The fire continued crackling in the fireplace, enchanted by Fyra adding dragon flame to the timber, lengthening the time it warmed the apartment. Once I was certain nothing was in the room with me, I made my way to the fire, peering into the flames that moved hypnotically.
The shrieking wind surging against the surface of the terrace attracted my awareness to the enormous doors. The silk drapes were open, which broadcasted alarm bells echoing inside my mind because I distinctly remembered closing them before falling into bed.
I steeled my spine, creeping toward the doors to gaze out onto the balcony beyond them. The storm had strengthened since midnight and was depositing heavy sleet over the area. My palm reached for the ice-chilled metal of the knob, wrapping around it to drag the door open. Swallowing past the hesitancy, I stepped out onto the platform, gazing out into the spiraling cyclone of snow and ice.
The blinding snowstorm was casting Faery in a harsh, ghostly scene that caused the hair on my nape to rise. It looked as if there had been inches of snow that fell in the couple of hours I’d slept.
I released a groan of frustration, wishing I knew how to stop it from battering the land and people. If the blizzard didn’t let up, we’d be starving and half-frozen before spring returned. While the adults would likely be able to suffer through it, the babes hadn’t reached immortality yet.
The vibration of something scraping behind me seized my attention, but before I could twist around to investigate it, arms folded around my waist. I gasped, fighting the overwhelming emotion that swept through me. Tears pricked my eyes, burning as they dropped to roll down my cheeks. The enticingly delicious whiff of spices and virility invaded my senses, alleviating my worries.
“Ryder.”
“You should know better than to be out after dark alone, Pet. There are starving beasts that dine on the delicious, delicate flesh of beautiful maidens.”
I giggled with tears swimming in my eyes as I whirled around to put my palms against his cheeks.
“I’ve missed you,” I declared, pressing onto my toes to seize his lips with mine, and I released a moan against his kiss.
Ryder hoisted me against his chest, urging my legs to wrap around his waistline. He strode into the chamber and used magic to close the door behind us. The fingers he slid against my lower back danced up my spine until they threaded into my hair. His tongue slipped past my lips, battling for dominance the moment it brushed against mine. The lustful noises he created in his throat echoed the ones I released. I tore away from his ravenous kiss and slid my palms down his chest to wrench his shirt up and off him.
“You think I’m that easy to get, wife?” he challenged, dragging my apex against his hardened cock, causing a rumble of red-hot lust to develop in my lungs, the sound of lust escaping them while I stared into amber eyes, scintillating with galaxies of stars glowing in their darkened depths. “Gods damn, I’ve missed the feel of you against me. I have imagined this moment for weeks but never thought to find you burning this hot when I reached you.”
“When did you return?” I questioned, sighing as he clenched his hands on my rump, squeezing the flesh while he smiled down at me, with his smile turning wolfish by the second.
“A few hours ago. I crept into your bedroom to observe you helplessly slumbering and unaware that a starving beast waited in the shadows. A ravenous animal who fully intends to feast on your deliciously wicked pussy,” he rumbled in a gravelly tone that vibrated over my skin, causing a rush of wicked need to rise within me.
“Creeper, we could’ve been fucking already. I’m uncertain if I should praise you for allowing me to sleep or be outraged?” I suggested readily, yelping when his fingers bit into the delicate tissue of my ass cheeks.
“I like watching you sleep, Pet.”
“I could have you buried all the way to your balls inside my pussy. But no, you let me dream of you battering into my cunt, which is dull in comparison to the real thing. It has been over a month since I’ve felt you throb inside me. I require that more than I desired sleep, my beast.”
He slid one fist into my hair, jerking it roughly enough to throb. Ryder’s mouth lingered over the pulse, before lowering to nip at the hollow column of my throat, which raced with the wanton need coursing through my veins. Lips glided over the vein before his tongue caressed over the skin until he nipped against my jawbone. Ryder commanded my head, twisting me back until our gazes locked, and then our lips slammed against one another. A loud, lusty moan escaped my throat, and an ache started in my clenching channel.
His kiss was bruising, and the authenticity of his hungering need was exposed by the fervor he unleashed on my mouth. Our teeth banged against the others, and I’d have swollen lips come dawn, but I didn’t care.
My back touched against the surface of the frigid wall beside the bed, and he ravaged my mouth until we were both gasping for air. We shuddered violently against one another, and a sinfully delicious need to shed our human flesh and fuck like rabid beasts grew and swirled in the chamber.
The entire room was heavy with the magic rushing through us. The electrical pulse Ryder unleashed with his power focused on my clit, causing me to shiver at the way he forced it to vibrate on the delicate nub. He rumbled with laughter, searching my face for something. The glow of my power igniting reflected in his gaze, and my hair was floating around my face as well. His smile turned predatory.
“I wish to be buried balls deep in your tight, hungry pussy. However, you’ll beg for me to fuck it before I drive my throbbing, aching cock into your heated cunt. Now, beg for me, Pet.” I opened my mouth to dispute that I’d never beg, but my head slid to the side and I glared into golden depths that promised to leave me in burned ashes. His darkening eyes glittered, vowing to make me do as he’d ordered. Ryder’s mouth slowly returned to my ravenously starved lips, sliding his heated one’s against mine.
Stomping sounded outside the room, and Ryder dragged his heated mouth from mine. My arm advanced, thrusting fingers through his obsidian-colored hair, dragging his mouth back to mine.
He laughed into the kiss, forcing his hard, pulsing erection slowly against my clit. A gentle knock sounded in the exterior room of the residence before someone opened and closed the door, letting themselves in. I ungracefully climbed down from Ryder’s waist, glaring up at his impish grin that vowed we were not anywhere close to being done.
“Syn? There’s a situation developing,” Ristan hissed into the bedroom, not crossing the threshold. “Who is in there with you?” His tone had sharpened, and before I could answer, he’d switched the bedroom light on and was stomping inside. “Oh, shit. When did you get here?”
“Not long ago.” Ryder’s fingers smoothed over the swell of my belly, and his gaze dropped before it kindled with amusement, feeling the babe within answering to his father’s touch. “He’s growing quickly now.”
“He’s pleased you’ve come back to us.” I rose, kissing him because it had seemed like an eternity that he’d been away from me. “I think he’s already started training in my womb, vigorously.”
Ryder chuckled, pressing against the area where the babe was kicking. I shifted my concern to Ristan, who scratched the back of his neck, uncomfortable with the tender moment Ryder and I were sharing.