The Lord of the Clans (34 page)

Chapter Forty-Nine

The Lord of the Clans pledged his life to her in front of the whole of Palance. Dressed in an exquisite, white gown provided for the occasion by the king, she stood before the consecrated altar.

The royal family sat on the front row of the chapel. All the way to the back, on the left of the central aisle, dozens of courtiers conversed with animated gestures or shifted in their seats, their brilliant suits and dresses lighting the atmosphere with their sparkling colours. A gathering she'd never witness again.

Her shaman winked at her, appearing somewhat lost in the midst of their glittering gathering. He’d apologised for his harsh words two days ago, soon after she healed a little girl who fell from a tree. Although the Darkening had been destroyed, the magic from the Ancients still lived inside her.

Scarred and brawny men filled the right side of the aisle, along with fierce-looking women. Cameron had informed her before the ceremony that they came to pay tribute to her. They were ranked soldiers from the resistance in the company of the Amazons’ elite from Moonstill.

Together they had saved the realm of Palance a few months ago from the combined armies of Agravar and Borgom. The king and queen, grateful for their involvement, as well as in memory of the slain fighters, invited them to the wedding. So they crowded the narrow chapel today, their swords, daggers, and bows hanging from their hips or slung over their shoulders.

The leader of the resistance sat in front of them, and Dear Lords, could any other man in the Four Kingdoms look as gorgeous as he? He gave her a courteous nod when their eyes met, his green, thankful gaze acknowledging her deed in the Shrouded Mountains.

Next to him, a beautiful woman also nodded to her. She glowed with an inner radiance that appeared to infuse the place of worship with peace and wonder. Curious as to the identity of the lady, she figured she belonged to the mouth-watering leader of the resistance. No two other people in the whole realm could suit each other so well.

She shifted her eyes toward the front row where the king and the queen waited for the minister to begin the ceremony. To their right, two lovely girls fidgeted beside a good-looking man and a young woman wearing a pink gown laced with pearls.
Probably the princesses and prince of Palance.

He kept glancing sideways toward the area where the royal family of Moonstill had settled, instead of paying attention to her and Cameron. Intrigued by his peculiar behaviour, she realised he was trying to catch glimpses of a fair-haired princess who seemed to return his covert glances. If those two had their say, no doubt there soon would be another wedding in Palance.

The Lord of the Clans stood beside her, his big muscles stretching the elegant outfit he wore. True to his promise to the Mighty Gods, he hadn’t touched her for the past three days. She’d seen his desire for her every time he looked at her, but he’d resisted the urge to rip her clothes off.

Alone in her guest chamber, she had tossed and turned on the large bed well into the night, especially the last one.
She missed him so much that her mind wouldn’t allow her repose. Then again, she’d slept for over half a moon and her body didn’t seem to need too much rest.

The minister entered the house of the Creators, a sacred book in his hands, and the congregation rose to their feet. Conversations ceased, replaced by the sound of people shuffling and smoothing dresses.

A shiver coursed through her when the religious man circled the altar to come to stand before them both. He opened his leather bound book with reverence, flipped through several pages and read consecrated prayers in the ancient tongue before turning his full attention to her. Hoping her voice wouldn’t betray her at the last instant, she repeated the sacred vows after him.

As though she hadn’t breathed through her speech, she took a long, calming aspiration when the minister set the book down on the altar. He then indicated she should raise her right forearm.

She heard someone sobbing as he placed a white satin ribbon across her outstretched wrist. With so many people filling the place, she couldn’t believe the depth of the respectful silence.

The religious man took hold of his book again and began reading a different passage. Or maybe he went over the same prayers, but training with her shaman never involved
languages,
and she didn’t speak the ancient tongue.

When it was Cameron’s turn to take the pledge, goose bumps broke out all over her body as his voice rang loud and clear within the chapel’s walls. Watched by a hundred people, including the royal family, she drew in ragged breaths and trembled while he recited the minister’s litany.

“I, Cameron, Lord of the Clans, take thee, Ariana, to be my Lady, to have and to hold from this day forward. With my heart, I thee wed. With my soul, I thee treasure. With my body, I thee worship, till death us do part. And there too, I plight thee my troth.”

Joyful tears welled in her eyes. His gaze riveted to her face, he brought his forearm against hers, and she had to fight the surge of emotion flowing through her like a waterfall. The minister folded the white ribbon around both their wrists. Flesh joined, they now belonged to one another forever.

Cheers and applause sealed their union. On the verge of crying, she turned her face toward the assembly and listened to the crowd’s salute, saw the people move to get hold of candles.

One by one, they came up to them and lit a candle as a sign of long life and happiness. Royalty first, with the king and queen of Palance up front, then following the order they had been seated.

She finally came to the conclusion that they’d all heard about her, or what she’d achieved in the Shrouded Mountains, because the men from the resistance and the Amazons gave her the healer’s bow as they filed past. To Cameron, the fighters pledged honour by placing their fists over their hearts.

Her shaman appeared unable to stop grinning. The candle wobbled between his fingers once he stood in front of her. She’d never seen tears in his eyes, and the unusual sight added to her own emotion.

“I’m so happy for you, dear girl.”

“Thank you.”

She squeezed his free hand briefly, but already he had to move forward as others behind him wanted to show their esteem.

Tall, green eyes twinkling, and impossibly handsome, the leader of the resistance bowed to them both with uttermost respect. Although he gave her a smile, his blessing went to Cameron.

“This day bears testimony of our future prosperity. May your life be blessed with as much felicity as mine, my
Lord.
”

She caught the expression of pleasure crossing the beautiful face of the woman behind the leader. Although his words were destined to the new couple, there was no mistaking he also meant them for his lady. Cheeks rosy, the woman leant in a little to whisper to her.

“Never forget they are warriors at heart. They aren’t easy every day, but they’re well worth the trouble.”

Then the lady straightened up and winked at her before nudging the leader of the resistance forward.

Wishing she’d be able to talk to this intriguing woman later, she kept on nodding and smiling while more people halted in front of them to light their candles and bow. But at last, the assembly filed out, and the chapel emptied, with the minister bringing up the rear.

With a sigh, Cameron unlaced the ribbon uniting their wrists. He brought the satin band to his lips before lowering it.

“With this token, I thee love.”

Her belly twisted as she watched him store the symbol of their union in his pocket. She moved against him, and he crushed her into his arms. Unconcerned about eventual creases on her exquisite dress, she welcomed his hungry lips. He kissed her hard, a hand behind her neck, and she melted under the excited sweeps of his lascivious tongue.

All she wanted now was a pallet to fall onto. And him caressing her naked body, stroking her breasts, licking her nipples until they stood erect, sliding his stiff cock between her thighs. But with a last kiss on her swollen lips, he backed away and took hold of her hand.

“I believe we’re expected.”

The chapel came back into focus. Yes, their hosts must be waiting for them outside, and mating before the altar probably wasn’t a great idea.

Like the crowd before them, they didn’t use the small entrance, but walked out of the house of the Creators through the main double doors which also opened onto the magnificent gardens.

Wild shouts, cheers, and unbroken applause greeted them when they appeared at the threshold. Although a stranger in their midst, she felt welcomed and appreciated. She might come to know some of them in time, but for now, she was simply grateful for their recognition.

What happened after felt like an endless stream of toasts, introductions, and
greetings.
People came and went to congratulate her, servants offered food and drinks, unfamiliar faces blurred among others. At some point, candles were lit to disperse the shadows of the oncoming evening.

She’d have liked to exchange a few words with the woman who intrigued her, but the crowd seemed to swallow her up each time she caught a glimpse of her lovely face. Besides, the lady always appeared to be enthralled with the leader of the resistance, so she might not welcome a stranger butting into their private conversation. Not even a stranger on the brink of becoming a legend.

Just when she began fearing the reception would see the light of the next
dawn,
Cameron came toward her to put his arm around her shoulder. He pressed her tightly against his side.

“Come. Let’s get out of here.”

He pushed his way through the crowd, although he didn’t have to as people moved aside when they saw this giant advancing toward them. By the time they left the joyous merriment behind them, the look on his face told her he was taking her to the bedchamber, and she rejoiced.

Because now she desperately wanted to do something she’d dreamt of since their unforgettable conversation under the tent belonging to the leader of the resistance.

Apart from a whole array of servants crossing the grand hallway, or going back and forth between the gardens and the kitchens with dirty dishes in their hands, the palace appeared quite deserted. Everyone with a name and a rank was still outside enjoying the lavish wedding reception.

Cameron led her through corridors and staircases she was now beginning to view as familiar. The magic from the Ancients didn’t go as far as giving her a good sense of direction because it had taken her three days to figure the layout of the castle, but she knew where she was now.

They climbed up a flight of stairs to reach her landing. In front of the door to her guest chamber, he stepped aside to let her in.

“My lady.”

Her skin tingled at the sound of his low tone. Facing him, she slowly backed toward the bed while he closed the door before walking to her. She smiled as he flung aside his tunic and shirt.

“Unclothing, my gracious lord?
I cannot but wonder about your intentions.”

“I trust they’re honourable as well as pleasurable. But I seem to recall a time when you called me Cameron.”

His aroused gaze travelled all over her body. Unable to conceal what she had in mind any longer, she bowed to him respectfully.

“That was before my lord became my husband. I pledged to honour you today, and I intend to keep my promise.”

He raised his eyebrows. Then he watched her close the short distance between them with anticipation in his grey stare. Like a most submissive subject in front of a powerful ruler, she knelt at his feet, and raised her head.

“With your permission, my lord, I want to suck you.”

Chapter Fifty

Servants had lit candles before their return, so she couldn’t miss the vision of his chest muscles bulging. Jaw contracted, eyes sparkling, he looked at her with surprise and febrile excitement.

“You don’t have to do that to be true to me.”

“I know, my lord, but it is my greatest wish to take your member into my mouth. Do I have your permission?”

“By the Mighty Gods, yes.”

He was so aroused that she fumbled to unbutton his pants. Fingers slipping a little as his erection pushed against the fabric, she took an extra moment to free him. His huge cock bridged the gap between his crotch and her face, and he sighed as though his life was about to begin.

Her mouth inches from his
tip,
she took her time to observe the pink flesh before glancing up and meeting his fevered eyes.

“You are so big, my lord.”

He clenched his jaw and pressed his lips together. The rise and fall of his bare chest quickened as he blurted out.

“You’re killing me.”

A delicious sensation stirred her belly and warmed her pussy. Enticing this dominant ruler to surrender to her desire exhilarated her far more than she’d ever have imagined.

Not unlike the feeling of forcefulness she experienced when destroying the Darkening, she now shivered at the awareness of the power she held over the Lord of the Clans.

“Do you remember when I stroked you that night at the tavern?”

“How could I forget? I thought I’d die from the pleasure of your gentle hand. I wanted you so badly that it took all my will not to roll you onto your back and drive myself into you.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“We had just met. I didn’t want to scare you off.”

His deep voice touched her soul. Heart and stomach fluttering, she drilled her gaze into his excited eyes.

“I didn’t lie then when I told you my act wasn’t deliberate. And I’m still not lying now when I say this one is.”

She gave the head of his erection a quick lick. He hissed as she watched, with amazement, his foreskin retreat along his shaft.

She could have pulled his pants down but she didn’t, enjoying the soft feel of the velvet encasing his strong thighs. She drew out the tip of her tongue. Although focused on the erect member filling her field of vision, she knew he was watching her every movement.

Her heart banged hard at the idea of taking the Lord of the Clans’ big cock into her mouth. Would she ever overcome her natural shyness about matters involving mating?

They were married now, and she shouldn’t feel bashful about performing this natural act on him, but she did. He was her lord, husband, and lover, yet he would always impress her.

A drop of sweat ran from the nape of her neck down to the small of her back. She placed her tongue against his hard flesh, and glided it around his crown once. He breathed out harshly, even before she withdrew.

“Ariana.”

His murmur sent sparks flying in her belly. In his mouth, her name sounded both bliss and torture.

She was in command, empowered with a strength nobody could spirit away from her. Eyes riveted to the pink, vulnerable skin, she took the tip of his dick between her lips.

She felt him tremble. Without trying to move further along his raised shaft, she drew a long, slow circle around the soft head. His hard-on thickened as he exhaled a long sigh.

A sense of confidence enveloped her while moistness rushed to her pussy. Spurred on by his fierce reaction, she moved her tongue against his flesh again, but a little faster this time.

He clenched his fingers. The skin of his fists so stretched that she could see long veins under the tanned skin. She watched with delight as his knuckles whitened as though his whole body was caught in a storm of delicious torment.

She pressed her lips closer around his tip,
then
a little tighter, and abruptly pulled away.

His moan of pleasure seemed to land on her hair, slide down her shoulders, caress her breasts, swerve along her fluttering belly, and brush past the curly bush to settle between her thighs.

Kneeling at the feet of the mighty Lord of the Clans, she moved her face slightly to the side.

He quivered as she ran her tongue along the rigid member. She marvelled at the unfamiliar but wonderful sensation. Stroking him with such a private part of her felt like licking a soft layer encasing a bar made of rock.

He was so hard that the touch and feel of his cock ignited wild desires. She took the base of his rod between her lips, and tightened her grasp before gliding back to his crown. When she let go of him, he inhaled sharply through gritted teeth.

She replaced her face right in front of his glistening erection. There she
stalled,
about to take his engorged manhood into her mouth for the first time. A violent surge of desire seized her.

She glanced at his fists, so close to her fingers, still clutching the sides of his pants. She stared at the small slit in the middle of his tip.

His seed would spurt out of that spot if she loved his cock with all the passion boiling inside her. Yet he was so damn big that she’d never be able to swallow his whole length.

A grunt rolled in his throat as soon as she closed her lips around him. An inch at a time, she slid his dick all the way in. He uttered a rough sound as she enclosed him,
then
began withdrawing.

She felt the hardness of his long shaft, the beat of his heart pulsing through his excited flesh. The need to give him unbelievable pleasure suddenly overran her last qualms.

Because he yearned for her to gobble him up.
Because she now longed to suck him deep.

As aroused as when he stroked and penetrated her, she darted her tongue around his crown, and licked it with a sudden hunger that gripped her guts. She felt him shuddering from head to toe.

Shivers coursed through his thighs and tickled her hands under the taut velvet, while his hoarse voice stimulated all her senses.

“Suck me, Ariana.”

Enthralled by the abrupt harshness of his respiration, she greedily fixed her lips on his wet tip and swallowed his erection. His muscular body swayed when she supped his cock.

There was no shyness now, no barrier in her mind to control her cravings. Only her mouth moving forward and backward, in rhythm with the sound of his escalating groans.
Only his unbending hard-on sliding in and out of her as she guzzled him.

She saw his fists open and close, open and close. She regarded the thatch of fair, coarse hair coming out of the gap on the front of his pants, and surrounding the base of the stiff length she was stroking with her lips. When she quickened her back and forth movements, he blurted out.

“Dear Gods, oh, dear Gods!”

She sucked him harder, all her nerve endings stirred up by his quavering tone, her whole body ignited by the dissonance of his spasmodic breathing, but she wanted more. She yearned for him to explode in her mouth. With his huge member stuffing her, she looked up to meet his gaze.

His usually severe features seemed to burn with a passion as intense as hers. The colour of bright silver under the moonlight, his steely gaze blazed with an inner fever. The long scar slashing his cheek stretched and slackened every time he clenched his jaw.

She let go of the soft velvet of his pants to take hold of the base of his dick with both hands. Her grip secure, she kept on staring at him while she increased her rhythm and devoured him.

Streaks of violent pleasure flashed in his eyes. Although she relished the intense expression of rapture on his face, he suddenly threw his head back and began groaning like a beast.

“I’m coming.” He uttered a rough grunt. “Oh, fuck, I’m coming. Flower, you might want to—”

He never finished his sentence. His impulsive, precipitated warning either meant that he needed to share his joy, or that she had a split instant to remove herself before he splattered her throat with his seed.

She swallowed his cock as deep as she could. Lips working his throbbing erection, she sucked the Lord of the Clans.
Faster and faster, for only a brief moment before his whole body went rigid, and she received his gift of love.

He let out a long, harsh cry of bliss as his hot juices flooded her mouth. She kept him tight inside her, enjoying the creamy semen rolling around her tongue and seeping down her throat.

She tasted him. For the first time, she savoured the salty flavour of his true essence.

His shaft softened. Attuned to the reactions of his body, she released him just before he collapsed in front of her. He brought her against his heaving chest, lacing his fingers into her stray locks. Pressed against him, she felt and heard the mad gallop of his heart.

He drew in raspy, laboured breaths. He crushed her in his arms and, still shuddering from intense satisfaction, clung to her like a man in need of a gentle, feminine presence.

She listened to the strong beat of his pulse. He couldn’t see her face, which was fine with her, because a contented grin stretched her lips as the realisation of what she’d just done hit her.

Without physical strength, simply with her mouth, tongue, and love, she had brought the powerful Lord of the Clans to his knees.

She never wanted to leave the warmth of his arms, but he moved to bury his face in the crook of her neck.

“By the Mighty Gods.”

His satisfied exclamation pleased her so much that her nipples perked up under the white gown. He instantly perceived her arousal and disentangled his hands from her hair to slowly slide them down.

He straightened his back to look at her, his gaze gleaming with pleasure, his palms settling over her breasts. Air trapped in her lungs, she shivered when he caught her erect buds between thumb and forefinger.

“You know, flower, for someone who blushes whenever birds fly, you’re a very naughty girl.”

Her nipples hardened under the tender caress. She wanted him to tumble her onto the pallet, but she knew he needed a little time. Besides, her lips now felt as dry as the Ancients’ old manuscripts.

“I need a drink.”

He chuckled. Eyes lit with a mischievous glow, he stood up and reached for her hands to help her on her feet.

She circled the large bed while he shuffled the front of his pants. The pitcher was still on the night table, so she poured water into the glass she’d used upon waking up in Palance.

Drinking long gulps quenched her thirst, but also washed down the male taste lingering in her mouth.

She didn’t mind, well aware that she’d taste his juices again anytime she wanted. The simple notion of licking the Lord of the Clans’ cock whenever she wished accelerated her pulse.

She didn’t hear him approach, but all of a sudden she felt the pad of his fingers on the nape of her neck as he began unbuttoning her white gown. One by one, they popped out of their holes. The water rippled in the glass when he reached the middle of her back.

“Thank you, my lord, but I could call a maid.”

“Indeed.”

Yet he didn’t appear to need any assistance as his light stroke moved down before he spoke again.

“Although a servant wouldn’t do as well.”

The marvellous dress crumpled at her feet. Naked, conscious of his towering presence right behind her, she held her breath.

He traced a fiery line down her spine.

Without hurry, he followed the sensitive skin of her back from top to bottom. She gasped when he slid his smooth finger between her buttocks and touched her excited folds.

“You’re wet, wife. Maybe I could help you with that.”