Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Jim bound up Mason’s wound with some kind of poultice. Then he tipped Mason’s head forward and forced him to drink some red liquid out of a vial. The liquid itself must have been pretty vile because Mason choked on it with a grimace on his face.

“Eh, your generation are all big babies,” Jim grumbled, packing up his case once more. “You’ll be able to shift again in about an hour. Nasty stuff, magic.”

I was still kneeling beside Mason, a whole whirlwind of emotion going through me. The only thing I’d managed to decide on was that he was an idiot. After that? Everything was one big tangle.

“Is lady fair going to give her wounded warrior a k*ss?” Mason teased me after he managed to smack the taste of the potion out of his mouth.

“After how bad you made that stuff you had in your mouth sound? No, thank you,” I managed to tease back. But my voice was faint and uncertain, even in my own ears.

“I’m just going to go check out Jim’s etchings Shawn said. Even though I shook my head at him to stay, grinned and wiggled his fingers at me, sl*pping out the door.

Mason and I were alone.

“You called me a monster, as I recall, Mason mused.

“I did,” I replied.

“And you ran away,” Mason said.

I swallowed. “I was angry. And Shawn was in danger. And-”

Mason cupped my cheek and put his thumb over my l*ps. “Don’t do it again.”

“Okay,” I said after a long pause, looking into his eyes.

he just

With surprising strength, given the battle he’d been through, Mason shed his pants and tugged me onto the bed. with him. We were both n*ked, and I became hyper-aware of that fact once we were bare skin to bare skin.

“Seemed you might have a problem being pregnant by me,” Mason said softly, his fingers stroking up and down my back.

“No, no problem. I mean, I didn’t expect you to announce it to the whole world and those… those…”

“Monsters?” Mason provided.

I blushed. “Yes, those monsters.”

His hand smoothed around and pressed over my belly. “So you wouldn’t mind being pregnant by me?”

I’d walked right into that trap. Heat crept into my cheeks, and I dallied a finger on his collarbone, trying to decide how to answer. “I… I… I don’t know that I’d mind, no.” It was the truth, after all.

Mason lifted my chin and pressed a k*ss to my l*ps. “I hadn’t really thought about it, either, until I faced that a*shole who thought he was going to stake his claim on MY mate.”

“You want to stake your claim,” I said slowly.

“You’re da mn right I do. I want to make sure no one EVER questions who you belong to,” Mason replied. “I want you marked, pregnant, and standing beside me at every function and political negotiation we ever get involved. with. I want to touch you and make love to you every day and know it’s my Goddess-given right.”

i

I rolled my eyes, though something primitive in me felt a longing for such a time. “Men.”

“No, you don’t get to lump me into some category like that,” Mason argued, shaking his head. “I want you. Every go dda mn second of my whole life, I’ve wanted you. I have loved you every day from the moment I first laid eyes on you, and that’s the truth”

“Mason, I was probably, like, five,” I replied doubtfully.

“So? I didn’t say I wanted to bed you, just that I wanted you to be my mate,” Mason said with a teasing smile.

I drew my fingertip a little lower on Mason’s chest, and we both watched the little invisible line I was drawing. “You hurt me.

“You hurt me,” Mason pointed out. He captured my hand and sucked my fingertip into his mouth, teasing it with his teeth. “I was thinking maybe we could stop doing that to each other.”

“I’d I’d like that,” I said.

Mason k*ssed

my nose, then my l*ps. I could feel his arousal poking between us, and knew what he wanted when he rolled me underneath him.

1 gripped his shoulders to stop him. “Mason, I can’t leave without my father.”

He stilled. “He’s under a pretty powerful spell, I think, Kora.”

A tear rolled down my cheek. “I still can’t leave without him.”

Mason saw the tear and k*ssed it away. “Okay. Don’t cry. We’ll work it out.”

“Okay.” I released my grip on his shoulders and widened my legs when Mason’s hand slid between them.

The expert combination of his fingers and thumb on me, and in me, had me more than ready for him in a very short time. He k*ssed me the whole time, our tongues flirting with each other until the tip of him was at my

entrance.

I gasped as Mason pushed into me. Goddess, he was big. I’d already had him, but it was still a shock.

Mason thumbed my n*pple, sucking possessively on my n*eck as he filled me to the brim. If there had been just one more centimeter of him, he would never have fit.

“Kora…” he murmured in my ear, nipping along the lobe, “you feel so good…”

I nodded, trying to muster a coherent sentence as Mason began to rock gently inside me. “You… you, too… good…”

Mason chuckled. His hand went to my belly again, and he eyed me questioningly.

With a swallow, I pulled his l*ps down to mine and wrapped my legs around his waist. “When it’s… when…. don’t. pull out.” I said.

Mason groaned at that and began thrusting with renewed purpose. He brought us both to the edge.

“I love you, Kora. I love you,” he panted.

“I love you, too, Mason,” I replied, holding onto him for dear life.

That was all it took, Mason and I came together, his hot seed spilling inside me as my inner walls wrenched every drop out of him.

To my surprise, just as we were riding the wave of our pleasure, Mason sank his teeth into my shoulder.

I came a second time at the sharp pleasure and pain of it.

Mason did not release my shoulder until every last tingle had left our bodies. Then he pulled back just enough to lick the mating mark he’d made.

“You… weren’t… supposed to.. mating ceremony…” I tried to remind him, still stuttering in the afterglow.

“F**k the mating ceremony. This is the only ceremony I need.” Mason captured my l*ps with his. I tasted my there.

Between my legs, I could feel him swelling again. I looked into Mason’s eyes and saw dark hunger there.

“Holy Goddess,” I whispered. “Mason…?”

His answer was to start thrusting again until I was past speech. If I’d been half coherent, I would have tried to reassure him that we’d get to do this again. That we had our whole lives.

blood

But Mason was on me like a man dying of thirst at an oasis. I lost track of how many times I came. I lost track of how many times his warm seed spilled inside me. He was marking me-needed to mark me-and I was going to let him.

I was going to give Mason whatever he wanted.