The Horde King of Shadow (Hordes of the Elthika #1)

Chapter 20

SARKIN

Lishara’s temple chamber was filled with the sounds of mating. The slap of flesh, driving and primal. The sounds of desperate moans and satisfied growls.

I felt Klara’s nails dig into the backs of my shoulders, and in my want , I wished she would do it harder. I wanted her mark on me, just as I wanted to see my mark on her. I wanted to look upon it days from now, to remember this ache and wildness that was nearly too punishing to feel real.

There was no warning when Klara climaxed around me. Her scream was silent, but I felt her body twitch before going strangely still. I felt the tension of her muscles contract, tightening and tightening.

And then she was clenching around me, a desperate cry filling my ears, enticing me to join her. The tight, hot grip of her sex almost made me lose the last edge of my desperate, perilous control.

But I wasn’t nearly done with her, and so I fought the pull with gritted teeth, momentarily retreating from her body when the orgasm faded, soft little pulses making her body shiver.

The chamber air felt chilled against my hot flesh. When I looked down at my cock, I saw the way it shimmered with her come. Just the mere sight had me squeezing my fingers tight around the base in an effort to calm my arousal.

My cock bobbed against my abdomen when I lifted Klara away from the pillar. I was harder than I’d ever been in my entire life, on the verge of coming after just a few moments. When had I ever felt anything like this? This possessive, maddening need for a lover?

It’s the blessing, I argued. It was only logical.

Though, in the back of my mind, I also knew from experience that you couldn’t fake sexual chemistry like this , even with magic.

Klara was open and sensual, demanding. Everything I desired in a lover…though I strongly suspected she’d never been with another male before.

“Need more,” she gasped. “ How? ”

I kissed her, feeling the warmth of her body pressed so tightly against my own. She was soft where I was hard, giving where I was unyielding. Perfection. The slide of her skin made me shiver.

I lowered Klara to the ground, near the shallow, sacred pool, using her dress to soften the stone as I positioned her into place. On her hands and knees before me, I felt a rumble of pleasure and satisfaction. Her body was beautiful. Soft with generous curves that begged for my grip. So unlike the Karag lovers I’d had before.

When I entered her from behind, I gripped her hips hard, and I heard the scrape of her nails against the stone floor. I heard her distant, desperate cry through the rushing in my ears. When I started again, my hips pumping into her own, I found I couldn’t stop.

There was something erotic in knowing that I was so much stronger than her, knowing she was submitting to that strength. A tantalizing thrill went through me, knowing she would take whatever I gave her, knowing she would need it as desperately as I did.

I moved a hand to her upper back, pressing her into the floor, making her back arch and her hips raise. And when I slid inside so deeply, hitting a spot that made us both cry out as black spots burst in my vision, I didn’t know if this moment would ever be enough. How could it ever be enough?

I felt my syn’ra —which I knew the Dakkari called a dakke —press into her ass on my next thrust, the wickedness of it making my sac draw tight. If I wasn’t careful, I would come easily.

“I wish you could feel this,” I growled, briefly leaning down to nip at her shoulder, pressing my lips against her skin. “How good you feel, aralye .”

She nearly felt too good.

When I felt water lap around my knees, my brow furrowed, momentarily cutting through the haze of pleasure. I’d pounded into her so hard that I’d pushed us both into the shallow pool, scraping our knees against stone, pain we couldn’t feel. Beneath the surface, I saw the shimmer of Zaridan’s scale and felt the tendrils of heartstone magic reverberate up my spine. It made my jaw tighten, and I imagined that I could feel the strokes of magic up my skin, not entirely comfortable, but it only added to the sensation of being connected with Klara.

Her gasp sounded when I drove deep again. The splash of water sounded as her back arched and her hands clamored for purchase against the shallow floor of the pool.

“Yes, Sarkin,” she keened. “ How …how can it feel like this?”

Her voice was a choked cry.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, lowering myself down over her back, our bodies pressed together. She arched into me, as if needing to feel the heat of my skin even more than was possible. “Going to come, aralye ! I can’t withstand this much longer.”

“Come!” she pleaded. “You’re going to make me come again too.”

I gritted my teeth, my abdomen swooping with those delicious words. Fuck. She was perfect.

“I can feel them,” she breathed. “ Everywhere. ”

I knew what she meant, even though the knowledge brought a shiver up my spine. We weren’t alone here. And Lishara demanded we see her blessing through. Klara was sensitive to their influence, could feel things I likely couldn’t, though I gleaned a fraction of what she felt.

One hand went beneath her, finding her wet and slick and hot where we were joined. My thumb pressed into her clit, gently strumming in time with my thrust, and a choked sob tore from her throat. Her body went tight again as my pace increased, and I felt her clench around me as her pleasure ripped her in two. A desperate cry left her lips. A constant growl was reverberating up my throat, vibrating our bodies.

A tight bundle inside me was unravelling. I chased that aching heat, pouring my strength into my thrusts, hearing her orgasm echo in the chamber.

“ Hanniva! ” she cried.

Please!

My thrusts faltered, becoming choppy as my come sizzled up my cock. I bellowed my release, the orgasm being wrung from my body, squeezing and punishing. Elation and ecstasy. It stole my strength, my limbs shaking as the sacred heartstone water splashed all around us with my erratic thrusts.

And when it was over, I was spent, dragging in ragged, deep breaths. Beneath me, Klara was holding herself up on shaking arms, and I groaned, dragging her upward to take the weight off her. Her back was plastered to my front as we kneeled in Lishara’s sacred pool. My arm was wrapped around her waist like a vise, keeping her in place even as she trembled. Our breaths slowed, but I knew she could feel the wild beat of my heart against her shoulder.

Still seated deep inside her, I felt her inner walls squeezing me, trying to draw out every last drop of my come. Still.

“I can feel you,” she whispered. A soft sigh escaped her, like she was pleased about that. “It’s nice.”

I could only grunt. I was beyond words, my tongue heavy like a boulder in my mouth.

I hissed when I dragged my length out of her, lowering my hips. I was still half-hard, and we both watched as our combined come dripped into the water. I lowered my forehead until it touched the nape of her damp neck, breathing her in, while I tried to catch my breath.

The worst of the desire was fading with the orgasm. Control was slowly starting to return. But with it came realization of what I’d just done. With it came the pinching prick of shame.

Slowly, I unwound my arms from around her and kept her steady as I rose. Water sluiced off my body, and Klara turned to look over her shoulder at me.

My lips pressed together, seeing her glassy, half-lidded eyes and reddened lips from my kiss. Kneeling in the pool, naked, she looked like every erotic fantasy I’d ever had come to life.

But when I helped her stand, I saw her knees were red and raw from scraping on the stone. I caught a brief wince when she stepped from the water, likely a twinge between her thighs, coupled with the sting of her rider burn. The bandages were soaked with water.

Anger rose. Not at her. At myself. When I handed her the dress, silently, I did it with more force than I realized, the broken chain of the strap whipping at her exposed skin, making her flinch.

Which only made me angrier. The chamber walls felt like they were closing in on me, the darkness now oppressive, only lit by the glow of heartstones. And as I tugged on my own pants, catching Klara looking at me out of the corner of her eye, I caught a streak of pink blood on my cock. And I remembered.

“You were untouched?” I asked quietly.

I forced myself to meet her eyes, though I knew my expression was tight. This was wrong. It was all wrong. I hadn’t wanted this and neither had she. But neither of us expected for this to have been Lishara’s blessing. Or else…or else I might’ve waited to bring her here, even if it had delayed my mysar fulfillment to Elysom.

“Yes,” she said quietly, her tone suddenly uncertain. Because I was acting like a cold bastard and I knew it.

Hearing her confirmation felt like one more strike against me. I’d been rough, unable to control my lusts. We’d both enjoyed it, yes…but this hadn’t been either of our choices. This had been forced on us with magic. And the self-loathing that I’d hurt her, that I could’ve been gentler, that I could’ve stopped this ran deep.

I didn’t hurt females. Ever.

“Get dressed, Klara,” I said quietly, doing everything I could to control my tone, to keep it steady and even so I didn’t scare her.

“Are you…are you angry with me?” she asked.

I turned from her, squeezing my eyes shut as I shrugged on my ripped vest. Because I’d torn through the clasps in my need to feel her skin against mine.

“No.”

She didn’t say anything else, and I listened to the rustle of her hatchling-scale dress as she pulled it on while I tried to regulate the maelstrom of emotions swirling in my chest.

And as we left the chamber, ascending the darkened stairwell that would lead us back above ground to the lake, I realized…

She was my wife now.

Queen of the Sarrothian, of my people.

And once reason returned, once the reality of what had just happened hit, she might hate me.

When we made it back up to the lake, I guided us down the path, water lapping at my ankles. Zaridan, Feranos, and his Elthika were waiting in the grassy area beyond the rocky shore.

My commander eyed me carefully as we approached, his brow raising. When his eyes darted to Klara behind me, it took everything in me not to growl and step in front of her, to shield her from his view so soon after we’d mated.

Which was new…

The feeling of animalistic possessiveness sweeping through me, discomfort threading through my veins at the thought of him so close to her after what had happened in the temple…it didn’t sit well. And Feranos was one of my oldest friends.

I stepped up to Zaridan. I placed a palm on her snout, briefly glancing at her missing scale, the flesh exposed. Her sacrifice for this ceremony and for her rider’s bond. It would grow back, though slowly, and it would never be as strong as the scale that now lay in the bottom of Lishara’s pool. Over time, the heartstone magic would slowly dissolve it, and Zaridan would forever be part of this place. But she would also be forever vulnerable.

Behind me, Feranos asked, in Karag, “Is everything all right?”

“Yes,” I replied, tone clipped, making it clear I wasn’t in the mood for further questions. Feranos went silent, and I turned from Zaridan to peer over at Klara.

She was uncertainly hovering by Zaridan’s wing. The straps of her dress were ripped—my doing—and she was holding it up so the bodice wouldn’t slip. She looked like she’d just been…well, fucked. Well and truly fucked. Her hair was wild, the ends dripping. Her cheeks were flushed. I saw the dark marks on her neck where I’d nipped and bitten and sucked. When she walked closer to Zaridan, she limped.

And self-loathing tore through me all over again, knowing that I’d only added more pain to her body. Klara didn’t meet Feranos’s eyes, and it was then I realized I wasn’t making this better. I was making this worse for her.

Get her back home, back to comfort, I told myself. Then you can figure out how to fix this.

Because whether I liked it or not, she was my wife now. My responsibility. We were bonded until death, tied now with the blood of my Elthika and with Lishara’s blessing.

And as her husband, it was now my duty to protect her. To make her feel safe, even if she didn’t feel safe with me .

“Let’s return,” I said, going to Klara. I scooped her up into my arms, watching her blink in surprise, and she met my eyes. Some of the buzzing under my skin calmed when she looked at me, when I felt her comforting weight in my arms and scented myself on her skin.

Ascending Zaridan’s outstretched wing, I prepared to bring my wife home .