"All you have to do is say please again. I quite liked when you begged yesterday. Is that so very hard?"
In truth, I have to be inside her, and soon. I feel myself tighten, harden, already close to losing it. She does drive me insane.
"Say it. Just one word. Say it, and I'll give us both what we need."
I half expect her to slap me.
"Please, dammit!" she practically yells.
I growl in approval and angle myself, before lodging my length deep inside her in one hard thrust that has her whimper.
We're too loud. We could be heard—by humans, and most definitely by our companions. I cover her mouth with my hand, drawing my hips out and then back inside her, back home, muffling her moans. Each thrust is deep and faster and faster. I need to get both of us there, fast, before we endanger everyone. Right then, I can't say I care if my fucking Vlari kills us all. Being inside her is more important. She rises and falls on me, taking me deeper, harder. I feel it when I hit her sweetest spot: her walls clasp around me, and she's struggling not to scream—so much there are tears in her blue eyes. So I withdraw and thrust at the exact same angle, pounding in. Vlari moves her face away from my hand and shoves it on my neck, right above my shoulder. And she bites me. Hard, deep.
Hard enough to draw blood and leave a mark.
I lose control. I throw her on her back, pushing her feet to her shoulders. Her hips are in the air. I bend to them and screw her like an animal. She started it. She bit me. It'll scar.
She's claimed me, and I'm claiming her right back with every thrust.
I want to bite her back, and the only piece of flesh anywhere near me is her ass. I'll bite that. Or perhaps somewhere else, somewhere everyone can see.
She tightens around me again, and drenches me in hotness. I hesitate, half tempted to withdraw and empty myself all over her so she smells like me, but I thrust one last time inside her.
Then I remove myself, and wrap my teeth around her left butt cheek.
I bite back, and I lick her, then bite again. I'm hard before I know it, and I do the only logical thing. I thrust back home.
By midday, I'm more or less sated. Enough to pull her trousers back up and gather her against my chest. She falls asleep in no time.
Twenty minutes later, Lucan joins us, holding his hands behind his head, with a straw of wheat in his mouth. He's the picture of casual indifference. "Maybe don't take guard duty together, yes?"
I shrug unapologetically. "No promises."
The Ashes of Ichor
Vlari
Isleep well after our guard shift, nestled against Drusk's chest. When Meda wakes us up, she hands us slices of bread and dry meat. We check our supply and set off on our way in silence.
I don't think any of us take what we're about to do lightly. There's a high chance that some—if not all of us—will never get out of Sandovar.
"If anything goes wrong," Ina says out of nowhere, "you know what to do, right?"
Everyone else either nods or acquiesces, but I don't. A reminder that while they're soldiers and warriors, I haven't been raised like that, though Meda did teach me to fight.
I have to ask, "What are you supposed to do? Get out?"
There's a short silence, but Drusk breaks it. "Exactly. You abandon the plan and get out."
I think I've missed something. Something important. I press, "Drusk?"
Spill.
He sighs. "If we're compromised, our priority will be to get you out."
Me, not the rest of them.
"That's preposterous! I can take care of myself. We should—"
