AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Epilogue
Pellia
The torches burn bright in the darkness and the rhythm of the drums beat in time with percussion of my heart. I can barely believe where I am: my Mating Ceremony. My own Bride Chase, like the one I attended months ago for Queen Adalind. But now the one that is standing in front of a crowd of orcs and humans in a scandalously revealing tunic and leggings is me.
My dear friend Adalind works with Friza to trace runes on the bare parts of my skin with a paste of berries.Soroberries. I am told that they are thought to be aphrodisiacs in Orikesh culture, but I don’t think I need them. As the orcs chant and drum and Verrick stares at me with dark, lustful eyes, I am already filled with a squirming feeling of arousal. A frenetic energy fills my limbs, anticipation wanting to push me forward. I am ready to be chased.And fucked, I add silently to myself.
They draw the last rune on my cheek, and, abruptly, the drums stop. Verrick steps forward, all brooding and simmering with barely leashed passion, ready for us to exchange the traditional words, and I smile at him. I never thought I would want to be here, binding myself to only one male, but when that male is Verrick . . . well, there’s no place else I'd rather be.
I stumble a little over the Orikesh words, the language more guttural than my voice wants to be. I just hope they aren’t intelligible, as I say, “Pah threy thik. Thik drad vik or brok. Thikdrad jro hana. Thik drad Kor Verrick tay.”
I will run. Run until the world falls away. Run until time ends. Run until you catch me, Warchief Verrick.
Verrick growls, an eager sound, as if hearing me speak his language pleases him. Hmm. If that is enough to arouse him, then maybe I will have to put more effort into learning his language. Or at least the important words like, “Fuck me,” and “Now.”
My nerves ratchet up as he responds to me with the traditional reply. I know it basically means that he swears to chase me and catch me, that there’s nowhere I can run that will hide from him. Something to that effect. But after his words, I am going to add my own spin to the ceremony that I know will surprise my mate, and the thought makes me nervous.
My mate. It’s still strange to think of Verrick like that and though he has not given me the Claiming Bite yet, in our hearts, it is true. He is mine and I am his. I still feel panicked about that sometimes, but rather than run from him, I speak with him and talk through my fears. Verrick is always there as a patient, stalwart influence, always willing to listen and that helps. The fears are coming up less and less lately and I know it is because he and I are meant to be.
The drums begin again, and I realize Verrick has stopped talking. It’s time for me to run. But before turning to run up the mountain, I catch Verrick’s smoldering gaze with my own. Very deliberately, I raise up my hand and take off my ring, the one with the contraception charm on it. His eyes widen at the action. We’ve been talking lately about having children, but this is blatant action, an invitation for him tobreedme. I drop the ring on the ground as his eyes dilate, nostrils flaring as I laugh, before turning and running into the woods.
I am not a warrior with their muscles and training, but I give it my best effort. Running as fast as I am able, I weave in and out of the trees with abandon. I have no destination in mind, just that I need to put as much distance between us as possible. I know, logically, that Verrick will make up the distance in no timeat all, that my efforts are very much in vain. But I don’t listen to that part of my mind; no, I tap into a deeper, more primal part of me that makes me into willing prey and run.
My lungs are burning with exertion when I hear a roar behind me and know that the chase has started. They must have finished preparing Verrick with his own runes. The sound makes my heart pound both with anticipation and maybe a little fear. Just enough to push my limbs to move with renewed energy. I laugh again, ready to play with my mate.
Soon I find myself deep in the woods, the trees getting thicker and more wild with every step. I am pushing through the undergrowth when I hear a familiar growl echo behind me. With a gasp, I turn and see Verrick stalking slowly toward me. I turn and push harder, trying to get away, but I hear him pounce behind me and soon I am thrown over his shoulder, being carried off to wherever he wants me.
“Let me go, you awful brute!” I tease, helplessly hitting his well-muscled back with my tiny human fists.
His only response is to thrum. Instantly I feel myself getting wet, priming myself for what my body really wants. I choke out a laugh and say, “That is not fair!”
“What is not fair,” growls Verrick as he puts me carefully on a patch of soft moss on the ground, “is that my mate apparently wants me to get her with kit and didn’t warn me.Thatis not fair.”
With his words, he tears the leather leggings away from my body, shredding them in his haste, and I gasp as the cool night air hits my wet center. His thrumming intensifies as he stares down at me, his eyes completely black as his eyes are dilated with arousal.
“Tell me, my mate, my love,” he says, his voice thick with his sibilance, “is that what you really want? For me to fill you with my seed again and again until you carry our child?”
I moan at the thought, surprising myself. I knew I was ready to be with Verrick in that way, and I even knew that it would make his Mating Instincts wild, but I didn’t know that itwould arouse me so much. Splaying my thighs open in a blatant invitation, I wait, but Verrick doesn’t move.
“Say it,” he says, “I want to hear it.”
“Yes,” I gasp out, moving my hands down my body to brush the apex of my entrance, teasing my mate with my actions as I delicately trace my clit, “I want your seed, Verrick. I want your child. I want everything.”
He growls, grabbing my fingers and putting them in his mouth to suck my juices off of them, thrumming harder as he does so. A light orgasm takes me, just from the strength of hissibilance,and I whimper in ecstasy. Within moments his warkilt is gone and I feel him notch his maleness at my pussy.
“Remember, you asked for this,” he warns. “I’ll never let you go now, my mate.”
Before I can say that I don’t want him to let me go, ever, he invades my body, conquering my pleasure with every push of his hips. His cock vibrates inside me, stimulating me in ways that only he can, and I am screaming with every thrust. My second climax takes me by surprise, so soon after my first and I am flying and falling to pieces, pleasure skittering along the surface of my skin and firing through every muscle. I clench around him, milking his cock with all my strength and he growls before taking me and flipping me onto my belly, my ass in the air as he tilts my hips so that he can go deeper, knocking on my womb. Every touch makes my eyes roll into the back of my head, shouting my pleasure. They can probably hear me all the way in High Citadel, but I don’t care. I abandon myself to the pleasure of his possessive, powerful mastery of me.
“Take me, woman,” he commands. “Take all of me!”
“Yes, Verrick, yes!” I cry out as the speed of his pistoning hips increases, losing all rhythm as he pounds into me with abandon. Then he freezes behind me, all his muscles locking as he comes, his seed pouring into me and presses deep, extending my pleasure with his own. He is coming more than usual and I can feel his spend leaking out of me, sliding down my thighs. Verrick collapses on my back, warming me as his bulk shieldsme from the cool air and he kisses up my spine all the way to my neck. Each caress of his lips causes little sparks of delight to dance over my skin and I stretch into him, searching for more affection. His lips find the join of my neck and shoulder, and his kisses turn into little nips from his fangs and tusks. I can almost read his mind, knowing what he is thinking, even as he holds himself back.
“Do it,” I say impulsively, moving my head to ease his access.
Verrick stills behind me. I feel his shock, even as his arms move around me to hold me closer, his breath on my skin.
“Do you mean it? Pellia . . . if I Claim you . . .”
