Chapter Four

She was having a terrible dream. She knew she must be dreaming, but it was more of a nightmare. She was paralyzed and unable to move or speak, and it reminded her of the night terrors she had experienced as a child. The mission and the stress of it must have stirred them up again, leaving her locked in her subconscious and at the mercy of her mind.

She was unsurprised when flashes of Jorvak Ha’s face filled her vision, and she tried to scream and thrash, though she couldn’t move. Embeth was desperate to wake up, but she could do nothing but ride out the duration of the dream. Everything was hazy, though she remembered pain and the need to scream. Finally, the paralysis broke, and she woke with a cry of terror trapped in her throat.

Her heart was pounding, and she sat up abruptly, reaching for the sensor pad that turned on the light. A moment later, the warm glow of the lighting system filled the room and chased away all the shadows. It had been one heck of a nightmare. Her heart was still racing, and she was faintly damp from perspiration. She wiped her brow with the silky coverlet as she struggled to regain control.

Suddenly, she didn’t want to be alone, but it wasn’t Damon she wanted. Instead, acting more on instinct than logic, she pressed the communication button near the sleeping platform and asked the person who answered to send Prince Ysaak to her room. In her vulnerable state, she knew she shouldn’t invite him in, but she wanted to feel his arms around her in a reassuring fashion, to know she was safe.

He arrived quickly, and she sobbed with relief when Ysaak entered the bedroom, coming straight to the sleeping platform. She held out her arms, and he didn’t hesitate to join her on the soft cloud of a bed, taking her into his arms.

Feeling him hold her was reassuring, and finally the fear started to dissipate. She was still trembling, and she rolled close to his warmth as he whispered softly against her temple. His words finally penetrated the haze of her thoughts, and she realized he was asking her what had happened. “Nothing really. I just had a terrible nightmare. I don’t remember the details, though Jorvak Ha was there. I was probably dreaming I was one of the poor women he had kidnapped and experimented on.”

He made a soothing sound as he rubbed her back. “I won’t let him touch you.”

She lifted her head, giving him a feeble smile. “I don’t think I’m a target anyway. I don’t have Kaiser’s Syndrome. It was simply my imagination and the stress of the mission, I’m sure, combining to give me terrible nightmares. I used to have night terrors as a child, and I’m occasionally still plagued by them when I’m overly stressed.”

He nodded. “I just want you to know I would do anything to protect you from Jorvak or my brother. I don’t believe you’re a target either, but no one will harm my mate if I’m alive to prevent it.”

Her heart stuttered at his words, and though she didn’t commit to the idea of being his mate, she could no longer fight her own need to feel his arms around her…and more. She started kissing him, and there was no hesitation on either side. She didn’t hold back, and she was certain he had unleashed whatever scraps of self-control he’d clung to in order to keep from doing this earlier, when they had stood near the edge of the cliff and looked down over the waterfall.

She had studied enough of their culture to understand how to make his suit disappear, and she flicked the button on his neck when she found it, moaning her delight when he was naked before her a moment later. Clearly, he felt the imbalance and set about removing her cotton nightgown.

He stripped it over her head and tossed it away without regard for its landing spot before his mouth returned to hers, consuming her with obvious hunger.

She let her hands roam over his golden-brown skin, tracing every line and nuance, making note of his rippling muscles, and the way his body spasmed when she sucked on his tongue.

“My mate,” he growled against her lips as he broke away from her temporarily, but only to adjust their position so that he could lift her higher. “Perfect body and perfect skin.”

His words were heady and made all the more tantalizing by the fact she was certain he was telling her the truth. Men had called her beautiful before, often going for her curvy frame and luscious butt, but none had seemed to find her as perfect as he did.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, stroking the bristly hair at the side of his head with one hand while the other brushed against the nape of his neck. His mouth sought out her left breast, sucking forcefully on the generous mound as his tongue teased her nipple. She rubbed her body against him, needing release and something more from him.

His mouth moved her other breast, and she whimpered her pleasure when his tongue twirled around the taut bud. “Ysaak, I need you.”

“I need you too,” he said roughly against her breast, part of her nipple still in his mouth obscuring the clarity of his words. “I need to taste and touch you and know every inch of you, my precious mate.”

She pushed him back gently, pressing against his shoulders until he got the message that she wanted him to lie back. He let out a groan of frustration when his mouth separated from her breast, and she made a soothing sound by clicking her tongue softly at him. Embeth slid slowly down his body, her wet pussy leaving proof of her arousal on his skin as she went.

She settled between his knees, urging his legs to spread further as she confronted the proof of his arousal. His cylindrical shaft thrust proudly upward, and she examined it for a moment, surprised by how ergonomically shaped he was with his rounded tip and no obvious head. There was a slit at the tip leaking his fluid, and she bent her head to taste.

It was even sweeter than his kisses, and she found herself eagerly drinking from his erection as steady streams of his arousal flooded her tongue. She sucked and bobbed her head, loving his growls of pleasure and the way his hips thrust urgently toward her mouth. When the steady stream of his semen became a torrent, and he called out her name as his body spasmed, she lightened her suction and flicked her tongue across the tip, uncertain if he became sensitive like a human male, but not wishing to hurt him as he exploded into an intense orgasm.

His tip continued to weep sweet nectar, and she licked it away as she waited for his breathing to return to normal. His skin had flushed slightly more golden, and he almost glowed in his luminescence. The sight of Ysaak in a post-orgasmic state was breathtaking, and it made her want to send him there again.

With that thought in mind, she began to ramp up the intensity of her suction again and yelped a protest when he suddenly lifted her off him, almost violently, though he didn’t hurt her.

“No,” he almost roared at her as he pushed her into the mattress, pressing her back firmly into it as he parted her thighs and took up residence between them. “I must be inside you now, my mate.”

Her body was eager and ready for him, and despite his intimidating size, the perfect design of his cock made it easier to accept all of him than she would have expected. His girth eased inside her slippery passage a moment later, and she moaned as he stretched and overfilled her in a delicious way.

“I knew you were mine when I saw your picture.” He almost completely withdrew before thrusting back into her again. “Tried to deny it… Fool… Mine,” he completed with a growl as he began to thrust rapidly in and out of her.

She met each thrust with her own intense need, slipping a hand between her body so she could stroke her clit and bring herself closer to the edge that much faster. Their joining was frantic and intense, and everything she had ever wanted, but nothing like she had expected.

Briefly, as she hovered on the edge of orgasm and could feel his shaft twitching inside her in preparation of his own release, she considered the idea of asking him to pull out. Realizing there was no danger of pregnancy, since she wasn’t suffering from Kaiser’s Syndrome, she ignored the impulse and clamped her thighs around him to pull him even deeper inside her spasming sheath.

They orgasmed at the same time, and they shouted out their mingled pleasure as they came together, and when he whispered, “My mate,” against her ear, she didn’t have the strength or the inclination to refute the assumption, at least not then. Being in his arms like that, and in a vulnerable state from passion and release, she couldn’t find a valid reason to refute his assumption that she was his mate.