I awoke to a hunger that cut through me without mercy. I clutched my stomach and willed for my fangs to retract. I needed to eat. If I'd drunk a person to the death then I could go months without needing to feed again. But I hadn't killed anyone in years.

Before I left I'd only taken a little from each of my blood slaves every few days which meant after weeks with no blood at all, I was famished. I wouldn't make it much longer, sooner or later, I would have to eat or risk going into a frenzy and attacking everyone around me. Though given Deabru ways, they'd probably like me better after doing so.

When Leya entered, I asked for my riding leathers. A trip around the castle with Treestomper was exactly what I needed to clear my head. She happily saw to my needs, even plaiting my hair so that it would stay put as I flew.

Alik was in the stables tossing large squirming rodents to the hungry drakes. Each one catching it midair with ease. "Good morning, your majesty. Going for a ride?"

"Yes. The fresh air should do me good."

His eyes narrowed and he walked over to me. "Are you okay? You're looking a bit pale."

"The king and I are still fighting. Last night he asked me to go back to Sanguine." Everything I said was true, even if it wasn't the reason for my paleness.

He dropped the bucket and pulled me into a hug. "I'm so sorry. I can't believe any man would ever let you go."

He felt so warm, which meant I had to be cold. And the pulse in his neck called to me like a siren. Begging me to sink my fangs and fall into those blissful depths.

It didn't have to ask twice. I blacked out for a moment, my awareness only returning when Alik jolted against me, my fangs breaking the skin of his neck.

He didn't scream or struggle. He accepted my bite like he'd always been mine. Rich, red blood poured into my mouth and I never wanted it to stop.

A roar of anguish sounded behind me causing me to pull away from Alik.

Zuriel stood there, his wings flared, his claws growing, his muscles tense. I knew he'd be angry with me from the moment I lapped the first drop of Alik's blood and I was willing to pay the consequences of that decision.

But Zuriel's black eyes weren't directed at me. They were locked onto defenseless, fragile Alik. Would he really kill his own ward from jealously?

Zuriel charged towards Alik and I quickly blocked his path. I swiped my nails across his chest leaving deep black marks.

He tried to get past me, but I was too fast. "Alik. Run!"

He ran from the stables, holding the bite marks I left on his neck.

Zuriel tried to go after him but I grabbed his arms. I had been trained to fight, but he was much stronger than me. Reason told me that he was holding back. Even in all his rage he was trying not to hurt me.

But all he did was hurt me. Having to live in this place. Rule over my enemies. It was nothing but a lifetime of hurt. And if that wasn't enough, he wanted me to live off his demon blood.

Rage bubbled up inside me and exploded. I went from struggling to tearing at Zuriel's neck with my fangs. A person with a drop of self-preservation would have stopped me. I was ripping into flesh. Yet, he stilled and let me do it.

My plan to chew his head off halted at the gesture of trust. He assumed I wasn't going to kill him when even I wasn't sure of that. I was hungry and miserable and I blamed him. But I couldn't kill someone standing there willing to let me.

"Drink," he whispered. "Let me be what you need. What you want."

That's when I realized my mouth was filled with his blood. I swallowed. If the stars could be bottled, they would taste like Zuriel's blood. Our eyes met and all the anger I had built up inside of me diminished immediately. His tender gaze and look of pleading desire melted me to my core. It was me. I had been fighting this the entire time. I closed myself off while all he wanted, all he yearned for was a tried and true connection with me. All the while my attempts to making this work had only pushed him further away.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders lifting myself up while I drank him down, reeling in warmth of his body against mine. "Do all of you taste this wonderful?" I groaned.

"You'll never find out," he teased.

My body felt as though it had been struck by lightning. Desire shot through me, and I tore off Zuriel's shirt.

He returned the favor by ripping off my leather dress with such ease that I questioned the quality of the seams.

We kissed each other feverishly as he guided me to one of the stalls. Looking at the pile of hay he said, "Maybe we should go back to my quarters."

But for once, everything was falling into place. It seemed as though everything was in alignment and if we even stopped to blink, it would once again crumble. So, I shook my head pulling him down. "No. I want you right here, right now."

I undid his trousers and looked up at him in awe as his sizable cock began to fill and pointed right at me.

He shrugged.

I pushed him onto his back and straddled him. I slowly lowered myself, each inch of his manhood disappearing inside me and stretching my slickness to the limit.

With my eyes closed and my mouth half open, I impaled myself on his throbbing rod. Once he was in to the hilt, I braced my hands on his chest and remembered the scratch I left on his smooth dark chest. I bit the tip of my tongue and leaned down licking the wound.

I wasn't even sure that my blood could heal an injured Deabru, but the scratches grew closed with each lick. The way Zuriel moaned beneath me, his hips rising causing him to plunge into my depths when I licked him just right had me taking my time, spending long, loving attention to his chest.

I must have teased him too long because he enclosed me in his wings and rolled over on top of me. Pinned beneath his hulking body, he began to plow into me. I could barely move, but I didn't care, because at that moment there was nowhere I'd rather be than wrapped in his wings being taken hard and fast. Hay scratched against my bare legs.

"Oh Zuriel," I called out his name, my eyes rolling back in my head, "so good." I was barely coherent, something that seemed to only encourage Zuriel to pound me harder.

"Say you're mine," he commanded.

"Yours. Only yours." As he sent shock waves of pleasure through my body, I was hard pressed to remember what existed outside the peaceful enclosure of his wings. "Please don't stop," I begged.

Encouraged by my words, he grabbed my thighs and spread me wider. His wings slipped from under me and spread behind him as he thrust full speed into my quivering hole.

He fucked me as I lay on the cold stone of the stables and as my plaits came lose and hay began to entangle in my golden strands, I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing.

With each thrust, pleasure built inside me to the point of no return and I exploded into a million pieces, my orgasm racking my entire body. As my wetness gripped and released him, he increased his pace until after one last thrust he froze inside me, filling me with his seed.

Panting, he collapsed next to me, pulling me into his arms. He kissed my temple. "Thank you."

"I literally tried to bite out your jugular."

He nuzzled against me. "Exactly. You didn't hide behind Sanguinese decorum and your remarkable self-discipline. You let me see how you really felt."

I threw back my head and laughed. I tried everything to make this man happy with me, and being mad enough to kill him was all it took. "Fine. You win." I said, wiping tears from my eyes. "If you want a demanding, disagreeable wife, I'll do my best to accommodate you."

He chuckled. "That's all I ask."

"Good, then the first thing we should talk about is Alik. You owe him an apology. He didn't do anything wrong and you shouldn't have scared him like that."

"Fine. I'll apologize. Speaking of apologizes, that's why I came looking for you. Mara is willing to make a public apology if you will agree not to send her away."

I shook my head. "No. But after three months if she wants to come back on her hands and knees begging for forgiveness, I'll consider letting her back into my court."

Zuriel smiled brushing a wayward strand from my face. "You know, I think we're going to make this work after all."

"Of course. When so much depends on our success, how could people like you and me fail?"

Zuriel placed his hand on my belly. Before the idea of bearing a Deabru child disgusted me, but now I could see the potential. A child born of two peoples, in line for both thrones. Our children would be a symbol of unity and I would do everything in my power to make sure they never knew loss the way their parents did.

In a lazy haze, the words came as natural as any. "I love you."

Bewilderment struck me and I bolted up. Sitting beside him, we both stared at each other in wide-eyed shock. A smile of excitement and contentment tugged at his lips and I couldn’t help but return the gesture. For the first time in my life I was finally able to say it.

And for me to be able to say it, it had to be true.