeting her tongue stroke for stroke. His touch lit up every nerve ending in her body and heat trailed down her spine to the apex of her thighs. She felt the tips of his fingers pressing into her waist, his kisses growing more urgent.

“Orion, we don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she started, breathless.

He cut her off by slipping his hand between her legs over the fabric of her dress and pressing, the friction exactly where she needed it.

“You said this is what you need, and I will always give my Còmhanam whatever she needs. I am yours, body and soul,” he whispered against her neck. She moaned as he scooped her up with an arm under her rear, and her legs automatically wrapped around his waist.

He walked them backwards, never ceasing his trailing kisses and bites against her neck. He stopped as Evienne felt the bark of the great oak pressing into her back.

Evienne looked up at him, both of them out of breath and flushed, and he smiled at her wickedly. “I intend to have you here against this tree, Còmhanam, and knot you in the light of the full moon,” Orion said, his eyes roving over her.

Evienne knew they shouldn’t, out here in the open where anyone could find them, but she found she didn’t much care for what they should or shouldn’t do. She knew they were about to risk their lives to find the truth of Beitar’s suffering; all else seemed unimportant in comparison.

“Then take me,” Evienne said, the challenge in her voice echoed in her gaze.

Orion didn’t hesitate. He hiked her skirts up to expose her legs and found her bare, fully exposed to him with her legs still wrapped around his waist. He groaned at the sight, running his hand from where it had been cupping her face down over the curve of her breasts, across her rounded stomach, finally coming to rest between her legs.

She could feel how wet she was for him; she needed him to touch her, now. She ground her hips against his hand, and he smirked at her, enjoying how needy she was.

“Look at you, begging me to touch your pretty cunt,” he purred.

She whined, and let her head fall back as he pressed two fingers into her.

“Fuck, you’re so tight on my fingers,” he said as he found and stroked that spot deep inside her that made her whole body tense with pleasure.

“Fuck me, Orion,” she moaned. “Please, don’t tease me like this.” She continued grinding hard against his hand, the friction driving her mad. “Fuck me and knot me and mark me so the whole world knows you’re mine.”

Orion stilled his hand, and she felt a wave of love and awe strike her soul; it was his response to her words.

“Evienne, if I mark you, it will be very hard for us to go our separate ways, you understand that? The pull between us will be too strong.”

“I understand,” she breathed. “I want it. I want you,” she said, looking up at him through her lashes. The moonlight kissed his high cheekbones, and it looked for a moment as if tears were glistening in his green eyes.

The next moment he was kissing her again, somehow even deeper now, almost reverent. She reached between them and unfastened his pants, gripping his hard length in her hand and stroking. He moaned into her mouth before breaking their kiss. For a moment they just stared at each other, time suspended between them, taut and fragile and endless.

Evienne moved first, guiding him to her entrance. She panted at the feel of him against her opening and Orion growled, pushing his hips forward to enter her. Evienne couldn’t breathe around the stretch of him at first; he filled her so completely.

The small broken noise Orion made in his throat as he bottomed out inside her had her on the edge of her release. He began thrusting into her in short, deep strokes that kept the base of his cock rubbing against her clit. She felt the first flutter of her orgasm; a few more strokes of him inside her and she would be lost…

The next thing she knew, Orion’s mouth was on her neck, and a violent pain filled her mind, followed almost instantly by a flood of pleasure. She felt the waves of her release all the way to her finger tips, her legs numb, her breath coming in shallow pants. Orion continued rutting into her, his tongue lapping at her neck while his teeth still broke her skin.

After a few more thrusts of his hips, Orion released his bite on her neck, smoothing over the mark with kisses. The place on her neck felt like a cold breeze over flushed cheeks, like winter’s first wind. Orion found her gaze, and what she saw in his face would have brought her to her knees if she’d been standing. This man would go to the ends of the earth for her. He trusted her, admired her, respected her. He was her Còmhanam.

Evienne shifted slightly to lean forward and kiss him, and gasped at the sensitivity she felt where their bodies were still joined. Orion moved then, pulling her away from the tree and laying her down on the grass. He was still inside her, still hard and throbbing.

He thrust once and they both groaned at the sensation. Then he drew back slightly, making room to push Evienne’s legs toward her chest. The angle immediately deepened the feeling of him inside her, and she cried out in pleasure. He pushed forward, his weight pushing her legs even further, and he began to thrust again in long deep strokes.

Evienne couldn’t think beyond the feeling of him inside her, the pressure of his hard cock rubbing against that deepest spot that had pressure building in her lower back. He kept going, the same even pace, his green eyes fixated on her. She watched him, too, and saw when his gaze drifted down to where they were joined; she noticed the way his jaw flexed and a vein pulsed in his neck as he watched himself pushing into her body.

“Evi, I know we haven’t talked about it, and I don’t want to overwhelm you. I know you are protected, but by all the old gods, what it does to me to imagine breeding you,” he rasped, eyes now fixed on hers.

“You want to breed me?” Evienne asked, breathless. Her contraception was still in effect as Orion said, but she found the thought appealing.

“Yes,” he ground out, never losing his rhythm. “I want to fill you and watch your lovely waist swell with the life we create.”

Evienne moaned, clenching around his cock at his words. With anyone else, this sort of talk would have been off-putting, but with Orion, it felt safe. She wanted it, even if it was only imagined.

“Breed me, Orion. Knot me and bury your seed in me, please,” she begged.

“Fuck,” he whispered, his thrusts picking up in pace slightly.

“Come for me first, love,” he said, his hand reaching between them and stroking tiny circles around her clit.

The pressure Evienne had felt in her lower back spread down through her body and she held her breath, every inch of her felt hot and tight. With one final thrust against her sensitive spot, she felt a rush of wetness as she came. She screamed and Orion swore, letting go of her legs so they fell down to his sides. He rutted into her, short, deep strokes, until she felt his knot locking them together.

When the tightness became almost too much, Orion came with a moan, and she could feel his hot release filling her over and over again. Evienne came again at the sensation, her inner walls fluttering against Orion’s hard knot.

He leaned down on his elbows and kissed her then, sweetly, rolling his hips a bit and moaning into her mouth.

“Orion?” Evienne asked, still catching her breath.

“Yes, my love?”

“No matter what’s ahead, I’m grateful to have had this time with you,” she said, stroking her hand down his back.

“We will have an eternity together, my love,” he said, nuzzling his face into her neck. “I will fight to my last breath for every moment I can have with you.”