Wylfrael didn’t look bothered by it at all. In fact, he’d just said he wanted to marry me before the gathering.

In six days, I’ll really be his wife.

“Alright, then. We’ll marry, then go to the gathering, then you’ll join the council, is that right?”

“Yes,” he said. His gaze dipped to my mouth, then to the breasts crushed beneath my arms. And, if I wasn’t mistaken, his cock visibly twitched. My pussy clenched in instantaneous reply, and I squeezed my thighs together.

I was losing my resolve already, like the hot water was melting it away. I gritted my teeth and girded my loins, forcing myself to focus on things other than how much I wanted to wade over to Wylfrael, straddle his hips, and slide down onto his massive cock.

“You haven’t told me why you want to join the council in the first place. Only that you need their assistance. What’s your end goal with all of this?”

Wylfrael hesitated, and I got the sense he was trying to decide just how much he wanted to tell me.

“I deserve to know the truth, Wylfrael. As your wife, I should know your reasons for joining the council.”

“I need to find Skalla.”

Skalla...

“Is that Lord Skallagrim? Aiko mentioned him.”

He sighed. “I should have known she would have.”

“It’s not her fault,” I said quickly, worried now that I’d just gotten her in trouble. “I was asking her a whole bunch of questions.”

“Trust me, little bride, I know just how incessant your questions can be. I do not blame Aiko in the slightest, so you do not need to protect her, although,” his mouth curled up on one side, “it pleases me that you do.”

“Well, alright then,” I said, face hot and not just from the steam. I shouldn’t have cared about pleasing my alien groom...

But apparently, I did.

I waited, sweaty and squirmy, as the water reached my belly button.

“Skalla went mate-mad. His mother’s people, who are from Bohnebregg, are berserkers, which made his condition extra violent. He exploded into Sionnach, all berserker fury and madness, and would have laid waste to everyone and everything.” Wylfrael’s voice got hard. “I refused to let that happen. I fought with him across several worlds, but ultimately, was not successful in defeating him. He nearly killed me, and as I bled out, I opened a sky door to a random world I did not know. A world of deserts and dunes. I found a safe, dark place beneath a set of red mountains on that world, and fell into a deep slumber.”

Right. Aiko said he had been recovering all this time. But the reality of it hadn’t sunk in until now. Wylfrael, the strongest being I’d ever encountered in my life, had almost been killed. This Skalla guy must be insanely strong...

“Then what happened? You just woke up?”

I was no longer so terribly distracted by arousal and his cock. The story had drawn me in.

“I did. When Skalla burst his way into that desert world, as well. He’d been raging the entire time I’d been asleep, smashing his way through who knows how many worlds. I fought with him again and managed to open a sky door to Heofonraed. My plan was to bring him before the council because they are the only ones who’d have enough power to bind him. But they would not hear my petitions, and Skalla broke free yet again.”

“Wait, so he’s just out there somewhere now? Like, killing people all over the universe?”

I shivered, wrapping my arms more tightly around myself.

“Potentially, yes. Although, I have received a report that he is with his mate now. There is a chance his mate-madness has eased, but I cannot be sure. He may have been too far gone. He could injure his mate, even kill her. Although, if he kills her, that would end the entire problem. Though, even now, I still love Skalla, and would prefer that he not die.”

“Hold on, what do you mean? Is this because of the whole mates-make-you-mortal thing?”

“Yes,” Wylfrael confirmed. “The moment a stone sky god’s fated mate dies, so does he.”

“Whoa,” I said, shaking my head. Aiko had mentioned this but it still made very little sense to me. “But... how?” A new thought entered my mind, making me queasy with panic. “What if you’ve met your mate already? What if you’re mortal right now and you don’t even know it?”

It terrified me that this was a possibility. That someone else out there in the universe could get hit by a bus or get eaten by an alien monster and Wylfrael would just drop dead because of it.

“Worried about me, little bride? What about all those bold words earlier about poison and butter knives?”

“Just answer the question,” I shot back.

“Hmm. I’m not sure I will. I rather like how angry you look about the idea of my death.”

I ripped my arms down from my chest and hopped off the bench. It was deeper than I’d anticipated – I’d always just stayed on the benches during my baths before now. It was no big deal. I knew how to swim, though my head did go under the water for a second.

I didn’t even have a chance to swim back up and start treading water. Two hands grasped my waist, hauling me upwards and pulling me through the water. My knees hit tile, and I blinked water from my eyes, realizing Wylfrael had grabbed me and pulled me back to the bench he’d been sitting on. He was seated, hands still on my waist, and I was on my knees above him, straddling one of his hard thighs.

“You didn’t need to do that. I can swim. I wasn’t going to drown.”

“I wasn’t about to wait around and find out,” Wylfrael said gruffly. “Besides, I thought we were on the subject of my mortality and death, not yours.”

“Right. We were. So, how do you know you’re not mortal already?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” he said. A claw of pleasure curled inside me when his hands slid down to my hips, fingers kneading backwards towards my ass. I realized that I’d put my hands on his shoulders to steady myself at some point. Like this, he had a full view of my wet, bare breasts.

“Starburning begins the process,” Wylfrael said, his fingers continuing their deeply pleasurable massage on my ass. “In mortal females, starburning helps their bodies take our knots. In males, it begins our descent from immortality. But it isn’t until we give our mate our knot that the bond is sealed and the process is complete, binding a stone sky god’s life to his mate’s.”

“I still don’t know what the hell a knot is,” I panted. The quickened breath turned to a moan when one of Wylfrael’s hands shifted forward, his thumb rubbing my clit in relentless circles.

“It’s a thick bulge on the shaft of the cock. It doesn’t form until starburning starts.”

That made sense since I hadn’t noticed any bulges on him. Just perfect, starry smoothness. A horrible, inexplicable, ugly part of me was glad he had no knot because it proved that he hadn’t starburned for someone else yet. He wouldn’t be dreaming of, burning for, someone else while married to me.

God, I am losing my mind...

I pretty much did lose my mind when Wylfrael bent his head and sucked my left nipple into his demanding mouth. I arched, unable to stop myself, unable to hold back against the whirl of shuddering sensation that went from my breast to my clit.

Wylfrael’s thumb pressed harder, making me yelp. He drew his head back slightly, swiping a hot circle over my nipple with his tongue before he spoke, his voice dark and silky.

“You seem very preoccupied with stone sky god anatomy and mating rituals, little bride.”

I choked on a startled cry when he suddenly flipped our positions. I was still on my knees on the bench, but now I was gripping the edge of the pool for support instead of him. Wylfrael was behind me. He put one knee on the bench, on the outside of my right leg, his other leg holding him up as he stood behind me in the water. His fingers dug into my hips, shifting me to the side until, oh my fucking God, one of the water spouts, which was now a jet beneath the surface of the water, sent heated water rushing over my clit. I moaned, my hips twitching forward towards the extraordinary feeling of the water gliding over my sensitive, swollen nub. But Wylfrael’s fingers dug in deeper, holding my hips in place, perfect torture.