"I accept it," he says quietly. His voice is hoarse. "This part of me. I won't lock it away anymore."
I reach up to touch his face. He leans into my palm. "Good. Because I love all of you. Every part."
He closes his eyes. When he opens them again, there's peace there that I haven't seen in a long time.
I latch my arms around his neck, watching his expression as he thrusts into me. His jaw tightens. His breath comes faster. I'menraptured by the look on his face as his release draws near. I feel almost smug because I did that to him.
His rhythm falters. He buries his face in my neck with a groan. I feel him pulse inside me as he finishes.
The sensation triggers another orgasm. It crashes into me so hard and swift that I don’t even get to brace against it as it drags me into the abyss.
He pulls me close. We lie together in the wolf pelts as our breathing slowly returns to normal. Outside the cave, the eclipse begins to wane. The blood moon loosens its hold on the sky.
But here in the den, wrapped in furs and Svenn's arms, I have never felt more complete.
He has accepted the bond and himself. And I have accepted all of him in return.
"Sleep," he murmurs against my hair.
I close my eyes and let the exhaustion take me, safe and loved and whole in his arms.
15
Chapter 14 Svenn
Consciousness returns like surfacing from deep water.
The first thing I see is her.
Rhianelle lies beside me in the furs, silver hair spreading across the wolf pelts. Her breathing is steady but shallow. My chest constricts with guilt as I look at her.
Because she's covered in marks.
Bites along her throat and shoulders. Bruises on her hips in the shape of my fingers. Her lips swollen and her skin flushed. Evidence of my complete loss of control is painted across every inch of her pale flesh.
The eclipse broke my carefully constructed chains. I recall fragments of what happened. The bond surging free, the hunt through the tunnels, and the claiming. I had lost myself completely in the need to possess her. I remember the taste of her skin, the sound of her cries, the way she felt beneath me, around me.
I gave myself over to that hunger completely.
My hand trembles as I reach toward her. I stop just short of touching. I flex my fingers and hate that I remember how she felt beneath them.
I've ravaged her, used her, marked her like some goddamn beast.
“Rhianelle.” Her name comes out hoarse. I force myself to look at her face instead of the marks.
"Did I hurt you?" I'm fucking terrified of the answer to my own question.
Her eyes flutter open, those impossible lilac irises finding mine immediately. Instead of the fear or disgust I expect, she smiles.
"You're back," she says softly, and her hand comes up to touch my face gently.
"Rhianelle, what I did to you—"
“You made me yours,” she interrupts, her hand sliding up to cradle my jaw. “Just like I wanted.”
Her voice israspy from screaming my name.
"I could have hurt you."I fucking did."You can barely move."
