22. Nineteen

I stood alone on the secluded balcony, gazing out at the ethereal Twilight landscape spread before me. The air was still, carrying only the faintest whispers of activity from the encampment below. Up here, the sounds faded into a distant murmur.

Flickering candlelight from my chambers danced across the dark stone balustrade, casting wavering shadows. Beyond, the perpetual dusk of this strange realm cloaked everything in deep violets and muted indigos. Spectral trees with leaves of shimmering silver stretched their branches towards the starless sky.

I breathed in the crisp night air, savoring the brief reprieve. For a fleeting moment, I allowed myself to imagine a different life, one free from the weight of my birthright and the sins of my father. A life where I could simply be Ruith, not the rebel king, but just an elf. Just an average person who was born, who lived, and who died unremarked by the world.

But such fantasies were a dangerous indulgence. Too much depended on me—the fate of the kingdom, the freedom of the human slaves, and... Elindir.

The news of the impending attack weighed heavily upon my shoulders, a burden I could not easily set aside. Five thousand elven warriors, loyal to my father and hungry for our blood, marched relentlessly for Calibarra.

I clenched my fists, the roughness of my calloused palms a stark reminder of the battles I had already fought and the sacrifices I had made. How many more lives would be lost? Was I right in asking these people to fight and die for me? The weight of every soul lost hung heavy from my shoulders.

A soft knock came at the chamber door. I stepped back inside, the sitting room illuminated by the warm glow of the hearth fire. Ornate tapestries depicting ancient elven legends adorned the walls in threads of copper and gold.

I crossed the room, my footsteps muffled by the plush carpet, and opened the heavy wooden door. There stood Elindir, his fiery hair tousled and his eyes reflecting the firelight. He looked up at me, his expression softened by the low light.

"You came," I said quietly.

He pursed his lips and glanced at the Broken Blade soldiers standing guard. "You asked me to."

I stepped aside, allowing him to enter. As he brushed past me, his shoulder grazing mine, a frisson of electricity passed between us. I closed the door with a soft click.

"I wasn't sure you would," I admitted, turning to face him.

The firelight danced across his features, highlighting the strong lines of his jaw and the determined set of his brow. "I almost didn't."

"Why did you change your mind?"

Elindir paced before the hearth. He moved with a coiled grace, reminding me of a caged wildcat, all barely restrained energy and simmering intensity. Not so unlike he'd been when I first saw him in that cage all those weeks ago.

After a long moment, he ceased his pacing and turned to face me. "I've tried, Ruith. I've tried so hard to deny what I feel for you. After everything that's happened between us, I know I shouldn't..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

"Go on," I said, my voice barely a whisper.

"But I can't. No matter how much I want to hate you, to despise you for what you did... I'm drawn to you. You're fire and I'm a blind moth, fluttering around you, trying to resist what I know is bad for me, and yet…" Elindir sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm tired of fighting it, Ruith. I just want things to be simple. Why can't I have what I want? Why can't I just be happy?"

I took a step towards him, my heart aching at the vulnerability in his words. "Elindir," I said softly, reaching out to gently cup his cheek. His skin was warm beneath my palm, his stubble rough against my fingers. "Does being with me make you happy?"

"It infuriates me," he growled. "Because I shouldn't want this. After everything that happened to me, the last thing I should want is…"

Elindir's chest rose and fell rapidly, his breathing ragged. Tears glistened in his eyes, threatening to spill over. I had never seen him so raw, so exposed. It was as if all the armor he'd built up had finally cracked, revealing the fragile, hurting soul within.

"Tell me," I encouraged softly, my thumb brushing over his cheekbone. "What do you want, Elindir? What would make you happy?"

Elindir swallowed hard. When he spoke again, his voice was barely audible. "The only time I feel right is when you're holding me down, taking what you want from me. When you're fucking me so hard, I can't think straight. I crave your dominance, your possession. I shouldn't want it, but gods help me, I do."

Elindir's confession hung heavily in the air between us. In that moment, I saw him clearly—not as a prince or a slave or a rebel, but as a man. A man who had endured unimaginable horrors and still found the strength to bare his heart to me.

I pulled him against me, our bodies molding together as if we were made for this, made for each other. "Then let me give you what you crave. Let me make you forget everything except the feeling of my body possessing yours."

I claimed Elindir's mouth in a searing kiss, swallowing his gasp. His lips parted for me and I delved inside, tasting him deeply. He melted against me, his fingers digging into my shoulders as if I was the only thing anchoring him to this world.

With a low growl, I walked him backward until his legs hit the edge of the bed. I pushed Elindir down onto the plush coverlet, pinning his wrists above his head. He writhed beneath me, his eyes flashing with defiance even as his pupils dilated with desire.

"Is this what you want, my prince?" I purred, nipping at his earlobe. "For me to take control? To make you submit?"

"You'll have to work for it," he hissed through gritted teeth. "I'll never just roll over for you, Ruith."

A wicked grin curved my lips. "I would expect nothing less. It wouldn't be as satisfying if you didn't put up a fight."

I transferred his wrists to one hand, freeing the other to slip beneath the hem of his tunic. Elindir's breath hitched as my fingers skated over the taut planes of his stomach and chest, finding his nipples and pinching them to stiff peaks.

He arched into my touch, a low moan escaping him. I swallowed the sound with my mouth, kissing him deeply as I ground my hips against his. The evidence of his arousal pressed insistently against my thigh, contradicting his halfhearted struggles.

With deft movements, I divested us both of our clothing until we were skin to skin, the heat of his body searing me. I kissed a trail down Elindir's neck, over his collarbones, pausing to lave at his nipples.

I continued my sensual assault down Elindir's body, worshipping every inch of his skin with lips and tongue and teeth. He squirmed beneath me, his breathy gasps and stifled moans sweet music to my ears. When I reached the juncture of his thighs, I paused, my breath ghosting over his straining erection.

"Ruith," Elindir whimpered, his voice a desperate plea. "Please..."

I smirked up at him, reveling in his neediness. "Please what, my prince? Tell me what you want."

Elindir tossed his head against the pillows, his chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. "You know what I want, damn you."

"I want to hear you say it." I nipped at the sensitive skin of his inner thigh. "I want you to beg for it."

A shudder rippled through Elindir's body as desperate desire warred with his stubborn pride. After a long, tense moment, desire won out.

"I want your mouth on me," he ground out. "I want you to take me in your throat and swallow me down. I want... I need..."

That was all the encouragement I needed before swallowing him down to the root. Elindir cried out, his back bowing off the mattress. I set a relentless pace, alternating between swirling my tongue around the sensitive head and taking him deep into my throat.

Elindir writhed and bucked, but my grip on his hips was unyielding. I pinned him in place as I worked him mercilessly with my mouth, savoring every choked moan and broken plea that fell from his lips.

Just as I sensed Elindir teetering on the edge of release, I released him and licked my lips. He made a sound of desperate protest.

"Not yet, my prince," I said, crawling back up Elindir's body to claim his mouth in a bruising kiss. He returned it fiercely, teeth scraping at my bottom lip.

I caught his wrists and pinned them above his head again, shifting to settle between his spread thighs. Elindir made a token attempt to buck me off, but I held him fast, grinding my hips against his and reveling in the desperate moan that caught in his throat.

"Always fighting me," I growled against his lips. "Even when you want to submit, you resist. You can't help yourself, can you? But I'll make you yield to me, my prince. I'll take you apart piece by piece until you're begging for my mercy."

Elindir's eyes flashed with defiant heat. "I'll never beg. You'll have to break me first."

I tightened my grip on his wrists, pressing him harder into the mattress. "With pleasure."

I took my time preparing him, working him open with slick fingers as I drove him to the brink again and again, only to deny him release. By the time I finally sheathed myself inside his tight heat, Elindir was a trembling, incoherent mess beneath me.

I drove into Elindir with deep, powerful thrusts, angling my hips to hit that sweet spot inside him that made him cry out. Elindir tossed his head back, exposing the elegant column of his throat. I latched onto it with lips and teeth, determined to mark him as mine. He would wear my bruises like badges of honor, reminders that for this moment, he belonged to me completely.

"Ruith," he gasped, straining against my grip on his wrists. "I can't...it's too much..."

"You can take it," I growled against his skin. "You will take everything I give you."

I punctuated my words with a particularly hard thrust that made Elindir cry out so loud his voice echoed off the stone walls. His legs came up to wrap around my waist, heels digging into my lower back as if to pull me even deeper inside him.

I set a punishing rhythm, each snap of my hips driving Elindir further up the bed. The headboard slammed against the wall with the force of my thrusts. Elindir's cries echoed off the stone walls, a symphony of pleasure and desperation.

Sweat slicked our straining bodies as I took him with a relentless intensity. His body clenched around me like he was trying to pull me deeper with each thrust. The wet sounds of our coupling mingled with Elindir's choked moans, so loud it likely echoed down the hallway for anyone approaching to hear. I didn't care. Let them hear. Let them know he was mine.

"Ruith, please..." Elindir gasped, his voice cracking with desperation. "I need... I can't..."

I slammed into him harder, grinding my pelvis against his as I bottomed out inside his tight heat. "You don't come until I allow it. Your pleasure belongs to me. Your body belongs to me. When you're in my bed, every inch of you is mine to command."

Elindir shook his head frantically, his eyes wild and glassy with need. Tears leaked from the corners, trailing down into his fiery hair. "Please, I'll do anything... just let me come, I'm begging you..."

The broken plea in Elindir's voice sent a dark thrill through me. I had finally brought this proud, defiant prince to the point of begging. Of willingly submitting his pleasure to my control. It was a headier rush than the finest Elven wine.

I could feel my own release building at the base of my spine, my muscles coiling tighter with each powerful drive of my hips. But I ruthlessly pushed it back. I would not allow myself to finish before thoroughly wrecking him.

I reached between our sweat-slicked bodies, grasping Elindir's weeping erection in my fist. He let out a choked sob at the touch, hips bucking frantically into my hand. I stroked him in time with my thrusts, twisting my fist in the way I knew drove him wild.

"Come for me, my prince," I demanded, my voice rough with my own impending release.

As if he had only been waiting for my permission, Elindir's body seized beneath me. His back arched off the bed as he came with a ragged cry, spilling hot and wet over my fist and his own taut stomach.

The rhythmic clenching of his body around me pushed me over the edge. With a guttural groan, I slammed into him one final time, burying myself to the hilt as I emptied deep inside him.

I collapsed over Elindir, releasing his wrists to catch myself on my forearms. We lay there panting, our chests heaving against each other as we fought to catch our breath. For a moment, the rapid thud of Elindir's heart against my chest matched the frantic rhythm of my own.

As my breathing gradually slowed, I lifted my head to gaze down at Elindir. His eyes were half-lidded, his expression one of sated bliss. Fiery strands of hair clung to his damp forehead, and I reached out to brush them away.

In the aftermath of our passion, a rare vulnerability softened Elindir's features. Gone was the defiant jut of his chin, the guarded wariness that always lurked in his gaze. Right now, he was simply a man spent and content in my arms.

I rolled to the side, gathering Elindir against my chest. He came willingly, tucking his head beneath my chin as if he belonged there. Perhaps he did. In quiet moments like this, it was all too easy to imagine a life where we could simply be Ruith and Elindir. Not the rebel king and the exiled prince, but just two souls who had found solace in each other.

"So, what now?" Elindir murmured against my chest.

I squeezed him tighter against me and kissed the top of his head. "Now, you stay with me. You sleep here, with me."

"And your marriage to Taelyn?"

"Will be annulled," I announced.

Elindir leaned back and looked up at me. "Really? But won't that anger the Wolfhearts who've chosen to remain to support Taelyn?"

"Taelyn will still be queen," I said, reaching up to brush some sweaty strands of red hair away from his cheek. "But nowhere in elven law is it written that the queen must be the king's husband. I will still maintain the highest office in the land, with her ruling at my side as my second. She will command the Wolfheart forces. Keeping her on as queen will soften the scandal of you and I being together, and hopefully prevent the other clans from following in Klaus Wolfheart's footsteps should the excuse arise. Actually, making her a queen without asking her to remain in a marriage may strengthen her position. We might even see some of the Wolfhearts return to the fold if she seems less like a puppet. They would have considerably more political power."

Elindir was quiet for a long moment. "It's a risk," he said finally. "The nobility will talk. They'll whisper that you're thinking with your cock instead of your head. That you're letting your base desires cloud your judgment."

I let out a soft snort. "The nobility will always find something to gossip about. If it wasn't this, it would be some other perceived scandal. I refuse to let their wagging tongues dictate my life. Besides, what is the point of being king if I cannot interpret the law a little loosely and to my advantage?"

A smile tugged at Elindir's lips, a rare sight that made my heart clench. "You always did like to bend the rules to suit your whims."

"Only when it comes to you, my prince," I murmured, leaning down to capture his mouth in a languid kiss.

We lay like that for a while, exchanging slow, thorough kisses as our hands roamed over cooling skin. There was no urgency in our touches now, only a deep contentment and sense of rightness. I wanted to stay in this moment forever, shut away from the world and its troubles.

But reality could only be held at bay for so long. With a sigh, I pulled back and gazed down at Elindir. "As much as I wish we could remain here, there are matters I must attend to. The news of the impending attack cannot be ignored. We only have a few more hours before we must get back to work."

Elindir sobered, his brow furrowing. "Of course. I shouldn't keep you from your duties." He made to sit up, but I tightened my arms around him.

"Stay," I said softly. "These are your quarters too, now."

Elindir's eyes searched mine, a flicker of uncertainty passing through them. But then he relaxed against me, his head coming to rest on my chest. "As you say, my king," he said and closed his eyes.