56. Taste 🍋

*Close your eyes, lay yourself beside me*
*Don’t be scared, I’m right here*
*’Cause I know what you’re feeling*
*It’s okay, girl, I feel it too*
*Let it be, baby breathe*
*I swear I’m right here*
*We’ll be good, I promise, we’ll be so good*

- *High For This*, The Weeknd


________
Kiran stood at the entrance of the Keep to oversee Cedar Clematis and Endine Flax out. They were officially banished and would be escorted back to the Magnolia pack by one of his lesser Alphas whom he trusted.
Endine was too ashamed to even make eye contact with Kiran; all of his bones had healed but he had to adopt a faint limp. Meanwhile Cedar wept dramatically and fell at Kiran’s feet to beg for forgiveness. He snarled and grabbed her arm, yanking her up and shoving her into Endine, who caught her and tugged her away.
Kiran rolled his eyes and turned back into the Keep. He had better things to do besides comfort weepy traitors. Then he heard her voice call, “Kiran!”
He whirled and was already running to meet her beneath an apple tree.
Seff’s smile was brilliant as she bounding up to him in her human form. She didn’t leap into his arms as he hoped, but she did clasp her hands in his, interlocking their fingers together. Her heart was beating hard and fast, matching the rhythm of his.
“Seff,” he breathed, inhaling her scent. It was tainted by the motley of Moon smells but it was easy to cast them aside. “Are you alright?”
“Yes.” Her eyes scanned his face, and then her smile faded. She pulled one hand free to slid her hand up his cheek to brush aside his hair. “Your…your ear… Oh, gods, Kiran, I—”
Kiran took her wrist and gently held it away. It was still tender and hard to hear out of. It was his greatest shame; he didn’t want Seff to see imperfection. “It’s not your fault.”
She stuck out her lower lip and met his eyes, taking the hint not to hyperfocus on it. “But it is. I ran. I let you be hurt. It’ll never heal, will it? I’m so sorry.”
Kiran shook his head and chuffed. “A battle scar. Any warrior bears one. Come back inside before Selene steals you back again.”
With a tender smile, she agreed. She looped her arm in Kiran’s offered one. He didn’t press her on details, though his tongue burned to say, *What did you do for three days? What did that night bitch do to you? Did you remember? Did you remember her before you remembered me?*
“Is my room still…destroyed?” Seff asked hesitantly, glancing up at him. She looked no different three days ago; the same vivid green eyes full of life, the same white hair that caught the light.
He said with regret—though he felt no such emotion—, “It’s still in the process of being repaired. You’ll have to stay with me again.”
She clicked her tongue but then took on a sly smile. “Oh dear, will I have to share that bed of yours?”
“Whatever shall you do?” Kiran purred back, stealing the devil’s smile after losing it for the past few days. “We can share it now if you’d like.”
For half a heartbeat he feared that she would say no, but she only shrugged nonchalantly—before escaping his lock and breaking into a run. Kiran was stunned for a moment at the sudden playfulness. But that didn’t keep him. *You naughty she-wolf*, he thought, bolting to catch up to her.
She was fast enough to reach the harem, leaping over the pillows and couches, but his stride was much wider. He caught her around the waist and spun her around; she yelped in surprise before turning it into a full-bodied laugh. *Oh gods, I missed that sound*.
He set her down and took her hand to lead her into his bedroom. In the time it took to look back, close the door, and face forward, Seff had shed the opaque blue slip and stood in the center of the room in only her scanty blue undergarment.
Kiran went immediately hard.
Her gaze flicked down and she grinned. Looking up, she covered her breasts with her arms crossed in an X to grip her shoulders, her head tilted and he face demure. “Is it these?” she questioned lightly.
His mouth was dry. Taking one between his mouth was certainly a thought that got his blood pumping. He stumbled forward a step; she slid back one. “You came back to play,” he said roughly.
Seff lowered herself on the leather and wood chest at the foot of the bed. She spread her legs wide. “Is it this? What a dreary color, blue. Care to take them off for me?”
“With pleasure,” he said, throwing himself on his knees and skidding forward until his body was between her thighs, bracing his hands on them. Her skin was pale compared to the rich tan of his. “They’d look much better on the floor.”
She eyed him with heavy lids and growled, “What’re you waiting for, gold god?”
His brain fried itself from words. He grabbed her hips and shoved her onto the bed so he could kneel on the trunk and brace his palms on either side of her, hovering his massive body over her small one. Playful, Seff stuck her tongue out. He growled and mashed his mouth against hers so his tongue could meet hers. She tasted warm and sweet.
Seff’s legs moved to hook around his waist, but he grumbled objection and pushed it to the side with his knee. She wriggled to scoot herself forward so her sex was directly in his eyesight. Immediately he took her panty strap between sharpened teeth only to let go and snap against her skin. She whimpered his name.
“Say it again,” Kiran growled, taking the opposite strap with his fingers and snapping it too.
“Kiran,” she panted, “Kiran Cyrus. I’m yours. I’m only yours.”
“Damn right.” Seff bucked her hips up so he could take her panties again, this time jerking his head hard enough for the fabric to rip. It hung between his teeth for only a moment—he flung it aside with hope it would take its moonflower scent with it. He only wanted Seff’s.
No waiting. He was too hungry. His head between her thighs, Kiran took his first taste of her—a long, deep drag of his tongue.
A violent shiver went through them both.
“What do I taste like?” Seff gasped.
“Delicious,” was all Kiran could manage, licking again. Then he began a trail of teeth-skimming kisses to her hip bones, up to her navel, up between her ribs. He took a nipple and its heavy heat between his lips.
Seff’s mewl undid him. He had to silence it with a hurried kiss. Her hands moved to take his face between them, but he took her wrists and pinned them above her head. This time Kiran let her lock her legs around his waist so she could carve her body up toward his. Skin against skin—it was addicting, it was as essential as breathing, as murmuring their names inside each other’s mouths.
“Kiran,” she panted, turning her head to grant him access to her throat. Kisses were planted there, on her jaw, her collarbones, the place over her scent glands. That was it—the skin he wanted to bite so desperately. He wanted to sink his teeth and Mark her. If he Marked her, she would be his forever. *His. Forever.* They would be mates for life.
Kiran’s eyes were closed, but when her whimper of his name took on a desperate note and he felt her whole body tense, he opened them and lifted his head. “Kiran, I’m sorry,” she wept.
He released her arms, and they sat up together. “What?” he rasped. “What’s wrong?”
There were tears in her green eyes as she took his face between her hands. Her thumbs stroked his ears lovingly. He leaned in to take that trembling lower lip between his teeth, but she turned her head to the side. “I’m sorry. I just…I was starting to think of…”
Kiran’s jaw clenched. “Of *him*? No, you’re with *me*. Forget him. You left him behind. Why—why are you thinking of—?”
She closed her eyes. Around them, the trees of the unnamed forest sighed in their midnight songs. A warm summer breeze stirred their hair. “It’s hard to unlearn, Kiran.”
“I know. I know,” he murmured, resting his forehead to hers. Gods, he hated when she was upset. It made him feel powerless. He knew all too well how a past could hold you back in bloody black fingers. “I know, Zinnia, but he’s gone. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
Zinnia pulled away gently, but her smile was small and shaky. “I know he can’t. You saved me from him. You treat me a thousand times better than Larkspur ever did.”
“Don’t say that bastard’s name.”
She nodded hastily. “Never again. Just hold me, Kiran.”
“Forever, Zinnia,” he said quietly, and held her under the stars.

And then Kiran woke up, his bed empty.