9. Six

The moment Taelyn's silken footsteps faded into silence, the bedchamber seemed to shrink, the air growing heavy and charged with unspoken words. I stood motionless, my heart a wild, untamed creature beating against the cage of my ribs as I met Elindir's piercing gaze.

In the flickering candlelight, his fiery hair gleamed like polished copper and his pale skin was practically glowing. He almost didn't feel real. Perhaps he wasn't, and I was standing there with his ghost.

I took a step forward, my movements slow and deliberate, as though I were approaching a wild creature that might bolt at any sudden motion. "Elindir," I breathed, his name a reverent prayer on my lips. "I..."

"What is this?" he demanded.

I halted. "Is it not obvious?"

A muscle in his jaw clenched. "It would seem," he said, "you intend to fuck me instead of your new wife. Is that right?"

The words hung in the charged air between us, sharp and accusatory. I flinched, feeling their sting like a physical blow. But beneath the anger simmering in Elindir's voice, I caught the barest flicker of something else, a raw, aching vulnerability that made my heart constrict.

"Elindir," I said softly, taking another step toward him. "You know it's not that simple."

"Isn't it? You married her. You stood before the gods and swore yourself to her for eternity. And now, mere hours later, you summon me to your bedchamber like some sort of... concubine!" He spat the word like venom.

I closed the remaining distance between us in two swift strides, reaching out to grip his shoulders. He stiffened at my touch, but did not pull away. "I had no choice, Elindir. You know that. This marriage was a political necessity. Without the Wolfhearts pledged to my cause, I cannot win in the north, and if I cannot win the north, I cannot win at all."

"A political necessity," he repeated. "So, she's just another one of your pawns? We all are, aren't we? Just pieces for you to play with and position on the board as you please."

His words cut deep, like a blade slipping between my ribs to pierce my heart.

I tightened my grip on his shoulders, feeling the tension coiled in his lean muscles, the barely restrained fury simmering beneath his skin. "You know that's not true."

He jerked back, breaking my hold on him. "Do I? How can I be sure when you manipulate and deceive at every turn? When you use my affection like a tool?"

"So you admit you care for me."

"That's not the point, Ruith!" He clenched his fists and paced away before turning back. "I'm a prince, dammit. I'm nobody's whore! I certainly won't be yours!"

"You're no whore," I growled, advancing on him again. "You're mine."

The words hung in the air between us, heavy with unspoken meaning. Elindir's eyes flashed, a mix of fury and something else, something raw and hungry that made my pulse race.

"I belong to no one," he hissed, but there was less conviction in his voice now, a tremor that betrayed the desire he was trying so desperately to hide.

I reached for him again, my fingers closing around his wrist in an iron grip.

"Let go of me," he demanded.

"No," I said, tightening my hold on him.

He tried to wrench his arm free, but I held fast, drawing him closer until our faces were mere inches apart. Elindir's pulse raced beneath my fingertips, his heart beating a furious rhythm that echoed my own. His breath came in sharp, shallow pants, mingling with my own in the scant space between our lips.

"Elindir," I breathed, my voice rough.

Before I could utter another word, he surged forward, his mouth crashing against mine in a bruising kiss that stole the breath from my lungs. It was a clash of teeth and tongues, a desperate, hungry melding of lips and breath and heartbeats. I could taste his anger, his frustration, his longing - a dizzying cocktail of emotions that set my blood on fire.

I stumbled back, caught off guard by the force of his passion, but he followed, his hands fisting in the fabric of my wedding tunic. He tore at the garment with a ferocity that bordered on violence, the delicate silk shredding beneath his fingers like gossamer. Buttons scattered across the polished flagstones, glittering like fallen stars in the candlelight.

I responded in kind, my hands scrabbling at the fastenings of his doublet, desperate to feel the heat of his skin against my own. We grappled with each other, hands tearing at fabric, nails scraping over heated flesh. Elindir shoved me back against the wall, the impact knocking the air from my lungs. But he gave me no respite, his mouth finding mine again in a searing kiss that was more battle than caress.

I tangled a hand in his hair, those burnished copper strands like raw silk against my fingers. Gripping tight, I wrenched his head back, baring the pale column of his throat. He snarled, eyes flashing with fire. But I could see the desire burning there too, an inferno threatening to consume us both.

My teeth grazed his pulse point, and he shuddered, arching into me. I could feel him, hard and straining against my hip. The evidence of his need only fueled my own, my blood turning to molten lava in my veins. With a growl, I reversed our positions, pinning him to the wall with the weight of my body.

Elindir writhed against me. But whether he sought to escape or get closer, even he didn't seem to know. I captured his wrists, slamming them above his head, the bones grinding together in my bruising grip. He hissed through clenched teeth, but the sound morphed into a groan as I rolled my hips, grinding against him in a filthy promise of what was to come.

Elindir fought my hold, muscles straining, tendons standing out in sharp relief beneath his skin. But it was a futile struggle, and we both knew it. I had always been the stronger of us, in every way that mattered.

"Yield," I commanded, my voice a harsh rasp against his ear. "Yield to me, Elindir."

"Never," he spat, defiance dripping from every syllable.

Releasing one of his wrists, I tore at the remaining fasteners of his doublet, baring his back. In the golden candlelight, his skin was like alabaster, smooth and flawless - except for the scars. They crisscrossed his flesh in a gruesome silver latticework. Each one was a testament to the brutality he had endured at my command.

I traced the marks with a trembling finger, feeling the uneven ridges and furrows, the places where the lash had bitten deep. Slowly, reverently, I lowered my head, pressing my lips to the topmost scar. Elindir went rigid at the contact, his entire body stiffening as if bracing for a blow. But I persisted, trailing feather-light kisses down the length of that puckered line, trying to pour into each brush of my lips the words I could not say. Words of regret, of sorrow, of a longing so deep and vast that it threatened to swallow me whole.

Elindir trembled beneath my touch, but he never pulled away.

My lips traced a fiery path along Elindir's scars, each kiss a silent plea for forgiveness, a desperate attempt to heal the wounds I had inflicted.

I let my lips linger on the last scar before slowly kissing my way back up Elindir's spine, savoring the taste of his skin, the way his muscles rippled and tensed beneath my touch. When I reached his shoulder, I nipped at the juncture of his neck, sinking my teeth in just hard enough to mark him. He let out a hiss, his head falling back against my shoulder.

"You're mine," I growled against his throat. "No matter how much you fight it, no matter what separates us or how far you try to run, you'll always be mine, and I will always come for you."

Elindir's only response was a moan, low and guttural, as I ground against him from behind. The heat of him seared my palm as I reached around, cupping him through the fabric. He bucked into my touch, a strangled sound escaping his kiss-swollen lips.

With a deft twist of my wrist, I unlaced his breeches, shoving them down over his hips. His cock sprang free, thick and heavy in my hand. I stroked him slowly, root to tip, savoring the velvet heat of him, the way he throbbed against my palm.

Elindir's head thrashed against my shoulder, his copper hair spilling over my skin like molten fire. "Ruith," he panted, his voice a broken, desperate thing. "I need more than this."

I tightened my grip on Elindir's cock, giving him a punishing squeeze that made him gasp. "Is that so? And what exactly do you need, my prince?"

He shuddered in my arms, a full-body tremor that I felt in my very bones. "You know what I need," he gritted out, his voice strained with the effort of holding onto his fraying control. "Stop playing games and just give it to me."

I chuckled. "Oh, but I do so love our games. And you love them too, even if you're too stubborn to admit it."

To emphasize my point, I dragged the pad of my thumb over the weeping head of his cock, smearing the drops of his arousal in firm circles. Elindir jerked in my hold, a choked moan spilling from his lips like a prayer.

I continued my leisurely strokes, keeping my touch maddeningly light, teasing rather than satisfying. Elindir squirmed against me, trying to thrust into my fist, seeking more of that delicious friction. But I held him fast, my other arm banded across his chest like an iron bar.

"Please, Ruith..." he whimpered, and oh, how I loved the sound of my name on his lips, loved the way it sounded like a benediction and a curse.

"Please what?" I prompted. "Go on. Tell me how badly you need me inside you, claiming you, pleasuring you, filling you like no one else can. Tell me that you need me and that you crave me as I do you."

Elindir shuddered in my arms, a broken moan falling from his lips. "Fuck you," he gasped, his voice raw and ragged with desire. "Dammit, I do. I fucking need you, you smug bastard, so fuck me already."

His words were like wildfire in my blood, scorching through my veins and igniting an inferno of want that threatened to consume me. With a growl, I spun him around, claiming his mouth in a brutal kiss.

Blindly, I walked us toward the bed, never breaking the seal of our lips. When Elindir's knees hit the edge of the mattress, I pushed him down onto the furs, following him down to cover his body with my own.

I kissed a fiery trail down his throat, pausing to suck a vivid mark onto the pale column of his neck. He arched beneath me, hands scrabbling at my shoulders, nails biting into my skin. I relished the sting, the bright sparks of pain only fueling the flames of my desire.

I worked my way down his body, my lips and teeth and tongue painting a map of possession onto his flesh. I carved my claim into every dip and hollow, every ridge and plane, determined to leave no part of him untouched.

When I reached the jut of Elindir's hipbone, I paused, nipping at the sensitive skin. He jerked beneath me, a hiss escaping through clenched teeth. I soothed the sting with a swipe of my tongue before continuing my journey southward.

I nosed at the thatch of copper curls at the base of his shaft, breathing in the musky scent of him. Elindir's fingers tangled in my hair, tugging almost painfully at the braids. I glanced up at him through my lashes, holding his fevered gaze as I slowly, deliberately, dragged my tongue along the underside of his cock.

I lavished attention on Elindir's cock, my tongue tracing every ridge and vein, marveling at the unique texture and shape that made him human. His shaft was slightly shorter than mine, the head peeking coyly from a sheath of soft skin. With each swipe of my tongue, I nudged that delicate foreskin back, revealing the glistening, rosy crown.

I lapped up the drop of pre-cum eagerly, savoring the salty-sweet essence that was pure Elindir. Wanting more, I sealed my lips around him and suckled gently, coaxing more of it from him.

Elindir keened above me, his grip on my hair bordering on painful as I worked him with lips and tongue. I could feel him throbbing against my palate, could taste the musk of his arousal growing thicker, headier, as it had last time when he was close. Part of me longed to bring him to completion like this, to drink down his pleasure as it pulsed across my tongue like I had before. But I had other plans.

With a final, lingering suck, I released him from the wet heat of my mouth. Elindir made a sound somewhere between a whimper and a growl, immediately demanding to know why I had stopped.

I rose to my feet, towering over Elindir's prone body. He looked up at me, eyes glazed with lust and anger, kiss-swollen lips parted, chest heaving with panting breaths. The sight of him, wrecked and wanting, sent a fresh surge of arousal coursing through my veins like molten fire.

"Patience, my prince," I purred, trailing a finger down the center of his heaving chest. "I'm not done with you yet."

Hooking my hands under his knees, I yanked him to the edge of the bed. He yelped in surprise, copper hair fanning out around his head in a wild halo. I took a moment to drink in the sight of him, pale skin glowing like moonlight against the rich, dark furs, lithe body stretched out like an offering to the gods. To me.

I shed the last of my clothes with quick, economical movements, not bothering with seduction or finesse. There would be time for that later, time to take him apart with agonizing slowness, to wring every last drop of pleasure from his mortal body. But right now, I needed to be inside him with a desperation that bordered on madness.

I lifted his legs and threw them over my shoulders.

"What are you…" Elindir's words morphed into a groan as I spread him open and laved my tongue over his entrance. "Oh, fuck. That's…" He gulped in air. "That's a new thing."

"A new thing?" I teased and bit down lightly. "Have you not had the pleasure?"

"Just shut up and do it again."

I smirked against Elindir's skin, relishing the way his protests dissolved into incoherent moans as I worked my tongue over him. Among the elves, this act was considered the height of intimacy, but humans had a reputation for being prudish and stingy with their pleasures. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised.

Elindir's thighs trembled against my shoulders, muscles quivering as I traced the sensitive rim with the tip of my tongue. Each flick and swirl drew a new sound from his lips - gasps and whimpers, breathless pleas for more.

Encouraged by his response, I delved deeper, my tongue breaching the tight ring of muscle to explore the silken heat within. Elindir cried out, his back arching off the bed as I fucked into him with long, sinuous strokes.

Knowing that I was the first to sample this part of my prince was heady and intoxicating, especially with how easily he was coming undone.

I worshipped Elindir with my mouth, determined to unravel him with lips and tongue and teeth. I lapped and sucked and nibbled, alternating between broad strokes and pointed flicks, savoring each gasp and moan I wrung from his throat.

Elindir writhed beneath me, fists clenching in the furs, copper hair plastered to his sweat-slick brow. I could feel his thighs tensing, his hips starting to rock in shallow, aborted thrusts as he chased the pleasure I was giving him. He was close, teetering on that knife's edge of release, but I didn't want it to end yet.

I wanted to push him higher, wanted to shatter him so completely that he forgot his own name, forgot everything but the feel of my hands on his skin and my body moving in his.

With a final suckling kiss, I withdrew, ignoring Elindir's whine of protest. My own arousal throbbed between my legs, heavy and aching, a pulsing heat that demanded satisfaction.

I sat back on my haunches, drinking in the sight of Elindir splayed out before me like a feast for the gods. His skin shimmered with a fine sheen of sweat, the flickering candlelight casting dancing shadows along the sculpted planes of his body. His chest heaved with each ragged breath, the dusky peaks of his nipples drawn tight with arousal. The thick, flushed column of his cock lay heavy against his belly, leaking steadily.

He was a vision, an incandescent blend of ethereal beauty and raw, primal need. And he was mine. The knowledge thrummed through my veins like a second heartbeat, potent and intoxicating.

Rising to my feet, I crossed to the intricately carved nightstand beside the bed. I opened the drawer, retrieving a small crystal vial filled with a shimmering, golden liquid. The fragrant oil caught the candlelight as I unstopped the bottle, casting prismatic reflections that danced across the walls like captured starlight.

I returned to the bed, settling myself between Elindir's splayed thighs. His heavy-lidded gaze tracked my every movement, equal parts wariness and anticipation.

I coated my fingers with the glistening oil, rubbing them together to warm the slick substance. The heady scent of sandalwood and amber suffused the air, mingling with the musk of our arousal.

"Do you know what an honor it is," I began, my voice low and rough with desire, "to receive the seed of the king?"

Elindir blinked up at me, eyes hazy with lust and confusion. "What?"

I traced a slick finger around his entrance. "In ancient times, the elves believed that the king's seed held a sacred power. That, when planted in the right vessel, it could bring forth life, wisdom, even magic."

I pressed my finger inside him, breaching the tight ring of muscle to sink into the silken heat of his body. Elindir gasped, his hips lifting off the bed to meet my intrusion. I stilled, giving him a moment to adjust before beginning a slow, steady rhythm, pumping my finger in and out of his body.

"As the king," I continued, my voice rough as gravel, "I am not permitted to spill my seed wastefully. It is too precious, too powerful."

Elindir's breath hitched as I slid a second finger into him, stretching him further. I scissored my fingers, working him open with deliberate strokes, looking for just the right spot.

I knew the moment I found it. Elindir's back arched off the bed, a keening cry torn from his throat. His hands scrabbled at the furs, fisting in the plush pelts as I rubbed mercilessly against that sensitive bundle of nerves, making him writhe and moan.

"As king," I said, my voice a low, throaty purr, "my seed is a gift, one that I may bestow only upon the most worthy. Only those deemed deserving may receive such a blessing." I punctuated my words with a particularly deep thrust, reveling in the way Elindir's spine bowed, his head tossing back against the furs.

Withdrawing my fingers, I drizzled more of the fragrant oil over them before pressing three back inside him. Elindir hissed at the added stretch, his body fluttering around my knuckles. I gentled my touch, easing into him with slow, measured strokes, letting him feel every inch.

"As part of the marriage rites," I continued, transfixed by the sight of my fingers disappearing into Elindir's body, "I was given an elixir, one that will make my seed flow like a river." I twisted my wrist, moving quicker. "I will fill you so full of my seed that your belly will swell with it."

Elindir shuddered beneath me, a guttural moan torn from his throat. I watched, enraptured, as Elindir writhed and panted, his skin flushed a delicious pink, sheened with perspiration in the golden candlelight. The cords of his throat strained as he arched his neck, lost to the pleasure I was wringing from his body.

Unable to hold back any longer, I withdrew my fingers and swiftly slicked my aching shaft with the fragrant oil. The scent of musk and spice and maleness permeated the air, thick enough to taste on my tongue.

I positioned myself at Elindir's entrance, the blunt head of my cock kissing his slick, stretched hole. Elindir's eyes flashed open, locking onto mine.

"Ruith," he breathed, his voice raw and ragged. He was mine now, too far gone to even attempt to argue. "Please..."

That single word, uttered like a prayer, shattered the last of my restraint. With a slow, relentless push, I breached his body, sinking into the exquisite heat of Elindir's body inch by excruciating inch. Elindir's back bowed off the bed, his head pressing back into the furs, the elegant column of his throat working as he swallowed.

I forced myself to stillness, though every instinct screamed at me to surge forward, to bury myself to the hilt in Elindir's warmth. But I held back, gritting my teeth against the exquisite torture, giving Elindir time to adjust to the intrusion.

Gradually, I felt him relax around me, his body accepting mine. I began to move then, withdrawing almost completely before sliding back in, each thrust a slow, smooth glide that had Elindir arching and gasping beneath me.

I set a steady rhythm, my hips rolling in long, deep strokes that dragged over that sweet spot inside Elindir with every thrust. He clenched around me as if trying to pull me deeper.

Candlelight played over the planes and hollows of Elindir's body, burnishing his skin to molten gold. His hair spilled across the dark furs in a river of liquid copper, individual strands clinging to his sweat-damp temples and throat. It was longer now than when he'd first come to me, longer than most humans seemed to like to keep it, but it looked so good on him. His lips, kiss-swollen and berry red, parted on a gasp as I changed the angle of my thrusts, driving into him with greater force.

"Mine," I rasped, drinking in the sight of him, wrecked and wanton beneath me. "All fucking mine." I punctuated my words with a sharp snap of my hips.

Elindir gritted his teeth. "I belong…to no one..." he panted, but his body contradicted his words, his back arching to meet my thrusts, to pull me deeper.

I leaned down, changing the angle of penetration, and Elindir's retort dissolved into a drawn-out moan. The new position allowed me to go deeper, to grind against that spot inside him that made his toes curl and his fingers scrabble at my shoulders.

"You were saying?" I purred, nipping at his earlobe before soothing the sting with my tongue.

Elindir shuddered beneath me, his nails digging into my skin. "Fuck you." It was half words, half a moan.

"You can lie to yourself," I growled against the shell of his ear, "but your body knows the truth. It knows who it belongs to."

As if to prove my point, I reached between our sweat-slicked bodies and wrapped my fingers around Elindir's weeping cock. He cried out, hips bucking up into my touch, chasing the pleasure only I could give him. I stroked him in time with my thrusts, twisting my wrist on the upstroke in the way I knew drove him mad.

Elindir's hands flew to my shoulders, blunt nails digging into my flesh as he tried to anchor himself against the onslaught of sensation. I relished the sting, the crescent-shaped marks he was carving into my skin, branding me as his even as I claimed him so completely.

Leaning down, I captured his mouth in a searing kiss, my tongue delving past his parted lips to stroke against his own. I swallowed his moans, reveling in the needy little sounds he made in the back of his throat, the way his body trembled and clenched around me, growing tighter with every thrust.

Pleasure built at the base of my spine, coiling tighter and tighter like a spring wound to the point of breaking. I redoubled my efforts, driving into him with deep, powerful strokes that had the bed frame creaking and shuddering beneath us.

"Let go," I commanded, my voice a hoarse rasp. "Give me what's mine."

As if obeying my command, Elindir's body seized up, his back arching off the bed in a perfect bow as his climax crashed over him. His cock jerked in my hand, pulsing as thick ropes of his seed painted his taut stomach and heaving chest. The sight of his pleasure, the knowledge that it was because of me, was nearly my undoing.

Elindir's body fluttered and clenched around me, rippling along my shaft in exquisite waves. Each squeeze and flutter stoked the fire in my veins, tightening the coil of tension in my gut. I gritted my teeth, fighting against the urge to let go, to empty myself inside him. I wanted to prolong this moment, to revel in the feeling of his body gripping mine so perfectly.

But Elindir, even in the throes of his own pleasure, seemed determined to undo me. He rocked his hips, meeting my thrusts with a newfound urgency. I lost myself in the slick slide of our bodies. Even spent, he moved with me, his hips rising to meet each punishing thrust, determined to wring every last drop of pleasure from this moment.

"Come on," he hissed, raw and vulnerable in a way I'd never seen before. "Fucking do it already. Make me yours."

His words shattered the last of my control. With a roar that came from somewhere deep and primal, I slammed into him one final time, burying myself to the hilt as my climax overtook me.

It was like lightning in my veins, like wildfire scorching through every nerve ending. My vision went white at the edges as I spilled into him, the act done with enough force that it bordered on painful. The elixir had done its job - I could feel it, the unnatural volume of my release, the way it seemed to go on and on, flooding Elindir's body until I was certain he could taste it in the back of his throat.

Elindir gasped and clutched at me, blunt nails scoring my back, copper hair plastered to his face and neck in damp tendrils. He looked wrecked, so beautiful. So perfectly mine.

I collapsed onto Elindir, our sweat-slicked bodies molding together as the last tremors of my release shuddered through me. For a long moment, the only sound was our ragged breathing, our racing hearts gradually slowing in tandem.

Elindir's fingers carded through my hair, working through the tangles our passion had wrought. The gentle, almost tender touch was at odds with the way he'd been clawing at me mere moments before, but I found myself leaning into it, savoring the rare moment of unguarded affection. I let myself savor it for a heartbeat, let myself imagine that we could stay like this, tangled up in each other, the outside world forgotten.

But even as I reveled in his touch, reality began to seep back in. We couldn't stay like this. We could never stay like this. What we had, what we were to each other - it existed only in stolen moments, in the shadows and the secrets. A king and a captive prince. It was an impossibility, a fever dream that could never survive outside.

Elindir seemed to come to the same conclusion, his body tensing beneath mine as if preparing to flee. But I couldn't let him go, not yet.

"Stay," I whispered, the word muffled against his skin. "Just a little longer."

Elindir tensed beneath me, his breath hitched in his chest. For a moment, I was certain he would push me away, that he would spit some cutting remark or smart retort.

But then, miraculously, he relaxed back into the furs, his arms coming up to wrap around my shoulders. "Just for a little while," he agreed.