Page 19 of Luna

LUNA

Relaxing on her proppedelbow, Luna regarded Kole’s solid body beneath hers. It struck her how liberating being his mate heightened her senses. Breathing, ushered in the taste of him, his seed as it had spilled down her throat. As the quiet of the chamber settled from the reverberations of their lovemaking, she could hear the tendrils of Kole’s icy essence carrying in the air. In a word, her mate consumed everything, taking up space inside her she never knew needed filling. With her arranged marriage, Luna had prepared herself for a loveless mating, a wrought script for her body to perform as expected on a night designated by her sire. With Kole by her side, she no longer feared deviating from tradition. Now that she understood, she could protect those in her care without being a mechanical repeater of the Elemis Council. She and her mate would lead their people, earth, and water into a new future, equal and united.

“Your deep thoughts stir my hunger. Rest, mate,” Kole placed a kiss to her shoulder. Now that they were a blooded pair, the chill of his lips against her skin left a lingering comfort. Out of the bed, he dressed quickly.

Raising her gaze to his grinning features, Luna yawned, stretching her arms. Delicious friction zinged through her breast when he shifted to stand, the dense hair covering his chest, teasing her nipples to stiff points. Sex personified, Kole had been magnificent for hours.

“Will I ever tire of hearing you call me your mate?

Kole’s eyes lingered on her responsive nipples. “I will ever endure that you do not?”

She grabbed his wrist, loving that she could command her love with one touch. “Where are you going?”

“You need to eat, mate.”

“It’s too dark still,” she whined. “Stay in bed.”

“I will find my way, female. Water is my home: it calls to me.”

Sitting up, Luna pulled free three strands of her hair.

Kole frowned. “Why would you—”

“In my sector, we give a gift of ourselves to the ones we love,” she said, interlocking one thread over the other, a single braid lock of hair. “One strand for you. A second for me. And the third binding us together in light.” Luna ran her fingers over the lock, infusing her power. The hair started to glow.

“You are magnificent.” Kole brushed his thumb over her lip.

“As are you.” Lifting his palm to her bent knee, Luna wrapped her gift of light around his fourth digit on his left hand.

Securing it in a knot, she told him of an old earth tradition that had intrigued her. “Before the Toxic War, when the people of earth had the freedom of choice, mated pairs would exchange a symbol of their vow to each other with a ring.”

“I too have seen this ancient custom.” Before her eyes, an ice dagger formed in his palm. He gripped the single loc at his temple. With deft agility, he snipped off the hairs and fashioned a circle, smaller, but thicker, as she had done. Kole placed it upon her finger, and then brought her hand to his mouth. His kiss held a promise of forever. When Luna looked down at her ring, it was frozen solid, immovable.

Kole met her gaze. “Forever.”

At the corner of her eyes, tears gathered. “Return to me in due haste, my male.”

“When I return. We start the journey to Kelvinia, then onto Thornica.”

Luna hummed as she lounged across their mated bed, a new song strumming in her heart. She was deliciously tangled in her cloak, limbs limp and flaccid. Kole wanted her to see the ice glaciers of Kelvinia. According to her new mate, she would be adorned in the royal crest of his kin upon their return to her homeland. Arguing was futile with the stubborn ice warrior. She understood the wounds inflicted to his pride regarding the consummation of their mating in a cave.

Clod’s husky frame appeared in the clamber opening... and he wasn’t alone. A full complement of earth elemental males, garbed in heavy outer garments, glared at her in open hostility. They came dressed for a cold encounter. Surprise must have registered on her face.

“Get dressed, princess,” he said through clenched teeth, hurling her discarded clothing from the night before.

Scrambling to her feet, Luna shielded her nude body as she gathered her coverings to her chest.

“How dare you,” she hissed, but she did not miss the triumph of authority in his stance. The ambassador didn’t cower as her subject, just the opposite.

He stepped closer, his gait aggressive, his expression menacing. “The scent of you and our enemy is sickening. For seasons you cringed from me, yet you sing and bare your body for a water elemental,” Clod bellowed, the veins in his thick neck bulging.

The threat to her physical safety never more obvious than now, but Luna rallied her courage. She would defend her male until her last breath.

“We do not suit each other, Clod. There are other females who would welcome your claim. I am not the one.”

“I care for no other female. The throne is my goal, and you will deliver it to me. Thank the goddess I need you and your womb to claim Thornica’s throne. Otherwise, I’d gut you along with your ice male.”

Luna lifted her chin in open defiance. “I only get dirty, an obvious dual meaning given the circumstances, with Kole, my chosen mate. You,” she hissed, “will not touch him.”