I EXPECTED DEATH TO BE A lot more peaceful than this.
Every few seconds I am roused from a deep sleep to the feeling of someone prodding and poking me. Every once in a while I can just make out Kaethe muttering about how it will work this time. I wish she would just let me sleep. Her earthy scent tickles my nose.
Other times it is Arkain’s voice. Deep and rough as if he has been screaming. He pleads with me to open my eyes. That he cannot lose me. That he’s sorry. So fucking sorry.
That’s the one that I finally try to crawl towards, but I feel as though my body is moving in honey. I have to keep going, but resting sounds so nice…
My eyes fly open and I do not know where I am. Looking left I see Arkain, squeezed into a tiny chair that looks incredibly uncomfortable. He holds my hand and I give it a gentle squeeze. Now his eyes fly open.
“Elvie,” he breathes. I try to speak but the air rasps out of me. “Shhhh, don’t try and talk just yet.” He hands me a glass of water that I down in one go. He refills it for me and I down that one as well. Gods, why am I so thirsty?
After my fifth glass, I wave off another refill.
“You’ve been out for two days. I’m not surprised you are so dehydrated.”
Two days? The pain in my shoulder comes on suddenly but that’s not the only thing I remember.
“My—”I break off, coughing. “Parents. Trapped.”
“Shhhh Elvie, I sent guards to your house and they freed your parents. They’re here resting.” He strokes his claw over my cheek and tangles it in my hair. My shoulder pain starts throbbing and I wince. “It should hurt for the next couple days but you should make a full recovery.”
“Kae’s antidote worked?” I whisper, relieved to have my voice back.
“Not quite.” Arkain turns grim. “What that light elf had was a very good knock-off, but not the same strain as true orc’s teeth poison. Had it been the real thing…”
He cups my cheek and presses a kiss to my forehead.
“Arkain you have to listen to me,” I say and he nods. I walk him through everything from Ryvik’s plan to assassinate him, to them rallying the Lysan’s bannermen, to there not really being any rumblings of an orc uprising.
“You have to believe I’d never betray you, Arkain. Never.”
“I know you wouldn’t and I am so sorry for believing even for a moment that you would. Knowing that I hurt you makes me sick. Elvie, when you jumped in front of that arrow for me…I’ve never felt fear like that.” He shakes his head. “I still don’t understand why you would’ve done that.”
“Yes you do.” I run my finger along the curve of his ear but he shakes his head again. It’s the only logical explanation. Why I feel for him so strongly the way that I do. Why my body moved on its own accord to save him. “You don’t believe I am your mate?”
“I don’t believe I am that lucky.”
I laugh and swat his arm. “Well, believe it.”
“I love you. I’ve known for so long but was afraid to tell you. From now on I’m telling you every day.” He bends down to press a gentle kiss to my lips. “I love you, Elvie. Queen of Myrkorvin. My wife. My mate.”
“I love you too,” I say, and pat the cot next to me. “Now get up here and show me how sorry you are for doubting.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You say that every time.”
“This time is different. We shouldn’t be putting pressure on your shoulder…” He trails off as I slip the white cotton gown over my head leaving myself bare to his eyes. He growls and gently grasps one of my breasts. He bends down to lick my nipple until it’s a hard peak. Then he gives the other one the same treatment. His head pops up. “If anything hurts we stop immediately, yes?”
“Sure,” I say, guiding his face back down my body. He pulls me to his chest and then rotates us so he is on his back and I am sitting atop his hardening cock.
“I can feel you soaking through my pants. Two days without my cock and this is what you turn into?”
I whine and rub myself against the bulge in his pants. “I want it. Please.”
“You always beg so nicely when you want my cock, mate.”
He unlaces himself and the sight of him makes my thighs clench. The pain in my shoulder is forgotten and now all I want is to feel him stretch me.
Raising me gently, he lowers me back down on his cock inch by glorious inch. My toes curl and I throw my head back. He leans forward to capture my nipple in his mouth as he continues to raise and lower me on his length, all the while punching his hips up to meet mine.
It is slow and it is brutal. It’s exactly what I need. I dig my nails into his chest and take over at my own place, raising and slamming myself back down. Circling and grinding him so that my clit rubs against him.
The pleasure gathers in my stomach and my muscles tense.
“I’m close,” I moan and Arkain rears up to capture my mouth.
“Every day for the rest of eternity I am going to fill you with my seed. Over and over again. Even once I get you pregnant I’m going to fill you. So there’s no doubt in your mind or anyone else’s who this tight cunt belongs to.” He bends down and embeds his teeth in my neck. He groans around my flesh. “My mate, my beautiful mate.”
I choke on my moan as he fucks me over and again, slamming me down on his cock. My body jolting and my breasts bouncing. The pleasure is too much, too intense.
“Arkain, I can’t hold it I’m going to—”
“Tell me what I want to hear and I’ll let you come.” My eyes fly open and I look deep into his, wrapping my arms around his shoulders as he continues to pound into me.
“I love you,” I say and he roars, a claw snaking down to tickle my clit and I’m up in flames. White-hot fire coats my body and the pleasure seems never-ending.
I lie boneless in a heap on the cot. Warm and safe and protected in Arkain’s arms. But something tickles in my mind and before sleep claims me, I have to ask, “How long does it take to transform into a dark elf?”
Arkain tucks my head under his chin, “What?”
“It’s just that I thought it was instantaneous after you killed another elf that you became one, but it seems my transformation is taking its time.”
“Who told you killing an elf was how you become a dark elf?”
“It’s what we are taught…” I can feel his body shaking with laughter under me. “Is that not right?”
“No, that’s not right. The killing has to be unjust. Under the blood moon. That happens only once every two hundred years.”
“Oh, well, someone should really update our tutors with that information.” I snuggle deeper into Arkain’s warm chest.
“I do have to say the thought of you biting me with dark elf fangs does make my cock hard.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“I can bite you now.”
“Go to sleep, my little mate.”
