Shayla’s arms circled his throat. “Oh, my God, Kael, what’s happening to me? I…I…”
“One more, Shayla. You’re doing so well.” He hauled her body around his and laid her head in his lap. He took a deep breath that failed to calm, then stuck his thumb under the buttons of his leathers and pulled down, opening his fly on one side to expose the flat expanse of his lower abdominals.
Fingernails dug into his clothed ass as her mouth latched onto the fertility symbol. She sucked so hard he was sure she would leave a bruise, and he relished the idea of her marking his body, claiming him in every and any physical way.
She whined, and he knew the blood was gone. Triumph surged through him.
Nearly frantic to have her, he threaded his hands under her arms and drew them both into a standing position. She swayed at the sudden movement, but he easily steadied her. For the first time, he had a full view of the incredible silk gown that skimmed over her luscious feminine curves. Her eyes refocused and raked his flesh, and he felt it as an almost physical caress.
It was time. He was so hungry for companionship. For love. He had no doubts now, none at all, about what he felt for the woman before him.
Kale reached up to his crown and grasped the central ornamental spike. Pushing a concealed release on the back, it clicked free and became the handle to a small hidden dagger. Shayla gasped when she saw it, then her face went pale when he placed the glinting blade to the taut base of his neck and sliced into his carotid artery.
Blood flowed freely in a dark, pulsing stream over his collarbone to his sternum.
Shayla’s thoughts had completely devolved to animalistic urges and she reveled in it. The heady spice of his blood—its taste and scent—unleashed an erotic euphoria within her that she didn’t think she would ever be able to give up or live without.
So as the thick red spilled down his chest, Shayla’s whole body ached to have it.
She hesitated only a second before gripping the corded muscles of his lats and curling her tongue around the heavy bead of blood running downward. The life-giving nectar exploded in her mouth, tasted about a thousand times more powerful directly from the source.
The source.
Her gaze fixed on the wound. Licking fast and greedily up his chest, Shayla arrived at his collarbone, swallowed the savory fluid coating her mouth, and latched her lips and teeth around the cut.
Shayla was utterly unprepared for the ecstasy of drinking directly from him. On the first full pull of his blood, she came so hard she went blind for the full duration of her orgasm. Brilliant light filled her entire visual field as every nerve and muscle in her body seized and jerked. Her juices trickled from her and slicked up her thighs.
Kael’s tight embrace supported her and he cried out a victorious roar that echoed through the hall.
Her entire physiology seemed to explode and remake itself as his blood completed the alterations she now knew the mating mark had begun. Almost instantly, she felt lighter, healthier, stronger, invincible.
And then his fangs punctured the tender spot at the base of her throat, and Kael began to feed from her as she fed from him.
An approving shout rose up from the surrounding men at his actions.
Her embrace with Kael was every bit as intimate as having sex. Maybe more. Because blood was central to sustaining his life and, now, hers too.
She drank and drank until she felt glutinous, but could not pull herself away. He devoured her in the same uncontrolled, needful way, setting off a deep satisfaction within her chest, between her legs. The longer it went on, the more attuned to the blood’s movement she became, and she realized they were literally exchanging blood. She flowed into him. He flowed into her.
Her heart felt as if it might rupture. Surely, such a small organ could not contain emotions this intense.
I love him. Oh, God, I truly love him. Kael. My Kael.
As I love you, my dearest heart.
His voice in her head startled her so much she nearly released her suction from his neck. His hand tangled in her hair and held her down, petted her, encouraged her to take all she wanted.
Do not fear, Shayla. We are a part of one another now, inside each other. Our blood connection creates a telepathy that is strongest when we feed and make love.
Shayla was in awe of the rightness of his voice in her mind, like he had always been there, providing solace, comfort, companionship. But, just in that moment, there was something else she desperately needed.
I need all of you in me, Kael. Please. I’ll go crazy if I can’t have you.
A possessive growl rumbled against her breasts. We are fully mated, love. I wait only for you to be sated before taking you back to our chamber and making love to you until the sun rises. Over and over again. Until neither of us can move a muscle.