Fae Dominance (18 page)

I had refused all offers of help and took on the role of preparing Blayre and Moss’s bodies. It broke something inside of me. I will be forever grateful to my wolf for making sure that everyone had left. If he had not, it would already be all over the kingdom how the mighty Puck had cried like a small child.

I was able to cleanse and ready Moss in stoic silence. Tiny shards of my heart broke off and crumbled into dust as I did, but I completed my task.

When it came to Blayre…I tried to remove myself from the situation and not see him. Just a body needing cleansed for burial. I was washing his face one final time when I shattered. All I could see was the infant I had once held in my arms, the boy who followed me and swore to follow wherever his brother led.

I pulled him to me, his limbs just losing their warmth as I wept. I began the keening and I did not know if I would ever stop. My voice rose and dropped with my sorrow as I held the boy who I had failed to protect.

Oberon and Isbeth joined us at some point. They sat beside the blindingly white bed I had prepared for our lost children. Blayre and Moss looked so innocent dressed all in white and laid upon beds of the finest ivory.

At some point Oberon had taken Blayre from my arms and settled him back into his resting place. He lay next to Moss their hands entwined in death. A look of peace covered their still forms.

I felt rather than heard when Oberon and Isbeth joined me in keening. Our voices joined and we sang a mournful litany for our dead.

Others began to come and finally Kale put a hand to my shoulder and pulled me away. That is how we ended up back in our rooms. I had no memory of getting here. We were just in the sanctum then here.

“Robin,” Kale began. “It is okay to grieve. You can let it go…let it all out and I will be here to help you.”

I shook my head no. I did not deserve the release. It was my fault they were dead. I had promised to protect Blayre and I had failed. I had failed on so many levels.

Blayre and Moss had both paid the price for my arrogance and blindness. I knew what was happening but had not seen the depth of it. Had not seen how unbalanced Blayre had become until it was too late. So many things I could have done differently. If I had, then perhaps they would still be here.

Kale tried to comfort me. He slid an arm around my shoulders but I slid out from underneath them. “I do not deserve your comfort, my wolf. It is because of me that those children are where they are.”

“That’s not true, Robin. For one, they are not children, they were adults and made the choices they made of their own free will. You cannot change that. You can only accept and grieve.”

“No,” I yelled at him. “How am I supposed to accept that? The king lost his only child…Isbeth her daughter and son…and here I am, the unwanted bastard of Danu knows what after millennia of worthlessness, is still here healthy and well. If there was any justice it would be me laid out for burial and not them!”

“Is that what you want,” Kale questioned softly. “To be punished for their deaths and your perceived sins against them? Do you need to feel as if retribution has been carried out? Will that ease your guilt?”

I stared at him brokenly, “Yes,” I whispered.

It was true, I wanted to be punished. No, I needed it. It ate at me with a vengeance. The need to absolve myself of these sins.

Kale sighed but nodded. “Fine, if you want a punishment, I will give you one. Fold us to that playroom we were in before.”

I flinched at the use of the word as Blayre’s playroom came to mind. However, I did as Kale asked and folded us to the dungeon room.

“Seal all the doors and make sure we have absolute privacy,” Kale ordered. Meekly I obeyed. At this moment in time, I was completely subservient to him. He was my Dominant.

Once it was done, I turned back to Kale and waited for my next instructions. He pointed to a mat on the floor and I knelt down onto my heels, my hands resting palms up on my thighs. My head lowered and I waited.

We had never played this game before but we both instinctively understood the rules.

I could hear Kale walk to the wall that stored all the differing lengths of rope. After several minutes, he came back to me and crouched down in front of me. With one finger, he lifted my chin and forced my gaze to his.

“Are you sure this is what you want, Robin? Once we start, we are not going to stop. Do you understand?”

I nodded my consent before whispering, “I need this, my wolf.”

“Very well, I always have a safe word. Yours is salvation. When you come to the point that you want to stop, use your safe word and everything is over. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I answered.

Kale growled and grabbed my chin in a punishing grip. “Yes what,” he snapped.

“Yes, my Alpha. My safe word is salvation.” I lowered my eyes and waited for his next command.

“Perfect, now let’s begin.” He held up several coils of rope. “Here’s a little something you didn’t know about me, Puck. I have a kink for Shibari. I love the fact that you want me to punish you. I’m going to tie you up nice and tight and then we are going to see how you like having a flogger taken to you. By the time we are done, I will have this baseless guilt beaten out of you. Now get rid of the clothes.”

Kale took a length of rope and told me to stand. Once I had obeyed by removing our clothes and standing, he began by looping it around my neck.

Kale must have been well practiced in this art because it only took him moments to position me. He tied the first knot in seconds in the center of my chest. The second was an inch or so down between my nipples and the third sat just above my belly button.

He then took the two pieces of rope and ran them between my legs. He wrapped them around my cock and balls loosely. “Don’t worry,” Kale said. “This will get tighter as we go. It’s loose now so it doesn’t put too much pressure on your neck later on.

Once he pulled it through he knotted it so the tie nestled against my anus. I could not help the shiver that ran through me. Already the feel of his hands and the rope caressing me with its light friction was making me hard.

Before I could enjoy it, guilt struck hard and I lost the erection I was gaining. A sharp crack against my ass had me stiffening. “Clear your mind,” Kale demanded. “I did not give you permission to brood.”

That was all he said as he took the rope and ran it up my back slipping it through the loop at my neck. Then he wrapped it under my arms and through the loops on the front.

Instead of making it a body cage he began to tie my arms down the front and tying them into the loops he had made down my chest.

Once he had worked the ropes down my arms, he left open loops at the wrists. I watched as he took two shorter strips of rope and turned back to me. He quickly tied cuffs to my thighs and told me to kneel.

Once on the ground he tied my hands to my thighs. I was in a submissive position to him and unable to move.

“Perfect,” Kale walked around me. “Damn, Robin, you look beautiful in ropes. I may have to keep you like this.”

I did not speak; a submissive did not, unless given permission to by their Master.

“How does it feel, Robin? Are you happy with the ties? Do you want to continue?”

“Yes, Alpha,” I answered quietly. “This is very satisfactory. I am happy in the position you have put me in.”

“Excellent, now it’s time to get to the root of these issues of yours.” Kale walked away back to the wall of instruments.

When he came back, I could not see him. Kale had come up behind me and stood just out of my line of sight.

“Now, Puck, we are going to talk. You are going to tell me why you think you deserve this punishment?”

I sat there not knowing where to begin. For a moment, I had forgotten why we were here.

“I won’t ask you again, Robin. Tell me why I have you tied and ready for pain.”

“Because I deserve it,” I whispered.

The sound of leather sliding over leather caught my ear and the cool caress of the material slid over my back.

“Why do you deserve it,” Kale demanded.

“I failed,” my lips trembled.

The sound of leather cutting air was my only warning before the snap of a flogger cut across my back. There was an icy cold sensation before heat took its place. The burn felt so pure that I closed my eyes with painful bliss.

“Again tell me what you did wrong,” Kale's voice was lower.

“I failed,” I told him again.

Again, the flogger came down but it did not stop with one stroke. He came down repeatedly working the strands of leather up and down my back until I arched with the sweet agony.

Once he stopped, we both struggled to catch our breaths. My eyes had begun to cloud over and the pain of the lash was my world. It was beautiful. I felt free and alive with the ache of it.

When Kale spoke to me again it took time before I even understood what he was asking me.

“Robin, tell me, my mate. Why have you failed?”

“I let them die,” I sobbed.

The lash this time was harsh and it bit deep into my flesh.

“What could you have done to stop it,” Kale demanded.

“I don’t know! Something, anything,” I argued.

Again, the lash fell and the pain took away all other emotion.

“What… Could… You… Have… Done…” Kale bit out every single word.

“Nothing,” I screamed and that is when the world fell away.

The pain was gone and warmth bathed me from head to toe. In a detached way, I knew that Kale was speaking to me but I could only mumble incoherently. Every touch had me shuddering with pleasure and contentment.

My body had become oversensitive and the slightest breath against my skin nearly had me coming. When Kale unleashed his claws and sliced through the ropes, it was too much and I came in great heaving spurts.

It was not enough and I distantly heard myself begging for more. Kale lifted me and carried me to the bed. He came down on top of me and began to kiss his way down my body. When he came close to my cock, I arched away from him. It was too much and I thought I might die if he touched me there.

“Please, Alpha,” I begged, tears streaming down my face. In that moment, I had no shame. I was utterly and completely Kale’s creature. I would have done anything to have him inside of me.

“Alpha, please, I am begging you, fuck me. I need you inside of me. Salvation, dear Danu, salvation,” I sobbed.

Kale froze before leaning down to kiss me gently on my lips. With the greatest of care, he flipped me onto all fours and came up behind me. I was able to pull some lubricant to us and he took it silently from me.

With gentle fingers, he prepared me before he pushed the head of his erection against me.

“Take a breath, Robin, and push against me,” he whispered in my ear. I did so and he slid home. Everything that had ever been wrong in my world became right in that instant.

The sex was transcendent. There was no words spoken just the tantric motion of Kale sliding deep into my body. Each thrust growing longer and longer as he drove himself home. It was reaching a breaking point when I felt him reach around and wrap his hands around my girth. One tug and I was gone. I came all over his hands.

I heard a deep rumble from his chest and his knot locking in my ass before pain pierced my shoulder. He was marking me again. I had not expected this. “Mine,” he growled. “I will never let you go, Robin. Never.”

The world turned hazy and I let it fall away knowing I was safe in my wolf's arms.

*****

It was time to rise. Sunset was only a few hours away. We had slept near enough the whole day. I lay in bed with Kale by my side and contemplated what we had survived these last weeks.

It had never been my plan to expose my wolf to the violent side of my world. This was supposed to have been a holiday where I would have teased him into submission and we would have gone back to London and our Dianthe happy and content.

Instead, it became a living nightmare. At the end of the day, I lost a brother and sister. The guilt and grief tried to rise once again but it was tempered with the knowledge that we had done all in our power to avert what happened.

There were joys as well as sorrows. A whole new generation had been conceived. The highest number of Fae pregnancies in several hundred years. Unlike humans who had to wait several weeks before knowing if one conceived, the Fae could tell almost immediately after conception.

At last count, we had at least thirty confirmed pregnancies due to Oberon’s gift. Another gift was that Kale and I had finally worked things out. We still had a long way to go, but we would get there.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Kale mumbled against my hair.

“Oh, they are worth much more than that, puppy.” I turned to him and kissed his chin. “What you did for me last night,” I began.

“Hush,” Kale put his fingers to my lips. “It was what you and I both needed. We are mates; it’s our job to be what the other needs. Maybe next time we can do a little rope play just for fun. What do you say?”

Kale grinned before he shoved me out of the bed. “Come on, times a wasting.” He sobered. “We have somewhere we have to be soon. Can you tell me what to expect?”

I nodded and told him what to expect as we dressed for the ceremony.

“We will stand with Oberon and Isbeth. Blayre and Moss will be together in the sanctum as we left them last night. Fae magic will be used to expand the room to fit everyone in. It is celebratory and a time to remember the dead. Tributes will be laid around them, things like precious metals, flowers, and foods. It’s an ancient symbol from when we believed Danu would come and take our souls into the next life.”

“Don’t you believe that anymore?” Kale asked while he was pulling his trousers on.

“Not many of us. We live for so long that when we do tend to die, it's due to fading. We literally just fade away. There is no body or anything left. It has led to the belief that Danu has abandoned us and we are left soulless creatures that live for so long that we do not get another chance at life.” I gave up fiddling with the ties at my wrist. “Will you tie this for me? This is one of the times I would have preferred to have cufflinks.”