“Ah fuck, Rune,”I moaned through our link, biting onto his bottom lip. It took everything in me to hold back from making a noise out loud.
Rune groaned, his hands all over my body becoming rougher while driving me to an orgasm. When I released his bottom lip with a pop, he kissed me like a starving man before trailing kisses along my jaw to my neck.
“Call me Daddy, naughty girl,”Rune whispered with his invisible lips brushing against my ear while he physically still kissed along my throat.
He added two thick fingers inside me as my core spasmed, nearing my orgasm. He began a tempo of pumping his digits in me while another rubbed my clit with the pressure that was an endgame for me.
Stars burst behind my closed eyes as I quickly went over the edge and came. I bit hard on my bottom lip, but Rune pulled it from my teeth with his and muffled my moans with his kisses. He swallowed every one of my whimpers while he worked me through my orgasm.
Sweat beaded on my upper lip and tingled as I trembled on him with my thighs shaking. He kept me steady with his physical arms around me, one under my ass like a seat. I pulled away from the kiss, panting for air. I didn’t have enough energy to open my eyes and make sure the others didn’t see the show Rune and I put on.
“They didn’t. We flashed, and while you beautifully came apart, we were alone.”Rune’s voice brushed my mind, sending more heat through me with how seductive it was. I could easily fall asleep listening to him tell stories about his life. About all the exciting things he’d done and seen. All the things we’d done together in another life.
With some work, I opened my eyes and peered around at the familiar path that led to the town we’d been in when attacked.
The hellhound’s teeth snapping at Rune’s turned cheek popped into my mind’s eye, causing my heart to stutter over a beat. The memory of the gut-wrenching fear and desperation I went through when I watched him get dragged away came with it.
My stomach twisted, and my throat worked as I gasped for breaths, my wide eyes focused on something that wasn’t here.
Rune sensed my panic and experienced it with me. But being the stronger person and my rock, he wiped it away and wrapped me in his comfort and calm as he grounded me. My breath shuddered out of me as I turned my face into his neck and closed my eyes while I threaded my fingers through his hair. I breathed him in. Incense and wilderness that only he smelled like filled my lungs and helped me stay here with him.
“I’m fine,elskan mín. We’re okay and safe. I’m here with you.” Rune grabbed my hands and gently placed my palms on his warm neck for his heat to seep through the touch. I blinked away the images of him under the hound as I leaned back to stare into his ocean eyes. He smiled tenderly, tucking stray pieces of blue hair behind my ear. “There you are. Feel me... I’m here with you and alive. We’re alive.”
My heart calmed with Rune’s help as I gazed at him like he was my lifeline.Because he was.
God, Rune was the only one who held me here and kept me from getting lost in the past.
I was still the shattered person I was when I finally saidno moreand fought for Aaliyah’s life. For my mine and everyone else’s. But Rune holding me, bringing me back, and always murmuring “there you are,” every time I came back, made me want to fight again. To be strong and stay here.
I swallowed hard and rested my forehead on his. His pupils dilated, and he surged with love that became mine.
I closed my eyes with a shuddering breath.
He’s intoxicating.
Rune’s lips brushed mine, and his fingers curled over one of my hands still on his neck.
“So are you,elskan mín,” Rune murmured in my head. He squeezed my hand before he let go and moved me to a lower position giving him easier access to draw his weapon if he needed to.“We’re going into the town. If it becomes too much for you, we’ll leave.”
He left no room for discussion with the way he emphasized that we’d leave. And I didn’t fight it because I knew I’d want to leave if it became unbearable seeing the damage. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed here while we were back in my realm, but I would be surprised if everything was back in tip-top shape, like the bombing didn’t happen.
I nodded, letting him know I understood and leaned away from him as he began walking down the path into the town. Already I shook as I smelled the char of fire and burned wood. My fingers curled into Rune’s neck, my nails digging into him. He didn’t make a sound of protest, and his senses stayed the same.
My legs trembled as I squeezed them around his waist as we grew closer to the town. I watched with dread as we entered. It was still destroyed, and everything looked the same as when we left. The only difference was that there were no out-of-control fires and people screaming.
It was eerily quiet, like a ghost town.
The memory of cries as people died slowly grew in my head. Just as fast as it came, Rune wiped it away and kept it at bay, not allowing any of the awful memories to move to the forefront.
I swallowed hard as my eyes darted to the debris of the buildings, searching for anyone who needed help. Red stains covered areas where a body had been before someone must’ve taken them to give them the proper burial. My stomach rolled when I spotted a severed arm by itself with a large area of dried blood where someone bled to death.
My head spun as I couldn’t keep my eyes still as I glanced at everything. All the stains, limbs, debris, scorch marks, and craters in buildings that showed the levels inside them. All the destruction because of me.
“I’m sorry...”My voice was far away while I panted and fell into the recesses of my mind.
My heart hammered hard against my chest, making me freak out even more that I was going to die from not being able to breathe. Every nerve ending tingled while numbness spread, making me panic even more. I gasped for breaths as my stinging eyes kept moving around to everything. It didn’t help that my stomach soured until it churned enough that I held back the bile rising in my throat.
It was too much... the guilt was too fucking much.
