Chapter Seven

Alisdair’s voice filled the chamber just as Rhys was closing the door behind him with a self-satisfied smirk. She was thinking hard now. And about time too. Rhys didn’t know how much longer he could tolerate Nik’s brooding.

“What exactly did ya hope t’ accomplish by that, Rhys?” a low, silky voice.

The room was empty.

Rhys turned around lazily, a whimsical smirk on his lips as the tall red-haired giant went from nothingness to a mist, to a solid, massive mountain of a man with blue eyes that weren’t twinkling, but snapping with anger, his full sensual mouth drawn tight with rage as he stared at one of his successors.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Rhys said smoothly.

That fear robs you of your job of today... Rhys grimaced as his voice echoed through the corridor. Alisdair snarled angrily, “I guess I should be thankin’ ye. Chantelle has loved Nikolai for years and years. But her pride and fear is what keeps her from telling him. You just pushed her into acknowledging how foolish that is– “

Rhys smirked. “I know.” His golden hair fell in a curtain around his face and he shoved it back behind with one hand, as he met the boss's eyes. “Why else would I have gone in there? After all, Nikolai is my best friend.” Then he turned on his heel and ambled down the hall, whistling under his breath tunelessly as Alisdair stared at him in bemusement.

Over his shoulder, Rhys called out, “Both of us being made Successor to the Line didn’t change that.”

Alisdair was weary when he returned to the Northern Reach at noon the next day. The last few children in Berea and Nome, Alaska were opening their presents as his shiny black boots settled down on the polished wooden floors of the Great Hall. There was a dim echo in the back of his mind where he could hear their jubilant cries, some disappointed groans—those always made him smile—some bittersweet. Like Chelly’s had. She knew now that the black cat she had wanted would not have worked out.

But many children would never understand.

Ah, well.

One voice in particular drew him this morn…and it was close. It took only a thought and the rich, red velvet he wore faded away and was replaced by a flannel shirt that hugged his massive shoulders and faded jeans that clung comfortably to long, muscled thighs. The Council had covered their eyes and all but whimpered when the boss had also started wearing the comfortable mortal clothing.

He ran a hand though his red hair and tucked it behind his pointed ears before knocking on the door to Nik’s apartment. Nikolai wasn’t there. Out sulking, Dair imagined. When Chelly opened the door, and he studied the soft, sweet-smelling mortal in front of him, he decided that was understandable.

But needless. She was as miserable as he, aching and yearning for him. It was there in the misery in her eyes, in the slump of her shoulders, all over her face, in every line of her body.

With a wide, brilliant smile, Dair held his arms out to the boy and then they were gone.

Chelly looked down at herself with a gasp.

Because so were her clothes.

Nikolai was in the process of chopping wood. A tedious, back breaking job, guaranteed to leave him aching and sore, which was why he had chosen it. He had been at his this task for more than four hours when suddenly the axe was gone and he was being flung through time and space as his clothes were stripped away.

“Damn it, Dair, what in the name of Hell are you doing?” he snarled as he battled against the superior elf’s power.

He heard the distant echo of his friend’s laughter as he landed bare-assed in his room. “You’ve a week, man. Don’t be wastin’ it,” the Scot told him.

He lifted his eyes to see Chelly standing over him, her eyes wide and luminous with shock, need and love.

He barely had time to stand before she flung herself at him.

Her mouth covered his, her tongue pushing its way into his mouth, hungrily, desperately as her hands raced over his body, squeezing each muscle, massaging and rubbing every body part she could reach as she urged him backwards. Nik growled and reached for her waist and rasped, “Now.” The bed was too damn far away. Grabbing her slim hips, he lifted her and guided her legs around his waist, arching and using the muscles in his back and thighs to bury his cock in her cleft to the hilt.

“Nik…” His name fell from her lips on a ragged moan, her eyes wide, the pupils dilated and dark as she arched up against him.

“Do not turn away from me,” he whispered, fisting one hand in her hair and pulling her mouth to meet his, staring into her eyes as he kissed her hungrily. He sucked her tongue into his mouth, and bit down, then he pulled away and nibbled hungrily on her lips before rasping out again, “Please. Do not.”

“No. I won’t.” Her arms came up, winding around his neck. “I won’t. I couldn’t.” His cock jerked inside her and she cried out, twisting against him, the slick swollen tissues of her pussy caressing him as she moved herself up and down.

Sweat gleamed on his powerful, nude body as he worked her up and down on his impaling sex. “Scream for me, beloved. Come, let me feel it,” he purred, one hand gliding down to cup her ass.

Her womb contracted and she started to come, as Nikolai rumbled against her ear, “Ah, yes…that’s it. Let me feel…”

Rhythmic, waving contractions caressed him and Nikolai’s cock jerked, then he started to pulse and jet his seed deep inside her, seeking out her mouth and moaning as he kissed her, pushing his tongue inside her mouth, taking in more of her sweet, addictive taste. The silken walls of her pussy hugged and stroked him, tightening, relaxing, tightening, until he thought he’d go mad with it.

On legs that shook, he carried her to the bed, keeping his sex still buried inside her as her head slumped against his shoulder. Soft, weak little moans fell from her throat as he bent his head and kissed the exposed arch of her neck. “I love you, Chantelle.”

“I love you, too, Nik. I’m sorry. I've got this pride thing...and I couldn't let it go, just being snatched away from everything I know and brought here.” Chelly opened her eyes, blinked sleeping as he laid her on her back and started to surge over her, moving deeply. A low, rough keening sound came from her as he pushed her legs wide and pulled away, sprawling between her thighs and burying his face there, catching her clit between his teeth.

She fisted her hands in the black silk of his hair and screamed when he stabbed at the sensitive little bud with his tongue while he worked moisture from her cleft lower, easing his finger in and out of her ass, until she was lifting eagerly for that caress. Then he started to use two fingers on her and she shrieked out his name and came, waves of hot pleasure washing over her with each little biting thrust.

He mounted her and drove in one deep thrust, covering her mouth, catching her wrists and pinning them overhead. “Mine for always…You swear?” he rasped against her mouth.

“Yours always, I swear.”

With a triumphant, savage grin, he rode her fast and rough, until they both went tumbling into bliss, Chelly screaming out his name, raking his arms and back with her nails, as he suckled one nipple deep and growled out her name, slamming his hips against her as he flooded her with a hot wash of come before they slid into sleep, gasping for breath, and holding tight to each other.

“Have you chosen your Successor?”

Dair smiled as he stroked the head of the boy who cuddled against his shoulder. The Council had not looked pleased when he strolled in carrying a mortal’s child. Granted, this child was now elf-kin, with the glowing eyes and the bloom of magic already growing under his skin.

But the Council was stodgy set and had always

None but Council and Successor had ever breached these chambers.

Dair smirked inwardly.

But outwardly, he pasted on a polite smile and said, “Nikolai. As you know, he has always been the one I say is the ideal Chosen one.”

A soft spoken, sweet tempered elf spoke up, shaking her head as she said, “The man is unmated. He is a grim, melancholy creature–”

Dair dropped one lid in a wink as he made sure the boy was still deep in slumber. A bit o’ magic made sure he would stay that way as he pictured the looks on a few more faces… “Hold onto your hats, my friends—”

“Damn it, Dair, what are you doing?”

Chelly was on her hands and knees, a look of rapture on her heart-shaped face. Dair had fast eyes, but he caught no more than a hint of her breasts, the pale gleam of her body before Nik had his mate covered with bed linens as he rolled out of the bed, his cock wet and shining from her body as he glared angrily at both Dair and the Council.

Chelly was a bit slower to react, her eyes blinking sleepily as the last bit of climax rolled through her and her body shuddered with it.

“As you can see, Nikolai has a mate, and a very satisfied one at that,” Dair said with a smirk he didn’t bother to hide this time.

Chelly heard voices and squealed, and Nik settled down on the bed, bringing her against his side and murmuring to her as the Council studied the grim, hard as iron man going as soft as a newborn snow rabbit’s fur as he cuddled his mate up against him and stroked her gently, murmuring into her hair.

She flushed red and he smiled, a smile as wide as Dair’s, and the Council fell silent.

Dair felt, under his magic, the boy trying to wake. He sent a silent thought to Nik and Nik blinked, used a bit of his magic to don some jeans before he looked up at the Council. “I had planned on a bit more formal meeting, but this lady has agreed to become my lady wife, my mate. My life,” Nik announced just as Dair allowed the boy to waken.

And Bryan saw Nik and squirmed his way out of Dair’s arms, taking off for Nik with a laugh.

Nik caught him with a smile, and added, “And this…this is my son.”

Not one Council member argued as Dair turned over the reins of Leadership to Nikolai later that day.

They did of course, wait until they were more formally dressed.