Her lips dropped open and her mouth salivated at the picture of his mouth tasting her. That foreign urge flared within her.
“The ancient blood magic has deemed us a good match. I agree with all my heart. Shayla McKinnon, will you be my mate?”
She swallowed hard and smiled. “Kael the Fair, Son of Iain, Warrior King of the Vampires and Chieftain of Clan MacQuillan, I will be your mate. I, in turn, pledge to take care of you, protect you, and cherish you for all time.”
Intense heat flared between their palms, stung and burned, and then the pain disappeared completely. Kael flipped their hands over and pulled his wrist back enough to reveal new identical knot-shaped marks covering their palms. Unlike the rest of the mating mark, the knot was colored in greens and reds and blues. It was stunning.
Another roaring cheer rose up around them. The warriors bowed their heads.
Shayla was dying to kiss him. It was almost painful to keep her mouth away. She bit down on her lip, hard, and chewed. With her eyes, she pleaded with him.
His gaze narrowed. “I understand, dear heart. Soon.”
She undid the fastenings on her robe as he undid his. She exaggerated the lift of her hood, not wanting to catch the jewels in the circlet of her hair. Kael did the same, revealing a magnificent crown that made her hands itch with a need to bury themselves in his glorious hair. They both dropped their cloaks behind them.
Then Shayla gasped. Her gaze trailed down to the golden skin of his chest, painted with red markings. She breathed deeply and exhaled a needy moan she couldn’t restrain. “My lord?” she whimpered, completely overwhelmed by his scent. It was him, only magnified by a million, and it drove her crazy. She shook and panted, was on the verge of begging for…she didn’t know.
“What do you want to do, Shayla? What urge are you fighting? Give in to it.”
Her gaze cut from the red to his flaring eyes.
“Give in. Do it. Now.”
Chapter Nine
Shayla licked her lips as she gazed at the red-painted knot over Kael’s heart. She wanted to…to…
She sprang at him and opened her mouth over the red. The moment her tongue touched his skin, she groaned, a nearly strangled sound from deep in her throat. This was the urge she’d been feeling all day. She licked and sucked at the spot over his heart until only his clean tattoo remained. She drew back, whimpering. Not enough. It wasn’t enough.
“Here,” he rasped. He pointed to another symbol painted on the bulge of his bicep.
Needy sounds spilled from her as she pulled his arm to her mouth. She feasted on the mark, but it, too, was gone too soon.
He held his hair away from the left side of his throat. “Again.”
She moaned and climbed up him. His other arm strapped her against him, held her in place while she sucked and licked the red away. Kael grunted and shook under her frenzied attention and it drove her on.
It was blood. His blood. It sang to her, beckoned her. She needed more. So much more.
Kael couldn’t decide which ached worse, his throbbing fangs, elongated in preparation for the blood exchange, or his cock, which had hardened when Shayla walked into the room and approximated something like steel the moment her eyes discovered his blood. But she was so magnificent in her bloodlust that he reveled in every wanton lick and rough suck of her mouth on his skin. Her need and enthusiasm was more than he had hoped, and so sexy he feared he wouldn’t be able to restrain himself from burying his shaft in the wet heat he could already smell right here in the Great Hall.
There were too many eyes here for that, though. The witnesses were there to affirm the worthiness of the chosen, testify to the strength of the blood match and communicate to the human mate her acceptance into their community. In his case, the warriors’ presence also assured the acceptance of whatever newling heirs he and Shayla might have—having witnessed the match, his brethren would be able to defend the child’s birthright if ever challenged. Beyond what was required for the ceremony, though, Kael would never share her naked body with another male, not even just to watch. The very thought made him prone to violence.
Shayla whimpered and panted against Kael’s left ear. “More? Please?”
“My back,” he said, his voice a raw scrape.
She spun around him and pressed up tight against him as she feasted on the large mark that spanned his shoulder blades. Her arms wrapped around him and her fingernails dug into his chest muscles.
Nearly three hundred years had passed since a female had fed from his veins, since he’d had the deep satisfaction of nourishing a woman from the fruit of his body. His soul nearly sang for the return of such raw, primal pleasure.