In response, Ezra mumbled something he couldn’t hear.
“Say that again? I could not understand you.”
“You’re here for now,” Ezra repeated, voice still barely audible. “But people leave. They always do. We’re not True Mates, so why should you stay?”
Through their touch, Titan felt an old, deep pain radiating through Ezra—a hollow feeling with roots so deeply entrenched within him, they had to have sprouted during his formative years. With all he had learned about Ezra recently, Titan was confident he knew their source.
He thought of the Great Slut, and how he had left Ezra without a trace.
Of the men who had shared Ezra’s bed, but who in the end, had left him, too.
Human Corbin had stated that Ezra was not one for commitment, but Titan was beginning to think that this was not true. Ezra was capable of commitment. It was just that no one had ever been willing to commit to him.
The painful feeling in Titan’s heart tightened all the more.
“There may not be an innate bond between us,” Titan said softly, “but I do not need such a bond to want to stay. True Mates or not, Ezra, my heart is yours.”
Ezra did not reply. Exhaustion had claimed him, and he hadslipped back into unconsciousness.
But it did not matter.
Eyes strangely wet and with an uncomfortable lump in his throat, Titan cradled Ezra to his chest and pressed a kiss into his soft hair. “Forever and always, I will belong to you.”
25
Ezra
Ezra was floating in a void. There was nothing but darkness from every direction—no stars, no planets… nothing but the inky blackness of space. He tried screaming out, but his vocal cords were locked in place, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not get them to work. His body was no better off. It felt like he’d been dropped into a vat of molasses, his arms and legs slow and difficult to move if they moved at all.
Regardless, he kept fighting, struggling to escape.
Out here, no one would find him.
No help was coming.
He was alone.
So, so alone…
“Ezra?” Titan’s sleep-drunk voice cut through the silence, startling Ezra enough that his eyes flew open. Reality set in, and he realized with relief that his imprisonment in that dark, lonely place had only been a dream.
Try telling his body that, though.
His heart was beating triple-time, and he had broken out in a cold sweat. Beyond that, he was in a sorry emotional state. Even now that he was awake, he couldn’tshake the feeling of being utterly alone.
But he wasn’t alone.
Titan’s arm was slung over his waist, as though even in sleep he couldn’t stand to be apart from him. He was still mostly asleep now, but was awake enough to look worried, his brow creasing as he searched Ezra’s face. “Are you all right?” he asked, then pressed his hand against the small of Ezra’s back with purpose, increasing their skin-to-skin contact. “You are full of anxiety.”
Ezra couldn’t speak. Like in his dream, his voice was stolen from him, this time not from anatomical failure, but from an abundance of nerves. Hewasanxious. So much so that he was now wide awake, wired, and in need of something he couldn’t quite describe despite the fact that it was still the middle of the night. The only part of him that didn’t feel wrong was the part of him in contact with Titan.
The part of him that wasn’t alone.
In lieu of a spoken answer, he shuffled forward and pressed a soft kiss to Titan’s lips. Titan reciprocated immediately, gripping him tighter around the waist and humming appreciatively, and it was like a balm for Ezra’s soul. His anxiety didn’t disappear, but it quieted down enough that he started to feel like himself again.
Wanting—needing—more, he coaxed Titan’s mouth open and slipped his tongue inside.
Hips flush with each other, he felt Titan’s cock begin to rise.
