90

Snow crunches underneath their feet as they trudge through the forest, travelling along the foot of the mountain. Every few minutes, one of them would stop to pull the other in for a kiss, laughing with childlike joy how thrilling the whole thing is.

At last, Jacques slows their pace when he finds what he’s looking for: caves. Interlocking his fingers with Dove’s, he pulls her inside with him, leading the way down multiple tunnels until they’ve reached the main chamber and…

“Heated pools?” Dove breathes, eyes lighting up at the pools of steaming water before them.

However, Jacques offers no explanation. Instead, he seizes her by the waist and drapes her over his shoulder, laughing at the little yelp she gives. Delivering a light smack to her arse, he carries her to the pools while unbuttoning his waistcoat with his free hand.

Dove giggles when he his hand slithers up her leg underneath her skirts, his touch leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. The moment he puts her down, her hands are working off his shirt, pushing it down his arms. His hands grab her hips as hers move to his breeches, tugging it open.

“Step two of honeymooning,” he says before capturing her lips in a heated kiss, speaking against her mouth, “making our own memories in new places.”

Dove sighs against his lips when his fingers expertly loosened the strings of her dress. A moment later, it joins the rest of his clothes on the cavern floor, their hands making short work of undressing the rest.

Hoisting her up and hooking her legs around his waist, the healer steps into one of the pools and submerge them in the steaming water. He groans when Dove’s teeth graze his bottom lip before biting down on it, drawing blood. He wants to tell her to slow down with his blood, but his mind fogs when her body grinds into his, letting him know just how ready she is for him.

“Dove…” he murmurs her name, eyes fluttering when her lips drag down his jaw to his throat, stopping at the exact spot she’s bitten this morning.

Her tongue flattens over the area, making him snap his hips upward in pure desperation, and then she bites down again. However, this time, he shook himself from his stupor to gently push her back before she could consume more of his blood.

“Dove, you know you can’t.” His eyes, lidded with bliss, locks with her equally lustful ones. “Too much will turn you.”

“Have you ever stopped to consider that perhaps I want to be turned?” Her hands cup his face, thumbs caressing his cheeks in the gentlest way possible. “I’d be immortal. We can be together forever. And I want it to be your blood that changes me. There is a certain…intimacy to the idea, don’t you agree?”

Something tight and heavy coils in his stomach when his thoughts fill with the images her words paint in his mind, prompting his hands to settle on her arse and give it a firm squeeze. It is a tempting idea, for his blood to sire her, to make her his creation.

Lorcan would definitely kill him, then. But that’s a matter for when and if they ever get caught and dragged back to the castle. Besides, it’d be too late then. Dove would be a vampire, incapable of marrying princess and birthing them heirs, belonging to him in both mind, body, and soul.

What a selfish notion, indeed.

Then it’s a good thing they’re both engaging in selfish acts together.

“Then by all means, Princess.” He rests his head to the side, exposing the full expanse of his neck to her. “Have at it.”

Dove seizes the invitation with both hands and teeth, pressing her core flush against his length as she brings her head down, biting into the smooth skin of his throat. The sting goes right to their cores, the healer moaning gutturally and gripping her plump flesh tighter. He is like putty in her hands, completely and utterly at her mercy as she drags her heat over him, sucking and lapping at the sensitive nerves of his neck.

The knot in his stomach tightens. He is needier than usual, she had barely done anything yet and he’s already nearing his completion by just the feeling of her lips and teeth having their way with him.

A shaky moan rips though him when her hand reaches into the water between them, lining him up with her entrance. With an elegant roll of her hips, he slides into her, back arching off the edge of the pool. He has lost count how many times they’ve indulged in each other’s bodies since the ball, but feeling her take him so well, walls clenching around his base, feels as if they’re doing it for the first time all over again.

Jacques slides in and out of her in long, steady strokes, neither of them rushing anything and just basking in the bliss the other is giving. Dove’s moans combine with breathy sounds as she gasps for air against his neck, interlocking her fingers with his as she rolls her hips harder, taking him deeper than he thought was possible.

He’s reeling on the edge of pleading for more and praising her for how perfect she is, how painstakingly he loves her, how close he is…

But the next thing he knows, Dove is peeled off him, and an icy grip enclose around his neck and lifts him out of the pool. The cold air is in stark contrast of the steaming water, as well as the ground in comparison to Dove’s softness when he’s violently thrown across it. Rocks and debris cut into his back and sides as he rolls, hands grabbing blindly at his surroundings to anchor himself.

Panic seizes his heart when the first thought that came to mind was that Dwellers had found them. But…it was still light enough outside. They were safe.

Only for the source of danger to appear before him in a cloud of shadows and mist, replacing his panic with cold dread.

“Are you *mad*?” Dresdan hisses, eyes cutting between the naked healer on the ground and the princess in the pool. “Are you *completely* and *profoundly mad*?”

“Uncle Dresdan,” Dove’s voice trembles, cowering deeper into the water at his imposing presence, “please, let me explain.”

“It’s not me you need to explain to, girl.” He begins snatching up their clothes and tossing it at them. “Your father will deal with you when I’ve taken you back. Get dressed. *Now*.”

Jacques is in a state of shock as he rises to his feet, numbly pulling on his breeches and shirt. They were discovered in less than two days. Lorcan had sent his brother to find them and bring them back – they, or he was as good as dead. Dresdan saw everything, Dove consuming his blood, them riding in the pool…

The moment Dove is dressed, she nearly falls at her uncle’s feet, pleading, “Uncle, please. We can’t go back to the castle. Father won’t understand and I…I love Jacques. I’m the one who persuaded him to run away with me. Please, I beg you, let us go. Tell my father –”

“You mean *lie* to the *king*?” Dresdan seethes, cutting her off with no regard for her title. “You’ve done it this time, girl. My only job is to ensure your safe return to the castle. What happens afterwards, is none of my concern.”

She opens her mouth to once again beg him to have heart, to see reason, only for a gurgling sound to reverberate through the cave.

The sound prompts the three of them to spin on their heels to behold a horrific sight: There, in the deepest corner of the cavern, they lurk.

An entire coven of Dwellers.