Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

silky…so hot.” Each word accompanied another soft caress to the oh-so-tender flesh. Then his thumb hit a spot that made her cry out with the sharpness of the pleasure.
    “That’s right, faolán . Sing for me.”
    She gasped. “Wolves don’t sing.”
    “Don’t they?” He brushed that spot again, this time with a swirling motion that prolonged the intense pleasure.
    And she keened.
    She moved against his hand, wanting something, not sure what. “Please, Eirik…”
    “What do you want, sweet one?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I do.”
    She nodded desperately. She was sure he did.
    One blunt warrior’s finger breached her body, slipping inside and claiming her on another level.
    “Yes…more…I want that…” she babbled as he moved that finger, making her body shake with delight.
    He pressed deep, hitting something inside her that hurt and she flinched away. He pulled his finger back, but not all the way out. “That is your maidenhead, faolán . My cock will breach the barrier and you will be mine.”
    She did not argue. What would be the point? They would both know the words for the lie they would be.
    And she wanted it. Him inside her where no other man would ever be allowed.
    He came over her, his straining arousal rubbing between her thighs and pleasuring that spot he’d found so unerringly with his finger. “Do you accept me into your body, Ciara?”
    Recognition of the beginning of the Chrechte bonding rite sent alarm spiraling through her with the pleasure. She’d accepted they would join their bodies, but this was more than a physical mating. He was demanding she pledge herself to him until death.
    That harsh reality that claimed all too many of those she had loved already.
    She wanted to deny him, needed to push him away, stop this before it went further and their actions led to the inevitable terrifying conclusion.
    But she could not. That part of her heart he had brought back to life would not let her.
    He would not hurt her. Death was a cruel master, but would it be any less a cruelty to lose him without the vows?
    And she knew in that instant that it would not.
    She loved him with every bit of her heart that had been broken and healed to the best of its ability.
    She was no fool. She did not believe that for all Eirik wanted her that he loved her as well, but her heart belonged to him. Vows spoken or not.
    He waited above her, his body drawing shivers of bliss from her.
    “I’m…this is just supposed to be…tomorrow…” The words came out as disjointed as her thoughts.
    He brushed his fingertips down her cheek. “Shh. Do not make this complicated. Your wolf knows what she wants. You know what you want.” He thrust downward with his hips, making his arousal press tantalizingly against her most sensitive flesh, drawing a moan of desire from her. “Tell me you accept me into your body.”

Chapter 19

One should believe in marriage as in the immortality of the soul.
    —H ONORÉ DE B ALZAC
    C iara opened her mouth to deny him, despite her new inner knowledge, but “Yes, I accept you” came out instead. And in the ancient language of the Chrechte.
    Tears of fear tracked a path down her temples, though a feeling of exultation filled her as well.
    He kissed her temples, sipping at her tears and whispering words of comfort in Chrechte before saying, “I join my body with yours. I give my dragon to you. You are keeper of my raven.”
    “I forsake all others for you.” That at least was an easy promise to make. She would never allow another to touch her heart or her body the way Eirik had.
    “And I give my seed only to you.”
    She wanted that promise as much as she had never wanted the risk of having children. And a part of her she had buried long ago birthed a craving for a babe with Eirik’s amber eyes and regal bearing.
    “Now and forever.”
    “Now and forever,” he repeated. And then he shifted sothe blunt, broad tip of his manhood pressed against her opening. “Mine. From this night forward.”
    “Yours.”
    He thrust forward, stretching her, filling her, making his words truth in a way she would never again be able to deny.
    Her wolf purred in approval despite the dull ache of him pressing against the barrier inside her body. She tilted her hips, allowing him to penetrate farther, and she felt the tearing sensation inside that meant her body was no longer innocent of carnal desires. Though, if the truth be told, it hadn’t been since his first kiss.
    She had fought