“Ach, and here she is, just in time.”
Brand straightened and something in him eased at the sight of her. She was radiant, skin flushed and shimmering in the sunlight, her steps stronger than before as they made their way across the ravaged field.
She’d fed. And her gift had come from Thad.
He was instantly split in two, caught between a lance of white-hot jealousy and a swell of pride. Lesser and greater, completely at odds.
“A-are we ready,” Lunara asked, not quite meeting his eyes.
The greater half was winning, pushing envy aside until only a single, consuming thought was left. If they headed towards their own doom…
“Leave us. Take Hedda back to the camp while you do.”
Thad’s head popped up. “What?”
Brand turned on his cousin and brother with a withering glare, rage already prickling over him. “I said, leave us. We need a moment before we go.”
The smirk on Mag’s face said he understood all too well. “Come on, pup,” he said, lifting Hedda from the ground.
Brand didn’t bother to watch them go. His eyes were glued toher.
“Are you sure about this?”
Lunara swallowed and glanced behind him, to the gaping maw of the chasm. “No. I’m not, but being sure is a luxury. Faldir is my friend, strange as that is. And I think he is much more than that to you.” She met his gaze again. “Neither one of us would be able to live with it if we walked away.”
She was perfection.
And Brand refused to go to his death without knowing what she felt like melting against him, what she tasted like, at least once.
He stepped up and sank a hand into her hair, his other snaking around her waist to pull her body flush with his. “We might never come back.”
Tears pooled on her lashes. “I know,” she finally said, palms searing when they cupped his face.
He pressed into the touch, into the relief of it. “Tell me to stop and I will.”
Her words from the night before were imprinted on him, her desire for freedom and choice, so easy to give her in the end.
When she remained silent, thumb rasping against his beard, he said, “This isn’t fucking over between us.” Shite, he couldhardly breathe. The thought of her dying… “No matter what happens?—”
“No.” A crease formed between her brows, sea-blue eyes darting between his. “It isn’t.” As soon as they dropped to his lips, it was over.
Brand surged into her, claiming her mouth with his own. He’d expected her to be soft and yielding, to sink lazily into the supple bliss of her.
He’d been wrong.
Lunara wrapped one arm around his shoulders and met him halfway, clinging as though her life depended on it. It was her tongue that darted out first, teasing, questioning. Her teeth that nipped at him and demanded entrance. She used his gasp to her advantage, dipping in to taste him, her nails digging into his jaw and tearing a rumbling, possessive snarl from him.
All of his lingering reservations evaporated. He was lost in a delirium, every whimper she loosed only adding to his desperation for her.
He palmed her generous arse and hiked her up higher, dragging her heat against the steely length of his cock. She tore away on a cry, head falling back and gifting him with the exposed column of her throat. Spine tingling, breaths sawing, he dragged his lips up its center, wanting nothing more than to lay her down in the grass.
But he couldn’t.
Brand used his grip on Lunara’s hair to press their foreheads together, running his nose along hers and already regretting every cursed fucking thing that was forcing him to stop. “We’ll be finishing this.” He pressed a final kiss to her lips and broke away, putting some distance between them. “Magnus!”
His brother and cousin emerged from the trees, faces blessedly blank.
“Go to Mag,” he said to Lunara. “Stay by his side.”
