I removed my fingers, positioning the head at her entrance. With deliberate slowness, I pressed. “Relax,” I encouraged her. A whimper escaped her, and I continued to rub circles over her clit. Her hole opened wider for me, until I worked the tip completely in.

“Good girl,” I praised, and her walls clenched, making stars dot my vision. “How does it feel?”

“Incredible,” she breathed, her body already coiled tight. For which I was grateful, because my balls were throbbing with anticipation of my release.

“Tell me if it’s too much,” I instructed. Then, I thrust deeper, bringing my length in and out as slowly as I could manage with how badly I wanted to fuck her into oblivion. But I didn’t want to hurt her, especially since I had plans for her training later.

“It’s not. Keep going,” she panted, pushing back into me.

With a groan, I did, flaring my nostrils and focusing on my breath to prevent myself from coming.

“Yes,” she hissed, her eyes flaring again. Her breath came in ragged sips as she watched me fuck her, gaze raking over my sweat-slicked torso.

“If only you could see what I see,” I told her.

“Show me,” she gasped, and I did.

Images of her ass widening, gaping for me as she took my thick cock flashed down our bond. She clenched around me at the sight with a mewled, “Oh.”

“You take me so well.” I dipped my hand rubbing her clit into her pussy, slicking it further. Her walls pulsed around my fingers as I withdrew them.

“No,” she pleaded. “Keep them there.”

“Then you need to come for me.” My voice was hard, commanding.

“I will,” she promised. So I dipped my fingers into her cunt again, grinding the heel of my palm against her clit.

She opened for me, and I buried myself deeper, inch by devastating inch. “Fuck,” I swore, nearly to the hilt. Poised over her, braced on one hand, control slipped out of my grasp. I curled my fingers against her inner walls, stroking the spot she loved while I claimed her ass.

She held my gaze the entire time, the world melting away as our bond, our love consumed us like a wildfire. A ragged breath fled her, and every muscle in her core tightened. “Fuck!” she screamed as her orgasm tore through her, yet in our current position she could scarcely move.

“Good girl,” I praised her, holding out until the last second before letting my own release rip through me. Hot ropes of cum filled her ass with me completely inside.

Trembling, panting, I murmured words of affirmation in her ear. Small, sweet sounds slipped between her lips. As my cock softened, I eased myself out of her. She sank to the mattress, limbs trembling. I pressed a kiss to her sweat-soaked spine, then went to the bathing chamber to run us a bath. Minutes later, she joined me, sinking into the tub. The hour was still early, so we had time to luxuriate before the first gong rang.

Turning the taps, I ceased the flow of water, then joined her in it.

“That was…amazing,” she commented with a sigh, settling back against me. A low rumble vibrated in my chest as I wet a cloth and cleaned her. She sucked in a sharp breath as I brushed it over her center.

“Sensitive?” I asked her.

She nodded. “I can’t decide which position I like most with you.”

“You don’t have to pick a favorite. I will pleasure you in them all, whenever you ask.”

She craned her neck to look at me, and I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “No one will take me again. You’re training me to be as fierce as you. I trust you completely.”

My heart throbbed at her words. I set the cloth aside and wrapped my arms around her waist instead. “Then we better work on my idea today so that you can scare the Angels and taste how sweet a victory that is.”

“I think I’ll enjoy that,” she grinned, unveiling the devious side of her.

I huffed against her hair. “With how fierce you are, I have no doubt.”

OceanofPDF.com

37

Once again, I stood across from Rokath in a tucked-away corner of the training area. The idea of impersonating the Halálhívó, intimidating them without softening a single emotion, thrilled me in the same visceral way that my mate did when he claimed me earlier. The thought of both made my sore center throb. I pressed my lips together to keep my face neutral.

When did I become so much like my mate?

Whether it was the bond that made me crave this power, this violence, or whether it was yet another part of me I’d suppressed as a way to survive the cruel society I’d grown up in, I didn’t care. I merely dragged it in like I inhaled the cool air, welcoming it inside me.

“Ready?” Rokath asked me, and I nodded.

Dipping my eyes closed, I dove into the well of shadows in my chest. Yanking on the tendrils, I brought them outside of me. They swirled into a frenzy as I pictured Rokath clearly in my mind. It wasn’t hard, given how many times I’d stared into his burgundy eyes and run my fingers through his beard. How many times I’d traced the tattoos over his torso and the edges of his jagged ear. How many times I’d unraveled beneath him, come undone around the hard length of him, carved open in a way only he knew how to do.

I stretched, grew, thickened, as I became an Imposter.

The complexity of his armor proved to be a challenge. Brows pinching, I rolled through it, piece by piece. The dark pants he wore, with the metal strapped over the thighs and his calves. The heavy boots that adorned his feet. The fitted piece that covered his stomach and chest. The flexible plates that made up the shoulder joint. And finally, the bracers on his forearms.

Satisfied I’d thoroughly equipped myself, I let the obsidian vortex fall away. Blinking into the present, I jolted when I was eye to eye with my mate. This new height and weight were ones I’d never experimented with before, since they would have made me stand out when I wanted to blend in.

When I spoke, my voice came out exactly like his. “How did I do?”

With an utterly serious expression, he rounded me, and I fought the urge to squirm. “From a distance, no one would know the difference,” he stated when he returned to my front. “How does it feel?”

“Heavy,” I grunted, sweat already breaking out across my brow.

“It’s unnerving looking at myself,” he commented, stepping back and crossing his arms.

At that moment, Rapp hobbled behind the stands and let out a low whistle. Kiira was tucked under his arm, offering him some support. But he was growing stronger and stronger by the day, especially aided by the enhanced liquid pium the healers had managed to create from the dried leaves Kiira and Xannirin had brought from Uzhhorod.

“I don’t know who is who and that might frighten me the most,” he commented as he and Kiira took a seat on a bale of hay.

I rolled my eyes, and so did Rokath.

“See!” Rapp looked at Kiira but gestured in our direction.

The High Priestess shook her head. “It’s easy. That’s Assyria.” She pointed to Rokath. A laugh burst out of me before I could stop it.

“No, that’s Assyria,” Rapp declared, knocking his shoulder into hers.

“He’s right,” I replied, grinning.

Kiira merely shrugged like she wasn’t concerned with winning their contest. “The easiest way to figure out who was who was to make a guess and check for reactions.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“Can we return to training?” Rokath grumbled, drawing his sword. The garnets embedded in the skull on the pommel glinted in the sunlight.

Rapp raised his hands in mock surrender.

“I should learn to move like you do,” I told my mate.

“Aye,” he agreed. “While you already do, simply because I’ve overseen so much of your training, learning to swing a broadsword in my form will be different.” He grabbed a second one from beside Rapp and then handed it to me. “Follow my motions.”