Page 78 of Storm

Rose-tinted fingers gently land over the swell of my abdomen, my coat open, the lower half of my nightdress caked with grime. “Oh. She is strong.” Sera’s eyes glaze over. Her hands heat through the thermal clothing I have on underneath my nightgown—her power at the forefront. “She is healthy.” I exhale loudly. “Even though her magic is diluted, I can feel it buzzing, waiting, almost to the same frequency as a full-blooded fae.”

My eyes fill at the news. Sera gauges my mood change instantly. “Storm, she’s well. It’s okay.” She wraps her arms around my body and hugs me tightly to her.

“What’s wrong, Mama?” Sunny asks in concern around a mouthful of cake. I look at his perfect little face, taking him in before a deafening sound cracks through the forest. An ominous roar cloaks our surroundings.

Springing backwards, Sera creates distance between us. I look for where the sound came from.

Barrelling towards us, I see Melek, rage skewing his features. Ren steps in his way, but my husband has him easily on the forest floor. I blink back my shock as the quarter-solence, no “blooded” fae takes down four other full-blooded fae before he’s once again heading toward us.

“Ser, go,” Ren shouts, and Seraphina falls back behind a grouping of trees, now invisible.

Seeing him finally lose his control is strangely euphoric. Like I was right all along. Me—I make him lose control. Snap out of it, Storm. That’s the mate bond talking. Damn it.

Melek halts in front of my seated position, dropping to his knees, silver webs streaking across his skin in a beautiful lattice. Lifting his face, he groans—an anguished noise. His hair falls over his forehead. My need to push it back and fall in front of him is a desperation I’ve never understood. Him. He always makes me irrational. It was one of the reasons I hated him so much. Now, it has evolved. Now, it’s more…

“Papa?” Sunny’s soft voice questions beside me. I hold my arm out before him so he doesn’t move from the log.

Melek’s gaze darts quickly to our son, and then back to me, making the connection. The six fae surround us. I pay them no heed. If what Seraphina told me is true, my mate just wants to know I’m okay, and there is only one way I know how to show him that.

Standing, I instruct Sunny to stay where he is on the tree. He reluctantly agrees, his eyebrows pinching together in concern. Reaching into Melek’s orbit, I seize his shoulders.

“Storm, you don’t…” Ren’s voice snaps my gaze his way. My husband snarls at the fae’s words. I hold up my hand. He won’t hurt me. Not this time.

The longer Melek and I hold eye contact, the more I feel everything that is running through his body. Pain, regret, and so much sadness. It calls me to him.

Stepping further into him, I run my hand up his shoulder to his jaw, an alluring tingle reaching out to my heart, filling me with want for him, to know every part of him and heal his hurts and have him heal mine, again and again, like he’s done so many times before in secret. My mate strikes, nuzzling my proffered hand with his cheek and lips.

He takes his full height before me, and I stand on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck. Melek stills.

I look into those pools of endless glimmering molten silver and find him winking on the periphery. “I’m okay. We are safe⁠—”

And that’s all it takes for his lips to descend on mine, pulling our bodies together. It’s rough. It’s carnal. It’s purely Melek. And I strap my arms around him and revel in it. I thought I had to leave this, leave him, but what if we could still have this? Us. We can live here. We can be happy—all four of us.

“Ewww. Gross,” Sunny says in disgust.

I run my hands through the back of my husband’s hair and tug his head back. He complies. “Good commander.” I nip his lip, and he moans loudly. It’s my turn to be the leader.

Facing Ren, I find the fae watching on with fascination. “If I can get him to listen to me, can he ride on my kelpie?”

The fae take turns looking at each other, and they all agree. “He can ride with you as long as he stops hurting my people.”

Pushing up, I brush his lips with my own. “You got that, Commander? If you listen to me, you get to touch me and kiss me all you want.” I release my grip on his hair, not that it was holding him, and he goes straight for my neck. I gasp. He sucks and licks, making my core pool with desire. My fingers dig back into his hair, pulling back. “Okay, big boy, that’s enough of that. Sunny is here,” I hiss. He rumbles through his chest.

Taking his hand in mine, I lead Melek over to the black beauty we rode in on. Sunny won’t fit with us, and there’s only one other person I trust to look after him.

“Can Sunny ride with you?” I address Sera, seeing her in my line of sight now that Melek has stopped mauling me.

“Come on, Sunny,” she shouts. “You can pick which kelpie we ride.” The other fae males fuss, eventually acquiescing to her command. My stomach flips, or maybe that’s my heart seeing how happy it makes my boy to have his own kelpie with his new friend as he bounds over to her.

Melek is stuck to my back as I stand before our ride, holding the silken strands of hair cascading down our steed’s side. Now alone, my husband wastes no time rubbing his stiff cock into my ass. Wiggling against him, I say, “A little help, husband.” He growls suggestively when I call him husband, placing his hands on my bottom, giving my backside a firm squeeze through my thick layers of clothing. The barriers do nothing to stop my body from leaking at his touch. He catapults me up onto the kelpie, not letting me go until I land safely with my legs on one side.

Gripping the mane, Melek flies up behind me. His hands instantly wrap around my swollen middle, and he makes himself a meal of my neck. I squeak and squirm as he sucks and licks and nips.

“Melek,” I whine, unable to control his hold over me.

A loud cough comes from beside us. Ren brings his identical kelpie before ours. “Well, that’s definitely one way to tame the beast, shorty.”

I pant at my husband’s ministrations. “Well, your way wasn’t working. I need Sunny to ride at the front.” And away from his father’s overzealous show of affection.