I feel it everywhere—through the bond, through her cunt clenching around my fingers, through the way her whole body arches and trembles. The orgasm rolls through her in waves, each one pulling another sound from her transformed throat, her claws leaving furrows in the mattress on either side of her hips.
I work her through it. Don't stop until she's pushing at my head, oversensitive, gasping for air.
"Enough—enough—" She's laughing now, breathless and undone. "Gods, Rhystan?—"
"Not done." I crawl up her body, settle my hips between her thighs. My cock slides through her wetness, nudging her entrance, and we both groan at the contact. "Unless you want me to stop."
"Don't you dare." Her legs wrap around my waist, heels digging into my ass. "I want to feel you. Inside me. Want to know this body is still mine—still ours?—"
I push into her slowly.
Not the brutal thrust of last night. A gradual slide, inch by inch, feeling her stretch around me, feeling her adjust. She's still tight despite how wet she is, still perfect, still the only place I've ever felt like I belonged.
"Okay?" I ask when I'm fully seated.
"Yes." Her eyes are locked on mine, gold on gold, dragon on dragon. "Move. Please."
I move.
Slow, deep strokes that let us both feel everything. The drag of my cock against her sensitive walls. The way her cunt clenches around me with every thrust. The bond wide open between us, carrying every sensation back and forth until I can't tell whose pleasure is whose.
"You feel—" She gasps, claws scraping down my back. "Different. Since the transformation. Like I can feel you more."
"The bond." I thrust deeper, watch her eyes flutter closed. "Stronger now. The curse was blocking part of it, the way the tea blocked it before. Now there's nothing between us."
Nothing between us. No lies, no tea, no curse. Just two people who chose each other, over and over, even when it hurt.
"I love you." The words spill out of me on a thrust, unplanned and unstoppable. "I love you, Kess. Every version of you. The wild omega who tried to kill me. The warrior who survived. The mother who saved our children." Another thrust, deeper. "This version. Whatever version comes next. I love all of them."
"I love you too." Tears are leaking from the corners of her gold eyes, trailing down her temples into her hair. "I don't want to. It would be easier if I didn't. But I do. I love you, Rhystan. Even the broken parts. Even the lies."
"No more lies." I seal the promise with a kiss, tasting salt on her lips. "Never again. Whatever happens, whatever it costs—you get the truth. Always."
"Always," she echoes.
We move together after that, finding a rhythm that builds slowly, steadily. No rush. No desperation. Just the two of us, learning each other again in these changed bodies, building something new from the ashes of everything that came before.
The orgasm crests like a wave this time—not the explosive crash of last night but a slow, rolling surge that builds and builds until it crests and breaks. I feel her come first, feel her walls ripple around my cock, hear my name torn from her throat. Then I'm following her over, spilling inside her with a groan that comes from somewhere deep in my chest.
The knot swells.
Slower than last night, gentler, but inevitable. I feel it lock into place, feel her cunt clamp down around it, feel us seal together in the most intimate way two people can be joined.
We lie there in the morning light, knotted together, breathing each other's air. Her clawed hand traces patterns on my back, over the scratches she left, over the scars beneath. My hand rests on her belly, feeling our children shift and dream.
"We should deal with the castle," she says eventually.
"Probably."
"And your father's body."
"Yes."
"And whoever's left of the priests."
"That too."
Neither of us moves.
