Chapter Thirty-One
Rykaur yawned and stretched his long legs out in front of him. He hadn’t had much sleep since returning to Aukrabah. And worse, he hadn’t had a minute alone with Mary since their arrival.
“Are you bored?” Klause growled, pinning Rykaur with an irritated stare.
Braum laughed. “I am certain he is exhausted. He has four children sleeping in his bed.”
Klause waved off Braum’s attempt at humor. “I am not concerned about who is or is not in Rykaur’s bed. I want to know if Oz and Maria have left Cuba and if President Pratt has notified the Cuban leader of the monster in their midst.”
“Oz is still in Cuba,” Gryke responded from his position behind the king. “He thinks he can do more good by staying there. He also said that Howell could kiss his Cuban ass. His words, not mine.”
Klause’s face turned red with anger. “Has he no sense? He is a wide-open target as long as he remains there. He should think of his mate if not himself.”
“Perhaps he has a plan?” It was Melvin who spoke.
Klause beckoned him forward. “What say you, Melvin?”
The ex-CIA agent shrugged. “I’m just saying that Oz is no dummy. I imagine he knows what he’s doing.”
“I am certain that he feels that way, but the former president of the United States is not only crafty, but I am sure he has allies all over the world, Cuba included. If he wants Oz badly enough, he has the means to take him out.”
Melvin’s mirrored sunglasses prevented Rykaur from seeing his eyes, but the set of his jaw told Rykaur exactly what the human was thinking. “I agree. When do we leave?”
Klause’s gaze narrowed. “I do not think it wise for you to go.” He held up a hand when Melvin would have argued. “You cannot travel beneath the water as a Bracadyte would. You would have to go by boat. Alone.”
“Not alone,” Brant announced, stepping into the room.
All heads swung in the direction of Henagar, who strolled into the room with Anthony Vaughn.
Rykaur noticed Fiona stiffen next to Gryke.
She pushed away from the wall. “Do you think that’s wise, brother? I mean, aren’t you still involved with the clinic construction?”
“The clinic has been up and running for weeks, Fiona.” Brant shifted his attention to Klause. “Count me in, sir.”
The king studied Fiona’s brother for a brief moment, then gave a short nod, and addressed the room at large. “Rykaur, Braum, and Gryke will take the lead. They will select ten of our best warriors, including Melvin and Brant to accompany them to Cuba. I want Howell brought down by any means necessary.”
“Pratt might want him brought back alive.” It was Melvin who spoke.
Klause leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Pratt’s wishes in this are not my concern. If Howell is located, I want you to kill him.”
“I’ll be going along as well,” Fiona announced, obviously ignoring Gryke’s growl. “Not only can I fight, but I think that Maria would appreciate my presence.”
The king barely spared Gryke a glance, his gaze fixed on Fiona. “I agree that you should go.”
The meeting went on for another hour, with everyone working together on a plan to protect Oz and hopefully bring down Howell.
Rykaur finally pushed to his feet. “It is settled then. We leave within the week.”
The king nodded his agreement. “Take whatever you need.”
Zaureth stood as well. “Will I not be accompanying them?”
“You are needed here. My daughter is due to give birth at any moment, which is why Vaughn will remain behind as well.”
The healer nodded and then strode from the room.
Rykaur exited behind him, his stomach flipping in excitement at the thought of seeing Mary. Though he’d had no alone time with her in the past few days, at least he’d been able to look upon her. And if he never touched her again, he knew he could live the rest of his life happy in the knowledge that she loved him.
Picking up his pace, Rykaur hurried to his apartment, stepped into the foyer, and came to an abrupt stop.
There, lying in the center his bed, her red hair loose and spilling over her bare shoulders, lay his Mary.
She smiled softly and beckoned him forward. “Close the curtain.”
Rykaur nearly ripped the curtain down in his haste to pull it shut. “Where are the children?”
Mary tossed back the cover to reveal her completely nude form. “Rauneca took them for the night. She’s going to speak to Grant about designing the empty room next door into private bedrooms for them.”
Rykaur barely heard her words. He knew she’d mentioned Rauneca and something about bedrooms, but his mind was solely on Mary and her incredible body.
Mary laughed. “You didn’t hear anything I said, did you?”
“The children. Rauneca. Bedrooms,” he repeated, unlacing his vest. He tossed it over the back of a chair and quickly removed his shorts. “I want you too much to care about our living arrangements at the moment.”
Crawling up onto the bed, Rykaur gripped Mary’s ankles, opened her legs, and lay between them.
Her soft sigh of anticipation wrapped around him like a warm caress.
“What are you doing?” she whispered in a breathy voice.
He nuzzled the insides of her thighs. “Something I have dreamed of doing to you since I first learned of it from the Marines.”
Her soft woman’s scent surrounded him, drawing him forward, eliciting a hunger in him that triggered the descent of his fangs.
Rykaur coasted his nose along the crease of her leg, slid it over her mound, and dragged it down the other side, only to repeat the process.
Mary’s breathing kicked up, her body growing restless beneath him. With every pass of his nose over her skin, she lifted her hips. The subtle movement telling him where she wanted him most.
Rykaur wasn’t even sure Mary knew what she wanted from him. But he did. And that was all that mattered in that moment.
Mindful of his fangs, Rykaur hovered over her glistening sex, extended his tongue, and swiped it through her slit.
Her hips jerked in reaction.
He licked her again, this time swirling around her tiny raised bundle of nerves.
Mary’s hands flew to his hair, gripping him with a strength that surprised him.
He slipped inside her mind, longing to feel what she felt, to connect with her on an emotional as well as physical level.
The love she held for him slammed into him with a power that startled him. It swirled around in his head before settling inside his heart.
“I love you too,” he sent back through their connection, all the while lashing her with his tongue.
A desperation seeped from Mary’s psyche into his, a feeling Rykaur would never forget as long as he lived. It made him feel powerful and animalistic.
He growled low in his throat, penetrated her with two fingers, jerked his head aside, and sank his fangs into the soft flesh of her thigh.
Her blood entered his body in a rush of euphoria he would never get used to.
“Mate with me,” Mary cried out, her hips keeping time with his ever-moving fingers. “I want your blood flowing through me, Rykaur.”
Still, he drank, his mind held prisoner by her scent, her taste, the love he sensed inside her.
“Please,” she begged, her voice hoarse with emotion.
Rykaur pulled from her thigh and sat up. His own heart hammering behind his ribs. “Are you sure? Because once I do this, you can never go back.”
“I’m sure,” she breathed, her eyes glittering from beneath hooded lids.
He searched her gaze, her mind, her heart, and found no doubts. “I hope so, because I can never let you go, Mary. I know that I can be overbearing, controlling, and stubborn. But I can promise you one thing. I will give my life to keep you safe. I will never hurt you or leave you, and I will cherish you through eternity.”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. “Mate with me.”
Rykaur’s fangs were in his wrist before she finished her demand. He bit down, pierced a vein, and pushed her thighs farther apart with his knees. “Until death and beyond.”
“Until death and beyond,” she softly repeated.
He gripped his throbbing shaft in one hand, laid his bleeding wrist against Mary’s mouth, and pushed his great length inside her.
The feel of her locking onto his wrist, her vaginal walls stretching to accept his larger size, and her eyes closing in bliss, had to be the most euphoric experience of Rykaur’s life. And he never wanted it to end.