Page 70

His tail quickened, the rigid, slightly rough tip catching and dragging against my internal walls with a precision that felt almost calculated. He began to fuck me with a vigour that defied gravity. With every powerful, deep thrust of the limb, my entire body was lifted upward, my feet leaving the ground entirely. I dangled there, pinned between the tree and his massive strength, my toes barely skimming the moss before the weight of his drive slammed me back down.

I felt like I was being branded from the inside out. My hands were screaming to move, my fingers digging into the bark until my nails bled, fighting the desperate, primal urge to turn around, to claw at his chest, to wrap myself around him until we were a single being. But I remembered his threat. If you move, I stop. And the thought of him leaving me now, in this state of agonising, half-finished bliss, was a terror worse than anything the forest could offer.

"Why?" I choked out, a sob hitching in my chest as I felt his thick, throbbing cock drag across the cleft of my backside, teasing the very entrance he was denying himself. The heat of it was staggering, a rigid bar of fire that promised a ruin I was starting to crave. "How... how can you... keep yourself back? You were... you were a beast in the arena... you should be... god..."

I heard him grind his teeth, the sound like stone on stone. His chest was a furnace against my back, his sweat slicking my skin, mixing with the cooling ichor on his own.

"God?" he rasped, his breath hot and ragged against my ear as he nipped at the sensitive muscle of my neck. "There is no god here, Ly-ra. No Alu’un to save you. No stars to hear your prayers. Tonight... there is only me."

He let out a guttural roar and increased the pace, his tail moving so fast I was nothing but a blur of sensation and white noise. I could feel him—the real him—throbbing against my rear, a heavy, insistent promise of the total destruction to come. Every time he thrust his tail deep, my body arched, my head lolling back against his shoulder as I let out a broken cry.

"Sing for me!" he commanded, his claws lightly raking over my ribs to keep me anchored. "Tell the forest who you belong to!"

"You!" I shrieked, the word ripped from my lungs. "I'm yours! Kaelen, I'm yours!"

I was at the edge, the pressure behind my eyes turning the moonlight into a blinding, white-hot haze. My internal muscles were clenching so hard around his tail it felt like I was trying to pull the muscle right out of his body. I was drowning in him, the scent of jasmine and musk and alien male filling my senses until I couldn't remember my own name. Just as the first wave of a massive, soul-shattering orgasm began to roll through me, a climax that felt like it would be my end—he did it again.

He ripped the tail out with a wet, brutal suddenness.

The loss of him was painful. I collapsed against the tree, my legs finally giving out, my breath coming in shallow, pathetic wheezes. I was empty. I was cold. I was a disaster of unfulfilled need, my body still pulsing and weeping for the intrusion that had been so cruelly stolen.

I turned my head, looking at him through the tangled, sweat-soaked veil of my hair. He was standing there, his markings a dark, heaving gold, his length standing proud and lethal, tipped with the evidence of how much I wanted him. He looked like a man dying of thirst in sight of a fountain, his jaw set in an expression of pure, unadulterated agony.

"Two marks," he rasped, his eyes blacker than the void between stars. "One left little star. I will give you a head start. But If I catch you before the suns rise..."

He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. The look in his eyes said it all: the Third Mark would be his final, absolute victory.

"Run," he whispered, a command that felt like a caress.

I didn't argue. I didn't think. I scrambled to my feet, my body screaming, my soul already mourning the loss of his heat, and dove headlong into the dark.

I ran until the air felt like liquid fire in my lungs, but this time, I was a ghost.

I didn't trail my fingers through the Lumia-ferns. I didn't brush against the low-hanging silver-bark. I moved with a desperate, calculated precision, ducking under the bioluminescent flora and stepping only on the dampened stones and hardened roots. I needed a moment of respite—not to escape him, but to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest.

Even as I fled, my body betrayed me. Every nerve ending screamed at me to turn around, to sprint back into the dark and throw myself at his feet. I was naked, my skin exposed to the biting chill of the night, yet I felt like I was burning. His touch was a lingering brand; the ghost of his tail still felt coiled inside me, stretching me, unmaking me. My pussy was pulsing with a heavy throb, a localised fever that made every step a reminder of the completion he had twice stolen away.

I was swollen, sensitised, and utterly desperate. The internal pressure was so great that I had to bite my lip to keep from whimpering with every stride.

Eventually, the roar of the Great Waterfall began to drown out the thrumming of the village drums. I saw it through the break in the titan-trees—a vertical curtain of shimmering, phosphorescent blue crashing into a deep, misty basin. It was beautiful, a cathedral of water and stone, but as I drew closer, a cold prickle of suspicion worked its way down my spine.

He hadn't caught me.

Kaelen—the man who could track a shadow through a storm—was nowhere to be seen. My mind, still trying to function as a scientist, screamed trap. He was the Huntmaster; he didn’t just lose his prey. He was giving me the lead. He was letting me reach the destination because he wanted the Third Mark to happen on his terms, in his chosen temple of shadows.

I slowed to a halt at the edge of the lagoon, the mist dampening my skin and clinging to my hair. I looked back at the dark tree line, my chest heaving.

Fine, I thought, a sudden, fierce spark of defiance blooming in the centre of my need. You want to play games, Kaelen? Let’s play.

If he wanted a hunt, I would give him one he didn’t expect. I wasn't just going to be the prey anymore. I was going to make this finish on my terms. From my research, I knew the highly mineralised, rushing water of the Great Waterfall acted as a natural scent-scrubber. If I entered the pool, the swirling currents would mask the jasmine and the musk of my arousal, neutralising the one advantage he relied on most.

I stepped into the glowing water. It was surprisingly warm, vibrating with the fall’s sheer force. The blue light danced over my pale skin as I waded deeper, the current tugging at my ankles and then my waist.

I looked up at the jagged cliffs above the falls, my eyes narrowing. I had a plan. He wanted to catch me? Then he’d to have to dive into the deep end to find me.

I submerged myself fully, letting the rushing water wash away the sweat, the blood, and the traces of his touch, until I was nothing but a silent shadow in a world of glowing blue.

Come and find me, Huntmaster, I thought, my heart thumping against the water's pressure. But don't expect me to be waiting at the finish line.