Chapter 30

GOLL

"Now do you understand?" I growled as we approached our bedchambers.

"What are you talking about?" She stopped in the corridor and faced me.

"That," I pointed in the direction of the dining hall, "is why I can't take you traipsing around Northgall unprotected."

She scoffed. "Because a drunkard made a mildly obscene comment? That was nothing."

"It was not nothing." I moved close to her. "Drunk or not, the fact that he so easily let slip his disrespect means that he's not the only one thinking of you in this manner."

"He didn't mean to be disrespectful."

"Yes. I know."

Her brow pursed in confusion. "Then why are you so irate? And what does this have to do with me leaving N?kt Mir?"

"The drink loosened his tongue, and in that moment it showed me that he doesn't respect you as a wraith fae should. He doesn't see you as a true mizrah deserving of the proper regard of your station. And if he sees you in this way then that means more most likely feel the same. More soldiers and cavalrymen sharing their thoughts with families and friends down in Silvantis, spreading rumors to their kin beyond Silvantis and farther into Northgall."

Fury raced through my blood at the thought of the rumors. I could only imagine some of the things they might be saying. She's just his whore. A pretty piece he gained from defeating Issos. She's no wraith fae so she's not his true mizrah. Nor will their babe be a true heir.

"It's true," she said, "I'm not one of you."

"You are now ," I practically bellowed in the quiet of the corridor. "Una. If they don't accept you as my mizrah, then they wouldn't accept our child as heir. If I died somehow, those disbelievers might—" I broke off. I couldn't tell her what they'd do.

Traitors could and would kill our child so that he or she couldn't take their rightful place? They'd kill Una as well for good measure.

The thought chilled my blood with horrifying speed.

Una didn't ask what I refused to tell her. She simply stated calmly. "So it will take time for them to accept me."

"Exactly. And that is why you won't leave N?kt Mir to seek out these texts the prophecies speak of. Here you are safe. Outside these walls, the danger is far too great."

She pressed her lips together, her calm demeanor vanishing, her back and shoulders going rigid. "My people will die without this cure, Goll. My father." Her lip trembled. "My brother."

I reached out to her, but she flinched and stepped away from me. The unexpected rejection sliced like a dagger deep beneath my ribs. Then I curled my hand into a fist at my side.

"I will find the texts for you. I'll bring them back to you here."

She huffed out a frustrated breath. "You don't understand. They were meant for me to find. Not you. You might not ever find them. Then it'll be too late. All because of your stupid stubbornness."

"I won't risk it." I won't risk you.

"Even if it means saving hundreds, even thousands, of people in Lumeria."

"Yes, even then," I stated evenly. She narrowed her glare but then I added, "And you don't know that you're the only one who can find them."

She fluttered her black wings as if to remind me she was god-touched herself. "Yes, Goll. I do."

Then she turned and marched into her bedchamber, slamming the door behind her and firmly shutting me out.

UNA

Maddening male. I punched my pillow, still trying to find a comfortable position so I could fall asleep. For the hundredth time, I threw the covers off of myself and rolled over to stare out the window, reliving my argument with Goll. Both arguments, actually.

I understood that he wanted to keep me safe, but he refused to listen to me. Some things were worth the risk. Like saving an entire people. Hava had even told me there were signs that some wraith fae in a small village near the Borderlands may have a few cases of the Parviana plague.

A soft whoosh noise came from near my wardrobe then Goll's naked silhouette passed the window and crossed the room toward me.

"Go away," I told him but he kept coming. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Good," he growled into the dark, raising gooseflesh on my skin. "I don't want to talk."

"Get out of my bedchamber," I hissed as he neared the foot of the bed.

Then he was standing there, yanking the coverlet off the bed and wrapping his long fingers around my ankles.

"I'm serious, Goll!"

Ignoring my protests, his dragon eyes glowing silver in the dark, he tightened his hold on my ankles. "So am I, Mizrah."

With a strong pull, he hauled me to the foot of the bed, my chemise riding up. He released one ankle to push the hem the rest of the way to my waist, baring my sex. Instantly, my body flared with heat and arousal while my emotions still whirled with anger.

"Goll!" I kicked out with my foot. It glanced off his shoulder.

He growled and wrapped a hand around my inner thigh, now pushing both my knees flat to the mattress.

"I told you, I don't want—" I gasped, my words sucked right out of me when his hot mouth opened on my quim.

I grunted and gripped his horns, my anger stirring me to push him away, my visceral desire telling me to hold him right there while he pleasured me.

Then his tongue was inside me and I dropped my head back to the pillow. "You don't listen," I murmured, frustrated with myself and my body's betrayal, while I rocked up against his greedy mouth that suckled me hard.

He didn't answer of course, his low purr of pleasure vibrating against my clitoris as he lapped and flicked then stroked inside me with his tongue.

"I'm mad at you," I whispered into the dark.

Then I felt a hand on my breast, fingers pinching the taut peak almost to pain.

"Ah!" I thrust up harder, rubbing my sex against his hot mouth, seeking that pinnacle I could feel mounting higher and higher. "I'm coming," I murmured, then I was.

He growled again, launching up the bed on top of me. Before my orgasm had even stopped throbbing, he thrust his cock deep.

"Goll!" I cried out, the intrusion intense and jarring. I pushed against his chest, then curled my fingernails into his flesh, wanting to hurt him but also wanting to hold on. It was infuriating.

Holding my gaze, he deftly gripped both my wrists and pressed them to the mattress above my head, holding them with one hand. Then he reached down and grabbed my thigh, bending my leg until my knee curved over his shoulder.

"I'm angry at you," I hissed though my words had less weight after the heady orgasm he'd just given me.

"I know, my sweet." His voice was low and husky, his eyes slits of silvery blue. "And I'm going to fuck it right out of you."

He pulled out to the tip and hammered back in, my breasts bounced with the force of it beneath. I wrapped my free leg around his waist, practically bent in half while he started to thrust hard and deep.

I moaned when he hit a particularly pleasurable spot inside me, furious with him and myself that this felt so good.

The slick sound of him pumping in and out of me filled the room along with my gasping whimpers and mewling moans.

He mounded my breast over the gossamer fabric of my shift with his large hand while he stroked faster then pinched my nipple with thumb and forefinger. My sex squeezed at the pleasure-pain of it.

"You feel that?" he murmured low. "You may hate me now, Una, but your cunt loves me."

I squeezed my eyes closed as my sex responded by quivering and squeezing him again. It was like my body obeyed only him and not my will.

"That's it." His raspy voice wrapped around me. "Close your eyes, my mizrah. You can still be mad at me while I fuck your sweet cunt." He pinched my nipple again, my breasts bouncing with each pounding thrust. "While your dripping honey soaks my cock."

"Unh." A second climax was building, and I couldn't understand it.

Then his mouth was against mine, brushing lightly while I panted. He changed his stroking to a slow grinding inside of me, filling me even deeper.

"Think whatever you want," he whispered against my lips, nipping me with a fang. "But this cunny is mine ." He ground harder. "You are mine ."

I moaned again, kissing him back, slipping my tongue inside his mouth, needing to taste him, needing more of him. He groaned into our kiss, nipping my bottom lip again when he pulled away, all the while grinding his cock deep inside me.

"Open your eyes, Una."

I did, finding the dragon staring back with feral ferocity. He moved his hand from my breast to my throat, gripping me with a gentle but firm hold.

"You understand that, don't you? You can be angry all you like, but you will always be mine."

I wasn't sure if his possessiveness was because his pride as king needed to stake his claim as victor over me, or if he was proving a point that my own will was lost when he had full control of my body. Either way, he was right. I was his, body and soul, it seemed. Whether I tried to pretend otherwise or not.

He tightened his hold at my throat, but not enough to restrict my breath. "Now come on my cock the way I know you want to."

Then he pumped in and out with savage slowness, dragging the pleasure out, like he knew exactly what to do to make my body respond to him.

I opened my mouth as my orgasm barreled toward its peak, my wrists still pinned, my body staked to the mattress with his cock buried inside me.

"Ahhh!" I cried out with my climax.

Goll's mouth quirked into a smug half-smile for a second. Then his own mouth dropped open in pleasure, his eyes sliding closed as he came inside me, his cock throbbing hard. He groaned as his seed emptied deep.

I should've been furious. I should've yelled and pushed him off me. He'd known I wasn't in the mood. I was steeped in my fury at him when he waltzed into my dark bedchamber and compelled my own body to betray me, seducing me heedless of my anger.

But all I could feel now was satisfaction and acceptance that this stubborn, infuriating wraith king was indeed my mate. As if the goddess heard me, I felt a tingling sensation along my hands, wrists, and forearms.

Still buried inside me, Goll released my wrists then clasped one of his hands to mine, lacing our fingers. He stared at them as I did, noting the glowing thread of the moon-binding still bright and strong as the day Elder Lelwyn tethered us under the light of Lumera.

"Yes, Gollaya," I admitted quietly while his cock still pulsed inside me. "I am yours. But you are also mine." I glanced at the glowing threads then held his shining gaze. "I won't fight you anymore." I gusted out a sad sigh. "Even though you're wrong."

He let my hand go and pulled out of my body on a grunt. I pushed the hem of my chemise down, still panting while laying on my back.

He lay beside me in silence, an arm braced over his eyes as he panted too. He seemed defeated, not triumphant.

Then he heaved out a heavy sigh. "Fine."

I lifted up onto my elbow. "What?"

"Fucking hells," he muttered then removed his arm from covering his eyes and turned his head to me. "I'll take you to Dragul Falls."

I launched my body over him and kissed his lips, grinning at his scowling face.

"Thank you." Then I kissed his lips again.

At first, he refused to respond but like I couldn't resist him, he couldn't resist me either, finally opening his mouth to kiss me deeper, his hand cradling the back of my skull. When I finally pulled back, smiling even wider now, he frowned deeper.

"But you'll listen to me, and you won't go wandering off with your handmaiden. We'll do this my way."

"Of course," I agreed, grinning wide.

"I'm serious, Una."

"I see that."

He huffed in anger and dropped his head to the pillow, pulling me tighter as I rested my head on his chest.

"Son of Vix, I must be fucking mad."

I laughed, staring out the window. Content in all ways, I finally fell asleep.