"I fell in love with you that first night."
My breath catches.
"At the festival." He shifts closer, both knees on the bed now, caging me in without trapping me. "When you laughed at me for hating the Moon Masquerade. When you suggested we make the most of an hour even though you had no idea who I was or what I could offer you."
His thumb traces my lower lip, careful of the split that's already healed.
"Bond or no bond, I wanted you." The words rumble through his chest, low and fierce. "Spent two weeks going mad trying to find you. Would have searched every godsdamned village on this continent if that's what it took."
"Lorenth—"
He kisses me before I can finish.
It's nothing like the others we've shared. Nothing like the desperate passion in the garden during the festival or the careful tenderness after we bonded. This is raw. Claiming. His mouth slants over mine with bruising intensity, tongue sweeping past my lips like he needs to taste me. Confirm I'm real. Here.His.
I kiss him back just as fiercely.
My hands fist in his shirt, pulling him down until his weight presses me into the mattress. The solid reality of him groundsme—chases away the lingering fear, the phantom pain, the awful silence where the bond should roar.
He groans against my mouth, the sound vibrating through both our bodies. One hand tangles in my hair while the other braces beside my head, holding his full weight off me even as he deepens the kiss. Like he's trying to devour me and protect me simultaneously.
I arch up into him, needing more contact. More proof. Moreeverything.
The kiss breaks only when breathing becomes impossible. Lorenth pulls back just far enough to gasp air, forehead pressed to mine. His eyes are molten—storm-blue gone dark with want and something deeper. Something that looks like the same devastating certainty currently tearing through my chest.
"Say it again." His voice is wrecked. Desperate. "Please."
"I love you." The words come easier this time. Still terrifying but true. "I choose you. Bond or?—"
He captures my mouth again, swallowing the rest of the sentence. This kiss is slower. Thorough. His tongue slides against mine in lazy strokes that make heat pool low in my belly, chasing away the cold that's been sitting in my bones since Darian grabbed me.
I melt into it. Into him. Let the kiss consume everything else—the fear, the pain, the awful hours of thinking this might end before it truly began.
Lorenth shifts above me, settling more fully between my thighs. The movement presses his hips to mine and I can feel his hardness through the layers of fabric separating us. Evidence that he wants this. Wantsme. Not because magic demands it but because hechoosesto.
My hands release his shirt to slide up his chest, feeling the hard planes of muscle beneath blood-stained fabric. He shudders under my touch, breaking the kiss to trail his mouthalong my jaw. Down my throat. Finding the hollow where my pulse races.
"Mine." The word is barely human. More growl than speech. "My mate. Mysoul."
Yes.
I tilt my head back, giving him better access as his teeth scrape over sensitive skin. Not hard enough to hurt. Just enough to mark. To claim.
"Yours," I breathe.
His answering groan vibrates against my throat. Then he's kissing me again—deep and possessive and absolutely devastating. Like he's trying to pour every ounce of feeling into the connection our mouths make since the bond between our souls sits muted.
I kiss him back with everything I have. Every fear transformed to fierce want. Every doubt burned away by the certainty thatthis—him, us, whatever we're building together—is real.
The bond might be silent but I don't need it.
Not when Lorenth kisses me like I'm the only thing keeping him tethered to earth. Not when his hands shake as they frame my face with devastating gentleness. Not when every touch, every breath, every whispered word confirms what I already know.
He loves me.
Chose me.
Will keep choosing me no matter what tries to tear us apart.
