Zirene’s shadow unfurled as we moved, tendrils of darkness brushing my ankles, my calves, climbing my body like it couldn’t bear even the smallest distance between us. His amethyst eyes burned with an intensity that made heat pool low in my belly.
I led him to the center of the nest, feeling my other mates’ gazes tracking every step. Watching. Wanting.
“Nova.” Zirene’s voice was rough. Raw in a way he rarely let anyone hear.
I released his paw and turned to face my clan. All of them watching. All of them waiting.
My fingers found the clasp of my dress. The nanite fabric hummed against my skin, waiting for my command. I could have dismissed it with a thought—instant, efficient, practical. But that wasn’t what tonight was about.
Tonight was about savoring every moment.
My fingers brushed the living suit disk nestled between my breasts, just below my scar. At my touch, the fabric obeyed—melting against my skin in warm, silken waves. It hesitated only once, catching briefly on the gentle swell of my stomach before curling inward, dissolving back into the disk and leaving cool air in its wake.
I felt their attention settle on me all the same, a tangible weight that lingered as my skin was bared. Heat unfurled beneath it, slow and inevitable, my spots shifting through soft pink and violet as my body responded—quietly, instinctively—to being seen. I stood before them bare and unguarded, therounded curve of my abdomen unmistakable. Proof of what we’d built together. What we were fighting to protect.
Zirene made a sound low in his chest—somewhere between a growl and a prayer.
His shadow surged forward, wrapping around my calves, my thighs, climbing my body like it couldn’t bear the distance between us anymore. The darkness was cool against my heated skin—a contrast that made me shiver.
“Come. Here.” His voice dropped an octave. Command and plea woven together.
This time, I stepped into him.
The nest cushioned my steps as I closed the last distance between us. Soft fabrics and piled furs, arranged in careful layers that my mates had prepared while I was in the garden with Zirene. A space made for comfort. For intimacy. For a clan determined to hold onto each other before dawn tore them apart. I could see the care in every fold, the love in every placed pillow. They’d been preparing for this moment while I stood in the moonlight, trying to find words for goodbye.
Zirene rose to his knees as I approached. Still towering over me, even kneeling—his massive frame a wall of shadow-wrapped muscle that would have terrified anyone else. His paws went to the clasp of his ceremonial cape, fingers working the catch with unusual clumsiness.
The fabric fell away, revealing the broad plane of his chest. The low orblight caught on his dark fur, tracing the natural striping that ran across him in subtle bands of shadow and sheen. As he shifted, the light moved with him, accentuating the lines of his body—the tension there, the restraint.
And somehow that made it worse. Want. Fear. Love so fierce it pressed in my chest, heavy enough to feel like drowning.
His kilt followed. The dark fabric pooled on the nestbed, leaving him as bare as me.
My breath stuttered.
Even after all this time—after years of his body against mine, inside mine—the sight of him still hit me like a physical blow. The sheer size of him. The careful power contained in every line. The way his shadow curled possessively around us both, creating a cocoon of darkness even as his hands reached for me with devastating gentleness.
“Selena...” My name on his lips was reverent. A prayer and a curse and a vow. “My Nova. My Beacon.”
I closed the remaining distance between us and climbed into his lap.
My thighs bracketed his hips, my arms winding around his neck. The position pressed my belly against the hard planes of his abdomen, the swell of life between us a constant reminder of what we were fighting for. His hands spanned my waist, claws careful against my skin, holding me like I was made of dreams and starlight.
I kissed him.
Not soft. Not sweet. This kiss was desperate and deep, all the things I couldn’t say poured into the press of my lips against his. The taste flooded my senses—smoke and midnight and something that I’d never been able to name but was uniquelyhis. His tongue swept against mine, and I swallowed his groan, dragging him closer.
Don’t leave me.
I couldn’t say it. Wouldn’t. He had no choice, and we both knew it.
So I kissed him instead. Poured my fear and my love and my desperate need into the heat of his mouth and felt him answer with equal fervor.
When we finally broke apart, both of us breathing hard, his amethyst eyes were molten. “Let me worship you,” he rasped. “Let me memorize every part of you. Give me something to carryinto battle—the taste of you. The feel of you. The sound of my name on your lips.”
“Yes.”
Zirene’s mouth found my mark first—the intricate pattern at the junction of my neck and shoulder where his claim was branded into my skin. His lips traced the raised lines, tongue dragging over the sensitive flesh in slow, reverent strokes. Each pass sent lightning through my nervous system, pleasure sparking from the mark and radiating outward until my toes curled. My head fell back, a moan escaping before I could catch it.
