Mina tilted her head back and closed her eyes. Jayden swirled his tongue around her nipple and squeezed her ass with his big palms. Her pulse quickened, and she cradled Jayden’s face with her palms as he continued his assault. Jayden licked and bit and sucked it until it was so sensitive from all the attention it received that even the lightest touch sent shivers down her spine. Mina felt she would combust if Jayden did not touch her between her legs.
“Jayden!” Mina begged.
He chuckled softly before turning his attention to her other nipple. He sucked it hard, his sharp canines grazed her breast, and a moan left Mina’s mouth.
Jayden pulled his head back, his eyes fixed on a drop of blood rolling down Mina’s breast. A few more followed. “I did not mean to be so rough,” Jayden said before licking the blood from her breast.
Holy Gods! His tongue was wicked, making her feel so much pleasure. Jayden circled her nipple with his tongue. “You weren’t rough,” she sounded as if she was out of air. He took her nipple in his mouth and sucked hard, making Mina moan his name loudly.
Jayden’s eyes turned black with lust. He stood straight, and he grew taller, stronger. Even the bulge in his pants looked more prominent. Mina swallowed hard, not sure how he would fit inside her. He fisted her long hair with his right hand, forcing her to look into his eyes and gripping her jaw and neck with his left one. “I can hardly wait to discover all the things that make you scream my name or how hard and fast you want to be fucked! Perhaps you will love being spanked until you are wet and begging for my cock. Or maybe I will fuck your throat to see if you like to choke on my cock.” Jayden had never spoken to her like that, and she was half afraid of what he wanted to do with her, but she knew he would stop if she asked. Something flashed in his eyes, and Mina shivered. “On our mating night, I will claim all your holes, little mate!” His mouth claimed hers in a rough kiss, and his fingers squeezed her neck. She wondered what he meant with all her holes, but felt it was something she didn’t want to know. He pulled her head back. “To whom do you belong?” His voice demanded an answer from her.
“To you!” her reply came in a low tone.
Jayden grunted his approval. “Beautiful mate,” he cooed, his thumb running over her bottom lip.
The corners of her mouth twitched. “Beside you, only Hugo and Caesar told me I was beautiful,” Mina mumbled. Her father used to tell her she was very pretty all the time, but she thought he was trying to be kind.
Jayden growled loudly, his chest vibrating. His eyes turned so golden it appeared as if they were burning. “You are only mine, and if another male dares to glance at you with lust in his eyes, I will kill him! You are my female, my mate; only I can look at you and think of how you will look naked under me while you moan my name as I make you come on my cock over and over again!”
Mina’s heart hammered in her chest. She licked her lips. “Hugo is my cousin, and Caesar is,” she shrugged.
“Caesar should keep his eyes to himself if he knows what’s good for him, else he will lose them! As for Hugo, he might be your cousin, but I don’t like the way he looks at you! In the Kingdom of Litus, cousins are allowed to marry each other! From the moment I claimed you as my mate, you became mine! You are mine to protect, mine to cherish, mine to fuck and breed, and most importantly, you are what I have been longing for so long!”
Mina frowned. “I am afraid I don’t understand. How could you have been longing for me when, until recently, you wanted to be with Rosalyn?”
Jayden growled. “It was only my weak human side that wanted Rosalyn. I, on the other hand, despised her from the moment I saw her. But you, little mate, you are mine! Now and forever!”
“Who are you?” Mina asked breathlessly. “You speak as if there are two people in one body—Jayden and you.”
Jayden grinned. “I am your mate! When my human side learns to accept what I am, we will become one in heart and will,” said Jayden, grasping her leg. “Put it around me!” he said, and lifted it.
Mina tried to balance herself with her left foot while she wrapped her right leg around Jayden’s waist as she tried to make sense of what Jayden said. His fingers slid down to her clit, and Mina gripped his shoulders hard, her nails digging into his flesh. He was still squeezing her neck and brought her face close to his. He kissed her roughly while his fingers moved expertly, making her drunk with pleasure. He always seemed to know where to touch her, leaving her gasping for air and craving for more.
Jayden broke the kiss, and Mina opened her eyes, his golden eyes glistening and full of adoration. “Keep your gorgeous eyes on me, little mate!” His voice was commanding. He rubbed her roughly, and she tried to bite back her moans, afraid the children or the ocxoas would hear her. “Your moans are the most beautiful songs I have heard! Don’t hold them back!” Jayden demanded and moved his fingers faster.
Mina was close to that glorious rapture, making her feel like flying. “Jayden!” she breathed. She was on the verge of climaxing when Jayden stopped moving his fingers. “Don’t stop!” she hissed.
Jayden chuckled. “Patience, little mate! We have all night!” His fingers started moving again. “You are so wet! I can hardly wait to bury my face between your legs and lick you clean!”
Heat rose to Mina’s cheeks. “Jayden!”
“Would you like that, little mate? My tongue on your soft cunt, licking you until you come?” Mina said nothing, and Jayden stopped moving his fingers. “You know I need words, little mate!”
Mina’s face turned red before she forced a ‘yes’ out of her mouth.
Jayden’s fingers moved again, and moans escaped her lips. “Yes, what?” he asked, rolling her clit between his fingers.
Mina’s eyes opened wide. “Holy Gods! Jayden!”
“You are so beautiful!” Jayden murmured. “Come for your mate!” he demanded, and Mina’s body obeyed. She might have screamed her pleasure for the entire city of Athea to hear if not for Jayden’s mouth, silencing her with his kiss.
Jayden helped Mina lower her leg. Her knees were trembling, and he picked her up. Mina buried her face in his strong chest. She never thought she would get married, but not only did Jayden become her husband, but he found her beautiful. Happiness like she had never felt before spread inside her. Things she only dreamed of were slowly becoming real, and it scared Mina because of Rosalyn’s curse.
‘I hope the two of you will be very unhappy together!’ said Rosalyn that day in the King’s Study Room, but since Jayden entered Mina’s life, she felt very happy. Perhaps Rosalyn failed to curse them.
Jayden put Mina on a stool and started preparing the bath. When the bathtub was half full, he added oils before placing Mina in it. He got behind her, and Mina leaned on his chest.
“You still have your pants on,” Mina said lazily.
Jayden kissed the top of her head. “I don’t trust myself to be fully naked with you right now, as I am fighting the urge to claim and mark you.” He circled her torso with his arms and peppered kisses on her left shoulder. “I don’t think I can spend the Yeltane Festival with you,” he sighed.
“Why not? Do you have to patrol Athea that night also?”
Jayden chuckled bitterly and tilted her head to the side. His eyes were still golden. “You are so sweet and innocent, little mate. During the Yeltane Festival, the Lady must keep me in chains to stop me from making you mine!”
Mina thought she had misunderstood what Jayden said. “In chains?”
“Special chains. Normal ones won’t do, and the Lady is the only one that has them. I will probably leave the night before and return the day after the festival when the urge to claim what is mine has passed.”
Mina wanted to spend the festival with Jayden, but she would not risk his title of Uzgaia. Though she wasn’t sure he was serious about the chains, she decided to talk about something else instead. Jayden mentioned the mysterious woman from time to time, and she grew curious about her. “This Lady you keep talking about, who is she?”
“She is Life! She is escaping the grasp of the Destroyer of Worlds. If he discovers where she is, this world and everything Inoss created is doomed. Chaos and War will have to choose between Peace and Life or Destruction and Darkness. And when Chaos and War calls for my brothers and me, we will obey and reclaim our weapons from where we buried them,” Jayden replied, staring into nothing. Mina frowned, and Jayden turned his attention to her. “Sometimes, I speak more than I should. You should forget about the Destroyer of Worlds. Fortunately, the Gate connecting his world to this one has been closed and sealed by the Lady, and Chaos and War gave up on his former life and had his memory erased when he lost Peace.”
Jayden started washing Mina, and she chewed her lip. She wanted to know more about what Jayden had said, but she knew he would say nothing more. The Royal Library was home to many old books and tomes, and she planned to visit it soon. “You said you waited for me for a long time, but yet we met five years ago.” What was she trying to say? “Forget it!”
“Look at me!” Jayden commanded, and Mina obeyed. “We did meet five years ago, but as you were not of age at that time, I did not make much of our brief encounter. I was still awakening while I was trying to understand what I was and forgot about you until I saw you again at your uncle’s house. When I met the ocxoas and the Lady, they explained everything to me, and I learned about my kind. When it comes to soulmates, they can recognize each other from childhood, but for those who are Uzgaia, it is different. We need to be of age to feel who is our soulmate or mate.”
“Will you ever tell me what you are?” Mina wanted to know.
“During the Trials of the Land,” replied Jayden.
“What is the difference between soulmate and mate?”
“For the Uzgaia, a soulmate is the perfect half of both his human and ocxoa side, while the mate is the other half of the ocxoa. There had been cases in the past when Uzgaias did not find their soulmates or mates and had to choose a mate. Most Uzgaia dream of finding their soulmate, for, with her help, human and beast will merge completely, becoming one and the same.”
Jayden started washing Mina’s hair. Did she dare to ask? But she wanted to know the truth. “Am I your real mate, or did you choose me?”
“When I returned from war and first caught your scent, it beckoned me as nothing had in my life. When I touched you, I did not feel a bond with you, yet I could not let you go without your promise of becoming my mate. Something about you tugs me towards you, and I am starting to believe you are my real mate, not only the one I chose for myself. I am waiting for the day I feel the bond with you. Maybe it will happen during the Trials of the Land.”
She hoped that too, for she wanted to be his real mate.
“Can I ask you something about the Litha Festival?” Mina hoped he would answer.
“Ask away,” replied Jayden as he finished washing her hair.
Mina bit her lip. “Rosalyn, you said you mated with her, yet you can’t mate with me until that night. If... if she would not have broken her promise to you, and you would have taken her on Isyleon Island, would you still have been Uzgaia for your people?”
Jayden was quiet for a while, and Mina looked over her shoulder at him. His eyes were back to their natural color. “Since I learned of my heritage after I met her, I would have been given a punishment by the Lady.”
“What punishment?”
Jayden stood and got out of the bathtub. “It does not matter anymore. Besides, we should not spend our time talking about her.” He ditched his pants, and Mina averted her gaze, still not used to seeing him naked. “Come here, little lamb!”
She turned her head slowly, and to her relief, he had a towel around his waist and a big one spread open in his hands. She went to Jayden, and after her hair was dried and brushed, he took her to their room and gently laid her on the bed.
Jayden sat on the bed and reached for her towel when a strong knock on the door startled them. He frowned before reluctantly leaving the bed. He grabbed a pair of pants, put them on, and before he left the room, he looked at Mina. “Once I send to Beliar whoever is at the front door, I will return, and we will finish what we started earlier.”
The clock chimed half past eleven, and Mina wondered who could be at the door so late in the night. She removed the towel, put on a nightgown, and waited for Jayden to return.
Jayden entered the room a few minutes later. “The King summons us to the Royal Palace,” Jayden said, his eyes on the parchment he was holding in his hands.