“Better?” he breathed, his voice strained.
“Yes,” I moaned. “More.”
He groaned as he picked up the pace.
I could already feel the familiar tension building in my abdomen. I was close to my second orgasm of the night.
He must have sensed it because he drove himself in deep and held as my release swept through me.
Ecstasy wrapped me in a cocoon of bliss as I called out his name. Yet, something was missing, something important to bring this moment to its fullest, most rapturous extent. And I knew exactly what it was.
I lunged for his collarbone again, and this time he didn’t attempt to stop me. “Shade!” he moaned as my bite sank into his flesh, marking him as mine for all eternity.
A new energy thrummed to life between us, exploding out from me and rushing into him. His body shivered in delight, the speed and strength with which he drove his length into me increasing.
My teeth retracted from his neck as I sank my nails into his back and held on. “Caelan!”
His grip on me tightened as he pulled back slightly, flashing me a wolfish grin full of sharpened teeth.
“My turn,” he growled.
He struck, his teeth sinking in at the juncture of my collarbone. I gasped, my toes curling as my desire to be marked by him overrode any sense of pain.
My heart was nearly beating out of my chest as a bright light flashed before my eyes, enveloping us both. The sudden surge of power and pleasure that erupted between us was soul shattering.
We cried out together, driven to levels of satisfaction neither of us had ever known before as our spirits became one. I had never felt so complete, so full of love as our emotions mingled.
Our chests heaved as the aftershocks continued to ripple through us for several minutes. Caelan brushed a strand of hair out of my face, his eyes dropping to the fresh bite on my neck.
“Mate,” he growled, leaning down to kiss me.
Shade Kendrick
SHADE
“Are you all right?” I questioned, seeing the bewildered look on Caelan’s face.
“All right? I’m a lot better than just all right,” he assured me with a chuckle. “I’ve never felt this powerful before. It’s intense.”
“Really? What are you feeling?”
I pushed myself up on my elbows.My mother had said that our connection would be even more potent once we completed thebond. I can feel Caelan’s strength as though it were my own. Can he feel my gifts as well?
“I feel you, Shade,” Caelan remarked, his voice full of awe. “Everything about you. I feel your love, your joy, and your endless empathy. I feel your ups and your downs, your anxieties…and there’s something else. An energy. It’s both pleasant and uncomfortable, strengthening while weakening. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever felt.”
“That’s my amplification.”
“And you feel this way all the time?”
I nodded. My ability was a constant struggle, almost an entirely separate life force that existed within me. Always a part of me, but never quite my own.
“You’ll probably feel it until we can control the bond better. I’ve heard that you can put up a wall like we do with the mind-link. Then you wouldn’t have to feel that extra energy all the time,” I suggested as he rolled off me. My mother had shut out my father like that when their relationship fell apart. He had made a point to remind me that it was my fault every year on the anniversary of their mating.
“I don’t want to do that,” Caelan replied, shaking his head. “I don’t want any walls between us. I want to feel what you feel, Shade. Any burden you carry, I want to carry too. I’ll adjust and learn to live with it as you have.”
I grinned, leaning forward and capturing his lips in a grateful kiss.This man is a constant surprise. How does he always know the right thing to say?
Caelan pulled away with a groan, running his fingers through my hair and pushing the long strands out of my face as he stared deeply into my eyes. He sighed before placing another soft kiss against my lips.
