It took less than an hour of being polite and smiling until my face hurt, before Ryder pulled me to my feet and smiled wickedly at me. He bid the guests goodnight, but as I opened my mouth to tell him that I'd like to see the babies, he stopped me with one finger gently pressed against my lips.

"They're fine. My men have secured the room, and your ladies and my sister tend to them and their every need. I have plans for you tonight, ones that won't be waylaid. Tonight, you're mine."

"Is that so?" I whispered before I kissed his fingers still held to my lips.

"Come with me, Pet, and I promise to make you shiver," he said silkily, as his eyes flashed from amber fire to obsidian.

Chapter Sixteen.

Ryder had changed back to his Fae form, and he'd dressed down for whatever it was that he'd planned for me here. He sifted us to a forest, and it was beautiful. The huge wild oak trees shared limbs, as if it was one tree that filled the entire forest. Moss covered the forest floor, and I could feel its softness through the sandals I wore. He didn't allow me to take the beauty of it in for more than a few second before he glamoured a length of powder blue silk and let it slip from his fingers.

"No peeking, Synthia," he said lightly, his tone layered in lust.

"Bondage?" I joked, but he didn't smile. Instead his heated gaze met and held mine and melted my bones.

I swallowed and stepped forward, closer to him. "Kiss me first, Fairy, and I'll do anything you want me to."

"Remember those words," he replied.

"I remember everything I've ever said to you, and everything you've said to me," I answered him and lifted my mouth to his as my hands caressed the hard muscles of his chest. His mouth lowered to mine, and I closed my eyes as the heat of his mouth swept away everything from my mind.

His mouth was hungry and demanding at first as his tongue pushed past the seal of my lips and met, warring with mine. I gasped hungrily as my body responded to his touch instantly, as if his tongue was pressing some magical button that turned every part of me on.

His hands captured and cupped my face as if he was afraid I'd escape his kiss. That wasn't likely. I was right where I wanted to be; with him. His hand that held the silk left my face, and then I felt it as it covered my eyes, and then was tightened behind my head.

His teeth captured the plumpness of my bottom lip and bit softly until I cried out as pain lingered with pleasure. "I planned to bring you here a month ago, but then the Mages grew bolder, and I couldn't chance the babes or you being hurt by them," he said softly as he turned me around in his arms until my back was pressed against his chest, and my ass against his hard erection. "Do you trust me, Pet?"

"Yes," I said without hesitation.

"Good," he growled as he trailed his fingers down the inside of my arms, creating a whirlwind of sensations that made my nipples harden with need.

I'd felt the world change beneath my sandals. Gone was the soft moss and in its place was rougher terrain that crunched beneath my feet, along with warm winds that sent my hair flying. My heart pounded, and I smiled as I knew it was only because I thought it's what it should do and not really because it was beating that hard.

I wasn't ready when Ryder removed the blindfold, and beautiful ruins were revealed. I gasped in delight as I took in the thousands of candles which were lit around them. An entire rock face stood before us, with huge rock pillars that went into the earth.

"Wow," I said in a breathless whisper.

"This place was built by the ancient race of these lands. The ones Danu first created. Now all that is left is where they came to worship their mates."

"Danu made another race before the Fae?" I asked curiously.

He grunted. "Bile and Danu made them together, but he created a rift in them that ripped them apart, because he thought they should be made in his image, but the scrolls say she was torn by them and unhappy with the outcome, so much so that she left Bile soon after they'd created them, and then one by one, she destroyed the entire race. Centuries would pass before she would try again, and that's when she made our race."

I could feel the power radiating from inside the gigantic earthen dwelling. There were huge horned statues, which I could have sworn moved as I watched them. They looked like gargoyles, only more dangerous with their long talons and needle teeth.

"They are dead," he said as if he was reading my mind.

I continued to peer up into the pieces of history Dristan and Ristan had seemed to have left out of our lessons, or hadn't gotten to yet. Around us was night, dark and eerie, but thousands of candles lit up the area so that it looked like day, but only if you stayed close to the stones.

I moved closer without thinking, my hands itched to touch the history of the place. I paused at a massive staircase, and then turned to find Ryder gazing at me impishly.

"You coming?" I asked as I planted my hands on my hips.

"I didn't say it was safe, yet," he added the last word wickedly.

"Did I ask?" I smiled as he sifted to me and took my extended hand.

"You never do, always going off on your own and getting in trouble," he whispered as he waved the hand I wasn't holding, and the wide doors moved apart.

"Oh, wow," I whispered excitedly.

Inside were balloons, filled with what looked to be fireflies, but I knew it wasn't. Tiny fairies lit the balloons as they danced in them. I smiled and tossed a curious look to Ryder. "You put Fairies in them all?"

"They offered when Ristan told them I planned to seduce you," he replied casually.

"Is that so?"

"Fairies like to entertain," he started to explain.

"I meant the seducing part," I replied impishly.

"You doubted it?" he grinned widely, his perfect teeth catching the light from one of the Fairies giving them a feral look.

I stepped closer and watched as the balloons bounced and spun as the show continued. Eventually Ryder moved us forward, and thanked them in the language of the Horde for the entertainment. I could hear them now, laughing and cheering on the King as he escorted me further into the ruins.

I wasn't sure ruins were the right word to call the place, as it was truly beautiful even if it had been abandoned. When we reached the end of the long hallway, a door presented itself, and I lifted my hand instinctively and allowed my fingers to trail over the etched dragons that covered both sides of it. In the center sat a moon, and above it a sun. It was crafted of antique wood, sculpted by a master of his trade, judging by the details.

"As I child I came here, intrigued by the history of the race the Goddess had wiped out. This door would keep me entranced for days on end; each detail was woven into the wood masterfully. As if the carver had become enamored with the wood and caressed it as he would his lover with each stroke."

He flicked his wrist and the beautiful doors opened for him. I smiled as we walked into an expansive, beautiful room that looked like the baths similar to what the Romans or Greeks once used, possibly something Danu could have used herself.

Inside, lanterns had been lit and floated in the air. There were squares of tranquil pools of water that called to me. More etchings of dragons covered the walls, and I turned to look at Ryder's chest; his brands looked exactly as these ones inside the room did.

"Your brands," I whispered.

"The same as these dragons," he smiled. "I loved them as a young child, and would come here just to gaze upon them. When I inherited the heir brands, the dragons formed. To me it's a reminder of this place and what could happen if we stray from her designs for the world. I'd often wondered if Danu hadn't placed them on me as a warning to right the wrongs of my father. As time passed, I changed, and eventually my brothers and I started to right the wrongs, and then the Mages came, and now we fight for survival much like these beings did."

"Can we swim here?" I asked, itching to sink beneath the inviting water's surface.

"No, the waters are poisonous," he smiled.

"Seriously?" I asked feeling my disappointment rise.

"These ones are; the beings were ripe with treachery against one another," he explained. "They were pitted against each other, and history says Danu started it, unwilling to do the job herself. She set them on one another to kill each other. The Queen poisoned the waters, and then sacrificed her handmaidens in their depths. If you look," he said as he held me as if he was afraid I'd fall in. "You can see their corpses at the bottom."

I could see one, and she was whole, as if she only slept in the depths. "Creepy." Some men took women to the movies or wined and dined them, but my beast took me to see dead things, and ruins that he'd loved as a child...he was seriously lacking in the seduction part right now, but I was actually pleased that he'd brought me here, even if it was creepy as all get-out.

"Come," he whispered as he pulled me to yet another door. This one had stairs leading down into the pits of the ruins. As we walked further down, the wall gave way and you could see what looked like a huge aquarium.

Inside the wall of water were more ruins. Huge pillars stood, some broken but all were damaged, and in the far distance, I could just make out what looked like a Roman coliseum.

"Holy crap," I said as I moved to the wall and slid my hand through it.

My hand became fully engulfed in the water, and I smiled as I pulled it back out. "It's not poisoned too, right?"

"No; if it was, I wouldn't have let you stick your hand in it. You can't go inside; I've tried on many occasions. It's quite painful when you try to place your head inside."

"That sucks," I said eyeing it and wondering if it was worth a try.

"There's more to see, and I grow impatient of this eternal hard on," he growled against my ear when I remained at the water wall.

I laughed and turned to look at him. He took my hand and held it against his cock, which was very hard and throbbing. "Pervert, just can't take you anywhere," I mocked him, complaining playfully.

"Come."

We entered another room and I paused; the floor was sand, and someone had taken a very long time to draw the same dragons in it. In the middle was a larger dragon, and beside him a much smaller one. In front of them were three very small dragons.

Tears filled my eyes as I lifted them to him. "You did this," I whispered breathlessly.

"Yes," he smiled. I watched as he lowered his hulking frame to the floor and took my hand. "I'm asking you this, not because I almost lost you, but because I know now that I need you. You're my air, Synthia Raine McKenna, the mother to my children and my entire world. I know now that I've always wanted you, and while I went through deceitful ways to obtain you, we now know that this was our destiny all along. I love you, and I don't want to live without you. So, Pet. Will you marry the beast?"

"Marry the beast?" I laughed but the moment his smirk faltered I stopped. This was Ryder, Horde King to the entire Fae world, and he was on bended knee, asking me to marry him.

He started to rise and I sank to the ground before him. He paused as he watched me, and I could see fear in his eyes, fear that I'd say no yet again. "If I fall, will you promise to pick me up and always put the pieces back together?"

"Yes," he said.

A single tear slid from my eye as I continued. "And when I'm stubborn, and refuse to bend to your will, will you always use a gentle hand to bend me back into place?"

"Always," he continued.

"And will you always promise to love our children, and always be the beast I have fallen so utterly and hopelessly in love with?"

"I promise," he whispered as he lowered his mouth to kiss my forehead, which seared its print into my soul for all times.

"You didn't wait very long before asking me again, Ryder," I whispered.

"I never wait when there is something I want as much as this; as much as I want you."

"I'll marry you," I replied and claimed his lips.

He pulled away and spoke softly. "I really had been planning to ask you to be my Queen for some time; it just didn't seem right to rush this thing between us after I broke off the engagement to Abiageal. Do you know that the men brought me hundreds of rings, but I didn't think any of them suited you? I needed something as beautiful as the woman who would wear it. I decided that I couldn't give you just any ring, it had to fit you and had to be created from something that we both shared."

I watched as he walked over to a wild vine growing against the wall that had beautiful electric blue flowers growing on it and plucked a thin tendril from the vine and began to fashion it into a band. He then plucked a single blue flower from the vine and set it on the band. Next he moved his fingers and the flower and vine turned into gold, which he continued to bend until it was fashioned as a ring. The way his eyes turned to fire and his lips tipped up in the corners told me this wasn't his first attempt. When he'd finished with the ring, he pulled droplets of water from the pool and as I watched them, lost in his hypnotic magical show, they turned into a large round diamond before my eyes that he dropped into the center of the flower. Several smaller droplets appeared and he placed the smaller ones around the band, until it was the most exquisite thing I'd ever seen.

"As I said; I wanted something as beautiful as my bride," he whispered and slid the band onto my finger.

"It's perfect, Ryder," I whispered. I looked up at him with tears in my eyes.

"Good, now come on. I don't plan to fuck you in the sand," he replied wickedly as he dragged me behind him.

I laughed as I ran to keep up with him. We rounded a corner, and I paused in shock. There in the middle of an opening with stars high above us in the sky was an abandoned stone room, with steps that led up to where a huge bed was placed on a dais. Around it were even more candles; the steps had candles embedded in them as well, which created a lit path to where the bed was waiting invitingly. Four huge pillars looked as if they held the sky up, and around them was silk of the same color of blue like the one Ryder had used to blindfold me.

"You did all of this for me just to get me to say yes?" I asked.

"No, I did all of this for you. I'm seducing you, Synthia," he smiled wickedly. "And I plan to make love to you the first time, and then I plan to fuck you hard."

Chapter Seventeen.

I was led up the stairs until I stood before the satin draped bed that was covered in pillows. Like most beds associated with Ryder, it was huge. As I approached the bed, rose petals rained down from the sky. I smiled as I brought my hand out to catch one, and then lifted it to my nose to inhale the fragrance deeply.

I turned to Ryder who watched me silently. His hands shook slightly, as if he was nervous. "Did Ristan plan this?" I asked, knowing he'd helped Ryder plan most of his romantic escapades, but this one felt different. It felt real, as if he'd done it all himself.

"That depends," he whispered throatily as he watched me through hooded eyes.

"On?" I continued.

"Do you like it?"

"No," I shook my head and somehow managed to hide the smile.

"Oh," he said as he deflated a bit.

"I love it," I smirked.

"Naughty girl," he growled and shook his head. "This one is all me," he admitted. "I could have followed what Ristan suggested, but I wanted this one to be ours. No one else knows exactly what I planned for you, and no one helped. Fuck," he sighed. "I'm no good at this wooing shit."

"Actually, this is better than anything the Demon could have planned. The others, they lacked your touch and so they meant less, but this," I said as I took another look around the area. "This is you, and that means more than flowers and chocolate. I don't need romance, but it's nice. I wanted your love, but only because I loved you so much that it hurt to feel it without thinking it could be returned."

"You're a one of a kind jewel, Synthia Raine," he said as he sifted to the bed and reclined on it. He placed his arms behind his head and watched me languidly. "Will you strip for me?"

"No glamouring off my clothes?" I asked. I was so used to him controlling everything, including how quickly my clothes melted off, that I was almost shocked that he was asking.

"No magic, not tonight. I've never taken anything slowly, but I plan to savor you tonight. I plan to make love to the woman who captured my heart," he rumbled.

"Stole it," I smirked as I pushed my hair from my shoulders to show him everything. My hair was thicker now, and longer than it had ever been. I slowly reached up to remove the first layer of my dress. The Goddess dress was wispy, but the layers had ensured that it covered the parts it had needed to.