Chapter Twenty-Eight
His roar made thekekevirscreech, but he hardly heard them over the racing of his blood.
Running from me?
His Instinct was close to the surface and it had taken everything in Jaxor to keep it controlled. But that panic, at seeing his fated mate running from him, had unleashed it. He thought of nothing else but getting her back. And when he did…
She had made it halfway down the tunnel back to the base by the time he catapulted off the hovercraft after her. His ears were ringing, his cock thick and straining beneath his pants. His horns were straightening right off the crown of his head and already, the muscles under his skin grew and strengthened.
He saw the outline of her through the haze in his vision, darting through the base. Where did she think to go? There was no escape. There was no escape fromthis. Never had it been more clear.
Still, he chased her. He needed to catch her. He needed to show her that nothing would keep them apart, even though he’d only just realized it himself.
His breath came out in rough pants, like a snarling beast. She’d thought to leave him?Nix!In that single moment, when he’d seen her in the hovercraft, he’d felt a million things in a flash. But the one that stood out in his memory, like a brand on his skin, was that he wouldneverlet her go.
He thought to give her to theMevirax? The deadline Tavar had given him was looming tomorrow. He wanted to laugh with bitterness now. He wanted to howl like an animal at his own failings, knowing he wasstilla disappointment to his people, selfish and single-minded.
He’d mourned in that moment, realizing he never would have given her up. He’d felt sickening relief that made him dizzy. He’d felt a thousandvonneslift off his shoulders. He’d raged and lusted and came close to the brink of his madness in that moment.
All because of his female, hisluxiva, the wickedrixellathat had spun him under her spell.
Jaxor caught her near the waterfall.
He bellowed and launched himself at her, wrapping his arms around her waist, hauling her against him, and down they went. Jaxor made sure to turn so she landed on him, but the moment he had her, he reversed their positions until she lay beneath him.
“You think torun?” he rasped, hardly recognizing his own voice. His breaths were ragged, harsh things. His throat felt closed tight as his hands gripped her beneath him. He hardly felt the cool rain sliding over his bare chest. “From me?Never from me, luxiva.”
Looking down, he believed he would find fear on her features. Fear of him, of the beast inside, never more apparent than it was now. She would fear what was to come because he’d spoken the truth before: there was no going back.
Not anymore.
But it wasn’t fear he saw on her face.
Jaxor hovered over her as she stretched her arms over her head, cool droplets of rain sliding from her wrists. The position was vulnerable, sensual.
An offering.
His eyes went wide when he realized it.
“I only ran so you would catch me,” she murmured up to him, looking him directly in the eye. “So you would make good on your promise when you did.”
He shook his head, his Instinct processing her words more quickly thanhewas able to. “Rebax?”
“Maybe you need a little push. Maybe I do too.”
A push?
She leaned up, trailing her lips across his neck before biting, making him grunt in surprise and desire, making his arms flex around her.
“Enough of this,” she said, the words floating over the flesh she’d just marked for herself. “I want you.”
“You…” he shook his head, fighting his Instinct, growling when it sank its claws deep into him. “You know what this means.”
He said it even as he tore her tunic away from her body like it was made of parchment, tossing it to the side, leaving her naked beneath him. Droplets from the rain ran over her budded nipples, little trails that ran and slid, that mapped out her body for him, as if he needed them to. He’d already memorized her body for himself.
“I know what thisis,” she said, a little breathless, when he traced a trail of the rain with his tongue, starting at her collarbones and ending at one breast, which he sucked and nipped and laved.
Her hands were already pushing at the material of his pants. He shuddered and then cut through the laces with his claws, only releasing her breast to drag the pants off his legs, leaving him as naked as she.
