“Fuck,” I gasp, digging my nails into his shoulders. “Dane—“
“I know.” His voice is wrecked. “I feel it too.”
He holds himself there, buried to the hilt, forehead pressed against mine. His breath comes in ragged bursts. I can feel hisrestraint like a physical thing—every muscle locked, trembling with the effort of staying still.
“Move,” I whisper. “Please.”
Something snaps in him. He pulls back and drives into me with enough force to lift me against the tree. The bark scrapes my spine, but the pain only sharpens the pleasure. Again. Again. Each thrust hitting something deep that makes stars explode behind my eyelids.
“That’s it,” he growls when I cry out. “Take all of me.”
I cling to him, one hand fisted in his hair, the other digging into the hard muscle of his shoulder. His mouth finds the curve of my neck, teeth scraping over the spot where my pulse hammers wildly. Not biting. Not yet. Just the threat of it.
“Harder,” I demand, opening my legs wider, pulling him deeper. “I won’t break.”
His laugh is dark and dangerous. “You sure about that?”
He shifts his grip, hands sliding under my ass to change the angle. The next thrust hits a spot that makes me see white. I scream—actually scream—and his growl of satisfaction vibrates through my entire body.
“There,” he says, voice rough as gravel. “Right fucking there.”
He pounds into that spot with relentless precision. My back arches, my head falls back against the tree, and I’m completely at his mercy. The pleasure builds like a wave, cresting higher with each stroke.
His hand slides between us, finding my clit. One circle. Two. His thumb matches the rhythm of his thrusts, and my entire world narrows to the places where we’re connected.
“Come for me,” he orders, voice rough with exertion and need. “Let me feel you.”
“Dane—“ His name is the only word I can form.
“Now, Nova.”
The command in his voice—Alpha, dominant, completely certain—pushes me over the edge. I shatter around him, clenching so hard he groans. Wave after wave crashes through me, and I feel him everywhere—inside me, around me, his scent in my lungs, his name on my tongue.
“Fuck—“ His rhythm falters, hips stuttering. “Nova—”
He buries himself deep and comes with a sound that’s half growl, half prayer. I feel him pulse inside me, filling me with wet heat. His whole body shudders, muscles locking and releasing as the orgasm tears through him.
For several long moments, we stay locked together, panting into the forest silence. His face is pressed into my neck. My fingers still grip his hair. Neither of us moves.
The magic in my blood pulses once—warm, satisfied—and settles for the first time since Silverwood.
Chapter 25
Dane
Ibuckle my belt with a sharp click, hands steady despite the adrenaline still coursing through my system. My skin cools in the forest air, sweat drying on my neck and back. Nova moves in my peripheral vision, pulling her jeans up over bare hips—the underwear I tore off her lies shredded somewhere in the leaves. She stuffs the ruined fabric in her pocket without comment, movements quick and efficient.
Her scent is all over me. Magic and sex and something wild that makes my pulse kick hard again. I shut it down, forcing my focus outward where it belongs.
“We should head back,” I say, voice rougher than intended.
She nods once, sharp and businesslike, as if what just happened was a tactical decision, not a fucking avalanche. Herhair’s a mess, tangled where I grabbed it. A red mark blooms on her neck where my teeth scraped skin. She doesn’t try to hide it.
We start walking, falling into step without discussion. I scan our surroundings automatically—calculating sight lines, tracking wind direction, mentally mapping exit routes. Old habits. Necessary ones.
The forest feels wrong. Not dramatically, not in ways others might notice, but in small details that set my teeth on edge. Birds call too infrequently. The wind moves through the trees in patterns that don’t match the season. It’s subtle, but there.
I stretch my senses, listening for movement beyond what belongs. Nothing yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re clear.
