Mated to the Warrior Beast

229 What Forever Means – Part 1*

If you like music while you read, try “Hold Me Now” by Red. This has been Elreth and Aaryn’s song since Taming the Queen of Beasts!

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~ ELRETH ~

Elreth’s steps towards the Tree City were stilted. Though she and Aaryn stayed side by side, hands and arms brushing as they walked, though he interjected in her conversations at times, they weren’t… together. Not in the way she usually felt with him.

She felt apart from him, and from everything. It was all surreal. What was wrong with her?

But then, hours later, when they were finally back, most of the tasks and needs had been assigned. Everyone was either peeling off to go get something done, or to find their loved ones and celebrate—hesitantly—that the talks had gone well.

They weren’t truly alone until they were on the trail to the Royal meadow. And suddenly… Elreth couldn’t look at him, terrified of what she might find.

Aaryn took her hand, twining their fingers, but neither of them spoke until they were finally inside the cave.

He turned and barred the door as Elreth strode into the Great Room, her teeth clenched so hard her jaw ached.

.....

She walked to the fireplace on the western wall, but it was cold, unlit. They hadn’t been there all day. So she was just staring at ashes—and praying it wasn’t a metaphor for the coming days.

Then the warmth of her mate appeared at her back. Before she could speak, or turn, he wrapped himself around her from behind, his nose buried in her hair, his arms circling her, and all of him trembling.

There was a flash of anger in Elreth’s chest, but it was washed away by an equally powerful wave of relief so strong it brought tears to her eyes.

She let her head drop back against his shoulder and closed her eyes, breathing. She couldn’t find words to tell him how terrifying that had been… how angry she was… and how afraid now that something within her had broken.

But he didn’t speak either.

They stood there together for a long minute, just breathing. And Elreth felt her tension slowly unwind. She leaned back into him, breathing quickly but smoothly, her body shaking, but humming too.

Then he took a deep breath and straightened, turning her in his arms so that they faced each other and he stared down at her, his brow furrowed, and his silver eyes pinched, searching hers.

She searched his right back.

She was about to open her mouth, to ask him, to try and break through, when he shook his head.

“Just be with me, El, please. Just be here. I need you.”

She blinked, arguments rising in her head. But her mouth wouldn’t move to make them. And her heart just… melted.

She took his precious face in her hands, tears blurring her vision, and pulled him into a kiss that turned hot and desperate—frantic—in seconds.

And then, to her relief, Aaryn dropped one hand to her waist, to pull her against him, then used the other to explore every dip and valley of her body.

Elreth soon found herself naked, still standing in the middle of the Great Room, eyes closed, leaning back into his hand as he worshipped her body, his mouth open and hot on her skin, her nipples, her breasts… He devoured the skin at her throat, his tongue flat against the hollow where her pulse had begun to throb.

As both of them began to pant, bodies tense with need, Aaryn trailed clawed fingers from the nape of her neck, down her spine, to cup her ass and pull her hard against him. Elreth opened herself to him, her body liquid and rippling in his hands, her mind empty of everything except that she’d almost lost him, and now she needed to remember, to be close, to be sure of him.

Aaryn touched and kissed, stroked and laved, finding every sensitive piece of flesh that made her shiver, and every touch that made her pant, until she was undulating in his arms, her eyes still closed and head dropped back to give him access, seeking more.

His breath rasped in his throat and his heart pounded so hard she could feel it in his chest under her hands. Both of their hands trembled as they pulled at each other, stroking, kneading, pleading… Elreth suddenly yearned for him with such hunger she was afraid she might hurt him if he held back.

Then he reached between her legs, groaning when he found her slick and ready, nipping at her neck as she shivered.

“El…” he groaned, but it was just his love. He wasn’t asking for anything. Instead, he kissed his way up her neck and slid his hand down to lift one of her legs, hooking her knee over his hip so she was fully open to him.

He pulled her hard against him, growling. They both gasped when their bodies found each other, hot and needy.

They were still in the middle of the Great Room, one of his hands cupped under her knee, the other at the back of her neck, supporting her as she leaned back and he lifted his head to stare down at her. She had arched so her nipples pointed for the ceiling. She watched his eyes flash and then he smiled wickedly as he curled over her to take one in his mouth.

Her breath caught and her body jolted, but he didn’t give her a moment’s peace, grinding against her, his breathing guttural and ragged.

Elreth whispered his name as they rolled together, clasping either side of his waist and pulling him harder against her, beginning to tremble and gasp with her rising need.

He straightened a little then, and it added pressure where he threatened to take her. Elreth’s breath caught again, then she shivered when he nipped at her breast.

She couldn’t wait. She needed him.

She began to arch, to pull him towards her, trying desperately, shameless to get the angle right so he’d take her. But Aaryn fought, a hoarse chuckle breaking in his throat, pressing himself against her, sliding over those tender nerves again and again, until she was crying out with every pass of his arousal over her most sensitive places.

“Aaryn… please! I need you.”

“I know exactly what you need,” he growled and dove for her throat again. Elreth sighed happily, certain he would take her—then gave a little cry of surprise when, instead of entering her, he flipped her in his arms so her back was to his chest.

She was suddenly cold, almost falling forward because her center of balance was off. But he caught her and flipped her hair aside to lay his mouth open on the back of her neck.

For a moment she just stood there, his steel heat at her back, his lips at her neck, his arms holding her as his chest heaved against her back. But then he rolled his hips again, pressing himself between her legs and Elreth froze at the invasion, so desperately close to what she ached for.

“Aaryn… please…” she sounded frantic, and her mate chuckled. But she could hear the ragged edge to his breathing too.

He didn’t stop kissing her neck—but opened his mouth there to suck hard until goosebumps washed down her back.

Then he slid one hand down from her breast to her stomach, and down to find the apex of her thighs.

Dropping her head back against his shoulder, Elreth’s breath rasped in and out of her throat. The skin on her back shivered deliciously at the sensation of him pressed against her, coupled with the warm press of his hand between her legs.

She opened her knees slightly to give him better access, sighing when he found that spot and let the flat of his fingers play against her, just right. She groaned as every hair on her body stood up and that glittering wave of bliss began to beckon the horizon of her mind.

“Aaryn!” Lifting one hand up and back to cup around the back of his neck, it arched her further, and he growled his approval, finally coming off her neck, to look down at her from over her shoulder, muttering to her all the ways she was beautiful, all the erotic things he wanted to do to her, and then groaning when her nipples stood up even higher.

Barely breathing, she clawed her hands on his arms as he continued to roll against her from the back, while his talented fingers probed and slid, and her entire skeleton seemed to vibrate to the frequency that only he could hear.

Then, mouth open and breath hot, he huffed the mating call against her shoulder and she groaned it back as he urged her to open wider for him, trailing his fingers so lightly up the inside of her thigh that her skin trembled, before returning to her core.

“Yes… please…”

“I’ve got you,” he rasped. “Let me have you, El.”