X

 

 

 

PRAIRIE CLAMPED HER lips closed, but her eyes grew big as platters.

The Blind Seer was as tall as me, but much, much older. She wore a hood that covered her face, and all that showed from her robes were gnarled hands of the palest skin that sought ours.

She rarely spoke, rarely appeared, and the star shower earlier had been her manifestation, calling Prairie and me to her.

With a nod of her head, she twined our hands together in front of her, saying a quiet incantation before releasing them.

“Prairie, we have to undress now.”

“Is that why I got all greased up earlier?”

“Something like that.”

“You folks are freakin’ weird.”

I bit my lip, noting a slight shift in the Seer’s hood where her mouth would be. Hopefully a smile, not a grimace.

With just a quick tug, I dropped the loincloth.

Prairie looked up from my pulsing cock and unfastened her gown, letting it pool at her feet.

Hidden within the confines of the Temple, we heard the chanting outside, but no one could see in. I was the only witness to Prairie’s nudity, once again drawn to how exotic she looked compared to the females I was used to.

Her creamy skin and the constellations of freckles more captivating than the nebulas of the Sharonite galaxy. Large breasts capped by pink nipples. Hips that flared and the tiny thatch of fiery hair on her quim.

“Did you do this with RBF? Because I swear to Gods I’ll kill you if you did,” she simmered.

“No, meehri.” I wasn’t allowed to touch her, not yet, but I was aching to take her face between my hands and give her the kiss I’d been longing for all day. “Only you.”

“What’s the point of this anyway?”

“To accept one another as we are with no garb, no hiding, no subterfuge.” My hands curled, then I released the tension knotting my shoulders. “And because I’m the king, the Blind Seer has to attest to our compatibility as true mates.”

“But I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

“If she doesn’t bless us there won’t be anything to agree to.” I swallowed harshly.

Prairie stared at me, luminous green eyes framed by thick gold-red eyelashes. “This isn’t gonna end in a blood sacrifice, is it?”

One of my eyebrows rose, and I shook my head.

The Blind Seer had blessed my parents before their mating—one of the very last times she’d honored the royal family with her presence. The hush within the circle caught and held outside it. A sense of awe prickled my skin, and I watched chills cascade over Prairie’s beautifully bared flesh.

The Seer spoke quietly but strongly, intonations in the ancient mother tongue. She walked around us then placed my palms on Prairie’s sternum, and Prairie’s on both sides of my chest where my two strong heartbeats reverberated.

“Two hearts!” Her head tipped back. “Well at least that makes sense. Suppose you need all that blood to support such a massive,” her voice dropped, “erection.”

“Prairie.”

“Mmmm?”

“The Seer’s blind, she’s not deaf.”

“I’m trying to behave.” Her fingers curled against my flesh. “A little bit.”

The Blind Seer pulled us closer together, bare flesh to bare flesh, and when our bodies met, a bond linked us one unto the other. Heat that’d barely been banked flared between us, and my flesh hummed. The two ends of the growing skin marking on my chest glowed brighter, curving toward an endpoint but not yet meeting.

Prairie gasped, stretching to tiptoes, hands on my shoulders.

I closed my eyes, resting my head on top of hers, palms clasping her lower back.

“Let the fun and games begin.”

At the Seer’s dry comment, I slit my eyes at her.

“Never mind, they already have.” The hood again twitched at the level of her lips, definitely a smile that time.

The silence of the ceremony shed, the Seer departed, and the sounds beyond the obelisk ring became a sexual aural assault.

Prairie tipped her head back, her lids low, her pupils wide dark spots. “Let me guess, another orgy going on out there?”

“Now it’s time for us.” My hands slipped to her ass, and I carried her to a ledge.

“Is this part of the whole ritual thing?”

“No. It’s because I can’t wait any longer to taste you again.”

“Oh!” She exclaimed, hands spanning my shoulders. “I take it I passed the test?”

“Indeed.” No further words were forthcoming.

I just wanted her shouts, her screams, her creamy flesh against my mouth.

Pinning her legs wide, I took her in my own sexual assault. Licking along her inner thighs, I planted my face against her weeping hot cunt. She braced one arm behind her, laced her other fingers through my hair, and pressed harder against my mouth.

When my fangs speared forth, I pleasured her with them, painstakingly tracing each labia while plunging my tongue inside her.

Her addictive flavor slewed across my lips. Her hungry wails resounded against my ears. Her breasts felt heavy when I lifted both hands to squeeze and press them together.

I was hard enough, aroused enough, my cock might go off unaided this time.

I’d paint the Temple with cum.

And soon I’d plant more seed inside Prairie.

I dragged my incisors up her tender labia while I pumped her full of three thick hard fingers. Setting my fang against her clit, I vibrated her most sensitive flesh, not scratching but lightly catching on her nub.

She ratcheted back. She pushed forward. She shuddered and howled.

My tongue suddenly shoved deep inside her, and Prairie screamed with such an intense climax I was surprised the night sky didn’t light up with a star shower like it had earlier.

Licking at her flowing essence, I dropped a hand to my cock and pumped the hard length just once. My dick exploded in the next instant. Panting and growling, I stood, braced over Prairie.

I covered her trembling belly with my seed before I aimed as high as her mouth, delirious when her lips parted and her tongue peeked out to gather the last heavy ropes ejected.

She swallowed, parted her lips, took the rest, swallowed again. Her hands wandered up her body, back arching, a thick moan rising from her throat as she worked my cum into her flesh.

I grabbed her into my arms, my lips sealed against her neck, hands cupping her ass.

Her scent filled my nostrils, and I doubted my fangs would retract tonight or that my cock would subside ever.

When our breathing slowed to a normal rate, I set her on her feet long enough to drape the discarded gown around her and fasten my loincloth at my hips. Then I carried Prairie out of the Temple, through couplings of dark shapes in the night.

Inside the palace, Jedrek followed us, and ahead Dex made sure there were no threats.

Political coups and assassination attempts were part of daily life, but I’d survived centuries alone, and I hoped to live at least as long again with Prairie by my side.

Back in our chambers, I slipped Prairie down my body. I was hard, ready for her again, but she crawled onto the bed and slid beneath the covers without another look at me. She shed the gown beneath the furs, dropping it onto the floor. Then she turned her back on me.

Once again a completely closed book when I thought we’d made progress and maybe I could finally fuck her rough and hard.

Exhaling deeply, I padded toward the bath. Submerging beneath the surface, I remembered how our bodies had touched, skin slipping together, hands twined.

The leap between merely wanting an easy fuck to wanting one specific woman as my mate for life made my chest ache, but Prairie wasn’t docile, she wasn’t submissive, she sure as hell wasn’t subservient. And despite what had just played out, she was still as mad at me as she’d been in the arena for unknown reasons.

I washed, rinsed off, rose from the grotto.

Prairie turned to watch, big eyes bright.

My wet hair slapped down my back to my ass as I stalked toward her, but she flipped to the other side once again.

“You’re mad at me.”

“Doesn’t take a mind reader to figure that out, genius.

“I don’t know what I did.” I lifted the fur blankets, slipping in against her.

As soon as our warm bodies made contact, she sat up and pointed a finger at me. “You have slaves!”

Ah. Here we go.

“We have chattelian.”

I’d seen Laurel in the royal box at the arena. I should’ve known that’d set Prairie off.

“Semantics.” She whacked me on the arm, regardless of the fact her hits barely registered. “You enslave my people! That makes me think if I decide I don’t actually want to stay and be your damn queen after the week is up, you could just yoke me to this world as a servant too!”

“I’d never do that.” A scowl formed on my face.

“And I should believe you why?” Huddling away from me, Prairie drew her knees to her chest. “I don’t know what you think of me, but I ran away from a really bad past, X. God. When I was fifteen my mother—my mom—wanted me to use my body so I could score more drugs for her.”

Seething rage filled me, my fangs throbbing for a different reason. I reached out to her, but she shrank back from my touch.

“Fuck, Prairie, that’s . . . that’s inhuman.”

She huffed a sad laugh, lifting damp eyes to mine. “It is, isn’t it?” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Prairie isn’t even my real name. Patricia is.

“Patricia almost let herself get taken advantage of.” She straightened, and her chin lifted. “Not Prairie though.”

“I don’t want to take advantage of you, meehri. I think you’re strong and spirited and beautiful.” I sat up against the back of the bed, wanting to take her into my arms. “I’d never mistreat you. And the chattelian aren’t mistreated—”

“There’s no excuse. They’re slaves!” Her look sharp, she spoke forceful words. “I said I wanted something in exchange for going through that freaky-deaky ceremony with you. I want you to free them. All of them.”

Climbing to my knees in front of her, I pressed the hair back from her temples, clasping her face. “Dissolving the caste will take time, but you have my word.”

“And your word is your bond.” She peered at me, fingers slipping around my neck.

“Yes, meehri. My word is my bond.” And though it hurt me, I reassured her on one more score. “If you tell me you don’t want me after the week is over I’ll take you home. You’ll never see me again.”

Prairie studied me intensely. I met her gaze sincerely.

My hands ran up and down her back, stroking the soft womanly skin as she came to some sort of decision.

“I’ll give you a chance. You have my word too, X.” She lay down and snuggled closer.

“That’s all I ask.” And for your heart too. But something else niggled. “You really want Jedrek to train you instead of me?” Pain lodged in my throat.

Propping up against me, my sassy human ran a finger down the center of my chest.

Her teeth nipped my chin, and a growl thundered out of me.

“Only because you’ll distract me with your panty-melting body.”

Now that I could work with. “Good to know.”

Every time Prairie got sassy she just flamed my ardor higher.

And she felt my arousal, throbbing against her belly, because she said, “Don’t want to take advantage of me, huh?”

“I can’t help wanting you.”

“Seriously. Unless that bullcock of yours shrank to micropeen-size there’s no way it’s going in my hooha tonight, X.”