Atria’s fingers spasmed on his jaw. Her eyes, dark and beautiful and glistening with tears, opened wide. “Wh-what—”
Kaz pressed his forehead against hers and squeezed his stinging eyes shut. His voice was barely recognizable when he whispered, “Please. Please. I know I should wait for you to decide, but this is killing me. What do you need? What can I do? What can I say to convince you?”
Her breath puffed between them in hot little bursts. In his state it was difficult for him to untangle what were her feelings and what were his, but he thought he felt her elation, her hope, her anxiety.
In a ragged voice, she asked, “Are you— are you asking because you were scared today or is this something you really want,Kaz?”
“I’m notasking.”He pulled back enough to cup the sides of her neck, holding her still as he stared into her eyes with all the wild urgency pounding in his chest. “I ambegging,princess. I have wanted your bond since the fucking motel. I’ve wanted it every second of every day since. I can’t be without you, Atria. Not for a moment. So I’m fucking begging—”
Delicate fingers dug into his hair, tugging sharply, and then her soft lips were crushed against his.
Kaz met her need with his own. They crashed together in a storm of fear and relief, their tongues tangling and teeth nipping. It was the sweetest relief to taste her and feel her under him, but it wasn’tenough.
Did he need to beg more? Did he need to keep crawling? He’d do it. He’d fucking do it without a second thought. For her, he had no pride, no scruples, no ego. Kaz would do whatever it took to never feel that terrible fear and emptiness again, to know unequivocally that she was his and he was hers.
They savaged each other, fingers tearing at clothes and hair and skin as they fought to get closer there on the floor of the caravan. Still, somehow Atria managed to pull back a scant few inches. It was just enough to rasp, “Youneverhave to beg me for anything, Kaz.”
His heart stopped. He didn’t even have a second to hope, to feel the wild triumph of his desire being fulfilled before the atmosphere grew heavy with the scent of magic — metallic, bloody, like a vow written in the air.
There was a rush. Impact. The sense of closeness unlike anything he’d felt before. Thenher,the familiar-foreign touch of his mate’s mind reaching, reaching,holding—
Between one breath and the next, his world exploded.
ChapterFifty-Two
“I told him to grab a pillow.”
Atria could only grunt in reply as she did her small part to get Kaz’s unresponsive body into the nest. After he collapsed, smacking his head on the chrome edge of the kitchen table, and wouldn’t rouse no matter what she tried, she was forced to call in help.
Delilah had already been waiting at the door, a knowing, smug look on her blue face when she said,“Let’s put the boy to bed, shall we?”
With a great heave, they managed to get Kaz onto the nest. Atria peered into the darkness, assessing his furrowed brow. He was completely out, but he still managed to look broody. Was it the bond forming between them? Perhaps it was uncomfortable for him.
Or maybe it’s the hit to his head that’s hurting.She winced.
Of course, people always said the bonding process kicked your ass, but she didn’t think it would make her seven foot tall half-orc collapse like a house of cards!
If she’d known bonding would knock him out, she would have made sure to do it somewhere a little safer. Unfortunately, she didn’t know, which resulted in her hulking mate listing hard to one side, cracking the old, flimsy table in half with his head, and then collapsing onto the floor of the caravan before she could do more than grab his shirt.
Not that a quicker reaction time would have done him much good. Kaz weighed close to three hundred pounds. He might as well have been a falling tree.
Luckily it appeared her tough half-orc only received a small cut to his temple, right next to the nearly healed one she’d given him what felt like years ago. Delilah assured her he would be just fine. Atria was a little dubious, but she also found it hard to argue. Of all people, his sister would know how hard of a hit Kaz could take, right?
While Delilah swiftly disarmed him and tucked his hefty gun on the small ledge that ringed the sides of the nest, Atria struggled to unlace and pry off his boots. Her fingers were clumsy. Her vision swam in and out. Her head was full of that strange cotton that came with a fever — a heightened perception of things like scent and touch but a muffling of thought and urgency.
She’d never bonded with anyone before, so she didn’t know if it was normal or not to feel like she was a little bit outside of her body. A great, throbbing headache had begun to drill at the back of her mind, but she perceived it distantly. With every second that passed and every bit of greedy magic that arrowed from her into Kaz, she seemed to drift a little further away.
There were no regrets, though. Not a single one.
Not even the discomfort, nor the haziness of her mind, could smother the feeling of fierce elation that suffused her whenever she thought of the bond. Kaz was hers. He was really,trulyhers. There was not a force in the universe that could tear them apart now.
They were joined soul to soul, mind to mind, heart to heart, until the day Grim collected them both.
“In the nest you get.”
Atria started, suddenly aware of the fact that Delilah had apparently brushed her aside to work on Kaz’s boots herself. When had that happened? Long enough ago for her to stand there staring stupidly, her cheeks flushed hot and her nerves jumping with manic energy.
“But…” She blinked hard, determined to concentrate. Her unfocused eyes landed on Kaz’s half-curled fingers resting on the blankets. They looked like they were reaching for her, but they were also swollen, the flesh split or scratched all over. Dried blood smeared the dark skin that somehow remained unscathed. “Is that— What happened to hishands?”
