A Court of Stars and Shadow

Chapter 40

I laid in the crook of Carnel's shoulder, the space I swear made for my head. Half my naked body was pressed against his, my legs tangled with his own and I drew small shapes on his bare chest.

Carnel was-

I didn't even have words to explain him. I had others before him, two boys that meant as much to me as I did to them. They were stress relief, high school party hookups, but none of them compared to Carnel, not even close. We had gone at it for hours like rabbits, only slowing for a quick breath or a glass of water. Our mate bond finally finished clicking in place and I had cried when it did, cried in pure utter happiness. Containing my power during those hours was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do.

Carnel pushed back a stand of hair and continued his slow stroke of his fingers that went from the top of my head, down my cheek, then in my hair, down my back and then back to the top of my head.

The inside of my tent was encompassed in a blue dome, put up by Carnel seconds before I in fact screamed his name hours earlier.

I ran my fingers higher, tracing his muscles and bringing a finger across his jawline. I rose my finger higher and circled his perfect lips. He pretended to nip at my finger, and I let out a small squeak as I retracted my finger. I looked up into his eyes to find him already staring at me.

"You are so beautiful" he breathed, and I melted. It felt like a dream, the fact that he belonged to me, that he was my mate. My friend before anything.

I smiled and his eyes shone.

"I love it when you smile at me"

I placed my thumb on his lips and this time he didn't try to bite it. I leaned forward slightly and replaced my lips where my thumb was, kissing him gently enough that he could feel every place my lips touched his own. My eyes fluttered and I realized I was content to do this for my entire life.

"How long did you know I was your mate" I drawled out.

"a while" he whispered on to my lips, his hand on my back opening and closing on my skin like fireworks and goosebumps formed on my arm.

"Where you ever going to tell me, if I hadn't figured it out myself"

He hesitated for the slightest second. "yes"

I stopped my finger on his chest and lifted my head slightly to look down at him.

"Carnel! You're lying, you are lying straight to your mates face"

He groaned.

"I would"

He placed a delicate kiss to the nape of my arched neck.

"never"

He left a trail of kisses leading from my neck to my cheek.

"lie"

He kissed my nose and then the lids of my eyes.

"to my mate"

He finished and kissed my lips again; I sank into it. but he pulled back and cupped my face in his palm, satisfied to just admire me forever.

"Your insufferable" I murmured, repeating the words I had spat at him over a week ago. I looked into his eyes and drowned in them, losing myself as I looked at him.

He smiled as if picking up on it as well.

"and you are impossible" he replied, the answer he had given me the day after. I smiled back; it was always a little game between us.

The moonlight barely shone through the tent fabric. We'd have to be up in a couple of hours, then go to war.

I snuggled my head into his neck, pulling him closer to me and wrapping my arms around him, needing to feel him in a different way than I had the past couple hours; more intimate in a way.