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“It is,” I admitted, and he brushed a kiss to my shoulder again. My emotions were thick and fierce, a verified whirlwind. But the strongest of them was relief.
Relief that he wanted me and wasn’t angry I’d sealed the bond. That he hadn’t changed his mind without the threat of the Beast hanging over our heads.
“Do you feel ready for the connection now?” he asked me.
“I think so? I’m not sure. If we had the option, I would’ve waited longer. Not because I doubted you, but because I worry I’ll decide I want to leave your kingdom and become a nomad, or do something entirely different with my life, while you’re tied to the castle.”
“I’m tied to nothing but you now, little human. If you want to see all of Evare, we’ll see it all. If you want to farm plants and continue growing an absurd amount of flowers all over my kingdom, that’s what we’ll do. You are my first priority—nothing and no one else. Eisley would be a better queen than I am king, anyway.” He kissed my shoulder again.
My lips curved upward. I had no current intention to ask him to sacrifice his throne, but his words made me feel a bit better about my place versus his kingdom’s.
“You’ll feel more confident after you’ve recovered,” he told me, running a hand lightly down my thigh. “I’m going to wash you, get you fed, and put you back to bed.”
My smile grew. “That sounds nice.”
“Mmhm.” He kissed my throat, and then my cheek, before he started scrubbing me.
As he washed me, I decided that even if shared baths for the rest of my life were the only benefit of a sealed mate bond, I had made a very, very good choice in sealing ours.
Chapter28
Nissa
Islept for most of the the next two days. When I finally woke up long enough for more than a meal and a short conversation with Kierden, I found myself in bed with the gorgeous king, draped over his lap while he read a book.
“When did I become your table?” I murmured to him, looking over my shoulder at the edge of the book he had resting on my back.
He chuckled and his body rumbled against me, making me smile a little. “When you became my mate.”
My body felt strangely warm.
A yawn stretched my lips. Kierden lifted his book when I slipped off his side, spreading my arms and legs out to stretch a little. I frowned at the increasing warmness in my body. And… wetness between my thighs? “Why am I horny?”
“Welcome to the eclipse, little human.” He slid his hand into my hair and massaged my scalp lightly. I closed my eyes and groaned at the blissfulness of it.
“Has there been any sign of the Beast coming back?” I asked him.
“Luckily for him, no.” Kierden’s voice was playful, though we both knew it would be no laughing matter if the Beast really did come back. “A few of our warriors followed his trail back toward the Broken Woods.”
“Oh, damn. I mentioned mating with a shifter when I was trying to buy time—you don’t think he’s actually going to do it, do you?”
“I think the shifters can defend themselves just as thoroughly as the fae can. Don’t worry about them.”
I sighed. “Alright.”
“Reo dropped some new clothing off for you yesterday. I put it in our closet, if you’d like to see it,” Kierden said, still massaging my scalp.
I sat up quickly. I’d finally stopped gaining weight a few weeks earlier, and my curves had been a little too much for the last batch of dresses. I wasdyingto know what he’d created now that he knew I wouldn’t need something new in a few days—pun not intended.
“Let’s go.”
Kierden grinned, tossing his book to the bed as he slipped out from beneath the blankets with me. I grabbed his hand and towed him to the closet, halting in the doorway. My lips parted when I took in a full row of vibrantly-colored fabrics, in all of the same shades as my flowers. “I love them,” I whispered.
Kierden laughed. “You haven’t even tried them on.” He opened a simple set of drawers and pulled out a pair of scanties, dangling them toward me.
I snagged them from his fingers, then grabbed the first dress I saw—one in the same shade of orange as my old favorite. Stripping out of the simple shirt I had on took all of one moment, and then I tugged the scanties on, followed by the dress.
Kierden followed me to the bathroom as I went to see myself in the mirror. He leaned up against the doorway while I stared at myself for a long, long moment.
