“Mate. I am yours.” Ethan kissed me. Long. Slow. His cock still inside me so we were one being. One heart.
I would always need more. From him. Only him. We were his. Heart and soul. Body, breath and… beast.
EPILOGUE
Ethan, One Month Later
The armor lockedaround me with a soft hiss of pressurized seals, hugging every muscle, every joint, like it had been made just for me—which, according to Lyra, it had. I.C. issue, second-gen adaptive alloy, fitted with kinetic boosters and assisted motion dampeners. In plain English: I could punch like a freight train and move like a goddamn cat. I feltinvincible.
Across the circle, Kovo stood shirtless in a pair of loose training shorts, built like a marble statue that’d been carved with violence in mind. His skin shimmered with sweat, and when he cracked his knuckles, the sound echoed like a warning. Adrian sat nearby, chin in her hand, openly ogling her mate like he was dessert.
Meanwhile, my mate leaned against a sun-warmed pillar, arms crossed, watching with that little half-smile that made my pulse do stupid things. Her claws tapped idly on her thigh. "Try not to break him, Ethan."
“I make no promises,” I called back.
Kovo scoffed and circled me. “Ready, armor boy?”
“Oh, I’ve been waiting all day for this.”
We launched at each other—and I swear, the armorsang. My reactions were faster than I’d ever felt, body snapping into motion like every muscle was wired to instinct. I blocked his first hit. Dodged the second. When I landed a right cross to his ribs, the impact felt like slamming a sledgehammer into steel—and he actually staggered back, grinning.
“Not bad,” Kovo said, rolling his shoulder. “You might even make a decent sparring partner.”
I waslovingthis. The power. The speed. The way I wasn’t getting ragdolled like a civilian. I wasn’t just holding my own—I wasfighting an Atlan Warlordand living to tell the tale. With this armor I wouldn’t be a liability on raids. Could hold my own against a Silver Scion, an Enforcer from Rogue 5, or whatever freakishly strong alien we were hunting that day.
Adrenaline surged through me, but beneath that?Joy.Not just from the fight, but from the people surrounding me. I had a place now. A purpose. A team.
A family.
And all of it was because of her.
I glanced toward Lyra—beautiful, fierce, absolutely mine—and my heart fumbled over itself with pure, stupid adoration.
Which, of course, was when Kovo swept my legs out from under me and slammed me into the mat.
“Eyes up, lover boy,” he said, grinning like a jackal. “Or do I need to call your mate over to finish you off?”
I groaned, laughing, flat on my back. “You fight dirty.”
“I fight smart.”
Lyra strolled over, looking entirely too pleased with herself. “He was distracted,” she said, crouching beside me. “Probably picturing me naked again.”
“Every damn time,” I admitted, still grinning, still breathless. “And worth every bruise.” Lyra and I had tried sparring. Morethan once. Every time we lasted about two minutes before we started ‘sparring’naked.
She lifted the helmet visor and kissed me right there, armor and all. I kissed her back, uncaring who was watching. She was mine and I wanted everyone on the planet to know it.
Ethan– Several Hours Later
Bahre’s compoundwasn’t what I expected from an alien’s fortified, military style bunker. Sure, the place was armored with security tighter than a military bunker, but the vibe inside? Home. Family.
Kovo sat on one of the reinforced couches with his mate, Adrian, her head resting against his shoulder. Lyra was next to me on another, one thigh pressed against mine, her claws lightly trailing along the inside of my thigh like she couldn’tnottouch me—and I didn’t want her to stop.
I’d been officially declared dead for a month now. The ‘friends’Jenkins and I had been talking to? Turned out they were a special CIA task force assigned to deal with the Silver Scions, and any alien threat, without causing worldwide panic. Our contact had been thrilled to give Lyra and me new, official, human identities—and to use me as her primary source of contact with a group of badass alien Warlords and other fighters who never shied away from a good fight. With Jenkins still serving with the Miami police force, and me embedded with the Atlans, the CIA team was having their cake and eating it, too.
I thought the uptight CIA officer, a woman serving directly under an‘anonymous’Army general, was going to have an orgasm when we brought her in and gave her a direct comm linkto Commander Helion. He had seemed equally pleased to deal with what he calledsoldiers on the ground,rather than Earth’s politicians.
I didn’t give a shit what any of them wanted. Lyra and I were off-grid. Safe. Together. Matching mating cuffs on both our wrists. She was mine. Totally. Completely. ‘Til death do us part. Which, with ReGen technology, might be a good long time.
