Chapter 47: 48: Golden Communion

ARIEL

~I’m staring out of a window, the sun reflecting on the glass.~

~Outside, I see Xavier running into the distance.~

~Away, away, away, until he’s out of sight. And I’m not sad, seeing him go.~

~But someone else has appeared in his place.~

~Someone far more regal than Xavier could ever hope to be.~

~She is dressed in a long white robe that cascades down to her feet like a waterfall.~

~It’s the Moon Goddess.~

~I had feared that I’d made her upset with me. That she was intentionally giving me the cold shoulder.~

~But here she is before me, walking in my direction.~

~“Ariel…” she speaks softly. “Well done, my child. Fate chose a mate for you, but you chose wiser.”~

~She is still on the other side of the window from me, but I can hear her voice ringing through, clear as day. It’s almost as if it’s emerging from the inside of my own brain.~

~In fact, I think that’s exactly what’s happening.~

~“I thought you had abandoned me,” I whisper, my voice cracking.~

~“I would never abandon you, Ariel,” she says gently. “I was just waiting for you to have as much faith in yourself as you have put in me.”~

~“But Selene,” I say, “I do still doubt myself. I fear I won’t be able to find my nephew. That he’s lost for good.”~

~“Follow your intuition,” she says, “and you will find the path you seek where you least expect it.”~

~She rests her porcelain hand on the pane of glass separating us. I lift my hand and mirror her action.~

~Despite the barrier between us, I can feel her power: a shower of golden light pouring through me, washing away my pain.~

~I close my eyes and relish in this divine cleansing.~

***

I open my eyes, but I’m not standing in front of a window. And the Moon Goddess has vanished.

Instead, I’m lying in bed, Alex asleep next to me.

The morning sun is just beginning to creep in.

It may have been a dream, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.

The Moon Goddess has not forgotten about me after all, and her power is still coursing through my veins. I want to share it with the gorgeous specimen lying next to me.

Alex was asleep when I returned home from the Crescent Moon Pack last night, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about the passionate kiss he gave me as I was walking out the door.

I want to finish what we started.

I lean over and run my fingernails along the contours of his face. Across his brow, down his nose, along the bow of his lips.

I see his eyelashes begin to flutter, and after a moment, he looks up at me.

I kiss his lips and watch as he rises to attention. All of him.

“Good morning, handsome,” I say.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he replies.

Kissing him again, I suddenly have an idea. “Hey,” I say excitedly, “get dressed. I want to take you somewhere.”

“Where? It’s like, five o’clock in the morning.”

“No time like the present,” I reply before hopping out of bed.

I’m naked as I walk toward the dresser...a little teaser for what’s to come.

He clambers out of bed after me and throws on the clothes that are hanging nearby, clean and pressed.

When we’re both ready to go, I grab him by the hand and lead him down the hall and out the front door of the palace.

***

I hop on my motorcycle. “Get on,” I say to him with a sly smile.

“You’re lucky I’m secure in my masculinity,” he smiles back as he climbs on behind me.

I can feel his erection growing through the fabric of his pants as I rev up the motorcycle and turn from the palace driveway onto the main road.

“Where are we going?” he calls out to me, his voice muffled by the wind whipping our faces.

“I don’t know,” I yell back.

But in truth, I know exactly where we’re going.

I took an alternate road on the way back from the Crescent Moon Pack last night—a winding stretch of road that doesn’t seem to get much traffic now that the highway offers a more direct route.

I admired a spot I saw from afar last night, but now I’m ready to explore it. It’s just over an hour drive from the Royal Pack.

As I drive, Alex grabs onto my hips. “I hope there’s a bed wherever we’re going,” he whispers into my neck, “because you look so fucking sexy driving this thing.”

I smirk as I round a corner. And then I see it.

A beautiful field of poppies that caught my eye.

I kill the engine and hop off. Alex follows suit, gazing at the pristine scene being illuminated by the orange sunrise.

“It’s kind of a bed...of flowers,” I say.

“It’s amazing,” he replies as we walk through the sea of golden buds. “How’d you get this idea?”

“Someone very wise told me to get off the beaten path to find what I’m looking for.”

He turns to face me, grabbing my waist and pulling me in for a kiss. “Did you find it?” he asks.

I nod, kissing him again. “If I haven’t said it enough times before, I’m sorry for everything that happened because of Xavier.”

“That’s in the past,” he says. “Let’s leave it there from now on. We have our whole future to worry about.”

“I’m not worried,” I say. “Just excited. Seems you are too.” I place my hand on the area of his pants bulging into a tent.

“Very,” he says.

I glance around once more to make sure that we’re alone. There’s a garden shed far off into the distance, but it looks like it’s been abandoned for quite some time. I think we’re in the clear.

With a mischievous grin, I kneel down, unbutton his pants and take his member into my hands.

I kiss my way down his toned torso until I’m eye to eye with it. Wetting my tongue, I run a long lick from the base to the tip of his erect manhood.

Alex lets out a gasp.

His knees quiver as the morning air cools down the trail of my warm saliva.

My knees dig further into the ground below me as I take him into my mouth.

I feel his hand gripping at my hair.

I hear his moans as I move him in and out. In and out.

This emboldens me, and I decide to see how deep I can go.

“Ah… Ariel…” Alex whispers. I love that I can make him feel this way.

A roving hand reaches down and grips at my breast, an anchor to keep him from toppling over in pleasure.

With every moan from Alex, I’m growing wetter and wetter myself.

I’m ready for him to make love to me in the middle of this field of flowers.

I pull him down onto his knees and before he can even muster another moan, I push him down onto his back.

I wriggle out of my jeans and straddle him.

He claws at my back and nibbles at my shoulder…anything to diffuse some of the tension that is mounting in his body…to keep him from exploding too quickly.

When I slip him inside me, we both exhale sharply and share a unanimous cry of “Oh, Goddess.”

With him inside me, all my inhibitions come crashing down.

“You feel incredible,” he says.

“So do you,” I reply.

I writhe around on top of him, grasping at his chest, his arms, anything I can get my hands on.

But he keeps his grip tenderly on the back of my head, his eyes locked with mine.

His gaze is almost enough to make me quiver uncontrollably.

But then, he licks the tip of his thumb, reaches down, and places it on my sweetest spot.

~Oh wow.~

I feel it again.

The same shower of golden light from my dream.

But this time, it’s filling me from the inside.

I cry out in ecstasy, and Alex is only seconds behind, sharing in this moment of perfect, all-consuming pleasure.

I crash onto his chest as we both gasp desperately for air.

When we finally regain our senses, I bring my face back up to his and peck his lips.

I always love the first kiss after sex with Alex, drained of lust but overflowing with pure, innocent love.

He smiles as his hand trails from my breast up to my face.

He reaches into my hair with his other hand, and I feel him gently pull something out of it.

“What’s that?” I ask.

He hands it to me.

A beautiful, golden poppy.

ALEX

On the ride back to the Royal Pack, I’m completely satisfied. And exhausted.

I nuzzle into Ariel’s neck as I grasp onto her tightly from the back of her bike.

~I can hardly wait to put my mating mark on this beautiful neck.~

~Goddess, I wish she were ready.~

But for now, I’ll settle for holding her close and breathing in her sweet scent.

Right now, almost nothing sounds better than crawling back into bed and sleeping naked next to Ariel for another hour, when my duties are meant to begin for the day.

But when we pull up to the driveway, Fate clearly has another plan for us.

My mother is standing outside in her robe. She never leaves her room without being fully dressed, so I already know that something is awry.

I hop off of Ariel’s bike and run toward her.

She turns a tear-stained face toward me.

“Alex.”

“Mom—what—?”

“It’s your father,” she says. “Come quick.”