CHAPTER NINE

INISFAIL COURT

FECHIN

Fechin watched Azar. Her hesitation was killing him. He desperately wanted her to agree to go with him, but he might have stayed in this world too long already. He’d flown back and forth through the rift several times, but how long would it remain open? Was this what happened to the missing Centaurs in the forest? Why hadn’t they returned? Did they not realize they’d entered a rift to somewhere else? He hadn’t felt anything. If he hadn’t seen the tear, he might not have realized it himself.
If he hadn’t come so far into this other place, though, he wouldn’t have found Azar. He stared at her, willing her to take his hand before he had to force her to go with him.
Azar hadn’t taken his hand. While he’d been lost in thought, she’d taken a step back and pulled her torn dress over her chest. Her fiery hair was tangled, and there were questions in her copper-colored eyes he didn’t have the time or inclination to answer. No wasn’t a word he heard often, and he didn’t want to ever hear it from Azar.
He needed her. In the scant minutes he’d been with Azar she’d become something he refused to live without. Someone he couldn’t imagine living without. Rarely, his mother’s gifts graced him with visions, and a life of happiness, fulfillment and love had opened before him. He wouldn’t leave the most central key to that behind.
She turned her head, eyes gazing in the direction of a faint trail through the woods. Was that where her home was? Was someone waiting for her? A husband? Jealousy and an urge to tear her possible husband to shreds tensed every muscle. He fought for sanity. Murdering someone in front of Azar wasn’t likely to convince her he wasn’t some sort of monster.
Azar was his and he wanted her to choose him. He’d give her anything. Make her happy. He wanted that vision of a family with her.
Family. It was likely Azar needed to be in Fae when he impregnated her to be sure the magic attached to the inheritance of the crown. She had to come with him.
There would be no debate.
He caught Axar’s gaze and held her eyes. “Sleep.”
Azar blinked up at him. A pang of worry went through him. She should have slept immediately. If this part of his magic didn’t work here, or on her, things could get complicated.
“Sleep, Azar.” He put more magic into the suggestion and added her name. Fae always had power over anyone who had given their name freely, but too much compulsion could damage her, or make her sleep too long.
She slumped into his arms. He summoned his raven magic to form wings from his shirt and cloak. In his half-raven form, he cradled Azar in his arms and flew up, out of the forest toward the tear between worlds.
“Azar!” The cry was so distant he told himself he imagined it as he soared higher.
He’d found his maité anam. He’d had to cross to another world to do it, but now he could send that spiteful witch Shisti back to her grasping family, which would solve one problem.
The tear in the sky waited for him, its edges shimmering in his raven’s sight. It looked smaller. Hopefully, the rip would close on its own. At least so far up in the sky, there was less of a chance someone would accidentally stumble across it. As far as how to seal it, he’d have to do some research. Maybe it was time to renew the magic that powered the fog.
Before he found Azar, that wasn’t a possibility. But as King, that would be well within in his power.
Cloaking himself and Azar in glamour and flew through the rift, across Fae to the balcony of his rooms. He dismissed the glamour and his wings, waving a hand to lock the door and soundproof the room.
Laying Azar on the bed, he stripped her of the torn dress and undergarments. She was young compared to him, but all woman. When they bonded, she’d share his immortality and keep her beauty forever. Using silken cords, he bound her wrists to posts on the headboard and her ankles apart to the footboard so he could move her legs.
His drive to possess her would not tolerate any delay she may cause by demanding explanations. Fechin climbed onto the bed and pressed his body to hers. He dwarfed Azar’s tiny frame, but he gave her all his weight, pressing her into the mattress, enjoying her soft curves against his hard planes. “Can you hear me, my Azar?’
Her brow furrowed.
He caressed her face. “Don’t wake yet. Just listen and speak only the truth, my Azar. Do you want to have children?”
“Yes.”
One burden lifted from his shoulders. At least that desire wouldn’t have to be forced on her. Bracing himself on one arm, he cupped her breast. “You like it when I touch you, don’t you, sweet Azar?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Do you want to please me?”
“Yes.”
“Kiss me, Azar.”
She opened to him, and he took her mouth, sliding his tongue into her. He could feel the bond building between them, so tangible he would swear he saw the connection forming a magical cord between them.
“You will stay here in Fae, sit beside me as queen, and submit to me.”
Her answer didn’t come verbally, but the bond between them thickened in response. It was enough.
Fechin parted her legs and brushed his mouth across the lips of her sex, still wet from their play in the forest. Azar smelled clean, sweet, and free of magic. He parted her damp folds and licked, drawing his tongue slowly over her swollen clit.
She whimpered and writhed. Fechin lashed her with his tongue, holding her in place, taking his pleasure by giving pleasure to her. Her body trembled. He kept one arm across her hips and slid two fingers inside her slick, wet warmth, exploring.
In and out. Slowly, then faster, mimicking how he’d fill her with his cock. “Fly, my Azar.”
His voice rolled from his chest, dark and commanding. Fechin curled his fingers inside her, loving the feel of each shudder and clench of her thighs. He flicked his tongue over her clit again, moving his free hand to her breast, where he pinched and rolled her nipple to make her moan.
Her body tightened again, an orgasm rising. Azar panted and tossed her head. He stilled his fingers as she clenched around them and took her clit into his mouth.
She bucked off the bed beneath his hold as she came. The keening cry made him feel more alive than he’d ever felt before. She shuddered and fell back on the mattress with a satisfied sigh.
Fechin added a third finger and lashed her clit with his tongue. Her body rewarded him with a soft sigh and more of the cream that made her pussy glisten. He’d prepared her as much as possible to take him. She wasn’t a virgin, but she wasn’t experienced, either, and so tiny.
It was time.
“Wake, Azar.”
He lowered his mouth to her pussy, lapping at the sweet essence she made for him. He stroked her channel, feeling her body readying to come again.
Her eyes fluttered open, arousal slamming into her. She blinked, copper eyes widening at the sight of him between her spread thighs, and yanked on her restraints. He lunged to cover her mouth with his and cut off her questions. Fingers bringing her slickness to her clit, he positioned the tip of his cock at her entrance and swallowed her shriek as he thrust into her slick heat for the first time while her pussy rippled around him in orgasm.
Azar’s confused body tried to grip his cock tight and keep him out at the same time as he pushed through her resistance until he impaled her on his full length. Fechin tangled a hand in her hair to still her head as he moved his mouth over hers. He rolled a nipple between his fingers and held still inside her as she writhed and kicked her legs pointlessly. He was inside her, far too deep. All her body could do was adapt to his possession.
Catching her eyes, he murmured, “You feel only pleasure.”
Azar relaxed in her restraints, her submissiveness igniting lust within him. He moved, rocking into her, relishing the feel of her softness under him.
She was so small, and he so large when he thrust in, her abdomen bulged with his cock. He could watch himself inside her for hours. Sliding a hand between them, he stroked her clit. “Move with me. Come for me, my Azar.”
She braced her feet against his thighs and rolled her hips to match his rhythmic thrusts. Gods. She was so open to suggestion, her body made for receiving his cock and the pleasure he offered.
But the time for playing was later. He had reached his limit of slow sex tonight. Waving a hand, he tightened the ropes, pulling her body taut so fast she gasped. Her back arched, putting her perky breasts on display. He licked the underside of one breast, flicked his tongue across the nipple, and sucked her pink tip into a red bud. Curious, he sank his teeth into her other nipple.
She mewled and clenched her inner muscles around him. She liked a little pain. He grew impossibly harder. Lust and the need to breed her made him tilt her hips so he could fuck her that little bit deeper
Azar panted as a full body flush spread over her skin. Her breasts bounced wildly as he rode her hard. She was beautiful in the throes of passion, and in bondage pinned beneath him, as she took him. A warm sensation built in his chest, full of passion, adoration, and protective instincts. Love. It was the manifestation of his love for her. The bond snapped into place.
Magic broke away from his soul and flowed into her as he came deep into her. Her eyes widened, startled alertness breaking through the half-trance she’d been in. “What’s happening?”
Fechin could only guess what his soul felt like as it created life within her. It was too soon to explain. “Sleep, Azar.”
Her eyes closed, and her breathing evened out.
He remained inside her and placed a palm over her abdomen.
With any luck, she’d think that encounter was a dream, and he could introduce her to her new life properly when she woke.
Fechin pulled out of her and cleaned between her legs. Releasing and massaging her wrists and ankles, he tucked her under the covers. He’d done what was necessary, but a small part of him couldn’t help wondering if he should have done it differently. He didn’t have the luxury of time to convince her they belonged together.
He kissed her forehead and moved to the balcony, eyes going to where he could still make out the shimmer in the sky. A streak of red, gold, and orange traveled across the blue expanse. He shook his head. Nothing good would come of these rifts. Too many things could pass through.
With the veil between worlds thinning in multiple places, Fae needed a King to protect it, and to become that King, he needed an heir. He glanced toward his bed, where Azar slept.
The spark of magic between them tonight had started life inside her. Pregnancy with raven babes didn’t last as long as a typical Fae pregnancy. In five months, he would be crowned King. He had to hope he could hold Fae together that long.