Chapter 66 Surprise Visit From The Pack's Diviner

Chapter 66 Surprise Visit From The Pack's Diviner
Aurelia

His eyes cut toward the pillars again, full of disgust.

“No one’s going to believe us,” he said flatly. “Not with those fucking salt statues standing right there.”

I followed his glance to the glittering columns and felt absolutely nothing that resembled remorse.

“I don’t regret what I did.” I said, shrugging.

“They earned it,” Zhayad said without missing a beat. Then his expression sharpened into something uglier. “I just wish Nimaya was frozen with them.”

The air between us thickened with pressure. With the kind that comes before everything breaks.

“For days, all we’ve heard is war is coming,” I said, frustration fraying the edges of my voice. “My father is moving pieces from the shadows. He has plans for those basilisk eggs, I know he does. I just know it, because why would he glamour warlocks to steal them if he doesn't? And now…. Now he’s using Irina. Using her blood.” I stepped closer, my pulse kicking harder. “We need to confront him before Nero brings his entire empire down on us. In the same vein, we need to save Irina, so my father won't turn her into a dry husk.”

I was breathing heavily by the time I finished. I didn't like Irina, but I wouldn't wish for anyone to end up as my father's captive. He was heartless and capable of all kinds of evils.

Zhayad dragged a hand over his jaw, his face set in grim lines. Through the mate bond, I felt it, his instincts tearing against each other. Protect me. Plan carefully. Strike now. Wait longer.

“On this little notice?” he muttered, the words rough with strain. “We need a plan. Real intelligence. Allies—”

“We don’t have time,” I interrupted him. “Nero could strike at any moment. He thinks we’re protecting the thieves. And now we know who’s really behind it.” My voice dropped, but it only made the urgency deadlier. “We have to go after my father before it’s too late.”

Zhayad stared at me. It was obvious he was having second thoughts.

“Tomorrow,” I said.

He didn't blink, but he looked away.

His nostrils flared. “It’s too soon.”

“There won’t be anything left to save if Nero brings war to our gates first.” I stepped into him then, set my hand against his chest, and felt the hard, rapid thud of his heart under my palm. “He thinks we’re shielding the guilty. We know the truth now. We need to move before he does. The shifter's council don't have our backs, they said as much today.”

Zhayad let out a harsh breath, as if the decision scraped its way out of him, and dipped his head once.

“Tomorrow, then,” he conceded, each word sounding torn loose at a cost.

My gaze slid back to the five salt pillars.

“I have to try one more time to thaw them,” I said quietly. “At least before tomorrow.”

“But we must see the pack’s diviner before anything else,” Zhayad said in a serious tone. “It’s important we understand exactly how the Goddess’s power is working inside you.”

I hesitated. I really didn’t want to deal with the diviner tomorrow, not with everything else crashing down on us. But he had a point.

“That’s fine,” I muttered. I turned to leave, done with the conversation, but Zhayad’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm. 

He spun me back to face him so fast my breath caught.“

I need…” He trailed off, his face twisting. A sharp wince crossed his features as his arm wrapped around his waist like he was trying to hold his insides together. He looked like he was in a great deal of pain.

Sharp, vicious pain slammed into me through the mate bond.

“Zhayad—” I stepped closer instinctively, reaching for his hand. “Aurelia, don’t—”

I ignored him and ripped his shirt open. My stomach dropped. An ugly, open gash ran along his side. The wound was raw, angry, and tinged with a sickly green that looked nothing like a normal injury. 

It wasn’t healing. Not even close.

“Zhayad, you didn’t say anything!” My voice rose. “Why isn’t it healing? What the hell is this? Where did you get this from?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he growled, breathing hard. “I need you right now. Only the mate bond can speed up the healing.”

“But I need to know what happened. I’ve never seen a wound like this before. It looks poisoned or—”

He clearly wasn’t in the mood for questions. I was talking too much and he wasn't having it.

In one powerful motion, Zhayad lifted me off the ground with one arm and set me down on the large table behind us. 

Let me do the work,” he rasped, already pushing my thighs apart. “We don’t have to go hard. Just enough to heal the wound.”

I licked my lips, trying to moisten them because my mouth had already gone dry. 

He pressed me down on the table and lifted my gown. It didn’t occur to me that anyone might walk in on us until his mouth was on my center, sucking and teasing my clit.

“Zhayad, fuck!” I gasped, my back arching hard off the wooden surface.

His large hands gripped my thighs, spreading me wide open as he buried his face between my legs like a starving man. 

His tongue worked relentlessly, licking broad stripes up my soaked slit before sucking my swollen clit into his mouth with obscene pressure.

I slapped a hand over my mouth to muffle the loud moan that tore out of me, but Zhayad growled against my pussy, the vibration shooting straight to my core.

“Don’t,” he snarled, but the sound was muffled against my thighs. “I want to hear you.”

He licked me harder, his tongue fucking into my dripping hole before returning to my clit, sucking and flicking until my legs started shaking. 

My juices coated his chin and mouth as he devoured me. I let my fingers run through his hair, and oh, the silkiness, the softness of it. I didn't realize I was pressing his head closer, nearly suffocating him.

But he didn't seem to mind at all.

He lifted his head briefly to give me a knowing smile, his lips glistening from all the sucking.

The green gash on his side was still bleeding, and just when I was about pointing it out, he lowered his head again.

I could feel the mate bond flaring between us, pulsing with every lick, every suck, feeding healing energy into him.

He made me wrap my thighs around him, but then I remembered his injury.

“Zhayad… your wound—” I tried to protest, even as my hips rolled shamelessly against his face.

“Shut up and come on my tongue,” he growled, sliding two thick fingers deep inside me without warning. 

Oh, how rude of him.

He curled those two thick fingers instantly, stroking that perfect, spongy spot inside me with devastating precision while his mouth sealed around my swollen clit and sucked hard.Pleasure detonated through my body like lightning.

“Oh my fucking goddess—!” I screamed, my thighs clamping around his head like a vice as my orgasm crashed into me with brutal force. 

My back bowed violently off the table, my hips jerking uncontrollably as I gushed all over his tongue and fingers. My pussy spasmed wildly, pulsing and squeezing around his digits like it was trying to pull him deeper.

The goddess mark on my chest exploded with blinding white light. Glowing vines of silver energy burst across my skin, reaching desperately for Zhayad, wrapping around his shoulders and sinking into him as if the Goddess herself was feeding him my pleasure.

Zhayad groaned deeply against my cunt, it was the sound of pure masculine satisfaction. He didn’t stop. He licked and sucked greedily, drinking every drop of my release like it was the sweetest nectar he’d ever tasted, his fingers still thrusting slowly through my fluttering walls, dragging out every last shudder and aftershock until I was a trembling, whimpering mess.

The sound of a wooden cane striking the floor jerked us back to reality. I turned my head to the door and gasped when I saw an old lady hunched over, pointing her wooden cane straight at us.

“You are desecrating the goddess' mark!” She howled.

“Who's she?” I asked Zhayad as I quickly fixed myself.

“She's the pack's diviner.” Zhayad answered, helping me down from the table. 

“She's blind. She shouldn't be out here by herself.” He added.

What the hell?