Shadow
Chapter Thirty-Eight

Raedwulf Dolph

By the end of my first day back, all I want to do is wrap myself in bed with my mate. Our room is exactly where I replace her when I do return. She is unpacking her trunks, making sure her dresses and stocking are are placed in the proper drawers or hung in the wardrobe. On her head is a golden piece, one that I haven't seen Mother wear in a long time. Two golden strings of holly with pearl berries.

I walk up behind my mate and wrap my arms around her waist. "Good evening."

"Good evening," she replies, finishing her unpacking for the night by closing a drawer. "How was your day?"

"Long, boring, the only good parts are when I saw you," I mumble while peppering my lips down her neck. "You?"

"I quite like your sister."

"Sive?"

"Hertha," she corrects me, tilting her head to the side and exploring more skin for me. "We have dinner still."

"Dinner can wait," I tell her, gripping her skirts and lifting them. She spins in my grasp and our lips meet, a moan falling softly from her into me. My large hands move to massage her ass, pressing her cheeks together and then pulling them apart. Then they move up to the buttons on the back of her dress. I start to pull them apart, one at a time. When the dress slips off her shoulders, my lips part with her. "I like this," I touch my fingers to her headpiece.

"Your mother gave it to me."

"Mhmm," I hum, taking it off her head and laying in on the table. Next I make sure the dress falls off of her completely and lands on the ground. Her shift is easy to remove, leaving her bare expect her stocking.

Idonia is pulled back into me, out lips meeting in fiery passion. My hands resume playing with her ass while my tongue greets her. She starts pulling at my clothes, taking off my tunic, then undoing my pants. I help her undress me before picking her up and throwing her onto the bed.

My mate lets out a little yip at the movement, I chuckle at the sound. I stand over her, my cock erect for her as she lays in front of me. Her eyes take me in, slowing gazing up and down my body as she bites her lip.

Slowly, I crawl over her. Kissing her stomach up to her breasts, she gasps when I take her nipples into my mouth. Easy receive a kiss and a long lick before moving up her neck. Our eyes meet and hers are shinning with the colors of her beast. When her hands grab my hips, they are strong and tense.

She wants this, bad.

"I've been thinking about you all day," my voice is a growl as it comes our, my beast as needy as I am. "Wanting to touch you and kiss you." My hand caresses down the curves of her body, landing on her hip. I then use it to open her legs for me, my hand resting over her mound. She squirms under me, her hands following my movements over my pecks and abdomen.

"Please, Rae," she whimpers.

"Tell me what you want?"

"I want you," she breathes. Then she gasps as I stick one finger inside her, pumping it in and out at a steady rhythm. Her nails dig into my hips, her eyes shutting tight as my thumb circles a bundle of sensitivity above her puss.

"Open your eyes, my love," I order her. She opens them just to moan and buck her hips.

"Rae, I need you."

"You have me."

"All of you," she begs more, I add a second finger. Her hips buck up and then cash themselves down into the bed. "Your cock, Rae. I want your cock."

I chuckle, removing my fingers and licking them clean, "All you had to do was say so." With this, my hands pry her thighs open and in one swift move, my sock buries itself inside my mate. She gasps, moans, and calls out my name.

I start a slow, steady pace, thrusting hard into her. She groans every time I'm inside of her. Nails most likely drawing blood as they scrape up my back. They particularly sting at one point, making me growl. My grip moves from her legs to her wrists, pinning them above her head. The pace increases, but the hard pounding doesn't relent. She is crying our from her lips and her puss.

Her legs wrap around my hips, meeting my every thrust as I go faster. My cock meeting the depths of her each time I thrust. "Rae, oh gods!" she screams out as her legs start shaking. Her inner walls clench around me, making it hard for me to keep my seed from releasing.

Her walls drench with her juices, but I keep pounding.

She cries out again, screaming as I pick up the pace more and more. The bed creeks with us. My lips connect with the mark that is present on her neck. I sink my teeth into it again, opening up the wounds I left there during our first time. Pleasure surges through me and her as her walls contract around me once more. This time when her juices come flooding our of her, my seed shots out of me. I groan as I pump in two more times, letting myself ride the waves of pleasure.

When we are both done, I pull out and fall next to her. She turns and cuddles into my side. "I didn't know I could do that twice in a row."

I chuckle at her innocent statement, "I bet I could make you do it three." I prop myself up on my elbows and wiggle an eyebrow at her.

"No more right now," she pushes me back down. "Plus we are supposed to have dinner with Rikki and Disa. We should clean up and get dressed."

"What if I want to keep you to myself?" I grab her waist and bring her close to me. Her back presses against my chest and we cuddle together.

"What if I'm hungry?"

I think for a moment before answering, "Then we can go have dinner." I surrender to the wishes of my mate. There is no way I could starve her. My beast would never allow me to do anything to hurt her, and there is no way I would want that as well. She is my mate and I need to protect her.

That includes feeding her.

"Plus I very much want to meet Disa," she says next. "She seems lovely from Rikki's stories."

"I'm glad you are excited to meet people. I was worried when I found you in here earlier all alone."

"I was a little homesick, but I feel better now."

"Good," I kiss her cheek before getting up. The room, I notice, reeks of sex and sweat. I pour some water from a pitcher into a basin and wipe off my face and maleness before grabbing fresh clothes. My back stays turned to Idonia as she readies herself as well. An hour later we head down to the common room.

A large room, equipped with a large stone fireplace, couches, bookshelves, a writing desk, and a large dinning table for ten. Many family paintings lined the room, from those of great-grandparents to a recent portrait of me and all of my siblings. We will have to have one done of Idonia and myself soon, to present at the coronation. Servants enter through back doors and start piling the table with duck, potato, soup, vegetables, cakes, and wine.

When Rikki and Disa enters, she appear more put together than earlier. She smiles as her eyes land on my mate.

"Idonia, this is Disa," Rikki introduces the two of them. We all sit at the table. No on sits at the head, instead we all sit across from one another. Unconventional by many standards, but how I liked to do things.

"What have you learned about the gathering soldiers?" Rikki asks as we all sit down.

"He still stands that they are for traveling east to conquer new worlds."

"You do realize he was lying, yes?" Idonia looks up at me, then to Rikki and Disa. "It was all a lie. There is no east of Asar, there would be more public gossip if there was. Especially if fisherman found it before royal ships. That means the news would have reached my father, and it didn't."

"She's right. This kind of news would be blanketing the whole of the Isles by now if it were true," Rikki agrees.

"So what is he planning?"

"There is gossip about a change in Aeren for the Waer-Asar Sealands," Disa says. "There is much conflict there now, the troops may be to settle the line of succession."

"I got that formal request on my desk."

"But there is fighting there," Disa insists. "Khanea told me on the many reports when I first returned."

"I'll have to talk with all of his Viker."

"The four sitting on the council?" Rikki asks me.

"No, they are his most loyal. He sits with twenty Viker in total, one of the others must know something," I tell them. "I will start speaking to them tomorrow."

"No," Idonia starts. "Rikki should. If you are questioning Viker, he will surely question you. Rikki can ask them in a more casual way to get the information. In the meantime, I can speak to some of the soldiers, see if they've been told anything."

"I'll continue to listen to the Madams of the court, many are professional gossipers," Disa assures me.

"Then what should I do?" I ask my loving mate.

"It is simple, be the Khanel."