Her fingers dug through his hair, before giving it a good hard tug, forcing him to glance up at her.
“Please tell me there is more,” she said with a smile.
“What?” He frowned. “Have I not given you two orgasms?”
She lifted a brow. “And here I thought centaurs had more prowess than that.” She shrugged. “Well, I guess you can’t be perfect, can you.”
He growled, shoving up, but making sure to keep most of his weight on his forearms as he pinned her beneath him.
“Take it back, woman. We’ve prowess for days.”
She pursed her lips. “Two orgasms, horse, I’d hardly call that—”
Shoving himself against the outer rim of her wetness he let her feel just how painfully hard and erect he was.
But then a slow as molasses smile curled the corners of her lips as she sighed, “Oh yesss...right there, horse. Right there.”
Wiggling her hips a little, as though trying to force him into her, he was confused. He was trying to take it slow. To ease her into lovemaking so that she’d no longer fear it.
He chuckled in confusion. “Luminesa, but I thought—”
Rolling her eyes, she pounded her tiny fist onto his back. “So help me goddess, if you do not give me what I need, I shall go and find it with another male.”
With those words, she made as though to wiggle out from under him. But Alador growled, and bit down on her shoulder without stopping to think first. Not hard. Never to hurt. Biting was just as sensual to a centaur or centauress as kisses were to humans.
But then he released her, fearing he’d gone too far. That he’d hurt her. Wincing when he saw the crescent moon mark on her left shoulder blade.
Rather than fear it, or tremble away from him as he’d half expected her to she instead traced the mark with a smile and shivered.
Then looking back at him with a challenge in her eyes she whispered, “Don’t stop. Show me everything, horse. Everything.”
With a groan of utter longing, he kissed her. Making love to her mouth the same way he planned to make love to her body. She was wet for him, coating his cock with her honeyed warmth.
“Are you sure, my sweetheart?”
His answer was a grunting nod of assent.
The same instant he slipped his tongue in her mouth was the same instant he slipped his cock between her swollen folds. She gloved him like a fist and he trembled, forehead breaking out in a wash of sweat, realizing he wouldn’t last long.
He’d once made love to a mare for half the night, able to hold onto his orgasm so that the pressure of his climax had built for hours. He’d thought there’d been nothing better than that night.
But here now, where he would surely lose his seed in less than a minute, he knew that night had been nothing compared to this.
She wrapped her lush legs around his, moving in tandem with him. Pressing up as he pressed down. Their groans and moans of ecstasy the only sounds in the room.
Alador planted his toes onto the floor, giving him better access to penetrate more deeply, the first stroke in that new position did her in.
With a scream, she shouted his name. “Alador!”
And that was it. He was lost. Falling headlong into the petite morte he never wanted to end.
Chapter 12
Luminesa
After that night, they’d made love every night since.
Their days were spent keeping the children as entertained as possible, but also in the castle, while their nights were either tangled up in the sheets, or battling ice demons.
After the last incident with Baatha getting hurt and Gerda nearly dying, neither of them had felt it safe to leave.
So they invented fun games of seek. What the children didn’t know was that the games weren’t really games at all, but a search for the key that the Goblin swore he’d hidden somewhere within the castle.
But after another two weeks of intense searching, Luminesa had begun to fear the worst.
That the Goblin had deceived them. He couldn’t outright lie, but he hadn’t given her the full story either.
Lying atop a pile of furs, Luminesa watched the crackling flames with worry lines scrawled across her forehead. They had a week. Only one week to find the keys whereabouts before the Goblin sentenced her to a purgatory of living out her life as human and killing the other three.
A fact of which she would never allow.
Not now.
Not now that she’d come to know the children so well, that she’d fallen completely, madly, and passionately in love with her horse. She would figure something out.
She had to.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Alador said, rolling to a sit up position as he gently rubbed her shoulders.
“Gods you have hands of magic,” she moaned, tipping her head forward as she lost herself to the sensuous pleasure of being touched by her male.
Somehow, by some miracle, Luminesa had fallen head over heels for him.
It terrified her really.
That he had that much power over her. Power she’d freely given him the moment she’d bonded her soul to his.
Smiling softly, she touched a finger to the bracelet of hair around her wrist, dark and light. The power of their union flowed through her arm anytime she did.
He kissed her shoulder, then leaned forward, pressing his naked chest tight to her back and when he spoke she felt the rumble of his words move through her chest.
“Are you happy, Luminesa?”
Such a loaded question.
Was she happy? Incandescently.
“I am. But—”
Taking her shoulders, he gently nudged her to turn around. She did, sitting on her legs as she looked at him.
Her heart squeezed.
Gods he was glorious.
Big, and brawny, and such a beautiful male with such wise and spirited eyes. Sometimes it was easy to forget that she willingly shared a bed with a male that looked as human as the one who’d nearly killed her.
But she no longer saw Alador in that way.
As partly human.
He was simply her horse. Her Alador.
Her partner in life...and maybe even in death.
She sighed.
“You are worried too.” He nodded, finishing her statement for her.
They did that now. Nearly constantly. Finished off one another’s statements. She had no idea if it was a result of the mating bond, or simply the fact that she and Alador were special in a unique way.
Tired of worrying so much, she made a half-hearted attempt to change the subject.
“You know, I rather wondered if the first time we slept together whether I’d lie with the man or the horse.”
He snorted. The sound so like a neigh that she giggled. He might not like being called a horse, but...
Lips twitching, he poked a finger in her ribs. She loved this playful side of him.
Just like her, Alador had been so serious when they’d first met. She’d never have expected him to tease her as he now did, or look at her as though she literally meant the world to him.
“Female, when will you learn I am no horse?”
“So you mean to say you couldn’t have sex with me in your centaur form?”
His lips twitched. “Are you asking?”
“Are you crazy?” She shoved his chest. “You forget I’ve seen you excited in that form, I do not wish to be broken, thank you very much.”
“I’d go very gentle with you, my pet.”
She rolled her eyes and patted his cheek. “You’re sweet. But I much prefer the male in my bed.”
“Legs and all?” he asked in all seriousness now.
She understood what he referred to and nodded solemnly. “Yes. Legs and all. I wouldn’t trade you for the world, male.” And then she told him what she’d promised she wouldn’t say until she knew they’d all make it out of her alive. “I love you, Alador, with all my soul.”
Tucking her into his body, he hugged her tig
ht, dropping several kisses to the crown of her head.
Alador loved nuzzling her hair. Probably a centaur thing. Not that she minded. He was always finding reasons to play with it though, braiding it, brushing it. After a while it dawned on her that maybe he might like the same affections back.
She’d been right.
It was definitely a centaur thing.
She latched onto a long swath of his hair and wrapped it around her finger, tugging on it gently. He shivered.
“I love you more than all the stars in the sky, my darling,” he murmured after a while, and she knew he meant it.
Because every day he showed it.
Alador had become her rock in every way. She would be lost without him and couldn’t imagine her life without him in it. She stared at their matching bracelets.
“Alador, what if they banish you?”
The thought of him losing everything weighed more and more heavily on her heart as the days passed. How could she say she loved him and then allow for everything that mattered to him be taken away?
Somehow she’d have to prove to his herd that what they’d done, what they’d chosen had been for love and not lust. That it was pure and right. Just as pure and right as it would have been if he’d decided to pledge himself to a centauress.
Grabbing her hand in his, he brought her palm to his lips and pressed a tender kiss to the horse’s hoof imprint inside of it.
“You are my whole world, Luminesa, that will never change. I made my decision, and there’s no turning back for me.”
“What if we can’t find this key, Alador? What if we are stuck in this purgatory forever?”
“Would that be so bad?” he asked. “We have all that we need here. Food, clothing, shelter, my family.” He rubbed his knuckle along her cheek.
If she were a selfish person she’d agree with him. Goddess she wanted desperately to agree with him.
“The children,” she whispered.
And he inhaled deeply. Alador was a good male. A kind-hearted male who understood that the sacrifice was not theirs to make alone.
“No, I suppose we couldn’t do that to the children.”
“They need their parents, and as fond of them as I am—”
“—we are not their parents,” he agreed with a nod. “You are right as always. Luminesa.”
She clutched his hand, keenly feeling their lack of time. “A week, Alador. Just a week. What if we don’t—”
Shushing her, he lowered his head to hers, breathing in her air as he let her breathe his in. It was probably one of the sexiest things he did with her.
And undeniably reminded her of a horse, though she’d never tell him so.
“We will, sweetheart. We will find that key. I believe in us.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, she prayed to the gods that he was right, but deep down she knew her sensible centaur was acting anything but.
They’d scoured the castle. Three times already. To no avail.
The key, wherever it was, it wasn’t in the castle. She knew that with the same amount of certainty as she knew the sun would rise in the morning.
Settling down against each other, she sought his warmth, watching the images of children sleeping. Nothing left to do now but wait for the demons to attack.
~*~
Alador
Opening his eyes on the morning of their last day here, Alador knew something was horribly wrong with him.
A pain in his chest flared like a sunburst deep inside of him. Wincing, he grabbed at his chest, trying to be silent so as not to wake Luminesa who’d passed out beside him on the mound of hay and fur lined skins.
A few breaths later, the pain began to ebb slowly away and a horrible, insidious feeling bloomed in his gut, hooking like claws deep inside of him so that he couldn’t shake it loose.
For the past several days the pain had haunted him. Growing worse and more severe with each morning.
Not wanting to worry her, he’d said nothing other than to whisper to her that all was well. That they still had time. That they’d find that key.
But Alador didn’t believe that, and he knew she didn’t either. Though she let him lie to her, and would smile and nod. When she wasn’t aware he was looking though, dread would scrawl across her brows and fill her beautiful blue eyes with worry.
Last night the ice demons had fought like hell. Nearly breaching their perimeter, coming at them with such rage and fury that it had felt almost symbolic.
There was no stopping any of this.
The fighting at night. The constant trepidation and unease during the day. What few hours were theirs they treasured with the desperation of a man drowning.
Drinking his fill of her with his eyes, Alador feathered his knuckles across her pale, pale cheeks. So washed out now that he could make out the little blue veins resting just beneath her flesh.
Luminesa wasn’t getting near enough sleep.
Her lashes fluttered open and when she looked up at him with those sleepy bedroom eyes full of love, he felt stripped bare and soul crushed.
How could he leave her now?
He didn’t think a thousand years with her would even begin to be enough to sate his thirst for her.
“Horse.” Frost tipped lashes fluttered as she sleepily blinked up at him.
“Sleep, my love. You’re in desperate need of it. The children and I will search the grounds.”
She shook her head. “It’s not here, Alador. You know that as well as I do. And the children are as exhausted as I am, not even they could sleep through the attack last night. Let them sleep. And come to me.” She held her arms open for him.
He wanted to tell her no, tell her that they weren’t giving up. Not now. Not when there was no more time left.
But maybe it was that lack of time that finally decided him. With a burdened sigh, he laid back down beside her, dragging her slight form into his warmth.
She cuddled into him, a happy smile curving her lips. “I’m not giving up, Alador, though I know that’s what you’re thinking,” she whispered after a moment.
He rubbed his chest, heart beginning to pick up speed again, as that hot flare of pain returned with a vengeance.
Grunting, he cocked his head, breathing slowly through his lips, trying in vain to not let on the amount of pain he was in.
But his skin had grown clammy, and she jerked up, suddenly wide awake and splaying her hands against his. “What’s the matter?”
Fear punched him in the gut. Her fear for him.
It was on the tip of his tongue to deny what it was he was feeling, but it was far too late to pretend this one away.
Heart heavy, he whispered, “I have something to tell you. I haven’t wanted to say anything, because I wasn’t certain until now but—”
The screen displaying the sleeping children suddenly came to life. Kai had his eyes closed and was sleeping peacefully, but Gerda was moaning and groaning in her sleep.
Luminesa frowned, making to stand, but Alador settled a restraining hand against her shoulder. He felt it too, the shudder of evil that’d begun to rove the halls.
“I’ll check on her,” he grunted, holding a hand to his chest as the pain continued to blossom wider and wider, overtaking all of his abdomen now, and even down his arms.
“Alador, you’re hurt. Stop. Do not go. I’ll go.” The whites of her eyes had nearly overtaken her irises. Her fear was a tangible taste on his tongue.
Something foul was coming. A darkness that spread like heated tar all around them, threatening to drown them.
“Stay!” he grunted, dizzy with pain. But he had to protect her, at all costs, he had to protect her.
Her eyes widened at the command in his tone and he knew it was the pain making him so.
Swallowing a jagged breath, he forced himself to a calm he did not at all feel. “Please stay, Luminesa. If something were to happen to you...I do not, I don’t think I could survive it. Please, I’ll only be a few moments.”
 
; Nodding, she rubbed her hands along her arms when he got up and walked out.
~*~
Luminesa
He was a fool if he honestly thought she would stay put. She loved him too much to let him walk into whatever it was happening. And she knew something awful was about to happen. She felt it through every inch of her body.
Luminesa turned back to the screen, watching the girl now moaning and groaning, kicking the sheets down with her feet. And then...
Narrowing her eyes, Luminesa leaned forward, pulse rocketing out of control as she spotted a twinkle of silver float above the child’s head. And then another, and another, and another. More and more silver, whirling like a miniature tornado above her bed, gathering momentum and speed as it curled into a tight spiral.
Foreboding washed over her. A writhing in her stomach of unease like thousands of worms crawling up from the ground.
Cocking her head, she sprung to her feet. Heart banging in her chest, demanding she fly out of there now and find Alador. She ran to the door, tugged on the handle, but it wouldn’t give.
Gasping, she shook her head. And then shivered as a curl of heat drove through the comfortable chill of the room.
Twirling on her heels, she pressed her back against the wall. The Goblin stood before her, his hands crossed behind his back, and grinning wickedly.
“Hello, sweetheart, miss me?”
“You!” She screeched, punched the door with a hammer fist. “Unlock this.”
From the corner of her eye she saw Alador’s shadow cross the floor of Gerda’s bedroom. He was nearly there.
“Oh Gods,” she groaned, knowing what that silver was for, the danger her mate was in.
“Well, well, well, I must say,” the Goblin grinned, “things went rather predicatably.”
“What have you done?” She snapped, nails digging into the palms of her hands so tight she left crescent marks behind.
Whipping out his blade, he proceeded to gently draw the tip of it beneath his claws. “Only what I said I would, my dear. I kept to my word, left you alone until the end. No more tricks.”