But here. Now. In this dreamscape where nothing existed but the two of us—I could give him something.
I shifted, straddling his lap in one fluid motion. His hands immediately found my hips, steadying me, and his eyes went dark with sudden hunger—a hunger that had nothing to do with food and everything to do with need.
“Selena—”
“I’m here.” I cupped his face between my palms, forcing him to meet my gaze. Letting him see everything I felt—the love, the longing, the desperate determination to hold onto this connection no matter how many light-years tried to separate us. “Right here, right now. And I want you.”
His control fractured.
The kiss was devastating—raw and desperate and flavored with everything we couldn’t say. All the fear we were both pretending not to feel. All the distance that made every moment apart feel like slow strangulation. All the nights we’ll be spending reaching for each other across an impossible gulf of stars, finding only an aching absence.
His tongue swept into my mouth, claiming, demanding, and I gave him everything he asked for. My fingers threaded through his hair, loosening the precise binding until black strands fell around his face. My body pressed against his with an urgency that matched his own.
Clothes in the dreamscape were thought—one breath they existed, the next they didn’t. The warm night air kissed my skin, replaced immediately by the heat of his hands mapping my body like he was relearning every curve, every dip, every place that made me gasp.
“You’re so beautiful.” The words were wrenched from him, ragged. His palms slid up my thighs, my waist, cupping my breasts with a reverence that made my throat tight. “Stars, I miss you. Every moment. Every breath. Every time I close my eyes and you’re not there—”
I didn’t answer with words. I answered with my body, rocking against him, letting him feel how much I wanted this. How much I needed him. His groan vibrated through me as I settled more firmly in his lap, and his grip on my hips tightened to the edge of bruising.
“Please.” The word escaped before I could stop it. “Zirene, please—”
He entered me slowly, reverently, his eyes never leaving mine. And the feeling was something between physical and pure emotion—the dreamscape translating sensation into something deeper, something that existed only between us in this private place where nothing else could intrude.
We were one. In that moment, truly one.
We moved together under the stars, the sound of the waves a rhythm beneath our own. Slower than desperate. Faster than gentle. A rhythm we’d learned in the early days of our bond when everything was new and terrifying—and inevitable. His forehead pressed against mine. His breath mingled with my gasps.
“I’m coming back to you.” His voice broke on the words. “Whatever it takes. Whatever I have to do. Whatever pieces of myself I have to sacrifice—I will come back to you, Nova.”
“You’d better.” Tears burned my eyes, threatening to spill. “I can’t do this without you.”
“Yes, you can.” He thrust deeper, and stars burst behind my eyelids—or maybe they were the real stars, wheeling overhead in their eternal dance. “You’re the strongest person I know. You survived capture. You survived bonding seven males who wouldburn the galaxy for you. You survived everything the universe threw at you and came out sharper, brighter, more fierce.” His hand cradled my cheek, thumb brushing away the tear that escaped. “You’ll survive this too. And I’ll be waiting.”
The pleasure crested—not just physical but soul-deep. The kind of release that came from being seen, being known, being loved despite every broken piece and sharp edge. I cried out his name as the wave crashed through me, and he followed moments later, his body shuddering against mine.
For a long moment, we just breathed.
Tangled together in a paradise that existed only for us, the lilac waves singing their eternal song below, the stars bearing witness to everything we were and everything we’d promised to become.
16
Selena
Dawn light filtered through the windows, soft and golden.
I woke with Zirene’s kiss still burning on my lips, phantom sensation lingering from the dreamscape like warmth pressed into skin. For a moment, I lay still, surrounded by the steady breathing of my mates, letting the memory hold me—his arms, his voice, the way he’d looked at me when he saidcome back to me.
Training day.
I extracted myself from the nestbed carefully, moving past V’dim’s sleeping form, stepping over where Z’fir’s vines had curled over Odelm in the night, reaching for me. Zyxel slept away from them all with his arm over his face. Kaede wasn’t there—probably hadn’t slept at all, knowing him. Xylo stirred as I passed, one teal eye cracking open.
“Training?” he murmured.
“With Ryzen. Dawn.”
He rose without argument, already reaching for his medpack. “I’m coming with you.”
I didn’t bother protesting. Xylo had that look—the one that said pregnant mates don’t push their mental limits without medical supervision. And honestly, I was grateful. Whatever happened today, whatever Ryzen’s training demanded, I wanted someone watching who knew my limits better than I did.
