The coil winds tighter. Hotter. The pressure builds until I am sobbing with need.
“Kaiven,” I gasp, my body arching against him. “Please… I can’t…”
“Yes, you can,” he growls, his pace punishing now. “You will. For me.”
He reaches down between our bodies, his thumb finding the slick, sensitive nub of my clit. He circles it once, twice.
A star explodes behind my eyes.
The second orgasm is more violent than the first. A seismic convulsion that rips through me, leaving me breathless and shaking.
He follows me over the edge with a guttural roar, a sound of pure, triumphant possession. He thrust deep, one final, powerful stroke, and I feel the hot, liquid flood of his release filling me.
A wave of possessive satisfaction washes over me. I have given him this. I have pleased my Kai.
He collapses on top of me, his heavy weight a welcome anchor in the storm of sensation. His face is buried in my neck, his breath hot and ragged against my skin.
For a long moment, we lie like that, tangled together in the aftermath. The only sounds are our harsh breathing and the crackle of the fire.
Then he shifts, rolling us until I am sprawled across his chest, my head tucked under his chin. His arms wrap around me, holding me close.
I can feel the steady, reassuring beat of his heart under my ear. A slow, powerful rhythm that lulls me into a state of boneless contentment.
I have never been held like this. Not just physically, but emotionally. As if I were something precious. Something to be protected.
His hands stroke my back, a slow, soothing motion. His claws are retracted, but I can feel the slight pressure of their tips against my skin. A constant, possessive reminder of what he is.
What I am to him.
“Narai,” he murmurs, the word a low rumble in his chest.
I don’t answer. Don’t have to. I just bury deeper into his warmth, inhaling the scent of him. Smoke, rain, and a scent that is uniquely mine now.
This is mine.
This is us.
And as sleep claims me, I know, with a certainty that terrifies and exhilarates me, that there is no going back.
Chapter 23
Kaiven *
The night settles softly over the camp, but nothing in me feels soft.
Keandra is in my tent, in my bed-furs, in my life now so fully that every quiet moment with her feels more dangerous than battle. She is seated near the brazier when I come in, folding clean cloths Oshara sent over earlier. Firelight warms one side of her face. Her hair is loose again, dark waves falling over one shoulder.
Keandra glances up when I enter. Her hands stay on the cloth for one beat too long before she sets it aside.
“You’re late.”
The sound of her saying it goes through me in a place I do not enjoy being vulnerable.
“I had a council with the outer riders.”
She nods once. No more questions. She has learned enough of my rhythms now to know when the details matter and when they do not. That should please me. It does. It also makes me want to cross the tent and put my hand on the back of her neck simply because she is here and speaking to me like this, which belongsto both of us now. Like she is not merely sheltered in a Kai’s tent, but part of it. Part of my Vek. Part of me.
That wanting never lessens. It only changes shape.
