Chapter 109 Bone of Contention
❀ Maeve ❀
My breaths rushed out in a shudder. Nikolai’s eyes were dark, almost black. I could feel his hunger.
I drew my shoulders high.
“Where have you been?”
“Securing the kingdom,” he muttered, absentminded. Distracted.
His gaze burned a path over my skin.
Would he tell me if it had been Bastian out there?
“Your clothes are the same from two days ago. Pristine, except for a mere trace of blood.” I slid closer to him. “What happened out there?”
His eyes snapped up to mine. I couldn’t read them.
“Just some unruly vampires, excited by the ceremony. I took care of it.”
Just by his clipped sentences, I knew there was more to his story.
Yet I couldn’t worry about that right now.
I shivered, acknowledging what I was about to do to my vampire mate. It was wrong. He may never see it as I did. But I had no choice.
“I came to you immediately. I knew you’d be worried.” His voice was rough.
“I was,” I told him, even as I remembered Vladis’s words. He said Nikolai was just a male, and I was a queen.
A queen didn’t weigh the comfort of others above hers. Her word was law, made for the good of the kingdom.
I dragged in a shaky breath. Nikolai’s scent flooded my brain.
Then alarm spiked. Had Nikolai just swayed?
“My darkness,” I grabbed his arms with both of mine. “Are you alright?”
He gave me that smoldering look, despite his obvious state. He was pale. Unwell.
What had he faced out there?
“Just a scratch, nothing more…” He trailed off, eyes going vague for a moment.
I led him to the edge of my canopied bed. The new room, courtesy of my new position.
After he sat, I began to undo his shirt. “Talk to me, my love. Do you need to feed?”
At the mention of feeding, his eyes snapped back to my neck. Wilder.
His tongue slipped out to brush against his fang.
In a flash, his hands wrapped around my sides and chest. He drew me in for a wet kiss.
My lids slid shut. I could feel his heart beating. So loudly the room seemed to quake with it.
His skin was cold. Too cold. Even for a vampire.
I raked my fingers through his dark hair, my skin responding, my breaths quickening.
A fire bloomed in my veins. When he let out a fractured groan, heat pooled between my legs.
“Take from me, my love. Warm yourself with my blood.”
His grip tightened, hands kneading tougher.
Even starving, he took the time to brush his thumbs over my nipples, budding them into tight peaks.
“Oh, don’t you dare stop…” I moaned.
My mind rioted. My instincts roared, pulse fluttering.
I was about to mark my mate. My powers would awaken, our bond complete.
A sweet coil of pleasure shivered down my spine, heightening the urgency.
“Drink,” I hissed at him.
Once he was intoxicated, writhing in the throes, cock deep inside me, I’d sink my fangs into his throat.
Calling unto my vampire side, I’d drink of him as he drank of me, sealing us in a searing union of unparalleled power.
When his lips latched onto my neck, a shrill scream escaped me.
“Yes… oh, yesss…”
His fingers found my center, pushing incessantly, soaked in my arousal.
That distant wave was a torment, crashing toward me with a vengeance.
My hips rolled in time with his seeking hands, his breaths lashing at my throat.
Then he bit me.
“Oh gods!”
My core clenched around his fingers, my chest hot with frenzied gasps.
On and on it went. He drew my blood hungrily, so savagely I could feel the pull from my veins.
The waves of pleasure erupting from my bud made me spasm. His hot, engorged shaft pressed into my hip from the side.
Too much. Too much.
I screamed again, my nipples jutting forward, demanding attention. But my mate was busy. One hand played my clit, the other collared my jaw so tightly I couldn’t move my head.
So I cupped myself with trembling palms, trapping my nipples between two fingers. I rolled them, gasping out the blaze of bliss coaxed by my vampire.
He groaned into my skin, thrusting his cock harshly against me.
“There, there, my love. You’ve been so good to me. Allow me to return the favour.”
I cradled his head as he withdrew his fangs. His eyes were darkened in indulgence, hooded, his skin warm to the touch.
My brows drew together. He was sagging into my arms. What had happened to him? Was he hurt in a way I couldn’t see?
“Nikolai?” I called, adjusting his head on my thighs.
He only mumbled something unintelligible, limbs slack like rubber.
Then his lids slid shut, and he… went still. Asleep.
Dumbfounded, I gently combed his hair with my hands, massaging his scalp with slow movements.
As I gathered myself, thoughts arose.
Dare I mark him in his slumber?
He’d been holding a box when he’d first traced in. It lay on its side, tumbled from his hands when he’d pressed his lips to mine.
What was in it? A gift?
I sighed.
A soft breeze tickled my nipples, sliding over my skin in unfair torture. One of the only two men to ever ease me was comatose, the other miles away.
But then I remembered what had to be done, and my fire cooled.
If this was the wrong decision, then at least I’d know I achieved something, however brief.
My mind strayed back to what Vladis had given me, and his conditions for it.
I’d asked for something to restrain Nikolai. Vladis had given me a mystically enforced pair of gold handcuffs.
Nothing could break out of them. Not even the devil himself.
The conditions before I’d been allowed access to it?
Pardon Lilith.
For whatever reason, Vladis had beseeched me to have Nikolai revoke his vow to kill Lilith. And only then would he give me the tool I needed.
My hands trembled as I looked down.
I’d given a vow of my own.
Nikolai, my dark night, would not be avenging me. By my own order.
Now I had two bones of contention with my mate.
Deny him his right to honor me, and take away his consent to a bond.
But then my heart hardened, my jaw gritted.
It was the only way.
And a queen had to make hard decisions.
Tenderly, I set my sleeping vampire aside, tucking a pillow beneath his dark head.
I penned a letter to him, my words flowery and seductive.
I bid him to finish what he started in the greenhouse. My safe haven. His gift to me.
My lips curled.
It was the perfect place to make our bond.
As I left to prepare, choosing silks to adorn my body and oils to shine my skin, my heart thudded.
He might hate me for this, but at least I’d have my powers.
Rather a hardened, powerful queen than a weak, sniveling girl—