Destiny, page 16
They promised me and I had to believe them. The alternative was not acceptable.
I hovered near her, a ghost of a male, and realized this is what I would become without her. Nothing more than a shell. Empty. Lost.
So I willed her to open her eyes and smile at me again. Waited as the seconds ticked down, just like the bomb that put her here. Three, two, one. A beep sounded, the blue glow that filled the unit went out and the seal broke on the lid, the hiss of air like an electric jolt to my body as the lid slowly lifted.
I stood. Stared at my sleeping mate. Waited. They’d cut the clothes from Destiny’s body, careful to remove the fibers that had been caught in her burned skin. She was naked beneath a thin sheet that covered her.
The doctor returned, probably alerted by the pod somehow, and checked his gadgets and the pod’s readouts. I stared at the man. I knew I probably looked half feral, but that was how I felt. “She is healed?”
His face was serious, lips thin and taut, and I was grateful that he did not try to jest or put me at ease in that odd way medical professionals had, as if they were uncomfortable unless they were trying to ease another’s pain.
I didn’t care about being in pain; I cared about my mate.
“Yes. The pod took care of her injuries. She might be sensitive to touch for a few days as the newly regenerated skin adjusts, but she is fine.”
My knees would have collapsed, so I leaned on the edge of the strange pod’s bed and locked them under me. “Inform the princesses.”
“Of course. Of course.” He turned on his heel and hurried away, leaving me alone with the only person in the universe I cared about at the moment.
Carefully, I lifted the sheet and inspected her skin. It appeared normal. Healed. At least what I could see of it.
“Destiny, wake up,” I said, my voice rough with unspoken emotion.
After a few seconds, her fingers twitched and her eyes opened. She blinked a few times, and I knew the second she focused on me. A brilliant smile spread across her face. That smile. Goddess, I would kill for that smile.
“Nix! Are you all right? Not hurt?”
“Thanks to you mate.” I sounded angry, I could hear the rumble in my voice. Instead of cringing from me in fright, she smiled brighter. Stubborn female.
She lifted her hand to my face, cupped my cheek, and I leaned into the delicate touch. I needed to feel her.
“And you? How do you feel?” I asked. I had to be sure before I touched her, before I did anything. “Are you still in pain? The doctor assured me all your burns have healed.”
It was then she realized where she was and sat up. The sheet slipped and she tugged it up to cover herself. She looked down, as if she could see herself through the covering. One hand reached behind her, touched her back, then her ear.
“I’m… I’m fine.”
I knew she was, for the pod had analyzed and checked off completed diagnostics on specific parts of her body. The advanced healing system made sure injuries were healed and finalized before moving onto the next. I’d spent many hours in a ReGen pod myself, during the war. Taken them for granted.
Never again.
I was relieved she was whole, but I’d had hours to calm myself to that. Now, now I was furious.
“Good,” I said evenly, reaching into the pod and scooping her up, sheet and all.
“Nix!” she cried as her arms went around my neck. Her body was warm and soft in my hold. I felt her breathing, her heartbeat against my own. Thank fuck she was alive and mine. Mine.
But that didn’t lessen my determination to set her straight. My mate would not behave in such a way again. In a few minutes, I would ensure it.
“I can walk,” she commented, trying to wiggle out of my hold.
I was having none of it, so mid-pace, I shifted her, tossed her over my shoulder.
“Nix!” she cried again, pummeling my back with her fists. The sheet was twisted, so I wrapped it over her back—her bare ass was mine to see, mine to spank, mine to fuck—and gripped her thighs.
“Settle, mate.”
She must have heard the tone of those two words, for she fell silent. For all of twenty seconds.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Fortunately, the palace medical team has a ReGen pod and you were brought here directly after the explosion.” I thought of her beneath me, unconscious, bleeding. “You are well?” I asked her again.
“Nix, I’m fine. Put me down.”
“No.” I kept walking, my stride long as I took the stairs two at a time to the second floor, to the family level of the palace. I turned right onto the corridor that led to Destiny’s suite of rooms. Our rooms.
Trinity and Faith came out of nowhere, walking toward the medical station. They stopped as we approached. The look on their faces was pure happiness and they opened their mouths to stop me, but Leo joined them. “Not now,” he murmured. “Let Nix deal with his mate.”
I couldn’t help but grin. Yes, I was going to deal with Destiny.
“Deal with her?” I heard Trinity ask Leo. “She was hurt!”
“There was a bomb, mate. A bomb. And she covered Nix with her body. Risked herself to protect him”
“I would do the same.” Trinity’s defiance was clear, and I felt my own spine stiffen in response. These females were trouble. Every. Single. One of them.
“Perhaps you need to be reminded who protects who in this mating.” Leo sounded as I felt. Frustrated. Worried that his mate would do something crazy. Reckless. Dangerous.
For him.
For me.
For the males they loved.
The knowledge of their combined defiance was terrifying and I wondered about the queen. What female raised such fierce daughters?
Trinity said something in reply, but I was too far down the hall to hear. I opened the door and kicked it shut behind us as I heard her squeal. Not in terror. She was laughing. And I had no doubt she’d be beneath Leo soon. Just as Destiny would soon be submitting to me. To my hands. My mouth. My cock.
“Nix!”
I ignored Destiny as I carried her directly to the bathing room and slapped my hand on the wall to turn on the shower tube. It was pre-set to Destiny’s desired water temperature, so I opened the door and carefully lowered my mate to her feet. Now, I tugged the sheet from her, already sodden in parts from the warm spray.
“Nix!” she sputtered. “What are you doing? You’re acting like a caveman.”
I didn’t close the door, just watched with satisfaction as the dirt and blood washed away, swirling down the drain. The pod had healed her, but it hadn’t done anything to clean the remnants of the explosion from her. Grabbing the soap, I washed her myself, having her turn so I got all of her.
“Settle, mate. I will ensure every inch of you is well.”
She lowered her hands to her sides as I gently but thoroughly cleaned away the horror of those few seconds. My fear settled into a hard lump in the pit of my gut. I wasn’t afraid any longer, but the emotion clogging my throat hurt even more.
Relief. Despair that this would happen again. Anger at myself for being so weak and needy when it came to her. I was a warrior, not a simpering idiot. But when it came to Destiny…
Fuck. I wiped the wetness from my cheeks while her back was turned, so she would not see how weak she made me. How desperate and lost I’d be without her.
“Nix.” So soft, my name on her lips. I was down on one knee before her and she leaned over, pressed her wet lips to mine. Gently. When she pulled back, her own cheeks were streaked with tears. “We’re a mess, aren’t we?”
Her hair was now an electric shade of purple, a striking contrast to her pale skin. She pulled me under the water, next to her, and stripped me naked. She took her time, washing me as I’d washed her. I leaned my head back against the wall and let her touch me. Let her soothe the pain still swimming in my blood like acid. “Don’t ever do that again, mate.”
Eyes closed, I felt her lips press to my chest. My neck. Her hands slid around my waist and she leaned her entire body along mine. Skin to skin. Making us one being. One body. Her cheek rested over my heart and I wrapped my arms around her. Squeezed. Couldn’t stop.
“I need you, Nix. You can’t die. I love you too much.”
Goddess help me, she was trying to kill me.
My cock, always hard for her, took control of my mind. I needed her. Now.
Lifting her in my arms, I turned us until her back was to the wall and entered her in one long, hard thrust.
She was hot. Wet. Ready.
“Yes! Fuck me, Nix.” Her legs lifted and hooked at my lower back. “I need you.”
Never able to deny her, I thrust hard. Fast. Pumping into her with all the fear, worry and relief coursing through me at once. Never had I felt so adrift. Too many emotions swirling inside me like a storm. But she was right here with me. Her body my anchor. Her hands in my hair. My name on her lips. I held onto her. Made her my center. And fucked her. Hard. Deep.
“Mine.”
“So hot,” she moaned as I thrust, grabbing her ass, lifting her hips so I could go deeper. “…so hot when you go caveman.”
That was not the first time she’d used that word. I would ask for clarification later. If my mate preferred a caveman, I would act as a man in a cave for her.
Too fast, it was over. Both of us riding the edge before we’d begun. I rinsed my seed from both of us and turned off the water. Holding her close, I activated the drying feature. As warm air circulated and dried us from head to toe, my fear for her life swam back to the surface, turned to anger.
How dare she place her life at risk for me? I was nothing. A soldier. A warrior. She was everything.
When the dryer setting turned off, I opened the door.
Her gaze raked over my body, took in my still hard cock, then moved higher so her dark eyes met mine.
“You’re mad.”
I laughed, which was ironic because I wasn’t amused at all.
“You are well?” I asked a third time. “The doctor said your skin might be sensitive for a few days.
She nodded. “Perhaps you could take a nibble and we can test it.”
“I want to hear you say it, mate. Are you well? Are you in pain?”
“I am fine.”
I nodded once, then took hold of her hand and tugged her out of the bathing room and to the bed. I picked up the restraints she’d put on me earlier, to keep me from following her into danger, dangled them between us.
“I should tie you down, mate. Then you couldn’t be hurt. Wouldn’t be able to do stupid things like get blown up.”
“Nix,” she began, but I tossed the restraints onto the bed, picked her up and had her over my lap, ass up, in two seconds flat. Now, when she called out my name, I followed it with a nice hard spank on her ass.
She bucked and wriggled and I hooked her ankles with mine. When her hands went back to cover her ass, I gripped them together in one of mine.
“You said you love me.” Spank. “You shield me with your body.”
“I didn’t want you to be hurt!” she cried.
Spank.
“If you love me, Destiny, you will let me protect you. You are my life and I will protect you.”
Spank.
“And you are mine,” she said. Her muscles went lax over my lap and she moaned. I could smell her arousal, calling me. Mocking my attempts at a punishment. Goddess damn it. She liked this.
I spanked her twice more, but without any intensity. I rubbed her reddened cheeks, my thumb dipping between the lush swells to find her pussy nearly dripping.
“Mate,” I groaned, sliding two fingers deep. “You like my palm on your ass.” She clenched her inner muscles around me, bit my leg. Not hard enough to hurt, but to let me know she wanted to devour me. That the wildness in her rose to meet my own.
“Yes,” she replied breathlessly. “It burns. So hot.”
That was it. I needed to be balls deep. Now. Right fucking now.
I scooped her up, tossed her into the center of the bed, then crawled over her, my forearms planted on either side of her head. Settling between her parted thighs, my cock was right at her entrance. I looked down at her, met her dark gaze.
Our breaths mingled. Her soft skin touched mine. Her heat seeped into me. Her heartbeat thrummed in time to mine.
“Mine.”
Lifting her hips, she took an inch of me into her. I hissed. She gasped.
“Mine,” she repeated. “Can we both agree to never go near a bomb again so we can move on to the super-hot make-up sex?”
I groaned again, settling my forehead against hers. “Can we both agree to never go near any kind of danger ever again?”
While I was too close to see much more than a blur of her face, I couldn’t miss her smile.
“No danger. Ever. We shall stay here in bed forever.” Every word was a lie, and neither of us cared. Her inner walls clenched about my tip.
“Liar.”
“We shall stay in this bed forever.” She nibbled on my lip, her hands reaching down to smack me on the ass. Damn, the burn went straight to my balls and I moved deeper inside her. Another inch. “And fuck.”
I groaned, her sex talk making my mind go blank. My body took over, my hips thrusting into her of their own accord. I wanted more of her heat, more of that wet, snug fit. I was home with her. Inside her.
“Yes. Bed. Fuck. Forever.”
That was all I could say once her legs wrapped around my hips, her heels in my ass as she pulled me in deeper.
Our mouths met and we kissed and fucked, hot and heavy. This wasn’t going to be fast and furious like we had been when the Ardor and Awakening were upon us. This was going to be fast, and it was going to be furious, but it was proof that we were alive, that we were whole, that we were together. That we loved each other.
I couldn’t hold back. Could only fuck her harder, deeper, to match her begging, her cries of pleasure. She would come first. I could feel my orgasm tingle at the base of my spine, knew I was close when my balls grew tight, heavy with cum.
Reaching between us, I found her hard little clit and brushed my thumb over it. One, two gentle brushes and she clenched down, gushed all over my cock as she screamed my name.
Yes! This. Fuck, this was heaven. The feeling of my mate’s pussy as she took her pleasure. To know I was the one who had her heart as well as her body.
I didn’t hold back, just gave over to the pleasure I found in her in return. Shouted as I filled her with my seed, marked her and someday, from a moment just like this, would make our child.
When it was over, I started again, the ride far from over. But slowly this time. Hands clasped. Lips melded together as we moved. Climbing to the peak again.
I had no idea how long it took us to recover our breaths, for me to slide off her and tuck her into me, her head on my shoulder. I had no idea how the covers ended up over us. I was mindless, boneless, sated. Happy. And Destiny was asleep in my arms, where she belonged. Where she was safe.
I must have dozed as well, for a knock on the door startled me. My mate tensed in my hold. “Come back later!” she shouted, clearly annoyed, the demanding fighter back again.
I kissed the top of her head and she snuggled into me, throwing her thigh over mine. Claiming her territory. Which was just fine with me. Until she went stiff as a board…
“Destiny. Marie. Jones. Open this door right now. I assume, since you two have quieted down, that play time is over.”
Destiny bolted upright, tugging the sheet up to her chest. “Mom!”
I didn’t have time to process that one word before the door opened and Queen Celene walked in.
Holy shit.
The woman before me truly was the queen. I recognized her at once. I’d seen vids of her when she was younger, but her resemblance to Trinity was obvious in every line on her face. Her golden hair. Her eyes. Even the way she moved.
Goddess damn it. I was meeting the queen. My mate’s beloved mother. Naked.
The fucking queen.
And she was the queen who’d obviously heard me fucking her daughter.
“Mate, we need a new room,” I said to Destiny. “I’m sick and tired of people finding me naked in your bed.”
“At least you’re not handcuffed this time,” she muttered, a huge smile lighting up her face as she stumbled off the bed, dragging the sheet with her as she ran into her mother’s arms.
Me? I was left naked, again, in Destiny’s bed.
I would not meet my queen naked, on my back.
Stripping the bottom sheet off the bed in one vicious tug, I wrapped it around my waist and looked out from behind the canopy to find my mate wrapped in the queen’s embrace. Sobbing.
The sight made me stop in my tracks.
The queen looked over Destiny’s shoulder at me and I knelt, bowing my head. “My Queen. I am Captain Vennix Bryndar. It is an honor to meet you at last.”
“You are my daughter’s mate?”
“Nix is mine, Mom.” Destiny’s laugh struggled past the sobs and she turned, wiping her cheeks to smile at me. “He’s totally mine and I’m not giving him back.”
The queen looked down her regal nose at me, assessing my worth. I stayed down on one knee, but I held her gaze. I was a warrior. And Destiny was mine.
“Very well.” She bent her head to me and I rose. “If Destiny chooses you, I respect her choice.”
Destiny’s smile widened as her gaze traveled over my bare chest. “He’s hot. Seriously. How could I say no to that?”
I had never, not in my entire life, been embarrassed. Never felt my cheeks heat, turn red. Until that moment. My face was on fire as the queen’s gaze meandered down my bare chest to my waist and back to my face, her look assessing. “Indeed.”
Thank the goddess she turned away quickly, hiding a grin. Destiny didn’t even try to hide her amusement.
I’d spank her ass for that later.
“Get dressed, both of you. I have summoned the others as well. Meet me in the queen’s solar at once.” The regal queen was back, all amusement gone.
“But where have you been? What happened to you? Who kidnapped you? How did you get away?” Destiny fired off the questions so quickly no one would have been able to answer. The queen didn’t even try.
