The Beast's Beloved (Ballads of Cadarnle Book 2) Read online

  Dresdyn smiled and bowed his head down to nuzzle into Klaryssa’s hair and deeply breathe in her scent before kissing the top of her head tenderly. He could not help but marvel show perfectly she fit against his body. “Because, your soul has recognized mine as its missing half...its true mate.” He moved his left hand in favor of gently hooking his finger underneath Klaryssa’s chin and tilting her face up to his. “You were always meant to be mine, and we have the rest of our lives to learn everything else about each other,” he murmured with a smile before nuzzling Klaryssa’s nose and then claiming her lips in a slow, deep kiss.

  Klaryssa’s arms slid up and wrapped around Dresdyn’s neck as she surrendered to the kiss. Joy radiated out from her heart, and there was no longer any doubt in her mind that Dresdyn’s words were the truth. How could they be anything but, when every fiber of Klaryssa’s being longed for Dresdyn?

  Klaryssa’s body was willing and pliant when Dresdyn lifted her into his arms like a bride, and when he began trailing kisses down her throat, Klaryssa was only too happy to cradle the back of his head in silent encouragement while leaning her own head back and trustingly exposing more of her vulnerable skin to Dresdyn’s mouth. The growl that escaped Dresdyn moments later prompted a soft, submissive whimper to escape Klaryssa’s lips as shivers of excitement coursed through her lithe frame. Too enraptured by the pleasure building within her, Klaryssa was only vaguely aware of Dresdyn carrying her down the corridor, and it was not until she heard the telltale creak of a door opening and closing that she became aware that they had left the hallway entirely.

  Klaryssa raised her head when Dresdyn ceased his attentions upon her neck at last, and slowly cast her gaze about the room. It was far larger than the room in which she had been placed upon her arrival at the Keep, and it was decidedly more masculine. In front of the hearth were two chairs atop an enormous bearskin rug, there was a large, heavy desk situated just off to the right side of the double doors that undoubtedly opened out to a balcony, and the walls were tastefully covered with wolf tapestries and various weaponry. On the left side of the double doors was a table and chair for two, no doubt for quiet, intimate meals, but the main focal point of the room was the massive bed in the center.

  “Oh, my,” Klaryssa whispered. “Where are we?”

  “My bedchamber,” Dresdyn whispered into Klaryssa’s ear as he began carrying her over to the bed. “Or, rather, our bedchamber.” He sat on the edge of the bed and settled Klaryssa onto his lap. “Never before have I ever brought a woman into this bed,” he murmured while gazing deeply into Klaryssa’s eyes. “You will be the first.”

  Klaryssa smiled shyly as a soft blush colored her cheeks. “I’m honored.”

  “As well you should be,” Dresdyn replied with a smile. “The marriage bed is, for lack of a better word, sacred to the men of my clan, for it is only to be shared by true mates...no one else.”

  “You use that word a lot,” Klaryssa said while canting her head to the side. “Mates, I mean. Why not simply use the word, ‘wife’?”

  “Because, in my clan, mates are so much more than a mere wife,” Dresdyn answered with his smile still in place. “The relationship between mates goes much deeper than that of a husband and wife. Mates do more than simply share a bed and procreate. Once a pair is mated, they become each other’s friend, lover, and partner in all things. The bond they share goes far deeper than any mere vows uttered before witnesses only to be forgotten on a whim. When a pair becomes mated in my clan, it is for life, my sweet doe...just as we will be mated for life once we become a mated pair.” Dresdyn lightly rubbed his nose against Klaryssa’s. “And I will remain ever faithful and ever devoted to you until the day I die.”

  Klaryssa tenderly brushed her fingers over Dresdyn’s cheek before smoothing them over his dark beard. “And I promise to remain ever faithful to you, Dresdyn,” she whispered.

  Dresdyn’s smile grew a fraction of an inch before he became serious moments later. “Which reminds me,” he began. “There still remains the matter of your punishment for your indiscretion tonight.”

  Klaryssa’s eyes widened in confusion. “Wha--”

  She never got a chance to finish her question, as she found herself suddenly flipped and bent over Dresdyn’s lap, with one of Dresdyn’s strong arms wrapped tightly around her waist to hold her in place. Moments later, her gown was lifted, and her bare bottom was exposed a mere heartbeat before Dresdyn’s free hand descended to her backside with a smack. Klaryssa gasped then yelped. Her bottom stung, and she slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder at Dresdyn with an expression of pained bewilderment in her eyes as she bit her lower lip.

  “That was for attempting to leave me,” Dresdyn remarked with an arched brow. “Will you try to leave me again?”

  “But, Dresdyn, I—“ Klaryssa yelped again when Dresdyn’s strong hand met her still stinging bottom once more.

  “Will you try to leave me again?” Dresdyn repeated in a calm voice. His hand hovered just above Klaryssa’s red rump, and he could feel heat emanating from the handprints. He could not stop himself from slowly licking his lips as he took in the sight of them. Oh, how perfect his handprints looked against that snowy-white ass…

  Marking her as his.

  “No, My Lord Dresdyn,” Klaryssa answered softly as she slowly hung her head before blinking away the tears in her eyes. “I will never try to leave you again.”

  Dresdyn smiled. “Good girl,” he purred while gently rubbing his maiden’s red bottom to alleviate the sting. His smile grew when his ears became attuned to Klaryssa’s soft moan as she began arching her back. “It pleases me that you have learned your lesson,” he murmured while sliding his hand further down. He could feel his maiden’s core radiating heat, and Dresdyn could not stop himself from brushing his fingertips over the small, sensitive pearl hidden within the warm folds. “Now, for your reward.”

  Klaryssa gasped and arched her back. Words failed her at that moment, and all she could do was gasp and whimper in growing arousal as Dresdyn continued to tease and tantalize what had until that moment remained untouched. Shivers of pleasure pulsated through Klaryssa’s body, and her hips began moving of their own volition in time with Dresdyn’s ministrations as she mewled wordlessly while biting her bottom lip.

  Klaryssa’s skin was every bit as virginal-white as Dresdyn had imagined it to be, and he firmly gripped her hair before slipping his fingers up to brush over her slit, finding her hot core slick and ready with want. Dresdyn grinned knowingly and leaned down close to Klaryssa’s ear. “It would seem that I excite you, my timid doe,” he said with an underlying growl which only intensified at the aroused cry that escaped Klaryssa’s lips when he slipped a finger into her wet folds. “So tight…” he murmured into her ear before nibbling it as his finger slowly slid in and out of her warmth “You truly have been utterly untouched until now, haven’t you?”

  “Y...yes, Dresdyn,” Klaryssa whispered with a shaky nod. “None but you have t...touched me like this!” She bit her bottom lip and whimpered as Dresdyn slowly quickened the thrusts of his fingers after carefully adding a second digit. She arched her back and cried out wordlessly as Dresdyn’s thumb skillfully resumed teasing her hidden pearl all the while his fingers penetrated her again and again. “Oh, Dresdyn,” she mewled before her breath hitched in her throat upon feeling a third finger carefully join its brothers. “Dresdyn, yes!”

  “So tight, and wet,” Dresdyn growled huskily into Klaryssa’s ear while tightening his grip in her hair and slightly quickening the pace of his fingers. He groaned deeply when he felt her inner walls clench tightly around his digits, and all he could imagine was how those molten walls would feel wrapped around his aching cock. “I can’t wait to mount you, my sweet.”

  Klaryssa could feel the hard evidence of Dresdyn’s arousal pressing against her thigh, and she longed for it to be pressing elsewhere. Dynol preserve her, she needed to feel it inside of her. “Please mount me, Dresdyn,” Klaryssa whis
pered wantonly. “Please, please take me...now!”

  Dresdyn’s fingers gradually slowed before pulling out of Klaryssa entirely, and he pressed a lingering kiss to the back of her neck before letting go of her hair. He then helped Klaryssa up so she was once again seated upon his lap. Dresdyn brushed his lips softly against his mate’s before claiming them deeply as he used his left hand to unfasten the bodice of the heavy overdress. With the ties undone, the overdress fell open, and Dresdyn could not help but smile when Klaryssa shrugged it off her body before pulling the underdress off over her head.

  “Eager, are we?” Dresdyn asked with his smile still in place as he hungrily drank in the sight of Klaryssa’s soft, feminine body. Already, the pink buds of her nipples had hardened into peaks, and Dresdyn could not keep himself from slowly swirling his tongue around the right.

  “For you?” Klaryssa’s breath hitched in her throat, and she cradled Dresdyn’s head to her breast as he suckled her right nipple into his mouth while his fingers teased and toyed with the left. “Of course, I’m eager,” she whimpered. “From the first moment we kissed today, you have been stirring up desires I never knew I was capable of feeling. My body craves none but yours,” she whispered while tangling her fingers into Dresdyn’s dark, unruly hair. “Never have I so much wanted to be taken by a man.”

  Dresdyn released Klaryssa’s nipple and raised his head so he could gaze into her eyes. “This pleases me,” he growled with a smile as he shifted Klaryssa off his lap so she was sitting beside him on the bed. Without saying a word, and without his gaze one wavering from hers, Dresdyn stood and undid the wide, thick belt he wore over his tunic before pulling said tunic off over his head and letting it fall carelessly to the floor. He grinned as he watched Klaryssa’s breath quicken as he bit her bottom lip. “Like what you see?”

  As she took in the sight of the sculpted stomach, defined chest, and muscular arms, Klaryssa could only nod as a wordless whimper of want escaped her. Never in her life had she seen so perfect an example of masculinity. Not even the old scars that were scattered over Dresdyn’s body could detract from the rugged perfection of the man before her.

  “Good,” Dresdyn growled in approval before gently pushing Klaryssa down onto her back. Leaning forward, he began trailing nipping kisses down the length of Klaryssa’s trembling body. “Because I am quite mad for what I see.” He dipped his tongue into his mate’s belly button. “For what I taste.” He knelt between Klaryssa’s legs and caressed her thighs while nuzzling into her warm, wet folds. He growled deeply as his mate’s scent flooded his nose. “And for what I smell,” he uttered in a gravelly voice before languidly drawing his tongue up Klaryssa’s wet slit and over her sensitive nub.

  Klaryssa cried out and nearly came off the bed as her entire body jolted. “Dresdyn! Dresdyn, what’re you...oh!” Her eyes fluttered closed as Dresdyn delved deeply into her with his tongue. “Dynol,” she panted. She could not believe what was happening. Klaryssa could not believe what Dresdyn was doing to her, or how good it felt. “Dres...Dresdyn,” she whimpered wantonly as Dresdyn continued lavishing attention upon her with his tongue. It was unlike anything she had ever imagined! It was too much. The pleasure was too much. Klaryssa could feel herself slipping as all coherent thought left her, and she tried moving her hips away, only to have Dresdyn grip them tightly while growling possessively against her virginal folds.

  “Don’t move,” Dresdyn growled in a deep, guttural voice as he shrugged Klaryssa’s legs onto his shoulders. “Not finished.” He softly blew on Klaryssa’s clit before swirling his tongue around it only to suckle it into his mouth.

  Klaryssa mewled and arched her back while pointing her toes. Before she knew what she was doing, her hips began undulating against the skilled attentions of Dresdyn’s tongue, and her hands tightly gripped the quilt in a desperate attempt to keep herself anchored in the face of the monumental pleasure that threatened to sweep her away.

  The sounds of his mate’s pleasure were sweeter than any music, and the feel of her slender fingers brushing against his scalp as her trembling hands tightly gripped his hair caused Dresdyn’s heart to race in unbridled delight. Since coming to sexual maturity, Dresdyn had brought pleasure to many women, but their pleasure had never brought him joy in the way that Klaryssa’s did. The taste of Klaryssa’s nectar as she reached her first orgasm was sweeter than any honey, and Dresdyn could not get enough of it as it coated his tongue.

  He could not get enough of her.

  And he never would.

  Klaryssa was adrift in a sea of euphoria as she rode the waves of her orgasm; but, before she was able to come down, Dresdyn’s tongue and fingers sent her over the edge again...and again. Tears of unadulterated bliss rolled down her cheeks as her wordless cries of ecstasy sounded through the large room as Dresdyn mercilessly suckled and licked Klaryssa’s sensitive nub while his fingers stroked the inside of her sopping, molten sheath. Klaryssa was certain that her quivering body could not stand another onslaught of pleasure, and just when she thought she would faint, Dresdyn slowly drew away after giving her dripping slit a final languid lick.

  Klaryssa was only vaguely aware of Dresdyn drawing away from her core, but she was very much aware of when he began to nuzzle and kiss his way back up her trembling body before kissing her lips deeply. She could taste herself on Dresdyn’s tongue, and it caused an unexpected shiver to rush through her as she wrapped her arms and legs around him. Klaryssa instantly felt the hard evidence of Dresdyn’s arousal pressing against her, and she whimpered with want into the kiss.

  “Dresdyn,” Klaryssa mewled once their lips parted. “Dresdyn, please take me. Make love to me.” She gazed up entreatingly into his eyes. “Please, make me yours.”

  Dresdyn gazed down into Klaryssa’s eyes for a few moments in silence before slowly exhaling through his nose and then giving a small shake of his head. “I can’t,” he answered huskily while slowly climbing off of Klaryssa and settling himself on his side beside her. “Not until you and I are presented as a mated pair before the entire clan at the gathering.”

  Klaryssa blinked in confusion. “What? Why?”

  “Because that is the way things are done in my clan,” Dresdyn answered patiently while closing his eyes and breathing slowly. He had to get his urges under control. “It is the way things have been done for centuries. Mates are presented before the clan on the night of the hunter’s moon, then and only then, can we consummate our union.”

  “The hunter’s moon?” Klaryssa asked incredulously.

  “Yes,” Dresdyn answered with a nod. “Fortunately, it is only a week away, so we will not have to wait that long.”

  “Then why even do what you just did to me?” Klaryssa asked with growing annoyance. “Why in Dynol’s name have you been teasing me since our first kiss?”

  “Forgive me for wanting a taste of what awaits me in my future,” Dresdyn replied with a growl.

  “Well, forgive me for wanting more than a mere taste,” Klaryssa snipped before softening as she turned onto her side and cupped Dresdyn’s cheek. “Please, Dresdyn? Please make me yours.”

  “I brought you to climax three times with simply my tongue, woman,” Dresdyn retorted. “Was that not enough?”

  “No, it was wonderful, but...Dresdyn,” Klaryssa lightly bit her bottom lip as she searched for the correct words. “For the first time in my life, I find myself in possession of the desire to be with someone...to belong to someone in every possible way.” She lovingly brushed her fingers over Dresdyn’s beard. “During my betrothal to you-know-who, the thought of him touching me whenever he wished absolutely sickened me.” She smiled. “But with you, all I can think about is you touching me after I freely and gladly surrender myself to you, and the thought of that fills me with immeasurable joy.”

  “You think that I do not feel that same?” Dresdyn asked huskily. “That I do not want the same? By the fangs of Blaiddwych, I do, Klaryssa,” he added fervently. “All I want at this moment is to bury
myself to the hilt within you and have you over and over until neither of us can move.” His eyes bored into Klaryssa’s. “Until there is not even a lingering doubt in your mind that you belong to me.”

  Klaryssa’s heart fluttered with growing excitement and eclipsed her curiosity at Dresdyn’s invocation of the Great Wolf. “You keep saying that I am yours, so why not prove to me just how much I belong to you?” Klaryssa asked while her smile shyly shifted into coyness.

  Dresdyn slowly exhaled and opened his eyes. “I am already breaking rules and tradition by allowing your father and sister to live here,” Dresdyn replied with an underlying growl as he shifted into a seated position. “But I will not break the tradition that is held so sacredly among the people of my clan. Tradition might not matter to you, Klaryssa, but it matters to me.” Sitting on the edge of the bed now, he fixed his gaze upon the tapestry on the wall opposite him.

  It was of a wolf chasing a doe.

  Klaryssa blinked before propping herself up on an elbow. “Rules? What do you mean?”

  “My clan is ancient, Klaryssa,” Dresdyn began, “and we are different from other people...especially the men. It is because of those differences that rules were set into place by my ancestors. One of those rules was that mates brought into the clan were forbidden to contact anyone from their past ever again. That rule was put into place in order to keep the clan safe, and it has been upheld by every generation over the centuries. Until now.”