Renner, flanked by Mikkel and Elias, helped Miren with her dark cloak and thin nightgown. Her expression was animated but also a little nervous.
When she was nude, she wrapped her arms across her chest and shivered. “I can definitely feel a nip in the air.”
“The moonlight will warm you,” Elias said, his voice soothing.
Renner conceded it was handy having him around. His quiet calm affected each one of them, just as Mikkel’s humor tended to lighten their moods.
Torches were thrust into the ground and lit.
Unlike the last time, Miren rather than Bryn took charge, awakening the spirit of the old oak with three knocks against its bark.
“Waken, spirit of the oak.
Stand guard while we revel.
Defend our secrets from evil.”
The torches flared outward and then whooshed inward. The ground shifted and settled. A light humming sound buzzed in his ears.
As before, the women began to dance, circling the tree and then moving beyond its wide branches to draw down the moonlight.
As they danced, the eclipse crept across the moon, darkening it to a deep, dark red. The women moved faster, arms waving, the natural pearlescence of their skin soaking up the darker hue of the blood moon.
It was then that Miren came to him, a lock of hair hiding one eye, a sultry look on her face and a smile that made it impossible for him to resist as she tugged on his hand and led him to the bower someone had prepared.
A white blanket and pillows lay on the ground. A gauzy curtain enclosed three sides of the bower, but he didn’t care who might gather in the opening to watch, because Miren’s hands were working their magic, smoothing over his skin and sending infusions of breathtaking heat. His muscles quivered and strengthened. His cock lifted, hard and engorged. His thoughts became a jumble of sensory details he couldn’t quite catch because his focus narrowed on the woman who lay back on a pillow and opened her arms.
When he knelt between her spread legs, there was only the two of them, only the heat of her glowing skin, a distant chanting he couldn’t make out, because all he heard was his heartbeat growing louder and louder.
Driven by instinct, he lowered and pressed against her entrance, entering her in a single, powerful glide.
Miren tilted her head back and screamed. Thunder cracked and the wind whipped up. For just a moment, he wondered if she’d conjured another cloud in the sky, but this wasn’t her magic. This was the claiming, the moment their bond was sealed. Beneath them, the ground rumbled and shook, but Renner couldn’t care, he was desperate for completion. He thrust into her, reveling in her keening cries as she wrapped her arms and legs around him and rode the crest of the most powerful wave of ecstasy they’d ever know. She came howling, and he followed, come jetting in hot pulses to fill her womb.
Afterward, he held her wrapped in his arms, her head cradled in his hand. “I love you.”
“And I love you.” Her smile was joyful.
The sound of clapping rose around them, and they both angled their heads to look over at their friends.
Renner bent and kissed her. “We’ll pick up where we left off once we’re alone.”
“As alone as we can be,” she said, arching brow.
With a sound of regret, he withdrew from her. He stood and then bent down to help her from the ground. He signaled to Mikkel and Elias and then left them in the bower as Miren embraced each in turn, giving them their own heady infusion.
Renner glanced up at the pure silver moon. He hadn’t realized so much time had passed. And then he looked around the clearing and drew a deep breath. He felt somehow different. Stronger, for sure, but also more attuned to his surroundings.
Ethan came up to him and clapped his shoulder. “I’d say well done, but that might seem a little weird.”
Renner gave him a wry smile. “I never knew until this moment exactly what it was about. It’s as though I’m not myself anymore.”
“You’re joined. Be careful. You’ll be reading each other’s thoughts.”
“I don’t mind. There’s nothing I wouldn’t want to share with her.”
Bryn came up to them, already dressed. She gave Renner a shy smile. “I was feeling a little exposed.”
“You grow more beautiful every day,” Renner said. “Don’t be embarrassed.”