Chapter 31

“Don’t tease me.”

“I’m not. Mark me, Rowan.”

It was a standoff. Sylvie and Rowan stared each other down with eyes filled with lust as she ordered him to finish what she had started just over a month ago.

He dropped his gaze to her neck and swallowed as if waiting for her to take back the invitation, but she wasn’t going to. Instead, she pressed herself off the door and strode towards him, tilting her head while wrapping her small hand around his nape, drawing him closer.

Her mate marks flared, pulling them together like magnets, and his mouth dipped to her neck, brushing it softly with the lightest kiss.

“Mark me,” she groaned, leaning back as his arms circled her tight. “Please.”

He pulled back and eyed her clothes silently.

“Undress me,” she said.

His gaze shot to hers and remained there as he wound his fingers to the zip at her nape and pulled, letting the fabric fall off her shoulders and slip elegantly to the floor. She blinked through her lashes at him demurely in nothing but lace panties.

“Take off your shirt.”

He reached for the buttons. “Slowly,” she amended, loving his thick swallow and slowing of his deft fingers. One by one, he unbuttoned his shirt until the fabric parted and revealed his tattoos and taut abdomen.

She walked around him, sitting comfortably on the bed, enjoying the tension in his back.

“Turn around.”

He complied.

“Take off your pants too.”

He dropped his gaze, but she tutted. “Look at me, Rowan.”

The air between them sizzled as he stepped out of his pants and towards her. Grazing his fingers up her thigh, she sighed blissfully and leaned back onto her elbows.

“Take off my underwear.”

He fingered the dainty waistband and tugged it down, staring unabashedly at her naked body. He reached for his underwear, pausing before completing the action and raising a brow at her.

A lazy smile curled her lips, and she nodded, leaning back fully and letting her arms drape over her head. Never in her life had she taken control so absolutely, and she worried it would go to her head.

Her mates and, god forbid, Kerensa could return any second, but she lost all inhibitions . As soon as his body appeared over hers, his cock brushing between her thighs, she forgot everything but the moment they were in.

She bit her lip as a hot memory flitted through her mind. At the time, she wasn’t particularly fond of his questioning while sitting on her back, but now it flamed the heat between her thighs perfectly.

“Rowan.”

“Yes?”

“I want you to beg.”

The slow smile that spread across his face proved he remembered their past encounter too.

“I want you to beg me to let you inside me,” she said, ensuring a sensual rasp filled her voice. The sudden twitch of his tip at her entrance proved her tactics were working at turning him on more.

“Please,” he started, rolling his hips ever so slightly. “Please let me fuck you, Sylvie. You are the most divine woman I have ever met. Let me show you.”

Her lips parted, and she pressed them to hide her smile. “Show me.”

With that, he thrust to the hilt inside her, drawing moans from them both and continuing the steady deep rolling of his hips. She rocked to match his movements, nearly crying out from the delicious pressure against each erogenous spot. It wouldn’t take long for her climax to come, the consistency from their motions already pulling her into a rhythm of bliss.

“Yes.”

His mouth dipped to her neck, kissing and lightly nipping the spot he would soon mark, and her stomach fluttered in anticipation.

Tensing, she let the desire flood her senses until nothing else existed. There was nothing but Rowan, and she came, the undulating pulses between her thighs only just dulling the sharp splice of skin on her neck.

She gripped his shoulders as pain blossomed across her torso, and a fire branded her chest as her mark was finally complete. Gasping, she peered past her mark on his skin, identical to the ones Elias and Kian had, to the one on her chest linked like a Celtic knot. Rowan’s mark was a shimmering gold, matching his wolven eyes.

He pulled free of her and searched her face as it broke out in a sheen of sweat. Everything burned from her head to her toes, not an agonising burn but the heat she’d associated with a few glasses of brandy.

“What’s happening?”

“What does it feel like?” Rowan questioned, the nerves plain on his face. He must have thought she was about to die, but she felt what she hoped was the complete opposite. Power swirled in her veins, and every sense amplified.

“I’m not- I won’t become a shifter or anything now, will I?”

Rowan blinked. “The process to turn someone is much more complicated and requires much more blood loss.” He paused, stroking her cheek with his thumb. “But there hasn’t been an interspecies mateship that I am aware of, and the magic that binds you to us....” He kissed each of her mate marks and sighed. “Well, I’m afraid I don’t know much about that either. You, my love, are an enigma.”

“Your love?”

The green in his hazel eyes shone brighter in the dimming light. “Well, I cannot claim you are mine if you do not wish it to be, but I know I love you. I think I loved you from the first time you punched me in the face.”

Sylvie burst into laughter, covering her face with her hands.

“You don’t feel the same.” The hurt in his voice stopped her laughter instantly, and she gripped his face in her hands.

“No, I do.” She froze, breath hitching. “I do. I love you.”

The shock on Rowan’s face forced a smile across hers.

They both laughed, kissing in a clash of teeth and giggles when voices echoed from the hall and her mate bonds tingled.

“Shit! Clothes!”

Rowan stood as Sylvie scampered from the bed, exhaling hushed laughter as she hurriedly pulled her dress on. Rowan managed to secure his pants when the door opened, and they pressed their lips, looking thoroughly fucked as Elias, Kian, and Kerensa strode in.

Kian smiled instantly, hiding it with a hand, while Elias narrowed his eyes, peering between both parties, and Kerensa groaned and rolled her eyes.

“We were gone for what, thirty minutes? Fucking animals!” But even her words were marked with a fraction of humour.

“You risked her life?” Elias said, closing the bedroom door slowly as if it grounded him enough not to launch at Rowan.

“I’m fine, Elias,” Sylvie said, stepping in front of Rowan. The warm pressure of his fingers on her hips brought a flush to her cheeks.

“That is yet to be seen.”

“Look at me, then. I’m fine!”

Kian tutted and brushed past Elias, giving him a look. “May I see?” He pointed to her chest, and she obliged, dropping the still-unzipped dress off her shoulders and catching it just above her breasts.

“Fates Hart, let me at least go into the bathroom or something.” Kerensa stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door as Kian traced his fingers over her interlinking marks.

“They’re connected now.”

“Yep.”

“Any pain or lightheadedness?”

“No. I feel hot, though. Like I’ve been drinking spirits.”

Kian hummed and nodded, dipping his head briefly to kiss her and turning to Elias. “She’s fine. Stronger certainly and smells more wolfish,” he cast her a wry smirk, “but the danger is over.” Kian rounded her and squeezed Rowan on the shoulder. “Welcome to the family.”

Sylvie chuckled, catching his wink over her shoulder and walked over to Elias. “Are you mad at me?”

His clenched jaw and furrowed brow softened with a low exhale. “No, kitten. I am not.”

He walked past her to his wardrobe, pulled a large billowing shirt free that looked out of the 1800s and placed it in her arms. “For bed. It’s safer if you smell like a Vampire when night falls.”

Rowan cleared his throat. “What did you find out when you left with the King?”

“That they’re fucked,” Kerensa grumbled from the bathroom door, towelling her face dry. “I’d guess they’re in a similar state of fucked as the shifters when they escaped to the earth realm. No food, crimes on the rise, but they have the added joys of being hunted and mercilessly torn apart by their children every night.”

“What?”

Elias ran a hand through his hair. “The turned Vampires are deranged, far worse than we could have guessed-”

“So why would they kidnap the shifters? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just come to the earth realm as the shifters did?” Sylvie questioned.

“I don’t know,” Elias sighed. “For now, you need to wash the blood off you and come to bed. You too, Rowan. I’ll need to cover your scent with mine. Kerensa, you’re welcome to the bed, but the couch pulls out if you prefer it.”

She scoffed and jumped onto the armchair. “I sure as hell prefer it. Thanks but no thanks.”

After Sylvie showered and changed, she slipped beneath the sheets opting for the middle. Rowan tentatively climbed in beside her, and Elias nodded, getting Kian to be on the outside and him next to Sylvie. Then, pricking the tip of his finger with a fang, he dotted his blood on Sylvie and Rowan’s temples, necks and across the duvet.

“We should be safe, but the less we smell like a buffet, the better.” He eyed Sylvie one last time and rolled over, laying his head down.

“I thought you didn’t sleep,” Sylvie asked, drawing a pattern on his back with her finger. His muscles spasmed under her fingertips, and he grumbled. “I can. Usually, I don’t. Good night, Sylvie.”

His tone left no more room for questions, and she rolled her eyes, turning on her back and staring at the canopy overhead. Kerensa tossed and turned on the couch until the sun outside faded to pitch black, and terrifying screeches and thuds sounded.

The noises were at least fifty feet from them, their room near the castle’s top, but they drew closer each moment, sending barbs of terror through Sylvie. What if they smelled her? Or Rowan. What if they got in someone and tore them apart?

Three arms draped across her body as if they could sense her emotions, and she curled her arms around them. “Those are the turned ones?” she whispered, teeth chattering.

“You’re safe, Princess.” Kian stroked her arm, but pulled back, so he was no longer spooning Rowan and sighed.

“Get some rest,” Elias murmured then. “By morning, we need to make a plan to find the shifters.”

Rowan hummed in agreement, nuzzling his head into her hair.

“Don’t worry, Sylvie. If any of those freaks get in here, I’ll shift and tear them all to shreds. My bite is lethal, remember.”

“I remember,” she said, eyes drooping closed. She was safe.

For now.