Chained to the Devil’s Daughter (Mating the Elements #1)

49

Ash’ren

F our days since the portal battle, and Searra still slept. Healers of all elements had checked her over, their tests inconclusive. Only the human healer had anything useful to say. If one could count she’s wrestling with her spirit useful.

Oh, and. . . Did you know she was pregnant?

When she wakes, Searra might be irked with the timing, but I couldn’t bring myself to be anything but elated.

I refused to leave her side. Fara, Geysis, Filaris, and Tayman took turns delivering meals, forcing me to eat while they watched. Two days in, I got tired of their weird fetish and snapped.

“Leave! If I’m fucking hungry, I’ll find some fucking food! Get the fuck out!” I’d shouted.

Hands on her hips and face so devoid of color her lips looked gray, Fara had reminded me, “The woman you love is my dearest friend. I’ve done enough to harm our friendship without adding the death of her mate on top.”

“Not to mention, Ash Render, Sir,” Geysis had added with a comforting squeeze of my shoulder. “You’re a part of this litter now, too. We’re not going to leave you alone and hurting.”

I’d conceded with a growl and slurped down some cinnamon apple puree without tearing my gaze from my Firefly. Nine years ago, having a family was a distant dream, meant for somebody else. Now I had family members out the ass, and one in the cooker.

On the morning of the fifth day, Searra writhed restlessly. I rushed to her side, smoothing her hair from her face and whispering soothing words.

“I’m right here, my love. You’re safe. I won’t let anything hurt you. Not your spirit, not your father, nothing.” My hands trailed down to cup her womb, though there was yet to be a bump. “Both of you. You’ll always be safe with me.”

Searra whimpered. Her knees wrenched together. This was the most movement I’d seen of her yet. She must be waking up.

“I’m here, Firefly. Come back to me.” I kissed her knuckles. “There are so many things I want to say to you. Come back, Firefly. It’s so dark without you.”

Her plump lower lip slipped under her teeth, and she let out a breathy moan. Her thighs shushed back and forth, her back bowing ever so slightly. In her hands, the silk sheets bunched.

A scent wafted to my nostrils. Rich as a candied rose, so sweet and so distinctly her. She wasn’t having a nightmare. She was having a fantasy.

“My naughty love bug.” I gently detangled the sheets from her fist, guiding her to the apex of her thighs. She whined like a rut-hungry gryffion in mating season. “You are the most perfect thing in all the territories. All these years you amaze me more and more. When you wake, you will have every inch of me.”

Another tiny mewl and her body twisted to and fro. I gently pried her thighs apart. They dropped open and her hand fell shy of where she was pleading, her body not awake enough to obey her command.

With slow, deliberate sweeps, I gathered her skirts at her hips, revealing the mound of her sex. Slickness pooled on her thighs, and as I watched, a trickle escaped her soft outer folds, racing down the curve to her ass.

My mouth was drier than the dunes. I licked my lips, but it did not help.

Searra’s noises became more needy. I couldn’t stand it. Days she’d spent comatose, from fitful dreams to serene sleep. I was desperate to stare into her endless cyan pools, to celebrate our happy news. I would settle for knowing she was not in pain, that her spirit didn’t have her in a chokehold or fucking whatever.

I placed my hand below her knee and slowly trailed my clawed tips up the column of her leg. The light touch had her writhing anew, her hips lifting slightly, more of her natural sweetness dripping from her honeyed cunt.

“Is this where you need me, Firefly?”

I reached the top of her thigh, sighing at how damp it was. I brought my glistening finger to my mouth, a strangled sigh ripping from my throat at the burst of salt and sugar, savory and sweet. Returning to her exposed lower half, I grazed the mound of her sex and slid down the slickness of her other thigh.

She mewled in protest, weakly thrusting her hips up toward me, wafting that flames-fucking scent. I chuckled and returned to her drenched cunt, weeping for me even in her perpetually sleeping state.

“Is it here you need me, sweet one?” I pressed my thumb against her cunt, which blossomed open as I dragged down her seam, coating my thumb and knuckles with her addictive nectar. She moaned, deep and guttural. “I see.”

I traced her seam again, dipping further inside. My sac tightened, my knot throbbed, begging to feel her warm embrace so it might bloom more and flood her womb. I gripped my cock over my trousers, squeezing in hopes to relieve some of the ache.

Her hands grasped and released the sheets repeatedly. I lifted her left hand to her breast, brushing half-curled fingers over her pebbled nipples, and was rewarded with a gush of warm liquid on my own. I groaned and sank my index finger inside her sweet feminine hole, pumping in a shallow but purposeful manner.

She bucked like she was awake, and I zeroed in on her face. Behind her lids, her eyes were quivering, like she was fighting to come back to her body.

“That’s it, Firefly.” I added another finger and curled. “Come back to me. Your body knows what it wants. Come for me.”

Another finger and I traced her clit with my thumb. All it took was three circles around the nub and her pussy sucked on my fingers ever so sweetly.

“That’s it, Firefly.” I dipped my head between her thighs and sucked the nub into my mouth, pumping my fingers until her last tremble. Then I cleaned her up with my tongue, relishing in the taste, made sweeter with the knowing that my seed had taken root.

Pressing a final kiss to her little pearl, I licked my fingers clean and fetched a towel and some water.

After cleaning her up, I went back to my vigil, petting her hair and rubbing her belly, kneading her breasts. Breasts which would leak for my young, for the pups we would share.

She did not wake, but I would be patient. I’d waited nine years. I would wait a thousand more.