Chapter 9

“Give it to me straight,” I whisper as we walk through the hall in the direction of the ship, a full entourage trailing behind us. “What’s going on?” I look over at Rurik, and he looks right back. The briefest hint of a smile kisses his lips before it falls entirely away.

“Neither of us have returned to the ship since we docked.” He hesitates for a few seconds, but never slows his confident, easy stride. “And I destroyed my face monitor.” He taps two fingers against the side of his head, and I remember that he took that odd face piece with the red screen and smashed it on the floor, leaving a smear of blood. Before I can ask what its purpose was, he fills me in. “My parents can’t see anything that happens on the World Station. The only method with which they have to monitor me is that device. I destroyed it and they will want to know why.”

“What point is there in monitoring you? You’re a grown-ass man,” I tell him, and Rurik swivels one of his feelers in amusement.

“Perhaps, but I am now the Imperial Prince, heir to the throne. It would not do to leave me unwatched.” Rurik stops outside the door to The Korol, guards filling the hallway on either side. Avril, Zero, and Connor are behind us with even more guards behind them. Rurik turns to me and exhales, eyes searching my face carefully. “I will handle this; you do not need to be afraid.”

He removes his glove and presses his hand to the scanner. The door slides open revealing that eerie antechamber with the spiral staircase and the pulsing veins on the ceiling. Meaty growths cover most of the wood-paneled walls, and I give an involuntary shudder. Get it together, Eve. Once you step on that ship, they can see, hear, and smell you. Maybe they can even see you now?

I straighten up and pretend like I don’t feel the weight of too many combined stares.

As soon as I stepped out of the bedroom earlier, I got a full reaction to the new dress from my ‘crew’. Connor blushed and looked away, adjusting his glasses. Avril smiled and clapped her hands together like a proud parent. Zero just barely bit back some bitchy comment about my ass. I mean, I can’t know that’s what she was thinking, but I’ve got a pretty good idea. The Vestalis don’t seem scandalized by the outfit, but the guards at least have been staring at me like some sort of savior from a land far, far away.

I can feel the weight of expectation hanging heavy over my shoulders.

Deep breath, Eve. The prince’s pheromones fill my lungs, soothing me.

Rurik steps onto the ship, and I follow him. The blue veins wrapped around the staircase banister dim and then flare with a bright glow as we head for the first set of doors, entering the room with the bloodred chandelier.

Nobody else follows us in, and the large door behind us glides shut.

You’ve got this. You can do this. Don’t freak out.

The round door to the throne room opens, revealing that strange dim light, the numerous flickering screens, the millipede queen. She doesn’t greet us the way she did last time, like we were old friends. Well, more like frenemies or some shit. This time, she doesn’t make any move to come toward us, waiting by the king’s side as we enter the room.

Rurik drops into a bow, and I follow him, the diaphanous lace of my dress settling around me.

“Rise.” The king is furious. Gone is the jolly giant laughter, and the fond looks. I follow along when Rurik stands, keeping my head down, doing my best to keep the very real fear at bay. I have the feeling that his parents wouldn’t hesitate to kill us both if it would suit them better to see us dead. “Did you enjoy your time aboard the World Station?” he asks.

It’s a loaded question; I wouldn’t know how to answer it.

“Very much so, My Imperial King. My mate and I spent many long hours in one another’s arms, learning of the other’s culture, anticipating a long and fruitful reign.” Rurik sounds so calm, so composed. You’d never know that I abandoned him to almost-fuck a cop and then super-fuck a dragon. He deserves better than that, doesn’t he? “My mate is shy and tender with her affections, so I felt it best to—”

A throbbing red artery peels off the wall and lashes out toward Rurik, cutting him across the cheek and drawing blood. He pulls his lips back in a snarl, but says nothing. The red strand rubs over his cheek, absorbing the dripping blood before retreating back to its place.

My mouth gapes open as I finally lift my head to stare the two royals down.

“Don’t you fucking touch him!”

I know my mouth gets me into trouble. My mouth has always gotten me into trouble. For example, shouting at the Tusk Man that was dragging me by the hair got me properly punched in the face, didn’t it? And now, here? I’m asking to be hurt. I actually step in front of Rurik without thinking.

Yep. TSTL (too stupid to live). That’s me.

“What did he do wrong? He did what I asked him to do, something to make me feel comfortable, and now you’re punishing him for it?” I keep going because … well, I don’t know. I guess it just sucks seeing Rurik dressed down because I made choices without regard to anyone but myself, and he’s the one who has to pay for it. That’s not fair.

His mother makes a strange buzzing sound that translates as laughter in my ear. Her mandibles clack together as she slithers over the floor toward us, thousands of pearly legs skittering. She’s the color of soap bubbles or mother-of-pearl, a scintillating soft rainbow. Unfortunately, the color does absolutely nothing to make her less creepy.

She goes to wrap me up in her coils when Rurik grabs me and pulls me against him, tucking me close.

“Mother, I beg of you. My mate is new to the Noctuida. She is not like other mates. Until recently, she believed her people to be alone in the universe. You cannot fault her for her mistakes.” He holds me like he’d give his life for mine. I believe it, too.

I can’t wait to get to know him as a person.

“I do admire your devotion to one another,” the queen says, curling her body over the pair of us so that she can look at me with an upside down face. Ugh. She’s like … creepy cute? Like, she should be cute with those big, round eyes and that pretty skin, but really, all she makes me want to do is turn all the lights on and hide under the covers.

It’s so dimly lit in here, and it’s musty and humid and hot. It feels desperate and sad and not like a place I’d want to spend my time. What happens when Rurik takes the throne? Will he … I don’t go there in my head. Not yet.

“But we had feared you were going to flee your duties. A deserter is better off dead, Rurik.” His mother keeps her eyes on me, but I never allow that stare to break. I hold it in challenge. I will not be intimidated. If I’m the next queen—and it seems like I’ll be taking her place soon enough—then I don’t have to take crap from her or anyone else. Never have, not about to start doing it now.

“You know I agree with you wholeheartedly mother, but I—” Rurik stops talking when I lift my thumb up, brushing it across the wound on his cheek. It’s bleeding again. I have the urge to lick it. Fuck it. I’m on a sentient alien spaceship in a throne room covered in meat with a rainbow millipede queen MIL glaring daggers at me. Why the hell not?

I lift up on my tiptoes and press my lips to the cut, flicking my tongue out to gather Rurik’s blood. His thoughts flood into my brain.

Ah, my mate. The one I’ve been waiting for. Your affections fill me with something I have never experienced before. When I fuck you, I will be tender. When I fuck you, you will know me, and I will know you.

Rurik blinks at me in surprise when I pull back, and then his hands are in my hair, and our mouths are pressed together. His tongue invades me, and my dress pulses hot, the threads connected directly to my skin, my heart, my nipples. Fuck, that feels good. His parents don’t interrupt us, and I quite literally forget that they’re there.

That’s how you know, you know? Like, you’ve got the right guy when his kiss can make you forget the oversized moth king, the not-so-thinly veiled threats, and the many-legged monster who hates you.

It’s only when Rurik’s hand hitches up my dress, gloved fingers on my naked thigh, that his father clears his throat. The sound echoes loudly from the big man’s throne, and the pair of us draw back from one another, both of us blinking like we’re in a daze.

“It is both their wedding and their first mating today,” the king says gently, holding out a hand for his own mate. The millipede queen retreats back to his side and curls around both him and the throne that it maybe, sort of, almost seems like he’s attached to. Is that what’s happening? Is Rurik’s dad fucking sealed to this ship?

Panic hits me, but I crush it down. One step at a time.

“Yes,” his mother allows on the end of a long sigh, “but understand that it will not be appreciated if you attempt to hide your activities from us again. Next time, you will receive a punishment that I guarantee you will not like. I dare say that you will hate it.”

“You are dismissed,” his father allows, waving a large hand in our direction.

Rurik offers a horizontal bow at the waist, and I follow suit, allowing him to take my arm to lead me from the room. I can tell we’re both ready to breathe a sigh of relief once we get out of there and the door is closed behind us, but we can’t. Not here. His parents can as easily see us now as they did when we were inside the throne room.

“Where is the …” I can’t even make myself say it. Where is it that I’m supposed to fuck you? I want it to be in private, but it won’t be. People will be watching. Your horrible parents will be watching.

Rurik turns to me and takes my face in his hands again, gazing down at me with an expression of such undeserved gratefulness that my stomach turns. He can’t look at me like that when I’ve done nothing at all to help him, when I’ve only humiliated him, when I’m mated to another guy.

“Not once in the whole of my life has anyone stood up for me,” he breathes, and then he takes my lips with such tenderness that I once again forget where I’m standing and what’s going on. “You are a treasure, my princess.”

My cheeks turn pink, and he smiles at that, but I pretend not to notice.

“Not that I can back my shit up,” I hedge, fidgeting slightly. Rurik releases me, but the heat of my gown keeps me warm in his absence.

“Not now perhaps,” he tells me with another half-smile. “But all you need do is exist, and I will give you all the power you need.” He weaves his fingers into my hair and sighs heavily. “It is time.”

His voice cracks on the words, and the translator stutters with static.

“Now, let us be wed.” His face darkens, feelers pressing tight against the sides of his heads, wings ruffling. “Stars, mate, it is time.”

“I can’t make the wedding happen any faster, Your Imperial Majesty,” Avril is mumbling as we walk down the hall in the direction of the royal suites. Hmm. Yeah, so. Think both Rurik and I said and did some things we wouldn’t have if we’d known we were going to have to spend time alone together before the wedding.

“Stars, mate, it is time.”

I chuckle as my eyes flick to Rurik’s face. He ignores Avril’s response to his crankiness. We both know why he’s cranky: he’s embarrassed.

Vestalis don’t blush—they’re always as white as a dead ghost’s fucking skeleton—but I swear some color pinked in his cheeks earlier. He got all throaty and sexy and said, “Stars, mate, it is time,” and … and then it wasn’t because his parents called us in hours ahead of schedule.

“You said you’re taking on my traits, right?” I ask him, trying not to grin mischievously. But oh hell, this is great. He doesn’t seem so pompous or lordly when he’s flushing pink. “Is it possible you developed a blush?” I lean in toward him, hands twisted together behind my back.

Rurik offers me a discomfited expression in response.

“If you would give me time to consider the matter, my princess,” he breathes quietly, tugging at the fingers of his gloves. I’m striding cheerfully beside him in a gown that’s hot, like physically, it’s really fucking warm. I can feel my fiancé’s heart through the threads, and he talks like a grotesquely wealthy duke in a historical romance novel. My mood is surprisingly chipper despite the circumstances.

“My dad is into that kind of stuff,” I tell him, looking back down at the floor and somehow not caring how naked I really am right now. I feel pretty badass in the dress, so … there’s that. “Sorry, my mouth is moving faster than my brain. I meant historical romance novels, my dad likes them. You remind me of the dukes in his favorite books.” I shrug my shoulders and gift Rurik with another coy look.

We have to get past the flirty new-relationship stage fast.

He’s staring strangely at me again, but his antennae keep twitching in annoyance as the others engage in a very loud, very rude conversation ahead of us.

“Your father sounds like an interesting human. I like him already.”

“I like you,” I retort and he narrows his eyes at me. “And I like when guys blush, so I’m just curious if it’s possible for an alien to blush?”

The look Rurik communicates to me says there’s no chance in the whole of the Noctuida that he’s going to answer me. Not the second part anyway.

“I like you as well, Eve. If you are brave enough to reject me, then I know you are being honest when you say such things. It is appreciated.” Okay. Not as embarrassing as the stars-mate thing, but close to it. I clear my throat, and Rurik smiles knowingly.

“What about you?” I ask, looking between him and the others. He follows the direction of my gaze and scowls when Connor stares back at the pair of us like he’s deciding whether to patronize or pity us. The newest member of our crew chuckles condescendingly before turning forward again. “Anything you’re curious about?”

“I am curious if it is possible for a human male to be quiet.” Rurik grits his teeth when he says it, but though I can tell he’s imperiously annoyed, it’s not with me. It’s Connor. He’s … well, worse than Avril if you can believe it.

“It’s incredible, the complexity of their society. They have all of this technology, but is it much more advanced than what we use on Earth? I’ll tell you the answer to that: not really. It’s not much different here, is it?” Connor adds wild gestures along with his words, like he’s trying to win a debate.

Avril appears skeptical.

“Connor, they’re giant moths with meat ships. They’ve got our asses kicked. And didn’t you just spend three full Earth days in a tube of hot pink goop?”

“Despite all of this”—Connor gestures around with a finger—“they allow themselves to be literally ruled by some mythology about fated mates. This is nothing more than adaptable biology—”

“I will tell you something, human male,” Rurik snarls, moving just a little faster so that he can walk directly between the two medics. “Soon enough, I will wed my female and you will see what is so different about a Vestalis mating. You will cry and beg for your soulmate and wish that your pathetic species was capable of such an intense and star-felt love.” Rurik smirks while I blush like crazy, and then he tosses me a sly look over his shoulder. You’re flirty, aren’t you, Moth Guy?

Connor scoffs, which only draws Rurik’s attention again.

The prince drops his lips next to the man’s ear, but speaks loudly enough that we can all hear.

“Not enough for you?” Rurik tsks his tongue. “Then let me add to my argument. We must travel to the planet Dome tomorrow, so that the rest of the wedding celebrations can commence. This ship will soon make a tricky maneuver in order to accomplish that. It is what us primitive extraterrestrial life refer to only as a reverent whisper. That is, a star-jump. It allows us to cross vast distances in mere minutes. We will go inside of one star and come out of another. It is painful and makes you question your very existence. After we have completed the star-jump, I will again ask if you find the human race superior to the Vestalis.”

Connor turns away, completely unconvinced. I take that star-jump bit as a joke. Because if it’s not … I start to sweat and use a single finger to tug at the lace collar of my dress.

“Well, I guess if that happens, you can ask me again.” Connor, this pale, skinny-ass guy, has the audacity to smirk at my prince. He’s defying his character stereotype and it’s pissing me off. Who the fuck does this guy think he is to smirk at the Imperial Prince? “But the soulmate thing? You, a reasonable enough man, should be able to admit that—”

Connor runs right into someone that’s frantically coming around the corner.

It’s Rurik’s brother, Brot. I remember the guy since he’s the one I told to fuck off.

“Filthy Earthen breeder—” The grumbling man stops short as Connor looks up. Something happens, like a flicker in the corner of my vision. It’s heat, searing over my skin, a chemical reaction akin to throwing a match into a room filled with gasoline vapor. Hmm. “No.”

Brot flattens his dark antennae against the sides of his head.

Connor falls to his knees.

“Conn, are you okay?” Avril is snapping her fingers in front of his face, but he slaps her hand away. He scrambles up to a standing position, mouth gaping open.

“It’s true,” he whispers, and then he looks back at me suddenly. His expression reads I’m so fucking sorry that I judged you. Connor very slowly returns his attention to the other Vestalis prince. “You know me, don’t you?” he asks slowly, and Brot makes a run for it.

He literally shoves Connor out of the way and keeps walking, as if there wasn’t some strange, creepy moment between them like ten seconds ago.

“Are they mates?” I ask, because I feel like I’ve just seen something private and intimate that shouldn’t have occurred in such a random way in a crowded hallway.

“I … do not know.” Rurik looks down at me as I catch up to him, his face softening. He brushes a bit of auburn hair back from my forehead. “I did not mean to sidestep your earlier question, my princess. I was merely caught up in embarrassment, and I did not know what to say, so I deflected.”

Oh. Wow. He’s … honest. I like it.

“It’s fine,” I start, more concerned with Connor and the possibility that he might have a Vestalis soulmate, too. I’d like that, I guess. Having someone to talk to. I’ll admit: I’m hoping for it. Rurik continues, putting a hand to the side of my face.

“It is entirely possible … No, it is probable that I will develop a shame-activated skin discoloration like you have.” He doesn’t seem at all concerned with Connor. Not in the slightest. Nor his most favoritest brother Brot.

“Why did he leave me here?” Connor is asking, looking back down the hallway like a person who’s been kicked repeatedly in the nuts. He turns to me, as if I might be able to help him. “Why did he leave me, Your Majesty?”

Yep. This is actually happening.

“Connor, I have no idea.” I start to feel less silly all of a sudden, until I’m just sick to my stomach instead. Connor is staring at me not like he thinks this is a curse, but like it’s a gift. My breath catches, and I look away, fisting a hand in the lace at the front of my dress.

“How long until the wedding?” I ask again, because I suddenly can’t wait any longer. I want to follow this feeling and see where it goes. My eyes shift to Rurik’s, and I know he’s been feeling this way for weeks now. Since he licked my blood in the market tent.

I should’ve gone to him then.

If I’d called out to him, his eyes would’ve widened, and he would’ve shoved past Avril to get to me, scooped me up in his arms, brought me to the royal suites. He’d have healed me and fed me and made love to me. I could’ve waited for an explanation if I’d just shown up here first. Because I wouldn’t have even cared or needed it.

I don’t regret Abraxas at all—I’m glad it happened the way it did—but that was another choice I could’ve made back then. I could tell something was off with Moth Guy from three seconds in. And Officer Hyt is right: they do exaggerate. It only takes two. Two seconds to fall in love.

“He left me,” Connor whispers, and his voice is an absolute landslide of devastation. He looks up suddenly and draws Rurik’s cavalier attention. “Please let me go see him. Please give me express permission to traverse this ship, to demand my mate’s attention, and to force him to listen to me talk for at least thirty minutes. I won’t even touch him.”

“I easily have the power to do that and more,” Rurik admits, a frown blooming on bloodstained lips. “But you insulted the Vestalis as well as myself. Most importantly, you insulted my mate. I do not know if I wish to grant these boons to someone who does not believe in the mate bond.”

“It’s okay, Connor.” I wave my hand at him. “You have permission for all of that. You also have permission to kick Brot in the balls if you want.”

Connor grins at me.

“Might need them, so I’ll kick something else.” He fixes his glasses and says softly, “thanks boss.” He disappears down the hallway as Zero glances my way with something akin to pride in her expression. It fades quicker than it arrived, a flicker that I’ll doubt ever happened by tomorrow.

“You truly believe the brat deserves such favors?” Rurik asks me, but he doesn’t challenge my authority. I like that. “As Brot is my favorite of all my brothers, I will bestow upon him a long honeymoon that gets both him and Connor off my ship.”

I freeze where I am, just stop walking in the middle of the hallway. Off my ship. His ship. Our ship.

“Will this cause some sort of trouble with the throne?” I ask, imagining all of human history and every bloody ascension story I’ve ever heard. “Like, because I delayed our mating for so long, Brot has a mate now—”

Rurik shushes me with a finger to my lips.

“Brot is mated with a male; they cannot bear heirs. It will be an easy choice that I should be promoted over him. Otherwise, he will forever sit the throne without a successor and my other brothers will proceed to fight with one another. If any finds their mate, they will set themselves up as the true heirs and a civil war will ensue. This is … simpler for everyone involved. We ascend; I give you an heir immediately.”

Not simpler for us, I think. I’m glad to be queen, but … we also don’t have a choice. I’m not comfortable when I don’t have choices. Just look at the Rurik thing. The insta-love made me feel like I didn’t have a choice. But I realize I do. It just isn’t the choice I thought it was.

“We really need to have sex quickly, don’t we?” I clarify, wondering what nightmares might ensue if another brother showed up with a mate. We have—what did Avril say earlier—three Earth hours until the wedding? Anything could happen. If something does, I feel like people might die. I definitely don’t want those people to be us.

I glance over my shoulder to see that Connor is entirely gone from sight.

“Did he just … are they mates? Where the fuck is my star-destined chosen alien soulmate?” Avril is murmuring in bewildered frustration as Zero shakes her head in shame.

“It is unfortunate that my people are no longer around. We seeked only to discover the truth of the science behind the mate bonds, and we were punished for it.” She grits her teeth, but Rurik doesn’t send her to the floor in a mechanical malfunction. He just lets her say it. “There is a science behind it; I believe it is real. We only wanted to find out why.”

Rurik exhales. Is that why the Vestalis nuked the Cartians? Damn, that’s savage.

“My parents are quite old-fashioned; they believe some things should stay magic.” He looks at me, and I look at him, and … I can feel it. Magic. And I know that it’s not. I get that it probably has to do with pheromones and chemistry and biology, but it doesn’t matter because it feels like magic. And what is magic if not for something real that’s simply unexplainable at the current moment? “And you’d best remember that I am only giving you a pass for your insolence because it is my wedding day, and I do not wish to search for a new bodyguard.”

Rurik gives Zero a very strong look of warning, and my heart warms toward him.

He knows his parents could be listening, and he doesn’t want her to get herself into trouble that he can’t get her out of. I love him for that.

Um. I mean … I love that about him.

We are so not there yet. Stupid insta-love pheromones.

“Connor has a mate, and I’m a handmaiden.” Avril growls and rakes her fingers through her hair, taking off ahead of us. Zero follows and … I cannot be left standing here alone with Rurik, so I chase after.

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. I’m thinking about it. “Stars mate, it is time.” Wow. Damn it. Wow.

We continue down the hall together toward the royal suites, but the energy is tense. It’s worse once we’re inside and my only two companions retreat immediately into my bedroom, the door swishing shut behind them. You’re both terrible wingwomen! I think-scream at them, but I can’t scream-scream it because he’s … he’s there. I’m here. The room is hot and thick with unsaid truths. Jane was right: it’s the sex thing. Again.

It’s just me and Rurik in the foyer with an empty honeymoon suite behind him, door open, bed just right there and waiting to be dirtied with a human-alien tangle of naked limbs and … His cock with those red claspers and all the weirdness that comes with them.

My whole body itches.

Something is happening with my dress.

Without moving, without even touching me, Rurik steals threads from the bottom of the dress, redirecting the lace to slither upward, over my thighs, unfurl across my sensitive cunt. I gasp and bite my bottom lip, drawing blood. He sighs from his spot across the room, like he can smell it. He finishes rearranging my blood lace, leaving my dress a little shorter and gifting me panties that squeeze and nurture a violent ache between the thighs.

Rurik is basically fucking me with his blood lace.

“I …” I don’t know what to say, so I don’t say anything. I just stand there as he winds the threads more tightly around me, grinding hot rough lace against my folds and clit. I put a hand out on the wall to keep my feet. My cheeks heat up, and I close my eyes. I can hear him shifting his wings, a soft shush that makes me shiver.

Pheromones hit me in a wave, and I come that easily. An orgasm strikes me right in the lower belly, and my eyes roll back, bones going limp, heat sweeping through me in a cleansing blaze.

I almost hit the floor, but Rurik manages to catch me before I fall.

“What are you—” I start as he presses me against the wall, kissing me into silence.

He’s been waiting for me to accept him all along. I’ve accepted him. This is … my reward.

I’m in absolute bliss as he kisses me. Have, in fact, wanted him to kiss me for weeks. Thought about him randomly but often. Related any important event back to him. When Abraxas was dying, and I wondered how to go about getting someone to help me save him, who did I immediately conjure up?

Rurik.

I wanted to go find Rurik to save the love of my life. I trusted that he would do it. He’ll do it now. He fucking wants me, and he isn’t afraid to let himself just love me. It’s a gift to him, too, and he likes it. Like Connor, he also thinks we’re very lucky, no matter the negatives that come along with the mate bond.

Because it’s worth it.

It’s worth it, no matter what. Anything.

He leans his face down to mine, pressing our foreheads together. My peach skin against the triangle of black between his eyes. My hands find his hair, dig into it, hold him there.

“Three hours?” I whisper, and then I groan. “I don’t want to wait three hours.”

“What are three more?” Rurik murmurs as he turns his face into my neck. I can feel him smiling. He’s so goddamn human right now, it’s crazy. It makes no difference to me then what he is. He’s an adult. He’s sentient. He’s mine. That’s it.

“Can you just hold me here?” I ask, putting my hands over the epaulets on his shoulders. “Against the wall like this?”

“I appreciate you thinking you had a choice,” he teases. “Now that you have given me permission, it will be impermissible for you to walk away from this.”

I can’t even respond to that. We actually do just stay as we are, for so long that Avril and Zero open up the bedroom door to find us posed in a compromising position.

“Oh.” Avril snickers, and I want to punch her in the face so badly that it’s a physical ache, almost as intense as the one throbbing between my legs.

I am fucking my king today. My pussy will make him king. Literally. Fucked to the throne. By me. That’s insane, but isn’t that the basic truth of it?

“Never in our research could we find a female of any species who would decline a Vestalis mate. We even had scientists leave our field after running into their own mates.” Zero gives me a disappointed look and now I know that I imagined that flicker of pride earlier. “You are by far the longest holdout recorded in our entire history—nearly five hundred years’ worth—of Vestalis study by the Cartian race.”

“Th…anks?” It feels like that was a compliment actually. My palm drags down the front of Rurik’s jacket, fingers curling underneath his belt and giving it a gentle tug.

“However long we were intended to wait for the wedding,” Rurik growls, turning a mean look over his shoulder. “Go and tell the king and queen that it is now.”

“Y-yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” Avril throws a hasty but not disrespectful bow, and takes off like a bat out of hell. Rurik looks back to me and smiles, like he’s had a lick of power and likes it.

And me? I appreciate the taste of pure and violent authority on his lips.

“Stars, mate, it’s time?” I repeat, and he bites me in the lower lip, causing my body to spasm like I might very well come again. There’s nothing but wildflower honey and fresh cardamom in my lungs. It’s making me slightly dizzy with the smell of it. He whispers roughly against my ear.

“I will fuck you so hard that you will forget that Abraxas exists.” He sucks the blood from my lip and then licks it. “And I am not a liar. You know I am telling the truth.”

I laugh at that.

He’s right: I can tell what he’s feeling right now. I know he believes that to be the truth. It has yet to be seen. When I was with Abraxas, I forgot Rurik, and that doesn’t seem like something that will ever be possible again.

“Prove it.”