Chapter 35: Chapter 35

REYNA

It had been almost a week since Casvan and I crossed the lines I was strictly forbidden to cross. Now our nights were spent giving each other immense pleasure, despite Cas’s reluctance to have sex with me.

I had learned so much from him—more than I ever did from Sabrina. Every night after we were done exploring each other’s bodies, I lay in Casvan’s arms while he stroked my hair and body leisurely.

We chatted the night away, eating the food I had stolen from the pantry for him. Whenever I left the dungeon, I lay in my bed, thinking about the things we had done, how Cas had given me intense pleasure unlike any I had ever known.

The way he touched, licked, and stroked me. Then he’d… Just thinking about it made me so wet and achy.

The only downside was that I didn’t get to stay with him for the rest of the night. I loved learning about the world he had seen and experienced through his eyes.

I loved how he sometimes showed me glimpses of his memories. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, second only to the beast himself.

It was like time traveling through the past. Cas finally admitted to causing all my dreams—only they weren’t dreams at all, but memories he had shared using his powers.

He called it the Essence trajectory, moving through the veil between realism and dream when the brain was vulnerable and unguarded. He told me it was also possible, with more powerful Dakkuth, for this to happen even when the other person was fully awake.

But even among his people, these could only happen when there was a strong, deep bond between them and the Dakkuth warrior was powerful. Yesterday, he showed me an old library with thousands, if not millions, of books.

The images and scenes he showed me made me both excited and sad—sad because all the worlds of knowledge in those books were gone, lost probably forever. When I was with him, I felt like I was in a dream, living the best fantasy.

Being with him had shown me that not everything outside Marlenia was bad or dangerous. I tried not to think about what would happen to us if we were ever found out when I was with him.

But deep down, there was a deep-seated fear I wouldn’t allow myself to think about. I wouldn’t know what to do if that time came.

Marlenia was my home, my entire world before he came. And now… I just wanted to enjoy my time with Cas.

But I knew soon I would have to think about it and make my decision, whether I wanted to or not. Cassandra had been busy running the queendom, and we only saw each other once a day when we had our mandatory lunch together.

Talking about my mother—now that I finally knew what happened between a man and a woman, I felt my face flaming red. Whenever I remembered the night I almost barged into Cassandra’s room, worried and thinking she was sick with the plague, I thanked God my nana was able to stop me before I was scarred for life.

Seeing Cassandra like that was the last thing I ever wanted to see. Even now that I had dodged that bullet, I was still mortified.

How my nana managed not to laugh at me, I’d never know. This made me think of how unfair it was that her own laws and rules did not apply to her.

While we weren’t educated about such things, which was so wrong. Education should be free for every person living in Marlenia, and it saddened me that most women in our queendom barely even saw men, much less got educated on sex.

Heck, most of these people didn’t even know about their own bodies and what they could do. I was one of those people, and despite everything I now knew, there was still a lot of information I wasn’t privy to.

***

Today I was early for my training. So eager for our lesson to be over, so I could go see Cas and kiss him until I was weak in the knees.

My mind wandered back to last night. I couldn’t stop thinking of our kisses, how much I enjoyed it.

Even now, I could feel him inside me, feel his eagerness to see me. That bond kept writhing between us like a living thing inside me.

When I wasn’t close to him, it pulled, twisted, and ached, and all these feelings were only amplifying every single day.

“Reyna, Reyna, Reyna!!” Startled, I blinked. Sabrina was staring at me.

“Yes, I’m sorry, Sabrina. Did you say something?”

“You’re not concentrating on the class, Reyna. Is something on your mind?” she arched her brow.

I glanced at the girls all staring at me and quickly replied, “No! There’s nothing on my mind.”

“Good, pay attention.” I bit my lip and nodded.

Suffice it to say, Sabrina called me out twice more. She kept explaining things to me and the girls, while I daydreamed about Casvan and all the things we were going to do.

By the end of the second class, Sabrina was frustrated with me. I apologized guiltily and tried to control my eagerness.

I tried to think reasonably—if I became too excited and behaved differently than I usually did, the people around me were going to grow suspicious of me. So I tried to tamp down my giddiness for the rest of the day.

I waited patiently until we left the underground room, like I always did, before I made my way to the dungeon.

“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to come today,” Casvan said after our lips parted.

It was then that I saw the new bruises on his face, and blood was dripping from the back of his ear. My stomach clenched painfully.

“Oh my God, when did this happen?” I asked, horrified, my voice hoarse.

As I ran my hands over his body, checking if there were more such wounds, Cas dragged my hands up to his chest from his back and held onto them.

“A few hours ago, don’t worry about it. I would heal as I’ve always done. I would have if not for these damn drugs they keep injecting me with—they make healing slow, but I can take it. Now kiss me,” he said. He lifted my face up to his, but I turned away, my eyes stinging with tears, my voice choked.

“But what if you die? What if she kills you? Casvan, you have to escape. I can’t bear the thought of you dead. Why didn’t I think of this? I can’t be selfish anymore. You have to go,” I rambled.

My body was trembling with fear. I remembered Cassandra’s eyes as she announced that Casvan was already dead.

I knew my mother intended to kill him. It was just a matter of time—I was so stupid for delaying this.

I didn’t care if this made me a traitor.

“Hush now, Kitten, nothing is going to happen to me. The queen wouldn’t kill me—at least not yet. She wants answers and she thinks she can get them. We’ve got time.”

I shook my head frantically, sliding my hands into his blond locks. I brought his face to mine, trying to get him to understand the danger to his life.

“No, no, you don’t understand, Cas. My mother will kill you. She’s already proclaimed you dead. Don’t you see? She wasn’t going to let you free ever! You killed her guardians, then attacked her. Also, she’s already killed Jakos.

If she realizes that she couldn’t make you talk, and she didn’t get the information she wanted, she will end your life.”

Tears I’d been fighting slid past my defenses. My heart hurt so bad.

Casvan hugged me tightly and I clung to him.

“Reyna, please don’t cry, nothing will happen to me. I’m harder to kill. Your mother will soon find that out the hard way. So don’t worry, I’ve got everything under control,” he reassured me.

I lifted my head from his chest, sniffing. I narrowed my eyes.

The connection between us twisted and pulled, and for a moment I thought I caught something.

“What aren’t you telling me? Are you hiding something from me?”

“No, of course not, but I don’t have any interest in dying, especially not when I just found you. I can’t tell you more…” He didn’t have to complete his sentence—he was going to try and escape.

My heart twisted. That must be what he meant.

“I would help you get the keys for the chains, so you can escape before she kills you.”

“No, Kitten, I don’t want you to put yourself in danger,” he growled.

“I’m a fighter, Cas, currently training to be a Rose. And I want to help you be free. I have to do it tonight or tomorrow—Cassandra’s patience is running out.” He kissed me softly.

“Just be careful.”

I nodded, biting my lip as I thought of something.

“Promise me that you will never harm anyone—not the guardians, the doctors, and definitely not Cassandra. I know what she did, but she’s my mother,” I pleaded.

I didn’t want to part from him. But I also didn’t want to see him dead.

So I was going to help him escape, even if the thought of never seeing him again would shatter my heart.

Going with him wasn’t an option. As the heir, my mother was never going to let me go, and I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t try to kill Cassandra or the doctors who tortured him and killed Jakos.

Casvan abruptly kissed me so hard and long I felt dizzy.

“You are thinking too much, Dar’sen,” he said.

“What was the kiss for? Not that I mind, I will always love your kisses,” I whispered, breathless.

“I love your mouth,” he growled, nipping at my bottom lip.

“I love yours too, but you haven’t promised me, Cas, that you wouldn’t hurt my family and friends,” I said cautiously, hoping he wouldn’t break my heart with the need for revenge.

“I promise, but I will kill the doctor, Kitten. I would do it for Jakos—she tortured him, broke and dishonored him.”

His voice was hard. I shivered from the promise of retribution I heard in his words.

At least he had made concessions in regard to my family and queendom.

“You’re going to help me,” he growled, grinning as he pulled my shirt from its stockings.

The sudden change in his mood was welcome. I needed the distraction.

“Yes, I am.” I smiled back, helping him strip off my clothes, then proceeded to remove his jeans.

The familiar sounds of his chains ricocheted in the dungeon when we came together, kissing each other hungrily.

Cas feathered kisses down my throat to my heaving chest.

“Come with me, Kitten,” Casvan whispered before he sucked my nipple hard.

I gasped, then moaned.

“I want to, but I can’t.”

Cas lifted his head, his glowing eyes hard, his lips wet from sucking my breast.

“You’re mine. We stay together.”

My heart ached so badly that I had to try really hard to remember why going with him was a bad idea.

“My mother will never let me go. She would send people after us wherever we went, and I can’t leave my nana behind,” I whispered sadly, blinking back the tears that sprang to my eyes.

Casvan’s growls were ones of utter possession.

“Where we’re going, your mother won’t be able to follow—trust me on that. And you can bring your nana with you,” he growled, kissing and biting my neck and ears with little nips, his chained hands wrapped around my waist.

I smiled wistfully, knowing I could never run away with him, even if the thought of losing him made me feel like I was going to die.

Cassandra was tenacious. If I went with him, she would see that as betrayal, and only God knew what she would do in her rage.

Casvan lifted my chin up to gaze into my gray eyes.

I knew he could feel the disturbing thoughts churning through our connection, but he wouldn’t precisely know what I was thinking.

“Let’s talk about this later. I want your mouth, Cas.”

He narrowed his eyes on me, then replied, “Later,” he growled, promising that I would answer the question.

I nodded.

“Where do you want it? My mouth?” His voice was deep, and it reached the place that was already wet for him.

I shivered with delicious anticipation.

“I want you to kiss me until my toes curl, then I want your mouth…” I boldly indicated my breast, circling my jutting nipple with a finger.

“Here…” I trailed that finger to between my thighs.

When my finger swiped through my wetness, I gasped, arching my back with pleasure.

“…and here,” I moaned.

Cas growled. Without a word, he pounced on me.

He began doing wickedly pleasurable things with his tongue, fangs, and fingers.

We spent the night exploring the depths of our lust, learning new things together.