“If it comes with his beautiful mother, yes I want him.”
Relief flooded through me; at least he wanted it. “Did you fuck Claire?”
His head snapped up, and he glared at me. “Not since I told you that I would only feed from you,” he answered.
“Have you fucked her since you took the throne, Ryder?” I fixed the question. I was getting better at the flipping Fairy word games.
“I have not fucked her since the day you watched me take her over my desk. I told you that if I fed, it would be from you. I fed from the pavilion as a whole. I fed from their emotions, from their fears, and their hopes. Is that what you wanted to know? I had to feed to save you.” He was smiling now, like he thought I was cute or something.
“Funny how saving me wasn’t even saving me, considering you were the one that I needed saving from…”
“I told you I would always keep you safe. I also promised you that I was coming to save you from the big bad Horde King.”
“Yeah, about that, how could you say that when you were the Horde King?”
“As I told you, I wasn’t at the time. I found you in your dream right before I took the throne.”
“You are such an ass,” I grumbled as I got out and quickly put the sundress I’d discarded earlier, back on.
I was turning to head back for the bed when he pulled me back into the bath with him. I sloshed the water as I swung my arms trying to catch my balance.
“Stop fighting me, Synthia. You make the beast want to come out and play with his new toy.”
I quickly stopped and looked down at the now ruined sundress. I tried to make it disappear as he normally did, but it stayed on. He whispered against my ear, and it dissolved as if the water had consumed it.
“Much better, Pet,” he whispered as his arms wrapped around me, and slid down until they rested on my lower belly. “We made life,” he growled like a proud peacock.
“Yes, we made life with the help of your beast.”
He snorted, and I laughed. It was strange feeling his hands on my womb, on the child we’d created, even if the beast was strutting his shit around inside of Ryder. I leaned my head against him and relaxed, ignoring everything else that was going on. Here, right now, it was just the four of us; Ryder, his beast, our child, and me. Shit, this tub was crowded.
“Answer me this, what is it that Ristan saw that made you design the contract to take me from my parents?”
He exhaled, and I shivered even though the water was holding the perfect temperature. I turned my head until it rested against his shoulder, and our breath mingled.
“He saw us having a child, one that would be of the two strongest Castes of Fae. One that would eventually heal much of the damage done to this world. But he also saw the alliance we would make that would begin healing the damage my father had inflicted across this world.” He paused and pinched my nipple until it puckered into a hard pebble beneath his touch. “For most of my life I watched my father ruin everything he had touched. I plan on fixing it, but in order to do so, I may have to do things that you won’t like.”
“Like?”
“I’m the Horde King, Synthia; we earn our way by being brutal. If I don’t show them my strength, I will be challenged incessantly by every king and lord that believes he is stronger.”
“I had a feeling about that; I don’t understand where I fit in, Ryder,” I said honestly. This was the root of what was bothering me. He pulled me closer and nuzzled his nose in the soft column of my neck.
“You fit in right here,” he rumbled softly as he wrapped his arms around me. “Everything else we will figure out as it comes.”
The rest of the night went by slowly. There was no sex, no rushing through it with fighting, and no words were used. We just lay together in the bed, holding each other as if nothing else mattered. It was refreshing, and even though I had a million questions to ask him, I ignored it. Tonight, I would accept his comfort.
Chapter Eight
The next morning I awoke to an empty bed. Ryder had left either sometime in the night or early in the morning. I ran my hand over the pillow where his head had been, the indent from it still visible, as well as the heat from his body. I groaned.
These freaking hormones were something else. I felt like my emotions were starting to come unhinged, but at least now I had a reason for them to be this over-active. I’d been through hell, and at least now there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I was safe, and while my situation was not ideal, I could manage it.