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The fire dances around us both, wrapping around us, encasing us, as I lean down and press my entire body weight down on her.
Althia is practically unconscious until I kiss her, and then her eyes flutter open.
She looks up at me, dazed, her eyes hooded as I command the flames to seal her mouth shut.
“Do you want me to bite you?” I ask her, my voice low. She nods furiously, bucking and rocking her hips and pelvis against mine.
“Do you want me to mark you?” She can’t speak, but her eyes brighten. She writhes beneath me, unable to scream as the fire consumes every sound she makes.
I take the soft top of her breast into my mouth, the skin just above her nipple, and suck on it before I sink my teeth into her skin.
The fire extinguishes itself as Althia screams, while her blood flows into my mouth. And I have never tasted anything better than the coppery, viscous liquid that comes from Althia.
I can’t stop my own climax then as Althia’s wet heat massages every ridge and vein of my cock, milking me for every last drop of cum.
I spill inside her then, still drinking her blood, before I pull away and bite down on her shoulder, hard enough that I know a large bruise will develop there.
I’ve found her.
31
TAVETH
Valkus and Althia’s mating party stretches on into the night, even after the two of them slip away.
I cannot help but watch them leave with a hollow feeling in my stomach.
And then I have to turn away.
I cannot keep looking at them, walking hand-in-hand, because while I am happy for my brother, all I can really think of is when I was planning my own mating ceremony.
I need another drink, I think to myself and walk over to the drinks table, and the zagfer pours me another two shots of zhisk.
I know that I am on my way to becoming very drunk because I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything, not after I heard Valkus and Althia vow themselves to one another.
All I’ve been doing all evening is drink.
I sip the burning zhisk and walk away from the crowd of guests, to the top of the hill, inhaling the scent of nimond beans and rirzed herbs.
I am sweating when I get to the top of the hill, and I pull my jacket off, throwing it to the ground where it lands with a heavy thump.
My mother insisted on ordering an entirely new ensemble for Valkus’s wedding. I spent a week of my life – that I’ll never get back – in the tailor’s shop, getting fitted for the best silk, leather, and wool clothing.
The clothes are heavy, not just because they’re made from aged taura leather and thistle leather, but because they are a reminder of the past.
My mother, after pretending to accept my mate, also went nearly crazy planning our mating ceremony. And I do not think it is a coincidence that she dressed me in the same colors that I would have worn to my own mating ceremony.
Something painful twists in my stomach as I down the zhisk.
“I’m going to need another drink if I’m going to fall asleep tonight,” I mutter to myself, stumbling slightly as I walk down the other side of the hill.
I might be nearly drunk, and my head might be slightly fuzzy, but when I think of it, my memories of the weeks leading up to what would have been my mating ceremony are as clear as Pyrthos in summer.
My mating ceremony would have taken place at the height of summer, actually, and Elvie, the purna woman I would have been mated to, was the most excited she had ever been.
I was excited, too, even though my family and nearly every other dark elf I knew disapproved of our union.
Dark elves and the purna have a long history of hatred and violence, and Elvie and I really thought that our mating ceremony would be the first step towards overcoming the divisions between our races.
