Chapter 93

Arik

Why did I lead Jessalyn down to the stews when we first met? Why didn't I return her to her father's care? Why didn't I tell her who I was, or my band who she was? I was never one for introspection, but I knew this. I tried my damndest to stay ahead of everyone, to keep us dancing out of my brother's reach, but sometimes, just sometimes, the same zeal that had a younger version of myself considering waging a civil war against my brother came through. So in some ways this moment? It felt like we'd been walking towards it since the moment we met.

Roseblood hadn't dulled my senses that night, but made clear how well she fit against my body, how perfect she felt in my hands. There wasn't a single thing that was reticent about Jessalyn, I'd been surprised about that then as well as now. But that little gasp, the way she arched up into my touch, I knew then that despite Roan's concerns, she had it right.

Magnus would never earn the right to touch a single inch of Jessalyn.

I wasn't either and that's why I treasured the way her breast filled my hands, the way her nipples tightened between my fingers. I was well used to grabbing what pleasures I found with both hands, but each time, they felt like they would be stolen away from me the moment I got them, so perhaps that's why my head dropped down. Feeling her moans vibrating in her throat as I kissed her there, but a sharp intake of her breath had my eyes flicking open.

Roan had pulled away from kissing her, his fingers disappearing between her legs to strum at her pearl, but it was Silas who made her stiffen. The way his arm worked made clear what he was doing.

"Is Silas opening you up, lass?" Her reply was nothing more than a thready moan, a slight hitch to her breath, the frown forming making clear what was happening. "It might be a strange thing, feeling something delve inside you." She disproved that, her groan going guttural, her thighs spreading wider. "Or perhaps you're discovering something you've always known."

My hand slid lower, caressing the slight curve of her stomach and feeling the muscles flex there.

"There's a secret place inside you that came alive that night in the stews." Her eyes flicked open to meet mine, but her gaze was unfocused. "One that has ached for something since that night, something only we can give you." When I nodded, she did the same blindly, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip, her cheeks glowing in the lamplight. "But that changes tonight. Silas, another finger."

"But she—"

"Another," I insisted, hearing her hiss as he withdrew his hand, then went to push more fingers inside. "That's what you want, don't you? To have that aching emptiness filled."

"Yes…!"

Her cry was as sharp as the order of a commanding officer on a battlefield, demanding a response. I felt her stiffen, a thin whine making clear she was experiencing a moment of indecision, and I was prepared to stop everything right then, regroup and rethink what we were doing, just as she screwed up her face and bore down.

"Oh…" The tiny little exhalation would stay in my mind, echoing around in my head long after this night, because it was the sound of Jessalyn taking her pleasure, her power. She grinned then, writhing experimentally, then with much more gusto, as she reached for more of what tantalised her. "Oh yes…"

I felt the shadow of her body heat when she pulled away from me, falling down on Silas, her fingers clawing at the sheets as Roan and Silas worked her higher. "Yes, yes…" Her chants pushed them on and on, and I watched her back arch as her body began to shudder.

"Feeling good?" I flopped down on the bed and tipped her head my way. "It'll feel so much better when you take what you need."

She stared at me, open mouthed and panting, my words taking a while to sink in. I knew when they did because her focus shifted abruptly to Silas. He nodded sharply, answering whatever silent question was in her eyes. My brother rolled up, holding her nestled against his chest, pressing a kiss to her forehead before they both moved.

I'd fucked women, but I was willing to bet it looked nothing like this. Not just like one part of his body slotting into hers, but a connection being formed. Her eyes going wide as she felt him, his just as open and staring as their breaths came in sharp little pants. In perfect sync, because of course they were, the pain in my head, my heart, flaring hotter.

Perhaps it was fate, the wolf gods, or some divine force that brought us here. For the first time I could believe in such a thing. There was no good reason for the all of us to come together like this tonight, to witness Silas and Jessalyn form a bond. Would it satisfy Creed? I was hoping it would meet his expectations, because as my brother made her his, she claimed him right back, her face burying itself in the crook of his shoulder. Her cries grew louder as her whole body worked, her hips snapping faster and faster as Silas' fingers dug into the soft flesh there, helping set the pace.

"Well, if we're going to hell, I'll be damned better naked than sitting here watching," Roan cursed, rising up and tugging his shirt, his belt and sword, and the rest of his clothes off before joining them on the bed. His cock pressed into the small of her back as his body wrapped around her and Jessalyn reacted blindly, throwing her head back and hips. I watched her rut between the two of them, and it was exactly as I expected it would be.

Jessalyn was radiant in ecstasy. Some women went red faced and blotchy with it, but she seemed to glow. Golden and beautiful, her form burned itself in my retina, and I knew then I'd see the silhouette of her there, clouding every other thing I looked at for days later. That didn't draw me closer, but had me falling back. As I collapsed into the chair beside her bed, my hands found the laces of my pants, then my cock, it almost jumping in my palm, like a horse resisting a new rider when it knew the one it belonged to was so close.

I wanted her hand around me, those slender fingers struggling to wrap tightly, then the too smooth slip of her palm against my aching length. Instead, I had to be satisfied with my own hand, right up until my ring caught on a fold of skin. Wincing, I jerked my hand away, looking to see my father's signet ring had swung around, the flat carving of the royal stag there threatening to tear at me. I shook my head at the sight of it, then yanked it off, shoving it into my pocket before turning back to the three of them.

They were getting close, I could see that in the shake of Silas' arms, the frantic thrust of Roan's hips, and Jessalyn's ragged cries. Their pleasure plucked at me, making me feel like I was drowning in it, while also feeling completely detached from them. The cold, hard part of my mind wanted to just watch the three of them, analyse the way they came together, only to pull apart, sure there was a lesson to be learned here, but instead, I gripped myself to the point of pain. My hand moved, finding their rhythm and stroking in time with it, because this was the only way I could participate.

Sometimes I wondered if I'd been infected with some of Magnus' taint, or perhaps it was the poison we all breathed in growing up in the palace. Whatever it was, it caused me to take a vicious kind of pleasure in this. The vicarious thrill of watching three of the people I cared most about connect as I kept myself removed. It hurt to jerk my own cock. I wanted to push forward, just as Roan had, but I had none of his confidence that I'd be welcomed with open arms, so instead, my hand worked faster, stirring this.

My balls ached, my cock throbbing in my palm. It was like a dog on a leash, straining to get to Jessalyn, but I kept it back. Silas had smeared his blood on our girl, but even that wasn't enough to stain her. She took that as a gift owed to her and then took everything else she wanted as well. But me? I'd drag a different kind of blood with me onto that bed, one I saw now.

My hands were slick with blood. Not the darker kind that Jessalyn's scratches had caused to well on Silas, but the bright red of heart's blood. It helped lubricate my hand's passage, and my fingers tightened around my cock, even as my mind screamed at me to stop.

"No," she said, appearing in the room, blocking my view of the three of them. Princess Tiana, my brother's last victim. Her eyes burned into mine with an unholy light, taking in what I was doing, how I was feeling, with a bitter sneer.

"No," said Princess Rochelle, and the way she peered down her nose at me should've had my dick wilting like a flower in the sun.

"No," said another woman and another, their pitiless gazes refusing to let me come or stop, the women filling the room with all of the anger, the rage, they'd smothered so completely within the palace. They'd felt free enough to make clear their disdain the entire trip to the capital, but once they walked into the throne room? That died, and then they did. "No," they said, over and over again, right up until she appeared.

"Ariel…?"

I barely breathed her name, blinking as I stared up at her, watching her reach for me, wanting to pull away and lean into her hand. Her fingers seared like ice does when you touch it for too long, turning my whole body numb except for one joint. My cock throbbed then pulsed, my balls pulling up far too tight against my body as they strove to eject everything I had inside me, the waves of orgasm cutting far deeper than Silas' knife. I got no pleasure from that, though. Instead, I gasped and gasped, feeling the hot seed splattering my shirt, then seeping through, the room coming back to me abruptly.

"Gods, Jessalyn…" The madness that rode Silas was finally fading as the needs of their bodies had been satisfied, so the man was returning. "Are you well? Are you hurting?"

She replied with a long sigh that dissolved into giggles.

"Only that I have spent all of this time denying myself that." Her look was that of a practised seductress as she stared into his eyes. "You mean I could have been experiencing that pleasure every night we travelled to the capital?"

"That and more." Roan's finger slid down her shoulder, forcing her to turn towards him. He lay at her back now. "Quite a few if you've a mind to learn them."

"Oh, you will find me a very receptive student," she replied. "I thought the whole veil thing was some kind of conspiracy to deny me pleasure, but I didn't know how much." Her eyes fell half closed as her body flexed, Silas groaning into her breasts.

"Keep doing that, lass, and we'll be going again shortly."

"Promise?"

That one word was what had me standing up abruptly, tearing off my own shirt to replace it with Roan's discarded one.

"Stay here," I told them. "Spend the night discovering every pleasure, while I go to the palace."

"What?" Silas stiffened. "Why? We were—"

"I'll deliver the news to the king," I said. "I'd much rather risk his wrath on my own than with the lot of you in tow. Stay here."

Silas went to argue, but Roan nodded.

"Stay safe, brother. We need you to come back here and tell us what we're doing wrong before the night's through."

I smiled then despite myself.

"No more knife play for starters." I said this in a gently chiding tone.

"But—" Jessalyn started to bristle against Silas.

"None that draws blood then." I stood tall, moving into the stance the military worked hard to make automatic. "I can go into the lion's den if I know the lot of you are in one piece."

"You too, brother," Silas replied.

Each one of them stared at me then, which forced me to turn on my heel and walk away. It was either that or lose myself in the lot of them. My errant vision, it reminded me of something I knew all too well, and that's what had me walking down the corridors of the temple and out to the stables.

"Leaving without my brother?" Selene appeared out of the shadows, smiling slightly.

"If I had my way, he'd be putting on one of your robes and staying here until this is done," I replied, stroking my horse's nose.

"Silas was placed by your side by my father, but that's not what keeps him there," she replied. "It's because he feels like it's exactly where he's supposed to be. Whatever you go to do, he would want to be there with you."

"But he can't." I looked down at my hands, seeing only grime and skin, not blood. "And if you love your brother, you'll keep him here. The blood is on my hands, not his and…" I hauled myself up into the saddle. "The only one way to wash them clean is to bathe them in my brother's lifeblood. Make sure that he and Roan remain here until morning, and if your father can bring me word of Creed, well…" I sighed, mindful of what my words would mean. "I'd be very grateful for news."

"I'll forward that message on, Prince Arik."

I didn't feel like a prince when I rode towards the palace, nor one as I scaled the stairs. The muffled sounds from the throne room pricked at my skin, the cries and the moans completely different to those in Jessalyn's bedroom at the temple. These sounds were brutal, animalistic, savage, making the idea of putting my hand on the doorknob utterly repellent, but I did just that.

"Arik?"

I almost jerked my hand away at the sound of my name, the distraction welcome, right up until I saw the general rushing forward.

"Sir."

I went to perform a salute, but he shook his head sharply.

"Is the king in there? I must speak to him immediately." I wanted news of Creed, but not like this. "The wolf shifters have deserted the army en masse, leaving our borders with both Lanzene and Matteau undefended."

I'd seen the man standing in front of a sea of cadets, me among them, and I'd seen him in briefings, delivering our orders for the battle ahead, but in each instance, he was a picture of calm, confident control. There was none of that now. His eyes searched my face, looking for an appropriately fearful response, but I had none to give him. Creed had done exactly as we agreed, reminding the human citizens just how much the bond with the wolf shifters mattered.

"I too have news for him, sir," I said, pushing the door open.