Embrace the Power: A Paranormal Romance (The Blood Rose Series Book 9) (21 page)

She kept talking him down as he spun the men in a circle. Finally, he started growing fatigued until he stood in one place.

The nearby tables and chairs had been turned into a junkyard with pieces heaped on each other. The room was empty, except for the half-dozen massive shifters who’d helped bring Stone to a stop.

Stone looked around. “Oh, shit. Did I do this?”

She dropped off his back and circled to stand in front of him. She put both hands on his face. “The next time I tell you I’ve got to donate, get your ass over to me. Understood?”

His eyes widened and he nodded in what appeared to be a dumb fashion.

His gaze shifted to Rez, who’d ended up in an unconscious heap at the base of the wall. He was coming to and holding his jaw with one hand.

When he caught sight of Stone, he pressed himself up against the wall. “I didn’t know.” He mumbled the words. Rosamunde was pretty sure Stone had broken his jaw. His face was a bloody mess.

“Sorry, Rez, but she’s mine.”

Rez mumbled his position again. “I fucking didn’t know.”

“Damn.” He called to Rachel. “Get this man the best fae healer you can find and send me the bill.”

“I’m on it,” Rachel said. She had her cellphone to her ear.

Rosamunde kept her hands on Stone, but addressed Rez. “I’m sorry, too.” Rosamunde felt it was the least she owed Rez. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

Stone glanced around at the broken furniture then turned toward Rachel again. “And send me the bill for the furniture.”

“I’ll do no such thing for either the healer or the furniture and you know why.”

Rosamunde knew as well. Stone and his Guardsmen had rescued her from an Invictus onslaught about a year ago. She was being carted off and would have been paired with a wraith by now if the Guardsmen hadn’t intervened.

Stone nodded. “As you wish.” He then shifted his attention to Rosamunde and that’s when everything took another quick, hard turn. He caught her up in his arms and she was airborne and flying out the open door before she could blink. She held tight to his body for fear any loose limb would get knocked off if it contacted something solid.

Stone was breathing rough again and sounded like a beast warming up to devour something. Maybe her. A girl could hope because the rock-laden, stream scent pouring off his body, sent pleasurable lightning strikes straight between her legs.

She wanted a taste and began wiggling upward in his arms. When she’d gone as far as she could go, she was inches away from his neck. She reached out with her tongue and swiped. He tasted like the way his eyes looked, yet with a flowing stream and rocks beneath: Rocks, moss and water.

She grabbed hold of his neck and sucked on him.

He lost control in the air and rocked wildly back and forth, which meant his grip lessened a little. Because of it, she was able to climb the last two inches and really latch onto his throat. She didn’t exactly understand the impulse, but she began to suck harder still.

He groaned then roared.

She had no idea where they were as he began his descent. Though when he landed her in the middle of a pine forest, she had a sense he’d taken her deep into the forest of the Dauphaire Mountains.

He lifted her up and the next thing she knew she had a tree at her back and this time he was sucking at
her
neck.

His voice entered her mind.
Pants off.

She wasn’t about to argue since that was all she could think about as well.

The moment he drew back, she got rid of her stilettos and jeans as fast as she could, then levitated slightly to keep her bare feet out of the pine needles.

She knew exactly where this was headed and she was so on board. But she wanted to make sure he understood her willingness.

Take me. All the way. Now.

His tongue slathered her neck while down low she felt his hand between his body and hers as he took his stiff cock in hand. She released a strangled, hungry moan and arched her pelvis, then lifted her legs, wrapping them around his waist.

His whole body was writhing anxiously as he pressed his cock against her opening. The moment he began to push inside, she let out a long, low moan that echoed around the forest.

Her heart literally ached at this point.
Take from my vein, now, Stone. Please.

He grunted his assent, licked her neck twice and struck with his sharp fangs. Another lightning strike of pleasure zapped her between her legs where he was already pistoning.

As the extra supply began leaving her body, euphoria rained down on her. She was lost in all the sensations, in her love for this man, in the feel of him working her body and in how hungrily he took her blood.

His mating vibration had already punched inside her and now surrounded hers, but not gently like before. This was a commanding flow of energy, a dominance move that the wolf in her loved. She felt herself flowing from one vibration to another, back and forth, then from Rosamunde to Aralynn. Each ‘self’ gave and took something different.

Rosamunde had more pure affection. Aralynn focused on his cock. Rosamunde savored that she was sustaining him with her life force. Aralynn kept feeling up the heavy muscles of his arms, shoulders and back.

Ecstasy built quickly and the harder he sucked, the closer she got to the final climb.
That’s it, stone. Drink me the fuck down.
Aralynn’s voice.

He didn’t respond with words, just more grunting as he sucked on her neck and pistoned inside her.

Stone, you’re magnificent.
Rosamunde.

More grunting and his hips went faster.

He was hard as a rock and when he released a vibration from his cock, she fell right over the cliff of ecstasy.

She hoped they were in the middle of a very large forest because she couldn’t hold back the cries of pleasure as her body pulsed inside. The feel of him, as he broke from her neck and roared his own release, took the orgasm to a new height that had her crying out in a high, shrill sound. Pleasure rolled up and up, through her abdomen and grabbed her heart.

A beautiful explosion followed until she was soaring into the heavens.

~ ~ ~

Stone came back to himself in slow, euphoric stages. His head felt light and almost blank. He wasn’t even sure where he was, except that he had his cock inside Rosamunde, the Queen of Ferrenden Peace. Or was it Aralynn?

Sweet Goddess. How had this happened?

And how had he ended up so out of control? Had Rosamunde somehow done this to him?

He had to start back at the beginning. Delia had been pathing with him, rattling on about some blog that had interviewed three of the blood roses and how Willow, Malik’s mate, wanted another mastyr the moment she saw him as though her blood rose drive had no discernment.

Panic had set in. That he could remember.

He’d pathed with Rosamunde and learned she was intent on delivering her blood somewhere, anywhere. The moment his brain made sense of her intentions, he’d plowed air faster than ever before. His heart had beat so hard he’d wondered why it hadn’t exploded.

But all that was nothing to the sight of Rosamunde, in a do-me-now outfit, with a mastyr vampire at her throat.

The rest was a blur that involved beating Mastyr Rez senseless before he knew what hit him and then what felt like a monkey scrambling onto his back.

Rosamunde. Right.

Then it seemed like the whole room all but tackled him and he spun in circles until he couldn’t move anymore. It had taken six shifters to stop him.

Rosamunde’s voice had helped him come down from his rampage, but images of Rez at her throat had him flying her out of there and up into the Dauphaire Mountains. He needed to show the woman that she wouldn’t be feeding anyone else so long as he was alive. And as for her body taking another cock, well, fuck that.

She belonged to him.

When his breathing had finally settled down, his rational mind returned in full. He was pressed up against Rosamunde and had her secured with his body to a pine tree. Her legs were still wrapped around him, his cock buried deep.

Rosamunde?

Hmm?
She sounded so strange, not like herself or Aralynn.

He drew back slowly and looked at her face. Her eyes were closed and because his vampire vision lit up the night, he could see that she really had gotten dressed up for the occasion. She’d caked on some dark violet or maybe brown eye-shadow, maybe both.

She looked different, not like the queen at all. She wore a couple of braids, but these were meant only to hold her hair back a little.

Are you hurt?
He had to know. He’d acted like a tornado and maybe she’d gotten injured in the process.

No.
Even in his head her pathing voice sounded odd, not all there. And her eyes were still closed. She sighed.
I’m not hurt. I’m happy.

She looked content beyond words and so beautiful, maybe even prettier than her wolf counterpart, Aralynn. He’d just never allowed himself to think of Rosamunde as a woman before.

Yet here he was, still buried inside her and half stiff because her blood had him pumped. Sweet Goddess, he’d just fucked the Queen of Ferrenden Peace and given a little encouragement, he would do it again.

The queen who wasn’t supposed to be a queen. A woman who’d lived in isolation her entire life.

He still wasn’t convinced she couldn’t have battled Margetta. Davido might have a boatload of power, but he was fallible and Stone had always sensed that an infinite kind of capacity existed within Rosamunde. But what if that was the elf-lord power, and her painful connection to it, and not her own innate ability?

He had a lot to think about.

When he finally withdrew from her, he pulled up his leathers and tucked himself back inside.

Her eyes blinked open, a lethargic movement that told him volumes about how she was feeling. She even looked around then chuckled. “I saw stars. No, I mean, really. I was transported into another galaxy. I swear it.”

So, this was Rosamunde, with a sexed up, satiated look on her face, her blood flowing with feel-good hormones, a smile on her lips. She’d always looked fairly stern the few times he’d been in her presence. Now she was here, his blood rose.

His.

For the first time, since he’d learned the truth about who she was, he felt torn.

She met his gaze. “Oh. Right. You’re still mad at me.” She glanced at the forest floor. “You know what. I’ll be right back. I need to freshen up. But stay here.”

He didn’t want her to go.

When she reached for her clothes, he grabbed at her with both hands to keep her with him, but she’d already vanished.

Strange, how empty the space felt without her in it. Yet, with all that he had to think about, it helped to have some distance.

He walked in a slow circle, the pines towering above him. A light breeze blew and the forest made its soft shushing sound.

It took him a moment to gain his bearings. He’d made a smart move, taking her to the middle of the Dauphaire forest, miles away from the nearest village. She’d let loose with a series of cries that would have been heard otherwise. His own shouts, when he’d come, had split the night sky as well.

He wasn’t sure, though, what to do with Rosamunde right now. It was clear he had to keep her close, but he didn’t relish the idea. She’d deceived him for weeks now, knowing exactly who she was and how he felt about her.

As Aralynn, early on she’d asked him not to disparage the queen too much. Now he knew why.

He heard sounds high in the air. He looked up, and saw a red wind. Holy fuck, Invictus, this far out, in the forest.

He thought about his battle partner and made a quick decision. Maybe he had to keep Rosamunde close for now, but it would help if he saw her in her other form, the one more wolf than fae.

Rosamunde. I need Aralynn. If you’re game, I’ve got what looks like four Invictus pair and they’re ready to fight. I’m moving into a larger clearing. The wraith-pairs are circling in the air.

Aralynn’s voice came back strong.
On my way.

~ ~ ~

Rosamunde heard the tone of Stone’s voice and knew exactly what needed to be done. She could almost see the wraith-pairs.

She’d returned to the cottage to get cleaned up and had been debating whether she should put on a fresh pair of jeans, or something else.

Something else it was as she drew a new set of battle leathers from her closet: Green vest, black boots, matching pants. The latter had silver medallions down the sides to the knees, which the boots then picked up.

All set, she teleported to Stone’s side, dagger in hand.

But he frowned at her. “You’re not Aralynn. I think we need her here right now.”

She glanced up at him. His stern, disapproving expression had returned. She lifted her chin. “I am Aralynn. If I need to transform, I will. And you need to get used to who and what am I. Now.”

“Fine. This clearing that we’re in won’t leave much room for maneuvering. So, I want your back against mine.”

As she moved to take up the position, however, she kept thinking about whether or not any of the wraith-pairs could be saved. Mastyr Ethan and Samantha had the ability to break the wraith-pair bond and a lot of realm-folk, bound unwillingly to Invictus wraiths, were now in recovery.

Yet, thinking this way didn’t feel right to her. She realized that if she remained in her Rosamunde form, she would have difficulty doing battle the way her wolf could. “I’ve changed my mind. You were right. I need to be Aralynn to do this, otherwise I’ll jeopardize both our lives.”

He glanced at her, his eyes narrowing. She knew he wanted to watch. Without giving it too much thought, she transformed. At least her vest wasn’t so snug when she was in Aralynn’s skin.

He dipped his chin. “Good call.”

“Just made sense. Aralynn has stronger battling instincts. She’s more like my shifter father than my fae mother.”

The wraith-pairs moved in suddenly and the wraiths shrieked until even the trees swayed as if in pain.

“Sweet Goddess that hurts my ears.” Rosamunde side-stepped in a stealthy circle, matching Stone’s stride and movements.