Chapter 121 Pink and Permanent
❀ Maeve ❀
I’d heard a soft thud, and his body tensed.
I felt him maneuver something behind my head. It sounded like metal leaving flesh with a macabre sucking sound.
Then his shoulder rolled as he flung it back.
Another thick thud. Choking sounds. Then a body dropping in the distance.
One moment we stood in the center of the carnage. The next, I was floating.
It was easy as breathing now, the experience.
I didn’t know who had traced who.
The desire to leave this place had been so strong in my mind…
The surroundings changed from open air to within walls.
Matte dark and inlaid with thin strips of gold. He’d traced me to his chambers.
My body trembled, not with cold or fear, but shock. I held on to Nikolai like he was a tree amidst a storm.
He cupped my head, murmuring words in my ear. I didn’t understand a thing.
My mind whirled.
A public appearance turned execution.
They didn’t want me.
I scowled. But they got me.
The Crimson Stone chose ME. Over Drusilla, over Vladis, over even Drusilla’s heir.
I was born for this throne, and no fickle-minded, illiterate, unaware population was going to run me off it.
I released Nikolai and walked to the balcony.
There was a damned thorned crown on my head, bleeding me every time I wore or removed it.
The Crimson Stone had broken my bones and set my veins aflame too many times for me to just give up.
Nikolai approached. “Milaya.”
My gaze remained trained on the dark horizon.
My mind went back to the chaos in town. How he’d looked. How he’d killed.
I felt uncomfortable in my own body. My skin sizzled with want even as he stood so close. My core pulsed, aching to taste that raw power within him.
But my logical senses needed to sit with what had just happened.
My own queendom had just rejected me, for gods’ sake.
Who knew if the royal seat was in on it?
What if the people had been provoked? Misinformed?
“I need to see Drusilla.” I clenched the balcony railing. “Some things need to be smoothed out.”
Just as I started applying my magic to tracing, another face popped up.
Bastian. My heart fluttered.
I could trace now. I could find him in IronWolf and explain everything.
No longer was I considering leaving my queendom, my seat. But to see him, after all this time… also…
My mother.
My eyes prickled with tears. Was she worried? Was she even still alive?
I’d never succeeded in moving her to IronWolf, but she’d chosen Sorin over me. I had to have faith that she’d made the right decision.
Because if she was suffering in some groove in Blackbridge, I wouldn’t be able to unleash all this pent-up anger on her.
What to address first?
Where to go?
“Maeve.” Nikolai held my arm.
I spun to face him.
“How could you not know?” I accused. “I could have died out there. I was trapped and you couldn’t get to me.”
He seemed shocked at my outburst. “It was unprecedented…”
“All I hear are excuses, Nikolai. Excuses.” I spat.
His hand flew to my throat, collaring me. His long fingers trapped my jaw closed, eyes incensed.
“Listen here,” he hissed. “You do not get to talk down on my devotion to you. You saw how it was. You saw what I did to get to you.”
“But you got distracted,” I sneered despite the hand on my jaw, chest heaving. “I saw you. You chose the darkness over me.”
“You surrendered me to it of your own accord.”
I sputtered. “You said you forgave me!”
“Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“You don’t, then?” I challenged, getting lost in the texture of his palm against my face.
Both my arms were trapped behind my arched back. The thrill was killing me.
Power surged in every vein, and I knew I could break out of this at any time. But did I want to? Not yet.
Let him forget I was his queen and a recently awakened vampire-wolf hybrid.
“You should be groveling, trying to soothe my ire, yet you skirt too close to ordering me about.”
I pushed myself up closer to his face. “Ah, but you enjoy it, do you not? You love it when your big bad queen orders you about. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
A furious blush bloomed on Nikolai’s face.
I arched my back until he was forced to release my neck. Then I grabbed his.
“You are the one who should grovel. In fact, I have a task for you.”
His eyes flashed with interest, but he kept his face blank with feigned disinterest. “Do I have a choice?”
“Even you should know, you do not.” I dragged my tongue across his lips, and he leaned forward immediately.
“Ah-ah.” My fingers tangled in his hair. I pulled him back and down. “Distract me from my thoughts. Drown in me, until you die a second death.”
No sooner had the words escaped than he hooked his fingers in my bustier and tugged.
I was naked before him, breasts swaying from the force, legs closed tight.
My core howled at the feral mask he wore.
Was this such a good idea? What if the crazy vampire sank his wicked fangs into my clit?
I moaned at the thought, my legs falling open just a touch.
The cool air from the balcony teased my nipples into rock-hard peaks, my breaths fogging.
When Nikolai pressed his wet lips against the inside of my thigh, I gripped a few strands from his scalp.
Then the evil vampire licked a wet, searing path up my thigh to the junction of my legs.
“Why are you still dressed? Take off your clothes, vampire… obey your queen—”
Nikolai stood abruptly, tearing off his clothes like a beast, his cock bouncing free, rigid and distended.
His hands were back on my skin, searching, kneading. My eyes rolled back. “Careful what you speak. I will follow your instructions to the death, queen.”
My nipples ached, my flesh burned. My heart thudded in my chest at the mouthwatering sight of his tough, cut body.
“Put your mouth on me. Now.”
He must have been a mind reader, because he latched onto a nipple, teeth grazing. With his hand, he tugged and kneaded the nipple of my other breast.
His right hand gripped my waist desperately.
My jaw slackened when the broad head of his shaft prodded against my belly.
“Nikolai,” I whined.
He suckled me devilishly, spit running down my skin, fingers digging into my ass and folds.
Then he broke away, gaze locked on mine. “Until I die a second death.” He repeated my order to me.
My eyes widened, shivers running down my spine.
The determined look on his face promised no mercy. Well, I could just order him to stop when I’d had enough, right?
He slid down my body, hands following in a loving, albeit hungry, path.
My back pressed against the balcony, fists clenched around the iron railing.
My legs were already failing, trembling as his breath fanned over my throbbing sex.
Then he dug in.
No preamble, no permission.
He suckled my clit much like he did my nipples, greedily lapping his tongue at the same time.
My breath rushed out in a gasp. Then a scream.
I fell forward, gripping his hair and shoulders, but he didn’t stop.
“Uhh… yes, please. I love that… show me your darkness, Nikolai…”
One hand holding my hip up, he sank two fingers into my drenched heat. He curved them sweetly, in time with his hungry sucking pulls on my screaming bud.
The night turned to day. Or was that my vision blanking?
Lost for words, I groaned and moaned nonsense.
They could’ve been more orders. I just knew if he stopped, there’d be hell to pay.
My back arched, my hands cupping my heavy breasts.
Boneless, salivating, I ascended.
Waves upon waves of pure, sizzling bliss assailed my body.
My core clenched around his seeking fingers with a force that trapped them.
Still he suckled, drawing it out, groaning into my flesh.
I spied my mark on him. Pink and permanent.
“Nothing pleases me more than seeing my mark upon you. Knowing that you’re mine… forever…” I gasped out, pushing his head away. His lips were stuck fast to my flesh.
I released a shaky laugh. Exactly what I’d suspected. He wouldn’t give up his prize so easily.
Just like that, his relentless, slow petting began to stoke my pleasure once more. My legs parted as my lips did, a sigh whistling through.
But I needed something more, something heavy and invasive.
I needed him so far up my cunt we wouldn’t know where he began and I ended.
I’d just looked down to communicate this when the first sear ripped through my ribs.
My hand flew to cradle the side of my chest, eyes watering from the pain. “Ah! Gods!”
The crown on my head throbbed with heat. I’d never taken it off since the disaster in town. Now it bore down on my skull with intense pain.
Nikolai snapped up to attention, hands cupping my face. “What is it? Where are you hurt?”
I couldn’t speak, my mind exploding with one word over and over:
No. No. No.
My breaths came fast, fingers clamping my chest.
The Crimson Stone’s pangs were getting more frequent. And more painful.
I looked into my mate’s eyes with my teary ones, pain and fatigue hollowing my heart.
“The Crimson Stone… Lyss’s blood…”
His eyes widened as he gathered me in his arms. “Since when? How long has this been going on?”
“A while—”
Air rushed at us, wrapping in that telltale way.
We had company.
I glanced sideways enough to see who—
Lilith.