The Alpha of Bleake Isle

Chapter FourteenMAIRWEN

“Mairwen!"

The sound of my name, tearing and clawing into my dreams, startled me upright, and I slipped from the edge of the couch I'd been curled up on and down to the hard floor with an oof! of breath.

For a moment I remained frozen, groggy and lost, squinting up at the vast shelves of books and the enormous fireplace I could've stepped right inside, and the huge, luxurious furniture that could've served as a bed, forgetting where I was and how I'd gotten here.

"Mairwen?!"

Ronson's voice, booming and echoing, shredded with a growl.

"Here!" I squeaked out, shaking my head and grimacing at the crick of discomfort in my neck. I twisted, glaring at the couch I'd fallen asleep on and the book I'd used as a pillow. Heavy steps thundered closer, and I braced myself for the alpha's anger, trying to scramble up from the floor but finding myself trapped by the twist of my skirts.

"Mairwen!" My name gusted out with a great heave of breath as the doors to the library banged open and the alpha froze in their broad frame.

He was shockingly beautiful, hair rumpled from a flight, but he looked haggard and wild as he stood there staring at me, his skin pale. His eyes shut and his throat bobbed, and he scuffed a shaking hand over his face.

"Library. I should've known," he muttered.

"Where were you—Oh!"

I'd barely gotten my question started before Ronson was storming closer, the doors slamming and shuddering shut behind him. I reared back, gaping up at the rushing dragon as he approached, the brief slack ope

And then he was lunging down, arms snapping around my waist as he threw himself to the floor. His hand caught the back of my head before it could hit carpet and stone, and his chest pressed roughly to mine, his face burrowing into my throat.

"Ronson?"

He laughed, a dark and slightly ragged sound. "The damned library," he said. "I thought… Mairwen," he breathed, body sinking into mine, pi

There was a clock on the fireplace mantle, and it was deep in the night, nearing morning. I'd fallen asleep in the library, disappointed by Ronson's disappearance before I woke and his persisting absence throughout the day. A day I'd spent laboring over his nest, waiting for his return. Even Beatrice hadn't known where he'd gone, although she hadn't seemed very surprised or concerned.

Ronson groaned and rocked on top of me, and my breath caught in my chest, my hands hovering in the air near his wings.

"You-you were gone," I sputtered awkwardly. I waited for you. And in a tiny private place in myself I admitted, I missed you. A dangerous confession. I couldn't afford to miss a man who would want to replace me in a decade.

"A new alpha ascended to Grave Hills," Ronson said, his lips nuzzling over my pulse, tongue flicking out. "Niall made me go."

I laughed at that, and Ronson lifted himself from on top of me, his own grin gleaming in the firelight.

"I didn't want to wake you," Ronson murmured, his hands sliding down my back to my hips, inching my dress up a little bit at a time.

"I…I couldn't have come?" I asked, wincing at my own question.

"Mmm, next time. The rut is too close, and I would've spent the day snarling at every alpha that looked at you," Ronson said easily, as if it were perfectly reasonable that other alphas would bother looking at me. He kissed across my collar, tongue teasing and lips suckling at my skin. "Mairwen, why are you in a damned corset again?"

"My dresses don't fit without them."

"Then we need to get you new dresses," Ronson said calmly, lifting my ass and rucking my skirt up.

I flushed, squeezing my thighs together, pinching my chemise in place before he could expose me. "I can't—I can't just go around the island without a corset."

"You won't go around the island at all," Ronson growled. I stiffened, and he cleared his throat, lifting his face from my collar with what I thought might be a blush staining his cheeks. "For a little while, I mean. I'm sorry, I-I couldn't find you when I returned, and I'm going a bit…" He grimaced, and I couldn't help but settle my hands against his cheeks, smoothing my fingers over the short bristles of his beard. "Mairwen," he sighed out, eyes sliding shut. "Tell me it's my turn to explore."

My breath hitched as Ronson's fingers massaged and kneaded and circled their way up the back of my thighs. I'd suffered a heavy pit in my chest upon waking and finding Ronson gone from the castle, and I'd lost my train of thought too many times to count, sinking into the memories of his touch and imagining what would happen when he returned. But imagining was easy and careless in comparison to surrendering to reality.

Ronson was vast and handsome and terrifying and so, so tempting. His stare made me squirm with nerves, and his touch left me boneless and weak.

"I know it's late," he continued, dropping a wet kiss to the rise of my breast against the collar of my dress. "I know I've left you here at odd ends for days." Another kiss, a lick of his tongue into the tight crush of my cleavage. "Believe me, it's not what I'd hoped for. I pla

My eyes squeezed shut, a strange dip and soar rattling inside me at his words, like we were in flight. His hands were sliding up under my bottom, fingertips inching closer to the soft insides, the warm, damp place that was aching and pounding at my core.

"The-the nest," I said, as if I could pretend this dragon, the alpha, wasn't telling me he wanted me. "D-did you see⁠—?"

"It's perfect, Mairwen," Ronson murmured.

I whimpered at the words, heat blooming in my chest, at the base of my throat, in my cheeks, and the place where Ronson's fingers were delving. He groaned on top of me, heavy and grinding and pushing up to press his open mouth against my pulse. There was a soft haze and an unfamiliar sweetness in my throat. My hands on his cheeks slid into his hair and around his shoulders, gripping his jacket in my fists.

Ronson groaned against my throat, huffing, body rocking on top of mine. He pulled away and I let out a wordless cry of objection, trying to clutch him close once more, before he wedged one of his knees between mine and then another. I glanced down between us and found the picture of my ample bare thighs bracketing his own tight trousers and muscled frame.

I moaned and released him, covering my face with my hands. Ronson tutted above me, sinking down once more, circling his arms around my back.

"Don't hide, omega," he whispered.

I shivered at the way he said the word. Omega. I'd been one my entire life, but I'd never been enough of one, and there was something frightening and wonderful in the way he kept using it. His lips kissed against the back of my hand, and his fingers worked quickly at the laces of my dress.

"Let me look at you, Mairwen," he coaxed, all rasp and whisper. "Let me touch you."

I licked my lips and peeked out between my fingers. Ronson's smiles were rare, but there was a crinkle at the corner of his eyes that gentled the clench of his jaw.

"All right."

Ronson's head tipped to the side, watching me closely, and I reached for the crumpled skirt of my dress, lifting it up to my waist. He hummed and helped me as I arched and twisted, not rising up completely but enough for me to pull the dress over my head.

"Mairwen, you know I am the alpha of the isle, yes?" Ronson said, frowning down at me.

I blinked, my brow furrowing. "Of course."

"And that my word is authority."

I swallowed hard, scrambling back, searching for the point where I had made some error or done something wrong. "Y-yes?"

"Good," Ronson said, his expression cracking, laughter twitching at the corners of his mouth. "Then please listen when I say it is a crime for you to bind your breasts so tightly."

I snorted and rolled my eyes, and Ronson's grin brightened the room. "Then I suppose you'd better help me out of this," I said, trying to be coy but knowing my face was entirely red.

He rumbled out a purr, hands sliding up my waist, barely tangible through the rigid structure of the corset. I started to roll over, and he tightened his grip. "No, don't move. Just—" The bite of boning dug into my breasts, and then a rending pop and tear cried out from underneath, the structure going slack. He'd torn my corset open!

I burst out in sudden laughter, shocked and delighted. I had another corset, but I supposed this was a lesson. He was serious about keeping me out of this one. I giggled as he finished tearing through the laces, unbinding my waist and tugging the contraption out from under me with a victorious grunt. The seams had popped and shredded, and one length of boning stuck out from its previous binding.

"What if this poked through? It could stab you," Ronson growled. He rose up onto his knees, wadding up the fabric and laces as much as he was able, and I let out another sharp bark of laughter as he sent the whole thing into the blazing fireplace.

"That was very wasteful, my lord," I said.

I liked this version of our alpha, wicked and playful. He terrified me a little too, mostly because this was so…new and unexpected. Being teased, flirted with, gazed down at like I was a bowl of ripe fruit drizzled with honey and he was a man who hadn't eaten in weeks, was such a foreign experience I sometimes wanted to search for a mirror to see if I was still…me. My hands rose to shield my barely concealed body from his stare, but he caught my wrists in his grip and then slid and fastened our fingers together.

"Delicious," he rasped, gaze stroking from my head down to my spread knees. "Do you remember what I promised you that first night?"

I'm going to go up in flames. I can't keep feeling warmer if I'm not about to combust, surely. But I nodded.

"May I?" Ronson leaned forward, still holding my hands, pushing them back to the floor as he stretched on top of me. But he held my stare and waited for my answer.

"May you…" I couldn't say it. I could barely even think it.

"May I suck and kiss and lick and squeeze your breasts until you can't stand another second, until the pressure in you is too great to bear and you burst, Mairwen?" Ronson rumbled.

Oh, that.

My tongue darted out, and my lips were numb and hot, and Ronson growled, diving down, catching my lips with his teeth, meeting my tongue with his own. Our hands separated only so our arms could twine around one another, his grip claiming my back and my waist and my thigh, drawing it up to hook around his hips, to grind our bodies together. I whimpered into his mouth, clutching the base of his wings, scrambling my hands up his side and then back down, realizing he had the right of it. Grabbing onto the firm flesh of his ass was lovely and gave me better leverage to lift my own hips, to rub myself against his trousers.

"Fang's fire, Mairwen, please."

"Yes, yes, I want—Ah!"