Bound (The Spider's Mate, #3)

by Tiffany Roberts

“He’s talking about us, isn’t he?” Lacey asked, smirking. Lifting her spear, she braced her feet and took a fighting stance, jabbing the pointed end of the weapon in front of her. “He doesn’t trust our mad skills?” A large, dark figure stepped up behind Lacey, silhouetted by the morning light. Lacey started, but before she could turn, the figure had reached to either side of her, placing big hands over hers on the shaft of the spear. Telok leaned over Lacey, his face close to her ear, and placed his lower hands on her hips. Her breath hitched. He slid her leading hand away from the spearhead and turned her other hand slightly, correcting the angle of her arm. Then, with a foreleg, he pushed her feet farther apart to widen her stance. Lacey rolled her eyes. “Couldn’t just let me have my moment, could you?”

“How are you feeling, Ivy?” Callie asked. Ivy turned her head to look at the others; that was all the movement Ketahn allowed her. His fingers curled, and his embrace strengthened. She understood his reluctance to let her go. Had their circumstances been swapped, Ivy would have felt the same and would’ve been clinging to him just as urgently. Nothing would have been able to pry her away.

Ivy turned her head, blowing hair from her face as she tried to push herself up. “Ketahn, what are you doing?” A large, rough hand smoothed up her thigh to grip her bare ass, holding her in place. “I have need of you, female.” Those words sent a blast of heat straight to her core and stole the air from her lungs. Her sex clenched. All those earlier sensations, those cravings she’d had while in his arms, came rushing back tenfold. “Wow. I…can’t say I’m not jealous of that,” Lacey said. “No kidding,” Callie replied. “He’s like…Tarzan but with extra legs and stuff.”

He tilted his head. “I do not understand.” She smiled, released his hair, and traced the hard seam of his mouth. “I want to claim you.” His claspers drew her closer still, and more of his cock emerged from his slit. It was throbbing, slickened steel, and its heat pulsed into her, only enhancing the needy ache at her core. His low chitter was absolutely devilish. “My little mate means to claim me?”

Ivy stopped in front of Ketahn, and he instinctively sank lower to bring his face closer to hers. “You are mine.” She dipped a hand into the paint and pressed it over his hearts, which thumped harder beneath her touch. “Hearts.” She moved her hand down, placing it just over his slit and making his claspers stir. “Body.” Now she coated both hands in paint and lifted them, cupping each side of his face. “Spirit. You and I are as one, Ketahn.”

Through the queen’s legs, Ketahn saw Ivy. Her eyes met his. So much glittered in their pure blue depths, so much more than he could ever decipher, so much that he yearned to spend his life learning. And now something hardened in those eyes. The dread in Ketahn’s gut hardened along with it. Ivy curled her hands into fists, one of which was clutched around her little spear, and pressed her lips together. “No,” Ketahn rasped. “By the Eight, no.” Ivy walked forward, shrugging off Ahnset’s hand when the female vrix reached for her, stopping only when she was ahead of Nalaki. Ketahn heard his friends and sister speak Ivy’s name in question and alarm. She did not reply, and she was no longer looking at Ketahn—she had lifted her gaze to the queen. “Zurvashi.” Ivy’s voice, normally soft and sweet, had a hard edge in it as she uttered her words in the vrix tongue. “I, Ivy Foster, challenge you for rule of Takarahl.”

All the feels!!!! 🥹😭🥺

Ivy turned panicked eyes toward Ketahn, and in English, she whispered. “Ketahn, I don’t want this. I can’t be a queen.” He chittered, mandibles rising in a smile. “I do not want this either. I want my mate all for myself.” “Don’t just smile at me then! What do I do?” His smile only widened. “You are queen. I cannot command you.” “What? Well, I…I…I command you to command me!” Ketahn chittered harder. “What does the queen say?” Korahla asked.